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 The pentagon Early Bird May 20 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 the Headlines; then to read the Entire News headline Articles, further scroll down. URL's will not link out in the recieved format. ARMY
Washington Times May 20, 2008 Pg. 1 40,000 Told To Prepare For Action Active-duty, National Guard deployment will begin in fall By Sara A. Carter, The Washington Times The Louisiana National Guard unit that was called home in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was ordered yesterday to prepare to return to Iraq for its second tour. The members of the 256th Brigade Combat Team were not alone. Pentagon officials notified about 40,000 active-duty and National Guard soldiers yesterday that they will be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the upcoming months and years. About 25,000 active-duty troops and 14,000 National Guard members will be called to replace those returning from the region. The majority will be going to Iraq. "All four [National Guard] brigades will have a security force mission and be assigned tasks to assure freedom of movement and continuity of operations in the country," the Defense Department said. The deployments will not affect Pentagon plans to maintain troop levels at 140,000 by the end of July, once withdrawals are completed, officials said. The Pentagon's policy of limiting Army tours of duty to 12 months, rather than the current 15 months, will take effect in August. Many of the soldiers who are to be deployed later this year returned from Iraq late last year, giving them more than a year at home to rest and train, Pentagon officials said. The Louisiana brigade, with headquarters in Lafayette, spent a year in Iraq before Katrina stormed ashore on Aug. 29, 2005. Twenty-two soldiers from the brigade were killed during the Iraq deployment. Most of the deployments announced yesterday will begin in the fall and continue until the end of the year. About 155,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Iraq and more than 33,000 in Afghanistan. "This is not something we can easily walk away from," a senior military official said. "These countries need stability before we can pull out; this is something for the long haul." In April, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq and soon to be commander of U.S. Central Command, where he will oversee both Afghanistan and Iraq, told senators that analysis of the political and security situation in Iraq was not a "mathematical exercise." He warned lawmakers during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that "fragile and reversible" security gains from the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq would be shattered by a precipitous pullout. He recommended a pause of troop reductions in July followed by an assessment period to decide how to proceed. Most National Guard brigades heading to Iraq will provide security. The Vermont National Guard, consisting of about 3,100 soldiers, is scheduled to go to Afghanistan in 2010 to train government forces. Gen. Petraeus said the United States will complete the withdrawal of the 20,000 troops sent to Iraq in last year's "surge." The highest troop level reached in Iraq included 20 brigades with more than 170,000 troops. In April, Gen. Petraeus said at a roundtable meeting with reporters that he wanted 45 days to evaluate the security conditions in Iraq before deciding which troops to withdraw. Under the plan announced yesterday, the United States could keep 15 brigades in Iraq through the end of the year, as voters elect a new president. The deployment announcement involves one division headquarters and seven brigade combat teams. National Guard units from Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas also were alerted that they will be deployed to Iraq. Units "are receiving alert orders now in order to provide them the maximum time to complete their preparations," the Defense Department announcement said. "It also provides a greater measure of predictability for family members and flexibility for employers to plan for military service of their employees." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602139.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post May 20, 2008 Pg. 8 New Troops In Iraq Will Keep Number At 140,000 By Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writer Seven active-duty Army brigades have been scheduled to deploy to Iraq later this year, the Defense Department announced yesterday, a plan that would allow U.S. commanders to keep troop levels at about 140,000 through the end of the Bush administration and into the next president's term. The deployments will be part of the regular rotation of troops into Iraq and will come on the heels of the "surge" of troops, which is expected to end this summer. The increased U.S. presence in Iraq -- which topped out at about 170,000 troops -- is expected to go down to 140,000 by the end of July. U.S. officials plan to keep 15 combat brigades in Iraq through the end of the year, though ongoing assessments could allow commanders to change those numbers. The brigades that will deploy come from the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and Alaska, the 4th Infantry Division in Colorado, the 1st Infantry Division in Kansas, the 82nd Airborne Division in North Carolina, the 173rd Infantry Brigade in Germany, and the 1st Cavalry Division in Texas. All have prior experience in Iraq, some with multiple tours. About 25,000 troops will take part in the deployment, which will be limited to 12 months under current Pentagon policy. Although the troop increase has been widely credited with improving security in Iraq, it is unclear what a reduction will mean over the coming months. U.S. officials plan to watch the situation closely amid calls from Congress for force reductions. The next deployments will come this fall, meaning commanders will have at least seven combat brigades in Iraq through the end of 2009; more deployment announcements could come soon. "These deployments all represent replacement forces for those already there in Iraq," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. "It does not add to the level of effort, nor does it decrease the level of effort." The Defense Department also announced yesterday that four Army National Guard brigades will deploy to Iraq in spring 2009 to take part in security missions, such as base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait. The four brigades -- from Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Tennessee -- include about 14,000 soldiers. Pentagon officials also notified 3,100 soldiers with the Vermont Army National Guard that they will deploy to Afghanistan in 2010 to train Afghan National Army soldiers. They will replace a unit from Georgia that has yet to arrive there. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602213.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today May 20, 2008 Pg. 1 Military Retools Detainee Releases U.S. preparing most to rejoin Iraqi society By Jim Michaels, USA Today Only one in five detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq are members of the main extremist groups fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces, while many of the rest can be reintegrated back into society, according to U.S. military statistics and interviews. The assessment reflects a new approach to detainees, which emphasizes isolating al-Qaeda and Shiite extremists and increasing the release of many average men caught up in the fighting. "Our goal, really, is to release all of those who are no longer an imperative security risk," said Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, who oversees detainee operations in Iraq. His office shared the latest breakdown of who the detainees are with USA TODAY. U.S. commanders are not suggesting that U.S. forces captured innocent men, but some defense analysts say it is difficult to make distinctions in unconventional warfare, where insurgents don't wear uniforms and most troops don't speak the local language. "We have swept up and detained a very large number of potential enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the reality of those wars is we don't really know who we're holding," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. U.S. officers have established religious, job training and other classes inside the two main U.S.-operated facilities to help prepare detainees to re-enter society. Moderate imams teach the religious classes. Stone, a Marine Reserve officer, has led the new approach since last year when he took over detainee operations. As a civilian, he has managed several software companies. "I found it amazing," he said. "They are not extremists of the ilk that I had met in the Pakistan and Afghanistan theater." The more aggressive release strategy appears to be working, statistics show. Of 8,000 released over the past 10 months only 28 have returned to the main detention facilities, a recidivism rate of less than 1%. Prior to the new program, the rate was 6.4%, Stone said. The detainee population hasn't decreased by 8,000 because new detainees continue to enter the system. However, the average number of daily releases is about 53 now and the average daily intake of detainees has held steady at about 30 since December. The number of detainees in U.S. custody peaked at nearly 26,000 last year when U.S. reinforcements stepped up military operations against militants. It has dropped to just over 22,000 now. Many of the detainees cooperated with militants because they needed the money. "Underemployment is a genuine motivator," Stone said. Others were religious zealots who acted out of misguided religious motivations. The security detainees, mostly men, are held in two camps, in Baghdad and southern Iraq. Abu Ghraib closed in 2006. Stone said he meets with detainees regularly. "Every day I'm amazed at how friendly they are," he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602157.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times May 20, 2008 Pg. 15 Iraqi Forces Find Weapons Cache In Baghdad Mosque By Michael R. Gordon BAGHDAD Iraqi troops uncovered a large cache of arms in a raid on a Baghdad mosque on Monday amid signs that Shiite militants had stepped up their attacks outside Sadr City. The raid occurred in the Shaab neighborhood northwest of Sadr City. After clearing the building of weapons, Iraqi forces closed the mosque and established a police checkpoint outside. ŵhe size of the cache in such an obvious place says that this group was not afraid of the Iraqi security forces in their area, said Maj. Brian North, who leads the American military team advising the Iraqi ArmyÃÔ 42nd Brigade. Shaab and the adjoining Ur neighborhood were built in the 1960s and 1970s to house middle-class government workers. The neighborhoods were formerly home to Shiites and Sunnis but became overwhelmingly Shiite as a result of sectarian fighting. The so-called surge of American reinforcements last year scattered many of the commanders of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr that had been operating there. As American and Iraqi forces turned their attention to Sadr City in March, however, Iraqi forces were shifted from a number of Baghdad neighborhoods, including Shaab. The reduction in Iraqi forces coupled with the increased military pressure in Sadr City led to an increase in assaults on Iraqi National Police checkpoints in Shaab, American officers said. ŧor about six weeks now we have taken tactical risk in Shaab to support our operation in Sadr City, Major North said. Å¢s we started having more and more success in Sadr City, we started seeing more and more attacks starting in the Shaab area.Æû/P>On Sunday, a group of Shaab residents complained to the American military that security in their area had deteriorated. The raid on the mosque began at dawn Monday as American M1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker vehicles from the First Battalion, 68th Armor, set up a cordon around the area. More than 400 Iraqi soldiers and police officers then moved in to conduct the search. Only Iraqi troops went inside Al Sharoufi Mosque, a one-story structure with a brick dome. Some of the arms that were discovered had been buried while others were stacked in corners. Among the weapons seized were two dozen roadside bombs, 20 mortar rounds, six launchers for rocket-propelled grenades and 50 hand grenades. The Iraqi troops carried the weapons to the street, where they were picked up by a United States Army explosive ordnance disposal team. Other items seized, Major North said, were a list of kidnapping victims and records of militia members who had been wounded. There was also some antigovernment propaganda, including leaflets that compared Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki with Saddam Hussein. One leaflet depicted Mr. HusseinÃÔ hanging, with Mr. MalikiÃÔ head transposed onto his body. After the raid, Col. Tariq Abdul Karim, the burly commander of the Iraqi 42nd Brigade, led residents into the mosque to underscore that it had been used to store arms. While the mosque was being raided, Iraqi troops conducted a house-to-house search for suspected militia members. Informers dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms wearing masks to cover their faces went along to identify suspects. In all, 22 Iraqis were detained. On Tuesday morning, Iraqi soldiers and armor vehicles ventured north of Al Quds Street, the major thoroughfare that borders the Shiite enclave, farther into areas previously controlled by the Mahdi Army. Watched by a few residents, the Iraqis faced no initial resistance, finding and disabling a few roadside bombs as they progressed. On Monday in southern Iraq, the chief of police in Souk al Shiyoukh, near Nasiriya, was killed by a bomb planted in his office. The area was the site of heavy Shiite-on-Shiite fighting last month between government forces dominated by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and its biggest rival, the Mahdi Army. In Basra, one policeman was killed and two were wounded in an attack on a checkpoint in the city center, the police said. There was also a bomb attack in Abu al Khaseb, 10 miles south of Basra, on the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shiite religious leader. Attacks have fallen sharply in Basra since the start of an operation to clear militias and smuggling gangs there in March. In the northern town of Baaj, gunmen killed 11 men who had just signed up to join the Iraqi Army. Abdul-Raheem al-Shamari, the mayor of Baaj, said the killers opened fire on a minibus taking the volunteers home from the recruitment center. Iraqi soldiers and police officers are a frequent target of attacks by Sunni insurgents who hope to deter people from joining the governmentÃÔ security forces. Stephen Farrell contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Basra, Nasiriya and Mosul. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602211.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today May 20, 2008 Pg. 7 11 Iraqi Police Recruits Killed, Police Say By Associated Press BAGHDAD Suspected Sunni insurgents ambushed a minibus carrying Iraqi police recruits near the Syrian border Monday, killing all 11 passengers, Iraqi officials said the first deadly attack since Iraqi forces launched a major sweep against al-Qaeda fighters in the region. The hail of gunfire came hours after Iraqi officials said they arrested a man suspected of being al-Qaeda in Iraq's chief leader in the northern city of Mosul, the terror network's most prominent urban stronghold. The attack, one of the bloodiest in months against police, left the minibus riddled with bullets in the desert west of Mosul, where the crackdown has been centered. Some al-Qaeda fighters are believed to have fled the city toward neighboring Syria. Police discovered the bodies of the police recruits and their minibus near Baaj, a remote town 20 miles from the Syrian border, according to a provincial official in Baaj and a Mosul police officer. The policemen, most from Baaj, were returning from their recruitment camp, they said. It appeared a large group of insurgents had ambushed the minibus with a spray of gunfire. Nine bodies, including the police driver's, were found still in the vehicle and two on the ground outside, the two officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. The provincial official said the attack had the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq and could have been in retaliation for the Mosul crackdown, launched more than a week ago. The U.S. military said it was looking into reports of the attack. Until now, the Mosul sweep had seen almost no violence, even as U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers and police conducted arrest raids in the city a sign that militants had fled or were lying low. On Monday, the Defense Ministry announced the first death in the crackdown, a militant killed in Mosul. U.S. and Iraqi forces have also been carrying out sweeps in areas around Mosul including the desert around Baaj to intercept fleeing fighters. It was not immediately clear if the slaying of the police officers was a sign of Sunni insurgents regrouping from the crackdown or a target of opportunity for fighters trying to avoid capture. In either case, it was a dramatic assault on police forces, who have been less of a target in recent months for Sunni insurgents. Earlier this month, al-Qaeda fighters killed 11 police officers and one of their sons, beheading them in their homes in the town of Husaybah, elsewhere near the Syrian border. But al-Qaeda in Iraq has focused its attacks more on groups Sunni tribal fighters known as Awakening Councils, which have been fighting alongside the Americans against al-Qaeda. Numerous suicide bombings and other attacks have killed dozens of Awakening Council members this year. This year to date, at least 699 Iraqi security forces and Awakening Council members have been reported killed and 924 wounded, according to an Associated Press count, including 76 killed so far during May. This total includes Iraqi military, police and police recruits, as well as Awakening members. During the same time period, at least 3,331 civilians were killed in war-related violence and at least 4,180 wounded. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the crackdown in Mosul in a bid to break the hold of al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents in the city, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. The U.S. military has described Mosul as al-Qaeda in Iraq's last urban stronghold after the group lost control of cities in the western province of Anbar over the past year. al-Qaeda militants and other Sunni Arab insurgents have used Mosul, a key transport hub with highways to Baghdad and Syria, for suicide bombings and other attacks in northern and central Iraq. Hours earlier, Iraqi officials said they had arrested a man suspected of being al-Qaeda in Iraq's chief leader in Mosul. The U.S. military said it was looking into the report. Reports of high-level al-Qaeda in Iraq arrests in the past have sometimes proven inaccurate. Maj. Gen. Ahmed Taha, of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, identified the detainee as the terror group's "wali" or "governor" in Mosul, a title which would make him its top figure in the city and the Ninevah province where it is located. A security official involved in the detention said the suspect, Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, admitted in questioning to being the Mosul wali. Al-Sabawi, a former brigadier in Saddam Hussein's military, fled Mosul before the crackdown and took refuge in the Sunni Arab city of Tikrit in Salahuddin province, 120 miles to the south, the official said. Confessions by other militants captured in Mosul during the sweep led security forces to his hiding place, and he was brought back to Mosul for interrogation, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the arrest. Taha said only that al-Sabawi was arrested in Salahuddin province, without specifying where. More than 1,300 people have been arrested in and around Mosul during the current operation, though 240 were cleared of suspicion and released, said Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, the deputy interior minister for intelligence and security affairs. Al-Maliki ordered the Mosul sweep after similar crackdowns against Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra and Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602212.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today May 20, 2008 Pg. 1 In Iraq, A Shiite Cleric's Push For Reconciliation Reaching out to Sunnis despite threats is fostering hope -- so far By Charles Levinson, USA Today BAGHDAD Safa al-Lami knew he might be on a suicide mission. He had taken a taxi into Adhamiya, one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods. Now, wearing a white headdress that identified him as a Shiite religious leader, al-Lami planned to walk up unannounced to a Sunni mosque and ask whether he could pray alongside his Muslim brothers. In an area where militias were shooting many Shiites on sight, "I knew there was a big chance I would be killed," al-Lami recalls. "I kept walking toward the shrine, whispering to myself: 'Don't be afraid.' " And so began Safa al-Lami's bold one-man mission: to prove that Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites could again live side by side after years of war. Since his first trip to Adhamiya in December, al-Lami has faced death threats, a kidnapping and deep-rooted prejudice as he has tried to heal the wounds between Iraq's two biggest religious sects. Such grass-roots reconciliation efforts are a cornerstone of the current U.S. strategy in Iraq. When President Bush ordered an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last spring, he said the goal was to give Sunnis and Shiites "breathing space" to work out their problems, at least to the point where they could coexist without bloodshed. The two groups must forge a lasting peace before U.S. troops can leave Iraq in large numbers, Bush has said. Violence has since fallen sharply, largely because of Iraqis such as al-Lami who have tried to take charge of their country's destiny. Fierce battles continue among Shiite factions in areas such as Sadr City, the massive slum in Baghdad. But for the most part, fighting between Sunnis and Shiites remains at low levels that would have been unthinkable even six months ago. Partly because of al-Lami's efforts, Adhamiya has been heralded by the Iraqi government and the U.S. military as a test case of sectarian reconciliation. But the man now affectionately known in the neighborhood as "Sheik Safa" recognizes that progress is fragile. "Iraqis love to say that Sunnis and Shiites are brothers and that sectarianism never existed before the U.S. invasion," says al-Lami, 36. "It's time to step up and prove it." Adhamiya was a highly unlikely place to lead a peace drive. Saddam Hussein, who oppressed Iraq's Shiites during his rule, made his last public appearance there before the U.S. invasion in 2003. In the years thereafter, the enclave became an insurgent hotbed, where former members of Hussein's Baath Party and militants loyal to al-Qaeda clashed with Shiite militias from nearby areas. "The Shiites all thought that the people in Adhamiya were monsters who would kill every single Shiite who visited," al-Lami says. For a moment last December, it appeared those paranoid Shiites might have been right. There was panic in the neighborhood as al-Lami first approached the Abu Hanifa Mosque. Farouq al-Ubeidi, a Sunni leader, was in his office when word of al-Lami's visit arrived. "People came running, saying a Shiite sheik is standing next to the mosque," al-Ubeidi says. Like others in Adhamiya, al-Ubeidi had relatives who had been killed by Shiite militias in his case, a son and three brothers. "I didn't believe it," al-Ubeidi says, "so I ran outside." Al-Ubeidi and other Sunnis cautiously approached al-Lami and asked him what he was doing in Adhamiya. Al-Lami declared he had come in peace, and wished to hold a joint prayer session. Then, the men hugged and entered the mosque side by side. In the hours that followed, the visit seemed like a resounding success. The impact was immediately clear among the Sunnis in Adhamiya, many of whom hadn't even seen a Shiite in nearly two years. Akram Ahmed, a 30-year-old butcher, hadn't dared to leave his walled-off Sunni enclave since the bombing of the Samarra shrine in February 2006, which set off a wave of bloodletting between the religious sects. "Sheik Safa's visit told us that there are Shiites who still consider us brothers," Ahmed says. 'Paralyzed with fear' The warm glow from that first visit wore off quickly, though. As he was leaving Adhamiya to go back home, al-Lami recalls, his taxi was run off the road by three Toyota Land Cruisers with tinted windows. Men in army uniforms stepped out of the vehicles. They pointed a machine gun at his head, blindfolded him and took him to a dank basement, al-Lami says. His captors demanded to know why he was going to see the Sunnis and accused him of collaborating with al-Qaeda, the radical Sunni terror network, al-Lami says. "My mind was paralyzed with fear," al-Lami says in his native Arabic. "I thought they were going to shoot me and I just focused on death. I had very small hope that God would rescue me." As several days passed without word from al-Lami, it looked as if his trip might end up having the opposite of its intended effect. His disappearance threatened to become a major crisis between Iraq's religious sects. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, reacted to the kidnapping by deploying the commander of the Iraq army's 9th Division to Adhamiya. A massive roundup of suspects began. "The government has never stopped thinking that we are Sunnis, therefore we are terrorists," says al-Ubeidi, the Sunni leader in Adhamiya. "When Sheik Safa disappeared, they were ready to arrest all of us." Al-Lami was released from captivity six days after his capture. Al-Lami says his kidnappers warned him he would be killed if he ever returned to Adhamiya. The next day, he did just that. Defying his captors, al-Lami went back to the neighborhood's mosque and knelt in prayer for a second time alongside hundreds of Sunni worshipers. Al-Lami says he doesn't know for sure who organized the kidnapping. He suspects his captors were hard-line Shiites possibly from within the government who wanted to marshal power for themselves by keeping Sunnis on the margins of society. His reconciliation efforts might have posed a threat to their agenda, he says. Al-Lami still shuttles between safe houses each week to try to stay a step ahead of extremists. On Friday, gunmen peppered his car with bullets when he was en route to the Shiite neighborhood of Khadhimiya, al-Lami says. He escaped to a nearby police checkpoint unscathed. Meanwhile, the prayer sessions at the Abu Hanifa Mosque continue. Faith, not traditional politics, offers the best chance at reconciliation, al-Lami says. "Our political leaders have failed us," he says, "and Iraqis need to fight back and force them to change." Taking tangible steps A leafy plot of land next to the mosque helps show why reconciliation is so daunting. Once a grass-covered park and playground where families and newlyweds picnicked on Friday afternoons, today it's a teeming graveyard. The swing sets were ripped out in 2006 to make way for the neighborhood's ballooning numbers of dead. More than 4,000 bodies have been buried here in less than two years. About 70% of the dead were teenage boys, caretaker Nasser Abdel Walid says. Al-Lami knew wounds of that magnitude would not be healed with prayer alone. So he set out to take tangible steps, such as helping Shiites who had lived in Adhamiya return to the homes they had fled. One such Shiite, Karim Abdel Dahash, left the neighborhood in early 2007 with his wife and three children after finding an al-Qaeda death threat nailed to his front door. After hearing about al-Lami's visits and attending a Sunni-Shiite prayer session, Dahash decided last month it was safe to return. Al-Ubeidi, the local Sunni leader, was among those who helped Dahash move back home. "Sheik Safa showed us it was safe to come back here," says Dahash, back in the sitting room of the house his parents and grandparents have lived in since 1940. Al-Lami also has tried to address Sunni grievances, aware that both sides must make gains for peace to be possible. He has used his vast influence within Iraq's Shiite religious community to help reopen 18 Sunni mosques around Baghdad during the past three months. The mosques were among dozens torched by Shiite militias at the height of the sectarian war in 2006, and the Shiite government had resisted requests to reopen them. Sheik Shaker Mahmoud, the 60-year-old imam of the Sunni al-Rabia Mosque in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in East Baghdad, went repeatedly to the Ministry of Interior to ask for permission to reopen. He was refused every time. "I had gone to the ministry and begged, saying whatever you want I will guarantee you, and they said 'absolutely not,' " Mahmoud says. "Then Sheik Safa came." Al-Lami accompanied Mahmoud to the mosque. They were confronted by police. Al-Lami made a phone call and within 15 minutes, both brothers of Iraq's interior minister were on hand to open the mosque, Mahmoud says. "Sheik Safa reminds us of all that's good in Iraq," Mahmoud says. Spreading the peace Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman for the military in Baghdad, says the joint prayer sessions in Adhamiya have been instrumental in healing sectarian wounds. "That was an outreach effort that spread to religious and community leaders on both sides and it's been very successful at rejoining the two people," Stover says. Al-Lami's only regret is that he wasn't able to do more, sooner. He founded an organization devoted to religious understanding shortly after the U.S. invasion, but his office was seized by a Shiite political party opposed to reconciliation. In 2004, he was injured by a car bomb and then spent three years in Cairo and Beirut undergoing operations. Only last fall was he able to return to Iraq. He headed to Adhamiya soon after. In February, thousands of Shiites flocked to the neighborhood's holy sites for the first time in years to celebrate the birthday of the prophet Mohammed. Prime Minister al-Maliki also visited the neighborhood this spring in a symbolic attempt to reach out to Sunnis. Al-Lami's main concern these days is Iran, which he says is using its ties with Shiite groups to inflame sectarian tensions. Meanwhile, the future of Iraq may be determined by how many others are willing to take up al-Lami's cause. Mahmoud, the Sunni cleric whose mosque was reopened, sees himself in the same mold. These days, he leaves prayer stones at the front door as a welcome sign to Shiites who press their foreheads against the mosque's bricks. "We saw the ugly chain reaction when one sect started killing the other," Mahmoud says. "Now, Sheik Safa has started another chain reaction, this time for peace." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602217.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times May 20, 2008 Pg. 12 Police Claim Arrest Of Al Qaeda Leader BAGHDAD Police arrested a man yesterday suspected of being a top figure of al Qaeda in Iraq in the northern city of Mosul, where security forces have been carrying out a crackdown to root out the terrorist organization. The U.S. military said it was looking into the police report. Reports of high-level al Qaeda arrests in the past have sometimes proved incorrect. Maj. Gen. Ahmed Taha of the Interior Ministry identified the detainee as al Qaeda's "wali," or "governor" in Mosul, which would make him the organization's top figure in the city and surrounding region. But a security official involved in the detention said officials were still interrogating the detainee, Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, to confirm his link to al Qaeda. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the arrest. Mr. al-Sabawi was captured in a morning raid in Salahuddin province, which neighbors Mosul's Ninevah province to the south, Gen. Taha said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602254.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times May 20, 2008 Sons Of Iraq? Or Baghdad's Sopranos? Working with a U.S.-funded Sunni guard force can be a lot like dealing with the mob. Some of the armed men act like the dons of their neighborhood. By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer BAGHDAD As Arabic pop songs blared from a cafe and children squealed on rickety rides, men armed with pistols and Kalashnikovs wandered through a crowded Baghdad park one recent evening, checking visitors for weapons and keeping an eye out for suicide bombers. Eight months ago, some of them may have been planting bombs themselves, or firing rounds at passing American convoys. But on this night, they grabbed hands and stomped their feet in a traditional line dance as a U.S. foot patrol stopped to watch. Residents credit cooperation between the American soldiers and the dancing gunmen, members of a U.S.-funded Sunni neighborhood guard force, for a turnaround in security in Adhamiya, a Sunni Arab enclave in Shiite-dominated east Baghdad that until recently was on the front line of the Iraqi capital's sectarian war. But doing business with the gunmen, whom the U.S. military has dubbed Sons of Iraq, is like striking a deal with Tony Soprano, according to the soldiers who walk the battle-blighted streets, where sewage collects in malodorous pools. "Most of them kind of operate like dons in their areas," said 2nd Lt. Forrest Pierce, a platoon leader with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment. They shake down local businessmen for protection money, seize rivals for links to the insurgency and are always angling for more men, more territory and more power. For U.S. soldiers on the beat, it means navigating a complex world of shifting allegiances, half-truths and betrayals. Last month, a checkpoint leader known by the traditional nickname Abu Muthana was detained for allegedly arranging gangland-style hits and passing information to Al Qaeda in Iraq, a mostly homegrown militant group that the U.S. says is foreign-led. "We have dirt on all of them," Pierce said. But Abu Muthana's arrest "kind of put the others on edge, let them know they aren't invincible, and made them clean up a bit." As Pierce led his soldiers out of the park, the platoon received word over a crackling radio that two suspects had been detained at Sons of Iraq checkpoints. The soldiers piled into their Humvees and maneuvered the lumbering vehicles down narrow, winding streets to an office fronting the illuminated Abu Hanifa Mosque, the most revered Sunni house of worship in Baghdad. Inside, a man sat in an overstuffed chair, his T-shirt pulled up over his face and his hands cuffed behind his back. Red and green disco lights played across the ceiling. The checkpoint leader, who goes by the name Abu Omar, arrived with his 7-year-old son, who gripped a Kalashnikov only slightly shorter than himself. Pierce asked what the captive was accused of doing. Abu Omar said he was one of Abu Muthana's men and had been spotted planting a roadside bomb. But there were no sworn statements to back up the charge. Without evidence that could stand up in court, Pierce couldn't take the man in. "We keep telling them, they can't just be grabbing guys," he said, shaking his head as he left the building. The next stop was a sprawling house that serves as headquarters for Mohannad, a young leader with slicked-back hair and flashy rings responsible for one of the largest sectors of Adhamiya. A cuffed captive was brought into the living room with cotton wool and a blindfold over his eyes. Mohannad, who did not want his full name published, said he saw the man gun down two others near the mosque. Asked when this happened, he replied: February 2005. Pierce exchanged a suspicious look with his platoon sergeant. "So why are you detaining him now?" he asked. Mohannad appeared surprised at the question. "He came through one of my checkpoints, so we grabbed him," he said. As Mohannad filled in a statement, Pierce explained that he had another reason for visiting him that night. "Rumor is that his guys are extorting money at gunpoint from the sewage contractor," he said. "But I want him to finish with the witness statements before we discuss that touchy subject." Before he could do that, a report of an explosion came in over the radio, and the platoon was off again. Such attacks were once a near-daily occurrence in Adhamiya. When the 3rd Squadron arrived last summer, its soldiers couldn't drive past Abu Hanifa Mosque without getting shot at. On the day they assumed responsibility for the area, the unit they replaced was struck by a roadside bomb that flipped a Bradley fighting vehicle, killing five soldiers and an interpreter. But the number of attacks plunged to less than one a week after the military began paying local men $300 a month to protect their areas. The U.S. military now has 843 gunmen on its payroll in Adhamiya, a once-prosperous neighborhood of retired military officers, teachers and professionals enclosed by a 12-foot-high concrete wall. Last month, the number of attacks started to inch back up, leading soldiers to believe that religious extremists and the criminal gangs that thrive on chaos may be trying to stage a comeback. Under the cover of a blinding sandstorm, gunmen attacked a Sons of Iraq checkpoint and killed three of the guards. Bombs also have gone off in front of the homes of other group members. The blast that Pierce was sent to investigate also took place at a checkpoint leader's home. The damage was minimal, and the soldiers concluded it was probably caused by a Molotov cocktail. The homeowner did not appear concerned. Asked who he thought was responsible, the man shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "It must be Al Qaeda." Perhaps, Pierce said as he trudged back to the vehicles. "They always say it's AQI. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's just another don wanting more turf." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602028.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Francisco Chronicle May 19, 2008 Pg. 9 Al-Sadr Militia Deserters Hold Fast To Terror By Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Foreign Service Baghdad -- In one dim, spartan living room after another, U.S. soldiers ask Iraqi families the same question: Do they know of any militants in the area? The answer, invariably, is the same: "Everything is quiet here. This area is safe." But the Americans believe that Risala, a poor neighborhood in southern Baghdad, is a bastion of Shiite militias that have splintered from the powerful Mahdi Army of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and are now using the area as a staging ground for mortar and rocket attacks on two U.S. military bases in Baghdad. After seven weeks of heavy fighting in Sadr City in northern Baghdad, the Mahdi Army recently signed a shaky truce with the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But splinter groups have not abided by the cease-fire, launching attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces in southern Baghdad. Last week, roadside bombs barely missed two American convoys. On Friday night, someone fired a machine gun at American and Iraqi forces searching the neighborhood of unpaved roads, rancid pools of stagnant sewage and stray dogs that bark all night in mounds of trash. On Saturday, a U.S. patrol stumbled upon a bomb made out of a 155mm round buried in a street; that night, a dozen gun shots rang out just beyond the U.S. outpost in Risala. "JAM guys are following Sadr's cease-fire; special groups are attacking us," said Army Capt. Sean Chase, a company commander stationed in Risala. JAM is the acronym for the al-Sadr militia's Arabic name, Jaish al-Mahdi. American troops believe the militants are trained and armed by Iran and terrorize the locals into providing them a haven. Chase says militants often press-gang Iraqis by threatening to harm them or their families. They also force shopkeepers to pay duty or face retribution. "People are afraid of being killed, shaken down for money," Chase said. "Basically, it's the mafia operating by mafia rules." A series of recent raids by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Risala offered a glimpse at how militias operate and how they manage to retain a grip on vast swaths of Shiite areas in and outside the capital. The searches resulted in the arrest of seven men whom U.S. forces suspect of being leaders of anti-American militias. One detainee even carried a diagram that showed how to attack American tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. The Iraqi police, on the other hand, detained some 40 suspects and confiscated scores of Kalashnikov rifles. They also found a ledger that contained several thousand names of local residents who are alleged militia members, Chase said. Chase said he has not encountered any detainees who have been trained as police or army soldiers by American forces. But he does believe they may have been trained by Iran because they use radios and operate as a paramilitary organization. "We are able to monitor some of their radios," he said. "We hear how they refer to areas and operations. They speak in military terms, like us." On a recent night, an informant disguised in a U.S. army uniform and wearing an improvised ski mask made out of a camouflage neck warmer, led U.S. soldiers to the home of a suspected militia member named Uday. Since Uday was out, the soldiers questioned his brothers. While one brother told them that Uday had been there earlier that morning, the other said he hadn't seen him for a month. Both said that their block, located on the edge of a foul-smelling marsh, had no militants. But 20 minutes later, both admitted they were afraid to say anything since they believed militia members would kill their families. "They threatened their family - either you help us or we'll hurt your family," said Army Specialist Tyler Lipford, who questioned the men. Such intimidation also makes it difficult for U.S. soldiers to gather intelligence about leaders of the splinter cells and carry out a more effective crackdown, says Chase. Although some informers have come forward with useful information, most people keep their mouths shut. "You have weapons, you kill, threaten their families," said Lt. Col. Johnnie Johnson, whose 4-64 Armor Battalion of the 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division operates in Risala. "You can get them to do what you want." Chase says the splinter militias also offer some of the much-needed services, such as street generators - the main source of electricity in a country whose national power grid can provide no more than four hours of power a day to any household. But at the same time, the militias also prevent the Iraqi government from providing other basic services such as sewage trucks to pump away fetid waste that accumulates in roads and courtyards, contractors to repair leaky sewage pipes, and garbage trucks to haul away trash that piles up along neighborhood streets. "If you have contractors hired to clean the road, and if they are threatened to not come back here, it's hard for us to get someone to come back to work," said Johnson. "If we can secure these areas, it would definitely improve." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602315.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News May 18, 2008 Pg. 1 Midstaters Query Petraeus On Iraq, Morale Of Soldiers By David Wenner CARLISLE -- Not everyone can sit across the room from Gen. David Petraeus, hear his detailed views on the war he's leading in Iraq and ask him questions. But midstaters got that opportunity Saturday at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center near Carlisle, where Petraeus spoke from Iraq. He appeared via video feed and answered questions for an hour. Petraeus, the commanding general of the coalition force in Iraq, focused his speech on U.S. strategy. Rather than relying on traditional military force, it requires U.S. soldiers to take on a variety of roles, he told the crowd. "I was impressed. ... He's trying to do a good job," Colleen Hanyok, 48, of Boiling Springs, said. Her son is in the Air Force and spent six months in Iraq. She has mixed feelings about the war. "I kind of wish we'd get it over with, but I don't think that's going to happen for a while," she said. Her husband, Anthony Hanyok, 51, said: "I'm still trying to understand why we went in. ... It was probably necessary. But I think we have to stay there. Their government needs to step up, which would help." Petraeus said the U.S. military strategy involves "relentless pursuit" of extremists. But there's also a focus on political, economical and cultural tactics aimed at getting factions within Iraq to stop fighting. Military leaders are trained "how to think," he said, not what to think. "Our soldiers are pentathletes. They are not just sprinters or jumpers or long-distance runners," he said. Petraeus sat at a desk and illustrated his points with statistics and graphs shown on a separate screen. He said violence has dropped significantly in Iraq. The general had a friendly, engaging demeanor and cracked several jokes. He mentioned his nickname is "Peaches," a tag that stuck after someone couldn't pronounce "Petraeus." "To see him firsthand, talking to people in our area, is very valuable," said Tim Keptner, 59, of Camp Hill. Petraeus was asked if people in Iraq are following the U.S. presidential campaign. He said they follow closely, perhaps more so than in the United States, but it has had no major impact. Asked about the morale of U.S. troops, Petraeus said, "Morale is an individual event, and it depends on the kind of day you are having." But Petraeus said he believes overall morale is high and has been bolstered by soldiers' belief that Iraq is becoming more stable. Required tickets were handed before Petraeus' session, and about 300 people attended. It was part of Army Heritage Day activities in and around the education center on Saturday. An additional 100 people participated in a question-and-answer session with active-duty soldiers Saturday afternoon at the center. The soldiers agreed with Petraeus' view that those fighting in Iraq are multifaceted. They must be ready to fight and kill in an instant -- and equally ready to get out of an armored vehicle and interact with Iraqis, help them and assure them their country will be rebuilt, the soldiers said. "You have to be able to flip that switch," said Sgt. Garrett Williams, 27, an Oklahoma native. Williams was among the six who answered questions. Their ranks ranged from a colonel who teaches at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle to a 22-year-old specialist. All have spent at least 15 months in Iraq. Someone asked if the soldiers ever become frustrated or demoralized over the political debate surrounding the war, especially during the campaign for president. None said he is troubled. "I think you'll find the same diversity of views in the military that you'll find in the United States," said Col. Dwight Raymond. "I haven't seen a lot of people let the discourse in the U.S. get them upset." He said his attitude has shifted from being "all for" the war, to regarding it as "futile," to being "not sure how it's going to turn out." Williams drew applause when he said soldiers just want to be allowed to do their jobs, whether it involves deployment in Iraq or training at a base in the U.S. The soldiers were asked if the media are accurately portraying the war. In general, they agreed the coverage is accurate, although that can vary depending on the outlet. Capt. Tom Hendrix, 29, of Carlisle, said negative events get extensive coverage. But he argued those are the most newsworthy and are the ones remembered by soldiers. The good events are the result of mundane actions that, while common and important, aren't even interesting enough for soldiers to share among themselves, he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602089.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wall Street Journal May 20, 2008 Pg. 4 Abuse Impaired 9/11 Suspect Alleged Plotter Can't Aid Defense, His Attorney Says By Jess Bravin WASHINGTON -- An alleged 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 conspiracy attempted suicide rather than face a Guantanamo Bay military commission and now suffers from such mental impairment that he can't adequately help in his own defense, his civilian lawyer says. The contention suggests one possible reason the Defense Department last week dismissed charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, who faced a potential death penalty if convicted in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At the time, the administrator of the military commissions, Susan Crawford, gave no explanation. Mr. Qahtani remains under indefinite detention, and prosecutors may seek to file amended charges. In 2002 Mr. Qahtani suffered a severe and prolonged interrogation that a Pentagon review later labeled "abusive and degrading." Some military investigators and prosecutors feared that the coercive treatment had ruined a potential case against Mr. Qahtani, under legal and ethical rules. Mr. Qahtani, who has been held in isolation for most of his six-year detention at Guantanamo, has become increasingly paranoid, incoherent and difficult to work with, says his lawyer, Gitanjali Gutierrez. "This last visit, it was like seeing someone who had cracked," says Ms. Gutierrez, who first met Mr. Qahtani in December 2005. "You'll have a conversation and everything is making sense and then he comes at you out of left field." Ms. Gutierrez, an attorney with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, most recently met with Mr. Qahtani in April, but was only recently cleared by military censors to publicly discuss elements of her visit. Citing patient-confidentiality concerns, a spokeswoman for the Guantanamo prison, Cmdr. Pauline Storum, declined to discuss Mr. Qahtani's condition or whether he had attempted suicide. "If the patient wants to put it out there," he may, she added. Under military commission rules, a defendant can't be tried if his mental condition renders him "unable to understand the nature of the proceedings" or "to conduct or cooperate intelligently" in his defense. If the issue is raised in proceedings, a military judge can order an independent mental health board to evaluate the defendant and advise the court on his competency to stand trial. Friday, a military judge ordered such an inquiry for Guantanamo defendant Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver, after a psychiatrist hired by the defense reported that Mr. Hamdan was suffering from "major depression" and expressed suicidal thoughts. If a military judge were to order a similar examination for Mr. Qahtani, it could force the first independent inquiry into his interrogation, which to date has been reviewed by only the Pentagon. The prospect of two key Guantanamo defendants being incapable of standing trial is another problem for a military commissions system already beset by legal challenges and staff unrest. In 2002, after military interrogators concluded that Mr. Qahtani had ceased providing useful intelligence, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved special interrogation methods for the detainee. He was interrogated for as many as 20 hours a day for 48 days, made to wear women's underwear, subjected to deafening music and leashed like a dog, among other methods, according to a Pentagon report. In a 2006 hearing before a Guantanamo board, Mr. Qahtani denied any intent to harm anyone and said he was tortured into making false statements. "I would have said anything to stop the torture at Guantanamo," he said. Mr. Qahtani, a Saudi who is 28 or 29 years old, flew to Orlando, Fla., in August 2001, but was refused admission to the U.S. by a suspicious immigration agent. According to charges filed by prosecutors in February, Mr. Qahtani's itinerary included the phone number of Mustafa al Hawsawi, an alleged al Qaeda paymaster and one of five accused Sept. 11 conspirators whom Ms. Crawford approved for trial. The same day, the charges say, a person using Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta's calling card dialed Mr. Hawsawi's number from the Orlando airport. A military official says authorities believe Mr. Qahtani was intended as a "muscle hijacker" for United Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers overpowered the four hijackers, a team one short of that on the other three planes commandeered on Sept. 11. Ms. Gutierrez declined to discuss the allegations against Mr. Qahtani or to explain why he was in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, where he was captured in December 2001. Mr. Qahtani's brother, Ahmed, reached by telephone in al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, said Mohammed was apolitical, lacked the "perseverance" to finish middle school and wasn't an extremist. He said his brother hadn't shown any signs of mental instability in his early life. "The whole family is peaceful. We don't seek any trouble," he said. He declined to answer questions about his brother's activities in Afghanistan, on the advice of Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez says that on her latest visit, Mr. Qahtani told her he had tried to kill himself and showed her the resulting scars. He "repeatedly stated that he would try again," she said. A deep wound on the inside of his elbow required three stitches to close, she says. She says he was hospitalized and placed under psychiatric observation at Guantanamo before being returned to his cell. --Sarmad Ali contributed to this article. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602227.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) May 20, 2008 Defense Seeks Delay In Guantanamo Hearing For 9/11 Suspects By Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico A military lawyer sought Monday to delay the arraignment of a suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, saying the government has made it impossible to prepare for a historic hearing at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base in Cuba. Army Maj. Jon Jackson said the defense team does not have enough access to the detainee and to secure facilities where classified material must be reviewed for the first U.S. war-crimes trials since World War II. He asked a military judge to postpone the June 5 arraignment for Mustafa Al-Hawsawi. The defendant is accused of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers obtain money, clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. He is one of five alleged Sept. 11 conspirators the Pentagon intends to arraign at Guantanamo June 5. The U.S. is seeking the death penalty for all five defendants for their role in the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Jackson, al-Hawsawi's Pentagon-appointed lead attorney, said he has met his Saudi client only twice. A copy of his motion was provided to The Associated Press. It notes that Jackson has been barred from discussing any of his meetings with al-Hawsawi with his assistant defense counsel, Navy Lt. Gretchen Sosbee, because the military has not yet approved her top-secret security clearance. Sosbee accompanied Jackson to Guantanamo last week but was prevented from seeing al-Hawsawi, he said. Furthermore, the defense has not received any potential evidence against al-Hawsawi supporting charges that "allege a complex conspiracy spanning several years," Jackson told the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann. Defense lawyers are also crippled because they have been assigned no authorized location, at Guantanamo or in Washington, to review classified information, Jackson said in his motion. "Counsel have no place to store work product, discuss classified material or prepare for their case while in Cuba," Jackson wrote, adding that construction of a secure facility in Washington which was to have been completed by the end of 2007 has not even begun. Jackson told the AP that prosecutors have objected to his request for a delay without giving any reason. Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the war-crimes tribunals, said he has not yet seen Jackson's motion and declined to comment. Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment. Jackson asked the judge to delay his client's arraignment until the government provides a security clearance for Sosbee, supplies the defense team with secure facilities to store classified material and allows "for defense preparation of this case." Lawyers for the other defendants did not immediately respond to queries on whether they have also sought to delay the long-awaited arraignment, which would mark the first public appearances of confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged al-Qaida figures. More time is also needed to obtain a civilian attorney for al-Hawsawi if he wants one, Jackson said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602210.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP CNN May 19, 2008 Pentagon Examining Its Role In Future World Crises Issue Number One (CNN), 12:00 PM ALI VELSHI: Meanwhile, the U.S. military is starting to think about what its role should be in future crises, especially as high prices for food and fuel threaten global stability. CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now from the Pentagon with more on that. Hi, Barbara. BARBARA STARR: Hi, Ali. Well, you know, the name is very simple, the Food and Fuel Task Force. But that just about says it all. The Pentagon has now established that organization, established by Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for high-level military officials to take a look at this global crisis and how interconnected the problem is across the world, what it could mean for everybody. The Food and Fuel Task Force is really focusing on the key question, what is the tipping point into conflict, into the possibility of war breaking out somewhere over the question of food and fuel? The military's not looking for any more invasions, they tell us, but they need to be ready, they need to think about this if a humanitarian crisis emerges even worse than the ones we're seeing. So they are looking at things like what are the triggers, what are events in food and fuel problems around the world that might be so drastic the U.S. military has to step in and get involved? And fundamentally, are issues like Myanmar, that you mentioned, what we're seeing right now, where the government there won't let anybody help and is possibly leading to thousands and thousands of people dying, could that lead to a situation in a food and fuel crisis of forcible relief, that the U.S. military might be called upon to go to a country and provide relief to the people even if the government there doesn't want it? And closer to home, what if a crisis broke out, perhaps, in Mexico or Haiti or Central America, and you saw a drastic refugee flow that could risk U.S. borders, or even if there was a crisis here in the United States? Now, Ali, again, what military officials tell us who are very familiar with this task force that's just been set up, they're not looking, they don't want anybody to think they're planning an invasion, that they're planning military action, but they say it is now at the point where the issue is so serious they have to give it some very deep thought -- Ali. VELSHI: Well, Barbara, it just goes to show how interconnected we all are when it comes to things like food. Thanks, Barbara Starr. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080520602274.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1394384_AEf PjkQAAJ%2F1SDL2WQuVpSNMD6E&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080520aaindex_concat.html&cred=7lp4VUrQglLczy ZwSBgUP4vT2GmlIO.tst.r2Y8vse_PYVikIhGFpUMPoccvqH#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Baltimore Sun May 20, 2008 Drop Rape Charges Vs. Mid, Officer Says Report urges hearing on lesser offenses for lack of evidence By Josh Mitchell, Sun reporter An investigating officer for the Navy has recommended dropping rape charges against a Naval Academy student accused of assaulting a female midshipman in her dormitory room, pointing to what he called "an almost complete lack of physical evidence" in the case. Midshipman Mark A. Calvanico, 21, of Secaucus, N.J., should not face a court-martial, Lt. John E. Clady wrote in a May 5 report, released yesterday by the defendant's lawyer. Clady instead recommended an administrative hearing for Calvanico that could result in his dismissal from the academy for failing to meet curfew, being drunk and disorderly, and other offenses. Clady's recommendation is being reviewed by the academy's superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler, who will decide where the case should go. "We felt like the truth came out. We were ecstatically happy," said Calvanico's aunt, Regina Durazzo, speaking on behalf of the family. "I just hope the academy and the superintendent does the right thing and dismisses the charges and we can wake up from this nightmare." Calvanico, a junior, is accused of entering the room of a sophomore three times in the pre-dawn hours of a Sunday in October, raping her on the last visit. The accuser, a sophomore, testified at a hearing in April that she and Calvanico had talked about dating and sent each other flirtatious messages. In his recommendation based on that hearing, Clady, who presided over the April Article 32 hearing, pointed out that the only physical evidence presented by prosecutors was the woman's DNA found on Calvanico's boxers and his DNA found on her neck. He said that evidence supported Calvanico's claim that he and the woman had consensual contact but no physical sex. "Because of the almost complete lack of physical evidence linking MIDN Calvanico to the alleged sexual offenses, there are no reasonable grounds to believe MIDN Calvanico committed rape," Clady wrote. A spokesman for the academy declined to comment, saying the recommendation was under review. < |
