| |
News Center | Mason News | News Center |
| SEARCH: |  |
| TheSpringGarden Plants & trees, gardening products & equiptment, homedecor | SunglassesEyeglasses All stunning brand names sunglasses at the great prices | DIYHomeSupplies Do it yourself woodworking projects & home remodeling supplies | UnitedPlus Gift Ideas. Diecasts, Figurines, American Heroes, and much more |
| CarPartsAccessoriesEtc Search and shop for auto parts & accessories online. Simple & Convenient | Sewing Machines Top notch sewing machines, vacuums, and appliances. For home or commercial. | Patio & Landscape Ready for family BBQ party this summer? A Large selection of outdoor furnitures | FontsWorld Looking for those cool fonts? Here, variety of all around the world fonts. Free Download. |
| |||||||
| Army What's up with the Army? |
 |
| | LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
01-25-2008, 07:00 AM
| ||||
| ||||
 The Pentagon Early Bird-24 Jan 2008 January 24, 2008 Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Item numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) IRAQ
New York Times January 24, 2008 Pg. 1 Attacks Imperil Militiamen In Iraq Allied With U.S. By Solomon Moore and Richard A. Oppel Jr. BAGHDAD — American-backed Sunni militias who have fought Sunni extremists to a standstill in some of Iraq’s bloodiest battlegrounds are being hit with a wave of assassinations and bomb attacks, threatening a fragile linchpin of the military’s strategy to pacify the nation. At least 100 predominantly Sunni militiamen, known as Awakening Council members or Concerned Local Citizens, have been killed in the past month, mostly around Baghdad and the provincial capital of Baquba, urban areas with mixed Sunni and Shiite populations, according to Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani. At least six of the victims were senior Awakening leaders, Iraqi officials said. Violence is also shaking up the Awakening movement, many of whose members are former insurgents, in its birthplace in the Sunni heartland of Anbar Province. On Sunday, a teenage suicide bomber exploded at a gathering of Awakening leaders, killing Hadi Hussein al-Issawi, a midlevel sheik, and three other tribesmen. Born nearly two years ago in Iraq’s western deserts, the Awakening movement has grown to an 80,000-member nationwide force, four-fifths of whose members are Sunnis. American military officials credit that force, along with the surge in United States troops, the Mahdi Army’s self-imposed cease-fire and an increase in Iraqi security forces, for a precipitous drop in civilian and military fatalities since July. But the recent onslaught is jeopardizing that relative security and raising the prospect that the groups’ members might disperse, with many rejoining the insurgency, American officials said. “There’s a recognition that sustained attacks cannot continue,” said a United States official who was not authorized to speak publicly. “We’ve got to break that.” The official said that American military and intelligence officials were taking the threat to the Awakening movement “very seriously.” American and Iraqi officials blame Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for most of the killings, which spiked after the Dec. 29 release of an audio recording in which Osama bin Laden called the volunteer tribesmen “traitors” and “infidels.” While the organization is overwhelmingly Iraqi and Sunni, American military officials say it has foreign leadership, though its links with Mr. bin Laden himself are unclear. Officials say that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has a two-pronged strategy: directing strikes against Awakening members to intimidate and punish them for cooperating with the Americans, and infiltrating the groups to glean intelligence and discredit the movement in the eyes of an already wary Shiite-led government. “Al Qaeda is trying to assassinate all the Awakening members that support the government, but I believe that criminal militias are also doing this,” Mr. Bolani said during a recent interview in Taji. Both Sunni and Shiite officials in Baghdad blame two government-linked Shiite paramilitary forces for some of the attacks: the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization. Sunni officials charge that militia leaders are involved, while Shiite officials believe that the attackers are renegade members of the groups. Both militias have close ties to Iran and have been implicated in death-squad operations against Sunni Arabs, although the Mahdi militia’s leaders have publicly told their members to abide by a cease-fire. Citizen guardsmen and Iraqi intelligence officials say they have also captured Iranians with hit lists and orders to attack Awakening members. American military officials say they suspect that Iran’s paramilitary force, Al Quds, is directing the Shiite militias’ attacks against the Awakening movement. But other than finding Iranian-made weapons, which are sometimes used by Shiite militia fighters, American military officials offered no evidence that Iranians were participating in direct attacks. “Right now, the Concerned Local Citizens groups are being heavily targeted by Al Qaeda,” said Brig. Gen. Mark McDonald, who is working with the volunteers. “They’re also being targeted by some Shiite extremist groups.” Killings of guardsmen are mounting even as Awakening members are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Iraqi government, which has yet to fulfill its promise to integrate 20 percent of the volunteers into the Ministries of Interior and Defense and give nonsecurity jobs to the rest — a process that American officials say could take until the end of the year. “If I give you a gun and tell you to stand at a checkpoint but I don’t give you support, how long will you stay?” asked Khadum Abu Aya, one of the Awakening leaders in Adhamiya, a neighborhood in northwest Baghdad that was once dominated by Sunni insurgents. Officials in Baghdad who support the movement worry that if attacks on the tribal forces continue without faster progress by the Iraqi government, Awakening members could begin to fall away, harden into antigovernment militias or even rejoin the Sunni Arab insurgency. They are worried about losing men like Omar Abbas, 23, one of the thousands of Awakening foot soldiers who expose themselves to danger every day at checkpoints throughout the country. American and Iraqi officials agree that Al Qaeda is the major threat, followed by the Shiite militias. But many Awakening members like Mr. Abbas turn that hierarchy of risk upside down, singling out the Shiite militias. “Badr is the worst threat,” he said, referring to the military arm of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a leading Shiite political party. The next greatest threat, he said, is the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the political movement of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Both militias have deep influence in Iraq’s security forces. Despite their opposition to Al Qaeda, Mr. Abbas says, most Awakening members feel even more alienated from the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. “Fifty percent of Al Qaeda in Adhamiya has joined the Awakening,” he pointed out. For months, threats ricocheted around Col. Riyadh al-Samarrai, the leader of the Awakening council in Adhamiya. Spray-painted messages appeared on walls near Adhamiya checkpoints: “Awakening is an obstacle to jihad” or “Death to you.” Threatening calls to his cellphone became routine. And his son was accosted at a barbershop by a man who put a gun to his head and said, “Tell your father we’re going to kill him.” Then on Jan. 7, they did. A man walked into a guarded religious compound, greeted Colonel Samarrai with the easy familiarity of a friend and detonated a bomb, killing himself and the Awakening leader. Adhamiya guardsmen said that in recent weeks at least 25 Awakening members had been killed in the Baghdad districts of Shaab and Yarmouk. Among the victims was Ismael Abbas, a Shiite tribal leader in Shaab, who was shot to death outside his home this month. Eight of Mr. Abbas’s men were abducted the next day. Awakening members blame Mahdi Army fighters. But Sheik Hassan al-Mayahi, a Sadrist cleric in Shaab, denied that anyone loyal to Mr. Sadr would flout his cease-fire order. He blamed Sunni militants for the violence, but warned that Sadrists took a dim view of the Awakening groups in Shaab, which remained a Mahdi Army stronghold. “Why do we need an Awakening Council in Shaab if the neighborhood is safe and people are satisfied?” he said, describing the guardsmen as “masked men carrying weapons.” “We can’t distinguish them from the insurgents,” he said. Despite losing ground in Baghdad, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia continues to recruit, propagandize and attack — often secretly, Iraqi and American officials say. Across the Tigris River at the National Police barracks in the predominantly Shiite district of Kadhimiya, police officers questioned a young insurgent propagandist named Ali Taleb Jassim Mohammed. He stood before his interrogators’ desk wearing stylish denim pants, a leather jacket, handcuffs and a blindfold. The police had seized him two days earlier at a checkpoint in possession of a stack of threatening pamphlets. He showed no signs of mistreatment. Mr. Mohammed told his questioners that operatives for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia approached him two months ago while he was working for the Awakening movement in the Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya. The operatives threatened to kill him if he did not leave the citizen guard and join their group, he said. “They told me to do killings and plant I.E.D.’s,” or improvised explosive devices, against Shiite militiamen and Awakening members, he told his interrogators. “I refused and later they gave me these leaflets and told me to hand them out in Yarmouk.” The police also displayed a handwritten counterintelligence manual that was found with another man detained at headquarters. It was disguised as a child’s geography notebook, a sticker of Sylvester and Tweety Bird affixed to the cover. “What are our most important secrets?” read one passage on resisting interrogations. “The members of the organization. The location of their homes. Hide phone numbers, names, addresses and countries they are from. “How is information compromised? By failing to do your job well. Confiding in stupid people. Bribery. People who talk too much. Confessions under torture. Electronic listening devices. Infiltration by spies.” An Iraqi intelligence official said, “Our battle in Iraq has become an intelligence battle.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his job, added, “Half of the Awakening movement is infiltrated by Al Qaeda.” The official said that the most dangerous threat, however, was posed by the Mahdi and Badr militias who, he claimed, were working with Iran to undermine the Awakening movement. “Two weeks ago, we captured one Iraqi and two Iranians meeting in a house in Baghdad,” he said. “They are hitting the Sunni councils, because the Shiites think that they will form a Sunni militia that will be a force to hit them hard. When we capture these Shiite militiamen, they tell us they have orders from Iran.” He warned that if Awakening groups were provoked into retaliatory attacks against government-linked Shiite militias, the results could be catastrophic. In Diyala Province, a violently troubled area of Sunnis and Shiites north of Baghdad, attacks against citizen guardsmen have been aggravated by some of the worst sectarian conflict in the nation. Qasim al-Jafari, a Shiite tribal council leader, said dozens of Awakening members in Diyala had been killed in the last month, mostly by fighters for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Iraqi police officials in Diyala say that since June more than 200 Awakening members have been killed and more than 500 wounded. The Diyala tribes, organized about a year after the Anbar movement, are relative newcomers; Mr. Jafari’s force, for example, is still seeking certification from the central government. Compared with neighborhood groups in Baghdad, some of Diyala’s largest Awakening groups are linked more by tribe than by geography or sect — Mr. Jafari said his volunteers were evenly divided between Shiites and Sunnis. In contrast to community-based volunteer squads, their tribal forces thwart terrorist infiltrators more effectively because relatives vouch for one another. Despite their advantages, many Diyala tribes are being overwhelmed by the scale of violence in the province, parts of which remain a haven for Sunni insurgents. Accounts of killings of volunteers in Diyala resemble Baghdad’s “intelligence war” less than they do conventional warfare. Sheik Jafari said that 13 tribesmen were killed during one recent five-hour gun battle. Fighters for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia are also blamed for the assassinations of several high-ranking sheiks in the province, including two tribal chiefs: Faiz Lafta al-Obeidi and Abu Sadjat, who was killed when a suicide bomber leapt onto his car. While the attacks are taking a toll on Awakening members, they are causing even more damage to the delicate relationships between former insurgents and the government. In Fadhil, the Awakening leader, Khalid al-Qaisi, said he had little hope that Iraqi politicians would support the movement and offered this opinion of Baghdad’s Shiite-led elite: “The garbage in Fadhil is better than the Iraqi government.” Reporting was contributed by Ahmad Fadam, Karim Hilmi, Mudhafer al-Husaini, Qais Mizher, Wisam A. Habeeb and Abeer Mohammed from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Baquba. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575143.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times January 24, 2008 14 Are Killed In Explosion At Building In Mosul By Alissa J. Rubin BAGHDAD — Victims were still being pulled from the rubble late Wednesday night in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where a building used by insurgents to store ammunition and other explosives blew up in a crowded neighborhood, killing at least 14 people and wounding 134, according to the police. The numbers were expected to climb as people were pulled from beneath the collapsed walls of nearby houses and shops, which were destroyed by the blast. The explosion took place in Al Zinjeli, a poor neighborhood on the western side of Mosul. Plumes of smoke could be seen from miles away. “I was in my house with my family,” said Ahmed Mushtaq, one of the wounded, speaking by telephone from his hospital bed. “At about 4:30 p.m., I felt the house shake strongly, and the windows disconnected from the wall and the doors were destroyed, and then a wave of red smoke covered the house, and a piece of wood hit me in my back and my head, and I lost consciousness,” Mr. Mushtaq said. “After that I found myself in the hospital, and my wife and kids were also wounded, and they are with me at the same hospital.” Samir Faraj, a doctor at the Medical City hospital, the largest in Mosul, said that many victims were badly cut by glass as windows and doors shattered and that many had lost arms or legs. The Mosul police said an insurgent whom they had captured told them that the house was a bomb factory filled with explosives. As the police approached the house, it exploded, said Brig. Said al-Jubori, spokesman for the police force in Nineveh Province, of which Mosul is the capital. Earlier in the day, a Sunni Arab professor in the computer department of Mosul University’s science college was shot and killed by gunmen, Brigadier Jubori said. The professor, Abdul-Aziz Nuaymi, was a moderate who was not believed to have had ties to any political party. Mosul was relatively calm in the first months after the war, when many American troops were in the area. In the fall of 2004, though, some insurgents migrated to Mosul after fleeing Falluja. They overran the police force in western Mosul, and there were battles for control of several parts of the city. Mosul then calmed somewhat, but recently, as American troops have drawn down, activity by extremist Sunni insurgents has been rising again. Sunni Arabs dominate the neighborhood where Wednesday’s blast took place, but the city also has a significant ethnic Kurdish population. The government in nearby Iraqi Kurdistan has sought to annex portions of Nineveh Province. That tension has driven some local Sunni Arabs to allow the insurgents to operate in the province. Mosul was long a base for supporters of Saddam Hussein. Many of Mr. Hussein’s military officers originally came from the Mosul area, and it was where his sons sought refuge in 2003. They were killed there by the Americans that summer. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accepted an invitation on Wednesday to visit Iraq, but no date has been set, according to the office of the Iraqi government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh. It would be the first visit to Iraq by an Iranian president since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Violence also struck Wednesday near the northern city of Kirkuk when a suicide bomber detonated his car in a market in the town of Dibis, killing seven people and wounding 14, according to Col. Aras Abdullah, a police commander. In Baghdad, gunmen killed three Iraqi Army soldiers and wounded two civilians in the Bab al-Muadam neighborhood in a drive-by shooting at a military checkpoint, according to an official in the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Three unidentified bodies were found on Wednesday in Baghdad, the ministry official said. Qais Mizher contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Mosul and Kirkuk. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575150.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today January 24, 2008 Pg. 10 Fallujah Is Safer But Still Lacks Basic Services If water, power and jobs are not restored, officials warn, city could fall back into chaos, bloodshed By Charles Levinson, USA Today FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Hamed Ahmed, an influential tribal sheik, lives by the flowing waters of the Euphrates River-- but when he turns on his faucets, nothing comes out. As recently as a year ago, such concerns might have seemed secondary in Fallujah, a stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency. Now, violence is so low that U.S. Marines here haven't fired a shot in combat in three months. But quality-of-life issues such as running water and jobs pose a challenge to keeping the peace that's no less daunting. "The government in Baghdad always said they couldn't help because Fallujah was too dangerous and too filled with terrorists," says Ahmed, 52. "Now Fallujah is more secure than Baghdad-- and still there is no help." Ahmed accuses the Shiite-dominated central government of turning its back on Fallujah, a primarily Sunni city, by failing to provide basic services. If the lack of services continues, Ahmed's Abu Alwan tribe and others could reconsider their decision last year to turn on al-Qaeda and throw their support behind the U.S. military. "If Fallujah is ignored, if there is no forward progress now, the city will go back to how things were," says Ahmed Rija al-Essawy, a Fallujah city councilman. That would be a major setback for the U.S. war effort, because Fallujah was so difficult to subdue. In November 2004, when 10,000 U.S. Marines prepared to stage a second attempt to retake the city from al-Qaeda militants and other insurgents, then-lieutenant general John Sattle described Fallujah to his Marine unit as a den of "mugs, thugs, murderers and terrorists." The U.S. military persuaded tribes in Fallujah and elsewhere in Anbar province to stop supporting al-Qaeda-- part of the nationwide "Sunni awakening" strategy that has yielded a decline in violence across Iraq. The scars of past battles remain, but amid the pockmarked storefronts and bombed-out buildings, signs of rebirth emerge. Bright orange trash bins that have the words "Keep Fallujah Clean" stenciled on them line the city's central thoroughfare. Cement barriers have been painted with sunsets, palm trees and catchy slogans such as "Yes, we're moving forward." The U.S. military and State Department are working hard to revive the city and keep it from slipping back into the grasp of militants. "Everyone used to be worried only about security, but now they're talking about opening up the city's commerce," says Herbie Smith, the deputy head of Fallujah's Provincial Reconstruction Team, a unit dedicated to rebuilding important infrastructure. "That's a good sign," Smith says, "but you're walking this razor edge where one mistake, and things could easily fall back down." The list of problems facing the city is formidable. Fallujah gets four hours of electricity each day, has little running water and no sewage treatment. Seventy students pack classrooms built for 30, unemployment tops 70%, and fuel is in short supply, Ahmed says. The fuel that does arrive is 2½ times more expensive than the government-subsidized fuel available in Baghdad, he says. As nighttime temperatures in Fallujah drop into the low 20s, those shortages take a toll. "Fallujah doesn't have a lot of power right now," says Maj. Andy Dietz, who pummeled Fallujah with shells as an artillery officer in 2004 and is back trying to repair much of the damage. The chain of problems sometimes seems endless, Dietz says. "You can't push water if you don't have power at the pumps. You can't move sewage if you don't have power at the lift stations. It goes on and on." Among the reasons security has improved in Fallujah is the strict cordon ringing the city. Residents must present U.S.-issued identification cards to come and go. That has kept al-Qaeda out but has hindered the city's economic recovery. The Iraqi government says it has not forgotten Fallujah and points to $13 billion in spending designated for reconstruction in all of Iraq's provinces in 2008. "Fallujah only recently escaped from the clutches of terrorists, so the government's plan to rebuild Fallujah is only just starting," says Hassan al-Sunneid, a Shiite lawmaker and close adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. In the meantime, the United States is trying to patch some of the worst problems facing Fallujah. It pays military-age males, those most likely to turn back to the insurgency, about $12 a day to do basic tasks around town such as picking up garbage, painting cement barriers and clearing the rubble off soccer fields. The United States has also sponsored training programs for local politicians, funded a business center and handed out grants to small business owners who needed help to get their shops up and running again. It installed solar power street lamps that keep the main street lit all night, whether electricity is working or not. Many of these U.S.-funded solutions are short-term fixes, meant to keep Fallujah afloat until the Iraqi government is able to take charge, distribute funds and provide services on its own. Time may be running out on the U.S. aid mission, which would leave Fallujah and other provincial cities little choice but to fend for themselves unless the government steps in, warns Bob Crawley, the mission director for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Iraq. "We're at the stage ironically where we're beginning to see where we can have sustainable long-term impact, but there's no indication that we're going to have the budget to carry that out," Crawley says. Past events April 28, 2003: U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne fire on protesters who defied a curfew to demand the U.S. military vacate an elementary school. Seventeen Iraqis are killed, and 70 are wounded. The shooting aggravates anti-American feelings in the city. March 31, 2004: Insurgents in Fallujah ambush a convoy from the private U.S. security company Blackwater, drag its four occupants into the streets, beat them, set them on fire and hang their mutilated bodies from a bridge over the Euphrates River. April 4, 2004: U.S. Marines launch a massive offensive aimed at quashing resistance inside the city, the largest combat operation in Iraq since the declaration of the end of major hostilities. May 1, 2004: U.S. Marines withdraw from the city after nearly a month of fighting that resulted in the death of 27 troops. Nov. 7, 2004: U.S. Marines launch a second offensive to retake the city. December 2006: United States transfers control of the city to the Iraqi army. June 2007: U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces launch a joint operation to flush remaining pockets of insurgent activity out of the city and re-establish control throughout Fallujah. October 2007: The most recent time U.S. Marines fired their weapons in combat in Fallujah. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575154.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today January 24, 2008 Pg. 16 Ahmadinejad To Visit Iraq Iran disqualifies thousands from running in election By Associated Press BAGHDAD-- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accepted an invitation to visit Iraq, but no date has been set, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday. It would be the first visit to Iraq by a top Iranian leader. Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abawi said the invitation to the Iranian leader was extended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has close relations with Iran's ruling clergy. Iran had no immediate word on the visit. The two Muslim neighbors fought a ruinous eight-year war in the 1980s in which an estimated 1 million people were killed or wounded. Relations have improved since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime. Iran is overwhelmingly Shiite, while Iraq has a 60% Shiite majority that emerged from decades of marginalization to become the country's dominant force after Saddam's ouster. Many of Iraq's senior Shiite politicians had lived in exile in Iran during the 35-year rule of Saddam's Baath Party and continue to maintain ties to Iran's leadership. The U.S. military says Iran is arming, training and bankrolling Shiite militiamen in Iraq who have used Iranian-supplied roadside bombs to kill hundreds of U.S. soldiers. Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arabs, along with most Arab nations, are deeply alarmed that Iraq's Shiite politicians have been used by Iran's ruling clergy to gain a foothold in a major Arab nation. Iran says that, like the United States, it would like to see a stable and democratic Iraq. The announcement of the visit comes as more than 2,000 prospective candidates, most of them seeking democratic changes within Iran's hard-line ruling Islamic establishment, were disqualified from running in the March 14 parliamentary elections, said Ali Reza Afshar, a top Interior Ministry official in charge of elections. The mass disqualification removes the biggest rivals to hard-liners-- including those allied with Ahmadinejad -- vying for the parliament seats. Parliamentary elections are seen as a key test of Ahmadinejad's hold on power and a harbinger for the 2009 presidential elections. The president has come under increasing criticism, from both allies and opponents, about his failure to fix Iran's economic problems, which have most recently led to heating gas shortages. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575217.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Diego Union-Tribune January 24, 2008 Land Mines In Iraq Called Big Problem By Reuters BAGHDAD – Up to 25 million land mines, or almost one for every Iraqi, remain buried in thousands of minefields across Iraq and are hampering development of rich oil deposits, officials said yesterday. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the mines were spread across about 4,000 minefields left throughout Iraq after the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. “We have been busy with the biggest threat against our existence, which is terrorism . . . so the many mines did not get the attention they deserved,” al-Dabbagh said at a conference with U.N. officials in Baghdad. “For every Iraqi citizen, there is a mine that could kill him at any moment,” he said. Iraqi Environment Minister Nermeen Othman said she had been selected to lead efforts to clear Iraq of land mines. “Because of the contamination by land mines, Iraq has lost access to thousands of hectares of farmlands and been unable to invest in its oil fields,” Othman said. David Shearer, a top U.N. official in Iraq, said Iraq last year signed the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines, but he added that the government and the international community have a responsibility to do more to clear Iraq of mines. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575130.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post January 24, 2008 Pg. 15 U.S. To Step Up Training Of Pakistanis By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer The U.S. military plans to significantly expand and accelerate its counterinsurgency training and provision of equipment for Pakistan's armed forces this year as part of a five-year, $2 billion U.S.-Pakistani effort to help stabilize the country, senior U.S. and Pakistani officials said. The enhanced cooperation will include U.S. military assistance toward counterinsurgency training, technical gear and assistance to improve the Pakistani military's intelligence gathering and its air and ground mobility, the officials said. If requested by Pakistan, it could also involve U.S. Special Operations Forces working with the Pakistani military as it launches "more aggressive" actions against insurgents in northwest tribal areas, said Ambassador Dell L. Dailey, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator. The plan will involve about $150 million from the United States each year, Dailey told defense reporters Tuesday, and will emphasize development assistance. In turn, Pakistan will contribute $1.25 billion to the plan over five years, according to State Department figures. The effort comes amid criticism from Congress that the billions of dollars the Bush administration has already spent on Pakistani security efforts have produced poor results. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States has poured about $10 billion in aid into Pakistan -- more than $6 billion of it for military financing and reimbursement to Pakistan for counterterrorism operations. Despite the aid, the insurgency of Islamic extremists in Pakistan has grown, and the Pakistani Army has lost hundreds of troops in tribal areas. "It has not worked," said Rick Barton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. U.S. officials said the new strategy is critical, as insurgents once focused on Afghanistan have turned inward to challenge the Pakistani government. "The plan to counter insurgents is to work with the Pakistanis to share intelligence, increase cross-border cooperation between ourselves, the Afghans and the Pakistanis, and to work with Pakistan's military to increase their capability," Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, told The Washington Post this week. "Pakistan's military recognizes the seriousness of the internal insurgent problem," said Fallon, who arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to meet with military leaders. Senior military officials place high hopes on the new chief of Pakistan's armed forces, Ashfaq Kiyani, who studied at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. "The army under Kiyani is already changing its tactics," said a senior military official who was not authorized to speak on the record. Kiyani also must change the army's traditional emphasis on India. "We trained for set piece battles in the plains of Pakistan and India . . . we need more detailed counterinsurgency training," said Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Much of the increased U.S. military cooperation will be tailored to improve the counterinsurgency operations of the Pakistani military and Frontier Corps, a large but ill-equipped force that has suffered most of the government's combat casualties in tribal areas. For example, it will involve sending in small teams of U.S. trainers, including Special Forces soldiers, as well as technical experts to work with the Pakistani Air Force and intelligence personnel. The U.S. military is planning to expand the number of trainers for Pakistan's Frontier Corps, possibly including contractors or allied forces, and is also seeking to tap into $37 million in counterterrorism funds for that effort, according to U.S. officials. This increased cooperation would both expand a multiyear U.S. counterinsurgency plan that is being implemented, with $157 million in aid planned for 2008 and more U.S. contract and Special Forces trainers expected to arrive in Pakistan this spring, U.S. officials said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575158.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times January 24, 2008 Pg. 1 Al Qaeda Makes Strides In Pakistan Operates freely, gains recruits By Bill Gertz, Washington Times Al Qaeda forces are gaining strength in remote areas of Pakistan and stepping up activities in that country, the region and farther abroad, according to recent U.S. intelligence assessments. The terrorist group that carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks is operating freely in tribal areas of Pakistan, where new recruits are joining the group, being trained, and then traveling to Europe and North Africa, said U.S. officials familiar with the assessments. "Post 9/11, we undertook aggressive action, but within the last couple of years al Qaeda has had a resurgence," one official said. "They are not as strong as they were Sept. 10, [2001], but they are surely better off than they were two to 2½ years ago." Three main worries among U.S. security officials about al Qaeda are its activities in and out of Pakistan, its operations in North Africa and Europe, and its sophisticated propaganda activities worldwide, the officials said. Al Qaeda continues to be viewed as the main national security threat to the United States and the assessment of its activities is expected to be disclosed formally next month when senior U.S. intelligence officials brief Congress. The major concern among U.S. intelligence agencies is al Qaeda's stepped up activities — operations, recruitment and training — in the border regions of Pakistan. "There is increased concern about al Qaeda in tribal areas of Pakistan," one official said. Terrorists linked to the group there have "the physical and psychological space to operate freely." Additionally, al Qaeda also has been linking up with the Taliban and other Islamists. "There's concern about the in-flow of recruits into the tribal area," the official said. Terrorists there are conducting "operational planning" and have sent some recruited terrorists from Pakistan back to Iraq to conduct attacks along with al Qaeda in Iraq. There also have been indications that al Qaeda is stepping up operations inside Pakistan, with the goal of overthrowing the nuclear-armed government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Recent attacks with possible al Qaeda links include the shootout with Islamists at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and assassination attempts against Mr. Musharraf. "Recently, there is renewed concern about al Qaeda and turning its focus toward the Pakistani government," the official said. "They are clearly looking to destabilize Pakistan," considered a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. Other areas where al Qaeda continues to "franchise" includes North Africa, where the group al Qaeda in the Maghreb has carried out attacks in Algeria and Morocco and is suspected in attacks in Mauritania. "This is a new area of focus," said the official of stepped up attacks in that region. Al Qaeda in Iraq is still getting "spiritual guidance" in Islamist extremism from senior al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and, while somewhat "on their heels," the group remains dangerous, the official said. Another main focus of al Qaeda is the group's propaganda activities, aimed at advertising its goals and recruiting new members. Al Qaeda propaganda operations have been in "high gear" for the past year with the re-emergence of Osama bin Laden, in a recent recorded statement, along with several statements from No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri, as well as California-born Islamist Adam Gadhan. Recent intelligence also indicates that al Qaeda No. 3 and operational leader Abu Faraj al-Libbi is expected to release a statement in the near future. The propaganda is directed at "continuing to spread the message" of the group as well as recruiting, the official said, noting that the goal is to portray the terrorist group as a "sophisticated player to be reckoned with," the official said. In Europe, a recent al Qaeda bomb plot in Germany has indications that the planning for the foiled attack was developed in tribal areas of Pakistan, similar to the British Islamist "doctors" terrorist plot of last year. "There is increasing concern about the ability of al Qaeda to undertake operations in Europe," the official said noting that visa-free travel in many European Union states has facilitated al Qaeda planning. As for the United States, there are no specific and credible reports of an immediate al Qaeda attack on the U.S. homeland. However, monitoring of the group remains intense. A terrorist Web site last week posted a message stating that a major attack was coming in the next few weeks in the U.S. and the message referred to weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence officials do not know if the posting was a real threat. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575128.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post January 24, 2008 Pg. 15 Supporters At Home And Abroad Backing Away From Musharraf Retired Military Group in Pakistan Tells President to Step Down By John Ward Anderson and Robin Wright, Washington Post Foreign Service ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 23 -- As critical elections in Pakistan approach, President Pervez Musharraf is increasingly losing support from major constituencies, including his traditional military base, amid growing questions in both Pakistan and the United States about his ability to govern. On Wednesday, a group of more than 100 retired military officers, including influential air marshals, admirals, generals and security agency chiefs, called on Musharraf to step down immediately in order to help restore democracy and deal with Islamic radicals who have made territorial inroads in recent months. A statement from the Ex-Servicemen's Society said that it had been monitoring recent events "with great concern and anguish" and that Musharraf's resignation was "in the supreme national interest." Musharraf has repeatedly defied expectations of his political demise, and few observers believe that the parliamentary balloting Feb. 18 will lead to his immediate ouster. But Pakistani analysts and U.S. officials said that the political challenges Musharraf faces are greater than they have been in the past and that his allies at home and abroad are fewer. While he has alienated former military leaders, there are signs that active-duty officers may be distancing themselves from him as well. Musharraf's handpicked successor as army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, is unlikely to come to the rescue of his old boss, analysts said. Kiyani last week issued an order that no military officers can meet with the president without his approval and indicated that he would recall the many military officers placed in civilian jobs under Musharraf. "The army would be very happy to get rid of him," said one political analyst, Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general. A senior U.S. congressional official who recently visited Pakistan said the military is ready for Musharraf to step down but does not want to have to remove him, preferring instead to wait until he recognizes the need to exit. The domestic souring on Musharraf comes as U.S. intelligence officials have told agencies in Washington for the first time that the Pakistani leader may be beyond political rescue or long-term relevance. If Pakistan's opposition gains two-thirds of the parliamentary seats in the elections, the president faces the possibility of impeachment. And even if he can assemble a coalition government, officials said, he is likely to struggle politically as Pakistan confronts economic problems and a growing Islamic extremist movement. Musharraf, meanwhile, has few resources to draw on these days. "It's political suicide for anyone to go with Musharraf -- he's totally isolated," said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political and social scientist at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Frustration is growing among Musharraf's military and political allies partly because he is not listening to their advice, U.S. and Pakistani analysts said. "He's locked in his own bubble that 'l'etat, c'est moi' -- the state is me. He doesn't understand how anti-democratic he is. He's not thinking clearly anymore," said the senior congressional official. The Bush administration is still backing Musharraf, even as officials speak more frequently of working with "the Pakistani people," instead of "the Pakistani leader." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday met Musharraf on the outskirts of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in the highest-level contact since he declared emergency rule in November. Rice pressed him to ensure that the vote is free and fair and that the Pakistani people have confidence in the results, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Such remarks suggest that the administration is discounting the new assessments on Musharraf from intelligence and congressional officials. "You're going to get all kinds of people saying he's done for," said a senior administration official. "No one can make that prediction at this point. . . . He's moved into a new job. He will have to work with a new prime minister and they'll have to work out the responsibilities. And they will have to lead in a country without many leaders." But the divide is increasingly deep in Washington. "U.S. policy is not being made by anyone who understands Pakistan. . . . Musharraf is a walking corpse," the congressional official said. Pakistani analysts agree that, with his popularity plummeting and electoral prospects dwindling, Musharraf is confronted with nothing but hard choices. His popularity is so low that if he and his party allies in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q win the elections, he will be accused of rigging the vote. If he loses and opponents take control of parliament, he faces the risk of impeachment. Looking for a way out, Musharraf and his allies are searching for partners to join an interim national unity government that could take office soon and postpone elections for perhaps a year, according to political analysts and the local news media. In their view, Musharraf could use the delay to rehabilitate his image among Pakistani voters. Some analysts say Musharraf's electoral prospects are not as grim as they seem, arguing that he has strong backing among key feudal families with big voting blocs in central Punjab province, which has about 55 percent of the seats in the country's 342-seat National Assembly and is pivotal to any party's hope of winning power. If no party gets a clear majority on Feb. 18 and the seats are split among the dominant three political factions, it is anybody's guess as to what will happen. The Pakistan People's Party, which was led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto until her assassination last month, has reportedly turned down an offer to join an interim unity government. Still, the lure of power could prove decisive. "It's been 12 long years that the PPP has been out of power," said Mushahid Hussein, secretary general of Musharraf's party. "They are not going to blow it by rocking the boat." Wright reported from Washington. Correspondent Griff Witte in Islamabad contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575159.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today January 24, 2008 Pg. 16 Rice Calls Musharraf Ally In War On Terror Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday to ensure that next month's elections are free and fair and urged him to boost counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S. and neighboring Afghanistan. Rice, meeting with Musharraf in Davos, Switzerland, atthe World Economic Forum, praised him as a steadfast ally in the war on terror whose country would continue to receive substantial U.S. support. She stressed that he must uphold his stated commitment to democracy. Elections are set for Feb. 18. Musharraf's meeting with Rice was part of a European tour aimed at reassuring Western leaders about his ability to restore democracy and prevail in the clash between government troops and Taliban rebels along Pakistan's mountainous border with Afghanistan. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575226.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wall Street Journal January 24, 2008 Pg. 8 Musharraf Trumpets Stability President Pledges He Will Support Victors of Election By Marc Champion in Davos, Switzerland and Peter Wonacott in New Delhi Faced with growing criticism abroad and opposition at home, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan defiantly rejected concerns about the stability of the nuclear-armed state. In an interview at the World Economic Forum, Mr. Musharraf dismissed recent turmoil in his country as "minor irritations." He said he would work with any government produced by Pakistan's coming elections, even if formed by his opponents. "Please differentiate Pakistan from banana republics" where a lowly colonel can take over the state. "These things don't happen in Pakistan," he said. "Pakistan is a nuclear state." The 64-year-old former army general, who came to power in a military coup in 1999 and was subsequently elected, rejected recent speculation that the U.S. could send special forces into Pakistan in search of Taliban and al Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden. Mr. Musharraf described the U.S.-Pakistan relationship as strategic and said the idea that a few U.S. forces could succeed in Pakistan's mountains better than 100,000 Pakistani troops was "sadly mistaken." "The real battle is not in Pakistan," but in Afghanistan, Mr. Musharraf said. He added that Pakistan's troops weren't primarily engaged in looking for al Qaeda leaders, but rather Taliban extremists. In the past year, Mr. Musharraf has tried to beat back opposition to his rule, only to see it grow. He has maneuvered to consolidate his grip on power, only to see it weaken. Even patience among his staunchest backers -- the army and the U.S. government -- appears to be wearing thin. His efforts to bring stability to Pakistan have brought it instead to what many analysts believe is its most vulnerable point in decades. Suicide bombings across Pakistan have increased, while the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto last month led to widespread rioting and deep international concern. Instability in Pakistan has potentially grave implications for its neighbors, India and Afghanistan, as well as Western countries, which are worried that it is becoming a more fertile breeding ground for Islamist extremism. Pakistan's army, no longer under Mr. Musharraf's direct control, is trying to stave off an Islamist insurgency that has staged a spate of suicide bombings. The country's politics are more polarized than ever, leading to speculation Mr. Musharraf could be ousted by the military he once ran. "If it's choosing between Musharraf and stability, the army will certainly choose stability," says Christine Fair, a Washington-based South Asia scholar at Rand Corp., who describes Mr. Musharraf as a spent force. Mr. Musharraf, however, has shown himself to be a political survivor. His visit to Davos, and to Brussels and Paris before that, appears designed to blunt the perception he is no longer controlling events in Pakistan. He said recent suicide bombings all trace back to a single militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, whom the government also suspects of killing Mrs. Bhutto. Although Mr. Musharraf's popularity has plummeted amid Pakistan's strife, he maintains a core of supporters in the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and also among many business executives whose companies have benefited from the economy's average 7% growth for the past five years. American aid has underpinned that growth. Whether the majority of Pakistanis will accept the results of the parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 18 is the big question. The odds of a unified government dropped with Mrs. Bhutto's assassination on Dec. 27. Pakistan lost a leader of national stature, and Mr. Musharraf was deprived of a potential political partner. Mr. Musharraf acknowledged there was "confusion" in the immediate aftermath of Mrs. Bhutto's assassination over how she was killed. A recent Gallup poll found that more than half of Pakistanis suspect his government was complicit in the attack. To help address that public skepticism, Mr. Musharraf has invited police from Scotland Yard in Britain to investigate. "The reality is that this suicide bomber and the person who fired the shots -- I can't even say if it was one or two people -- were on the left. She died because of a skull injury on the right, this is true. How this happened is a mystery," he said, adding that Scotland Yard hasn't yet given him its conclusions. Mr. Musharraf faces the possibility that longtime rival Nawaz Sharif could win elections and appoint the government, which in Pakistan has broad authority to run the country. As prime minister in 1999, Mr. Sharif dismissed Mr. Musharraf as commander in chief and ordered airports not to let the general return to Pakistan. "He hijacked me in the air," said Mr. Musharraf, recalling that his plane only managed to land just in time before running out of fuel. The incident precipitated the coup in which Mr. Musharraf took over the government, and the arrest and eventual exile of Mr. Sharif. He returned to Pakistan in November. Mr. Musharraf said he was committed to the democratic process and that if Mr. Sharif wins February's elections, "I will try to work in harmony with him." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575131.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP CNN January 23, 2008 U.S. Military Discussing Sending Troops To Pakistan BLITZER: But first, some other important news we're watching right now. A CNN exclusive -- word that the Pentagon is now actually drawing up plans that might -- repeat -- might send U.S. troops to Pakistan. There are some significant obstacles underway right now. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, has been looking into this story. She's getting some new information -- Barbara, this is a lot easier said than done. Pakistan, a Muslim country, with a nuclear arsenal, an Al Qaeda and Taliban presence right there. What's going on? BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Pakistanis have already made it very clear they will not accept U.S. combat troops on the ground, but there is discussion behind-the-scenes about sending some U.S. troops to train the Pakistanis to fight Al Qaeda. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) STARR: CNN has learned U.S. military commanders are reviewing a classified planning order which could result in hundreds of U.S. troops going to Pakistan to train security forces -- but only if the Pakistanis buy the idea. President Pervez Musharraf has said his troops will be the ones to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But last week, Taliban fighters overran a Pakistani fort. There's worry Pakistani forces are failing against a growing extremist threat. ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: That continues to be a grave concern to us, both in the near term and the long-term. STARR: For the U.S., the job now is to get an agreement to train Pakistani forces in counter-insurgency warfare. FREDERICK BARTON, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: The presence of U.S. forces in Pakistan would be hugely inflammatory for the rest of the country and probably would destabilize Pakistan in a more serious way than it is right now. So clearly training is the best thing we can do. STARR: Why now? The assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has destabilized the country. Al Qaeda now operates in many major cities. DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES: I think that the Pakistani government, frankly, is dealing with the emergence of a threat inside Pakistan that it has not confronted until very recently. That's not a surprise to me that they're having some challenges in trying to deal with that. STARR: The planning order, should Pakistan give the OK, is part of a five year, $750 million security and economic effort. Still, the Pentagon is treading lightly before sending U.S. troops to a place they're not likely to be widely welcomed. GEN. JAMES CARTWRIGHT, JOINT CHIEFS VICE CHAIRMAN: We're trying to make sure we understand ground truth before we take any action. (END VIDEO TAPE) STARR: Wolf, I have to tell you that U.S. military officials say if -- if this all came to pass, it actually might result in a very small number of troops going to Pakistan because the Pakistanis simply may not find it acceptable. But already senior U.S. military officials are saying if the Pakistanis won't take U.S. trainers, they may try and offer them either contractors -- like Blackwater -- or possibly they're even talking about trying to get the British to weigh in and send British troops -- Wolf. BLITZER: Good reporting for us Barbara. Thanks very much. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575138.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times January 24, 2008 Canadian Military Has Quit Turning Detainees Over To Afghans By Ian Austen OTTAWA — The Canadian military secretly stopped transferring prisoners to Afghanistan’s government in November after Canadian monitors found evidence that they were being abused and tortured. The suspension, which began Nov. 5, was disclosed in a fax sent by government lawyers to Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which are seeking to block the prisoner transfers. The government’s internal concerns about detainees is also at odds with Canadian officials’ repeated public statements that the Afghan government does not engage in systematic torture. “The denials and political posturing and name-calling that have gone on over this at various points is very disheartening when all along there’s been this information,” said Alex Neve, the head of Amnesty International’s Canadian branch. Despite the suspension, Mr. Neve and Jason Gretl, president of the British Columbia association, said their lawyers would appear at the Federal Court of Canada in Ottawa on Thursday to seek an injunction blocking more transfers. “The government’s recognition that the transfers have ceased raises more questions than it answers,” Mr. Gretl said from Vancouver, British Columbia. He said the Canadian forces “may have transferred them to some third country, and we don’t know under what conditions the Canadian government would resume transfers.” Sandra G. Buckler, the spokeswoman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, sent an e-mail message in which she quoted the foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier, speaking to Parliament on Nov. 14: “During a recent visit, Canada’s officials did see a Taliban prisoner with conditions that concerned them. Our officials are following up on media reports that the Afghan government has announced an investigation. The allegation has come to light because we have a good agreement with the Afghan government.” She declined to comment on the status of the transfer program or the number of prisoners affected. Until the end of 2005, Canada turned over prisoners it detained in Afghanistan to the United States military. After that practice led to objections in Canada, it began transferring prisoners to the Afghan government. Since last May, Canadian diplomats have been allowed access to Afghan prisons to interview prisoners who were originally detained by Canadian troops. A series of secret, e-mailed reports from Canadian monitors led to the suspension. Heavily censored versions were provided last week to the rights groups as a result of their legal action. The reports show that the monitors found that several detainees had been beaten and threatened during Afghan interrogations. In one report, the monitors said one prisoner told them he had been beaten with cables and wires and received electrical shocks. “He showed us a number of scars on his legs which he said were caused by the beating,” they wrote. Another detainee, who said he was beaten and who had signs of injury, told the diplomatic visitors to look under a chair in the room in which they were meeting. “Under the chair we found a large piece of braided electrical cable as well as a rubber hose,” the report said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575153.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today January 24, 2008 Pg. 16 Karzai Warns Of 'Wildfire' Of Terrorism Afghanistan's president warned at a meeting of political and business leaders that the whole world could suffer from a "wildfire" of terrorism engulfing his region. Opening the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Hamid Karzai gave a rundown of attacks attributed to terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan that have killed hundreds, including many children. As militant violence rises in the two nations six years after the ouster of the Taliban, "it seems like the mutant of extremism is dangerously unleashed across the region," Karzai said. The trend "bodes terribly badly for the whole world." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080124575187.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_85081_AEzPj kQAATGxR5kOPQvUy3A5fu4&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename=e2 0080124aaindex_concat.html&cred=Ymps.qLqa_h3YnqWtQ w7jcFzpL402lymoKCCe6jZQ.TgyQR5pAHlek76ZPq5gpXjar#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Philadelphia Inquirer January 24, 2008 Taliban Targets Students, Teachers By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan -- The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks has tripled in the last year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia, Afghanistan's education minister says. While the overall state of Afghan education shows improvement, Education Ministry numbers point to a sharp decline in security for students, teachers and schools in the south, where the Taliban thrives. The number of students out of classes because of security concerns has hit 300,000 since last March, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months, while the number of schools closing has risen from 350 to 590. The Taliban strategy is deliberate, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in an interview Tuesday: "To close these schools down so that the children and primarily the teenagers that are going to the schools - the boys - have no other option but to join the Taliban." The Taliban knows that educated Afghans won't join the militants, so a closed school leaves students with two options: to join the Taliban, or "to cross the border and go into those hate madrassas," Atmar said, referring to Islamic seminaries in Pakistan where "they will be professionally trained as terrorists." Wakil Ahmad Khan, a top official at Pakistan's Religious Affairs Ministry, said Pakistani "madrassas are doing a wonderful job by providing education to millions of students" and "if the Afghan officials have any such information, they should share it with Pakistan's Foreign Ministry." Attacks on schools still in operation have actually fallen in the last 10 months - to 98, from 187 in the same period of 2006, Atmar said, attributing the drop to a community defense initiative. But the Taliban has switched to targeting students en route to and from school or in other places where they congregate. The United Nations said it could not confirm that Taliban fighters were boosting efforts to recruit schoolboys, and no educational aid groups that could confirm Atmar's claims are working in provinces such as Helmand in the south. Adam Rutland, a spokesman at the British reconstruction team in Helmand, said the perception there was that more schools were open than in the past, though he added it's well-known that disaffected and poor young men are a recruiting base for the Taliban. Atmar said 147 students and teachers had been killed in Taliban attacks since mid-March 2007, compared with 46 in the previous year. The 147 include 58 students and teachers killed in a single November bombing an |
