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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
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,