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05-09-2008, 05:42 PM
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 The Pentagon Early Bird May 9, 2008 Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Item numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) Please scroll down to read Headlines; to read Entire News Article, please scroll further down. URL"s will not link out in this recieved format GATES/MULLEN PRESS BRIEFING
Washington Post May 9, 2008 Pg. 13 Pentagon Is Open To Moving More Marines To Afghanistan By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer The Marine Corps may begin shifting its major combat forces out of Iraq to focus on Afghanistan in 2009 if greater security in Iraq allows a reduction of Marines there, top Pentagon officials said yesterday. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the proposal by the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James Conway, to focus his force on Afghanistan -- which they rejected late last year -- could be reconsidered. "Should we be in a position to move forces into Afghanistan, I think that certainly would come back into consideration," Mullen said at a Pentagon briefing. He said that he understands it is challenging for the Marines to have "a foot in both countries" and that Conway seeks to "optimize the forces that he has," but stressed that any shift is likely to occur "down the road." Gates said he agrees that the Marine Corps shift is "a possibility" for next year. He explained that when he earlier said the change "wouldn't happen on my watch," that was not an unchangeable policy decision -- he meant it would not unfold until 2009, when he plans to step down. Gates said that the Pentagon is still looking at options to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan in 2009, but that there is no plan to extend the seven-month deployment of about 3,200 Marines dispatched there this spring. "I'd be loath to" extend the Marines beyond November, when they are scheduled to leave Afghanistan, he said. A senior military official said this week that after a "vigorous debate," Mullen, Conway and other members of the Joint Chiefs recently hammered out their priorities for employing stretched U.S. ground forces: first, Iraq; next, Afghanistan; and finally, bringing troops home to increase the amount of time they have in the United States to train and recuperate. Long, 15-month deployments and troop increases in Iraq and Afghanistan have severely stretched the Army and Marine Corps. That has led to more soldiers under "stop-loss," which means they are required to stay in service beyond their contractual departure date. As of the end of March, the number of active-duty, National Guard and reserve soldiers on stop-loss had risen to 12,100, Army officials said. Gates asked the Army last year to minimize the number of soldiers on stop-loss, and said yesterday he is "troubled" by the trend, detailed for him in a briefing yesterday by Army leaders. "It is an issue. It troubles me. And I think it is a strain," he said. Still, he said the practice is important to maintain "unit cohesion," noting that about half of soldiers under stop-loss are sergeants. "If they left a unit, it would leave a pretty gaping hole, while still deployed," he said. Gates said Army leaders told him they expect the number of soldiers prevented from leaving because of stop-loss will begin to decline in September, after five Army combat brigades return from Iraq by July. Turning to another key troop morale issue -- proposals in Congress to increase benefits under the GI Bill -- Gates said he supports more generous benefits but wants to link them to a longer mandatory term of service, six years compared with three under the leading Senate legislation. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599442.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times May 9, 2008 Pg. 1 'A Lot' Pose Threat If Freed From Gitmo Gates wary of home countries By David R. Sands, The Washington Times Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday said a "fair number" of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison cannot be returned to their countries for fear that they might be freed when they arrive home. Mr. Gates was responding to reports in The Washington Times and other press outlets yesterday that former Guantanamo inmate Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi is now thought to have participated in a suicide bombing in the Iraqi city of Mosul on April 26 that killed six other people. "I would say that I think we do as careful a vetting job as we possibly can before releasing these people," said Mr. Gates, who has called in the past for the U.S. facility to be eventually shut down. "There are a lot of prisoners down there, frankly, that we would be prepared to turn over to their home government, but the home government isn't prepared to receive them, or we don't have any confidence that if they still need to be incarcerated, that the home government will keep them incarcerated," he added. Mr. Gates confirmed Pentagon figures released earlier this week that showed an estimated 6 percent to 7 percent of the detainees released from Guantanamo have rejoined militant Islamist groups to fight the United States and its allies after their release. At least 10 former Guantanamo inmates have been killed or recaptured, according to Pentagon figures. Al-Ajmi, who was released from Guantanamo in 2005, is the first former inmate of the U.S. facility in Cuba linked to a suicide attack. The case of the 29-year-old Kuwaiti, released after being kept 3Ž½ years in Guantanamo, has been reported as civil liberties groups and some congressional critics have been pressing to close the prison immediately. A military judge yesterday threatened to suspend the war-crimes trial of a Canadian detainee at the prison, accusing government attorneys of failing to provide records of his confinement. The detainee, Omar Khadr, is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. Mr. Khadr's attorneys say the records could give them grounds to suppress self-incriminating statements he made. The judge complained that prosecutors were seeking an expedited trial date for the Canadian detainee without providing the documents needed to make a ruling. The Bush administration and its defenders say the question of Guantanamo's future remains difficult, balancing the rights of the detainees and the demands and dangers posed in waging a global war on terror. Guantanamo records show that during his time in the prison, al-Ajmi was in constant trouble with the guards and had to be placed in special detention. Despite the records, he was transferred to Kuwait in 2005. In May 2006, a Kuwaiti court acquitted al-Ajmi of being a member of al Qaeda and raising money for the terror organization. The court also acquitted four other former Guantanamo prisoners. "There is an implied future risk to U.S. and allied interests with every detainee who is released or transferred from Guantanamo," Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Gordon said Wednesday. Asked yesterday whether the U.S. government was any closer to closing the Guantanamo prison, Mr. Gates replied, "I don't think so." Bill Gertz contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599366.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) May 9, 2008 U.S. Awaits Regime Go-Ahead For Airdrops Of Myanmar Aid By Associated Press WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that the U.S. military was stepping up preparations for a relief mission in Myanmar, but he said he couldn't imagine airdropping aid without permission from the closed regime. His comments followed those earlier Thursday by Ky Luu, director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, that an airdrop was one option being considered as Myanmar's junta continued to stall on accepting assistance from the United States. Gates said the military was moving aircraft, ships and Marines closer to Myanmar in case permission is granted to deliver humanitarian supplies. "I cannot image us going in without the permission of the Myanmar government," Gates said at a Pentagon press conference with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Asked if it would be helpful to victims for the U.S. to drop supplies, Mullen said: "We could. Typically, though, it's sovereign airspace and you'd need their permission to fly in that airspace." "It's all tied to sovereignty, which we respect whether it's on the ground or in the air," Mullen said. Luu told a State Department press conference earlier that airdrops are often inefficient, could have broader international legal implications and that the best option would be for Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, to accept the aid. Still, "anything that might have a positive impact is being looked at and is being discussed," he said, adding that airdrops would be a last resort. The comments came as the United States and other donor countries continued to wait for permission to enter with tons of assistance and disaster-relief personnel to assess what the needs are and move toward distributing the aid. Among other countries considering airdrops are Italy and France, whose foreign minister has suggested the possibility of forcing assistance into Myanmar, officials said. Pentagon officials have said they are wary of such a scenario because it could be considered an invasion. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said this week that airdrops could be allowed under the U.N.'s "responsibility to protect" mandate, which applies to civilians. Officials said there were several problems with unauthorized airdrops, especially if there are no experts on the ground to monitor the distribution of aid. Desperate people could riot over the assistance and there is the possibility that security forces might confiscate it and keep it out of the hands of the needy, they said. The government has reported more than 20,000 deaths and more than 40,000 missing from Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar, particularly the Irrawaddy River delta, last weekend. A U.S. diplomat said Wednesday that the death toll in the delta could exceed 100,000. The U.N. estimates that a million people have been left homeless. Meanwhile Thursday, the U.S. military stepped up preparations for any humanitarian mission to Myanmar, readying ships and Marines that were in the region for a multinational exercise. The U.S. Air Force moved more airplanes to a staging area in Thailand and the Navy transported Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and helicopters into Thailand from an aviation combat element of the USS Essex expeditionary strike group, officials said. The Essex and other Navy ships began heading later Thursday toward waters off Myanmar, a journey that Mullen said would take five days. The Navy happened to have ships and thousands of service members in the Gulf of Thailand for a multinational exercise on humanitarian missions an exercise called Cobra Gold that started Thursday. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599288.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP InsideDefense.com May 8, 2008 Gates Defends Proposed Military Aid To Panama Defense Secretary Robert Gates today defended a Pentagon proposal to provide military aid to Panama despite objections from lawmakers who note Panama has no military. While taking questions from reporters at the Pentagon, Gates characterized the proposal as an appropriate use of the nascent global-train-and-equip authority, also known as the Section 1206 program set up by Congress, which lets the Defense Department boost the capacity of foreign militaries, a task traditionally handled by the State Department. As Inside the Pentagon first reported, the House Armed Services Committee is blocking DOD from sending military aid to Panama and shelving plans to send millions of dollars to other Caribbean Basin countries, arguing the department is exceeding its authority to bolster foreign militaries. In an April 23 missive to Gates, Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and the panelÃÔ ranking Republican, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, outline their concerns. Ťongress explicitly provided this authority to train and/or equip the military forces of partner nations, states the letter. Ÿe are told the purpose of this specific program is to provide support to the Panamanian National Maritime Service. However, we note that Panama has no military forces, per that nationÃÔ constitution, and therefore do not believe that this program meets the intent of the law.Æû/P>A congressional source said the proposal for Panama would spend about $950,000 on training and radios for that countryÃÔ maritime service. It is part of the $12 million Caribbean Basin aid package. Gates told reporters it was not a mistake to request the aid for Panama. Ÿhat we are trying to do under 1206 is to provide assistance to security forces in other countries that are engaged in counterterrorism, counternarcotics and other activities that are of interest and in our interest, he said. Å¢nd I think it was an entirely appropriate commitment. Gates sent Congress a letter defending the plan. Ū've sent a letter to the Hill explaining why we believe not only that it's consistent with the law but why it's a good thing to do, he noted. Ÿe are prepared to send people up to brief [Congress].Æû/P>In his May 6 letter, Gates writes DOD and State Department lawyers concluded the Panamanian forces in question ÅÑerform military functions consistent with 'national military forces,' as required by the statute. The missive mentions Congress permitted similar aid to Panama in fiscal years 2006 and 2007. Skelton and Hunter are withholding approval for plans to provide military aid to the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Belize until Congress receives information on how the programs would ÅÑromote observance of and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as required by law. In his reply, Gates writes that all 1206 program proposals undergo human rights vetting by the State Department. The letter also notes that each training program is tailored to specific needs identified by the U.S. ambassador and country team. Ūn some cases these elements may be incorporated within the instruction on employment of the equipment or the security capacity training itself, such as in the instruction on rules of engagement or the law of armed conflict provided during tactical training, Gates writes. Ūn other cases, DOD will provide more formalized training, using the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) to conduct or coordinate instruction.Æû/P>The congressional criticism comes from the same panel that recently heard Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen testify on the merits of the authority, which DOD coordinates with the State Department. Gates said today that he believes the hearing helped raise awareness about the 1206 authority. Å¢nd one of the points that we tried to make to folks is that not every country in the world organizes its security forces like we do, Gates told reporters. Å¢ good example is the frontier police in Pakistan, where the Congress actually recognized that that was an important thing to do and gave us a specific exemption for those guys.Æû/P>The defense secretary called for an expansion of the authority. Å°ne of the things we asked for in the new authorization bill was a broader interpretation, for them to embrace a broader interpretation of security forces rather than just purely military, Gates said. Å´o we could deal with countries' equivalent to the Coast Guard and so on. And I'm modestly optimistic that we will reach agreement on this.Æû/P>-- Christopher J. Castelli http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599289.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) May 8, 2008 Pentagon Chief Downplays Russian Expulsion Of 2 US Attaches WASHINGTON (AFP)--U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday dismissed Russia's order to expel two U.S. military attaches as "just the usual tit-for-tat" in response to Washington's expulsion of a Russian spy. Gates offered no other details on the circumstances surrounding the expulsion order, but the U.S. expelled a Russian military attache on April 21 and kicked out another in November. "There's a major aspect of reciprocity here," Gates told reporters. "I think at some point recently we expelled a Russian for spying. And then these things get into a kind of a back and forth, and at some point everybody decides to stop," he said. The State Department disclosed the expulsion orders a day after Vladimir Putin handed over the Russian presidency to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin then assumed the position of prime minister. "There are some intriguing developments in Moscow, but I don't read much into the attache thing other than just the usual tit-for-tat," said Gates. The former CIA director and career Soviet analyst suggested that plans for a big military parade through Red Square on Friday was a throwback to the Cold War. "I'm waiting to see if the leadership will be standing atop Lenin's tomb and see if we'll be back to Kremlinology about who's standing in what place and so on," he said. He recalled that the CIA used to devote enormous efforts to deciphering the Soviet military parades. "I mean, not only looking at the equipment that was going by, because they'd run some of their newer stuff out - they don't have a lot of new stuff now - but sure, looking at who was standing next to whom and who was more heavily bundled up than the next geriatric," he said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack insisted on making no link between the expulsions of the U.S. military attaches and a number of expulsions involving both countries since November last year. McCormack said Russia expelled a U.S. diplomat on April 14, and confirmed the U.S. expelled one Russian a week later as well as one in November. "We don't draw any particular connection among these various incidents. We deal with them in their own right," McCormack told reporters. McCormack said the Russians "gave us some reasons" for the expulsions but he wouldn't disclose them. "We believe that the expulsions were not justified. But as we all know, in the world of diplomacy sometimes these things happen," McCormack said. "As far as we're concerned, we don't intend to take any further actions. Of course, we always reserve the right, but at this point I don't see that we're going to take any further action in response," he added. In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman contacted by AFP declined to comment on the report of expulsions. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599250.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post May 9, 2008 Pg. 17 Al-Qaeda In Iraq Leader Arrested In Mosul, Iraqi Police Announce By Sholnn Freeman and Zaid Sabah, Washington Post Staff Writers BAGHDAD, May 9 -- Iraqi police announced early Friday the capture of Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report. Iraqi officials said Muhajer was apprehended early Thursday morning after he was found sleeping during a midnight raid of a house in the northern city of Mosul. Muhajer confessed his identity in an interrogation, said Maj. Gen. Abdel-Karim Khalaf, a Ministry of Interior spokesman. Muhajer is believed to be an Egyptian, about 40 years old and an associate of Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He is believed to have taken over the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike in June 2006. Iraqi officials reported in May 2007 that Muhajer had been killed. His capture Thursday, if true, would be an important boost for Iraqi security forces but may not signify the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq's presence in the country. Since Zarqawi's death, the organization has continued a campaign of killing while pushing its strict interpretation of Islam. In recent weeks, suicide bombers acting in a manner consistent with previous attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq have struck funerals, wedding parties and police and military checkpoints. The attacks chiefly target Sunnis who have joined forces with the U.S. military. Also Thursday, militia leaders loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr vowed to resist efforts by Iraqi and U.S. forces to relocate residents of some of the most violent parts of Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood to camps. For a month, the densely populated Shiite enclave on the capital's eastern edge has served as a battleground in clashes between Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and the joint fighting force drawn from the U.S. military and Iraqi security agencies. The battles have generally been taking place in the southwestern quadrant of the rectangular district, an area believed to be the launching site of most rockets targeting the heavily fortified Green Zone. Abu Mustafa and Abu Bader, local Sadrist leaders and militia fighters, said Iraqi soldiers were telling people to leave Sadr City and go to tents set up at two nearby soccer stadiums. They also said soldiers had distributed leaflets telling residents in certain sectors to clear out. Abu Bader, who spoke on the condition that he was identified only by his nickname, said people were resisting. "We have tribal tradition," he said. "We are not going to send our families to stay in stadiums and soccer fields. There is no way we are going to put our people at the mercy of Americans and the Iraqi national guard." Abu Bader cited American detention practices, and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in particular, as the source of people's fears. Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman, denied knowledge of a campaign to remove residents from Sadr City. "We don't know anything about that," he said. "If they are doing it with loudspeakers, they are doing it quietly, because we are not hearing it." Abu Mustafa reported "light clashes" with American and Iraqi forces Thursday, saying that patrols had been sent deeper into the district from multiple directions. The patrols turned back, he said, after being confronted by Mahdi Army fighters. Abu Mustafa said American helicopters were also firing on houses in the area. American and Iraqi commanders have said they are taking precautions to limit the impact on innocent civilians and property. Also Thursday, fighters launched two rockets from Sadr City that struck a home in central Baghdad, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding eight others, the U.S. military said. An Iraqi police official said at least four fighters and 22 other people were wounded in the district when militiamen clashed with Iraqi forces backed by U.S. helicopters. In Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed Mulla Nadhum al-Aswadi, a leader of the U.S.-backed Sunni force known as the Awakening, who was traveling in a convoy with the police chief in the town of Duluiyah. In Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. forces backing the Awakening fighters killed five senior members of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a pre-dawn offensive, according to Mohammed al-Nesani, a local Awakening leader. Special correspondent Dlovan Brwari in Mosul contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599449.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Miami Herald May 9, 2008 Residents Told To Evacuate Sadr City Slum Residents of Sadr City were ordered to move to temporary shelters amid continued violence. Elsewhere, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured. By Leila Fadel, McClatchy News Service Iraqi security forces, after more than 40 days of intense fighting, on Thursday told residents to evacuate their homes in the northeast Shiite slum of Sadr City and to move to temporary shelters on two soccer fields. Meanwhile, Iraqi police commandos captured Abu Ayyub al Masri -- also known as Abu Hamza al Muhajir -- the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, The Associated Press reported. Masri, the AP said, was captured by Iraqi police commandos Thursday in a raid in the northern city of Mosul. The arrest would be a significant blow to the Sunni insurgency. The military's evacuation call, indicating the possibility of stepped-up military operations, came as Iraqi security forces raided the radio station run by backers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr and militants launched rockets at a coalition force operating base in the southern port city of Basra, killing two contractors and injuring four civilians and four coalition soldiers. Sadr City has been a battleground since late March, enduring U.S. airstrikes, militia snipers and gun battles between U.S. and Iraqi forces and the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to Sadr. Already about 8,500 people have been displaced from the sprawling slum of 2.5 million people, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent. For weeks, food, water and medical shortages have affected about 150,000 people, aid agencies said. Two soccer fields in east and northeast Baghdad are expected to receive 16,000 evacuees from the southeast portion of the city where the fighting has been most intense. Col. Abdul Amir Risna Sigar, the director of sports facilities in Baghdad, said his organization would set up 500 tents around the two fields but are waiting for final orders. The Iraqi Red Crescent was stockpiling food, medical supplies and tents after being informed of the evacuation. It will be responsible for setting up the shelter and living areas for evacuees, the general director, Mazen Saloum, said. The U.S. military is putting up barriers to isolate the southern portion of the city, about two square miles, where they believe militants are launching rockets into the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. diplomatic mission are housed. They expect the project to be complete in less than two weeks. The walls will isolate about 800,000 people in the sprawling slum from the rest of the district to stem the flow of rockets and weapons, said Col. Allen Batschelet, the chief of staff of the U.S. military Baghdad command. ''We're putting a series of these barriers that allows us to control access,'' he said. ``Is it disruptive? You bet. Does it slow down commerce? No doubt. But right now that's the cost of reducing the illegal flow of weapons and arms that were getting in there previously.'' On Wednesday, Iraqi security forces raided and stopped the broadcast of the Sadrist Al Ahad radio station, radio employees said. ''The army told the manager that the radio station is considered to provoke terrorism,'' said Akhbal Hameed, a 38-year-old radio employee. ``The Iraqi forces blocked, raided and evacuated the building.'' Iraqi officials said they didn't shut down the station and only conducted a raid. Special correspondents Laith Hammoudi and Jenan Hussein contributed. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599210.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Christian Science Monitor May 9, 2008 Baghdad's Sadr City Residents Fear Intensifying Fight A rare daytime US airstrike in Sadr City on Thursday came as residents said that soldiers were warning them to leave parts of the district, which is a bastion of support for the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Baghdad - Residents of this city's embattled Sadr City district are growing increasingly anxious that an escalation in fighting is imminent. They reported that soldiers with loudspeakers warned people in one section to move out, while others said that on Thursday, for the first time, the US carried out daytime airstrikes. The vast sector of 2.5 million mostly poor Shiites has been the scene of sporadic and sometimes intense fighting for seven weeks as Iraqi and US forces have pushed in to rid the area of militiamen loyal to the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. But Thursday's fighting, which officials in Sadr City hospitals said left at least 11 Iraqis dead, surprised some residents with its timing. "We've had this kind of attack at night, but this was the biggest attack we've had in the daytime," said Abu Hawaraa, a media adviser to the Sadr movement's office in Sadr City. He said US forces also entered a normally quiet northern section of the district. That incursion followed two militant rocket attacks in three days on central Baghdad parks. Thursday's rocket fire killed two people in a park along central Sadoon Street. The US has increasingly relied on airpower unmanned drones, helicopter gunships, and bombers to carry out the antimilitia campaign in Sadr City, saying such methods more accurately reach targets in such crowded urban settings. US and Iraqi military officials accuse the militants of using residents as human shields as they carry out mortar and rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone of Iraqi and US government offices a few miles south. The two central Baghdad parks most likely were hit by rockets aimed at the Green Zone but that fell short, Iraqi officials said. US military officials have said the mortar and rocket fire is hitting a wider swath of central Baghdad as launch teams search out new and more distant launch sites. The US military confirmed Thursday that helicopters fired rockets into buildings where individuals were assembling a rocket-launching system. Aerial surveillance confirmed that at least two militants at the site were killed, said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, spokesman for Multi-National Division Baghdad. He also denied reports that the US rockets hit a mosque, saying overhead video showed the nearest mosque to be more than 300 feet from the buildings hit. It was the barrage of what the US military calls "indirect fire" on the Green Zone that drew it into the fighting in Sadr City a fight that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki started in late March as part of his stated goal of disarming Iraq's Shiite militias. In reality, that has meant a fight with Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and other militants more or less loyal to him. Iraqi health officials reported Wednesday that the toll in the Sadr City fighting had surpassed 1,000, while on Thursday humanitarian agencies said delivering food, medicine, and other assistance to the neighborhood sometimes reduced to one entry and exit was becoming more difficult. Meanwhile, Sadr City residents in the embattled southeast corner of the district reported that soldiers some said Iraqis, others said Arabic speakers in US military vehicles used loudspeakers to encourage residents of the area to leave. The US military called the reports "rumors," but some residents said the messages confirmed speculation running through the neighborhood for days that the government is planning a major offensive. Adding to residents' expectations of an imminent escalation was an early Thursday raid by Iraqi Army soldiers that shut down Al Aahad, a local radio station run by Sadr loyalists. Earlier this week, Mr. Maliki said he would not call off the battle with what government officials say are illegally armed outlaws operating in Sadr City. The US military has tried to avoid being drawn into a fight with Sadr, recently limiting its references to the Mahdi Army and instead blaming the Sadr City fighting on "criminals" and "special groups" that it says are armed and trained by Iran. But almost daily American involvement in the fighting, usually to back up Iraqi forces who have sometimes been overpowered by the militants, has brought US forces into skirmishes with Sadr supporters. Last week, Sadr confirmed in a statement that his fighters are authorized to fight what he considers the "occupying forces." The US incursion into northern Sadr City that residents described suggested the US may be broadening its involvement in the fight to areas outside the southernmost sector it has said it wants to rid of indirect fire launching. Part of the US plan is to build a wall around the southern third of Sadr City to secure it from the rest of the district. The US focus on the southern part of Sadr City left residents all the more surprised by the fighting they described in the northern section outside the security wall. "We did not expect that," Abu Hawaraa said, adding that it led to a fight that left several houses destroyed. "The Americans came in with Humvees and tanks, but some of those vehicles did not get out," he said. "I saw by my own eyes that two of the humvees" and at least two other vehicles were destroyed. Awadh al-Taiee in Baghdad contributed reporting. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599322.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times May 9, 2008 Pg. 14 Bomber's Final Messages Exhort Fighters Against U.S. By Alissa J. Rubin BAGHDAD The last words of a suicide bomber in Mosul were a rallying cry for Muslims to join the fight against Americans. His taking-off point was his experience at the military prison at GuantáÏamo Bay, Cuba. In two accounts a transcript of his conversation in a jihadist chat room and a suicide message on tape both posted on Web sites devoted to Al Qaeda after his death, the bomber, Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, 29, described his detention as ÅÕorture carried out by infidels. He was in GuantáÏamo from 2002 to 2005. The American military confirmed that Mr. Ajmi, a Kuwaiti, carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq last month. His relatives were the first to make public his death, and Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Thursday that he was one of three Kuwaiti suicide bombers involved in an attack in Mosul that killed several Iraqi soldiers. As many as 36 former GuantáÏamo detainees have taken part in violent acts against Western targets after their release, a Defense Intelligence Agency report said. Their violent acts raise the question of whether the men should have been released, but also whether their detention radicalized them. At the Pentagon on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was asked about the risk of former GuantáÏamo detainees returning to kill Americans or their allies. He said the recidivism rate was 5 to 10 percent, based on one dozen to three dozen known instances. Å´o I would say that I think we do as careful a vetting job as we possibly can before releasing these people, he said at a news conference. The American militaryÃÔ account of the reasons for Mr. AjmiÃÔ detention and his behavior at GuantáÏamo depict a defiant, often silent prisoner, but there is no suggestion in available documents that he was involved with Al Qaeda at that time. Mr. AjmiÃÔ own account of his time at GuantáÏamo describes a man emboldened by religious devotion, who found solace in prayer and who hoped others would see his death as a righteous act. The militaryÃÔ summary of evidence in the case states that he ran away from the Kuwaiti military to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban gave him weapons, and he fought initially near the Bagram airport and then near the front lines during the early days of the current war in Afghanistan. During his detention, he appeared to be angry and uncommunicative. In transcripts of his exchanges with military lawyers, he often gave one-word answers. Ŷpon arrival at GTMO, Al Ajmi has been constantly in trouble, said the summary of the evidence in his administrative review board hearing. Å¢l AjmiÃÔ overall behavior has been aggressive and non-compliant and he has resided in GTMOÃÔ disciplinary blocks throughout his detention.Æû/P> The board recommended against his release. In a section titled ŵhe following primary factors favor release or transfer, the only comment is ůo information available.Æû/P>Mr. AjmiÃÔ own account is similar in many respects. He describes himself as resisting his captors. But his farewell messages also suggest that he saw himself as a loyal fighter for Islam and never more so than while in detention. ŵwelve thousand kilometers away from Mecca, I realized the reality of the Americans and what those infidels want, he said. He urged his fellow Muslims to join the Islamic State of Iraq, the organization synonymous with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown extremist group with foreign leadership. Ÿhoever can go the Islamic State of Iraq should go, he said, according to the chat room transcript, and he exhorted fighters who were not imprisoned to undertake suicide missions. In the tape made before his suicide attack he said he was detained in the Pakistani tribal areas. He said he was then held in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and flown to GuantáÏamo, where, he said, he was held naked. In both his suicide tape and the chat room transcript, Mr. Ajmi describes the Americans desecration of the Koran and maltreatment of detainees, in what appears to have been an attempt to prod fellow Muslims to action. He said that detainees were beaten, given drugs and used ÅÇor experiments.Æû/P>ŵhe Americans delighted in insulting our prayer and Islam and they insulted the Koran and threw it in dirty places, he said. In November 2005, Mr. Ajmi was one of five Kuwaitis released to the Kuwaiti government. He was later tried and acquitted. In late March or early April he came to Iraq by way of Syria, according to Kuwaiti newspaper reports. He died with two other Kuwaitis in the same attack, according to the newspaper Al Seyassara. His last thoughts were to encourage militants to avenge those who are in detention. Ū urge you, my brothers, support them with suicide operations, he said. źour captive brothers wish they could fight for the cause of God. You are free. It is your duty to free your Muslim brothers from the hands of the polytheists and infidels.Æû/P>Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington, and William Glaberson and Margot Williams from New York. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599475.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Diego Union-Tribune May 9, 2008 Rocket Kills 2, Injures 6 In Park Close To Green Zone In Baghdad 17 insurgents die in battles in city in past two days By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press BAGHDAD A rocket hit a downtown Baghdad park yesterday, killing two people as U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Shiite militants believed responsible for many such attacks. The U.S. military said 17 militants had been killed since Wednesday in clashes around Baghdad. The rocket, which also wounded six people, was the second in three days to land in downtown parks apparently after failing to reach the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices. On Tuesday, a rocket hit and destroyed some playground equipment in another park. Meanwhile, a bomb went off on a minibus yesterday in Baghdad's eastern Zayona neighborhood, killing two passengers and injuring five, police said. U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in an attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people and the Baghdad base for the Mahdi army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Nine militants were killed in two U.S. missile attacks in the New Baghdad neighborhood early yesterday, the U.S. military said. U.S. soldiers killed one of two militants who were planting a roadside bomb in the northern Baghdad suburb of Kazimiyah, the military said. Seven other militants were killed in clashes around Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. Fighting with Shiite militants started in late March after the Iraqi government launched a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra. Attacks returned to Basra yesterday as several rockets hit what the U.S. military described as a ÅÄontingency operating base, killing at least two civilian contractors and wounding four soldiers. The statement did not provide the nationalities. Helicopters and a drone fired back, killing six extremists. It was the first such attack causing casualties in Basra since March 27, the military said. The U.S. military said it had nearly completed an operation to build a wall along a main street dividing the southern portion of Sadr City from the northern areas, which are farther from the Green Zone. A primary goal is to put the enclave out of range for militia rockets and mortars. Ÿithin the next two weeks we should be done with the barrier part of the plan, said Col. Allen Batschelet, the chief of staff for forces in Baghdad. He said extremists ÅÂre not happy because once the wall is in they are cut off.Æû/P>Some families could be seen fleeing Sadr City's battle-scarred streets. A Reuters correspondent saw seven minibuses in different parts of the slum moving with rolled up mattresses, blankets and cooking gas tanks tied to their roofs. Those on the move included many women wearing black robes, traditional clothes of mourning when a family member dies, and two men wailing after their brother was killed in a rocket attack. Tahseen al-Sheikhli, the government's civilian spokesman for security in Baghdad, accused gunmen of attacking aid convoys. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599414.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times May 9, 2008 Two Killed In Rocket Attack In South Iraq By Reuters BAGHDAD Militants fired rockets into a British base in Iraq's southern oil town of Basra, killing two contractors and wounding four other civilians, the U.S. military said Thursday. It said that British forces had returned fire and that a U.S. airstrike killed six militants behind the attack. The statement did not give the nationalities of the contractors. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki ordered a crackdown on militiamen in Basra at the end of March, mostly targeting fighters loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. After a bungled beginning to the campaign in which Sadr's Mahdi Army militia fought back and scores of civilians were killed, Iraqi forces have wrested control of most of the city. "This was the first indirect [rocket] fire attack causing casualties in Basra since March 27," the statement said. Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, has turned his attention to pro-Sadr militants in Baghdad, particularly in the cleric's stronghold of Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting daily street battles. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599303.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times May 9, 2008 Pg. 1 U.N. Pressures Myanmar To Allow Aid By Andy Newman UNITED NATIONS With up to 1.5 million people in Myanmar now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease and with relief efforts still largely stymied by the countryÃÔ isolationist military rulers, frustrated United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors to supplies and aid workers. ŵhe situation is profoundly worrying, said the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, John Holmes, speaking in unusually candid language for a diplomat. ŵhey have simply not facilitated access in the way we have a right to expect.Æû/P>Almost a week after Cyclone Nargis inundated MyanmarÃÔ densely settled coast, wiped out villages and left untold tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, the first two United Nations flights carrying relief supplies arrived in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on Thursday. One carried seven tons of high-energy biscuits, while the other contained a larger load of humanitarian supplies. Yet emergency supplies on that scale seemed woefully disproportionate to the needs of the survivors, if the scope of the disaster is as extensive as the United Nations and most international aid groups believe. And because of logistical delays heightened by the storm damage, even the trickle of aid that has arrived is not expected to reach victims until Friday at the earliest. Aid officials and health experts warned that the slow response could lead to outbreaks of diseases like cholera and malaria, adding substantially to the death toll. And a prolonged delay could spread malnutrition and starvation across the vast area affected. Since the cyclone hit, aid officials said, MyanmarÃÔ military rulers have granted visas for aid workers only grudgingly and have placed restrictions on supplies coming into the country, while reassuring citizens that it has a grip on the worsening humanitarian crisis. Ÿe have now lost five or six days because of the governmentÃÔ intransigence, said Jan Egeland, who held Mr. HolmesÃÔ position of under secretary for humanitarian affairs during the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami. Within days of that disaster, he said, hundreds of planes laden with supplies had arrived, and military forces from 12 countries were pumping fresh water. Now, he said, ÅÄhildren are going to die from diarrhea because of this governmentÃÔ inaction.Æû/P>The official government death toll from the cyclone is 22,997, but the top American diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, said Wednesday that the toll could rise to 100,000 if aid did not reach survivors soon. A military official in the town of Labutta estimated 80,000 dead there alone, Agence France-Presse reported. In the center of the storm damage, the rice-growing region of the Irrawaddy Delta southwest of Yangon, nearly 2,000 square miles remained under water. Lone survivors of large families told of dodging bodies and moaning people waiting to die, of villages where all but a few people were killed, of miles-long stretches without an intact building. ŪtÃÔ a race for time, a race to save lives, said Henrietta H. Fore, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. The Myanmar government said Friday that it was willing to receive relief supplies but not foreign relief workers and that it had turned back an aircraft that arrived Thursday carrying a search-and-rescue team and a media unit. Ťurrently Myanmar has prioritized receiving emergency relief provisions and is making strenuous efforts to transport those provisions without delay by its own labors to the affected areas, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Å¢s such, Myanmar is not ready to receive search-and-rescue teams as well as media teams from foreign countries.Æû/P>The governmentÃÔ to the crisis response has drawn international criticism that echoes the condemnation it received after its brutal suppression of demonstrations for change last September. Its usual wariness toward outsiders is widely believed to have been heightened by a national constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday that would enhance the power of the military junta. MyanmarÃÔ leaders said they would postpone the vote in only the hardest-hit parts of the country. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations urged the juntaÃÔ senior general, Than Shwe, on Thursday to delay the referendum altogether and to allow aid workers into the country to do their jobs. There are thousands of aid workers inside Myanmar already. Save the Children has a staff of 500 there and has been able to provide 63,000 families with plastic sheeting, food, water purification tablets and other supplies. CARE has a staff of 500, Doctors Without Borders has staff members there, and the United Nations has 1,500 people in Myanmar. But the scale of the disaster dwarfs these measures, aid experts say. Without a huge influx of supplies and transportation in the area, where many villages were accessible only by boat or helicopter to begin with, the workers can offer only limited help, aid officials said. ŪtÃÔ highly frustrating for everyone, said Ms. Fore, whose agency has relief teams, helicopters and ships offshore, all waiting for visas. The French and British Navies find themselves similarly blockaded. American State Department officials spoke Thursday of air-dropping supplies, but said they would not do so without the juntaÃÔ permission. Many people in the worst-hit areas have not had any food or safe drinking water or medical treatment since the cyclone hit, said the spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, Paul Risley. The storm has mixed drinking water and sewage, posing a severe risk of diarrheal diseases, and flooding has left vast pools of standing water where mosquitoes can breed and spread malaria and dengue fever. The cyclone struck a country particularly ill equipped to deal with a public health catastrophe, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins who has worked extensively in Myanmar. Under the military government, the public health infrastructure has been crumbling for decades, he said. Malaria is already endemic, and many people with AIDS and tuberculosis are going untreated, he said. Ÿe donÃÕ think the blood supply is safe or adequately screened, Dr. Beyrer said, adding that people injured in the storm and in need of transfusions face the risk of infection and blood-borne diseases. At the United Nations, Mr. Holmes, at his Thursday briefing, said several of the world bodyÃÔ disaster assessment experts were denied entry, apparently because they were using a United Nations travel document called a laissez-passer rather than a passport. ŵhis is not an acceptable situation, he said. Ťlearly, a U.N. laissez-passer should be, particularly under these circumstances, enough to get you in. But thatÃÔ the position we find ourselves in, and thatÃÔ extremely disappointing.Æû/P>Earlier on Thursday there seemed to be an agreement to allow a C-130 plane loaded with American aid to enter the country. The Thai supreme commander, Boonsrang Niumpradit, told Reuters that Thailand, which has recently developed warmer relations with Myanmar, had helped persuade the junta to let the Americans in. ŵhey were very suspicious that the Americans would do more than just distribute relief supplies, but we helped convince the Burmese to allow the Americans in, Mr. Boonsrang said. But the deal, if there was one, quickly fell apart. ŵhis morning, we and our Thai allies thought we had a decision from the Burmese leadership to let the C-130 in, the United States ambassador to Thailand, Eric John, told a news conference in Bangkok. Ÿe donÃÕ have permission yet for the C-130 to go in, but I emphasize ÁÚet.Ãó Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates noted that the American military had three or four ships ready to help, along with perhaps six C-130 cargo planes. The United States has insisted that American relief experts be allowed to enter the country along American aid. The military government has sealed the country off from the outside world for decades, and the barriers and the mistrust have grown even higher in recent years with the imposition of economic embargos. Political analysts say an influx of foreign aid and experts could undermine the juntaÃÔ standing with the population by demonstrating its inability to care for its people and by allowing foreign influences into the closed nation. ŵhe disaster has demonstrated that their omniscient power has been greatly exaggerated, said Sean Turnell, an expert on the Burmese economy at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The foreign aid they are resisting ÅØould show them up terribly, organizationally and in terms of equipment, and would be quite a loss of face, he said. ŵhis is a regime that is extremely close to totalitarian, so I think an infusion of aid around the country would have a big political effect.Æû/P>In its statements to its people, the junta has insisted everything is ÅÓeturning to normal and that it has the situation under control. On Thursday, state television showed the prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, distributing food packages to the sick and injured as well as video of soldiers dropping food supplies from helicopters over villages. Reporting was contributed by Denise Grady and Stephanie Strom contributed reporting from New York, and Seth Mydans from Bangkok. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599253.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post May 9, 2008 Pg. 20 U.N. Aid Aircraft Reach Burma, Where Storm Toll Steadily Rises By Amy Kazmin and Colum Lynch, Washington Post Foreign Service BANGKOK, May 8 -- Two U.N. transport planes loaded with cyclone relief supplies landed in Burma on Thursday, as international leaders heightened pressure on the country's secretive military government to fully embrace foreign help. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried unsuccessfully to telephone Burma's top general to press the case personally. U.S. military transports were standing by in Thailand to fly in more supplies. But no clearance arrived from Burma, where U.N. experts now estimate that 1.5 million people are in desperate need of help after last weekend's cyclone. Most of the survivors are still largely on their own. "Burma has got to open itself up to a major international effort very soon if we are not to face a second disaster, where infectious disease and other problems start to take a significant toll," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Despite hunger, food rioting, diarrhea outbreaks and general desperation, Burma's military authorities continue to resist the kind of massive international relief that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake of 2005. The leaders are highly suspicious of the U.S. and other Western governments, which have condemned them as dictators. Eric John, the American ambassador to Thailand, expressed chagrin at the continuing stalemate, saying sluggish bureaucracy could be partly to blame. "It is very frustrating, if you look at the people's suffering," he said. "You have the tools at your fingertips to alleviate that suffering, and they are just not picking them up." John said the United States thought it had received a green light Thursday morning to send in C-130 military transport aircraft carrying relief supplies. But Burmese authorities later made it clear no permission had been granted. In New York, U.N. officials said that Ban had tried to call Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the head of Burma's military and government, but that repeated attempts Thursday failed. Ban also urged postponement of a constitutional referendum across the country so as to focus all resources on the disaster. This week, the government said it will delay the vote scheduled for Saturday by two weeks in the cyclone zone but proceed with it as scheduled in other parts of the country. John Holmes, the chief U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said that only two World Food Program officials had been issued visas to enter the country, leaving more than 40 U.N. relief workers stranded in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand. Holmes said two Asian disaster response officials were allowed into the country but that two others whose entry had been cleared Wednesday were turned back at the last minute. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the U.S. military is poised to "save a lot of lives" in Burma and that the tragedy is being compounded by the junta's failure to allow American forces to provide assistance. U.S. Navy ships were unloading helicopters in Thailand that could reach Burma with relief supplies in a matter of hours, and six C-130 transport planes were available to provide emergency aid, Gates said. Three or four ships began a five-day journey to a location off Burma to be available to offer aid. Gates said the U.S. military could not act without Burmese government permission, but a State Department official said that "anything that might have a positive impact is being looked at and is being discussed," including unauthorized airdrops. The official, Ky Luu, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, said that because of such logistical challenges as notifying people on the ground, the drops could cause more harm than good. He said the immediate need is for the Burmese government to open up aid channels. Despite the barriers, the United Nations got two planes into the country Thursday, both chartered by the World Food Program. One -- loaded with 20 tons of ready-to-eat, high-energy biscuits, six portable warehouses and eight large emergency medical kits -- had sat for two days in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, waiting for clearance. In Rangoon, officials repeatedly told the WFP that the airlift had a green light. But that word did not reach Burma's civil aviation authorities, who delayed giving the pilot clearance to land. A second WFP plane landed Thursday, and two more were due by Friday. On the ground, the U.N. food agency, which has long operated non-emergency programs in Burma, set up its first distribution center with more than four tons of biscuits in the town of Labutta, in one of the worst-hit areas in the Irrawaddy Delta. It planned to begin distributing food there Friday. The supplies going in so far are "such a trickle of aid, compared to what is needed, and we can't even get this in," said Paul Risley, a WFP spokesman. "This is why a death toll can rise in the critical 10 days after the disaster." "I've never seen an emergency situation such as this before," said Greg Beck, Asia regional director of the International Rescue Committee. "A week after the disaster, the entire humanitarian community is still sitting in another country, outside the affected area, looking for means to access the disaster zone." But military rulers of the country officially known as Myanmar did quickly accept some bilateral aid, given by friendly Asian governments directly to the Burmese military, without strings attached, for distribution by the army. The junta has long been wary of foreign aid workers, particularly Westerners, whom they suspect of supporting dissidents opposed to military rule. While international nongovernmental organizations have been permitted to operate in Burma for the past decade, some members of the government have sought to subject their workers to ever-tighter controls. Now authorities seem to be trying to handpick relief workers, letting in some U.N. officials and aid workers from Asian countries, while stalling on others. "They seem to be open to us bringing in staff from nations which are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations" but are less open to people from other countries, said Greg Duly, regional director of Save the Children, which was operating in Burma before the disaster and is distributing relief. Despite the obstacles, Duly said, Burmese officials on the ground seem increasingly receptive to help. "It isn't black and white -- this is a very opaque, constant-changing situation," he said. "We are getting more cooperation now in-country than we were getting three days ago." That shift may reflect growing pressure on Burma from China and Southeast Asian countries, its closest friends. And, he said, "it might be that they are appreciating better the full scale of the disaster." Lynch reported from the United Nations. Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson in Washington contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599347.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l739WRpb.yqj4ldbSL3ns1uoSGqjeFSsMiaSI.L0I#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Atlanta Journal-Constitution May 9, 2008 American Aid Waits In Thailand By Associated Press *The U.S. military sent more humanitarian supplies and equipment to a staging area in Thailand on Thursday. A C-17 transport plane brought in water and food, joining the two C-130s already in place, Air Force spokeswoman Megan Orton said at the Pentagon. Another C-130 loaded with supplies was on its way, she said. *The U.S. Navy also has three ships participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Thailand that could help in a relief effort, including an amphibious assault ship with 23 helicopters. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080509599445.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_2341422_AKf OjkQAAAuzSCSgmA1gHRwkWOo&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080509aaindex_concat.html&cred=lw_BckGqZUVgJm0V vcaFkL_l7 |
