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.)
Please scroll down to read the Headlines; then to read entire News Article, further scroll down. URL's will not link out in the format recieved. IRAQ - 1. Iran Promises Iraq It Will Help 'Stabilize Security'
(Los Angeles Times)...Tina Susman and Ramin Mostaghim
An Iraqi delegation that traveled to Iran to confront it with allegations of involvement in Iraqi violence returned Saturday saying it had secured an agreement to "stabilize security" and improve cooperation.
- 2. Missiles Strike Sadr City, Damaging Hospital
(New York Times)...Alissa J. Rubin
The ugly daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and a number of its ambulances, and near a group of children who were wounded as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.
- 3. U.S. Fires Missiles Into Sadr City Slum
(Washington Times)...Bradley Brooks, Associated Press
...The fighting is part of a five-week-old crackdown by the Iraqi government and U.S. forces on Shi'ite militia factions. The clashes have created deep rifts among Iraq's Shi'ite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat.
- 4. Baghdad Hospital Damaged In U.S. Missile Strike
(Miami Herald)...Shashank Bengali, McClatchy News Service
...The U.S. military is facing growing criticism over what residents describe as mounting civilian casualties in Sadr City, a densely populated slum of 2.5 million people, which has seen heavy clashes over the past six weeks between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militiamen loyal to the hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
- 6. Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.'s
(New York Times)...James Risen
...The accidental deaths and close calls, which are being investigated by Congress and the Defense DepartmentÃÔ inspector general, raise new questions about the oversight of contractors in the war zone, where unjustified killings by security guards, shoddy reconstruction projects and fraud involving military supplies have spurred previous inquiries.
- 7. U.S. Seeks Contractors To Train Iraqi Military
(Washington Post)...Walter Pincus
U.S. commanders in Iraq are for the first time seeking private contractors to form part of the small military teams that train and live with Iraqi military units across the country, according to a notice for prospective bidders published last week.
- 9. Mahdi Army Fighters Grateful For Sand Storm Standstills In Sadr City
(London Sunday Times)...Hala Jaber
...Embedded with them for four days and three nights, I witnessed the fighting at close quarters, learnt of preparations being made by Mahdi special forces to spread the violence to other parts of Baghdad and heard their commanders swear to paralyse the government and destroy Maliki if their own leader authorises all-out war. The battle of Sadr City, with all the human misery it entails, is in danger of spilling out across the capital, reversing the security gains that followed last summerÃÔ American troop surge.
- 10. 150 Kurdish Rebels Killed, Military Says
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
The Turkish military said yesterday that more than 150 Kurdish rebels were killed last week in a cross-border air raid in northern Iraq. Among the victims were possibly senior members of the rebel group. Kurdish rebels disputed the tally, saying only six had been killed.
AFGHANISTAN - 11. UK Soldier Dies In Afghan Blast
(London Sunday Times)...Michael Smith
NEW fears over a shortage of helicopters in Afghanistan have been raised after the 12th consecutive death of a British soldier killed by a roadside bomb or landmine.
- 12. Blast Damages Bamiyan Buddha
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
...Najibullah Harar, chief of information and culture for Bamiyan, told the Associated Press the blast conducted by NATO-led troops near the smaller of the two statues Thursday had caused cracks in what is left of the 114-foot-high ancient structure.
TERRORISM - 13. Probe Of USS Cole Bombing Unravels
(Washington Post)...Craig Whitlock
Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT - 14. Admiral: War Zones Need More Than Military
(Lexington (KY) Herald Leader)...Jim Warren
The Middle East and Central Asia -- particularly Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- will remain a problem spot well into the future, but military power alone won't be enough to bring peace and stability to the region, President Bush's chief military adviser said at the University of Kentucky on Friday night.
ARMY - 15. Fort Lewis, Neighbors Celebrate Partnership
(Tacoma News Tribune)...Brent Champaco
A whoÃÔ who of Fort Lewis officials joined local government leaders Friday to reaffirm the close ties between the base and the rest of the South Sound.
- 16. First Person Singular
(Washington Post Magazine)...Cathy Areu
Gen. Richard Cody, Vice Chief of Staff, Army, Washington.
- 17. New 25th Infantry Leader Riles Religious-Rights Group
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin)...John Milburn, Associated Press
The founder of a foundation that has sued the military, alleging widespread violations of religious freedom, has criticized the promotion of an Army general who was reprimanded last year for helping a Christian group produce a fundraising video.
- 18. Fort Sam Houston's Barracks Pass Inspection
(Houston Chronicle)...Jim Vertuno, Associated Press
Recent inspections of barracks at Fort Sam Houston turned up only minor problems at one of the Army's oldest installations, and the garrison commander said Friday she's proud of the soldiers' living quarters there.
MARINE CORPS - 19. Top Honor Sought For Marine Whose Weapon Was Words
(San Diego Union-Tribune)...Adrian Sainz, Associated Press
...Now, almost two years after his death, there's a renewed campaign to give Gabaldon the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award. A new documentary, Ŧast L.A. Marine, asks whether Gabaldon's Latino heritage prevented him from receiving the medal. Critics question whether Gabaldon deserves the medal, saying his feats don't measure up to those of others on Saipan.
NAVY - 22. Navy Is Urged To Lobby For Metro
(Washington Post)...Steve Vogel
Montgomery County officials are calling on the Navy to push the Pentagon and Congress to approve federal funding for transit improvements around the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.
AIR FORCE - 23. MacDill AirFest Dazzles Visitors
(Tampa Tribune)...Laura Kinsler
...The Snowbirds weren't the only act debuting at this year's AirFest. Tim Chopp, former Army mechanic, flew a C-54 transport plane in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the "candy drops" over Berlin. The planes, which had bombed Germany during World War II, dropped food and coal to West Germans in the early days of the Cold War.
MIDEAST ASIA/PACIFIC - 25. Bush's N. Korea Policy Draws Right Jab
(Washington Times)...David R. Sands
Conservative critics of the Bush administration's North Korea policy including former top security officials from the president's first term say they are not assuaged by the administration's latest move to toughen the terms of a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons programs.
AFRICA - 26. AFRICOM Halts HQ Plan; Will Phase In Staff
(Mideast Stars and Stripes)...Charlie Coon
The U.S. Africa Command has shelved plans to build a new headquarters on the African continent in favor of placing staff there as needs arise.
MILITARY - 27. 9/11 Charity Held Up As Model Of How Best To Help Bereaved
(Washington Post)...Philip Rucker
Nearly seven years after a hijacked airplane crashed into the Pentagon, the largest charity established to help Washington area victims and their families is closing, becoming the last major Sept. 11-related charity to shut down.
POLITICS - 28. Analysts Divided On Clinton's Arab Defense Plan
(Washington Post)...Glenn Kessler
...Few foreign policy issues have divided the candidates more than how to deal with Iran. Obama has offered to hold direct talks to halt Iran's nuclear program. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee, has cast doubt on the value of such negotiations, and Clinton falls somewhere between the two.
BOOKS - 29. Book By Mary Tillman Details Her Fight For Facts In Son's Death
(Arizona Republic (Phoenix))...Dennis Wagner
...Amid millions of written words, Americans might wonder: What more is there to tell? Yet Mary Tillman, who is to appear tonight on 60 Minutes, has written 330 additional pages. The book, Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman, with journalist Narda Zacchino, describes a family's behind-the-scenes quest for truth spliced with flashbacks about the soldier's life and exploits.
BUSINESS - 30. Shell Firms Shielded US Contractor From Taxes
(Boston Globe)...Farah Stockman
In March 2005, one of the Pentagon's most trusted contractors - Virginia-based MPRI, founded by retired senior military leaders - won a $400 million contract to train police in Iraq and other hotspots. Two months later, MPRI set up a company in Bermuda to which it subcontracted much of the work. It was not the first time that MPRI executives had used a shell company in an offshore tax haven to perform government-funded work.
OPINION - 31. Military Check-Up Time
(Washington Times)...Michael O'Hanlon
How well are our armed forces, and particularly our ground forces, holding up under the remarkable strain of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?
- 32. An Enemy On The Run
(Washington Post)...David Ignatius
...The solution isn't to send a large number of U.S. soldiers into Pakistan -- indeed, that could actually make the situation worse -- but to send the right ones, with the right skills.
- 33. Taking Back The Frontier
(Washington Post)...Ahmed Rashid
The most dangerous place on Earth -- the Pashtun tribal belt straddling Pakistan's border with Afghanistan -- is about to get more dangerous.
- 34. Right The Wrong
(New York Times)...Nathaniel Fick
WITH eight months left in office, President Bush has the power to shape his successorÃÔ inheritance in Iraq. And the over-arching imperative right now, as articulated by Gen. David Petraeus and others, is to build on the reduction in violence that the surge has achieved by encouraging political reconciliation among the various factions in Iraq.
- 35. Time To Cut The Cord
(New York Times)...Richard Perle
THE most important thing we can do to help the Iraqis and ourselves is to recognize and reverse the seminal mistake that followed the quick destruction of Saddam HusseinÃÔ murderous regime: the foolish (however well-meaning) and arrogant belief that we know better than the Iraqis how to rebuild their devastated society.
- 36. Neighbors At The Table
(New York Times)...Paul D. Eaton
THE Army has given President Bush an opportunity to salvage something from the Iraq situation. I regret that he continues to fail his troops, plodding ahead on a failed strategy. He has not brought to bear the great economic and diplomatic power of our nation.
- 37. Don't Drain Iraq's Cash
(New York Times)...Frederick Kagan
...The argument that Iraq should use its oil revenues to pay the United States sounds like the ultimate proof that we invaded Iraq for mercenary reasons. If it insists that Iraq underwrite American military forces, Congress would do catastrophic damage to our image in the world, particularly the Muslim world. America does not go to war for profit ever. We should not make it appear as if we do.
- 38. Baghdad Must Pay Its Way
(New York Times)...L. Paul Bremer III
...With oil production running at prewar levels, it is time for America to insist that Iraq make fuller use of its oil revenues for equipping and training its security forces and for economic reconstruction.
- 39. A Day In The Life Of A Guantanamo Guard
(Lawrence (KS) Journal-World)...Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti
...While that may be the schedule, it does not tell the full story of a guardÃÔ day at Guantanamo Bay. To do that requires an understanding of something called the Battle Update Brief, better known as the BUB. The reason the word battle is used is because the detainees see the camps as an extension of the battlefield. So do the guards.
- 40. Worst Of Worst Live Relatively Well
(Lawrence (KS) Journal-World)...Dan C. Simons
Dan Simons, president of the electronics division of The World Company, recently joined a Department of Defense Joint Civilian Orientation Conference visiting U.S. military installations. HereÃÔ a report about one of them.
- 41. A Prison Of Shame, And It's Ours
(New York Times)...Nicholas D. Kristof
...Both Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates have pushed to shut down GuantáÏamo because it undermines AmericaÃÔ standing and influence. They have been overruled by Dick Cheney and other hard-liners. In reality, it would take an exceptional enemy to damage AmericaÃÔ image and interests as much as President Bush and Mr. Cheney already have with GuantáÏamo.
- 42. Disenfranchised Over There
(Weekly Standard)...Hans A. von Spakovsky and Roman Buhler
Over the past 40 years, starting with the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, Congress has sought to guarantee the right of every American citizen to vote. But there is still a large and significant group of Americans who are needlessly disenfranchised: the millions of men and women who serve abroad in our armed forces.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598476.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2008
Iran Promises Iraq It Will Help 'Stabilize Security'
An Iraqi delegation that traveled to Tehran to raise allegations of Iranian interference in Iraq's violence says it sensed 'a positive stance' and got a pledge for improved cooperation.
By Tina Susman and Ramin Mostaghim, Special to The Times
BAGHDAD An Iraqi delegation that traveled to Iran to confront it with allegations of involvement in Iraqi violence returned Saturday saying it had secured an agreement to "stabilize security" and improve cooperation.
The statements were in stark contrast to the harsh words Iraqi officials had last week for Iran. Those included allegations that Iranian-made weapons with manufacture dates of 2008 had been found in the southern city of Basra in the wake of recent clashes between Shiite Muslim militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. security forces.
The purported finds, which have not been shown to the public, would prove that Iran had broken a commitment to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki last year to help cut off weapons, funding and other support for militants.
U.S. military officials have portrayed the purported Basra caches as an "eye-opener" for Iraqi leaders, providing Baghdad the evidence it needed to confront Iran. Tehran denies accusations of involvement in Iraq's violence. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Ali Hosseini, told The Times in a telephone interview last week that Iran welcomed the Iraqi delegation "and wants to stop the violence in Iraq."
Khalid Attiya, deputy speaker of Iraq's parliament, said the five-member delegation "sensed a positive stance" from Iranian officials. "The two sides have agreed to keep up efforts to stabilize security," he said.
Attiya made no mention of the recent accusations by the U.S. government, charges that the Pentagon has been leveling for years. U.S. military and political officials have been more vocal about the allegations since late March, when Maliki launched the Basra offensive against Shiite militias.
The United States blames much of the fighting since the offensive on Iranian-backed extremists. Iran says the United States is using it as a scapegoat for its problems in Iraq.
The heightened tensions have put Iraq in an uncomfortable position as it is pressured by Washington to be more aggressive toward Iran, with which it shares a long border and has strong economic and religious ties. Iraq's main Shiite group, the powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, is allied with Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party and with the United States, but it also has close ties to Tehran.
The group's chief advisor in Iran, Mohsen Hakim, refused to discuss the allegations against Iran in an interview Saturday, saying there was "no official declaration about that from the Iraqi government."
"Look, the disputes between Iran and the United States are not new," Hakim said when asked to speculate on the reason for the Pentagon's renewed allegations against Iran. He said any problems between Iran and the United States should be settled through negotiations, echoing Iraqi officials' comments last week that appeared aimed at getting Washington to tone down its rhetoric.
"All over the region . . . there is a worry about tensions between Iran and the U.S.," he said. "You can call it tension, crisis, or war, whatever. Everybody in the region is worried."
In the latest violence in Iraq, the U.S. military announced early today that four Marines had been killed in western Anbar province in a bomb blast. The brief announcement said the deaths occurred Friday. At least 4,066 U.S. forces have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, not including the latest deaths, according to icasualties.org.
On Saturday, the U.S. military sent a guided missile slamming into a building in the heart of Sadr City, the cleric's Baghdad stronghold. The military said the building was a command center used by militiamen to coordinate attacks on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and civilians.
But it was next to a hospital parking lot, and hospital officials said at least 28 people were injured and 11 ambulances damaged by debris from the blast.
Times staff writer Susman reported from Baghdad and special correspondent Mostaghim from Tehran. Times staff writer Raheem Salman and a special correspondent in Baghdad contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598416.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
New York Times
May 4, 2008
Pg. 12
Missiles Strike Sadr City, Damaging Hospital
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD The ugly daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and a number of its ambulances, and near a group of children who were wounded as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.
The missiles that hit close to the Sadr General Hospital were American. After a night of clashes in the neighborhood, the Americans fired at least three ÅÑrecision-guided munitions at the small building next door to the hospital. Neighbors said the building was used as a place of prayer for pilgrims, hospital employees and neighborhood residents, but the military identified it as a command center for the Shiite militias that it is battling.
Twenty-eight people were wounded in the strikes on the building and surrounding area, said Abdul Hussain Qassim, a hospital official.
Responsibility for the other strike is in dispute. The Americans said claims that they had attacked the children were ÅÑreposterous. The area where the hit occurred is near heavily contested ground. Shiite militias trying to hit nearby Iraqi Army and American forces have sometimes misfired, hitting areas near there in recent fighting.
Both instances underline sad truths about urban warfare. The daily horror for families and children living near the front line area of Sadr City is that who is a friend and who a foe is no longer a meaningful question. Heavy weapons do not discriminate. The militias use rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and mounted machine guns as well as AK-47 rifles while the Americans shoot Hellfire missiles, tank rounds, satellite-guided missiles and rounds from machine guns.
Sometimes it feels as if nothing is what it seems. Iraqi ambulances have been used to ferry weapons, and homes are used as safe houses for militia fighters. Men in the vests of municipal road workers sometimes toil at burying improvised explosive devices while Iraqi and American forces have holed up in schools and Education Ministry buildings.
The sign at the iron gate at the entrance to the building demolished by the American strike reads Ūmam HusseinÃÔ Resthouse.Æû/P>
The Americans described the building in a statement as Å ÅÄriminal element command and control center.Æû/P>Ūntelligence reports indicate the command and control center was used by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens, the statement said.
When asked about the attack, Col. Gerald Oéara, a spokesman for the multinational forces, said the Americans ÅÕake great care to prevent any collateral damage and will continue to do so.Æû/P>
Ÿe donÃÕ target civilians and regret any casualties, he added. One of the leaders of the Sadr bloc in Parliament, Nassar al-Rubaie, condemned the attacks, which are mainly focused on the Mahdi Army and other militias associated with Moktada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric. Ÿe blame the government as it stands watching quiet and does not lift a hand. The airstrikes are targeting civilians.Æû/P>
ŵoday was a serious case because it included the hospitals and the ambulances, he said. ŵhis is aggression in the full sense of the word.Æû/P>A doctor, who asked that his name not be used, said that nurses and doctors ran screaming as the blasts blew out hospital windows and shook the building.
The first missile hit the building next door. The second struck an area used as a parking lot for the hospitalÃÔ ambulances, damaging a water line and creating a small pond, as well as destroying three ambulances and shattering the windows in others. A third missile hit a generator nearby that supplied the neighborhood; the hospitalÃÔ generator was not damaged.
About an hour later, at the front line between the southern part of the neighborhood that is held by the American and Iraqi military and the northern section that is held by Shiite militias, the group of children was hit, according to a child and one adult who was injured there and brought to the Sadr hospital.
Haider Abbas, 10, was brought to the hospital with what appeared to be a gaping hole in his back and shrapnel injuries across his stomach. The boy screamed and whimpered in pain, barely able to answer a doctorÃÔ questions.
Å®y friend brought me to the hospital, but we had to leave the other wounded kids behind, he said. ŵhe Iraqi Army refused to allow them to be evacuated, but my friend took me anyway.Æû/P>
The doctor, Abdul Rahman Hadi, said the boy was bleeding internally. Å©e needs surgery quickly, Dr. Hadi said. ŵhe irony is that not one of his relatives has come because he is an orphan.Æû/P>
Another victim of that attack, Ahmad Yahya, 31, whose leg was broken, said the Iraqi Army had blocked evacuation from the area of the attack. Ū was with a group of about 15 children who were collecting the empty cans or the trash in Jamila, he said. Ū donÃÕ know why this happened.Æû/P>Also on Saturday, the Turkish military announced that it had killed 150 fighters in Kurdistan where fighters for the rebel Kurdish group, the P.K.K., and allied groups have remote redoubts. The P.K.K. is fighting to have greater self-rule for Kurds living in Eastern Turkey.
But Bryar Gabary, a spokesman for one of the allied groups, disputed the Turkish militaryÃÔ figures. ŵhe Turkish incursions on Friday killed six of our fighters.Æû/P>The military announced Saturday that an American soldier was killed Friday when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in eastern Baghdad.
Tareq Mahir and an employee of The New York Times contributed reporting. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598438.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Washington Times
May 4, 2008
Pg. 4
U.S. Fires Missiles Into Sadr City Slum
By Bradley Brooks, Associated Press
BAGHDAD--The U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of Baghdad's teeming Sadr City slum yesterday, leveling a building about 55 yards away from a hospital and injuring nearly two dozen people.
AP Television News footage showed several ambulances destroyed and on fire, with thick, black smoke rising from them as firefighters worked to put out the flames.
The strike, made from a ground launcher, took out a militant "command-control center," the U.S. military said. The center was located in the heart of the eight-square-mile neighborhood that is home to about 2.5 million people. Iraqi officials said at least 23 people were injured.
The U.S. military blamed the militants for using Iraqi civilians as human shields.
"This is a circumstance where these criminal groups are operating directly out of civilian neighborhoods," military spokeswoman Spc. Megan Burmeister said in an e-mail.
She said it presents a "complex and very difficult" challenge for U.S. forces to strike the militants when they are "putting themselves next to municipal buildings."
Dr. Ali Bustan al-Fartusee, director general of Baghdad's health directorate, said 23 civilians were injured in the strike.
He said no patients in the hospital were hurt, but that some of the wounded included civilians outside on their way to visit patients in the hospital. He also said 17 ambulances were damaged or destroyed.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have waged street battles with Shi'ite militias since late March in Sadr City, the power base of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.
The fighting is part of a five-week-old crackdown by the Iraqi government and U.S. forces on Shi'ite militia factions. The clashes have created deep rifts among Iraq's Shi'ite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat.
Militia members have been blamed for firing hundreds of rockets or mortars from Sadr City into the Green Zone, the U.S.-protected area housing the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.
In response to the shelling, American and Iraqi troops in recent weeks have moved into Sadr City, hoping to push the militants far enough from the Green Zone so their rockets and mortars would be out of range.
During clashes over the past two days in Sadr City, at least 100 people have been killed, Iraqi health officials said.
The U.S. military said late yesterday that four Marines were killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb in Anbar province.
The military also said that an American soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad Friday.
Georgian Defense Ministry spokesman Giga Tatishvili said two servicemen from the ex-Soviet republic were killed and one wounded south of Baghdad on Friday when a parked car bomb exploded.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598467.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Miami Herald
May 4, 2008
Baghdad Hospital Damaged In U.S. Missile Strike
Dozens were hurt by a U.S. attack in an area plagued by violence between security forces and Shiite militias.
By Shashank Bengali, McClatchy News Service
BAGHDAD--A major hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City slum was damaged Saturday when an American military strike targeted a militia command center just a few yards away, the U.S. military said.
American troops also killed 14 people in separate incidents in and around Sadr City as bloody street battles continued to mark the U.S. effort to rid the area of suspected Shiite Muslim militants, military officials said.
The rocket strike near Sadr Hospital injured 30 people, shattered the windows of ambulances and sent doctors and hospital staff members fleeing the scene, hospital officials said.
That hospital and another major facility in Sadr City had already taken in 25 bodies between Friday afternoon and 10 a.m. Saturday, when the strike occurred, hospital officials said. None of the injuries was life threatening.
Civilian casualties
The U.S. military is facing growing criticism over what residents describe as mounting civilian casualties in Sadr City, a densely populated slum of 2.5 million people, which has seen heavy clashes over the past six weeks between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militiamen loyal to the hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
A senior Iranian official accused the U.S. military of attacking Iraqi civilians, telling the official Fars News Agency that Iran would pull out of talks with the United States on Iraqi security unless the attacks stop. The countries held three rounds of talks last year on Iraq and are due to meet again this year.
U.S. military officials have repeatedly said they try to avoid civilian casualties. They accuse Iran of arming and training Iraqi militias, a charge Tehran denies. American officials in Baghdad were reviewing the Iranian report but didn't comment on it.
Ongoing offensive
Since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Shiite-led government launched an offensive against Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in the southern port city of Basra in March, Shiite militants have targeted U.S. and Iraqi troops in the sprawling, maze-like slum in northeast Baghdad that is becoming increasingly deadly for American soldiers.
Sadr has called on his followers to end the American occupation of Iraq. American military officials say that militants are using houses in Sadr City as bases from which to fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Special correspondent Jinan Hussein contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598483.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
New York Daily News
May 4, 2008
5 U.S. Soldiers Die In Two Iraq Blasts
By Associated Press
BAGHDAD A roadside bomb killed four Marines in Fallujah province on Thursday, the U.S. military said yesterday,
Military officials also announced that a U.S. soldier died yesterday from wounds he suffered in a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad on Friday.
No other details were released on the two bombings and the names of the Marines and the soldier were withheld pending notification of their families.
Separately, at least 23 people were wounded in BaghdadÃÔ Sadr City yesterday when the U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of the teeming slum.
The blasts leveled a building 55 yards away from a hospital, Iraqi officials said. None of the wounded were patients in the hospital.
The strike, made from a ground launcher, took out a militant ÅÄommand-control center, the U.S. military said.
The center was located in the heart of an 8-square-mile neighborhood that is home to about 2.5 million people. U.S. military officials blamed the militants for using Iraqi civilians as human shields.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598414.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
New York Times
May 4, 2008
Pg. 12
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.'s
By James Risen
WASHINGTON In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
The bulletin, with the headline ŵhe Unexpected Killer, was issued after the horrific deaths of two soldiers who were caught in water one in a shower, the other in a swimming pool that was suddenly electrified after poorly grounded wiring short-circuited.
ŸeÃ×e had several shocks in showers and near misses here in Baghdad, as well as in other parts of the country, Frank Trent, an expert with the Army Corps of Engineers, wrote in the bulletin. Å¢s we install temporary and permanent power on our projects, we must ensure that we require contractors to properly ground electrical systems.Æû/P>Since that warning, at least two more American soldiers have been electrocuted in similar circumstances. In all, at least a dozen American military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq, according to the Pentagon and Congressional investigators.
While several deaths have been attributed to inadvertent contact with power lines under battlefield conditions, the Army bulletin said that five deaths over the preceding year had apparently been caused by faulty grounding, and the circumstances of others have not been fully explained by the Army. Many more soldiers have been injured by shocks, Pentagon officials and soldiers say.
The accidental deaths and close calls, which are being investigated by Congress and the Defense DepartmentÃÔ inspector general, raise new questions about the oversight of contractors in the war zone, where unjustified killings by security guards, shoddy reconstruction projects and fraud involving military supplies have spurred previous inquiries.
American electricians who worked for KBR, the Houston-based defense contractor that is responsible for maintaining American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, said they repeatedly warned company managers and military officials about unsafe electrical work, which was often performed by poorly trained Iraqis and Afghans paid just a few dollars a day.
One electrician warned his KBR bosses in his 2005 letter of resignation that unsafe electrical work was ÅÂ disaster waiting to happen. Another said he witnessed an American soldier in Afghanistan receiving a potentially lethal shock. A third provided e-mail messages and other documents showing that he had complained to KBR and the government that logs were created to make it appear that nonexistent electrical safety systems were properly functioning.
KBR itself told the Pentagon in early 2007 about unsafe electrical wiring at a base near the Baghdad airport, but no repairs were made. Less than a year later, a soldier was electrocuted in a shower there.
Ū donÃÕ feel like they did their job, Carmen Nolasco Duran of La Puente, Calif., said of Pentagon officials. Her brother, Specialist Marcos O. Nolasco, was electrocuted at a base in Baiji in May 2004 while showering. ŵhey hired these contractors and yet they didnÃÕ go and double-check that the work was fine.Æû/P>
The Defense Contract Management Agency, which is responsible for supervising maintenance work by contractors at American bases in Iraq, defended its performance. In a written statement, the agency said it had no information that staff members ÅØere aware of the Army alert or ÅÇailed to take appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention.Æû/P>Keith Ernst, who stepped down Wednesday as the agencyÃÔ director, said, though, that the agency was ÅÔtretched too thin in Iraq and that the small number of contract officers did not have expertise in dealing with so-called life support contracts, like that awarded to KBR to provide food, shelter and building maintenance. Ÿe donÃÕ have the technical capability for overseeing life support systems, he said.
For its part, KBR, which until last year was known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, denied that any lapses by the company had led to the electrocutions of American soldiers. ŬBRÃÔ commitment to employee safety and the safety of those the company serves is unwavering, said a spokeswoman, Heather Browne. ŬBR has found no evidence of a link between the work it has been tasked to perform and the reported electrocutions.Æû/P>Ms. Browne declined to respond to the specific accounts of former KBR electricians.
Those electricians have a ready response to anyone who suggests that poor electrical work might be considered an unavoidable cost of war. ŵhe excuse KBR always used was, Áµhis is a war zone what do you expect?Ãô recalled Jeffrey Bliss, an Ohio electrician who worked for the company in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. Å£ut if you are going to do the work, you have got to do it safe.Æû/P>Since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, tens of thousands of American troops have been housed in pre-existing Iraqi government buildings, some of them dangerously dilapidated. As part of its $30 billion contract with the Pentagon in Iraq, KBR was required to repair and upgrade many of the buildings, including their electrical systems. The company handles maintenance for 4,000 structures and 35,000 containerized housing units in the war zone, the Pentagon said.
Lawmakers and government investigators say it is now clear that the Bush administration outsourced so much work to KBR and other contractors in Iraq that the agencies charged with oversight have been overwhelmed. The Defense Contracting Management Agency has more than 9,000 employees, but it has only 60 contract officers in Iraq and 30 in Afghanistan to supervise nearly 18,000 KBR employees in Iraq and 4,400 in Afghanistan handling base maintenance.
Å¢ll the contract officers can do is check the paperwork, said one agency official, who asked not to be identified. While about 600 military officers supplement the contract officers, Mr. Ernst said, the soldiers are not adequately trained for the task.
The Army has provided little detailed information about the electrocutions, other than to say late Friday that 10 soldiers had been electrocuted in Iraq. A House panel has also reported that two marines died similarly.
In the civilian work force, about 250 workers died from electrocution in the United States in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the Army warning bulletin, two deaths occurred 10 days apart in May 2004 at different bases in northern Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, 23, of the Texas National Guard was electrocuted in September 2005 while power-washing a Humvee at Camp Taqaddum, in central Iraq near Falluja. His mother, Larraine McGee said Army officials had told her that the equipment he was using was connected to a generator that was not properly grounded, and that soldiers had previously complained of shocks.
Ÿe were told that as a result of his death all the generators were being repaired and that it wouldnÃÕ happen again, Ms. McGee said. Å£ut if it is still going on, somethingÃÔ not right.Æû/P>The most recent fatality occurred on Jan. 2 in Baghdad, when Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret, died in a shower after an improperly grounded water pump short-circuited.
Nearly a year earlier, KBR issued a technical report to the contracting agency citing safety concerns related to the grounding and wiring in the building in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex, where Sergeant MasethÃÔ unit, the Army Fifth Special Forces Group, was housed.
Another soldier said in an interview that he was repeatedly shocked in the shower in December 2007 and submitted requests for repairs. But nothing was done until the day after Sergeant MasethÃÔ death, when the defense agency ordered KBR to correct the problem, according to Pentagon documents.
Cheryl Harris, Sergeant MasethÃÔ mother, said in an interview that the Army initially told her that her son had taken an electrical appliance into the shower with him. Later, she said, officials told her that investigators had found electrical wires hanging down around the shower. She said she had been skeptical of both accounts and learned the truth only after repeatedly questioning Army officials.
Her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR, the only such claim brought in any of the electrical deaths.
Ū knew Ryan would not get into a shower with an electrical appliance, and having wires hanging overhead didnÃÕ make sense, said Ms. Harris, of Cranberry Township, Pa. Å®y biggest question is really, why would KBR do a safety inspection, know about the electrical problems and not alert the troops?Æû/P>Long before Sergeant MasethÃÔ death, KBR electricians were complaining about the dangers of unsafe electrical work at bases.
In 2006, John McLain was working as a KBR electrician at the United States regional embassy compound in Hilla, south of Baghdad, when he made a disturbing discovery. A KBR quality control inspector had recently cited employees there for failing to file quarterly ground resistance testing logs reports on whether the wiring in the upgraded embassy building was properly grounded and safe.
Mr. McLain soon realized that the testing was not being conducted, because the building had never been grounded, though KBR and at least one Iraqi subcontractor were supposed to install proper safeguards during a renovation the previous year. Mr. McLain said he had sent a series of increasingly blunt memos and e-mail warnings about the safety hazards to KBR officials.
Mr. McLain said other KBR electricians later created logs that incorrectly made it appear that the grounding system existed. KBR fired him in 2007 after he told a visiting defense contracting agency official about his concerns. His candor proved useless, however. Mr. McLain said that the contracting agency official showed no interest. Å©e said, ÁªÃÎ not an electrician; I donÃÕ know what you are talking about,ÃôMr. McLain recalled.
Noris Rogers, who worked for KBR in Afghanistan in 2005, said he repeatedly complained to his supervisors that electrical work at Camp Eggers, the American militaryÃÔ command base in Kabul, Afghanistan, did not meet the requirements of the companyÃÔ Pentagon contract.
Mr. Bliss, who saw a soldier in Qalat, Afghanistan, get a severe shock from an electrical box that was not supposed to be charged, said his KBR bosses mocked him for raising safety issues. They were ÅÏot giving the Army what it needed, he said, ÅÂnd not giving the soldiers what they deserved.Æû/P>
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598424.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Washington Post
May 4, 2008
Pg. 16
U.S. Seeks Contractors To Train Iraqi Military
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer
U.S. commanders in Iraq are for the first time seeking private contractors to form part of the small military teams that train and live with Iraqi military units across the country, according to a notice for prospective bidders published last week.
The solicitation, issued by the Joint Contracting Command in Baghdad, says the individuals that a contractor recruits -- who would include former members of the U.S. Special Forces and ex-Iraqi army officers -- will be trained in the United States with military transition teams (MiTTs) and shipped as a single team to Iraq. The recruits will live on Iraqi military bases "under Iraqi living conditions and participate with MiTT special operations and convoy duties," the solicitation says.
Thus far, the MiTTs have consisted of specially trained teams of about 10 to 12 U.S. soldiers led by a field-grade officer that were embedded with Iraqi army units from the division level down to the battalion level. The MiTTs have included officers and noncommissioned officers from different service branches tasked with teaching and mentoring their Iraqi counterparts to make them self-sufficient.
Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and now a scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, described the new effort as an understandable step, given the current stresses facing the U.S. military.
"There is a lot of pressure on the active Army, and during this transition period where the military is converting to noncombat roles, a shift to contractors as trainers for the expanding Iraqi military is a natural step." He added, however, that the outcome "depends on the quality of those the contractors recruit."
Michael O'Hanlon, a military specialist at the Brookings Institution, said the need for contractors to support the Iraq transition teams is linked to the shortage of such officers in the U.S. Army at a time when it is also expanding. "There are insufficient field-grade officers in our own service, and we need the captains and majors as we increase our own ground forces," he said.
This newest proposal to outsource what has been a military activity comes as military contracting in Iraq undergoes increased scrutiny from Congress.
The Senate Armed Services Committee recently added a provision to the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill that directs the Government Accountability Office to determine how many private contractors currently operate in Iraq and Afghanistan and how field commanders intend to integrate the contractors into their operational plans.
Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), an author of the provision, said that after his recent trip to Iraq he concluded that "our government agencies need to know how many contractors are in theater and how many contracting support plans our commanders are using today."
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who last year helped pass legislation establishing a bipartisan commission on wartime contracting, said, "We cannot ever permit another contracting disaster like we have right now." When President Bush signed the bill in January establishing the commission, his signing statement cited it as a provision he might not implement.
Despite that, the commission is expected to be named by the end of the month, said a Senate staff member who was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.
Another contract proposal published last month involves the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity, the agency established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to coordinate all counterintelligence and counterterrorism activity. CIFA's activities, which were carried out at home and abroad primarily by contractors, have recently been reduced by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and the entity has been placed under the Defense Intelligence Agency.
CIFA's previously contracted activities include supplying analysts to the strategic counterintelligence directorates in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the Combined Media Processing Center in Qatar, which provides research and analysis to Central Command, as well as to U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement. The original 2004 contract was put out for bid again last month, covering one year with the option for two more years.
The 30 people that CIFA now seeks from a contractor must have top-secret clearances. They will be placed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Qatar, where they will provide analytic support "to systematically identify and degrade foreign intelligence and terrorist threats" in collaboration with the military and the intelligence and law enforcement communities, the contract proposal says.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598470.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2008
Pg. 1
Blackwater Shooting Highlights A U.S., Iraq Culture Clash
Relatives of those killed in September by U.S. contractors are insulted by the compensation offers. In their justice system, an apology comes first.
By Borzou Daragahi and Raheem Salman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
BAGHDAD He refused to take the Americans' blood money.
Mohammed Hafidh Abdul-Razzaq had been summoned by U.S. Embassy officials who wanted to make amends for the killing of his 10-year-old son. The boy died during a shooting involving employees of Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. security firm.
Deputy Chief of Mission Patricia A. Butenis told him that she was sorry for what had happened, Abdul-Razzaq recalled. She gave him a sealed envelope. It had his name written on it. Abdul-Razzaq pushed it away.
"I told her I refuse to receive any amount," the auto parts dealer said. "My father is a tribal sheik, and we're not used to taking any amount unless the concerned will come and confess and apologize. Then we will talk about compensation."
In September, Blackwater contractors protecting an embassy mission killed 17 Iraqis, including Abdul-Razzaq's boy, and injured at least two dozen in a widely publicized incident in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Blackwater officials have said their workers feared they were under attack; Iraqi officials and witnesses called it a massacre.
U.S. officials say the investigation of the shooting continues, though they have been tight-lipped about details. An FBI report is due this year. In April, the State Department renewed Blackwater's contract for another year, a move that enraged many Iraqis affected by the killings.
Far from bringing justice and closure, the investigations underline the frictions between Americans and Iraqis that have plagued the five-year U.S. presence. The shooting and its aftermath show the deep disconnect between the American legal process and the traditional culture of Iraq, between the courtroom and the tribal
diwan.
U.S. officials painstakingly examine evidence and laws while attempting to satisfy victims' claims through cash compensation.
But traditional Arab society values honor and decorum above all. If a man kills or badly injures someone in an accident, both families convene a tribal summit. The perpetrator admits responsibility, commiserates with the victim, pays medical expenses and other compensation, all over glasses of tea in a tribal tent.
"Our system is so different from theirs," said David Mack, a former U.S. diplomat who has served in American embassies in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. "An honor settlement has to be both financial and it has to have the right symbolism. We would never accept their way of doing things, and they don't accept ours."
Citing confidentiality requirements, U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about the Blackwater investigations. Iraqi victims are the only witnesses to the behind-the-scenes legal process who are willing to talk. Their accounts of the investigation jibed individually as well as with the typical narrative of U.S. criminal investigation.
Under U.S. military doctrine, rules of engagement allow U.S. soldiers and contractors in a combat zone to defend themselves if they fear they are under attack. The rules tighten and loosen as conditions on the ground shift. The Nisoor Square incident took place at the end of what had been one of the worst periods of violence in Iraq.
The Blackwater team says it was justified in firing to protect itself and the State Department officials it was guarding. Speaking before Congress, Blackwater owner Erik Prince said the team was doing its duty in the face of an onslaught, and he described the square as "a terrorist crime scene."
Prince offended those who say they were simply going about their day's chores.
Baraa Sadoon Ismail, 29, a father of two, was severely injured in the gunfire while driving to a relative's house. Doctors told him he had 60 fragments of bullet lodged in his abdomen. He said he had undergone surgery to remove three pieces that threatened major organs.
He has met with eight committees of investigators so far, including twice with the FBI. Teams of three or four people would sit in a room with him. They would show him an aerial map on a table. They asked how and when and where the shooting started. Where was this victim? Where were you?
Several times he asked about his car, which was shot up in the incident. Investigators told him it was still needed for the investigation. They wanted to know whether he planned to ask for compensation. He was miffed.
"I want you to feel that Iraqi life is precious," he said he told them.
Physician Haitham Rubaie doesn't want money either. What he wants above all is justice for his wife, a doctor, and his son, a medical student, who died.
He rebuffed attempts to have a donation to an orphanage made in his family's name. No amount of cash, no matter how well-intentioned, would sweep this under the rug.
"I don't want any help from you," he said he told them. "If you want to help the orphans, you give them money yourselves."
If North Carolina-based Blackwater wanted to negotiate, it would have to apologize, publicly and loudly, he said.
"Let them apologize by saying those were innocent people," Rubaie said. "Then we will be ready for understanding."
Rubaie couldn't believe that with the investigation still going on, the State Department would renew the Blackwater contract.
"Such decisions abuse us," he said. "I appeal to the American ambassador: Just as he considers the safety of the American diplomats, he must also consider the safety of the Iraqi citizen in an equal way."
Abdul-Razzaq remembered rushing his son to a hospital, and being told an hour later that he was dead. At a police station two days later, U.S. investigators apologized while emphasizing that Blackwater personnel worked for a private company, not the U.S. military, he said.
"I told them that if they didn't fall under [the military's] protection, I would have killed them with my teeth right here on the street," he said.
They pulled out an aerial map of Nisoor Square.
Days went by. Nothing happened. A day before the Oct. 12 Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Abdul-Razzaq got a call from an Iraqi official asking him to meet with FBI investigators. He resisted. He was planning to visit his son's grave.
But the official pressed him: The FBI had come all the way from the U.S. and would be there only a few days. Abdul-Razzaq relented.
They wanted distances and positions. They asked about his height, weight, skin and eye color, his job, his customers, his employees and number of children. They asked about exit wounds, how his son was injured. The rage welled up.
"It was a massacre," Abdul-Razzaq said of the incident. "It is as if they came with the sole intent of eradicating all -- women and children, they had to die."
The investigators requested his car to examine bullet fragments. He towed it to an entrance of the Green Zone, the U.S.-protected administrative headquarters of Baghdad, and invited a CNN team to film the transfer.
A few weeks later, he was summoned to another meeting at the U.S. Embassy with Butenis. He said she asked whether he wanted to press charges or receive compensation, how much he wanted and what terms he demanded for a settlement.
"I told them I didn't expect to be compensated a large sum," he recalled. "No amount of money would return my son. I told them I would feel better only if I knew the people responsible for this crime are brought to trial."
Two months ago, an intermediary on behalf of Blackwater again offered him money as a goodwill gesture, he said. Again he refused.
Two days later, he said, he met with a Blackwater representative. The man offered him $20,000, Abdul-Razzaq said, "not as compensation, but as a gift." Abdul-Razzaq said he refused again.
"If you write out an apology for me and confess your crime," he recalled saying, "I will give you a similar paper with my signature promising not to press charges."
He said the official told him such an arrangement was impossible. His company's lawyers in America would never sign off on such a proposal.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598403.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
London Sunday Times
May 4, 2008
Mahdi Army Fighters Grateful For Sand Storm Standstills In Sadr City
By Hala Jaber
On a bare patch of ground outside the entrance to Sadr general hospital, 15 women clad from head to foot in black squatted in a sandstorm, wailing and waiting for their dead.
Lightning flashed, thunder rolled and the womenÃÔ robes were spattered with mud falling from a sky filled with rain and sand, but they did not notice.
źaÃÎma, YaÃÃa (Å°h mother, oh father, cried Amira Zaydan, a 45-year-old spinster, slapping her face and chest as she grieved for her parents Jaleel, 65, and Hanounah, 60, whose house had exploded after apparently being hit by an American rocket.
Ÿhere are you, my brothers? she sobbed, lamenting Samir, 32, and Amir, 29, who had also perished along with their wives, one of whom was nine months pregnant.
Ÿhat wrong have you done, my children? she howled to the spirits of four nephews and nieces who completed a toll of 10 family members in the disaster that struck last Tuesday. Å®others, children, babies; all obliterated for nothing.Æû/P>The keening of Zaydan and her distraught circle of friends was drowned out briefly by sirens shrieking as ambulances sped through the hospital gateway with the latest consignment of casualties from a brutal battle that has been raging for the past month in Sadr City, a slum of more than 2m souls on the eastern side of Baghdad.
Doctors and nurses with pinched faces darted out of the dilapidated hospital to greet the wounded and dying, while administrators stared at the weeping women and saw that they were beyond comforting.
Zaydan had hardly moved from the hospital for 24 hours since her familyÃÔ home was demolished as she and her sister Samira, 43, prepared lunch. Neighbours were trying to dig bodies out of the debris when another rocket landed, killing at least six rescuers.
Apart from the two sisters, the familyÃÔ only survivor was their brother Ahmad, 25, who arrived at the hospital with leg injuries and shock. Ū lost everybody, was all he could say.
On Wednesday afternoon, Zaydan was still waiting for seven family members to be disinterred from the rubble and delivered to Sadr general. The other three were in the morgue, among them a nephew, aged three, lying on a trolley in a puddle of blood from a head wound.
The child was another helpless victim of a clash between titanic powers which has killed 935 people and wounded 2,605. Even by the callous standards of IraqÃÔ cruel war, this is a ruthless struggle. Most of the dead and injured have been civilians.
On one side is the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army of the radical ShiÃÊte cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, which is defending Sadr City, its biggest stronghold, with a resilience it failed to show when it ceded parts of the southern port of Basra last month.
On the other is the American-backed Iraqi army of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, which launched an offensive on March 30 with the aim of seizing control of the city but which took only one southern district before its advance was halted.
The fight between Sadr and Maliki, between the dirt-poor who look to the firebrand cleric for inspiration and the relatively secure who support the prime minister, is one that neither side can afford to lose.
Last week the Mahdi fighters took advantage of the sandstorms, which grounded US helicopters, to blast the Iraqi armyÃÔ front line positions with roadside bombs, mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire.
Embedded with them for four days and three nights, I witnessed the fighting at close quarters, learnt of preparations being made by Mahdi special forces to spread the violence to other parts of Baghdad and heard their commanders swear to paralyse the government and destroy Maliki if their own leader authorises all-out war.
The battle of Sadr City, with all the human misery it entails, is in danger of spilling out across the capital, reversing the security gains that followed last summerÃÔ American troop surge.
It is little wonder that US commanders say the ShiÃÊte militias backed by Iran now pose a greater threat than the Sunni insurgents who were their deadliest enemies when Al-Qaeda in Iraq was at its peak.
Ÿe can bring Baghdad to a standstill, boasted one Mahdi commander. Å£e assured that when all-out war is eventually declared, we will be able to take over the city.Æû/P>No sooner had I arrived in Sadr City than my escorts received word that an attack was about to be launched on Al-Quds Road, the dividing line between the Mahdi forces to the north and the Iraqi army to the south.
Sand was swirling through the air as a fresh storm stirred and the men knew this presented them with an opportunity.
Å¢llah is on our side, said one. ŵhey bombard us with artillery, war planes and helicopters at will. Maliki has the entire US air force behind his army and all we need is a bit of sand to bring it to a standstill.Æû/P>As we reached the narrow streets that ran down to Al-Quds Road, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary at first. But one by one, young men in western jeans and T-shirts appeared from the alleyways with machineguns or rifles slung across their shoulders. They grinned, patted each otherÃÔ backs and uttered the greeting űeace be with you before getting down to the business of war.
Two snipers had already entered shattered buildings overlooking the highway beyond which the Iraqi army was hunkered down. The dozen or so gunmen who had congregated in front of me ran forwards 50 yards to take up their positions. Then one of them briefly broke cover to open fire with his AK47 assault rifle. Another stepped round a corner and unleashed a volley of bullets from a heavy-calibre machinegun, followed by another and another.
As the Mahdi positions came under equally heavy machinegun fire in turn, the noise reached a crescendo with an exchange of mortar rounds that smashed shops on either side of Al-Quds Road, showering the whole area with shards of debris. The cacophony faded, only to be replaced by the whizz of snipers bullets shooting up the street. It was time to take cover.
My escort hammered on the gates of the nearest house and a woman ushered me into her courtyard, introducing herself as Salma Jamila, an unmarried teacher aged 40 who lived with her elderly parents. When she heard that I had come to report on the fighting, she fetched a small plastic chair and propped it against the yard wall so that I could peep over it to see what was happening.
Evidently a cool hostess in a crisis, she disappeared into her kitchen and returned beaming with bottles of orange juice on a tray as mortar rounds crashed on to the road less than 100 yards away.
Stranger still, another guest arrived, a cousin and Mahdi Army commander named Abu Ali who was enjoying a day off. He hugged Jamila, explained that he had come to visit her father and chatted away about how he had been arrested a few days earlier.
Å°ne of the officers with the Iraqi army is a Mahdi sympathiser and he arranged for me to be released within two hours, he said with a smile. Ÿe have quite a number of Mahdi people in the army and they tip us off about certain movements.Æû/P>The violence died down as suddenly as it had flared up and some of the fighters shouted that it was all over. A man with a relaxed manner and a Russian rifle on his back sauntered past. I asked him how old he was.
ŵwenty-three, he answered. źoung for a sniper, I said. He shrugged.
Ū killed two Iraqi soldiers, he replied, and strolled away.
Another passing fighter, a well-built man with fair skin, said he had set fire to an Iraqi tank with a rocket. There was no way to verify either account.
The men exchanged information for a few moments before walking off in different directions. Some were collected by cars as they approached neighbouring streets incongruously thronged with shoppers inured to shooting and buying food for the evening meal.
It was around 6pm, as we were driving towards the centre of Sadr City, that another call came through and we headed back to the front line. This time Mahdi fighters were trying to push back Iraqi army and American forces.
Several people were said to be buried under collapsed buildings and the Mahdi Army which, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, has made itself popular by providing welfare services to local people had decided to take responsibility for rescuing them, even if that meant fighting its way to the scene.
Driving along roads lined with open sewers, past children playing football in winding alleys and old women peering out from their doorways, we reached a point where men on street corners were handing cold water to fighters taking a break from the front line.
We parked and moved forwards through ranks of Mahdi Army fighters who had lined an alleyway with rocket-launchers, rifles and machineguns. The sound of sniper fire intensified but the hardened militiamen who were accompanying me paid no attention.
The regular thud of mortars and the relentless clatter of machineguns indicated that the fighting here was far more intense than it had been earlier on Al-Quds Road.
As we rounded a corner, I noticed a school 100 yards ahead on the right-hand side. I was wondering how long it would be before the pupils could return when an explosion almost knocked us off our feet. An artillery shell had landed in the playground and the classrooms were shattered by shrapnel.
I froze with fear. For the second time that day, a fighter rapped on the nearest house gate and I was beckoned into a secluded courtyard. So shaken was I that my legs barely carried me into the house. I squatted on the floor to catch my breath.
Three spinsters produced a large bottle of fizzy drink from a shop they ran from their house. As before, the fighting subsided after about half an hour and we returned to our vehicle.
The inconclusive nature of both confrontations witnessed suggested that neither side could be confident of gaining the upper hand.
The Iraqi army may have the superior fire-power but Mahdi commanders were eager to show off their own arsenal. Seven of them gathered in a single-storey concrete house to display weapons ranging from mainly American-made guns, including M16 and M18 rifles, to homemade roadside bombs known as raaed, or thunder.
Å°ur bombs are not Iranian-made they are produced locally, said one commander. Å¢ny Mahdi fighter can put one together.Æû/P>The plastic cylinders packed with gunpowder, TNT and C4 explosives came in four sizes, he explained: 5kg and 15kg for use against small military vehicles, and 25kg and 50kg against armoured personnel carriers.
Another commander, who gave his name as Abu Ahmad, was limping from an injury sustained one week into the battle when his unit set an American tank on fire, only to be wiped out by a helicopter gunship.
He spoke softly as he described seeing his best friend, Uday al-Dulemi, killed in front of him. DulemiÃÔ father refused to accept condolences and insisted that his ÅÎartyred sonÃÔ burial be treated as his wedding day. He said that if his three other sons in the Mahdi Army were killed too, he would volunteer himself.
The Mahdi Army also claims to have a secret weapon at its disposal. Its elite special forces, called ŵhe Nerves of the Righteous the Islamic Resistance in Iraq are said to be lying in wait in sleeper cells across the country, ready to carry out unspecified ÅÔpectacular attacks against coalition forces.
Many of the members, known as ÅÔhadows have been trained in Iran.
According to a senior aide to Moqtada al-Sadr, they are capable of raining down missiles on the heavily protected Green Zone where the Iraqi government and US military are based, causing disarray among IraqÃÔ security forces and halting the work of ministries.
They have also created a potential ÅÓing of fire around Sadr City that could be ignited in the event of a full-scale offensive by Maliki.
Whether Sadr or Maliki will order an escalation of the conflict in the days ahead depends on efforts to secure a resolution.
Sadr is understood to believe that his rival has set out to destroy his power bases in Baghdad and Basra to ensure that he is a spent force before local elections in the autumn. He is resisting demands by Maliki for 500 named Mahdi ÅÄriminals to be handed over. In turn, Sadr is demanding that the Iraqi army stay out of Sadr City indefinitely.
The negotiations hang in the balance but one thing is certain: if the two ShiÃÊte leaders fail to resolve their differences, it is the civilians of Sadr City who will suffer for it.
At Sadr general hospital last week, Amira Zaydan was by no means the only woman mourning her family. Beside her sat her neighbour Um Aseel Ali, who had lost her husband and three boys, aged six, four and two, when their house was blown up by a rocket.
Å¢s I ran to them, the second rocket dropped, she cried. Ū started shouting their names. I looked for them and tried to dig through the rubble. What fault did we commit for this? What wrong have we done to Maliki?Æû/P>While she spoke, another woman, Um Marwa Muntasser, wept softly. Her pregnant daughter Marwa survived the same attack but was being kept under sedation, unaware that her husband Samir, her four-year-old boy, Sajad, and her two-year-old girl, Ayat, had all been killed.
Ÿas my daughter a fighter? asked Muntasser. Ůy daughter was not a fighter. She and her family were innocent civilians minding their own business and now they are dead. The toll in the row of six houses inhabited by these families climbed to 25.
A spokesman for the US military, which has lost at least nine men in Sadr City, said a vehicle carrying an injured soldier had been hit by two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least 28 ÅÆxtremists had died in subsequent fighting. He said there had been no American air strikes that day but US ground forces had fired rockets at ÅÎilitants firing from buildings, alleyways and roof-tops Ÿe have every right to defend ourselves, he added.
Witnesses in Sadr City, however, told of a second multiple rocket attack on four houses on the same afternoon in which at least five civilians died.
I found Lina Mohsen, 24, walking in a daze at the hospital, her face covered in brown dust. One minute she had been watching her 18-month-old toddler Ali play in the courtyard of their home, she said; the next, a rocket had struck.
Ū began screaming for him, shouting his name, trying to find him, but I couldnÃÕ see him for dust and smoke, she said. Eventually, she saw that he was dead.
Ū blame Maliki and his government and all those who are sitting in power and letting this happen, she said. Then she burst into tears and walked away.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598435.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Washington Times
May 4, 2008
Pg. 4
Turkey
150 Kurdish Rebels Killed, Military Says
ISTANBUL The Turkish military said yesterday that more than 150 Kurdish rebels were killed last week in a cross-border air raid in northern Iraq. Among the victims were possibly senior members of the rebel group. Kurdish rebels disputed the tally, saying only six had been killed.
According a Turkish military statement, warplanes hit all their intended targets in a three-hour air operation on Mount Qandil in Iraq. The raid ended early Friday, the military said.
A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said the six rebels killed were members of PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the PKK that targets only Iran.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598401.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
London Sunday Times
May 4, 2008
UK Soldier Dies In Afghan Blast
By Michael Smith
NEW fears over a shortage of helicopters in Afghanistan have been raised after the 12th consecutive death of a British soldier killed by a roadside bomb or landmine.
Trooper Ratu Babakobau of the Household Cavalry, 29, and originally from Fiji, died and three of his comrades were wounded when their Spartan armoured vehicle was hit by an explosive device in Nowzad, in northern Helmand province. He leaves a wife and sons aged four and one. Senior officers described him as an outstanding soldier.
Babakobau was part of the same 60-strong squadron as Prince William. A Clarence House spokesman said: ŵogether with the rest of the regiment both Prince William and Prince Harry are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Trooper Babakobau. Their thoughts are with his family and the families of those injured.Æû/P>There are only six RAF Chinook helicopters in Afghanistan. British commanders have asked for more as well as extra troops but sources say ministers have delayed sending them in an attempt to push other Nato countries into making bigger contributions.
The air transport shortage has led to troops being scattered across Helmand province and having to travel between outposts on dangerous roads in a repetition of tactics that led to Russian humiliation there in the 1980s.
A Foreign Office document leaked last week said ÅÄritical military gaps remain to be filled citing helicopters and men.
ŵhe lack of helicopters means we are building up predictable patterns of behaviour. The enemy are just adjusting tactics to hit us where we are vulnerable, one senior officer said.
Ÿe need more helicopters to avoid the same ÁÃear trap as the Russians, said another.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ŶK troops have access to other helicopters provided by Nato allies.Æû/P>
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598436.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Washington Times
May 4, 2008
Pg. 4
Afghanistan
Blast Damages Bamiyan Buddha
KABUL The United Nations was investigating reports yesterday that a controlled explosion of old ordnance has caused more damage to one of the famed Bamiyan Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban seven year ago.
Najibullah Harar, chief of information and culture for Bamiyan, told the Associated Press the blast conducted by NATO-led troops near the smaller of the two statues Thursday had caused cracks in what is left of the 114-foot-high ancient structure.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080504598420.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1864780_AEz PjkQAAPPoSB3kjwJwbHCk7Zs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080504aaindex_concat.html&cred=H3UZ2n_XpH7HU2xm xCyoL8v94_uGJYlca9o5l.9RYW5l8vYKKZcA1TamHVbl3HfN#T OP">
RETURN TO TOP
Washington Post
May 4, 2008
Pg. 1
Probe Of USS Cole Bombing Unravels
Plotters Freed in Yemen; U.S. Efforts Frustrated
By Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Foreign Service
ADEN, Yemen -- Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.
Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he's still in his cell that they have demanded the right to perform random inspections.
Two suspects, described as the key organizers, were captured outside Yemen and are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. Many details of their alleged involvement remain classified. It is unclear when -- or if -- they will be tried by the military.
The collapse of the Cole investigation offers a revealing case study of the U.S. government's failure to bring al-Qaeda operatives and their leaders to justice for some of the most devastating attacks on American targets over the past decade.
A week after the Cole bombing, President Bill Clinton vowed to hunt down the plotters and promised, "Justice will prevail." In March 2002, President Bush said his administration was cooperating with Yemen to prevent it from becoming "a haven for terrorists." He added: "Every terrorist must be made to live as an international fugitive with no place to settle or organize, no place to hide, no governments to hide behind and not even a safe place to sleep."
Since then, Yemen has refused to extradite Badawi and an accomplice to the United States, where they have been indicted on murder charges. Other Cole conspirators have been freed after short prison terms. At least two went on to commit suicide attacks in Iraq.
"After we worked day and night to bring justice to the victims and prove that these Qaeda operatives were responsible, we're back to square one," said Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and a lead investigator into the bombing. "Do they have laws over there or not? It's really frustrating what's happening."
To this day, al-Qaeda trumpets the attack on the Cole as one of its greatest military victories. It remains an improbable story: how two suicide bombers smiled and waved to unsuspecting U.S. sailors in Aden's harbor as they pulled their tiny fishing boat alongside the $1 billion destroyer and blew a gaping hole in its side.
Despite the initial promises of accountability, only limited public inquiries took place in Washington, unlike the extensive investigations that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Basic questions remain about which individuals and countries played a role in the assault on the Cole.
Some officials acknowledged that pursuing the Cole investigation became less of a political priority with the passage of time. A new administration took power three months after the bombing. Then came Sept. 11.
"During the first part of the Bush administration, no one was willing to take ownership of this," said Roger W. Cressey, a former counterterrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations who helped oversee the White House's response to the Cole attack. "It didn't happen on their watch. It was the forgotten attack."
A Clash of Cultures and Wills
The day after the attack, a planeload of armed FBI agents arrived in Aden. But they quickly ran into resistance from Yemeni officials, who didn't like the idea of foreigners operating on their soil and telling them what to do.
The Cole bombing represented an enormous political embarrassment for Yemen, which had lobbied the U.S. Navy to use the port of Aden as a refueling stop. As the poorest country in the Arab world, Yemen was also unprepared for some of the FBI's demands.
"This is a country that didn't even have fingerprint powder, and now they're dealing with the most sophisticated law enforcement agency in the world," said Barbara K. Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen at the time. "DNA is a complete fantasy to them."
Bodine said the FBI was slow to trust Yemeni authorities, and kept the U.S. Embassy in the dark as well, hampering the probe. She described the Yemeni government as generally cooperative, but said some officials dug in their heels and "certainly didn't like us."
The FBI was "dealing with a bureaucracy and a culture they didn't understand," she said. "Yemen operates on a different timeline than we do. We had one group working on a New York minute, and another on a 4,000-year-old history."
The FBI and some White House officials, in turn, suspected Bodine was too sympathetic toward the Yemenis. The FBI special agent in charge, John O'Neill, was forced to return to New York after butting heads too many times with the ambassador.
Michael A. Sheehan, then the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, said both sides were to blame.
"Basically, I was in the middle of this thing," he recalled. "I felt both sides were over the top -- the FBI in demanding complete autonomy in a foreign country and State in being too protective of the host country. And eventually it just turned into a clash of wills."
"Sometimes, when you deal with a host country, you can push too hard and it backfires and you get less cooperation," Sheehan added. "We needed to find a middle ground, and we had difficulty getting there."
Two in U.S. Custody
Amid the friction, U.S. and Yemeni investigators soon identified the ringleader of the attack as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent who served as al-Qaeda's operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula.
At the time, Yemeni authorities insisted that Nashiri had fled the country before the Cole bombing. But a senior Yemeni official said that was not the case and that Yemeni investigators had located Nashiri in Taizz, a city about 90 miles northwest of Aden, soon after the attack. The official said Nashiri spent several months in Taizz, where he received high-level protection from the government. "We knew where he was, but we could not arrest him," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation.
Nashiri eventually left Yemen to prepare other attacks on U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf, U.S. officials said. He was captured in the United Arab Emirates in November 2002 and handed over to the CIA. He was detained in the CIA's secret network of overseas prisons until he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006.
In a hearing at Guantanamo last year, Nashiri said he confessed to masterminding the Cole attack only because he had been tortured.
"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me," he said, according to a transcript. "I just said those things to make the people happy."
Another al-Qaeda leader, Tawfiq bin Attash, who also played an organizing role in the Sept. 11 hijackings, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in May 2003 and confessed last year to overseeing the Cole plot. In a separate appearance before a Guantanamo tribunal, he said he had helped buy the explosives and the motorboat. He also said he had recruited operatives for the plot but was in Afghanistan at the time of the attack.
Bin Attash and Nashiri were both named unindicted co-conspirators in the Justice Department's investigation into the Cole attack. A decision was made not to indict them because pending criminal charges could have forced the CIA or the Pentagon to give up custody of the men, U.S. officials said in interviews.
A Special Deal
After a long trial, a Yemeni court condemned Badawi, the organizer, to death in 2004, although his sentence was reduced on appeal to 15 years in prison. Four other conspirators were given prison sentences ranging from five to 10 years.
The convicts were sent to a maximum security prison in Sanaa, the capital. They didn't stay there long.
On Feb. 3, 2006, prison officials announced that 23 al-Qaeda members, including most of the Cole defendants, had vanished. They escaped by digging a tunnel that snaked 300 feet to a nearby mosque.
It was Badawi's second successful jailbreak. Three years earlier, he had wormed out of another maximum security prison in Aden; Yemeni officials said he had picked a hole through the bathroom wall.
Badawi surrendered about 20 months after his second escape. But Yemeni authorities cut him a deal. They said they would let him remain free if he would help them search for the other al-Qaeda fugitives.
The arrangement was kept secret until Yemeni newspapers reported shortly afterward that Badawi had been spotted at his home in Aden.
U.S. officials said they were stunned. After his first escape, Badawi had been indicted in U.S. District Court in New York for the Cole killings, and the United States had posted a $5 million bounty for his capture. But U.S. officials couldn't get their hands on him. "This was someone who was implicated in the Cole bombing," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at the time. "He needs to be in jail."
U.S. officials withheld $20 million in aid to Yemen and canceled a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Yemeni officials said they quickly put Badawi back behind bars. But reports persist that his incarceration remains a day-to-day affair.
In December, a Yemeni newspaper reported that Badawi had again been seen roaming free in public. One source close to the Cole investigation said there is evidence that Badawi is allowed to come and go, despite the periodic requests by U.S. officials to inspect his prison cell.
Diplomatic relations soured further in February, when the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa learned that Fahd al-Quso, another Cole conspirator, had been secretly freed nine months before. Like Badawi, Quso faces U.S. charges in the Cole case and has a $5 million bounty on his head.
'Something . . . Doesn't Smell Right'
U.S. officials have renewed their demands that Badawi and Quso be extradited so they can stand trial in New York. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III flew to Sanaa last month to deliver the message personally to Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen has refused, citing a constitutional ban on extraditing its citizens.
"Unfortunately, we now have a stalemate," said Foreign Minister Abubaker al-Qirbi.
Qirbi said the dispute was a politically sensitive one, with many Yemenis opposed to helping the Bush administration. He defended the tactic of allowing the Cole plotters to go free in exchange for help in tracking down other terrorist suspects. "This is a normal practice," he said. "Everybody makes deals with anybody who cooperates, not just in Yemen, but in the United States."
Yemen's interior minister, Rashad al-Alimi, said the deal-cutting was necessary because al-Qaeda has rebuilt its networks in Yemen and is targeting the government.
"Our battle with al-Qaeda is a long one," he said. "It isn't our battle only. Our tragedy -- and what makes things worse -- is that al-Qaeda is united. And our coalition is divided, even though we have a common enemy."
Some Yemenis have questioned whether their government has other motives. One senior Yemeni official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Badawi and other al-Qaeda members have a long relationship with Yemen's intelligence agencies and were recruited in the past to target political opponents.
Khaled al-Anesi, an attorney for some of the Cole defendants, said Yemen had rushed to convict them. But he said he is still mystified by the government's subsequent handling of the case.
"There's something that doesn't smell right," he said. "It was all very strange. After these people were convicted in unfair trials, all of a sudden it was announced that they had escaped. And then the government announced they had surrendered, but we still don't know how they escaped or if they had help."
Hamoud al-Hitar, a former Supreme Court
The Pentagon Early Bird May 4, 2008