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HavenWorks.com/military/archive/2004 |
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/ Archive
/ 2004
- 
Robots
- "Army
to deploy robots that shoot: Next year, the U.S.
Army will give robots machine guns, although humans will firmly be in control
of them." ... "The Army next March will begin to deploy Talon robots from
Waltham, Mass.-based Foster-Miller.
The robots will be mounted with M240 or M249 machine guns, said a Foster-Miller
spokesman. The units also can be mounted with a rocket launcher. Defense
agencies have been testing an armed version of the Talon since 2003." -By
Michael Kanellos -CNETNews
via -ZDNetNews
- 
- Pat
Robertson - "Bush
Predicted No Iraq Casualties, Robertson Says." ...
"The Rev. Pat Robertson said President Bush dismissed his warning that
the United States would suffer heavy casualties in Iraq and told the television
evangelist just before the beginning of the war that "we're not going to
have any casualties."" ... "Robertson related the conversation during an
interview with CNN late Tuesday. He said he spoke to Bush before the invasion
of Iraq in March 2003 and urged him to prepare the nation for heavy casualties.
While Bush's response was a mistake, Robertson said, God has blessed the
president anyhow." -By Alan Cooperman-WashingtonPost
Larry
Franklin - 
Douglas
Feith - 
Criminal
Investigation - US
- 
Israel
- 
Italy
- 
Iran
- Military
- 
Intelligence
- 
History
- "Iran-Contra
II? Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation."
... "On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI [Federal Bureau
of Investigation ] is investigating a suspected mole in the Department
of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization
[AIPAC], classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the
investigation, according to [United States] U.S. government officials,
is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now
working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official,
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith." ... "The investigation
of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within
the [Republican President] Bush administration over the direction of U.S.
policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest
at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers
in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried
in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up." ... "Franklin,
along with another colleague from Feith's office, a polyglot Middle East
expert named Harold Rhode, were the two officials involved in the back-channel,
which involved on-going meetings and contacts with Iranian arms dealer
Manucher Ghorbanifar and other Iranian exiles, dissidents and government
officials. Ghorbanifar is a storied figure who played a key role in embroiling
the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. The meetings were
both a conduit for intelligence about Iran and Iraq and part of a bitter
administration power-struggle pitting officials at [the Department of Defense]
DoD who have been pushing for a hard-line policy of "regime change" in
Iran, against other officials at the State Department and the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] who have been counseling a more cautious approach."
... "Reports of two of these meetings first surfaced a year ago in Newsday,
and have since been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence. Whether or how the meetings are connected
to the alleged espionage remains unknown. But the FBI is now closely scrutinizing
them." ... "While the FBI is looking at the meetings as part of its criminal
investigation, to congressional investigators the Ghorbanifar back-channel
typifies the out-of-control bureaucratic turf wars which have characterized
and often hobbled Bush administration policy-making. And an investigation
by The Washington Monthly -- including a rare interview with Ghorbanifar
-- adds weight to those concerns. The meetings turn out to have been far
more extensive and much less under White House control than originally
reported. One of the meetings, which Pentagon officials have long characterized
as merely a "chance encounter" seems in fact to have been planned long
in advance by Rhode and Ghorbanifar. Another has never been reported in
the American press. The administration's reluctance to disclose these details
seems clear: the DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that
a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign
policy channels to advance a "regime change" agenda not approved by the
president's foreign policy principals or even the president himself." ...
"The Italian Job" ... "The first meeting occurred in Rome [Italy's
capital] in December, 2001. It included Franklin, Rhode, and another American,
the neoconservative writer and operative Michael Ledeen, who organized
the meeting. (According to UPI, Ledeen was then working for Feith as a
consultant.) Also in attendance was Ghorbanifar and a number of other Iranians.
One of the Iranians, according to two sources familiar with the meeting,
was a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed
to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services.
The
Washington Monthly has also learned from U.S. government sources that
Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI,
attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino,
who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington." ... "Alarm
bells about the December 2001 meeting began going off in U.S. government
channels only days after it occurred." ... "Since the late 1980s Ghorbanifar
has been the subject of two CIA "burn notices." The Agency believes Ghorbanifar
is a serial "fabricator" and forbids its officers from having anything
to do with him." -By Joshua
Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen,
and Paul Glastris with contributions by Claudio Lavanga
-WashingtonMonthly.com
-
- 
- "Najaf
battle a crucial test for Allawi: Clashes between
US troops and Sadr militiamen escalated Thursday, as the US surrounded
Najaf for possible siege." ... "The final stages for an assault on Moqtada
al-Sadr's militia in the holy city of Najaf are now in place." ... "For
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, this is a crucial test of the strength
of his government, barely a month and a half old, and a first chance to
extend government authority over a key part of Iraq, most of which remains
under the control of armed militias and insurgents." -By
Scott Baldauf with contributions by James Brandon
-CSMonitor
- 
- "US
increases pressure on Sudan." ... "The US secretary
of state, Colin Powell, today said he expected the UN security council
to threaten sanctions against Sudan over the humanitarian crisis in Dafur."
... "More than one million refugees there face the threat of famine, disease
and attacks by pro-government militia." ... "A draft resolution, circulated
by the US yesterday, called on Khartoum to prosecute the leaders of the
predominantly Arab Janjaweed militia, and advocated an immediate embargo
on weapons to the region." ... "The refugees, mainly from Darfur's black
African tribes, have fled their homes after being attacked by the Janjaweed.
They now live in tent cities, where overcrowding a shortage of rations
are leading to deaths from hunger and disease."
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "U.S.
[Proposes UN] Gives Sudan 30 Days to Arrest, Prosecute Militia (Update2)."
... "The U.S. proposed giving Sudan's government 30 days to arrest and
prosecute leaders of the Janjaweed militia that has attacked people in
Darfur or face the threat of United Nations sanctions." ... "The demand
for action and threat of sanctions are included in a draft resolution given
today to UN Security Council members. The text, a revision of a measure
first distributed last month, also imposes an arms embargo on the Janjaweed
designed to prevent its resupply by Sudan's government."-By
Bill Varner ed. by Paul Tighe -Bloomberg
- "Who
Are the Janjaweed? A guide to the Sudanese militiamen."
[MSN explainer] ... "The word [Janjaweed], an Arabic colloquialism, means
"a man with a gun on a horse." Janjaweed militiamen are primarily members
of nomadic "Arab" tribes who've long been at odds with Darfur's settled
"African" farmers, who are darker-skinned. (The labels Arab and African
are rather misleading, given the complexity of the region's ethnic history.
For simplicity's sake, Explainer will stick with these inelegant terms.)
Until last year, the conflicts were mostly over Darfur's scarce water and
land resources—desertification has been a serious problem, so grazing areas
and wells are at a premium. In fact, the term "Janjaweed" has for years
been synonymous with bandit, as these horse- or camel-borne fighters were
known to swoop in on non-Arab farms to steal cattle." ... "Both victims
and international observers allege that the Janjaweed are no longer the
scrappy militias of yore, but rather well-equipped fighting forces that
enjoy the overt assistance of the Sudanese government." -By
Brendan I. Koerner -Slate.com
via MSN
-
- 
- 
- 
- "War
Costs Exceed Budget, Watchdog Panel Says." ... "Military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are running $12.3 billion over budget
this year, and Pentagon officials are trying to make up for the shortfall
by transferring money from other accounts and delaying refurbishment of
worn-out equipment in Iraq, the General Accountability Office said Wednesday."
... "The office, a nonpartisan Congressional agency, estimated that the
Army was running about $9.4 billion short of what had been budgeted. By
putting off other kinds of spending until next year, the military is likely
to run up higher costs in future, said the agency, which was formerly the
General Accounting Office." -By Edmund L. Andrews
-NYTimes
-
-
- "Short-Changed
Soldiers: Report: U.S. Army Reservists Encounter
Pay Problems." ... "An overwhelming number of U.S. Army reservists are
having problems getting paid, and many are paid late." ... "A report issued
today by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
discovered major problems with the way the Army compensates its reservists."
... "Such problems are causing a considerable hardship for Melinda Delain,
a single mother who had just purchased a new home when her reserve unit
was deployed to Afghanistan." ... "Like everyone else in her medical unit,
she did not receive her full paycheck for three months." ... "In its report,
GAO investigators found that 95 percent of Army reservists had pay problems."
(1, 2)
-ABCNEWS.com
- 
- 
- "Haiti
receives $1-billion in pledges: Aid promised as [Canadian]
troops prepare to pull out." ... "But the fledgling peacekeeping force
in Haiti is woefully short of soldiers, with only 2,200 on the ground,
compared with the 8,000 the UN says are necessary. And nearly one-quarter
of that force, the 520-strong Canadian contingent, will start packing to
go home this week." ... "The departure of the Canadians will leave about
1,700 UN peacekeepers to cope with Haiti's sporadic violence and widespread
crime. Contingents from other countries have been slow to arrive -- for
instance, of an expected 200 Argentine soldiers who are supposed to take
over in Gonaïves next week, only a small advance party has reached
Haiti." -By Paul Koring -TheGlobeAndMail.com
- "Rights
Group Says Sudan's Government Aided Militias." ...
"Human Rights Watch, the New York-based advocacy group, on Monday published
excerpts of documents that it says implicate the Sudanese government in
recruiting, equipping and guaranteeing impunity for the Arab militias accused
of killing tens of thousands of Africans and driving more than 1 million
from their homes in the Darfur region of Sudan." ... "The rights organization
said the confidential government documents called on local Sudanese officials
in February and March to recruit fighters for the militia known as the
Janjaweed, to give them "provisions and ammunition," and to tolerate "minor"
abuses of civilians." -By Colum Lynch-WashingtonPost
- "Bodies
lined up in the desert of Darfur: Witness to ethnic
cleansing." ... "I saw numbing evidence of the ethnic cleansing campaign
pursued by the government of Sudan in this Muslim region, which is populated
by Arabs and non-Arabs. In response to a rebellion begun by primarily non-Arab
groups in early 2003, the regime armed the Janjaweed militia, giving them
impunity to attack. Burned villages confirmed harrowing stories we had
heard from Darfurians who were lucky enough to make it to refugee camps
in Chad." ... "In village after village that I visited, the painstakingly
accumulated wealth of the non-Arab population - their livestock, their
homes, their grainstocks - had been abruptly destroyed. About 1.5 million
people have been left homeless, and as many as 300,000 may be dead by year's
end." ... "It is time to move directly against regime officials who are
responsible for the killing. Accountability for crimes against humanity
is imperative, as is the deployment of sufficient force to ensure disarmament
and arrangements to deliver emergency aid." -By John
Prendergast -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Classified
- Military
- Intelligence
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial II." ... "On Saturday, May 15--twenty-four
hours after The Nation published "Implausible
Denial"--The New Yorker posted on its website Seymour Hersh's latest
Abu Ghraib-related investigative report. Its central revelation: The interrogations
at [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib were part of a highly classified Special Access
Program (SAP) code-named Copper Green, authorized by [Republican President
Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ultimately overseen by Under
Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone. Originally a joint
[Central Intelligence Agency] CIA-Pentagon program in Afghanistan that
utilized highly trained Special Operations personnel, Copper Green eventually
expanded to Iraq, Hersh reports, where Cambone decided it would begin using
non-Special Operations personnel--including military intelligence officers
and other military personnel--to begin questioning prisoners whose status
was outside the program's original brief. The CIA objected and withdrew
from the program, while Cambone apparently tasked [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former Guantánamo Bay interrogations chief,
with "Gitmo-izing" Iraq's prison system." ... "What may be more surprising
than the revelations in Hersh's piece is the fact that leads to the Abu
Ghraib skullduggery were hidden in plain sight--and that the Pentagon press
corps all but ignored them. Though Cambone has been an exceptionally sub
rosa figure in his position as DoD's intelligence chief, on November 21,
2003, he sat down for a rare on-record meeting over breakfast with the
Defense Writers Group. Again in contrast to his May 11 comments, in which
he cast himself as a benign bureaucrat largely out of the loop, his November
comments offer a glimpse into the mechanics of how Cambone's office was
assertively taking the lead in coordinating intelligence operations in
Iraq." ... "Noting first that his office has "one group of people over
to do an assessment" and that another was getting ready to go, Cambone
said that "the requirement for an increased level of intelligence support
became increasingly evident as we went through a period between early July/late
August.... In that late August time frame, a delegation went over there
from the Department and included people from the CIA to look at how we
were structured, whether we had proper arrangement at the division level,
whether that information, as it was being compiled at the divisional level,
was being moved from that level up to the CJTF-7 [Combined Joint Task Force-7]
level in an expeditious manner."" ... "Cambone further stated that the
group "came back with a list of somewhere close to eighty or ninety recommendations,"
and went on to describe a rapid infusion of personnel and technology for
intelligence-related endeavors. He also noted that the Director of Central
Intelligence, George Tenet, had "made a number of adjustments in his complement
of people in Iraq" as part of a "concerted effort to lash up much more
tightly the work that is done in the context of the CIA activities with
those being done by the Department to ensure there is [a] cross-flow of
information and cooperation."" ... "Cambone's remarks at the breakfast
also bring into potentially clearer focus the role in Abu Ghraib of [Lieutenant
General] Lieut. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, his deputy for intelligence
and warfighting support. "It is an office," Cambone says of Boykin's shop,
"that is designed to assure the types of capabilities we have just been
talking about here, whether it is people, or it is resources, or it is
material, or it is information, is moved forward to the people who need
it at various levels of command and operation in order for them to execute
their mission."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
US
- Afghanistan
- Military
- 
Terrorism
- Prisoner
- War
Crimes Act - Human
Rights - Death
Penalty - Politics
- "Memos
Reveal War Crimes Warnings: Could Bush administration
officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used
in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so." ... "The
White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials
could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox
measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according
to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the
debate over the issue." ... "The concern about possible future prosecution
for war crimes-and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration
officials themselves- is contained in a crucial portion of an internal
January
25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the
war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters,
exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention." ... "In the memo,
the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress,
known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing
war crimes-defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.
Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments
for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that
"it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors
might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that
some of the language in the Geneva Conventions-such as that outlawing "outrages
upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners-was "undefined.""
... "One key advantage of declaring that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters
did not have Geneva Convention protections is that it "substantially reduces
the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,"
Gonzales wrote." -By Michael Isikoff
-MSNBC/Newsweek
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prison
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - 
Law
- Politics
- US
- 
Syria
- Iraq
- "Knowledge
of Abusive Tactics May Go Higher." ... "Army intelligence
officers suspected that a Syrian and admitted jihadist who was detained
at [Iraq's] Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad [Iraq's capital] knew about
the illegal flow of money, arms and foreign fighters into Iraq. But he
was smug, the officers said, and refused to talk. So last November, they
devised a special plan for his interrogation, going beyond what Army rules
normally allowed." ... "An Army colonel [Thomas M. Pappas] in charge of
intelligence-gathering at the prison, spelling out the plan in a classified
cable to the top [United States] U.S. military officer in Iraq, said interrogators
would use a method known as "fear up harsh," which military documents said
meant "significantly increasing the fear level in a security detainee."
The aim was to make the 31-year-old Syrian think his only hope in life
was to talk, undermining his confidence in what they termed "the Allah
factor."" ... "According to the plan, interrogators needed the assistance
of military police supervising his detention at the prison, who ordinarily
play no role in interrogations under Army regulations. First, the interrogators
were to throw chairs and tables in the man's presence at the prison and
"invade his personal space."" ... "Then the police were to put a hood on
his head and take him to an isolated cell through a gantlet of barking
guard dogs; there, the police were to strip-search him and interrupt his
sleep for three days with interrogations, barking and loud music, according
to Army documents. The plan was sent to [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez." ... "Congressional testimony by Defense Department and Army officials
over the past two weeks has highlighted the fact that the abuses in Iraq
-- which mostly occurred in the last quarter of 2003 -- came at a time
of heightened pressures in Washington for more robust intelligence-gathering,
because of proliferating attacks on U.S. forces and the dwindling intelligence
on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction." ... "Although
no direct links have been found between the documented abuses and orders
from Washington, Pentagon officials who spoke on the condition that they
not be named say that the hunt for data on these two topics was coordinated
during this period by Defense Undersecretary Stephen A. Cambone, the top
U.S. military intelligence official and long one of the closest aides to
[Republican President Bush's] Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld."
... ""We've got no proof that a person in authority told them to do this
activity," [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the Army's deputy
chief of staff, said on May 11." ... "But three directives in particular
have already begun to attract congressional scrutiny: The first is a classified
report by Army [Major General] Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller on [September]
Sept. 9, 2003, demanding that the military police at Abu Ghraib be dedicated
and trained to set "the conditions for the successful interrogation and
exploitation of internees/detainees." The report, which Cambone has testified
was presented to his deputy William Boykin, contained five recommendations
spelling out how this was to occur and reported it had already begun."
... "The second is an [October] Oct. 12 classified memo signed by Sanchez
that demanded a "harmonization" of military policing and intelligence work
at Abu Ghraib for the purpose of ensuring "consistency with the interrogation
policies . . . and maximiz[ing] the efficiency of the interrogation.""
... "The memo, obtained by The Washington Post, also states "it is imperative
that interrogators be provided reasonable latitude to vary their approach,"
depending on a detainee's background, strengths, resistance and other factors.
It also explicitly demands humane treatment and requires that any dogs
present during the interrogations be muzzled." ... "The third is a [November]
Nov. 19 memo from Sanchez's office that formally placed the two key Abu
Ghraib cellblocks where the abuses occurred under the control of Pappas
and his 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. It was 11 days later, after
this memo placed the military police responsible for "security of detainees
and base protection" in Pappas's hands, that he sought, in his memo to
Sanchez, to draw military police explicitly into applying pressure on the
Syrian." ... "The fact that prison interrogations were so directly controlled
by these military directives, as well as the apparent cultural sophistication
of some of the abuses, has already led some lawmakers to conclude that
much more experienced and senior officers were involved than the seven
military police now charged by the Army with wrongdoing. " (1, 2,
3)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
and Sewell Chan -WashingtonPost
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- Feith
- 
Rhode
Island - 
Virginia
- US
- Iraq
- Guantánamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial." ... "Writing in the December 16, 2002, edition
of The Nation, I broke the news--and explored the concerns many
in the [United States] US intelligence community had--about [Republican
President Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's quiet success in
prevailing upon Congress to authorize the creation of a new senior position
at the Pentagon,the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Several
months later, in the pages of the Columbia Journalism Review, I
followed up with a piece devoted to the media's utter lack of interest--perhaps
best demonstrated by the absence of any reporter from a farcical confirmation
hearing--in the new Under Secretary himself, Stephen Cambone." ... "Despite
his status as the Pentagon's über-intelligence authority, in the initial
days of the breaking [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib scandal Cambone was virtually
invisible. When Rumsfeld was called to the Hill to testify before the Armed
Services Committee on May 7, however, Cambone was unexpectedly summoned
to the witness table from his chair behind Rumsfeld. That cameo appearance
resulted in a more expansive return appearance on May 11, in which Cambone
less than deftly tried to undermine Abu Ghraib investigator [Major General]
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. (Cambone disputed the general's conclusion that
military intelligence units effectively controlled the prison's military
police detachment.) Cambone also reacted adversely to [Rhode Island Democratic]
Senator Jack Reed's assertion (confirmed by Taguba) that recommendations
made in a report on improving intelligence collection at Abu Ghraib by
then-chief Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] interrogator [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller clearly called for the use of [Military Police] MPs
in interrogations, which helped create an environment that begot the subsequent
abuse and torture in the tiers. As a May 12 Washington Post editorial
points out, Cambone's office approved interrogation practices that are
in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions." ... "At the May 11 hearings,
Cambone and another senior Defense Department official, Army intelligence
chief [Lieutenant General] Lieut. Gen Keith Alexander, essentially cast
themselves as mere Pentagon representatives fielding questions about Abu
Ghraib--and not as men who might bear any responsibility for what they
desperately tried to cast as an aberrant and isolated incident. Yet many
of their assertions on May 11 are in fact contradicted by statements they
made before the same committee a month before, as well as a year-old memo
outlining the responsibilities of Cambone's office." ... "The Under Secretary
of Defense for Intelligence, or OUSD(I) in Pentagonese, was originally
conceived by Rumsfeld as a centralizing measure, a way to give him "one
dog to kick" rather than a "whole kennel" of individual civilian and uniformed
defense intelligence agencies. In choosing the person responsible for ostensibly
bringing unprecedented order and control to the Pentagon's spy shops, the
Secretary chose Cambone, a man with no intelligence experience but a favored
protégé and loyal partisan who had served on Rumsfeld's ballistic
missile threat commission and worked with the neoconservative Project for
the New American Century. Previously principal deputy to Under Secretary
for Policy Doug Feith (and, in that capacity, liaison between Feith and
the ideological intelligence analysis unit that would later morph into
the notorious Office of Special Plans), Cambone went out of his way in
his confirmation hearings to say that he would closely "consult and coordinate"
with Feith to "insure [that Department of Defense] DoD-related intelligence
activity supports the goals" of the Pentagon's policy shop." ... "Two months
after Cambone's confirmation, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described
his new portfolio in a detailed internal Pentagon memo. Reflecting the
seriousness and specificity of Cambone's mission, an organizational chart
appended to the memo shows a generic under secretary with six deputies,
including one for warfighting and operations, whose duties include specific
liaison with the intelligence elements of each of the armed services, each
individual combatant command, and the under secretary for policy. The document
itself explicitly states that Cambone's office will, among other things:"
... "provide oversight and policy guidance for all DoD intelligence activities;
provide policy oversight of all the intelligence organizations within the
DoD, to include ensuring these organizations are manned, trained, equipped
and structured to support the missions of the Department; provide
assessments of and advice [to] the Secretary and CJCS [Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff] on the adequacy of military intelligence performance;
exercise management and oversight of all DoD counterintelligence and security
activities; coordinate DoD intelligence and intelligence-related policy,
plans, programs, requirements and resource allocations; oversee provision
of intelligence support and involvement in information operations, focused
on assessments in support of operations." ... "None of this should leave
much to the imagination, especially when it comes to policies and practices
pertaining to the dimensions of human intelligence collection that involve
interrogations conducted by military intelligence. Yet when asked by [Virginia
Republican] Senator John Warner if his office has "overall responsibility
for policy concerning the handling of detainees," Cambone dodged with a
"not precisely, sir," effectively denying any responsibility as set forth
in his charge by Wolfowitz. Rather, Cambone said, he only reactively "became
involved in this issue from the perspective of assuring there was a flow
of intelligence back to the commands and done in an efficient and effective
way."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
James
Inhofe - Torture
- Politician
- US
- Military
- Prisoners
- Photographs
- Iraqi
- Human
Rights - Lawmakers
- 
Oklahoma
- "GOP
[Republican] senator labels abused prisoners 'terrorists':
Other lawmakers disavow comment." ... "A Republican member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee dismissed Tuesday the outrage over the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners by [United States] U.S. troops, saying Iraqis depicted
in widely broadcast photographs probably had "blood on their hands."" ...
""I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged
by the outrage than we are by the treatment," [Oklahoma Republican Senator]
Sen. James Inhofe said during a hearing on the [Iraqi] Abu Ghraib prison
scandal. (Full
story)" ... "[Republican] President Bush and other top U.S. officials
and leading Republicans have condemned the abuse of Iraqis held at the
Baghdad[Iraq's capital]-area prison, once a notorious torture chamber under
ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein." ... "Though he [Inhofe] called the
soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners "seven bad people," he added,
"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right
now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations
while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying."" -With
contributions by Ed Henry -CNN
-
- "US
forces kill 64 in fighting near Iraqi holy city of Najaf."
... "US forces have killed 64 rebel militiamen in clashes near Shia Islam's
holiest city, Najaf, a US military spokesman in Baghdad said yesterday."
... "At least 115 US troops have been killed in fighting this month - as
many as died in combat during the two-month invasion of Iraq." -By
Nicolas Pelham -FT.com
-
- "U.S.
gunships topple tower of mosque." ... "A protracted
firefight between Marines and insurgents in a Fallujah suburb on Monday
culminated with U.S. helicopter gunships and tanks firing at a mosque and
toppling its minaret, further dimming hopes for a peaceful end to the three-week
siege." ... "The U.S. command said that the battle erupted when insurgents,
breaching a shaky cease-fire in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, used
the mosque to launch rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire at Marine
positions. After two hours, pinned down by fire, the Marines called in
helicopters and tanks, which directed "suppressing fire" at the mosque,
the command said." ... "One U.S. Marine was killed and eight others wounded
in the battle, which also killed eight insurgents, a U.S. spokesman said."
-By John Burns -NYTimes
via -RegisterGuard
-
-
- "Shi'ite
cleric threatens suicide attacks." ... "Militant
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric
yesterday, threatening to launch suicide attacks if US forces enter Iraq's
holy cities to capture or kill him." ... "Sadr's remarks, made during Friday
prayers at the Kufa mosque, marked an ominous escalation in the standoff
between the cleric, whose militia has seized control of mosques and other
key sites in Najaf and Kufa, and US officials who have been threatening
to retake the southern cities by force." -By Edmund
Sanders-LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
- 
-
- "Bush
eases years-long economic sanctions against Libya."
... "President Bush on Friday eased economic sanctions against Libya, ending
its status as a pariah nation and clearing the way for the return of American
oil companies." ... "Bush's order ending Libya's economic isolation gave
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi the reward that he wanted for agreeing in
December to abandon his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction." -By
Ron Hutcheson -Knight Ridder via
-SLTrib.com
-
- 
- "NFL,
Arizona Football Fans Mourn Death of Pat Tillman, Who Gave Up Career to
Fight for Country." ... "Pat Tillman overachieved
in football, and just about everything else. He worked his way from seventh-round
draft pick to starting safety for the Arizona Cardinals, then walked away
from millions of dollars to join the Army Rangers and serve his country.
This week, he paid with his life. Tillman was killed in an ambush Thursday
night in Afghanistan. He was 27." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "U.S.
Soldiers Re-Enlist in Strong Numbers: Despite Violence
in Iraq, U.S. Soldiers Are Re-Enlisting at Rates Higher Than Pentagon Expected."
... "Despite the shrapnel wounds Staff Sgt. William Pinkley suffered during
his tour in Iraq, the 26-year-old is joining other soldiers who are re-enlisting
at rates that exceed the retention goals set by the Pentagon." ... "As
of March 31 halfway through the Army's fiscal year 28,406 soldiers had
signed on for another tour of duty, topping the six-month goal of 28,377.
The Army's goal is to re-enlist 56,100 soldiers by the end of September."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Marines
Warn Insurgents in Fallujah to Hand Over Heavy Weapons or Face Possible
U.S. Attack." ... "The stark warning came two days
after city leaders called on insurgents to hand over their heavy weapons
in return for a U.S. pledge to hold back on plans to storm Fallujah and
allow the return of families that fled the city." ... "Now Marines have
halted the return of families because of the failure to disarm and the
desire to have fewer civilians in the city if fighting resumes. More than
a third of Fallujah's 200,000 people fled to Baghdad and elsewhere during
the fighting that began April 5." ... "Early Thursday, Marines launched
a major assault on the village of Karma, 10 miles northeast of Fallujah,
in a second attempt to put down guerrillas there."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- 
- Photo
- "Woman
fired by military contractor for published photograph of flag-draped U.S.
coffins." ... "A military contractor fired two cargo
workers responsible for a photograph of flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers
that appeared on a newspaper's front page." ... "Maytag Aircraft Corp.
fired Tami Silicio, 50, and her husband, David Landry, because they "violated
Department of Defense and company policies by working together" to take
and publish the photograph, company president William Silva said in a news
release Thursday." ... "The firing was first reported Thursday in The Seattle
Times, which published the April 7 photo on Sunday." -By
Gene Johnson -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Woman
fired by military contractor for published photograph of flag-draped U.S.
coffins." ... "A military contractor fired two cargo
workers responsible for a photograph of flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers
that appeared on a newspaper's front page." ... "Maytag Aircraft Corp.
fired Tami Silicio, 50, and her husband, David Landry, because they "violated
Department of Defense and company policies by working together" to take
and publish the photograph, company president William Silva said in a news
release Thursday." ... "The firing was first reported Thursday in The Seattle
Times, which published the April 7 photo on Sunday." -By
Gene Johnson -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- 
- "Death
toll near 500 in Fallujah, Baghdad." ... "In the
first detailed accounting of Iraqi casualties in the fighting that erupted
across the country this month, officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Health
said yesterday that 264 have been killed and 791 wounded in the Fallujah
area since April 5, while in Baghdad another 235 have been killed and 832
wounded." ... "The health ministry's nationwide data also show that 12
percent of the Iraqis killed were women or children 15 years old or younger."
... "The health ministry's casualty toll for Fallujah was substantially
lower than the death counts reported since fighting broke out there at
the start of April. The data also show a nationwide death toll for April's
fighting that is much lower than the figures widely reported in the media,
some of them exceeding 1,100." -By Anne Barnard
-Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- "High
Court Hears Detention Cases: Policy on Terror Suspects
Challenged." ... "Facing the court in oral arguments over the detention
of al Qaeda and Taliban suspects held at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, Solicitor
General Theodore B. Olson dramatically reminded the court that "the United
States is at war," that more than 10,000 troops are in Afghanistan, and
that the country faces an "extraordinary threat."" ... "But several justices
asked questions that implied they doubted Olson's assertion that Bush,
as commander in chief, may hold the suspects for interrogation at the base
in Cuba as long as he deems necessary, without judicial oversight." ...
""It seems rather contrary to an idea of a Constitution with three branches
that the executive would be free to do whatever they want -- whatever they
want without a check," Justice Stephen G. Breyer said." ... "The question
is whether the Guantanamo detainees have a right to ask a federal court
to order the president to give them a hearing --not whether the courts
must do so." (1, 2)
-By Charles Lane-WashingtonPost
-
- 
- 
- 
- 
- "Powell
urges coalition leaders to keep troops in Iraq."
... "Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition
in Iraq remains strong despite decisions by Spain and Honduras to pull
out their troops. Later, the Dominican Republic announced that it also
would withdraw its troops." ... "Powell told reporters that leaders of
13 coalition countries with whom he spoke by telephone Monday and Tuesday
"all expressed steadfast support" for their respective troop commitments."
... "Among the leaders Powell spoke with was Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai." ... "In addition to Surakiart, Powell spoke with leaders
of El Salvador, Dominica, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria,
Holland, Romania, the Philippines and Ukraine." -By
George Gedda -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Iraq
jail attack kills 22 inmates: A mortar attack on
an Iraqi detention centre near Baghdad has left 22 inmates dead, the US
military says." ... "All the casualties in the attack on the Baghdad Confinement
Facility in Abu Ghraib were prisoners of the US-led coalition, officials
said." ... "The sprawling prison complex of Abu Ghraib, which covers more
than one square kilometre, was one of Iraq's biggest prisons under Saddam
Hussein's regime and had a fearsome reputation."
-BBC/News
-
- "Profile:
John Negroponte: John Negroponte was the man who
spearheaded the US diplomatic effort in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion
of Iraq." ... "The soft-spoken diplomat will head the largest US embassy
in the world, in charge of 3,000 staff." ... ""He'll hold the title of
ambassador but he's really being appointed de facto governor-general of
Iraq because the US is going to retain a lot of authority,'' Ted Galen
Carpenter of the Washington-based Cato Institute think-tank told Bloomberg
news service." -BBC/News
-
-
-
- "Spain
recalls its troops from Iraq: New prime minister
fulfills campaign vow." ... "Spain's prime minister yesterday ordered Spanish
troops pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible, fulfilling a campaign pledge
to a nation recovering from terrorist bombings that Al Qaeda militants
said were reprisal for Spain's support of the war." ... "Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero issued the abrupt recall just hours after his government was sworn
in, saying there was no sign the United States would meet his demand for
United Nations control of the postwar occupation -- his ultimatum for keeping
troops there." ... "Zapatero's Socialist Party won the March 14 general
election amid allegations that outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar,
by backing the war in Iraq, had provoked commuter-train terrorist bombings
that killed 191 people three days before the vote." (1, 2)
-By Daniel Woolls -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- Osama
bin Laden -
"C.I.A.
Says Voice on Tape Likely bin Laden." ... "The CIA
said Thursday that a tape of a man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden
probably is an authentic recording of the al-Qaida leader." ... "The official,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said the tape was probably recorded
in the past several weeks because of its reference to Israel's killing
last month of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. In the tape, the speaker
vows revenge against the United States for the killing."
-AP via -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
-
- "Iraq
death toll reaches new high." ... "The last two weeks
have been the bloodiest yet for US soldiers in Iraq since the fall of Saddam
Hussein. Iraqi deaths are much harder to track, but an Associated Press
estimate puts the total since 1 April at 880." ... "April's casualty count
for US soldiers has spiralled to 87, the highest for any month since the
war began." ... "Nearly all the deaths have been in hostile incidents in
two weeks which have seen major battles with both Sunni and Shia insurgents."
... "Most of the US soldiers have been killed in attacks on road convoys,
firefights in the Sunni-dominated towns of Falluja and Ramadi and battles
in and around Baghdad." ... "The total of American soldiers killed in Iraq
is now 686. More than three-quarters of these have died since major hostilities
ceased." ... "Just over a quarter of the casualties have died in "non-hostile"
events such as accidents involving vehicles or munitions."
-BBC/News
-
- "US
troops to stay longer in Iraq: Some 20,000 US troops
now serving in Iraq will have their tour of duty extended, Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has announced." ... "Mr Rumsfeld said they would spend
another 90 days in Iraq beyond their original one-year deployment." ...
""The country is at war and we need to do what is necessary to succeed,"
he told a news conference." ... "Mr Rumsfeld said the extension came in
response to a request by the commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen John Abizaid."
-BBC/News
-
- "Insurgents
Display New Sophistication: Campaign Leaves Bridges
Heavily Damaged, Hampering Military's Push South." ... "Insurgents fighting
the U.S.-led occupation force have sharply increased the sophistication,
coordination and aggressiveness of their tactics over the past week, Army
officers and soldiers involved in combat here said." ... "With occupation
forces battling Sadr's Shiite militiamen south and east of Baghdad and
Sunni Muslim insurgents to the north and west, the timing of the Iraqis'
tactical development is nearly as troubling for U.S. forces as its effect.
But the explanation for the change is not yet clear, military commanders
said." ... "Here in southern Iraq, which is overwhelmingly Shiite, U.S.
officers say the best guess is that former soldiers who served under President
Saddam Hussein have decided to lend their expertise and coordinating abilities
to the untrained Shiite militiamen." (1, 2)
-By Thomas E. Ricks-WashingtonPost
-
- 
- "Dead
soldier's sisters excused duty in war zone." ...
"Michelle Witmer, 20, died last Friday in an ambush of her Humvee, and
her father's plea to the Pentagon to spare his two other daughters, who
were also serving in Wisconsin national guard units in Iraq, received attention
throughout the US." -By Suzanne Goldenberg
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Cleric,
Surrounded by U.S., Hints at Easing His Resistance."
... "A 2,500-member American force backed by tanks and artillery took up
positions outside Najaf on Tuesday when a rebel Shiite cleric, Moktada
al-Sadr, resisted demands from the American authorities and other clerics
that he disband a militia that has challenged American authority across
wide areas of southern Iraq." ... "From his Najaf headquarters, Mr. Sadr
shrugged off American threats to capture or kill him, saying he was "ready
to sacrifice my blood" to end the American occupation." ... "But the day
after a delegation sent by some of the most powerful Shiite clerics appealed
to him to avoid a showdown, he also hinted at a face-saving compromise,
saying he was ready to "implement any order" issued by the religious establishment."
(1, 2)
-By John F. Burns with contributions from Warren Hoge
-NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
- "Iran
distances itself from Sadr." ... "Iran is dismissing
attempts by Washington to link it to Moqtada al-Sadr, the young radical
cleric whose militia has battled US forces in neighbouring Iraq." ... "US
officials and administration ad visers have long alleged that Iran has
secretly funded Mr Sadr's militia. On Monday, General John Abizaid, commander
of US Central Command, told a press briefing "there are indications from
intelligence folks that there are some Iranian activities going on that
are unhelpful". Last week, Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence, accused
Iran of "meddling" in Iraq." -By Gareth Smyth
-FT.com
-
- "14
Soldiers Killed in Iraq Since Friday: Uneasy Ceasefire
in Fallujah." ... "Meanwhile, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq,
Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, defended the current level of 129,000 U.S.
troops in Iraq as adequate. "We clearly showed some weaknesses here in
the last couple of weeks, and we are retackling the problem with greater
intensity," he said on NBC's "Meet The Press."" ... "Sanchez also said
that the refusal of a new Iraqi army battalion to fight in Fallujah "did
uncover significant challenges" in the Iraqi security forces." ... ""We
knew that there were going to be some risks that we were taking by standing
up security forces quickly, and we also know that it's going to take us
a while to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility for
both the internal and the external security of the country," Sanchez said."
(1, 2)
-By Sewell Chan and Pamela Constable with contributions
by Thomas E. Ricks and Saad Sarhan -WashingtonPost
-
-
- "Japan
court rules against shrine visits, PM unbowed." ...
"A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
had violated the constitution by visiting a shrine honouring Japan's military
war dead, a landmark ruling on his annual pilgrimages that have angered
China and other Asian neighbours." ... "But Koizumi vowed to keep visiting
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are among those honoured and
which critics at home and abroad regard as a symbol of Japan's past militarism."
-By Masayuki Kitano -Reuters
-
- "Top focus before
9/11 wasn't terrorism: Rice speech cited missile
defense." ... "On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address
"the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of
yesterday" — but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism
from Islamic radicals." ... "The speech provides telling insight into the
administration's thinking on the very day that the United States suffered
the most devastating attack since the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The
address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a
new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama
bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials
who have seen the text." -By Robin Wright
-WashingtonPost via -MSNBC
-
- "Attacks
in Iraq claim lives of four contractors, five soldiers:
An anti-American mob in the Iraqi city of Fallujah ambushed a group of
contractors Wednesday, beating and dragging four bodies through the streets.
The brutal attack came on the same day a roadside bomb killed five Americans
west of Baghdad." ... "" -PBS.org
/NewsHour
-
-
- 
- 
-
-
-
- "Bush
Asks Allies for Unity on Iraq: No Nation Exempt From
Terrorism, President Says on War Anniversary." ... "President Bush yesterday
marked the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with an appeal
for international unity after a year of division by warning that there
can be "no separate peace" with the West's enemies." ... "Bush spoke to
an audience of 83 diplomats, including those from such countries as France
and Germany, which opposed the war. But his remarks seemed directed toward
such countries as Spain and Poland, allies in Iraq that are now expressing
misgivings, and, in Spain's case, rethinking their cooperation with the
United States." -By Dana Milbank -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- "Md.
Woman Accused of Acting as Iraqi Agent." ... "Federal
agents today arrested a Maryland woman at her home on charges of acting
as an agent for the Iraqi government of former president Saddam Hussein
and plotting to aid resistance groups in Iraq after Hussein was ousted
by U.S. forces." ... "Susan Lindauer, 40, a former journalist and congressional
aide in Washington, was taken into custody by the FBI at her home in Takoma
Park after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against her and two
Iraqis, the sons of a former diplomat, who were charged with similar offenses."
-By William Branigin -WashingtonPost
-
- "War
crimes court opens in Freetown." ... "The UN-backed
war crimes court in Sierra Leone opened its new courthouse yesterday, but
was left guessing about whether its president will step down because of
alleged bias against some defendants." ... "UN and government officials
joined Geoffrey Robertson QC at the ceremony in the capital, Freetown,
but he gave no public indication about the ultimatum he has been given
to resign by tomorrow morning or stay and fight an attempt to disqualify
him." ... "Defence lawyers have demanded that he withdraw because of a
book he wrote which depicted the Revolutionary United Front, Sierra Leone's
rebel movement, as a bloodthirsty criminal enterprise which committed crimes
against humanity during a decade-long civil war." -By
Rory Carroll -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
-
- "Libya
blamed for W Africa wars: The chief prosecutor at
the UN's new court for Sierra Leone has repeated claims that the Libyan
leader is behind the past decade of war in West Africa." ... "The accusation
against Muammar Gaddafi was made by David Crane in an interview with the
BBC." -BBC/News
- 
-
-
-
-
- "Five
Guantanamo Britons Fly Home, Fate Unsure." ... "Five
British men jailed for more than two years at the U.S. Guantanamo base
in Cuba headed home Tuesday -- posing anti-terror police a dilemma over
whether to release them to their families or keep them behind bars." ...
"The five, held since late 2001 or early 2002 with more than 600 others
suspected of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan or supporting al
Qaeda, were expected to reach the Northolt military air base near London
around 7 p.m." ... "Police will take immediate custody of them, but if
they decide there is no case against them under Britain's tough anti-terror
laws, they may be freed in days, legal sources said." (1, 2)
-By Andrew Cawthorne -Reuters
-
- "An
Interim President for