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 The Pentagon Early Bird 9 March 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 scroll down to read the entire News Article.IRAQ
Washington Post March 9, 2008 Pg. 1 Ex-Defense Official Assails Colleagues Over Run-Up To War By Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writers In the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making on Iraq, one of the key architects of the war blasts former secretary of state Colin Powell, the CIA, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer for mishandling the run-up to the invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country. Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush's policies. Among the disclosures made by Feith in "War and Decision," scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush's declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that "war is inevitable." The statement came weeks before U.N. weapons inspectors reported their initial findings on Iraq and months before Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Feith, who says he took notes at the meeting, registered it as a "momentous comment." Although he acknowledges "serious errors" in intelligence, policy and operational plans surrounding the invasion, Feith blames them on others outside the Pentagon and notes that "even the best planning" cannot avoid all problems in wartime. While he says the decision to invade was correct, he judges that the task of creating a viable and stable Iraqi government was poorly executed and remains "grimly incomplete." Powell, Feith argues, allowed himself to be publicly portrayed as a dove, but while Powell "downplayed" the degree and urgency of Iraq's threat, he never expressed opposition to the invasion. Bremer, meanwhile, is said to have done more harm than good in Iraq. Feith also accuses Franks of being uninterested in postwar planning, and writes that Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser during most of Feith's time in office, failed in her primary task of coordinating policy on the war. He describes Bush as having wrestled seriously with difficult problems but as being ill-served by subordinates including Powell and Rice. Feith depicts former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld with almost complete admiration, questioning only his rough handling of subordinates. Feith left the administration in mid-2005 and is now on the Georgetown University faculty. He was the subject of an investigation early last year by the Pentagon's inspector general for his office's secret prewar intelligence assessments outlining strong ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda. His reports, deemed "inconsistent" with those of the intelligence community, were judged "inappropriate" but not illegal. In his book, Feith defends the intelligence activities on grounds that the CIA was "politicizing" intelligence by ignoring evidence in its own reports of ties between Hussein and international terrorists. A copy of the nearly 900-page manuscript -- midway through the editing process -- was obtained by The Washington Post. Reached at his home yesterday evening, Feith declined to discuss its contents. Despite its bulk, the book does not address some of the basic facts of the war, such as the widespread skepticism inside the top of the U.S. military about invading Iraq, with some generals arguing that doing so would distract attention from the war against global terrorists. Nor does Feith touch on the assertion of his fellow war architect, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, that Iraq would be able to pay for its reconstruction with oil revenue. Feith says surprisingly little new about the conduct of the war on the ground, instead focusing on the policy battles in Washington and asserting that most accounts thus far have been written from the point of view of the State Department and the CIA. He attacks those criticisms as "fear-mongering" that serves the interests of certain officials and journalists. Powell and his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, are described as repeatedly working behind the scenes to undercut sound proposals by Feith and other Pentagon officials and to undermine decisions Bush had made. Feith criticizes Powell's failure to persuade France and Germany to support U.S. war policy at the United Nations, and to gain Turkey's approval for U.S. troop movements in its territory, as failures of effort and commitment. Feith also asks what would have happened if Powell had argued with Bush against overthrowing Hussein. Powell might have persuaded the president, Feith writes, or, if not, could have resigned. Feith's disdain for Armitage, with whom he sparred at NSC deputies meetings, is palpable. Powell's deputy, he says, "reflexively opposed any idea originating at the Pentagon." In an introduction to the manuscript, Feith writes that he has tried to avoid polemic and seeks only to contribute to the historical record. He argues, as have other Iraq hawks such as Richard Perle -- a former Reagan administration Pentagon official and outside Rumsfeld adviser -- that the administration's careful approach to Iraq, including a swift transition to Iraqi control, was prevented from succeeding by ill-informed or disloyal subordinates. The idea to which Feith appears most attached, and to which he repeatedly returns in the book, is the formation of an Iraqi Interim Authority. Feith's office drew up a plan for the body -- to be made up of U.S.-appointed Iraqis who would share some decision-making with U.S. occupation forces -- in the months before the invasion. But while he says that Bush approved it, he charges that Bremer refused to implement it. The key mistake that the United States made in Iraq, Feith asserts, was "the mishandling of the political transition." The good that Bremer did, he concludes, "was outweighed by the harm caused by the fact of occupation." In an interview yesterday, Bremer disputed Feith's narrative, saying he believes that Bush gave up on the idea of a quick transition shortly after Baghdad fell and widespread looting broke out in April 2003. "By the time I sat down with the president on May 3, it was clear that he wasn't thinking about a short occupation," Bremer said. After consulting his records, Bremer also said that at a White House meeting on May 8, Vice President Cheney said, "We are not yet at the point where people we want to emerge can yet emerge." He said that Feith omits that comment. On May 22, he added, the president wrote to him, saying that he knew "our work will take time." Others have criticized Feith's plan as relying too heavily on Iraqi exile politicians, including Ahmed Chalabi. Feith says that he considered Chalabi one of the most astute and democratically minded Iraqis but that he had no special brief for him. Instead, he charges that the State Department, the CIA and the military's Central Command were pathologically opposed to the exiles and to Chalabi in particular. Feith continually denounces the CIA, accusing it of producing poor intelligence, intruding on the formulation of policy, and then using leaks to the media to defend itself and attack its bureaucratic opponents. Most notably, he charges that intelligence officials ignored and refused to investigate possible links between al-Qaeda and Hussein's government. He reports, as others have, that Franks, who commanded the U.S. invasion force, treated him disrespectfully, sometimes rolling his eyes when Feith asked a question. But he indicates that Franks's disregard grew partly out of the general's lack of interest in planning for the postwar period. When Feith tried to talk to him about one aspect of that, Franks walked around the table, leaned over and said, "Doug, I don't have time for this [expletive]." He concludes that Franks failed in part because of advice he received from his advisers at the CIA and the State Department. In contrast with the reputation of Gen. Richard B. Myers, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for pliability, Feith reports that Myers grew irate at what he saw as administration attempts to get around the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners following the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Myers, he writes, threatened to bypass Rumsfeld and take his concerns directly to Bush, but calmed down after being told that the administration would distinguish between legitimate prisoners of war and al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees. In summarizing his view of what went wrong in Iraq, Feith writes that it was a mistake for the administration to rely so heavily on intelligence reports of Hussein's alleged stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and a nuclear weapons program, not only because they turned out to be wrong but also because secret information was not necessary to understand the threat Hussein posed. Hussein's history of aggression and disregard of U.N. resolutions, his past use of weapons of mass destruction and the fact that he was "a bloodthirsty megalomaniac" were enough, Feith maintains. He blames both the CIA and Powell, who outlined the weapons case in a February 2003 speech at the United Nations, for overemphasizing the threat. But Feith appears to ignore the crucial role that statements from Cheney and Rice, about the imminence of "mushroom clouds" emanating from Iraqi nuclear weapons, played in the case the administration made for war. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586356.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times March 9, 2008 Senate Committee Seeks Audit Of Iraq Oil Money By James Glanz Two senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have requested a full accounting of how Iraq is spending its soaring oil revenue, amid starkly conflicting estimates of how much the country has invested in rebuilding its broken infrastructure and providing basic services to its citizens. The request, sent Friday to David M. Walker, the top official at the United States Government Accountability Office, estimates that Iraqi oil revenue could skyrocket above $56 billion in 2008, largely because of the rising price of oil. That enormous influx of cash comes as the United States has been reducing spending on the reconstruction effort. Since the invasion in 2003, the United States has invested close to $50 billion in reconstruction, but the effort has achieved at best mixed results when measured by improvements in the lives of Iraqi citizens. Still, the American military and State Department continue to finance a wide range of relatively small reconstruction projects as well as training and equipment for Iraqi military forces. Despite the dire need for better health care, more electricity and clean water, a functioning sewage system and other services, the accountability office has previously estimated that Iraq spent only 22 percent of the oil money set aside for reconstruction in 2006. And in January, the office, which is charged with overseeing the Iraqi government’s finances, reported that Iraq had spent a meager 4.4 percent of its 2007 reconstruction budget by August of that year, the most recent figures available at the time. As a result, the letter from the Armed Services Committee says, “we believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue over that time period that have ended up in non-Iraqi banks.” The letter was signed by Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee chairman, and Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is a former chairman. Senator John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the committee and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, did not sign the letter. Iraqi officials say they face many obstacles in what might seem to be a straightforward task: spending their plentiful money. Workers are attacked, engineers and contracting experts have fled government ministries, construction companies refuse to take jobs in risky areas and building materials are not available. And if all of those factors were not daunting enough, the various Iraqi and American government entities involved cannot even agree on how much the notoriously opaque Iraqi bureaucracy has in fact spent on reconstruction. Last fall, as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Iraq, reported to Congress on the state of the war, the Bush administration provided figures that contrasted sharply with those of the accountability office. The administration reported that by July 2007, Iraq had spent 24 percent of the $10 billion in oil revenue set aside for reconstruction that year. The accountability office disputed those figures, saying they were based in part on projections that proved inaccurate. But in a recent phone interview, a senior Iraqi official gave even more bullish estimates of the expenditures. Citing official Iraqi Finance Ministry figures, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide information that had not yet been publicly released, said by the end of last year, Iraq had spent 63 percent of its capital budget, a leap over the previous year that would indicate rapid progress in governmental efficiency. “It’s totally unacceptable that there’s no decent accounting for their money,” Senator Levin said in a telephone interview Saturday. “But the problem is our money. Why are we spending our money five years later when they have a surplus? That’s just extraordinary.” In order to resolve some of these discrepancies and track down where the oil money has gone, the letter by Senators Levin and Warner asks the accountability office to answer a series of basic questions. The senators requested detailed information on the amount of Iraqi oil revenue from 2003 to 2007, how much of that money has gone unspent, and “how much money does the Iraqi government have deposited, in which banks, and in what countries?” Finally, Senators Levin and Warner ask the question looming over the entire rebuilding effort: “Why has the Iraqi government not spent more of its oil revenue on reconstruction, economic development and providing essential services for the Iraqi people?” Also on Friday, Iraqi security forces discovered a mass grave containing the remains of about 100 people in Diyala Province, said Maj. Winfield Danielson, a spokesman for Multinational Forces-Iraq. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586366.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post March 9, 2008 Pg. 17 Mass Grave Containing 100 Bodies Found North Of Baghdad By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, March 8 -- Iraqi security forces have discovered a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of about 100 people in an area north of Baghdad once dominated by the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Saturday. The grave was found Friday on the outskirts of a village northeast of Khalis, a predominantly Shiite town in Diyala province that is surrounded by Sunni villages. Some of the worst sectarian violence of the war has taken place in Diyala. Many of the bodies in the grave were decomposed and appeared to have been buried a long time, U.S. military officials said. Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaiee of the Diyala province operations center said that Iraqi security forces had recovered 13 of the bodies and that many others were still in the ground. Hundreds of mass graves have been discovered in Diyala and elsewhere in Iraq since U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in March 2003. But this site "is the largest mass grave found so far in Diyala province," said Ibrahim Majilan, head of the provincial council. U.S. military officials said that an investigation was underway and that it was unclear who was responsible for the killings. Majilan said civilians found the grave and alerted the Iraqi security forces. The Associated Press, citing Iraqi police, reported that the grave was near an orchard and was found by soldiers who followed a strong stench to the site. "For the past two years, nobody was able to go to this area and it was completely under al-Qaeda control," Majilan said, adding that the group's presence in the area has greatly diminished in recent months. Other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586419.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times March 9, 2008 Mass Grave In Iraq Holds At Least 50 Police find the bodies in an orchard. Locals suspect that Shiite militia fighters buried Sunni victims there. By Borzou Daragahi and Saif Rasheed, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers BAGHDAD — Mystery and dread shrouded a freshly discovered mass grave site filled with the remains of at least 50 and perhaps as many as 100 people, some of them children, in a river valley north of here. Iraqi police announced the find Saturday after stumbling upon the badly decomposed bodies during a raid a day earlier. The dead were buried near the town of Khalis, in one of the many fruit, date and palm orchards that line the Diyala River, just north of the provincial capital of Baqubah. Iraqis long associated mass graves with the atrocities of former President Saddam Hussein's regime, including large-scale executions of Kurdish and Shiite Muslim civilians suspected of sympathizing with anti-government rebels in the 1980s and 1990s. But in the five years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, mass killings also became a tactic in sectarian warfare between Shiites and Sunni Arabs that threatened to break the country apart. U.S. and Iraqi officials said Saturday that they had not confirmed the identities of the victims in the newly found grave. "The skeletal remains appear to have been in the grave for a long time, and we have not yet determined who might be responsible for their death and burial," Maj. Winfield Danielson, a U.S. military spokesman, said by e-mail. But Iraqi police and residents believe they were killed and buried sometime in the last five years. An Iraqi security official who saw the grave site said the bodies appeared to have been dumped over a period of time, rather than all at once, and that so far, only 13 had been excavated. Residents say the orchard is in a rural area known as Salem, near a hamlet called Albu Tama. Some locals suspect that the site was a dumping ground used by Shiite Muslim militias disposing the remains of Sunni victims. Authorities last week arrested the mayor of Khalis on suspicion of involvement in such activities. The town is considered to be a hub of Shiite militiamen associated with cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army, although the outlying countryside is mostly under the sway of Sunni extremists. The area was once a stronghold of Hussein's Baath Party, but Shiite militiamen took control over the mostly Sunni inhabitants in 2006, said Khaled Abed Rahman, 35, a high school history teacher. "Sometimes during the hard days, they established checkpoints while wearing police uniforms and detained people based on their [sectarian] identities," he said. The perpetrators could also prove to have been groups associated with the Sunni insurgent organization Al Qaeda in Iraq. Two years ago, Sunni insurgents declared the province part of a self-styled caliphate and launched a campaign of kidnapping and assassination. Daily violence continues in Diyala province, a troubled patchwork of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish hamlets abutting the Iranian border. Police said five people were killed Saturday when two roadside bombs exploded minutes apart along a well-traveled route through Wajihiya, about 15 miles east of Baqubah. The first blast hit a car, killing a woman and her two children, and injuring her husband and another relative, police said. The second bomb exploded near a passing minibus, killing two people and injuring eight others, they said. A U.S. soldier was killed and another injured in an explosion Friday while conducting operations in Diyala, the military said in a statement released Saturday. At least 3,975 U.S. personnel have been killed since the start of the U.S.-led war in March 2003, according to the independent website icasualties.org. In Baghdad, authorities discovered the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi males, and south of the capital, gunmen killed an official of the country's main Shiite political party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. In the southern city of Basra, hundreds of demonstrators loyal to the Shiite party demonstrated for better law enforcement to quell what they called an increase in kidnappings and assassinations. "The demonstration is peaceful, aiming to draw the security forces' attention and to confront the crimes which have mounted lately in Basra," said one party official, who asked that he not be named. "We want the security forces to confront the criminals who are killing and kidnapping during daylight." Times staff writer Alexandra Zavis in Baghdad and special correspondents in Baghdad and Hillah contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586388.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) March 9, 2008 Iraqi Handling Of Security In Basra Spurs Thousands Of Demonstrators By Associated Press BAGHDAD — Thousands took to the streets Saturday in Basra, protesting deteriorating security in the city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety in December. Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Iraqi security forces had discovered a mass grave in Diyala province containing perhaps 100 bodies. Also Saturday, two separate bombings in the province northeast of Baghdad left six people dead. In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the urban center of an oil-rich region, Shiite groups have been wrestling for control. Residents are becoming increasingly alarmed, saying killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over responsibility for Basra at the end of last year. In February, two journalists working for CBS were kidnapped in the city. One was released, but the other, a Briton, is still being held. As many as 5,000 people demonstrated near the Basra police command headquarters Saturday, demanding that the police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, resign. Many carried banners, decrying the killing of women, workers, academics and scientists. Dozens of women were slain in Basra by religious extremists last year because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings." Saturday's protesters, overwhelmingly men, came from several Shiite political movements, including the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its militia wing, known as the Badr Brigade. Khalaf said at a news conference later that "today's demonstration was a natural right of the citizens and the political parties to express their opinions." He defended the performance of the police, saying they had freed 10 people who were kidnapped in the past 10 days and "detained 64 people accused of carrying out sabotage and terrorist operations all over Basra." Questions about oil revenue The Democratic chairman and Republican former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee have asked government auditors to determine what Iraq is doing with the billions of dollars in oil revenue it generates. "We believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earnings billions of dollars in oil revenue over that time period that have ended up in non-Iraqi banks," Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Warner, R-Va., said Friday in a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office. "At the same time, our conversations with both Iraqis and Americans during our frequent visits to Iraq, as well as official government and unofficial media reports, have convinced us that the Iraqi government is not doing nearly enough to provide essential services and improve the quality of life of its citizens," they said. They estimated that Iraq will realize "at least $100 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586381.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Tampa Tribune March 9, 2008 Talibani Wants Stronger Ties With Turkey By Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey - Iraq's president said Saturday he wants a "strategic" partnership with Turkey, including getting Turkish businesses to invest in his oil-rich but war-torn country. Jalal Talabani spoke to a Turkish-Iraqi joint business group at the end of a visit aimed at easing the tension caused by Turkey's eight-day military incursion against Kurdish rebels inside Iraq. Talabani, himself a Kurd, said that Iraq wants "to forge strategic relations in all fields, including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics with Turkey." He suggested the two countries set up a body with the aim of strengthening ties between the neighbors. The Iraqi president arrived in Turkey on Friday, about a week after the Turkish military ended its offensive against the separatist rebels. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586310.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Mideast Stars and Stripes March 9, 2008 U.S. Troops Let Iraqis Take Charge In Civil Affairs Shifting responsibility to local forces mirrors change in combat roles By James Warden, Stars and Stripes BAGHDAD — Rahma Mahmood had a medical problem that her family wanted cured. The 2-year-old girl had a growth on her mouth that had fused part of her lips together, and the family feared that the necessary operation was beyond the capabilities of an Iraqi hospital. Naturally, they turned to the Americans. Soldiers with the Iraqi army told Rahma’s family about an American-run center just outside Camp Liberty. The girl’s father and grandmother took her from their home in Amria, on the west side of Baghdad, to the building Thursday. But when they arrived, it wasn’t the Americans who greeted them. Iraqis performed a brief security check on the family as soon as they arrived. And when they went inside, it was an Iraqi man to whom they explained their dilemma. Throughout the process, they worked almost exclusively with their own countrymen. Americans are shifting many civil affairs duties to Iraqis just as they have been handing over combat roles to local forces in order to build the locals’ authority, as demonstrated Thursday at this Civil Military Operations Center in Baghdad. A handful of Iraqis welcomed their fellow citizens to the center, then walked them through the steps they needed to solve their particular problems with minimal American interference. The problems they solve are varied. Many Iraqis stop by to make claims for damages caused by coalition forces. Some, like Rahma’s family, want help for medical problems and need assistance getting it. Others seek information on relatives in American custody. “We solve a lot of problems here in this place,” said “Clyde,” a 48-year-old interpreter working with the U.S. military. All the interpreters fear for their safety and many live in this building for protection. They do not disclose their real names or allow photos to be taken of them. Yet all are extremely pleased with the work they’ve been doing. “Saif,” a 22-year-old interpreter, described the feeling he gets when relatives cry happy tears after learning that their loved ones have been captured by the Americans — not killed by a rival Iraqi faction. “I’m proud of myself, so proud, we do a good thing for Iraqi people,” Saif said. The U.S. soldiers are there for two key reasons: Security and authority. A group of soldiers always accompanies the civil affairs team to the building so that those looking for help won’t need to worry about danger. The American presence also tells the people coming in that they can trust the Iraqis helping them. In the past, those with information on detainees have tried to sell the information to the families — especially the identification number that lets families track their loved one through the system. But that still means letting the Iraqis take charge as much as possible. In one circumstance, a Shiite man, escorted by a Sunni friend, came to make a claim for a wreck involving a contractor. Contractors normally handle their own claims, but the government covers this particular company. So “Clyde” told them about the documents they’d need in this case, and the two men happily agreed to return later with the paperwork. The U.S. soldiers never once entered the room where the three men were talking. “These guys have been here for years. I’ve been here for three weeks,” said Sgt. Paul Toepke, a 26-year-old reservist with Company A, 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion out of Green Bay, Wis. “I’m doing my job by not doing my job.” Despite the emphasis on Iraqis helping Iraqis, the Americans must still step in at key stages in the process. Rahma’s family could only get to this hospital, run by an outside agency, with an official letter from Toepke allowing them to cross through checkpoints into the Green Zone. Still, both U.S. soldiers and Iraqis are calling this operation a success. The center had 14,205 visitors between April 28 and Feb. 25, including this year’s peak of 165 on Jan. 2. “It’s word of mouth that people are hearing all the way out here,” Toepke said, pointing to northern Iraq on a map. “We don’t do advertising.” But while the Americans let the interpreters handle as much as possible, they couldn’t remain completely aloof from little Rahma. They handed her a stuffed animal nearly as big as she was, and both Iraqis and Americans made sure she got plenty of attention. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586293.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Fresno Bee March 7, 2008 Pg. B4 Costa Says He Saw Progress Signs In Iraq Congressmen just led delegation there and to Afghanistan. By Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Clad in body armor and protected by dozens of U.S. troops, Democrat Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno strolled the streets of Haditha recently. It didn't feel like a city at war, and for Costa that was progress. Iraqi violence is down, Costa noted Thursday following his return from Iraq and Afghanistan. He and five other congressmen could see more of Iraq than they did on earlier trips, albeit still under heavy guard. Certain progress could be noted, as when Costa checked out the Haditha marketplace. "I think the violence has been significantly reduced," Costa said, speaking two days after his return from the quick overseas trip. "The question mark is whether there has been an equal political surge." The potential answers will help shape where congressional Democrats next try to steer U.S. Iraq policy. Some, at least, no longer speak of setting a deadline for U.S. withdrawal. "We're going to be in the area for the foreseeable future," Costa said, adding that future force levels remain unknown. The United States still keeps about 30,000 troops in South Korea nearly six decades after the end of the Korean War, he said. Last year, Costa voted for several large defense appropriations bills that would have set firm deadlines for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. One unsuccessful bill, blocked by the Senate, would have set a Dec. 30, 2008, withdrawal deadline. Costa said Thursday that he "never liked the deadlines in those bills," and indicated he voted for the legislation as a way to keep funding the troops. Costa led the latest six-member House Foreign Affairs Committee delegation to Iraq and Afghanistan. Accompanied by three staff members, the lawmakers departed Andrews Air Force Base Feb. 28 and returned Tuesday night. Participants, some of whom have been to Iraq on multiple occasions, seemed to come away cautiously optimistic. "This time, it felt different," said Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who participated in the trip. Pence's previous security assessments have incited controversy, as when he opined last year that a heavily guarded visit to downtown Baghdad reminded him of "a normal outdoor market in Indiana." Contemporary accounts noted that more than 100 U.S. soldiers in armored Humvees accompanied Pence and other lawmakers on that visit. Still, Pence and Costa shared an overall assessment that conditions have since improved, and some evidence bears them out. In February 2007, an estimated 3,014 Iraqi civilians and soldiers died violently, according to figures compiled by the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. In February 2008, an estimated 674 Iraqi civilians and soldiers died. Costa, Pence and their colleagues convened with top military commanders during their lightning tour, including Army Gen. David Petraeus. They met with foreign leaders, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai. They were wowed by military technology, like the flight to Haditha in the newly deployed Osprey aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies straight like a plane. Costa said he consistently found progress. In the Haditha market itself, Costa said he talked with fruit and vegetable vendors who offered largely positive assessments. "They said there's been a big turnaround in the last year," Costa said. Costa previously visited Iraq in May 2006. Then, Haditha was essentially out of bounds for U.S. civilians. The largely Sunni city of about 100,000 residents along the Euphrates River had been racked by insurgent activity, along with the rest of embattled Anbar province. Even Baghdad, at the time, was considered insecure enough in 2006 that Costa and the other visiting congressmen were flown out of the country to spend the night. On the latest trip, following a dinner with U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker, Costa and the other lawmakers were quartered overnight in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "I think our strategy in the first couple of years was badly flawed," Costa said. "We've got a group now that has got the strategy right." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586426.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Baltimore Sun March 9, 2008 Impressions Of A First Visit To Baghdad By John Affleck, Associated Press BAGHDAD--The Iraqi parliament building is a former convention center, a place that might host a high school graduation or a health fair in the United States - if somebody cleared the barbed wire and sand bags from the gate. Walking recently into the dressed-up conference room where lawmakers debate the future of their embryonic democracy, you couldn't help but notice the cheap ceiling tiles in the hallway outside or the wires hanging through the spaces between them. Set aside the bombings and the daily body count for a moment. What has also made a deep impression, as a first-time visitor to Baghdad, is how much Iraq reveals itself as a giant work in progress. It's most vivid in the gulf between what is reality for Iraqis and what others would regard as the baseline for a working society - where citizens are generally safe and can count on basic services. Sometimes this disconnect presents itself in obvious ways, like when there's a big explosion in the distance - and no one stops what they're doing or even looks up. But often they are mere subtleties, as when the treadmill stops in the middle of a workout for a moment because the power just kicked over from the national system to a generator. I'm on a short-term assignment in Baghdad, more like a long visit, really. All my friends asked why I accepted the offer. There isn't a succinct answer: curiosity, story of the decade, because the idea scared me, because somebody asked and I could swing it. They all figure into why I came here. What I've gotten out of it is an appreciation for the Iraqis, and how far they have to go. Take a short drive with me through Baghdad. Feel the capital's rutted roads, see the blast walls blocking the side streets off main thoroughfares. The homes we're passing, even in nicer neighborhoods, look worn. Something else sticks out - dirt, dust and garbage. It hadn't registered at first, but now it makes sense: Nobody sends a street cleaner out twice a week in a war zone. If anything, the Green Zone is worse when it comes to civic beauty. It's a completely disorienting place to a rookie, with roads running through a maze of gray blast walls. It's as if somebody moved all the state prisons into the same neighborhood. Outside those walls, electricity is iffy. The statistics - an estimated 7.3 hours of service a day in Baghdad - give the picture. But the meaning is given depth and personality when an Iraqi greets you one morning and comments about a pleasant surprise: In his neighborhood, power was on all night. Electricity Minister Karim Waheed didn't have that kind of luck recently. Watching a closed-circuit feed of a news conference in which he described the state of the nation's grid, Waheed's face suddenly froze on the TV screen. Then came word from the technicians in the Associated Press' Baghdad bureau. Power had cut out at the site of the news conference. Waheed, by the way, told the AP that a massive bomb was defused in early February right outside his ministry - which brings us to security. The numbers speak for themselves. Baghdad is much safer than it was in the bad old days of 2007. But safer is not safe. Any major checkpoint will tell you that. The weapons table can look like the newest-latest display at a gun show. Other examples are painful. A colleague and Baghdad native told me this story, prompted by one of our incoming reports. Authorities recently took down barriers that closed off a street in the Karradah neighborhood in central Baghdad. They had gone up after a car bomb was detonated in a parking lot along the road last year. Soon after the barriers came down, the extremists were back - another car bomb, same parking lot. The toll from the AP count of Feb. 22: three dead, seven wounded. Two of those killed were 13 and 14 years old, police said. It will take more to improve the situation than the occasional lecture from an American politician about Iraq's need to start taking responsibility for itself. But there's plenty to critique about a government that just barely works in the eyes of many Iraqis. A fistful of Cabinet posts stand vacant because of political disagreements. Parliament last month passed three key measures aimed at rebuilding trust among Iraq's dysfunctional family of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Yet the bills were not brought before lawmakers one by one. Instead, they were bundled together because no side trusted the others to keep their word and approve each one separately. Then, after all the haggling, the nation's presidential council rejected one of the measures, a bill that set provincial elections for Oct. 1. It's still uncertain what will become of that draft law. As soon as lawmakers had passed it the first time they went on a five-week break - which, of course, shows that they have learned something about the 11th-hour maneuvering in more mature democracies. The Iraqis certainly know something about resilience. Five years of war this month and yet parents still take the family out for a weekend stroll. Squealing kids play tag and ride their bikes. Millions of Iraqis still get up and go to work, where they make a living and laugh with their friends. If there's a reason to have hope for this country, it's them. He may be the government's mouthpiece, but spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh didn't have it far wrong at a recent news conference with the Army Corps of Engineers. The assessment was that the nation's damaged infrastructure can't possibly be fixed completely. "We work with what we have," al-Dabbagh said. "We have no other option but to try this and succeed." At a private club in town, they're trying. Baghdad's elite used to come here, mingling with foreign diplomats around the swimming pool and in the restaurant. There was an outdoor movie screen. After sunset, when the pounding heat broke, members watched films here. It must have been nice. The movie court is overgrown these days, and the projection room is trashed. But every now and then, over at the tennis courts, a passer-by can see a few silly, optimistic people coming back to play. In perfect spring sunshine they stop their lives to volley a Day-Glo ball on the faded, earthen courts. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586411.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Houston Chronicle March 9, 2008 Iraqi Pilgrim Finds Spirit Of Nation Kind acts from strangers are seen on hazardous trek By Hussein Kadhim, McClatchy-Tribune KARBALA, IRAQ — With thousands of other Shiite Muslims, I walked through the infamous "Triangle of Death" where suicide bombers, presumably Sunni extremists, had attacked fellow pilgrims two days before. Our trek covered 50 miles, from Baghdad to the holy city of Karbala, and we passed through 14 cities, places known as scenes of death, division and destruction. On this, my second pilgrimage since the Americans overthrew Saddam Hussein, my fears turned to amazement as complete strangers, Sunnis and Shiites alike, opened their doors to me. The poor passed out food and sweet tea they could hardly afford. I began the walk as a spiritual journey, a personal opportunity to feel close to Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was martyred in the year 680. By the end, I found the spirit of my nation in roadside tents, modest homes and gifts of food. The walk and the religious ceremony of Arbaeen commemorate the life of the great man for whom I'm named. The people of Kufa asked Hussein to save them from the oppressive rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, but then they betrayed him. During the battle of Karbala, Hussein was beheaded along with 71 of his followers, and the women and children were imprisoned. According to Shiite tradition, on the 40th day after his death his son, Ali ibn Hussein, returned his father's head to his body, and it was buried in Karbala. Arbaeen commemorates that day, and about 10 million pilgrims converged on the city this year to mourn his death and commemorate his life. Roadside tents My pilgrimage started in central Baghdad, where I crossed the Jadriyah Bridge with dozens of other people. Tents were set up on the side of the road, where neighborhood volunteers offered us food and drink. I picked up a boiled egg sandwich and orange juice and tucked away biscuits and juice in my bag for later. In Saidiyah, the scene of fierce battles between Sunnis and Shiites, and Dora, a neighborhood where al-Qaida in Iraq once targeted passing Shiite pilgrims, towering concrete walls brought me comfort. Two days before my walk, someone had thrown grenades into the crowd, killing three people, pilgrims like me. It took me three hours to reach Baghdad's gate in the south, where the road leads into what's called the Sunni "Triangle of Death." Around me, women clutched their babies, little boys walked close to their parents and the elderly marched on. At prayer time, I stopped at one of the roadside tents to pray. Here, in the Triangle of Death, I saw the greatest kindness. People who earn $6 a day opened their homes to passing pilgrims and offered them food. Women sat outside with their children and boiled hot, sweet tea for us. No one is as generous as the poor. A ruse? I arrived in Iskandiriyah just after sunset and heard the Sunni and Shiite calls to prayer. The crowd of dozens had grown into a sea of thousands. A 7-year-old boy named Saif approached and offered me a place to stay. Three other pilgrims and I looked at one another, worried that it might be a trick by Sunni militants who wanted to kill us. Still, we followed the boy to a tiny dwelling where his family welcomed us. Hot stew and blankets Abu Saif, a Shiite man in his 40s, opened his home to me and 14 other men. His wife cooked rice and hot stew, and he passed out blankets. He earns the equivalent of $5 a day, but each day he puts aside 20 cents so he can provide food and shelter to passing pilgrims. I felt shame. My salary far exceeded his, yet he was offering me and so many others so much of what he had. We waited for the first rays of the morning light before we continued. Within 45 minutes, I arrived at the site of a bombing that had occurred two days earlier. At least 60 people died here, people making the same journey that I was. By sunset, I could see the golden domes of the two Shiite shrines in Karbala, one where Hussein is believed to be buried and the other where his half-brother Abbas is buried. Abbas also was killed in the battle. He sacrificed his life trying to bring water to Hussein and his followers after the caliph's army cut off the water supply. Huge crowds That night I couldn't find a hotel room; Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims had booked nearly every one. I prayed in a roadside tent and then tried to make my way to Imam Hussein's shrine. The crowds were overwhelming. I gave up and returned to the tent to sleep. There I listened to a young man retell the story of the Battle of Karbala. In the morning, I tried again to get to the shrine of Imam Hussein. First, I went to the Imam Abbas shrine. I prayed inside for the health of my family, my friends and all those I love. In my last prayer I prayed to save the Iraqi people. They say that what you pray for in Imam Hussein's shrine, whatever you pray for, you will receive. Maybe my prayers will be answered. McClatchy special correspondent Hussein Kadhim began his pilgrimage to Karbala on Feb. 26. He walked for two days, and Arbaeen was commemorated on Feb. 28. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586400.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Atlanta Journal-Constitution March 9, 2008 Two Years After Life-Saving Surgery: Baby Noor's Troubling Future By Moni Basu, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Baghdad, Iraq--The family knew their baby girl would never walk, and that underneath the smile that melted hearts lay a bitter truth: Noor al-Zahra was destined for hardship. But Noor had been just a baby, cradled in her grandmother's arms, when she came to Atlanta for a life-saving operation more than two years ago. Now, as she grows older, an even harsher reality is revealing itself--as it did on a recent day in a Baghdad park. The little girl struggled to crawl, on her belly. She slithered snakelike in the grass, struggling to reach her father. Blades of grass clung to her denim outfit. She extended an arm to grasp her father's, oblivious to the limp legs she cannot feel and the feet covered by butterfly-appliqued shoes that faced awkwardly in opposite directions. Her grandmother, Soad, who accompanied Noor and her father, Haider, to Atlanta for her surgery, shook her veiled head as she watched the toddler struggle to move. "Noor will never be like other children," she said through an interpreter. When Noor was born with a severe spinal cord defect, Iraqi doctors told Soad the baby would not survive. But Noor caught the attention of Georgia Army National Guard soldiers patrolling the family's impoverished Abu Ghraib neighborhood just a few weeks before Christmas in 2005. Guided by goodwill, the Gainesville-based infantrymen shuttled the baby to Atlanta for the medical treatment that eluded her in this war-torn nation. She stayed in Atlanta six months with a host family. Then she was returned to Baghdad with the uneasy fact that though her life had been saved, her future remained uncertain. The medical care in Atlanta restored Noor's life but nothing could undo her paralysis from the waist down. Upon their return to Iraq, the family moved from one Baghdad home to another, fearing retribution from insurgents for taking help from Americans. Haider said he was abducted twice and rarely leaves the house these days. Soad said her grocery shop in Abu Ghraib was bombed. She now runs a smaller stall in Baghdad. Even as Iraqis express optimism that a recent drop in violence might hold, Soad cannot. "For normal people in Baghdad, things may be getting better," she said. "But not for people like us. Not for people who were targeted." (Their full names are being withheld because of security reasons.) Soad's stress seeped through her face. She lifted her right hand to her forehead; the sun glinted off the gold ring on her finger. "Allah," it says. The matriarch of a large extended family, Soad has been Noor's primary caregiver from the start. Noor's mother, Iman, had another baby, Kerrar, but divorced Haider shortly after he returned from America. He has since remarried, and his second wife, Fatima, is expecting a child. Soad carried Noor in her arms from Baghdad to Atlanta but that seems a Herculean task now. Soad was weakened by diabetes and a stomach ulcer and Noor, now 2 1/2 years old, is a bundle to hold. Though she is heavy, Soad said Noor often has digestion and bladder problems that rob her of her appetite. She likes to eat tomatoes and rice or chomp on cookies and crackers, but Soad is worried about poor nutrition. At the park, Noor held a bottle of milk that was filled the day before. It still was almost full. Soad said Noor often puts her hands on her head and cries. Maybe there is fluid buildup in her brain, she speculated. Maybe something else is wrong. Desperation saturated Soad's speech. Life is hard enough in Baghdad without being able to walk, without needing a lifetime of care. Doctors who examined Noor predicted the challenges and said much would depend on the family's commitment to caring for such a child in a city beset by poverty and violence and in a culture that can be callous to the disabled. In early 2006, Dr. Roger Hudgins, chief of neurosurgery at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, removed a tumor on Noor's back and inserted a shunt in her brain to relieve pressure from excess fluids. He recently examined new scans of Noor's brain sent by e-mail from Baghdad. "It looks pretty good," he said. "This is about what I would expect her brain to look like." The fluid base in Noor's brain is still bigger than normal, as is the case with most children born with spina bifida. But the shunt is working, he said. "Her brain doesn't look like it is under pressure." He added: "Give her a big kiss for me." Hudgins' evaluation was good news for Soad. And yet, she knows the road ahead is murky. She takes Noor to see a Baghdad doctor every month but the hospitals and clinics in Iraq are sparse. Many competent doctors have fled the country. Soad knows Noor can return to America only if she has a serious health concern that cannot be addressed in Iraq. That is one of the conditions set by Childspring International, the Christian nonprofit group that brings sick children to Atlanta for medical care. The organization sponsored Noor's stay in Atlanta. Soad said she would never give up on a better life for Noor. But that dream may not be attainable in Iraq, she said--not as long as she has to make a life-or-death decision every time she steps outside her door. At the very least, she said, she'd settle for a child's wheelchair for Noor. She doesn't want to see her granddaughter grow up crawling on the floor. "We hope the good people of America have not forgotten my little Noor," she said. Soad glanced over to the child, playing with her aunt under the speckled shade of a date palm. Noor wore a necklace with her name, which means light, inscribed in Arabic calligraphy. Appropriate to its meaning, the name once shined the spotlight on Atlanta as the world learned the story of Georgia soldiers who saved an Iraqi baby's life. Many dark months have passed since that fateful December night. In a Baghdad park, Soad wondered aloud whether her family would find that light again. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586318.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times March 9, 2008 Look Out Below. The Arms Race In Space May Be On. By Steven Lee Myers WASHINGTON--IT doesn’t take much imagination to realize how badly war in space could unfold. An enemy — say, China in a confrontation over Taiwan, or Iran staring down America over the Iranian nuclear program — could knock out the American satellite system in a barrage of antisatellite weapons, instantly paralyzing American troops, planes and ships around the world. Space itself could be polluted for decades to come, rendered unusable. The global economic system would probably collapse, along with air travel and communications. Your cellphone wouldn’t work. Nor would your A.T.M. and that dashboard navigational gizmo you got for Christmas. And preventing an accidental nuclear exchange could become much more difficult. “The fallout, if you will, could be tremendous,” said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington. The consequences of war in space are in fact so cataclysmic that arms control advocates like Mr. Kimball would like simply to prohibit the use of weapons beyond the earth’s atmosphere. But it may already be too late for that. In the weeks since an American rocket slammed into an out-of-control satellite over the Pacific Ocean, officials and experts have made it clear that the United States, for better or worse, is already committed to having the capacity to wage war in space. And that, it seems likely, will prompt others to keep pace. What makes people want to ban war in space is exactly what keeps the Pentagon’s war planners busy preparing for it: The United States has become so dependent on space that it has become the country’s Achilles’ heel. “Our adversaries understand our dependence upon space-based capabilities,” Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, commander of the United States Strategic Command, wrote in Congressional testimony on Feb. 27, “and we must be ready to detect, track, characterize, attribute, predict and respond to any threat to our space infrastructure.” Whatever Pentagon assurances there have been to the contrary, the destruction of a satellite more than 130 miles above the Pacific Ocean a week earlier, on Feb. 20, was an extraordinary display of what General Chilton had in mind — a capacity that the Pentagon under President Bush has tenaciously sought to protect and enlarge. Is war in space inevitable? The idea or such a war has been around since Sputnik, but for most of the cold war it remained safely within the realm of science fiction and the carefully proscribed American-Soviet arms race. That is changing. A dozen countries now can reach space with satellites — and, therefore, with weapons. China strutted its stuff in January 2007 by shooting down one of its own weather satellites 530 miles above the planet. “The first era of the space age was one of experimentation and discovery,” a Congressional commission reported just before President Bush took office in 2001. “We are now on the threshold of a new era of the space age, devoted to mastering operations in space.” One of the authors of that report was Mr. Bush’s first defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and the policy it recommended became a tenet of American policy: The United States should develop “new military capabilities for operation to, from, in and through space.” Technology, too, has become an enemy of peace in space. Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative was considered so fantastical by its critics 25 years ago that it was known as “Star Wars.” But the programs Mr. Reagan began were the ancestors of the weaponry that brought down the American satellite. The Chinese strike, and now the Pentagon’s, have given ammunition to both sides of the debate over war in orbit. Arms control advocates say the bull’s-eyes underscore the need to expand the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which the United States and 90 other countries have ratified. It bans the use of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on the Moon. Space, in this view, should remain a place for exploration and research, not humanity’s destructive side. The grim potential of the latter was hinted at by the vast field of debris that China’s test left, posing a threat to any passing satellite or space ship. (The Pentagon said its own shot, at a lower altitude, would not have the same effect — the debris would fall to earth and burn up.) The risk posed by space junk was the main reason the United States and Soviet Union abandoned antisatellite tests in the 1980’s. Michael Krepon, who has written on the militarization of space, said the Chinese test broke an unofficial moratorium that had lasted since then. And he expressed disappointment that the Pentagon’s strike had damaged support for a ban — which the Chinese say they want, in spite of their 2007 test. “The truth of the matter is it doesn’t take too many satellite hits to create a big mess in low earth orbit,” he said. The White House, on the other hand, opposes a treaty proscribing space weaponry; Mr. Bush’s press secretary, Dana M. Perino, says it would be unenforceable, noting that even a benign object put in orbit could become a weapon if it rammed another satellite. A new American president could reverse that attitude, but he or she would have to go up against the generals and admirals, contractors, lawmakers and others who strongly support the goal of keeping American superiority in space. The reason they cite is that the United States depends more than any other country on space for its national security. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that an M1-A1 tank couldn’t drive around the block in Iraq without them. And so, research continues on how to protect American satellites and deny the wartime use of satellites to potential enemies — including work on lasers and whiz-bang stuff like cylinders of hardened material that could be hurled from space to targets on the ground. “Rods from God,” those are called. For now, such weapons remain untested and, by all accounts, impractical because the cost of putting a weapon in orbit is huge. “It is much easier to hold a target at risk from the land or sea than from space,” said Elliot G. Pulham, who heads the Space Foundation, a nonprofit group in Colorado Springs. Democrats in Congress, in particular, have opposed explicit authorization of space weapons programs. But John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an organization that studies military and space issues, has noted a spike in recent years in secret “black budget” spending by the Missile Defense Agency. The idea, he said, is, “If you desire peace, prepare for war.” Mike Moore, author of a new book, “Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance,” argued that such logic is misguided. The belief that the United States can or should dominate space, he said, only prods others to respond. “Why trigger an arms race?” he asked. “The United States has the most satellites up there, and we have the most to lose.” Nevertheless, he acknowledges, “These kinds of thing have a momentum of their own.” http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586295.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Chicago Sun-Times March 8, 2008 Pg. 14 'It Took Him 8 Years To Get Here' Cheney visits base for graduation, though Iraq veteran not impressed By Abdon M. Pallasch, The Chicago Sun-Times Vice President Dick Cheney gave a graduation talk Friday to 4,000 sailors, instructors and recruits at the Great Lakes Naval Base. He threw in a defense of the most controversial aspects of the Bush administration's war on terror and got some enthusiastic and some just-polite applause from those who have had to serve five or more tours in Iraq over the last five years. "We have worked closely with friends and allies to track terrorist movements all over the world," Cheney said. "We've monitored enemy communications. We've interrogated high-value detainees and gotten information that has saved American lives." Marcus Perkins, 39, of Colorado Springs, a naval training officer who has served five tours in Iraq, was not impressed. "It took him eight years to get here . . . at the end of his tenure," Perkins said of Cheney. "This was more like a pep rally. He could have sent an e-mail for that." Perkins, who has served under every president since Ronald Reagan, said he had doubts about the war in Iraq. "We went to Iraq in '03 looking for [weapons of] mass destruction," he said. "We haven't found them in five years. . . . We own the place, and we still haven't found them. The longer we stay in Iraq, the more training it gives to terrorists to learn how we fight. It's a training ground." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586376.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times March 9, 2008 Pg. 7 Donors Enrich Naval Academy By Brian Witte, Associated Press ANNAPOLIS--When Adm. Charles Larson came back for a second tour as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994, the school had about $100,000 in private support. A year later, an alumnus dropped by his office. The former midshipman who had graduated 40 years earlier asked Adm. Larson how much "walking-around money" he had to work with for the academy. Adm. Larson's answer was, well, what's that? " 'Well, I would give money to a foundation,' " Adm. Larson recalled the alumnus telling him, " 'but I will never give money to an alumni association. You ought to really think about that, or you're going to be a nickel-and-dime operation.' " Adm. Larson set up what would become the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation. He was revisited in 1996 by the alumnus, who gave him a $300,000 check to get the ball rolling. The result, the retired admiral said at a recent academy Board of Visitors meeting, has been remarkable. Extra money raised through private donors — both alumni and corporations — has resulted in faculty chairs, distinguished military professorships, admission outreach programs as well as academic and writing centers for the brigade of about 4,300 midshipmen. The funds also have helped pay for renovations at the football stadium and a sailing center — things lawmakers on Capitol Hill are likely to shrug off when making budget decisions — and to help build a Jewish worship center. The foundation received about $253 million in total commitments between July 1999 and December 2005 during a fundraising campaign to find donors and corporations willing to support the academy. Of that, there are about $192 million in receipts and $61.4 million in outstanding pledges. More than $104 million has gone directly to the academy. "We have raised more money since we formed the foundation in the last several years then all the money that was raised from 1845 until 1996 — by a large measure," Adm. Larson told the Board of Visitors. For most of the academy's 163 years, it has relied mostly on federal funding. "When we first started this effort, there were a lot of people that pushed back and said: 'Wait, this is a government institution; we shouldn't be funding it. Don't let Congress off the hook. Don't let the Navy Department off the hook,' " Adm. Larson said. He said the key has been to carefully consider the academy's needs, show donors how they can make a difference and never use private funds to replace federal money. "We augment federal funds, but we don't let the government off the hook, and this is a commitment that we make to our donors," Adm. Larson said. It's also important to work closely with the superintendent to keep an ear out for academy needs, he told the board. "We are there to support the Naval Academy, not to dream up our own projects," Adm. Larson said. Now, he said, it's time to lay the groundwork for another campaign to keep the money flowing. "A campaign kind of rejuvenates people and energizes them and gets them going on some major projects, and so we're working closely with the [superintendent] to decide where we're go next." Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler, the current superintendent, said it's very helpful to have extra money around to start a new project — such as an initiative he's kicked off to improve academy diversity. "I don't have to say, 'Where is it in my budget?' and go to my chief financial officer," Adm. Fowler said. "I have some money that I can say: 'Let's execute this now.' " http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586427.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Baltimore Sun March 9, 2008 Robotics Contest At Naval Academy Robots will swarm Annapolis this week as high school teams from Maryland and nearby states compete in the three-day First Robotics Cheasapeake Regional tournament. Starting Thursday, the teams will race their hand-crafted robots around an oval track at the Naval Academy, while attempting to toss large inflated balls over a 6-foot hurdle. More than 60 robotics teams from Maryland, Virginia, Washington and elsewhere have registered. The First series was started in 1992 by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway personal transporter, to promote math and engineering among American students. The Annapolis event is a qualifier for the national First Championship, scheduled for mid-April in Atlanta. Hadley Field House will be the venue for the regional tournament. Admission is free, but anyone 16 or older will need photo identification for admission to the Naval Academy grounds. Pay parking will be available at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. --Chris Emery http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080309586393.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1541487_AEf PjkQAAMj9R9QQDw80Ay6kfYY&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080309aaindex_concat.html&cred=U9DisVusiLXSlGDl rBfc6_CD1Tn3.kI4eGdWRHnntnCEvLBVqNWlg8EdFlTlgP1r#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Philadelphia Inquirer March 9, 2008 Pg. 1 Their War Comes Home By Tom Infield, Inquirer Staff Writer First of four parts The flat roofs across the street were checkered with black shadows. In the dim yellow light of a city sky at night, Sgt. Lorenzo Martinez thought he saw a man move. He jumped away from the window and pressed his back to the wall. Maybe, he thought, he was becoming too cautious, too wary. Ever since six of his friends in Alpha Company had been killed in hidden-bomb attacks in Iraq, he had been easily spooked. His mind raced. Was the door locked? Was there a route of escape? What would he do without a weapon? With just thumb and forefinger, he slowly separated the blinds and peered out again. He froze. Sure enough, it was a sniper. But this was |
