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Please scroll down to read the Headlines; then to read Entire Headline Article, further scroll down. URL's will not link out in this recieved format. GATES TRIP - 1. Military Stressing Veterans' Counseling
(Washington Post)...Ann Scott Tyson
Applicants for government security clearances will no longer have to declare whether they sought mental health counseling after serving in combat zones, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced yesterday.
- 2. Psych Care Is No Bar To Security Clearance
(Miami Herald)...Nancy A. Youssef
...''Infamous Question 21,'' as Gates described it, asked applicants whether they have consulted a mental health professional in the past seven years for issues other than marital problems or grief. If the soldier answered yes, it required spelling out details of treatment, leading to further scrutiny.
- 3. Gates Acknowledges Mistakes In Treatment Of Troops
(New York Times on the Web)...Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday said the military had made mistakes in treating returning combat troops including in their physical and mental health care and by providing some sub-standard housing.
- 4. Gates: Counseling Not An Issue For Clearances
(Mideast Stars and Stripes)...Lisa Burgess
...Gates took up the issue after the Army inspector general concluded in February 2007 that soldiers were not seeking help in part because they were worried it would endanger their security clearance and perhaps their career.
- 5. Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates Hails Bliss Center
(El Paso Times)...Chris Roberts
Bracing against a blasting wind that reminded him of his native Kansas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spent a day at Fort Bliss touring a mental health center, watching a demonstration of the Army's newest technology, and meeting with soldiers and community leaders.
- 6. Gates Calls Barracks Conditions 'Appalling'
(USA Today)...Unattributed
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, after watching a YouTube video showing poor barracks conditions at the Army's Fort Bragg in North Carolina, called the situation "appalling" and said all commanders must ensure their troops have decent quarters.
- 7. Corps To Expand Ahead Of Schedule
(Mideast Stars and Stripes)...Jeff Schogol
The Marine Corps will expand to 202,000 in 2009, two years ahead of schedule, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
IRAQ - 9. Double Bombings In An Iraqi Town Kill 35
(New York Times)...Erica Goode and Stephen Farrell
Two thunderous blasts set off by suicide bombers ripped through a crowded shopping street in the town of Balad Ruz in Diyala Province on Thursday, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 62 others, many of them seriously.
- 10. At Least 35 Die As Bombers Hit Wedding Convoy
(Washington Post)...Sholnn Freeman
...In central Baghdad on Thursday, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy killed an American soldier, the military said. Three suspects were detained and tested positive for explosive compounds, it said.
- 11. Iraq Sends Team To Iran To Discuss U.S. Accusations
(Los Angeles Times)...Alexandra Zavis
Iraq has sent senior Shiite Muslim leaders to Tehran to discuss new evidence that Iranian security services are providing weapons and training to militiamen locked in a deadly showdown with U.S. and Iraqi forces, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
- 12. Shelling Endangers Those Near Green Zone
(USA Today)...Andrea Stone
...Roadside bombs claim more lives in Iraq, but the growing use of rockets and mortars by Shiite militias which killed four U.S. soldiers Monday puts this uneasy city even more on edge.
- 13. Iraq: U.S. Has No Claim To Oil Boom
(Chicago Tribune)...Liz Sly
..."America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they came in 2003 we didn't have all these needs."
- 14. Muqtada Al-Sadr
(Time)...Ricardo Sanchez
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Sanchez writes about Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for Time's annual list of the world's 100 most influential people.
AFGHANISTAN - 17. US Military Seeks More Afghan Aid Funds
(Financial Times)...Jon Boone
US commanders in eastern Afghanistan want to double the amount of money they spend on military-led reconstruction in an attempt to choke off popular support for Taliban militants.
- 19. Marines In 5-Hour Firefight With Taliban
(NBC)...Jim Maceda
...NBCÃÔ Jim Maceda is embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. YouÃÓe about to see what happened when they came under attack today as they moved deeper into Taliban-controlled territory. Here is the report he filed.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT - 20. Robert Gates
(Time)...Zbigniew Brzezinski
President Carter's national security adviser writes about Defense Secretary Gates for Time's annual list of the world's 100 most influential people.
- 21. Security Of F-35 Jet Secrets Questioned
(Washington Post)...Dana Hedgpeth
The technology going into the U.S. military's newest fighter plane may have been compromised by unauthorized access to facilities and computers that belong to BAE Systems, one the aircraft's builders, according to a report from the Pentagon's inspector general made public yesterday.
- 22. Inside The Ring
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
Mughniyah hit; Hedge strategy; Missile defense
GUANTANAMO - 23. Cameraman Is Released From Guantanamo
(New York Times)...William Glaberson
A former cameraman for Al Jazeera who was believed to be the only journalist held at GuantáÏamo Bay was released on Thursday, after more than six years of detention that made him one of the best known GuantáÏamo detainees in the Arab world, his lawyers said.
ARMY - 24. Sergeant Acquitted Of Murder
(New York Times)...Associated Press
A military jury acquitted an American Army sergeant on Thursday of premeditated murder in the death of an unarmed Iraqi insurgent last summer.
- 25. Army Offers $40,000 Post-Service Bonuses
(San Diego Union-Tribune)...Newhouse News Service
The Army is offering recruits up to $40,000 to buy a house or open a small business at the end of their first enlistment term one of the most generous incentives it has offered since the creation of the all-volunteer military in 1973.
MARINE CORPS - 26. Charges Against Marine Upheld
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
Lawyers defending a former Marine accused of killing Iraqi prisoners during the 2004 battle of Fallouja have lost a bid to get the voluntary manslaughter case thrown out of court.
- 27. 'Miracle Man' Marine Dies
(New York Post)...Rita Delfiner
A brave Manhattan-born Marine - whom doctors nicknamed the "Miracle Man" for surviving burns to 97 percent of his body after a roadside blast in Iraq three years ago - has died, the Pentagon announced yesterday.
- 28. Reservist To Be Honored For Reviving Iraqi Courts
(San Diego Union-Tribune)...Rick Rogers
A just court system is a cornerstone of any budding democracy. The task of forging that system in Anbar province, the scene of some of the biggest battles in the Iraq war, fell to a man who is part-time Marine and full-time attorney.
AIR FORCE - 29. Planes Grounded After Crashes
(New York Times)...Associated Press
The Air Force grounded all T-38C training jets, after the second fatal crash involving the aircraft in eight days, officials said.
CONGRESS - 30. Senate Panel Moves To Shift Costs Of War To Iraq
(Washington Post)...Jonathan Weisman
With energy prices soaring and the federal deficit approaching $400 billion, senators from both parties moved yesterday to force Iraq to shoulder more financial responsibility for its reconstruction and self-defense.
- 32. Panel Wants To Limit Activities Of Private Firms In War Zones
(Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)...Dale Eisman
A Senate committee wants to rewrite rules governing the activities of thousands of private security guards in Iraq, imposing new restrictions that could curtail at least some of the work of companies such as Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater Worldwide.
- 33. Home Slump Costing Military, U.S. Rep Says
(Tampa Tribune)...Billy House
Transfers from the Tampa Bay area and other slumping housing markets nationwide are forcing military members to sell homes for thousands of dollars less than they owe on their mortgage, a Tampa Bay area congressman said.
- 34. Checklist
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
Transport aircraft programs by Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. would receive $6.1 billion as part of proposed Iraq war appropriations, said Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, one of the most vocal congressional opponents of the war.
TERRORISM - 35. Qaeda Leader Reported Killed In Somalia
(New York Times)...Eric Schmitt and Jeffrey Gettleman
An American missile strike in Somalia apparently killed a militant long identified as one of Al QaedaÃÔ top operatives in East Africa on Thursday, but while Bush administration officials claimed success they also acknowledged facing an uphill battle to score lasting blows in their final months against the terrorist group around the world.
- 36. Suicide Bomber Was Ex-Gitmo Inmate
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
A Kuwaiti man released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay in 2005 has carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq, his cousin told Al Arabiya television yesterday.
ASIA/PACIFIC - 38. N. Korea Agrees To Blow Up Tower At Its Nuclear Facility
(Washington Post)...Glenn Kessler
North Korea has agreed to blow up the cooling tower attached to its Yongbyon nuclear facility within 24 hours of being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, diplomats said this week.
- 39. Chinese Build Secret Nuclear Submarine Base
(London Daily Telegraph)...Thomas Harding
China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.
EUROPE - 40. Russia Steps Up Effort To Keep Georgia Out Of NATO
(International Herald Tribune)...Judy Dempsey
Russia's decision to send 1,000 extra troops to Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia is part of the Kremlin's policy to thwart the ambitions of the small Caucasus country to join NATO, according to Georgia's foreign minister.
VETERANS - 41. Study Casts Doubt On Vets' Care
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Hope Yen, Associated Press
Many Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injury are not getting adequate health care and job assistance for their long-term recovery despite years of government pledges to provide such care, Veterans Affairs Department investigators say.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - 42. Federal Diary
(Washington Post)...Stephen Barr
Showcasing Public Service; Pay Raise Debate to Start
OPINION - 43. How To Spend Your Stimulus Check
(Washington Post)...Andrew Carroll
...But there's another option for spending the money that represents one of the best ways we can help this nation: Donate it to charitable organizations supporting our troops and their families.
- 44. What I Learned At 'Anti-Jihad U'
(New York Post)...Judith Miller
LAST month, I visited one of the largest Islamic schools in the Middle East. It's run by the US military - for detainees in Iraq.
- 45. The Pentagon's Message, And Ours: 5 Analysts Reply -- (Letter)
(New York Times)...Thomas G. McInerney, Paul E. Vallely, Charles T. Nash, William V. Cowan and Wayne Simmons
We object to Å£ehind TV Analysts, PentagonÃÔ Hidden Hand (front page, April 20) and its assertion that military analysts are tools of a Pentagon propaganda machine.
- 46. Hussein's Terrorism Links -- (Letter)
(Washington Post)...Jon Kyl
In his April 25 Washington Sketch column, "Iraq War Is Everyone Else's Fault, Feith Explains," Dana Milbank asserted that the "CIA was correct" that there were no links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The historical record tells a different story.
- 47. Repeal Of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Could Ease Army Shortage -- (Letter)
(USA Today)...Aubrey Sarvis
It becomes more apparent every day that the statute banning gays and lesbians from military service known as "don't ask, don't tell" has got to go. The latest evidence comes in USA TODAY's recent story "More forced to stay in Army" (News, April 22).
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Washington Post
May 2, 2008
Pg. 4
Military Stressing Veterans' Counseling
By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Applicants for government security clearances will no longer have to declare whether they sought mental health counseling after serving in combat zones, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced yesterday.
The policy change is part of a broader Pentagon effort to reduce the stigma that military service members and civilian defense workers face in seeking care for post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological wounds of war.
Gates said the security question -- which he referred to as the "infamous Question 21" -- has been an obstacle to care, and he urged service members to get help for mental health problems. "You can be tough and seek help for dealing with these problems," he told reporters.
The change will apply not only to military and civilian employees of the Defense Department but also to all applicants for security clearances.
The new policy revises the 21st question on the SF-86 Questionnaire for National Security Positions. The revised form allows applicants to respond "no" as to whether they have sought mental health care over the past seven years, if that care was not court-ordered and was "strictly related to adjustments from service in a military combat environment."
Previously, military personnel and others applying for the clearance who had sought treatment for PTSD, anxiety, depression and other reactions to combat stress had to answer "yes" and provide details of who conducted the treatment.
About 2.5 million of the 3.1 million defense personnel have security clearances. Only a small percentage of applicants were denied clearances for mental health problems, military officials said. They cited data for 2006 showing that only about 75 out of 800,000 applications were rejected for that reason.
Last year, a report by the Army's inspector general found that soldiers were hesitant to seek treatment because they worried about losing their security clearances. "The perception was much more an issue than the reality of the situation," said Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
About 20 percent -- or 300,000 -- of service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan report symptoms of PTSD or major depression, but only slightly more than half have sought treatment, a Rand Corp. study said last month.
This survey and others have shown that a major reason service members do not get help is the fear it will harm their careers. The Rand survey found similar concerns about reporting mental health treatment on deployment and fitness evaluations, or simply reluctance in telling commanders about mental health appointments. Revising the security form is a step toward reducing stigmas but more are needed, Rand researcher Terri Tanielian said.
"Seeking professional care for these mental health issues should not be perceived to jeopardize an individual's security clearance," said a memo signed by James R. Clapper Jr., the undersecretary for intelligence, and David S.C. Chu, the undersecretary for personnel and readiness, and released by the Pentagon yesterday.
"On the contrary, failure to seek care actually increases the likelihood that psychological stress could escalate to a more serious mental condition, which could preclude an individual from performing sensitive duties," the memo said.
At a Pentagon news conference, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged military leaders to set an example. "It's time for leaders of all stripes to step forward. . . . You can't expect a private or a specialist to be willing to seek counseling when his or her captain or colonel or general won't do it," he said. After nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan and more than five in Iraq, it's past time "that we recognize the toll it's taking inside our minds, as well as outside our bodies, and to deal with that reality," he said.
A Pentagon official at the news conference said the department expects that senior military leaders will come forward with their stories of receiving mental health care as part of a national campaign by the military to encourage service members to seek treatment.
"We can change the policy, we can talk about how important it is. Ultimately, troops and families, they want to see leaders walking that talk," said Col. Loree Sutton, an aide to the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
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Miami Herald
May 2, 2008
Pg. 5
Psych Care Is No Bar To Security Clearance
The Pentagon now only requires personnel who got court-ordered care or committed a violent act to disclose their mental health history when seeking clearances.
By Nancy A. Youssef
FORT BLISS, Texas -- In an effort to encourage troops to seek psychiatric counseling for combat stress, the U.S. military announced Thursday it will no longer consider such treatment when issuing security clearances.
Until now, some military positions have required applicants to disclose whether they had undergone psychiatric care. Under the new Pentagon order, only those who have received court-ordered care or committed a violent act must disclose their recent mental health history.
The U.S. military's handling of mental health issues has come under increasing criticism, particularly as soldiers and Marines serve multiple extended tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
U.S. Army studies have found a growing number of troops committing suicide or suffering from ailments like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
During a visit here, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called post-traumatic stress disorder an ''unseen wound'' of the war.
Troops have said they feared that they risk being branded as ''broken,'' costing jobs that require important security clearances, if they disclose their mental health history.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to defuse that fear, saying Thursday that ``nothing could be further from the truth, and it's time we got over that.'
''Infamous Question 21,'' as Gates described it, asked applicants whether they have consulted a mental health professional in the past seven years for issues other than marital problems or grief. If the soldier answered yes, it required spelling out details of treatment, leading to further scrutiny.
John E. Fortunato, chief of Fort Bliss' Restoration and Resilience Center, which treats soldiers returning from combat with post-traumatic stress disorder, called the announcement an important first step.
Fortunato, who has treated 37 soldiers since his center opened nearly a year ago, said commanders have taunted troops and told them to ''soldier on'' when they complained of combat stress.
Soldiers have ''paid such a high price for PTSD,'' Fortunato said.
The cost of treating a soldier is far less than pushing him or her out of the Army, Fortunato added. He estimated it costs his center roughly $20,000 to treat someone with post-traumatic stress disorder, compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars the military would have to spend to replace the discharged soldier.
''The measure [of mental health treatment] success is retention,'' he said.
During his visit, Gates said the military must lift the stigma on mental healthcare and encourage troops to see it as equal to physical care.
''The most important thing for us now is to get the word out as far as we can to every man and woman in uniform to let them know about this change, to let them know the efforts that are under way to remove the stigma and to encourage them to seek help when they are in the theater or when they return from the theater,'' Gates said at the announcement.
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New York Times on the Web
May 1, 2008
Gates Acknowledges Mistakes In Treatment Of Troops
FORT BLISS, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday said the military had made mistakes in treating returning combat troops including in their physical and mental health care and by providing some sub-standard housing.
In a visit to Fort Bliss, Texas, Gates announced a change in government procedures to encourage troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) without fear of losing their security clearances and harming their careers.
The announcement came just a day after closing arguments in a San Francisco federal court case in which veterans allege the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is unable to deal with the growing number of PTSD cases emerging from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Gates acknowledged not all of the more than 1.5 million military service members who have been deployed overseas have received needed medical treatment and accommodations.
"I know that the department is not perfect and mistakes have been, and will be made. Things happen too slowly," Gates said in a speech to a group of junior officers.
"I share your frustration," he added.
Gates initiated an overhaul of the military's medical system after a scandal last year at Walter Reed hospital in Washington where soldiers were found living in a building infested with mice, mold and cockroaches and many soldiers were unable to get treatment because of bureaucratic red tape.
Video squalor
On Thursday, Gates turned his attention to a video presentation about housing for returning troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina that was posted on the Web site YouTube.com.
The 10-minute video shows soldiers who served for 15 months in Afghanistan living in a barracks where sewage backed up into sinks, lead-based paint peeled from overhead pipes and broken toilet seats were repaired with cardboard and tape.
"Soldiers should never have to live in such squalor," said Gates, who said he had reviewed the YouTube.com posting.
"It is the duty of every commander, indeed everyone responsible for our men and women in uniform, to ensure that our troops have decent living conditions."
The Army has launched an investigation into the conditions at the barracks, officials said.
To enhance care for soldiers suffering from PTSD, Gates announced that a security clearance form used throughout the U.S. government would be changed to free troops from an obligation to acknowledge combat-related mental-health care.
That change follows numerous studies that found troops suffering from post-traumatic stress after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan believed their security clearances, critical to their jobs, would be at risk if they sought care.
Question 21, which Gates called "infamous," asks applicants whether they have consulted a mental health professional in the past seven years. If the answer is "Yes," they must list details.
"It now is clear to people who answer that question that they can answer 'No' if they have sought help to deal with their combat stress in general terms," Gates told a news conference.
The form, known as the Questionnaire for National Security Positions, is used throughout the U.S. government, but the change initially affects only troops and the Pentagon's civilian workforce.
RAND Corp estimated that 300,000 troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from symptoms of PTSD or depression. Military studies have seen similar results. The Army in February said 17.9 percent of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced acute stress, depression or anxiety in 2007.
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Mideast Stars and Stripes
May 2, 2008
Gates: Counseling Not An Issue For Clearances
Finding shows troops worried therapy for combat stress would hinder future security clearances
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
ARLINGTON, Va. Security clearance applicants will no longer have to disclose whether they have sought treatment for mental health counseling due to military combat service, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Gates announced the change during a news conference at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he was visiting a center for troops recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The change is to what Gates called the ÅÊnfamous Question 21 on the Office of Personnel ManagementÃÔ standard form 86, the Questionnaire for National Security Positions.
Until now, Question 21 asked applicants whether they have consulted a mental health professional in the past seven years. If so, they were asked to list the names, addresses and dates they saw the doctor or therapist, unless it was for martial, family, or grief counseling and not related to violent behavior.
The new question now allows applicants to answer ÅÏo if they received treatment ÅÔtrictly related to adjustments from service in a military combat environment.Æû/P>Gates told Pentagon reporters last June that he would Å×ery aggressively pursue removing the question about mental health treatment from the security clearance questionnaire.
Gates took up the issue after the Army inspector general concluded in February 2007 that soldiers were not seeking help in part because they were worried it would endanger their security clearance and perhaps their career.
Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, decided to check for himself to see if this was actually happening, he told Stripes.
Out of 250,000 security clearances processed by the Army in 2007, only three were denied solely because of the applicantÃÔ mental health status, Kimmons said. Other issues, such as financial health, personal interviews and recommendations, were much more important.
As a result, ŧrankly, we decided [Question 21] information isnÃÕ particularly revealing or useful, Kimmons said. ŪtÃÔ a little blob of color that goes into a painting of a whole person.Æû/P>
Yet ÅÕhe perception is that it matters a lot, Kimmons said, ÅÂnd the perception was damning.Æû/P>But other federal agencies, who do not regularly send their members into combat, would not agree to killing Question 21 completely, Kimmons said.
Since ÅØe didnÃÕ want to wait any longer, this is an adequate compromise, Kimmons said. Ūt takes off the table that whole chunk [of mental health care] related to the ongoing war on terror.Æû/P>Kimmons said servicemembers should not be limited by the word ÅÄombat on the form.
ŵhis is designed to talk about anyone who goes into harms way, and that includes the full range of missions, from humanitarian to natural disaster response to peacekeeping, Kimmons said.
Ū think it will help, said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told The Associated Press. ŵhis needs to be followed by a mental health campaign not just for servicemembers but for their families as well. But I really do think itÃÔ a significant evolution.Æû/P>
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El Paso Times
May 2, 2008
Pg. 1
Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates Hails Bliss Center
Post's PTSD care may be model for Army
By Chris Roberts, El Paso Times
Bracing against a blasting wind that reminded him of his native Kansas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spent a day at Fort Bliss touring a mental health center, watching a demonstration of the Army's newest technology, and meeting with soldiers and community leaders.
Gates said the recent announcement that two additional brigades will come to Fort Bliss as part of a plan to expand the Army "will be the final major additions for the time being." The total increase in the number of soldiers expected to be stationed at the post since the Base Realignment and Closure process in 2005 is nearly 30,000.
Gates had high praise for a Fort Bliss center designed to treat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and return them to their units -- a center he said would serve as a prototype for the Army.
"They are doing some amazing things here in terms of helping soldiers who want to remain soldiers but who have been wounded with post-traumatic stress disorder," Gates said of the Restoration and Resilience Center. "I think it's an extraordinary program. I think it's a prototype. And one of the things that I will carry back to Washington with me is the question of whether we can replicate this at other posts around the country."
During a morning press conference in front of the center, Gates also formally announced a change in government policy he said would allow soldiers to seek help for PTSD without hurting their careers.
Getting help for PTSD related to the "combat environment" will no longer be a reason to deny security clearances, he said.
The Fort Bliss center is also looking at finding ways to help soldiers in combat zones deal with stress, Gates said, adding that those techniques "are clearly worth additional attention as well."
During a question and answer period with reporters, he reverted to the topic, noting that John Fortunato, the clinical psychologist who created the center, told him one reason for the program's success is that it was local and relatively small so "therapists can develop relationships with the soldiers."
In the seven months the program has been active, Fortunato said, 38 soldiers who wanted to stay in the Army but whose only other option was a medical discharge have entered the program, and 12 have been returned to their units. An additional nine soldiers have entered the program since, he added.
The program will track soldiers who are back at their jobs for two years, he said. "The major measure of success for this program is retention," he said.
Gates repeated that soldiers with PTSD should not be treated as if they were "permanently broken" when he spoke to students at the Sergeants Major Academy who will be the top non-commissioned officers in the Army.
"You are in the best position of anybody to give a sense up and down the chain of command as to what is and isn't working," he said.
During the annual Fort Bliss Volunteer Recognition Ceremony, Gates' wife, Becky, said she remembered the pain of separation she felt when her father was serving during World War II.
"Your families are fortunate that such a broad range of services are available to them, both through the military and because of dedicated volunteers," she said.
Beverly Vacanti, who has worked nine years tutoring and mentoring students at Northloop Elementary School, was recognized for her efforts.
"I want to give back," Vacanti said. "I am a cancer survivor and I got a second lease on life."
Then, as dust plumes rose into the sky, Gates watched soldiers with Fort Bliss' Army Evaluation Task Force demonstrate robots and communications systems that already are being deployed into combat zones around the world. Bradley vehicles equipped with the new technology sped toward an observation post and swerved into defensive positions as soldiers, throwing smoke grenades, attacked across a culvert and through a chain-link fence. All soldiers were able to hear communication as they approached their target in queues of four or five people.
A small unmanned ground vehicle, called a SUG-V, approached the building using its eyes and ears to send information on insurgent locations and activity back to the soldiers.
Earlier, at the Sergeants Major Academy, Gates made it clear that the "spinouts" from the Future Combat Systems Program are vital.
"Current needs must not be sacrificed to future capabilities," he said.
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USA Today
May 2, 2008
Pg. 10
Gates Calls Barracks Conditions 'Appalling'
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, after watching a YouTube video showing poor barracks conditions at the Army's Fort Bragg in North Carolina, called the situation "appalling" and said all commanders must ensure their troops have decent quarters.
"Soldiers should never have to live in such squalor," Gates said Thursday in a speech to soldiers at Fort Bliss in Texas. The nearly 10-minute video, shot by the father of an 82nd Airborne paratrooper, showed mold, peeling paint and broken plumbing fixtures in the Korean War-era barracks. The video, which surfaced last week, triggered a global inspection of Army barracks.
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Mideast Stars and Stripes
May 2, 2008
Corps To Expand Ahead Of Schedule
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
FORT BLISS, Texas The Marine Corps will expand to 202,000 in 2009, two years ahead of schedule, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway told Gates and other military leaders about the Corps accelerated time line last week.
Gates made the announcement while speaking to the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Shortly after taking office in 2006, Gates announced that both the Army and the Marine Corps would be getting bigger.
The Corps plan was to get to 202,000 by fiscal 2011, which was part of an effort to give Marines two months at home for every month they were deployed in combat.
Ūf we continue at the current rate of accessions (bringing folks in) and retention of those already in the Corps, wrote Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson of Marine Corps Public Affairs at the Pentagon, ÅØe could be at 202,000 (plus or minus 500) by the end of FY09, barring [any] major rise in attrition from recruit training, [end of active duty], retirements, disciplinary infractions, etc.
In October, a Corps official said the goal of reaching 202,000 by fiscal 2011 posed an ÅÖnprecedented recruiting challenge.
ŵo suggest that we do it faster scares us even more, the official said while discussing recruiting figures for fiscal 2007. Ÿe had a very successful year. But we think we are pushing the maximum of our ability.Æû/P>In other news, Gates said Thursday that servicemembers current needs must not be sacrificed in the pursuit of future capabilities, specifically citing housing issues.
Gates said that earlier this week he watched the YouTube video showing ÅÂppalling conditions at Fort Bragg, N.C., for soldiers who had returned from Afghanistan.
The video showed mold, overflowing toilets and human waste in soldiers barracks.
Å´oldiers should never have to live in such squalor, Gates said. Ūt is the duty of every commander, indeed everyone responsible for our men and women in uniform, to ensure that our troops have decent living conditions.Æû/P>
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CNN; PBS
May 1, 2008
Improvements In Mental Health Care Sought For Returning Troops
CNN Newsroom, 2:00 PM
MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, the scars of war are not all visible. Acknowledging this and recognizing this, the Pentagon announcing today a new policy that considers the impact on troops' minds and their spirits.
To get more on this, let's bring in Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Melissa, the Pentagon is moving to ease the fears of thousands of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with war-related anxiety, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, who fear that seeking psychiatric help or mental help will harm their careers and possibly cost them their security clearances.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, touring a facility down in Fort Bliss, Texas, today designed to help soldiers with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, announced that the Pentagon will change what he called the infamous question 21. This is a question that soldiers have to answer to get a security clearance, and the old question, simply said, "In the last seven years, have you consulted a mental health professional or another mental health care provider about a mental health-related condition?"
And that's the question that people were afraid to answer. They thought it might hurt their careers.
So they've changed the question. It's now essentially the same question, but it has a second part to it -- advice to the soldiers to "answer no if the counseling is for marital, family grief, not related to violence by you, or adjustments from service in combat." In other words, they'll no longer have to reveal their previous mental health treatment unless it was court ordered or involved violence. And it says right in the question, "Mental health counseling in and of itself is not a reason to revoke or deny a clearance."
The Pentagon today, the Joint Chiefs chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen, said he thinks this will make a big difference in the way troops view the problem of mental health and getting help for it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADM. MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Psychological health and fitness is no different than physical health and fitness. Both are readiness issues. Both are leadership issues.
Getting this question changed is a terrific step to achieving better readiness for the individual and for the service. I hope it's also a great first step in changing our culture. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, the Pentagon says the problem isn't as bad as some soldiers think. They say the reality is that less than one percent of security clearances are denied because of some mental health issues. But a survey by the American Psychiatric Association showed that three out of five service members believed it would hurt their career. And that's what this question is aimed at reassuring them, that they can have the kind of routine care that they need when they come back from a stressful situation without feeling that it's going to stop them from getting security clearances or advance in their career -- Melissa.
LONG: And so important to get that care because of what they've experienced, what they've seen. You know, that infamous question 21, is that being changed at this moment?
MCINTYRE: Yes. From now on -- it's actually a little bit longer than what we showed you on the air there. It has more explanation for why they can answer the question if they have to, how to explain it. And it tells them very specific times when they don't have to reveal any counseling that they've had. So, for instance, routine therapy, just to deal with the stress and the adjustment of war, that's not something they have to reveal.
LONG: Hopefully that will reassure them that they can get the care that they certainly need and often very, very much deserve after their care serving overseas.
Senior Pentagon Correspondent, Jamie McIntyre.
Jim Lehrer Newshour (PBS), 7:00 PM
JUDY WOODRUFF: Defense Secretary Robert Gates today encouraged U.S. troops to get treatment for post-combat mental problems. To make that easier, he announced changes to Pentagon policy. Troops and civilian defense employees will in most instances no longer have to reveal previous mental health treatment when applying for sensitive government jobs. At Ft. Bliss in Texas, Gates said he hoped to persuade troops they need the help.
DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES: I suspect that the first thing is to get them to admit theyÃÓe human. Part of the issue of removing the stigma is making it clear that you can be tough and seek help for dealing with these problems. After all, youÃÓe tough and you go into the hospital when you receive a physical wound. That doesnÃÕ mean youÃÓe weak in some way. And so why wouldnÃÕ you when youÃ×e received a psychological wound? ItÃÔ the same difference, theyÃÓe all wounded.
WOODRUFF: Gates insisted that seeking mental health care should not jeopardize security clearances or careers. WeÃÍl have more on this story later in the program.
***
WOODRUFF: Now, new efforts to provide mental health care for returning troops. Betty Ann Bowser of our Health Unit begins with some background on today's developments. The unit is a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
MILITARY SERVICEMEMBER: Point out to us who the insurgency are.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: About 1.5 million American men and women have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the Pentagon says an estimated 20 percent of them are suffering from mental health problems; other estimates are even higher.
Two recent reports have found that military personnel are not seeking help when they need it. The American Psychiatric Association said yesterday that it found three in five members of the military think that seeking treatment for mental health concerns would have some negative impact on their career.
A larger study by the Rand Corporation last month found nearly one out of three service members reported a mental health problem or symptoms of traumatic brain injury. And only half of them sought help.
That study also found that many of the returning troops thought seeking treatment would have a negative impact on their security clearance and their careers.
During a visit today to a Ft. Bliss, Texas, treatment center designed to help troops with post-traumatic stress disorder, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a policy change aimed at fixing that.
GATES: The most important thing for us now is to get the word out, as far as we can, to every man and woman in uniform to let them know about this change, to let them know the efforts that are underway to remove the stigma, and to encourage them to seek help when they are in the theater or when they return from the theater.
DOCTOR: I'm glad that you actually were able to verbalize Êû/P>BOWSER: Gates said, under the new policy, troops and civilian employees applying for a security clearance will no longer have to admit they've had mental health treatment unless it was court-ordered or violence-related.
He referred to the infamous question 21 on the form which asks applicants whether they have consulted a mental health professional in the past seven years.
GATES: It now is clear to people who answer that question that they can answer "no" if they have sought help to deal with their combat stress.
BOWSER: Later at the Pentagon, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, said he wants to send a message to everyone in the military.
ADM. MIKE MULLEN [Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff]: Psychological health and fitness is no different than physical health and fitness. Both are readiness issues; both are leadership issues.
Getting this question changed is a terrific step to achieving better readiness for the individual and for the service. I hope it's also a great first step in changing our culture.
BOWSER: The new policy is effective immediately.
WOODRUFF: Jeffrey Brown has more on this story.
JEFFREY BROWN: To what extent is stigma a barrier to treatment? And are servicemembers getting the mental health care they need?
We explore those questions with Colonel Loree Sutton, the director of the Department of Defense's Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury; Terri Tanielian, a researcher at the Rand Center, who co-directed the recent study on mental health care needs for veterans; and Jason Forrester, director of policy for the advocacy group Veterans for America.
Colonel Sutton, starting with you. Define the stigma problem that you're trying to address today.
COL. LOREE SUTTON [Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury]: Well, let me start out by saying that today is such an important day, it's such a historic day for our troops, whether they be soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coastees, whether they be in the Guard, the Reserve, whether they be veterans and their family members, because this marks a huge milestone in our journey to really eliminate stigma, that barrier that keeps troops and their family members from getting the help that they need.
And so, as Secretary Gates said earlier, we are so excited to be able to put the word out and get the word out at all levels so that we can move forward together and make sure that our troops, their family members, get the help they need.
BROWN: But how ingrained, how big a problem is the stigma?
SUTTON: You know, I've been a psychiatrist in the Army for over 20 years now, and I will tell you this is an issue for our troops, for our families, for our communities. It's an issue across America.
We've made tremendous progress, but we've still got a ways to go, and today's milestone is another step in that journey.
BROWN: Terri Tanielian, what does your work show about the gap between those who need care, but are unwilling to come because of stigma?
TERRI TANIELIAN [Rand Public Policy Expert]: Sure. Based on our research, we were able to identify that, among the top five barriers to getting care, when we asked folks, "What gets in your way of getting the help you need?"
Three of those top five were about concerns for their career, that it could harm their career, that they could be denied a security clearance, or that their co-workers and fellow unit members may have less confidence in them doing their job.
BROWN: And those are directly tied to the sense that there's a stigma because they've come forward?
TANIELIAN: They're really institutional or cultural kind of barriers to getting help. There's a concern and a perception among servicemembers and veterans that, by getting help, that it could be somehow used against them in their career.
BROWN: Mr. Forrester, do you think that these steps today go far enough? Are they helpful? What?
JASON FORRESTER [Director of Policy, Veterans for America]: They're helpful, but they're late. To Secretary Gates' credit, on June 21st of last year, he announced that he had hoped to remove question 21 from the security clearance forms.
I'm glad that it's being removed now. I feel for those soldiers and Marines and others who've had to live with the hope of seeing the question removed for the past at least around a year and before that.
Veterans for America's Wounded Warrior Outreach Program works across the country with servicemembers who are coming back from multiple tours, often with inadequate time at home, and, yes, they find considerable stigma when they return to their bases.
The stigma is growing a little bit smaller, but, unfortunately, they still find considerable stigma, and they often find very long wait times to be able to see a mental health care professional on-base.
For instance, Ft. Drum, New York, home of the 10th Mountain Division, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3,500 soldiers, recently completed its fourth deployment since 9/11. When those soldiers came home, it was taking some of them up to two months to get an appointment with a mental health care professional.
This is late. It's laudable what's being done, but, unfortunately, we're just realizing the magnitude and the great variety of steps that need to be taken to rectify these certain problems.
BROWN: Colonel Sutton, how do you answer that? An accessibility question is, even if the soldiers come forward, is there a place to treat them? Is there adequate care available?
SUTTON: That is a major concern for us, and it's one that we've taken great steps towards addressing the shortages. There's a national shortage of mental health professionals, which makes it difficult, although I will tell you, we've made a lot of progress.
The V.A., for example, has been able to add on nearly 4,000 mental health professionals over the last two years. Our TRICARE contract support partners that would be Health Net, Humana, and TriWest over the last year, they've been able to add on an additional 3,000 mental health professionals.
Currently, within the Department of Defense, we're working to fill about 1,000 additional billets for mental health professionals. We also have some public health service professionals who will be coming on to join the team.
And I will tell you, everywhere I go, I put the word out to really help challenge folks, whether it be the American Psychiatric or American Psychological Association. The response has been tremendous.
Because if you want a job, whether you're a social worker, a nurse, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, if you want to do something where, at the end of the day, you never have to guess whether you're making a difference in the lives of those who need your help, this is the place to come.
BROWN: What steps does your research suggest are needed to deal especially the stigma problem?
TANIELIAN: Sure. Well, first, we need to close the access gap, getting to the care.
So we need to address the capacity issue that we've been discussing, making sure that that there's enough mental health professionals and other health professionals who are trained in delivering the types of care that we know will be effective for those who are suffering from PTSD and depression.
BROWN: And stop there for a minute. Why do you think there's a gap?
TANIELIAN: Well, we know there's a shortage in U.S. health care of mental health professionals. We know that there's a shortage of individuals who are trained in these types of therapies and these approaches.
This is really a systemic issue across U.S. health care. We need to think about the pipeline of individuals coming into this profession so we can make sure they get the right training, they're in the systems where the veterans are going to seek care, and that we don't have this just moving providers from one place to another, but that we really have a strong pipeline of individuals who are coming into this career field.
BROWN: And what other steps, what other kinds of steps do you think are needed?
TANIELIAN: Well, once we can address the concerns about the capacity and the supply of providers, we also need to address the concerns and remove the barriers that inhibit servicemembers and veterans that have problems from getting care, like concerns about their career.
We need to make sure that there are options and opportunities available for them to get help early before these problems accrue to a level where they are no longer able to do their job.
We need to be able to offer services that are confidential, off the record, so that they do know that, by getting help, they're increasing their fitness and the readiness of the force and it won't be held against them in their career.
But we also need to raise the gap in quality. We need to make sure that the care that is delivered throughout the sectors, the DOD, the V.A., and the U.S. health care system, is providing a level of care that we know will have the most promise in facilitating recovery.
BROWN: Mr. Forrester, you raised earlier one of the issues that's become a continuing issue in this war, is the multiple deployments, soldiers being sent back several times. To what extent is that exacerbating the kinds of problems we're talking about here?
FORRESTER: It is a considerable factor exacerbating the problems. Once again, to the credit of the Department of Defense, there have been studies afoot for years looking at the affect of multiple deployments on servicemembers.
In particular, the Mental Health Advisory Team, MHAT, has now produced five reports in the course of the Iraq war and also now is covering Afghanistan.
In the MHAT-IV report, the Army doctors, among others, found that the likelihood of a servicemember having a severe mental health problem, post-combat mental health problem, a wound, not an illness, a wound, it rose by about 60 percent from one deployment to another.
The most recent report from the Mental Health Advisory Team V found, when they look specifically at non-commissioned officers these are sergeants and others who lead troops into battle day in, day out they found that, if you compared an NCO on their first deployment to one on their third or fourth deployment, that the likelihood of a person on their third or fourth deployment having a mental health problem rose by about 129 percent.
So this is the kind of problem these problems are being generated day in, day out, as we have multiple deployments. This is why it deserves a national conversation on, what do we owe to these servicemembers, for instance, the members of the Army brigade combat teams, the members of the Marine Corps battalions who have been deployed again and again and again?
So we need to look at the cost that this is having on them, as well as what needs to be done. For instance, they need more time at home. Once again, the Department of Defense, through the Mental Health Advisory Team itself, says that more time at home also known as dwell time is a key variable in ensuring that these problems are dramatically reduced.
BROWN: Do you accept that evaluation of the situation, especially about multiple deployments, and what does the military do to deal with that problem?
SUTTON: We are very concerned about that. We appreciate the advocacy and the shared concern around the country, because it is a national conversation. To understand that never in the history of our republic that I'm aware of has so much been borne on the shoulders of so few on behalf of so many for such a long time.
And so there are things that we must do to support the families, just some of the most heroic folks you will ever meet, the military family. We had a chance, of course, earlier this week to introduce the "Sesame Workshop" DVD that helps children talk with their parents about the changes related to deployments.
But we also know that it's so important to get after that stigma, get after the culture. You know, stigma, as the Canadian armed forces are viewing it now and I subscribe to this they talk about it as being a toxic occupational work-related hazard, one that prevents servicemembers, their families, veterans, their loved ones from getting the help that they need.
So, again, we are just really very excited about today's a major milestone in that journey.
BROWN: But is it not part of the warrior tradition and culture that you have to deal with here, that people would sense that that's why they feel they're perceived as weak, if they seek mental health? I mean, is it as serious as that, to try to somehow wedge a way into what is a traditional military culture?
SUTTON: Well, and it's exactly the culture that we are working to transform, to help our servicemembers, to help their families, our communities understand that seeking help, it is a sign of strength. It's a leadership issue; it's a readiness issue.
But, you know, it's important also to understand that there's a whole continuum of stress. And so we work at this end to build a resilience in our families and servicemembers from the day they come into military service.
And, you know, there may be in the course of their duties, certainly what our troops are experiencing abroad in harm's way right now, where they come under tremendous stress. And they may react to some of that stress, in which case the leaders work with them and the medical community to mitigate those risks.
Now, sometimes the stress becomes even more difficult, in which case someone may become injured. You heard Secretary Gates talk about the importance of psychological injuries, as well as physical injuries. They're on an equal footing.
We can intervene at every point along that continuum to prevent that servicemember from getting ill and requiring medical care. Of course, if and when a servicemember or their family does require that care, we want to have it there for them, and we want them to know it's a sign of strength to seek it.
BROWN: All right, Colonel Loree Sutton, Terri Tanielian, and Jason Forrester, thank you all very much.
SUTTON: Thank you so much.
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New York Times
May 2, 2008
Double Bombings In An Iraqi Town Kill 35
By Erica Goode and Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD Two thunderous blasts set off by suicide bombers ripped through a crowded shopping street in the town of Balad Ruz in Diyala Province on Thursday, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 62 others, many of them seriously.
The first bomb was aimed at a wedding caravan that was driving through the neighborhood, said a security official in Balad Ruz, known for its restaurants and stores. The second bomb went off after the police and medical teams arrived.
One bomber was a woman who wore an explosives-filled vest and was pretending to be pregnant, according to the American military. The bombings took place in the early evening, when many people were shopping for food and other supplies before the start of the weekend. The attack came only hours after a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed an American soldier and nine Iraqi civilians.
Clashes continued Thursday in the Sadr City neighborhood in Baghdad. American forces conducted airstrikes there on areas that military officials say are being used to fire rockets at the fortified Green Zone by militias that they say are being trained and supplied by Iran.
A delegation of IraqÃÔ senior Shiite leaders met Thursday in Tehran with the heads of Iranian security forces to express concerns about IranÃÔ support for militia fighters. Haider al-Ibadi, a member of Parliament from the prime ministerÃÔ Dawa Party, said the delegation was carrying with it hard evidence ÅÂnd it is a lot on IranÃÔ involvement ÅÊn our inner affairs.Æû/P>The delegation showed the Iranian security officials the evidence, Mr. Ibadi said, and the group was promised a meeting with IranÃÔ supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday.
Ÿe want to deliver to him the evidence, Mr. Ibadi said.
American and Iraqi officials have said the delegation was sent by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. But Yaseen Majid, an adviser to him, said that the group was sent by Parliament and that ÅÊtÃÔ not a governmental delegation at all.Æû/P>The bombings in Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad, were the latest in a string of major attacks recently in Diyala Province, a region that American officials have contended is considerably safer as a result of the joining of local forces, known as Awakening Councils, with American and Iraqi forces to fight insurgents.
Those attacks included one on April 16 in which 40 people were killed, and another one on April 18 that killed at least 30 people.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaie, DiyalaÃÔ chief of operations, said the bombers appeared to be ÅØaiting for people to gather in order to cause more victims.Æû/P>
He said that his forces were trying their best to stop attacks but that Balad Ruz had a big market district and ÅØe canÃÕ put in every single street or shop a person who searches the people.Æû/P>In the Baghdad car bombing, which occurred during the morning rush, the force of the explosion incinerated or damaged more than a dozen vehicles, including an American Humvee, and damaged auto repair shops. The highway where it happened used to be called Death Road because it was attacked so often, witnesses said, but it had been quieter in the past three months.
Iraqi police officers at the scene said they believed that the bomb was set off by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni insurgent group that American intelligence says is led by foreigners. The police said the insurgents were taking advantage of fighting between Shiite groups in nearby Sadr City. Sadr City is the scene of daily clashes between Mahdi Army fighters loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and Iraqi Army members loyal to Mr. MalikiÃÔ Shiite-led government.
A lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi National Police at the scene of the bombing pointed toward Sadr City and said, Å¢l Qaeda took advantage of the militia conflict across there to infiltrate the security in this area and make it weak.Æû/P>The colonel, who declined to be identified because he said he was not authorized to speak, said a suspect carrying a remote control detonator had been arrested minutes after the blast on a neighboring street.
Witnesses said they saw an American military patrol in Humvees driving down the street in eastern Baghdad shortly after 9 a.m., and then heard a loud explosion. Some said the car used in the assault appeared to have been packed with rockets.
The American military said that one American soldier had died and that two others were wounded in the explosion. Iraqi officials said that nine Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded.
A shopkeeper who saw the explosion said the street had become safer in recent months, because more police officers were patrolling the area.
Ūf the Americans stay, I will remain pessimistic, said the shopkeeper, who identified himself only as Muhammad. Ÿhat successes have they brought? So many people dead.Æû/P>
Abu Shaher, another witness, said simply, ŵrouble everywhere. He added, űeople go to work, and they come back dead.Æû/P>The owner of two shops on the street said the passing American patrol was clearly the target of the bombing.
Ū have witnessed about 19 explosions in this area since the beginning of the war, but this is the biggest one, said the man, who would give only his first name, Hassan, out of fear of reprisals.
In the fighting in Sadr City, 20 people were killed, including 10 from a single family, and 23 people were wounded, hospital officials said.
American officials have denounced what they see as IranÃÔ increasing role in arming, training and underwriting antigovernment militias in Iraq. The American military has said that many of the rockets fired at the Green Zone carry Iranian markings.
Some Iraqi officials said this week that the delegation to Tehran might meet with Mr. Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran.
But Mr. Majid, Mr. MalikiÃÔ spokesman, said the team was representing the views of Parliament members and ÅØill never meet with Moktada al-Sadr.Æû/P>
Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, the spokesman for Mr. Sadr in Najaf, said, ůo one knows where Moktada al-Sadr is now, so I do not think that the delegation is going to see Moktada.Æû/P>
Reporting was contributed by Tareq Mahir, Mudhafer al-Husaini, Mohamed Hussein, Ammar Karim and Ali Hameed. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080502597952.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1738676_AEb PjkQAAMF2SBtYQADViQVNyLY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080502aaindex_concat.html&cred=qX3TPQ.jUHqguYMJ _D_H1Lhw8lEkOLd.7E.4YO2GAtniah3J0ildGRFSrKbUcTP4#T OP">
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Washington Post
May 2, 2008
Pg. 12
At Least 35 Die As Bombers Hit Wedding Convoy
Woman Involved in Iraq Attack
By Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post Staff Writer
BAGHDAD, May 1 -- Two suicide bombers attacked a wedding convoy as it passed through a busy market area in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 65, police said.
As police and rescue crews rushed to the site after the first explosion in the town of Balad Ruz, the second bomb was detonated, police said. They said one of the attackers was a woman.
The double bombing was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks in Diyala, a largely Sunni area. The attackers appear to be targeting members of the Awakening movement, mainly Sunnis who have joined with U.S. forces to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Women are involved in an increasing number of the attacks. On Tuesday, a female suicide bomber struck in the village of Mukhisa, killing one person and wounding five, all members of the Awakening movement. On April 21, a female bomber blew herself up in the home of a group of Sunni Awakening members, killing three people.
Four days earlier, a suicide attacker wearing an explosives vest killed 55 people at a funeral for Awakening members in a Diyala village.
Among those wounded Thursday in Balad Ruz were the bride and groom, the Associated Press reported, citing a provincial official.
In central Baghdad on Thursday, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy killed an American soldier, the military said. Three suspects were detained and tested positive for explosive compounds, it said.
In the Baghdad district of Sadr City, Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops, armor and air power continued to battle fighters tied to the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Police said two Mahdi Army hideouts were raided, leading to clashes in which seven militiamen were killed and 16 wounded. A bombing in the area killed an Iraqi patrolman, police said.
Also Thursday, a delegation of five Iraqi lawmakers traveled to Tehran to outline evidence that Iranian security forces were arming Shiite militias. Other lawmakers said the Iraqi government had evidence that fighters were using Iranian-made arms in Sadr City as well as in the southern cities of Diwaniyah and Basra. U.S. military officials have made similar assertions.
"They have crossed all boundaries and that's not acceptable," said Haider al-Ebadi, a Shiite legislator. "We don't want our relationship with Iran to deteriorate."
Iraq's Shiite-led government has close ties to Iran, whose government is overseen by Shiite clerics.
Ebadi said the lawmakers were also expected to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. He said the lawmakers would also press the Iranian government for help in lowering tensions in Sadr City.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday released a letter addressed to Sadr City residents, promising to improve security and living situations in the impoverished Shiite area. Maliki also called on elders and clergymen to stop fighters from using houses, mosques and other sites as arms storehouses and civilians as human shields.
Elsewhere in Iraq, police said they clashed with gunmen in the city of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province, resulting in the eight deaths and 21 injuries. Also in Diyala, a roadside bomb in Buhriz struck an Iraqi patrol, killing a soldier.
Special correspondents Zaid Sabah, Saad al-Izzi and Dalya Hassan contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080502598047.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1738676_AEb PjkQAAMF2SBtYQADViQVNyLY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080502aaindex_concat.html&cred=qX3TPQ.jUHqguYMJ _D_H1Lhw8lEkOLd.7E.4YO2GAtniah3J0ildGRFSrKbUcTP4#T OP">
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Los Angeles Times
May 2, 2008
Iraq Sends Team To Iran To Discuss U.S. Accusations
Tehran denies the charges that it is aiding militias. Meanwhile, Gen. Petraeus says large amounts of Iranian weapons were found in the Basra crackdown.
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD Iraq has sent senior Shiite Muslim leaders to Tehran to discuss new evidence that Iranian security services are providing weapons and training to militiamen locked in a deadly showdown with U.S. and Iraqi forces, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
The visit follows some of the most heated U.S. accusations in months of Iranian meddling in Iraq, charges denied by Tehran.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, visiting London on Thursday to discuss strategy with British military and political officials, alleged that large amounts of Iranian-made weapons were found last month during a crackdown against Shiite militias in the southern Iraqi oil hub of Basra.
"[It's] very, very significant and they could have been the source of enormous loss had they not been picked up in these various operations down there," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told the BBC. "The number in the Baghdad area is even greater, so there is huge concern."
The discovery has placed Iraq's government in an uncomfortable position as it attempts to balance relations between two of its powerful allies, which are at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear program.
The last thing Iraqi officials want is for their country to become the stage for a proxy war. U.S. officials have indicated they are prepared to give the Iraqis a chance to resolve the matter through diplomacy.
Armed with the latest intelligence, a delegation from Iraq's governing Shiite alliance traveled to Iran on Wednesday to lay out its concerns to political, security and religious leaders and to discuss the way forward, said a close aide and two other politicians with ties to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
"The point is to press home the importance of Iran . . . cooperating with the Iraqi government and not dealing with any other illegal militias or factions outside the government," said senior advisor Haider Abadi, in some of the most pointed comments to date from a member of Maliki's inner circle. "We are looking for good, neighborly relations with Iran, but it cannot go on like this."
U.S. officials have been charging for months that Iran is arming, funding, training and directing breakaway factions of hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, groups they blame for some of the most lethal attacks against American troops in Iraq.
Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they had shared new evidence of Iranian interference with Iraqi officials and expected that the delegation to Tehran would use that intelligence in its discussions.
"It's in Prime Minister Maliki's hands right now, the evidence as to whether or not he has been lied to, baldfaced lied to, by the Iranian government," said Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of military planning for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Neither U.S. nor Iraqi officials have shared the evidence with the media, a long-standing pattern. But they say it includes caches of Iranian weapons, some with markings indicating they were manufactured in 2008.
Petraeus said the weapons included "well over 1,000" mortar and artillery rounds, "hundreds and hundreds" of rockets and "dozens" of armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles.
Iran denies it is helping Iraqi militants and has expressed support for the militia crackdown. An Iranian official confirmed Thursday that the Iraqi delegation had arrived.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran, in order to settle the disputes between the factions in Iraq, receives this delegation and wants to stop the violence in Iraq," Mohammed Ali Hosseini, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, told The Times in a telephone interview.
Shiites dominate both countries, and Iran's Islamic government has ties with Shiite factions on both sides of the current fighting in Iraq. The crackdown on militias, which began in Basra on March 25, triggered a fierce backlash from fighters loyal to Sadr, who an aide said Thursday was also in Iran.
Salah Obeidi, Sadr's spokesman in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said the cleric would not meet with the delegation from Iraq this time.
Members of the Shiite alliance said the delegation was led by the deputy parliament speaker, Khalid Attiya. Also on the team are Tariq Abdullah, Maliki's office manager; Ali Adeeb, a senior member of the prime minister's Islamic Dawa Party; and Hadi Ameri, from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest party in Maliki's coalition.
The delegation planned to meet with Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, which U.S. officials accuse of providing direction and support to Iraqi militiamen. It also wants to make its case to Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Abadi, Maliki's advisor, said, "There is a huge doubt in our mind as to whether the supreme leader is aware of the money and the equipment and the training that is coming into Iraq and the extent of it."
Times staff writers Saif Hameed in Baghdad, Peter Spiegel in Washington and Kim Murphy in London and special correspondents Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080502598071.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1738676_AEb PjkQAAMF2SBtYQADViQVNyLY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080502aaindex_concat.html&cred=qX3TPQ.jUHqguYMJ _D_H1Lhw8lEkOLd.7E.4YO2GAtniah3J0ildGRFSrKbUcTP4#T OP">
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USA Today
May 2, 2008
Pg. 12
Shelling Endangers Those Near Green Zone
Attacks 'hurt the innocent,' general says
By Andrea Stone, USA Today
BAGHDAD Raed Falah Hasan has lost count of how many times rockets or mortar shells aimed at the nearby Green Zone have fallen short and landed in his high-rise apartment complex.
Three neighbors have been killed and eight injured by the missiles. One rocket severed his building's gas line. His daughter Suror, 4, has been sick with fear.
Hasan's biggest worry is his wife, Nahla, who works in the Green Zone as a security screener for a U.S. contractor. Whenever a rocket or mortar round explodes there sometimes five or six times a day she calls home to say she is all right.
"I'm worried about her," the cellphone company worker said through a translator in a 20-minute interview punctuated by two distant blasts. Hasan, 35, wants his wife to quit her job, "but we have five kids and need the money."
Roadside bombs claim more lives in Iraq, but the growing use of rockets and mortars by Shiite militias which killed four U.S. soldiers Monday puts this uneasy city even more on edge.
"They're all equal in terms of the threat they pose," says Army Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, commander of multinational forces in Baghdad. "They're all deployed indiscriminately. They hurt the innocent as well as the combatants."
The rockets threaten everyday Iraqis as well as U.S. soldiers. Since March 23, two U.S. soldiers and two civilian contractors have been killed in the Green Zone, the heavily fortified home of the Iraqi government and U.S. military and diplomatic staff.
Of the more than 900 rocket attacks in Baghdad during that time, nearly 400 have struck U.S. forces, and the same number has hit neighborhoods, killing more than 80 Iraqi civilians.
Rockets and mortar shells have rained down with disquieting regularity on the Green Zone and surrounding Iraqi neighborhoods since Easter and the offensive in March by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against Shiite militias in the Sadr City neighborhood.
This week saw some of the bloodiest clashes between U.S. and Iraqi forces against the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The urban street fights recalled the kind waged in the first years of the war in Iraq and contributed to the highest death toll for U.S. forces in seven months.
By using rockets and mortars, the militias can attack U.S. and Iraqi forces without coming face-to-face in close battle. The salvos into the Green Zone have had the added effect of embarrassing al-Maliki by demonstrating that even from across the city, the Shiite fighters can inflict damage on the seat of his government.
Some of the rockets are made in Iran, Hammond says. Troops have uncovered 107mm and 122mm rockets stamped with Iranian manufacture dates of February 2008.
On Thursday, the first sunny day in a week of blinding sandstorms, six Apache helicopter gunships and two unmanned Predator drones patrolled the sky over Sadr City in search of mortar and rocket launch teams. The gunships and drones can pinpoint launch sites so quickly that fighters who once fired off as many as 10 rockets at a time dare to launch just one or two, Hammond says. Hellfire missiles have destroyed 28 teams since March.
"A day like today," Hammond says, squinting at an Apache hovering overhead, "there's probably a pretty good chance we'll kill them in the process" of firing.
Chances aren't so good when skies are coated in a gritty, yellow haze. Bad weather has grounded reconnaissance drones and helicopters, emboldening militiamen to fire rockets and mortars under cover of dust.
After U.S. actions nearly eliminated attacks in mid-April, days of blowing dust resulted in a spike: 180 mortar shells and rockets fired since last Friday.
Hammond says his troops "attempt work-arounds" in bad weather, but he wouldn't say what they are. His spokesman, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, said F-18 fighter jets struck a mortar team this week.
Two weeks ago, U.S. forces began building a concrete wall in the southern section of Sadr City closest to the international Green Zone. Crews using cranes to lift the sections into place have been attacked nearly every night, but Hammond says the barrier is needed to partition the area into a no-launch zone.
Hammond says he is building the wall because he doesn't have "the luxury" to send ground troops into the warren of streets and alleys where more than 2 million people live. "I don't think man has made enough soldiers to stack up against that," he says.
Despite efforts to stop attacks on the 5-square-mile Green Zone, rockets have hit buildings, cars and the main helicopter landing zone.
On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy "strongly advised" personnel to have body armor and helmets "readily available in their living quarters" and recommended minimizing time outdoors.
An order in late March requiring U.S. personnel to wear body armor when outside has been lifted, but many still wear the heavy gear despite high temperatures.
Some assigned to live in trailers opt to sleep on cots inside sturdier structures, including a building in the new U.S. Embassy complex.
"This is not the first time that the international zone has been attacked," says Leslie Phillips, an embassy spokesperson. "We make every effort to minimize the risk to personnel and to keep all Americans living and working in Iraq apprised of the security situation. Meanwhile, we continue to do the important work we are here to do."
There are unnerving interruptions to that work. Sirens and warnings of "Incoming! Incoming!" send pedestrians to concrete bunkers. Office workers must move away from windows and hit the floor until the "all clear" signal sounds, sometimes an hour later.
"You learn to take it in stride," says Army Capt. Philip Crabtree, 37, of Athens, Ala. "You learn not to jump at every sound you hear."
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Chicago Tribune
May 1, 2008
Iraq: U.S. Has No Claim To Oil Boom
'America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq,' Baghdad official says
By Liz Sly, Tribune correspondent
BAGHDAD As Congress gears up to debate the Bush administration's latest request for an additional $108 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqis are fuming at suggestions being floated by lawmakers that Baghdad should start paying a share of the war's costs by providing cheap fuel to the U.S. military.
"America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they came in 2003 we didn't have all these needs."
The issue of Baghdad's contribution to the costs of the war jumped to the forefront early in April during testimony to Congress of the Iraq war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Noting that the soaring price of oil is likely to give Iraq a revenue bonanza this year of up to $70 billion, senators quizzed the two on why Iraq isn't using its rising oil income to pay more of the costs of reconstruction.
Iraqi and U.S. officials say they are. Iraqis acknowledge the need for Iraq to take on a greater share of its reconstruction costs and say it is doing so. In fact, according to the latest report released Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the body established by Congress to monitor reconstruction spending, Iraq is now responsible for the majority of the money spent on reconstruction and the Iraqi security forces.
Iraqis say the criticisms in Washington grossly simplify the complexities of Iraq's situation and fail to take into account the vastness of Iraq's needs.
"I think Iraq now is able to depend on its own money. We do not ask for extra aid. We are spending on our own armed forces and reconstruction," Bayan Jabr al-Zubaidi, Iraq's finance minister, said in an interview.
$20 billion spent
U.S. officials say the $20 billion allocated for reconstruction projects has been spent and new money is being sought only for targeted programs to help the security forces, the military effort and projects such as democracy and anti-corruption programs. "The era of U.S.-funded bricks-and-mortar reconstruction is over, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker noted in his testimony to Congress," said Charles Ries, coordinator for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The criticisms in Congress that Iraq isn't paying its share are "a bit overplayed," said Stuart Bowen, the inspector general, in a telephone interview.
"It's an evolving process, but the Iraqi government has now taken over the majority of the funding," he said. "In 2007 the U.S. share dropped below 50 percent, and it will drop even more dramatically in 2008."
Behind the controversy lies a giant muddle of misspending, waste, corruption and poor accounting on the part of both Iraq and the U.S. surrounding about $100 billion worth of spending on reconstruction and the Iraqi security forces that has barely dented Iraq's needs over the past five years.
Of this, $46.7 billion came from U.S. taxpayers and $50.3 billion from Iraqi oil revenues, including $23 billion in Iraqi money that was spent by the U.S. under the occupation administration of Paul Bremer, according to Bowen.
Though it was the Bush administration's original intention that Iraq's oil revenues should be used to finance all the rebuilding of Iraq, the projection that Iraq would earn $50 billion to $100 billion from oil exports in the first two years proved to be wildly optimistic, as did estimates that the whole war would cost $50 billion to $60 billion. The Congressional Budget Office now puts the total cost of the war to date at $600 billion.
The poor state of Iraq's oil infrastructure, sabotage and smuggling meant exports never reached the 3.3 million barrels a day anticipated by the administration exports now are averaging around 2.2 million barrels a day. Oil export revenues passed the $100 billion mark only in the second half of 2007, nearly five years after the invasion.
The soaring price of oil this year means Iraq can expect a windfall of $60 billion to $70 billion, significantly more than the nation's $48 billion budget. Though the price of a barrel of oil hit a peak of $119.93 earlier this week, Iraqi oil fetches a lower level, around $90, though that is still higher than the $57 a barrel estimate used to draw up the budget. Iraq had earned $19.3 billion from oil revenues so far this year, according to the State Department.
Iraq is already planning a bumper year for reconstruction, with a supplemental budget of $5 billion to $7 billion to be added to the $13.3 billion already earmarked for reconstruction, Zubaidi said. There is also an extra $10 billion in unspent money left over from previous years in the New York bank account into which all of its oil revenues must be deposited, under the terms of a UN resolution.
But these figures pale in comparison to the size of Iraq's needs, Zubaidi said. The Iraqi government put the total cost of reconstructing Iraq at $200 billion in 2005, a figure that is likely to have risen since then. There are no independent estimates for the overall requirements, but the Special Inspector General's report cites estimates of $25 billion ne
The Pentagon Early Bird May 2, 2008