05/23/2005

• Rebel Shiite Cleric Hints He'll Shift To Politics, Not War
• Push By U.S., Iraq Targets Violent Airport-Prison Zone
• Attacks Hit Vital Security In Iraq

 

CORRECTIONS/LETTERS

A Letter to Our Readers
Richard M. Smith
(Newsweek, May 30, 2005)
Newsweek's chairman and editor-in-chief, noting that the magazine has retracted and apologized for its incorrect Koran-desecration article, writes that "the cryptic phrase 'sources said' will never again be used as the sole attribution for a story in Newsweek."

Corrections
(Washington Post, May 21, 2005, Pg. 2)
A May 18 article incorrectly stated that former Army translator Erik Saar said in previous media interviews that guards at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, routinely tossed Korans on the ground. Saar has said there were "chronic problems" with the way military guards handled the Koran and failures to follow military procedures for respectfully handling the Muslim holy book when guards inspected cells, but he did not say that guards routinely tossed copies of the book.

Correction
(Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2005)
An article in the May 14 editions of the Sun incorrectly referred to Aberdeen Proving Ground as the second-largest employer in Harford County. APG is the largest employer in the county.

TOP STORIES

Rebel Shiite Cleric Hints He'll Shift To Politics, Not War
(New York Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 1)
One day after a large group of anti-American Sunni leaders pledged to enter the political process, a rebel Shiite cleric who led uprisings against the American military suggested that he would forgo military efforts and work to ease rising sectarian tensions throughout Iraq. The cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, led bloody revolts against American forces last year and was accused of murdering a rival Shiite cleric the year before.

Push By U.S., Iraq Targets Violent Airport-Prison Zone
(Miami Herald, May 23, 2005)
Seven Iraqi battalions backed by U.S. forces launched an offensive in Baghdad in an effort to stop the violence that has killed more than 550 persons in less than a month, targeting insurgents who have attacked the dangerous road to Baghdad's airport and Abu Ghraib prison.

Attacks Hit Vital Security In Iraq
Contractors See Rising Brutality
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 1)
Iraq's insurgents are conducting increasingly sophisticated and lethal attacks on the private security companies that are crucial to the nation's reconstruction and the eventual departure of U.S. troops, contractors and U.S. officials say.

Report Urges Troops Sent To Border
Congressional Investigators Cite Minutemen
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 1)
The deployment of 36,000 National Guard troops or state militia on the U.S.-Mexico border would stop the illegal flow of foreigners into America, according to a congressional report that credits the volunteer Minuteman Project with proving that additional manpower could "dramatically reduce if not virtually eliminate" illegal immigration.

Tillman's Parents Are Critical Of Army
Family Questions Reversal On Cause Of Ranger's Death
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. 1)
Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss.

Panel On Base Closings Says The List Is Likely To Change
(New York Times, May 23, 2005)
The independent commission assessing the Pentagon's proposed list of domestic base closings will spare some installations but could add others that are not on the list now, the panel's chairman, Anthony J. Principi, says. Commissions in four prior base-closing rounds changed about 15 percent of the Pentagon's recommendations.

IRAQ

Shiites In Iraq Laud End Of Sunni Boycott
Radical Cleric Steps In As Unlikely Mediator
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. 12)
Iraq's new Shiite-dominated government welcomed the end of a Sunni Arab boycott of politics, encouraging a newly formed Sunni bloc to distance itself from insurgent attacks against civilians and security forces.

Radical Cleric Reaches Out
(Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2005)
An influential anti-U.S. Shiite Muslim cleric joined the campaign to get Arab Sunni Muslim leaders to help quell the sectarian violence roiling Iraq, even as insurgents continued to attack government officials and American troops. Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands thousands of militia fighters in the capital's slums, sent a delegation to meet with Sunni leaders and appeal for an end to tensions.

Shiites And Sunnis Fight Holy Wars Over Mosques
(Philadelphia Inquirer, May 23, 2005)
A two-year power struggle has turned Iraq's holiest places into sectarian battlegrounds. Shiites have seized up to 40 Sunni mosques since Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to Shiite and Sunni clerics. While Sunnis view the campaign as a land grab, Shiites say they are reclaiming plots that Hussein stole from Shiite landowners.

Elite Iraqi Unit Gains Fans As It Takes Fight To Insurgents
(San Diego Union-Tribune, May 22, 2005)
A take-no-prisoners reputation has made the Wolf Brigade, an elite unit of Iraqi police commandos, the most feared and revered of all of Iraq's nascent security forces. With its televised humiliation of terror suspects and its dapper uniforms, the brigade has restored some of the national pride stripped away by war and foreign occupation.

AFGHANISTAN

On Visit To U.S., Afghan Leader Defends Opium Fight
(New York Times, May 23, 2005)
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan rejected criticism of his efforts against opium poppy growers, saying the government had worked hard to eradicate poppy fields and blaming Western countries for a lack of support. Karzai was in the United States for a meeting with President Bush today.

U.S. Rockets Reportedly Kill 5 Pakistanis
(Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2005)
A battle between U.S. forces and militants in eastern Afghanistan spilled across the border into Pakistan during the weekend, and witnesses said American rocket fire had killed five Pakistani tribesmen. Although Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf quietly allows U.S. "hot pursuit" missions when guerrillas cross into his country from Afghanistan, opposition groups have denounced the American incursions as illegal attacks on Pakistani territory.

12 Rebels Said Killed In Afghanistan
Investigators At Bagram Base Urged By UN
(Boston Globe, May 23, 2005)
U.S. airstrikes and ground troops killed 12 insurgents who had attacked a coalition patrol in eastern Afghanistan's border region in the latest wave of fighting with Taliban-led rebels. Meantime, the United Nations called for Afghan human rights investigators to be allowed into Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, after the New York Times reported poorly trained U.S. soldiers there had repeatedly abused prisoners.

U.S. Exploring Afghanistan's Military Aircraft Needs
(Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, May 23, 2005)
U.S. officials have begun talks with Afghanistan about the possibility of providing the Southwest Asian nation's military with transport planes and helicopters.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Captivating, >From Sky To Earth
Tens of Thousands Pack Andrews for Military Air Show, Open House
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. B1)
With parents walking and youngsters riding in strollers or on shoulders, tens of thousands of people converged on Andrews Air Force Base to soak up a moderate spring sun and inspect an array of exotic aircraft, both airborne and on the tarmac.

BASE CLOSURE

Military Hospitals Set For Overhaul
Consolidation May Boost State
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. B1)
Troops wounded in Iraq are ferried back to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., on the same flights from Germany, but once on the ground, they are usually sorted by service branch. Soldiers are taken to the Army's Walter Reed hospital in the District, Marines to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. That system could change in the next few years with the Pentagon's recommendation to move most of Walter Reed's medical services to a new 300-bed hospital at the Bethesda campus.

No Scarcity Of Suitors For Walter Reed Site
Complex Is Coveted For Its Location, Size
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. E1)
The Pentagon's proposal to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington could touch off intense competition for a rare prize: more than 100 acres in a city where real estate values are soaring and space for new development is scarce.

Pentagon Airheads
(New York Post, May 23, 2005)
The skies over New York and the rest of the Northeast could become more tempting for terrorists if the Pentagon succeeds in closing Otis Air National Guard Base, Mass., tasked with guarding the region and stopping another 9/11, state and local political leaders say. The 102nd Fighter Wing, stationed at the Cape Cod base, stands ready 24/7 to escort, shadow and—if ordered—shoot down planes flying over the East Coast.

Defense Town Awaits Buildup
(Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2005)
The Pentagon wants to consolidate much of the Navy's armament and ordnance development and testing to China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, a 1,700-square mile expanse on the western edge of California's Mojave Desert. If approved by an independent commission, the move would add 2,500 civilian workers to the facility, making it the single largest job increase of any military complex in the state.

Base Closure Is California City's Dream
Pentagon Plan Would Clear Way For Development
(Boston Globe, May 23, 2005)
When the Pentagon announced its list of proposed base closings, people in the San Francisco suburb of Concord hoped for the best—that the Pentagon would close the local naval weapons station which occupies 13,000 acres of prime city waterfront. The Pentagon obliged, saying that it would release 5,100 acres as part of the latest round of base realignment and closure recommendations.

Clark Defends Plans To Move Mine Warfare Command To San Diego
(Inside The Navy, May 23, 2005, Pg.1)
As part of the latest base-closure round, the Navy plans to relocate the Mine Warfare Command from Corpus Christi, Tex., to San Diego, Calif., a change that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark believes will better integrate the mine warfare community with the fleet.

GUANTANAMO

The Qur'an Question
(Newsweek, May 30, 2005)
Amid the heat of the controversy over Newsweek's retracted story, new details about the issue of alleged mistreatment of the Koran have emerged. The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it had provided the Pentagon with confidential reports about U.S. personnel disrespecting or mishandling Korans at the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2002 and 2003.

Terrorism Suspects' Testimonies Revealed
(Miami Herald, May 23, 2005)
The government released 2,000 pages of testimony by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, representing a fraction of the 558 tribunals held since July. The transcripts capture frustration on both sides—judges wrestling with mistaken identity and scattered information from remote corners of the world, and prisoners complaining that there was no evidence against them.

ARMY

The Class Of 9/11
(Time, May 30, 2005)
Time magazine shadows three members of the West Point class of 2005 through their final spring march to graduation. This weekend they will parade across the Plain, listen to speeches, throw their taut white hats into the air and go out as second lieutenants into an Army that has signed up for a generation's worth of war.

Dispute Over Remains Of Soldier May Affect Next-Of-Kin Policies
(San Diego Union-Tribune, May 22, 2005)
A bitter custody battle between divorced parents over the final resting place for a son killed in Iraq heated up last week when a judge vacated a decision that the soldier's remains belonged in Oklahoma. The dispute has raised concerns about next-of-kin policies for military personnel and spurred congressional legislation that would require soldiers to designate someone to handle their funeral arrangements.

Despite Its Flaws, Troops Prefer Stryker
Soldiers In Iraq Say Its Safety, Agility Outweigh Its Shortcomings
(Mideast Stars and Stripes, May 23, 2005)
In spite of its flaws, there is no other vehicle Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers say they would rather be in. Some soldiers say the Stryker’s safety factor outweighs the litany of shortcomings outlined last year in an internal study by the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. "It’s a lot safer than a Humvee and we have more mobility than a tank that is so cumbersome," says 1st Lt. Drew Godwin of Delta/52 Infantry Company.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

Military Policeman Gets 3 Months In Afghan's Death
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. 2)
A military policeman was sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty to assault and two counts of making a false statement in the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan in 2002. In a plea bargain, prosecutors at Fort Bliss, Tex., agreed not to pursue a charge of maltreatment against Spec. Brian E. Cammack. Cammack also agreed to testify in other cases related to the deaths of two inmates at the Bagram Control Point.

Soldiers Save Iraqi Family
Father Slain For Assisting U.S. Forces
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 8)
An Iraqi woman who had been in hiding with her children since her husband was pulled from his truck and shot in front of one of his sons has begun a new life—brought to the United States with help from soldiers who had befriended the man and were tormented by the idea that their relationship contributed to his death.

An Iraqi Police Officer's Death, A Soldier's Varying Accounts
(New York Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 1)
Since the war in Iraq began more than two years ago, more than 20 American soldiers and Marines have been accused of crimes in connection with the deaths of Iraqis, including a small number of cases in which service members have claimed self-defense. These lesser-known incidents, unlike the prisoner abuses that have alarmed and riveted the public, have created divisions over the definition of murder in a fluid war zone and caused bitter resentment and distrust among U.S. troops.

Female Instructors Not Going To Iraq
(Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 19, 2005)
As soldiers with the 80th Institutional Training Division prepared to leave Fort Pickett, Va., for Iraq where they will help train the country's new soldiers, its 20 female drill instructors are staying behind in the belief that Iraqis would resist being advised by women.

CONGRESS

Bill Aims To Recoup Troops' Tobacco Proceeds
Support Grows For Bipartisan Effort In House
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 12)
U.S. soldiers in Iraq who grow tobacco for a living missed out on a $10 billion tobacco-subsidy buyout approved last year, but they have a chance to recoup the lost dollars thanks to an amendment to the House Armed Services Committee's defense authorization bill.

TERRORISM

A Troubled Hunt
Many Qaeda Bigwigs Have Been Caught,
So How Does Bin Laden Manage To Survive?
(Newsweek, May 30, 2005)
As the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks draws closer, some critics fear that Osama bin Laden could slip into the mists of history unless U.S. policy—and luck—changes.

NORTH KOREA

Regime Says U.S. Remarks Are Confusing
(Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2005)
North Korea said it was confused by U.S. policy because of differences between Washington's public and private statements, but it did not rule out returning to six-nation negotiations over its nuclear program.

Secret N. Korean Footage Suggests Nascent Dissent
(Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2005)
A 33-minute video of a North Korean hanging up a banner denouncing Kim Jong Il has created a sensation in Japan and South Korea, where it has aired repeatedly. South Korean human rights advocates say it is the first evidence of a nascent dissident movement inside the North. Since the beginning of this year, other samizdat videos have emerged from inside North Korea of a public execution, children begging at a train station and humanitarian aid from the United Nations being sold at a market.

US Denies Halting Food Aid To NK
(Korea Times, May 23, 2005)
The United States has denied a report that it has halted food aid to North Korea amid a deepening standoff over the impoverished communist country's nuclear weapons programs. "We’ve completed last year's shipments of 50,000 tons and we’re considering what we might want to do this year," a State Department spokesman said.

ASIA/PACIFIC

Jakarta-Washington Relations Bloom
Indonesia President's Visit To White House This Week Marks Nations' Closer Ties
(Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2005, Pg. 11)
Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is hoping to build on recent improvements in ties with the United States as he makes his first official visit to Washington this week, buoyed by his nation's strongest economic growth in years and progress in attracting foreign investment.

AMERICAS

Venezuela-Iran Talks Possible
(New York Times, May 23, 2005)
President Hugo Chavez said that he might start talks with Iranian partners on possible atomic and solar power projects. Chavez supports Iran in its dispute with the United States and Europe over the Iranian nuclear program.

VETERANS

For Graduating Veterans, War A Momentous Classroom
Military Experience Colors Views of College's Significance
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. B1)
Like the World War II soldiers, sailors and Marines who came back to parades and the G.I. bill and the Vietnam veterans decades later who found protesters and divided campuses, a new generation is returning to college and finding that war changes everything.

BUSINESS

Navy To Assess Feasibility Of Outsourcing Some Jobs
(Washington Post, May 23, 2005, Pg. E4)
Four Washington, D.C., area companies and three other firms have been awarded contracts to help determine whether the Navy should outsource some jobs to the private sector or continue to perform them internally.

OPINION

Save The Subs
Joe Lieberman
(New York Post, May 23, 2005)
The Connecticut senator writes that he is opposed to closing the Navy's submarine base in New London for three reasons: It is bad military policy, it is flawed financial and budgetary policy and it will cripple an industry and workforce vital to our national defense and manufacturing competitiveness.

Unwarranted Complaints About New Base Closures
Steve Chapman
(Chicago Tribune, May 22, 2005)
"It's officially called the Department of Defense, but to many politicians, the label misstates its function. Judging from their reaction to proposed base closures, they'd like to rename it the Department of Jobs, Pork, Community Uplift and Incumbent Protection. That way, no one would get distracted by the petty business of protecting America."

The Rumsfeld Stain
Bob Herbert
(New York Times, May 23, 2005)
How does Donald Rumsfeld survive as defense secretary? Much of what has happened to the military on his watch has been catastrophic. He has driven the military into a ruinous quagmire in Iraq, and there is no evidence at all that he is capable of finding a serviceable route out.

Europe Should Pool Its Defence Resources
Javier Solana
(London Financial Times, May 23, 2005)
As European defense ministers meet in Brussels, the head of the European Defense Agency urges them to collaborate in transforming their militaries, including pooling their resources to develop new equipment. Currently, for example, there are 23 different national programs for acquiring new armored fighting vehicles

More Than The Koran
Suzanne Fields
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 21)
No matter what you think of the inaccurate Newsweek item about flushing the Koran down a Guantanamo toilet, it is a mistake to say, as the White House does, that Muslims died because of it. Toilets don't kill people, fanatics do.

National Paralysis
Electromagnetic Attack A Grave Threat
Maj. Franz J. Gayl (ret.)
(Washington Times, May 23, 2005, Pg. 21)
A science and technology adviser to the Marine Corps urges that Washington take action on the recommendations of a commission that assessed the threat from an electromagnetic pulse attack, in which radio-frequency waves from a nuclear bomb detonated at high altitude knocks out electronic equipment within line-of-sight of the explosion.

EDITORIAL

As Bad As The Nazis?
(Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2005, Pg. 14)
The world needs a truly neutral humanitarian body of the sort the International Committee of the Red Cross is supposed to be, but its habit of selective media leaks is damaging to American purposes. And a recent incident, in which an ICRC representative compared American soldiers at the Camp Bucca detention center in Afghanistan to Nazi concentration camp guards, is evidence that it is not up to the task.

Patterns Of Abuse
(New York Times, May 23, 2005)
"President Bush said the other day that the world should see his administration's handling of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison as a model of transparency and accountability. He said those responsible were being systematically punished, regardless of rank. It made for a nice Oval Office photo-op on a Friday morning. Unfortunately, none of it is true."

Source: Defense News