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2006 Terrorism
News History Archives
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
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
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
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
- World
- Jordan
- Detainee
- Torture
- Terrorism
- Government
- Human
Rights - "Many
nations follow American example on detainee treatment, envoy says."
... "Several governments around the world have tried to rebut criticism
of how they handle detainees by claiming that they are only following the
U.S. example in the war on terror, the U.N. anti-torture chief said Monday."
... "Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, said that
when he criticizes governments for their questionable treatment of detainees,
they respond by telling him that that if the United States does something,
it must be all right. He would not name any countries except for Jordan."
... ""The United States has been the pioneer, if you wish, of human rights
and is a country that has a high reputation in the world," Nowak told reporters.
"Today, many other governments are kind of saying, 'But why are you criticizing
us, we are not doing something different than what the United States is
doing.'""
-AP
via -IHT.com
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
20061015
Government
- Terrorism
- Prisons
- Law
- Enforcement
- Money
- Politics
- Colorado
- "Supermax
Staffing Too Low To Be Safe: Arbitrator Finds Problems
At Prison That Holds Moussaoui, Unabomber." ... "Staffing at the Supermax
prison has gotten so low that job hazards have increased for correctional
officers watching over the nation's worst terrorists, an arbitrator has
ruled." ... "The arbitrator stopped short of ordering the Bureau of Prisons
to hire more staff, but union officials representing Supermax officers
said the ruling would bolster their argument to Congress for more prison
funding." ... ""If the most maximum security federal penitentiary is indeed
understaffed, what is happening across the entire Bureau of Prisons as
far as staffing levels?" asked [Colorado Democrat] state Rep. Buffie McFadyen,
who testified for the union at an arbitration hearing in May. Her district
includes Supermax and 11 other state and federal prisons."
-AP via-CBSNews
20061013
Secret
- US
- World
- German
- Syrian
- Military
- Terrorism
- Torture
- Prisons
- Politics
- Journalist
- Book
- "Inside
the CIA's Secret Prisons Program: An explosive new
book provides a rare glimpse into the full extent of the agency's controversial
terror renditions — and the curious coalition of partners who helped the
U.S. pull them off." ... "In December of 2001, U.S. agents arranged to
have a German citizen flown to a Syrian jail called the Palestine Branch,
renowned for its use of torture, and later offered to pass written questions
to Syrian interrogators to pose to the prisoner, according to a secret
German intelligence report shown to TIME on Wednesday. The report is described
in the new book Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program
by British investigative journalist Stephen Grey. The complex arrangement
was part of the CIA's sprawling practice of extraordinary renditions, the
secret transfer of terror suspects to hidden prisons across the world —
which has involved the aid of numerous foreign governments and the knowledge
of key Western European allies, according to the book, which was shown
to TIME by the author. After U.S. officials long refused to confirm the
CIA's secret detention of terror suspects abroad, President Bush last month
admitted that terror suspects had been transferred abroad to secret CIA
facilities, but U.S. officials continue to deny that such prisoners have
been tortured, saying that foreign governments assured them that they would
be treated fairly." ... "The cooperation between an unlikely coalition
of intelligence agencies did not end there. The intelligence report gives
a rare glimpse into the favors exchanged between governments during the
CIA renditions. One day after Germany learned that the Syrians were holding
Zammar, the CIA offered the German foreign-intelligence agency BND the
chance to put written questions to their prisoner. The intelligence report
doesn't make clear whether CIA interrogators had direct physical access
to Zammar. In June 2002, Syrian officials offered German interrogators
access to Zammar in prison, according to the 263-page report by the BND,
marked "Geheim" (Secret). That same day, the BND chief asked Germany's
federal prosecutors to drop their charges against Syrian intelligence agents
who had been arrested in Germany for allegedly collecting information on
Syrian dissidents." (1, 2)
-By Vivienne Walt
-TIME.com
20061002
Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- History
- Politics
- Reporting
- Book
- "Records
Show Tenet Briefed Rice on Al Qaeda Threat." ...
"A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then
the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other
top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda,
a State Department spokesman said Monday." ... "The account by Sean McCormack
came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard
her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, 2001,
noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist
threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was
“incomprehensible” she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before
the Sept. 11 attacks." ... "Mr. McCormack also said records show that the
Sept. 11 commission was informed about the meeting, a fact that former
intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed on Monday."
... "When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob
Woodward of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned
Mr. Woodward’s reporting." ... "Now, after several days, both current and
former Bush administration officials have confirmed parts of Mr. Woodward’s
account." ... "Officials now agree that on July 10, 2001, Mr. Tenet and
his counterterrorism deputy, J. Cofer Black, were so alarmed about an impending
Al Qaeda attack that they demanded an emergency meeting at the White House
with Ms. Rice and her National Security Council staff." ... "According
to two former intelligence officials, Mr. Tenet told those assembled at
the White House about the growing body of intelligence the Central Intelligence
Agency had collected pointing to an impending Al Qaeda attack." -By
Philip Shenon and Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes
Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- History
- Politics
- "Rumsfeld,
Ashcroft received warning of al Qaida attack before 9/11."
... "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former Attorney General John
Ashcroft received the same CIA briefing about an imminent al-Qaida strike
on an American target that was given to the White House two months before
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ... "The State Department's disclosure Monday
that the pair was briefed within a week after then-National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice was told about the threat on July 10, 2001, raised new
questions about what the Bush administration did in response, and about
why so many officials have claimed they never received or don't remember
the warning." ... "One official who helped to prepare the briefing, which
included a PowerPoint presentation, described it as a "10 on a scale of
1 to 10" that "connected the dots" in earlier intelligence reports to present
a stark warning that al-Qaida, which had already killed Americans in Yemen,
Saudi Arabia and East Africa, was poised to strike again." ... "Former
CIA Director George Tenet gave the independent Sept. 11, 2001, commission
the same briefing on Jan. 28, 2004, but the commission made no mention
of the warning in its 428-page final report. According to three former
senior intelligence officials, Tenet testified to commissioner Richard
Ben-Veniste and to Philip Zelikow, the panel's executive director and the
principal author of its report, who's now Rice's top adviser." ... "A new
book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post alleges that Rice failed to
take the July 2001 warning seriously when it was delivered at a White House
meeting by Tenet, Cofer Black, then the agency's chief of top counterterrorism,
and a third CIA official whose identity remains protected." ... "Rice's
deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, who became national security adviser after she
became secretary of state, and Rice's top counterterrorism aide, Richard
Clarke, also were present." -By Jonathan S. Landay,
Warren P. Stroebel, and John Walcott with contributions by Matt Stearns
and Drew Brown -McClatchy
via -RealCities
Secret
- Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Politics
- History
- "9/11
Commission failed to disclose 'scary' briefing also given to White House."
... "The independent Sept. 11, 2001, commission was given the same “scary”
briefing about an imminent al Qaida attack on a U.S. target that was presented
to the White House two months before the attacks, but failed to disclose
the warning in its 428-page report." ... "Former CIA Director George Tenet
presented the briefing to commission member Richard Ben Veniste and executive
director Philip Zelikow in secret testimony at CIA headquarters on Jan.
28, 2004, said three former senior agency officials." ... "Tenet raised
the matter himself, displayed slides from a Power Point presentation that
he and other officials had given to then-national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice on July 10, 2001, and offered to testify on the matter in public if
the commission asked him to, they said." ... "Richard Clarke, who was the
National Security Council's top counter-terrorism advisor, confirmed the
former senior intelligence officials’ account. Clarke was present when
Tenet briefed Rice, along with deputy national security adviser Steven
Hadley, CIA counter-terrorism chief Cofer Black and another CIA officer
whose identity remains protected." -By Jonathan S.
Landay -McClatchy
via -RealCities
20060929
Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Torture
- Death
Penalty - Human
Rights - War
Crimes - Law
- Politics-
"Many
Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill."
... "Included in the bill, passed by Republican majorities in the Senate
yesterday and the House on Wednesday, are unique rules that bar terrorism
suspects from challenging their detention or treatment through traditional
habeas corpus petitions. They allow prosecutors, under certain conditions,
to use evidence collected through hearsay or coercion to seek criminal
convictions." ... "The bill rejects the right to a speedy trial and limits
the traditional right to self-representation by requiring that defendants
accept military defense attorneys. Panels of military officers need not
reach unanimous agreement to win convictions, except in death penalty cases,
and appeals must go through a second military panel before reaching a federal
civilian court." ... "By writing into law for the first time the definition
of an "unlawful enemy combatant," the bill empowers the executive branch
to detain indefinitely anyone it determines to have "purposefully and materially"
supported anti-U.S. hostilities. Only foreign nationals among those detainees
can be tried by the military commissions, as they are known, and sentenced
to decades in jail or put to death." ... "At the same time, the bill immunizes
U.S. officials from prosecution for cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment
of detainees who the military and the CIA captured before the end of last
year. It gives the president a dominant but not exclusive role in setting
the rules for future interrogations of terrorism suspects." ... "But Tom
Malinowski, the Washington office director for Human Rights Watch, said
Bush's motivation is partly to protect his reputation by gaining congressional
endorsement of controversial actions already taken. "He's been accused
of authorizing criminal torture in a way that has hurt America and could
come back to haunt our troops. One of his purposes is to have Congress
stand with him in the dock," Malinowski said." -By
R. Jeffrey Smith -WashingtonPost
20060928
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Terrorism
- Money
- Politics
- "Cost
of Iraq war nearly $2b a week." ... "A new congressional
analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion
a week -- nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three
years ago and 20 percent more than last year -- as the Pentagon spends
more on establishing regional bases to support the extended deployment
and scrambles to fix or replace equipment damaged in combat." ... "The
upsurge occurs as the total cost of military operations at home and abroad
since 2001, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will top half a
trillion dollars, according to an internal assessment by the nonpartisan
Congressional Research Service completed last week." ... "The spike in
operating costs -- including a 20 percent increase over last year in Afghanistan,
where the mission now costs about $370 million a week -- comes even though
troop levels in both countries have remained stable. The reports attribute
the rising costs in part to a higher pace of fighting in both countries,
where insurgents and terrorists have increased their attacks on US and
coalition troops and civilians." ... "Another major factor, however, is
``the building of more extensive infrastructure to support troops and equipment
in and around Iraq and Afghanistan," according to the report." -By
Bryan Bender -BostonGlobe
20060926
George
Allen - Virginia
- College
- Sports
- Political
- Terrorism
- History
- 2008
Election - 2006
Election - "New
'N Word' Woe For George Allen: Well-Known Professor
Says Va. Senator Used Racial Slur; Allen Denies It." ... "A noted political
scientist joined one of [Virginia Republican] Sen. George Allen's former
college football teammates in claiming the senator used a racial slur to
refer to blacks in the early 1970s, a claim Allen dismisses as "ludicrously
false."" ... "Larry J. Sabato, one of Virginia's most-quoted political
science professors and a classmate of Allen's in the early 1970s, said
in a televised interview Monday that Allen used the epithet." ... "Sabato's
assertion came on the heels of accusations by Dr. Ken Shelton, a radiologist
who was a tight end and wide receiver for the University of Virginia in
the early 1970s when Allen was quarterback. He said Allen not only used
the n-word frequently but also once stuffed a severed deer head into a
black family's mailbox." ... "Separately, the Washington Post reported
that Christopher Taylor, 59, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama,
said that during a visit to Allen's Virginia home in 1982, Allen referred
to turtles in a pond on his property and said that only "the [racial slur]
eat them."" ... "Allen, a Republican, has been mentioned as a possible
presidential candidate in 2008. Questions about racial insensitivity have
dogged him during his [2006] re-election bid against Democrat Jim Webb."
-AP via
-CBSNews
Noteworthy
- US
- Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Prisoner
- Human
Rights - Legislation
- "Detainee
Measure to Have Fewer Restrictions: White House Reaches
Accord With Lawmakers." ... "Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed
over the weekend to alter new legislation on military commissions to allow
the United States to detain and try a wider range of foreign nationals
than an earlier version of the bill permitted, according to government
sources." ... "Lawmakers and administration officials announced last week
that they had reached accord on the plan for the detention and military
trials of suspected terrorists, and it is scheduled for a vote this week.
But in recent days the Bush administration and its House allies successfully
pressed for a less restrictive description of how the government could
designate civilians as "unlawful enemy combatants," the sources said yesterday.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of
negotiations over the bill." ... "The government has maintained since the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that, based on its reading of the laws of war,
anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at
military or CIA prisons. But Congress has not yet expressed its view on
who is an unlawful combatant, and the Supreme Court has not ruled directly
on the matter." ... "As a result, human rights experts expressed concern
yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting
congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as
the bill states, "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and
materially supported hostilities against the United States" or its military
allies." ... "The definition applies to foreigners living inside or outside
the United States and does not rule out the possibility of designating
a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant. It is broader than that in last
week's version of the bill, which resulted from lengthy, closed-door negotiations
between senior administration officials and dissident Republican senators.
That version incorporated a definition backed by the Senate dissidents:
those "engaged in hostilities against the United States."" ... "Under a
separate provision, those held by the CIA or the U.S. military as an unlawful
enemy combatant would be barred from challenging their detention or the
conditions of their treatment in U.S. courts unless they were first tried,
convicted and appealed their conviction." ... "Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) yesterday assailed the provision as an unconstitutional
suspension of habeas corpus, which he said was allowable only "in time
of rebellion or in time of invasion. And neither is present here."" (1,2)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Michael
A. Fletcher and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
20060925
US
- Afghanistan
- Iraq- Pakistan
- Osama
bin Laden
- Religious
- Terrorism
- Money
- Politics
- Military
- Intelligence
- "Afghanistan,
5 years later: U.S. confront Taliban's return." ...
"Afghanistan has become Iraq on a slow burn. Five years after they were
ousted, the Taliban are back in force, their ranks renewed by a new generation
of diehards. Violence, opium trafficking, ethnic tensions, official corruption
and political anarchy are all worse than they've been at any time since
the U.S.-led intervention in 2001." ... "By failing to stop Taliban leaders
and Osama bin Laden from escaping into Pakistan, then diverting troops
and resources to Iraq before finishing the job in Afghanistan, the Bush
administration left the door open to a Taliban comeback. Compounding the
problem, reconstruction efforts have been slow and limited, and the U.S.
and NATO didn't anticipate the extent and ferocity of the Taliban resurgence
or the alliances the insurgents have formed with other Islamic extremists
and with the world's leading opium traffickers." ... "There are only 42,000
U.S. and NATO-led troops to secure a country that's half again the size
of Iraq, where 150,000 U.S.-led coalition troops are deployed. Suicide
bombings have soared from two in all of 2002 to about one every five days.
Civilian casualties are mounting." ... "James Dobbins, who was President
Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan, said that the administration dismissed
European offers of a major peacekeeping force after the U.S. intervention
and almost immediately began shifting military assets to invade Iraq."
... "The White House "resisted the whole concept of peacekeeping," said
Dobbins. "They wanted to demonstrate a different approach, one that would
be much lower cost. So the decision to skimp on manpower and deploy one-fiftieth
the troops as were deployed in Bosnia was accompanied by a decision to
underplay economic assistance." ... ""We invaded Afghanistan in October
2001. We conquered the country in December, and Congress was not asked
to provide any (reconstruction) money until the following October," he
continued. "Much of the money didn't show up for years. And not only were
the actual sums relatively small, but with the failure to establish even
a modicum of security in the countryside, there was no way to spend it.""
... "There are 22,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But there are only 5,000
U.S. combat soldiers in eastern Afghanistan bordering Taliban refuges in
Pakistan, a 27,000-square-mile area of vast deserts and mountains nearly
the size of South Carolina." ... "ISAF [International Security Assistance
Force led by NATO], with 20,000 troops from 36 nations, has only 8,000
troops for 77,000 square miles - slightly smaller than Minnesota - in the
south." ... "The insurgents and their leaders operate from Pakistan, aided
by Pakistani officials, radical Islamic parties and al Qaida. They're flush
with recruits from Islamist seminaries on both sides of the border that
offer religious instruction and combat training." ... "Taliban extremists
also have been to Iraq for training in combat and bomb-making, and Iraqi
insurgents have traveled to Pakistan to forge closer ties with Afghan and
Pakistani extremists, according to U.S. intelligence officials." ... "The
Afghan army has about 30,000 troops who participate in operations with
U.S. and ISAF forces. But they lack basic equipment - helmets, radios and
armored vehicles - and rely on U.S. and other foreign funds for their salaries."
-By Jonathan S. Landay
-McClatchy-RealCities
20060924
US
- Government
- Intelligence
- Iraq
- Global
- Religious
- Military
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "Spy
Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat." ...
"A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies
has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped
spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist
threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks." ... "The classified National
Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in
fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents
or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee,
according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the
assessment or who have read the final document." ... "The intelligence
estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism
by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents
a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled
“Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts
that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized
and spread across the globe." ... "An opening section of the report, “Indicators
of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a
reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology." ... "The report “says that
the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American
intelligence official." ... "The estimate’s judgments confirm some predictions
of a National Intelligence Council report completed in January 2003, two
months before the Iraq invasion. That report stated that the approaching
war had the potential to increase support for political Islam worldwide
and could increase support for some terrorist objectives." ... "The [new]
estimate concludes that the radical Islamic movement has expanded from
a core of Qaeda operatives and affiliated groups to include a new class
of “self-generating” cells inspired by Al Qaeda’s leadership but without
any direct connection to Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants." ... "In
early 2005, the National Intelligence Council released a study concluding
that Iraq had become the primary training ground for the next generation
of terrorists, and that veterans of the Iraq war might ultimately overtake
Al Qaeda’s current leadership in the constellation of the global jihad
leadership." (1, 2)
-By Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes
US
- Iraq
- Global
- Military
- Religious
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "Spy
Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight."
... "The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent
Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists
around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United
States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts
have concluded." ... "A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed
in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency
that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist
networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western
agenda. It concludes that, rather than contributing to eventual victory
in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened
the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified
document." ... ""It's a very candid assessment," one intelligence official
said yesterday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global
terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the
March 2003 invasion. "It's stating the obvious."" ... "The NIE, whose contents
were first reported by the New York Times, coincides with public statements
by senior intelligence officials describing a different kind of conflict
than the one outlined by President Bush in a series of recent speeches
marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ... "The
latest terrorism assessment paints a portrait of a global war in which
Iraq is less the central front of actual combat than a unifying battle
cry for disparate extremist groups and even individuals. "It is just those
kinetic actions that lead to the radicalization of others," a senior counterterrorism
official said earlier this summer. "Surgical strikes? Nothing is surgical
about military operations. They tend to have impacts, affects."" ... "But
"a really big hole" in the U.S. strategy, a second counterterrorism official
said, "is that we focus on the terrorists and very little on how they are
created. If you looked at all the resources of the U.S. government, we
spent 85, 90 percent on current terrorists, not on how people are radicalized.""
(1, 2)
-By Karen DeYoung with contributions by Dafna Linzer
and Thomas E. Ricks, and Magda Jean-Louis -WashingtonPost
20060922
Torture
- Secret
- Noteworthy
- United
States - Government
- International
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Prisons
- Human
Rights - War
Crimes - Law
- Politics
- Ariz
- SC
- VA
- "The
Abuse Can Continue: Senators won't authorize torture,
but they won't prevent it, either." ... "The bad news is that Mr. Bush,
as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly
detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his
own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and
by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such
practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation.
Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his
authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them
to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution
for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated
U.S. law against war crimes." ... "In short, it's hard to credit the statement
by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday that "there's no doubt that the
integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved."
In effect, the agreement means that U.S. violations of international human
rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress's
tacit assent. If they do, America's standing in the world will continue
to suffer, as will the fight against terrorism." ... "In theory, Congress
could override Mr. Bush's regulations governing treatment if it judges
that they are being used to authorize unacceptable practices." ... "But
the senators who have fought to rein in the administration's excesses --
led by Sens. McCain, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.)
-- failed to break Mr. Bush's commitment to "alternative" methods that
virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military regards as unreliable,
counterproductive and dangerous for Americans who may be captured by hostile
governments." ... "Mr. Bush will go down in history for his embrace of
torture and bear responsibility for the enormous damage that has caused."
-WashingtonPost
20060921
Secret
- Torture
- United
States - World- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Prisons
- Human
Rights - Law
- Michael
Hayden - "CIA
Praises Deal; Harsh Techniques Would Continue." ...
"The CIA director, General Michael Hayden, praised the deal reached in
Congress today that, in effect, would permit CIA interrogators to use harsh
techniques critics call torture." ... "President Bush and the CIA have
repeatedly maintained the procedures are not torture and have saved American
lives." ... "Human rights groups maintain the procedures constitute a form
of torture, and the United States military has banned its personnel from
using water boarding [which may be allowed under the current Republcan
congressional deal]." ... "Today's congressional deal, if signed into law,
would allow the CIA to continue the six techniques and to continue to run
secret prisons overseas for select terror suspects." -By
Brian Ross -ABCNEWS.com
20060920
Virginia
- 2006
Election - 2008
Election -US
- Iraq
- Military
- Terrorism
- "Gaffes
Make Allen Vulnerable to Hard-Charging Webb in Va.."
... "Less than a year ago, there was little indication that Virginia Republican
George Allen would face much of a race in his bid for a second Senate term.
With Democrats then struggling to find a credible challenger, Allen was
widely expected to be able to spend a good part of this year in other states
to prospect a possible bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination."
... "But the emergence of a tough-minded Democratic nominee in author and
former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, and some self-inflicted damage on Allen’s
part, have combined to keep Allen close to home — and thrust him into a
contest that looks increasingly competitive. As a result, CQPolitics.com
has changed its rating on the race to Leans
Republican from Republican Favored." ... "Webb, a decorated Marine
Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, served as Navy secretary under President
Ronald Reagan and is the author of several best-selling non-fiction books
and novels, many with military themes. He maintained his Republican Party
allegiances right through 2000, when he favored George W. Bush for president
— and Allen in his successful bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Charles S.
Robb." ... "But Webb turned sharply because of his strong opposition to
Bush’s decision as president to launch the war in Iraq, a conflict that
Webb viewed as unnecessary to defend U.S. national security and a diversion
of personnel and resources away from the pursuit of the terrorists who
actually staged the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States." -By
Greg Giroux -CQPolitics.com
20060918
Canada
- US
- Syria
- Secret
- Torture
- Intelligence
- Religious
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "Canadian
was falsely accused, panel says: Muslim held by U.S.
was sent to Syria for interrogation." ... "Canadian intelligence officials
passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim
Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to
Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday." ... "The
report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that
represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as
part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has
secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often
brutal methods." ... "The inquiry, which focused on the Canadian intelligence
services, found that agents who were under pressure to find terrorists
after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, falsely labeled an Ottawa computer
consultant, Maher Arar, as a dangerous radical. They asked U.S. authorities
to put him and his wife, a university economist, on the al-Qaeda "watchlist,"
without justification, the report said." ... "Arar was also listed as "an
Islamic extremist individual" who was in the Washington area on Sept. 11.
The report concluded that he had no involvement in Islamic extremism and
was on business in San Diego that day, said the head of the inquiry commission,
Ontario Justice Dennis O'Connor." (1, 2)
-WashingtonPost via -MSNBC
20060914
US
- World
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Secret
- Police
- Prisoner
- Human
Rights - Legislation- South
Carolina - Virginia
- Arizona
- "Senate
Panel, Rebuffing Bush, Approves Terror Tribunal Measure."
... "A Senate committee, in a bipartisan rebuff to President George W.
Bush, approved military tribunal legislation that would give more legal
protection to suspected terrorists than the administration wants." ...
"Four of the 13 Republicans on the panel joined the 11 Democrats to pass
their version of the measure, rejecting Bush's proposal to bar defendants
from seeing classified evidence prosecutors may want to use in court. Former
Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed the Senate approach, warning that
the Bush administration is risking the safety of U.S. troops and worldwide
opinion by permitting harsh treatment of detainees." ... "Today's Armed
Services Committee vote would let suspected terrorists see evidence used
against them and would bar statements obtained through torture or inhumane
treatment. It also would authorize military judges to fashion declassified
summaries of evidence and to dismiss charges if the prosecutors don't consent
to the disclosures." ... "[South Carolina Republican Lindsey] Graham joined
the panel's chairman, Virginia Republican John Warner, and Arizona Republican
John McCain in resisting Bush's demand to redefine the terms ``cruel, inhumane
and degrading'' in describing treatment barred by Common Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions." ... "Graham, a former Air Force lawyer, said that
if the interpretation of the Geneva Conventions is changed, ``why wouldn't
every other country do the same thing, have their secret police tell them
to change the treaty obligations?''" -By James Rowley
-Bloomberg