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2006 Military News History Archive

2006 Military News

20061225

Military - Money - Law - Politics - "Interior, Pentagon Faulted In Audits: Effort to Speed Defense Contracts Wasted Millions." ... "The Defense Department paid two procurement operations at the Department of the Interior to arrange for Pentagon purchases totaling $1.7 billion that resulted in excessive fees and tens of millions of dollars in waste, documents show." ... "Defense turned to Interior, which manages federal lands and resources, in an effort to speed up its contracting. Interior is one of several government agencies allowed to manage contracts for other agencies in exchange for a fee." ... "But the arrangement between Interior and Defense "routinely violated rules designed to protect U.S. Government interests," according to draft audit documents obtained by The Washington Post." ... "More than half of the contracts examined were awarded without competition or without checks to determine that the prices were reasonable, according to the audits by the inspectors general for Defense (DOD) and Interior (DOI). Ninety-two percent of the work reviewed was awarded without verifying that the contractors' cost estimates were accurate; 96 percent was inadequately monitored." ... "They examined 49 deals and concluded that 61 percent had evidence of "illegal contracts, ill advised contracts, and various failings of contract administration procedures."" ... "The Interior inspector general said Defense "could have used these monies to purchase as many as 50,000 sets of body armor to protect our soldiers."" (1, 2, 3) -By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham -WashingtonPost
US - Iraq - Christmas - "In Baghdad, a Christmas patrol." ... "The sun was just beginning to rise, bringing a dim glow on a cold and clear Christmas morning in Baghdad, but the U.S. Army mission was late." ... "The Stryker armored vehicles were supposed to have rolled from Forward Operating Base Loyalty 11 minutes ago, at 6:30 a.m., yet soldiers were still milling about outside the green machines, shivering in bulletproof jackets and Kevlar helmets." ... "Christmas was another working day for many in the battalion, heading out to cordon off a dangerous section of eastern Baghdad and go house to house searching for insurgents, weapons and bomb-making materials." ... "But the holiday - and thoughts of friends and family back home - never left their minds." -By Will Weissert -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Iran - UN - Military- Technology - Business - Politics - "Iran Is Defiant, Vowing to U.N. It Will Continue Nuclear Efforts." ... "Iran on Sunday reacted defiantly to the United Nations Security Council resolution imposing sanctions because of the country's nuclear program. Iranian officials vowed to continue efforts to enrich uranium and warned that the Security Council action would change Iran's relationship with the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency." ... "The Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose sanctions on Iran banning the import and export of materials and technology used in uranium enrichment, reprocessing and ballistic missiles." ... "The Security Council on Saturday requested that Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency, report to the Council within 60 days on whether Iran had complied and suspended its enrichment program." -By Nazila Fathi -NYTimes
US - Iran - Iraq - Military - "U.S. arrest of Iranians reportedly upsets Iraqi president." ... "Iraqi and Iranian authorities slammed the United States on Monday for having arrested several Iranians who were visiting Iraq." ... "A U.S. official said the Iranians were suspected of involvement in attacks against Iraqi security forces." ... "A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Talabani had invited the Iranians to the country, and the president was "unhappy" about the arrests." ... "The U.S. National Security Council confirmed that the American military arrested at least four Iranians in raids during the past week in Iraq, including two diplomats." ... "NSC spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the two diplomats were questioned, turned over to the Iraqi government and released." ... "At least two others, who are members of the Iranian military, remain in U.S. military custody while an investigation is conducted on whether they were involved in attacks on security forces in Iraq, Johndroe said." -Contributions by Shirzad Bozorgmehr, Sam Dagher, Jomana Karadsheh and Suzanne Malveaux -CNN

20061224

US - Iraq - People - Police - Military - Politics - "12,000 Iraqi policemen killed since '03; 6 U.S. soldiers killed." ... "Some 12,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the country's interior minister said Sunday, as clashes, a suicide bomber and weekend explosions killed more than a dozen Iraqi officers and six American soldiers." ... "Police and police recruits have been frequent targets of insurgent attacks. In one of the worst single attacks, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a line of national guard and police recruits waiting to take physicals in February 2005. The blast in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed 125." ... "Police have also been blamed for violence. Gunmen in Iraqi army and police uniforms have been responsible for recent bank robberies in Baghdad and the kidnapping of more than 40 workers and volunteers at the Iraqi Red Crescent." ... "The Iraqi Ministry of Health estimated in November that 150,000 Iraqi civilians been killed in the war that began in 2003. Other estimates put the figure as low as 51,000 or as high as 600,000." -AP via -USATODAY

20061211

US - Iraq - Military - Police - Terrorism - Religion - Intelligence - Politics - Analysis - "Intensified Combat on Streets Likely." ... "President Bush's plan to send tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements to Baghdad to jointly confront Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias is likely to touch off a more dangerous phase of the war, featuring months of fighting in the streets of the Iraqi capital, current and former military officials warned." ... "The prospect of a more intense battle in the Iraqi capital could put U.S. military commanders in exactly the sort of tough urban fight that war planners strove to avoid during the spring 2003 invasion of the country. The plan to partner U.S. and Iraqi units may compel American soldiers to rely on questionable Iraqi army and police forces as never before. And while the president insisted there is no timetable associated with the troop increase, military officials said sustaining it for more than a few months would place a major new strain on U.S. forces that already are feeling burdened by an unexpectedly long and difficult war." ... "Most of all, the White House's insistence on confronting all insurgents and militias, both Sunni and Shiite, may mean that the U.S. military will wind up fighting the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. That militia is estimated by some U.S. intelligence officials to have grown over the past year to about 60,000 fighters, and some in the Pentagon consider it more militarily effective than the Iraqi army." -By Thomas E. Ricks and Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost

20061206

Government - Legislative - Money - Military - Health - Food - Elderly - Calif - "Some Republicans Take a Scorched-Hill Tack: Leaving Budget Decisions To Democrats Could Disrupt New Leadership's Agenda." ... "Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month." ... "Already, the Republican leadership has moved to saddle the new Democratic majority with responsibility for resolving $463 billion in spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. And the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R., Calif.), has been demanding that the Democrat-crafted 2008 budget absorb most of the $13 billion in costs incurred from a decision now to protect physician reimbursements under Medicare, the federal health-care program for the elderly and disabled." ... "The unstated goal is to disrupt the Democratic agenda and make it harder for the new majority to meet its promise to reinstitute "pay-as-you-go" budget rules, under which new costs or tax cuts must be offset to protect the deficit from growing." ... "The collapse of the appropriations process will be felt soon in the Justice and Commerce departments, food-safety agencies and veterans' health care." ... ""It's a demonstration of the irresponsibility of Republicans that they would leave this country with this mess," said the next House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). "But we won, we will deal with it."" -By David Rogers -WSJ.com

20061205

US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Government - Military - Technology - Money - Politics - People - Flying - Vehicles - Alabama - "U.S. Army Battling To Save Equipment: Gear Piles Up at Depots, Awaiting Repair." ... "Field upon field of more than 1,000 battered M1 tanks, howitzers and other armored vehicles sit amid weeds here at the 15,000-acre Anniston Army Depot [Alabama] -- the idle, hulking formations symbolic of an Army that is wearing out faster than it is being rebuilt." ... "The Army and Marine Corps have sunk more than 40 percent of their ground combat equipment into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to government data. An estimated $17 billion-plus worth of military equipment is destroyed or worn out each year, blasted by bombs, ground down by desert sand and used up to nine times the rate in times of peace. The gear is piling up at depots such as Anniston, waiting to be repaired." ... "The depletion of major equipment such as tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and especially helicopters and armored Humvees has left many military units in the United States without adequate training gear, officials say. Partly as a result of the shortages, many U.S. units are rated "unready" to deploy, officials say, raising alarm in Congress and concern among military leaders at a time when Iraq strategy is under review by the White House and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group." ... "Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, is lobbying hard for more money to repair what he calls the "holes" in his force, saying current war funding is inadequate to make the Army "well." Asked in a congressional hearing this past summer whether he was comfortable with the readiness levels of non-deployed Army units, Schoomaker replied: "No."" ... "Despite the work piling up, the Army's depots have been operating at about half their capacity because of a lack of funding for repairs." -By Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost
US - Afghanistan- "Troops needed to fight Taliban." ... "The outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan warned that the fight against the Taliban is in danger of being undermined by a shortage of NATO troops and by restrictions that keep some alliance forces out of combat." ... "U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said in an interview that NATO countries need to contribute more troops and that some of them must drop "caveats" that prevent their forces from fighting freely." ... "The United States this year handed over military responsibility for all of Afghanistan to a 32,000-strong NATO force, which previously had operated in the country's relatively secure north and western regions." ... "Afghanistan is the alliance's first deployment outside Europe." -By Paul Wiseman -USATODAY

20061110

US - Government - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Privacy - Environment - Health - Seniors - Drugs - Oil - Industry - Legal - History - Missouri - "Democrats are set to subpoena: The new majority is expected to hold hearings on military spending and the Iraq war -- just for starters." ... "[Missouri Democrat] Rep. Ike Skelton knows what he will do in one of his first acts as chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the Democratic-led House: resurrect the subcommittee on oversight and investigations." ... "The panel was disbanded by the Republicans after they won control of Congress in 1994. Now, Skelton (D-Mo.) intends to use it as a forum to probe Pentagon spending and the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war." ... "With control of every committee in Congress starting in January, the new majority will inherit broad powers to subpoena and investigate. And that is expected to translate into wide-ranging and contentious hearings." ... "The agenda is likely to be dominated by the Iraq war, but could include probes into the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance, environmental policies and new prescription-drug program for seniors. Industries, such as oil companies, could also come under closer scrutiny." ... ""This could be remembered as a historically unique period in which an administration got immunity from Congress to engage in errors with impunity," said Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore law professor and a former House counsel." ... "Democrats are expected to bore into the Iraq war, including review of no-bid contracts for reconstruction, intelligence failures and decisions to ignore the advice of military commanders about troop levels." (1, 2) -By Richard B. Schmitt and Richard Simon -LAtimes

20061109

US - Afghanistan - Military - People - Law - Investigation - Journalism - "AP: Startling findings in Tillman probe." ... "The latest inquiry into Tillman's death by friendly fire should end next month; authorities have said they intend to release to the public only a synopsis of their report. But The Associated Press has combed through the results of 2 1/4 years of investigations — reviewed thousands of pages of internal Army documents, interviewed dozens of people familiar with the case — and uncovered some startling findings." ... "Investigators are looking at who pulled the triggers and fired at Tillman; they are also looking at the officers who pressured the platoon to move through a region with a history of ambushes; the soldiers who burned Tillman's uniform and body armor afterward; and at everyone in the chain of command who deliberately kept the circumstances of Tillman's death from the family for more than a month." ... "Military investigators under Gimble's direction this year visited the rugged valley in eastern Afghanistan where Tillman was killed. It was a risky trip; the region is even more dangerous today than it was in 2004." -By Scott Lindlaw and Martha Mendoza -AP via -Yahoo

20061108

Noteworthy- Secret - US - Iraq - Iran - Religious - Terrorism - Military - Intelligence - History - "Gates’ CIA Past Could Haunt Him in Confirmation Hearings." ... "President Bush’s pick to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld with former CIA Director Robert Gates is an odd one, considering it’s almost certain to revive festering questions about the Bush administration’s handling of pre-war intelligence on Iraq." ... "In early 1987, his role in the so-called Iran-Contra affair, a secret White House operation to sell weapons to radical Islamic Iran in exchange for the release of U.S. hostages — and cash for CIA-backed rebels in Nicaragua — came under scrutiny." ... "Then, in during his 1991 nomination hearings to run the CIA, Gates ran into a buzz saw of testimony from a former agency analyst who said that during the 1980s Gates had skewered intelligence to fit the convictions of senior Reagan administration officials that Soviet agents had concocted a plot to assassinate the pope and were arming and encouraging Marxist revolutionary groups to carry out terrorist attacks." ... "Both theories turned out to be wrong, according Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl, who headed a team of CIA analysts assigned the task of investigating the theory." ... "Senior former CIA analyst Mel Goodman charged Gates with a number of improprieties, including “the imposition of intelligence judgments, often over the protests of the consensus in the Directorate of Intelligence, to slant intelligence . . . suppression of intelligence that didn’t support the Casey agenda . . . (and) use of the Directorate of Operations to slant intelligence of the Directorate of Intelligence.”" -By Jeff Stein -CQ.com
Election 2006 - US - Iraq - Military- Missouri - Montana - Virginia - Pennsylvania - Santorum - Rhode Island - Ohio - Indiana - Kentucky - "Democrats win House control in midterm elections; Senate still in doubt." ... "Democrats took over the House in Tuesday's midterm elections but Senate control might take weeks to decide, in an election shaped by voter discontent with President Bush and the direction of the Iraq war." ... "Democrat Claire McCaskill's victory over incumbent [Republican] Sen. Jim Talent in Missouri has put Senate control within her party's grasp. Two Senate races remained undecided early Wednesday -- Montana, where a Democratic challenger led, and Virginia, where another Democratic challenger was ahead by the slimmest of margins. Democrats must win both to seize Senate control." ... "Four incumbent Republicans lost in the Senate. Pennsylvanians voted out conservative stalwart Rick Santorum [Republican] — the No. 3 GOP leader in the Senate — in favor of Democrat Bob Casey; Rhode Island voters picked Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse over incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee; Ohio voters chose Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown over Republican incumbent Mike Dewine; and McCaskill beat Talent." ... "Democrats also won major House races in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky and the closely contested governor's race in Ohio, the AP projected. And Democrats seized a majority of the nation's governorships for the first time in 12 years." -USATODAY

200611107

US - 2006 Election - Opinion - Government - Iraq - Military - "Corruption named as key issue by voters in exit polls." ... "By a wide margin, Americans who voted Tuesday in the midterm election say they disapprove of the war in Iraq." ... "But when asked which issue was extremely important to their vote, more voters said corruption and ethics in government than any other issue, including the war, according to national exit polls." ... "And defying the traditional political maxim that "all politics is local," 62 percent of voters said national issues mattered more than local issues when deciding which House candidate to pick." -CNN
US - Iraq - Military - People - TV - Money - Oil - Politics - Japan - New York - "Rupert Murdoch -- who once predicted Iraq war could lead to $20/barrel oil --described war casualties as "minute"." ... "On November 6, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch reportedly said at a conference in Tokyo [Japan] that U.S. casualties in Iraq, "by the terms of any previous war are quite minute," as the weblog Democratic Underground noted. He further stated: "I believe it was right to go in there. I believe that certainly the execution that has followed that has included many mistakes. But that's easy to say after the event." Murdoch, whose conservative media empire includes Fox News Channel, the New York Post, and The Weekly Standard, vocally supported the war in 2003, citing potential economic benefits. As of November 3, according to CNN, a total of 2,836 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003." -MediaMatters.org

20061103

Secret - US - Iraq- Nuclear - Government - Military - Intelligence - Internet - Archive - History - Hoekstra - Michigan - Roberts - Kansas - Legislation - Politics - "U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer." ... "Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein." ... "But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb." ... "Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”" ... "Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures." ... "The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs." ... "The director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, had resisted setting up the Web site, which some intelligence officials felt implicitly raised questions about the competence and judgment of government analysts. But President Bush approved the site’s creation after Congressional Republicans proposed legislation to force the documents’ release." ... "The campaign for the Web site was led by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Peter Hoekstra [Republican] of Michigan. Last November, he and his Senate counterpart, Pat Roberts [Republican] of Kansas, wrote to Mr. Negroponte, asking him to post the Iraqi material." (1, 2, 3) -By William J. Broad with contributions by Scott Shane -NYTimes
Gay - Military - Entertainment - Money - Law - "RNC Accepts Money From Army Porn Movie Distributor." ... "Despite running an attack ad accusing a Democratic senatorial candidate of accepting money from "porn movie producers," the Republican National Committee itself has accepted several donations over the past few years from the president of a large pornographic movie distribution company." ... "Marina Pacific Distributors calls itself "the leader in adult video distribution." Included in the movies for sale on their Web site are videos made by "Active Duty Productions." Active Duty, as their name suggests, has cast active duty soldiers in some of their films but not without serious consequences for the soldiers." ... "Three Fort Bragg soldiers were found guilty and sentenced to prison in separate courts-martial earlier this year for appearing in pornographic videos made by Active Duty." -By Maddy Sauer -ABCNEWS.com

20061102

Noteworthy - US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Politics - History - "Bush owes troops an apology, not Kerry: Olbermann: Bush 'appearing to be stupid' about Kerry's joke." ... "A brief reminder, Mr. Bush: You are not the United States of America." ... "You are merely a politician whose entire legacy will have been a willingness to make anything political; to have, in this case, refused to acknowledge that the insult wasn't about the troops, and that the insult was not even truly about you either, that the insult, in fact, is you." ... "So now John Kerry has apologized to the troops; apologized for the Republicans' deliberate distortions." ... "Thus, the president will now begin the apologies he owes our troops, right?" ... "This president must apologize to the troops for having suggested, six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will, to history, "look like just a comma."" ... "This president must apologize to the troops because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably and irredeemably wrong." ... "This president must apologize to the troops for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence at a banquet while our troops were in harm's way." ... "This president must apologize to the troops because the streets of Iraq were not strewn with flowers and its residents did not greet them as liberators." ... "This president must apologize to the troops because his administration ran out of "plan" after barely two months." ... "This president must apologize to the troops for getting 2,815 of them killed." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Keith Olbermann -MSNBC

20061101

Secret - US - Iraq - Religious - Police - Politics - Intelligence - "Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos." ... "A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict." ... "A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly in terms of sectarian fighting." ... "The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.” It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, and tracks a further worsening this month despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad." ... "In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such as the enemy’s fighting strength and the control of territory." ... "The conclusions the Central Command has drawn from these trends are not encouraging, according to a copy of the slide that was obtained by The New York Times. The slide shows Iraq as moving sharply away from “peace,” an ideal on the far left side of the chart, to a point much closer to the right side of the spectrum, a red zone marked “chaos.” As depicted in the command’s chart, the needle has been moving steadily toward the far right of the chart." ... "An intelligence summary at the bottom of the slide reads “urban areas experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns to consolidate control” and “violence at all-time high, spreading geographically.” According to a Central Command official, the index on civil strife has been a staple of internal command briefings for most of this year. The analysis was prepared by the command’s intelligence directorate, which is overseen by Brig. Gen. John M. Custer." -By Michael R. Gordon -NYTimes

20061031

US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Government - Media - Terrorism - Politics - "Statement of John Kerry Responding to Republican Distortions, Pathetic Tony Snow Diversions and Distractions." ... "Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:" ... "“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did." ... "I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have." ... "The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor." ... "Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”" -JohnKerry.com
US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Families - "Army: 7 Families Misled On War Deaths: Review Finds Soldiers' Families Given Incorrect Information On Their Deaths." ... "The families of seven soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan were given incorrect or misleading information about the deaths, the Army has concluded after a review of war casualty reports." ... "The best-known was Cpl. Patrick Tillman, the former star player in the National Football League whose family initially was told he had died a hero's death, killed by enemy forces in Afghanistan. After Tillman's memorial service the family was told the truth: He was killed unintentionally by gunfire from his fellow soldiers." ... "More than 1,800 Army soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; about 240 have died in Afghanistan. Overall, more than 2,800 U.S. military members have died since the start of the Iraq war." -AP via -CBSNews
US - Italy - Weldon - Government - Military - Money - Pennsylvania - "Italian Arms Contractor and a Pennsylvania Congressman Share Close Ties." ... "In November at the five-star Hotel Splendido overlooking the harbor in Portofino, a playground of the Italian rich, [Pennsylvania Republican] Representative Curt Weldon was the center of attention." ... "The second-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, Mr. Weldon was a main speaker at a conference sponsored in part by the Italian military giant Finmeccanica. At the gathering of Italian, British and American political leaders, Mr. Weldon, of Pennsylvania, spoke on behalf of Italian arms makers who were seeking a bigger share of Pentagon contracts." ... "Taxpayers paid for Mr. Weldon’s stay. He received a $1,153 daily expense allowance from the federal government and flew over on a military jet." ... "For Mr. Weldon, the conference was a victory lap. After several years of promoting Italian military contractors, the Italians had scored some big victories at the Pentagon. But Mr. Weldon’s efforts were equally beneficial for his district, his family, his friends and his campaign coffers." ... "His daughter Kim, 29, a former social worker, was hired by AgustaWestland, the Finmeccanica subsidiary that won the Marine One contract, shortly after her father’s speech in Portofino. Kim Weldon’s work is to set up booths at trade shows and perform public relations." ... "More than 10 Americans at Finmeccanica subsidiaries in the United States, along with their spouses, were among the biggest contributors to Mr. Weldon’s campaign in 2006. Their combined donations of $20,400 edged out donations from American giants like Boeing and Lockheed Martin." -By Leslie Wayne with contributions by David Johnston -NYTimes
George Allen - Virginia - Military - "Breaking: [Virginia Republican George Allen] Republican's Staff Assault Marine Vet [VIDEO]." -AlterNet.org

20061025

Renzi - Arizona - Legislation - Politics - International - Money - Family - Military - Communications - Virginia - "Congressman From Arizona Is the Focus of an Inquiry." ... "Federal authorities in Arizona have opened an inquiry into whether [Arizona Republican] Representative Rick Renzi introduced legislation that benefited a military contractor that employs his father, law enforcement officials said Tuesday." ... "Mr. Renzi, 48, a Republican who represents the First Congressional District, is a former insurance executive and real estate investor who was first elected in 2002. Almost from the start, he has been a target of citizen watchdog groups who have accused him of ethical laxity in office." ... "Law enforcement officials said that the most serious accusation involved Mr. Renzi’s sponsorship of legislation in 2003 that appeared to indirectly benefit the ManTech International Corporation, a communications company based in Virginia that employs Mr. Renzi’s father, Eugene, a retired Army general, as executive vice president." -By David Johnston -NYTimes

20061024

Noteworthy - US - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - Military - Intelligence - Torture - Terrorism - Prison - Religion - People - War Crimes - Law Enforcement - Politics - "Can the '20th hijacker' of Sept. 11 stand trial? Aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo may prevent his prosecution." ... "Mohammed al-Qahtani, detainee No. 063, was forced to wear a bra. He had a thong placed on his head. He was massaged by a female interrogator who straddled him like a lap dancer. He was told that his mother and sisters were whores. He was told that other detainees knew he was gay. He was forced to dance with a male interrogator. He was strip-searched in front of women. He was led on a leash and forced to perform dog tricks. He was doused with water. He was prevented from praying. He was forced to watch as an interrogator squatted over his Koran." ... "That much is known. These details were among the findings of the U.S. Army's investigation of al-Qahtani's aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." ... "But only now is a picture emerging of how the interrogation policy developed, and the battle that law enforcement agents waged, inside Guantanamo and in the offices of the Pentagon, against harsh treatment of al-Qahtani and other detainees by military intelligence interrogators." ... "In interviews with MSNBC.com - the first time they have spoken publicly -former senior law enforcement agents described their attempts to stop the abusive interrogations. The agents of the Pentagon's Criminal Investigation Task Force, working to build legal cases against suspected terrorists, said they objected to coercive tactics used by a separate team of intelligence interrogators soon after Guantanamo's prison camp opened in early 2002. They ultimately carried their battle up to the office of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who approved the more aggressive techniques to be used on al-Qahtani and others." ... "Although they believed the abusive techniques were probably illegal, the Pentagon cops said their objection was practical. They argued that abusive interrogations were not likely to produce truthful information, either for preventing more al-Qaida attacks or prosecuting terrorists." ... "And they described their disappointment when military prosecutors told them not to worry about making a criminal case against al-Qahtani, the suspected "20th hijacker" of Sept. 11, because what had been done to him would prevent him from ever being put on trial." ... "Defense Department e-mails seen by MSNBC.com show that a delegation visiting Guantanamo on Sept. 25, 2002, included Alberto R. Gonzales, then the White House counsel and now attorney general; David S. Addington, legal counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney, now his chief of staff; Timothy E. Flanigan, the deputy White House counsel; William Haynes III, the Pentagon general counsel; Larry Thompson, then deputy attorney general; Christopher A. Wray, the principal associate deputy attorney general, now head of Criminal Division at the Justice Department; and John Yoo, a lawyer in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, who reportedly had just helped write an Aug. 1, 2002, "torture memo" to Gonzales, defining torture narrowly as causing pain equivalent to organ failure or death." ... "The visiting VIPs met with Gen. Dunlavey and his staff, but not with any of the law enforcement investigators who opposed the aggressive interrogations." ... "Under the Military Commissions Act signed last week by President Bush, statements made under torture would not be admissible in a military trial." ... "But the law says a military judge could accept statements made under coercion. A court may have to decide which category, torture or coercion, encompasses such techniques as a fake trip to Egypt, sleep deprivation, and being forced to do dog tricks. The new law also extends legal protection from prosecution for war crimes to any U.S. personnel who used coercive tactics, if they believed in good faith that what they were doing was lawful." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Bill Dedman -MSNBC

20061023

US - Iraq - Police - "15 Police Recruits Killed in Iraq; U.S. Death Toll for October Hits 86." ... "At least 15 Iraqi police recruits were killed Sunday when two buses taking them to Baghdad were ambushed by insurgents north of the capital, a local police official said. Twenty-five recruits were injured in the attack, and 20 others were kidnapped, he said." ... "On Sunday and Monday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of seven soldiers and a Marine, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to 86 -- the fifth-highest total in any single month since the war began. The only higher monthly tolls were 137 in November 2004, 135 in April 2004, 106 in January 2005, and 96 in October, 2005. Attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad have increased more than 40 percent since midsummer, U.S. military officials say." -By John Ward Anderson and Debbi Wilgoren -WashingtonPost

20061018

US - Iraq - People - "10 troops slain, brings American October death toll to 69." ... "The U.S. military reported Wednesday that 10 American troops had been killed the day, raising the death toll so far this month to 69 and putting October on track to be the deadliest month for coalition forces since January 2005." ... "According to an Associated Press count, October also is on the way to being the deadliest month for Iraqis since the AP began tracking deaths in April 2005. In October, 767 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, an average of 45 every day." ... "The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported." ... "For the U.S. military, October's death toll is on a pace that, if continued, would make the month the deadliest for coalition forces since January 2005, when 107 U.S. troops died. The war's deadliest month for U.S. forces was November 2004, when 137 troops died. At least 2,785 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an AP count." -AP via -USATODAY

20061017

Secret - Military - Terrorism - Torture - Prisons - Legislation - Religious - Civil Liberties - History - Politics - "Bush Signs Terror Interrogation Law." ... "President Bush signed legislation Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation of terror suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military commissions, calling it a "vital tool" in the war against terrorism." ... "Bush's plan for treatment of the terror suspects became law just six weeks after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions." ... "A coalition of religious groups staged a protest against the bill outside the White House, shouting "Bush is the terrorist" and "Torture is a crime." About 15 of the protesters, standing in a light rain, refused orders to move. Police arrested them one by one." ... "The law protects detainees from blatant abuses during questioning - such as rape, torture and "cruel and inhuman" treatment - but does not require that any of them be granted legal counsel. Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts." ... "Many Democrats opposed the legislation because they said it eliminated rights of defendants considered fundamental to American values, such as a person's ability to go to court to protest their detention and the use of coerced testimony as evidence." ... "The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."" ... ""The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero." ... ""Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act," he said." -By Nedra Pickler -AP
US - Government - Money - Politics - Legislators - Election 2006 - TV - Radio - Ads - Washington - Virginia - Indiana - Connecticut - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - "Dems using hourly wage issue against GOP rivals." ... "Democratic challengers in more than two-dozen House and Senate races are attacking Republicans in Congress for taking pay raises while voting against a minimum wage increase." ... "The attacks are contained in television and radio ads running from Washington state to Virginia. In some races, such as House contests in Indiana and Connecticut, Democrats also link pay raises to Republican votes against combat bonuses for U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "Most members of Congress currently earn $165,200 a year; top leaders earn more. That's $31,600 more than in 1997, when the federal minimum wage was raised to the current $5.15 an hour. Unless legislators act during a lame-duck session after [2006] Election Day, lawmakers who will be part of the Congress that convenes in January will get an automatic 2% raise to $168,504." -By Andrea Stone -USATODAY

20061015

US - North Korea - Nuclear - Military - History - Politics - "N. Korean Nuclear Conflict Has Deep Roots: 50 Years of Threats and Broken Pacts Culminate in Apparent Atomic Test." ... "Democrats and Republicans have been quick to use North Korea's apparent nuclear test to benefit their own party in these final weeks of the congressional campaign, but a review of history shows that both sides have contributed to the current situation." ... "There is more than 50 years of history to Pyongyang's attempt to gain a nuclear weapon, triggered in part by threats from Presidents Harry S. Truman [Democrat] and Dwight D. Eisenhower [Republican] to end the Korean War." ... "In 1950, when a reporter asked Truman whether he would use atomic bombs at a time when the war was going badly, the president said, "That includes every weapon we have."" ... "Three years later, Eisenhower made a veiled threat, saying he would "remove all restraints in our use of weapons" if the North Korean government did not negotiate in good faith an ending to that bloody war." ... "In 1957, the United States placed nuclear-tipped Matador missiles in South Korea, to be followed in later years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, by nuclear artillery, most of which was placed within miles of the demilitarized zone." ... "It was not until President [Democrat] Jimmy Carter's administration, in the late 1970s, that the first steps were taken to remove some of the hundreds of nuclear weapons that the United States maintained in South Korea, a process that was not completed until 1991, under the first [Republican] Bush administration." -By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost
Afghanistan - Canada - Italian - Photographer - "Surge Of Violent Clashes In Afghanistan: NATO Soldiers Killed In Ambush; Photographer And Assistant Kidnapped." ... "Two NATO soldiers were killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan after militants ambushed them with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, the alliance said." ... "An Italian freelance photographer and his assistant, meanwhile, were abducted by armed men in southern Helmand province, an Afghan official said." ... "Canada's defense department identified the dead NATO sold[i]ers as Canadian but did not release their names." ... "Counting the latest fatalities, 42 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002." (1,