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 The Pentagon Early Bird March 18 2008 Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Item numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) Please scroll down to read Headlines, then scroll down to read the News Article. Url's will not link out.GATES/RICE TRIP
New York Times March 18, 2008 Pg. 6 Bush Sends Putin Missile Defense Offer By Thom Shanker MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday endorsed portions of a private proposal from President Bush that could lead to a new strategic framework between their nations, including progress on troubling issues like missile defense, nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. Mr. Putin said that a letter from Mr. Bush, which had not previously been disclosed, was “a very serious document.” Even so, Mr. Putin and his protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, the president-elect, warned that significant differences remained. The tone of the opening talks here with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was far more cordial than when the two cabinet members journeyed to Moscow in October for negotiations on missile defense. And the breadth of issues that two presidents agreed to discuss over two days of talks was evidence that, before he leaves office, President Bush is making a final push to cement a calmer relationship with the Kremlin, after angering it with proposals for American missile defenses in Eastern Europe. “We believe that in some of these issues we can probably dot the i’s and reach final agreement,” Mr. Putin said, referring to topics raised in the Bush letter as he sat down in an ornate Kremlin office to meet with the two American secretaries. At a late-night news conference, Ms. Rice said that Mr. Bush had sent the letter to Mr. Putin within the past five days, and that it was an effort by the American president to gauge the Kremlin’s interest in formalizing cooperation on issues where agreement had been found or was near, while pressing for a deal on the more contentious policies. “And we talked to them about the potential to look at all of the different issues that the United States and Russia have — some of them cooperative, some of them in which we have disagreements — and to try to put this on a firm footing going forward,” she said. Ms. Rice said she and Mr. Gates were in Moscow “discussing ways to give a clear signal that there is a foundation for all of these issues.” She declined to label the Bush letter a formal “strategic framework” to guide Washington-Moscow relations into the future, a concept advocated by a number of Russian analysts and scholars who have been troubled by the caustic tone of the relationship. The details of the letter were not released by either government. On American proposals to place missile defense bases in two formerly Communist nations of Eastern Europe, Mr. Gates was asked if he thought a deal was possible with Moscow by the end of the Bush administration. “I think the answer is yes,” he said. “The environment in our meetings was positive today.” But, he cautioned, “whether that leads to a positive conclusion remains to be seen.” The two cabinet members listed a number of areas in which Russia and the United States were operating in close cooperation or could reach agreement, mostly in counterterrorism, nuclear nonproliferation and trade. Mr. Gates said the United States was also moving to allay Moscow’s concerns on a nuclear weapons accord to succeed the Start II agreement when it expires in 2009. Moscow wants a formal treaty, while the Bush administration has been pressing for less formal limits. Mr. Gates said the United States would accept a binding agreement, but only if it was not as lengthy in pages or negotiations as Start. Mr. Putin, in discussing the letter from Mr. Bush, said, “If we can reach agreement on its most important provisions, then we will be able to state that our dialogue is proceeding successfully.” But he, too, warned, “There are still a lot of outstanding problems that need to be discussed.” Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Bush letter had been the catalyst for the return trip to Moscow by Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates. He said it laid out an agenda for the talks on Monday and Tuesday, and proposed a path toward agreements that would survive the two current presidents. “As they go through a transition, and as we go through a transition, there is a need to focus on areas of agreement so neither side loses precious time,” Mr. Morrell said. Mr. Medvedev, in a separate meeting, expressed concerns about American plans for the Eastern European missile-defense sites. But he, too, vowed that Russia was “determined to go ahead” with talks on a range of issues with the United States. For Mr. Medvedev, the meeting was the first time since he was elected to succeed Mr. Putin earlier this month that he had participated in high-level security talks with the Americans. “We need to provide for continuity in the Russian-U.S. relationship,” Mr. Medvedev told Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates entered the Kremlin with his right arm in a sling; he fractured it slipping on ice at his home in Washington a month ago. “With a broken arm, I won’t be nearly as difficult a negotiator,” Mr. Gates told Mr. Medvedev, who replied, “We’ll see.” http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588467.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post March 18, 2008 Pg. 6 Putin, Gates Cite Hopes About Talks By Reuters MOSCOW,March 17 -- Russia and the United States expressed optimism Monday they could improve relations, and Pentagon chief Robert M. Gates said a deal might be reached on a U.S. missile shield before the end of the Bush administration. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he saw a chance for better ties with the United States after receiving what he called a "serious document" from President Bush. The letter from Bush laid out topics for discussion both in ongoing meetings and over the longer term, setting the stage for a possible agreement on the powers' relationship that can be handed off to subsequent Russian and U.S. administrations, U.S. officials said. "If we manage to agree on its main provisions, we will be able to say that our dialogue is progressing successfully,"Putin said. Similar meetings in the past have yielded little progress on the big issues, and Gates, when pressed,said he was cautious about the potential gain. He and Secretary of State Condoleezza Ricemet Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, at the start of two days of talks in Moscow intended primarily to resolve the dispute over U.S. plans to place parts of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic -- formerly Soviet-allied territory. Medvedev is to take office in May. The missile shieldissue has been a major factor in the deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations in recent years, although economic cooperation has not been affected. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588485.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times March 18, 2008 Putin Offers U.S. Officials Hope, Caveat Russian leader tells Rice and Gates that some differences could be resolved soon, but warns that others remain. By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin, departing from his recent practice of caustically lecturing senior U.S. officials, warmly greeted the top two American foreign policy makers Monday and told them that some ongoing differences between their countries might be resolved soon. But he warned that many disputes remained, and there appeared to be little progress on the thorniest disagreement between the two nations: the Bush administration's plan to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, which Russia vehemently opposes. "We believe that in some of these issues we can probably dot the i's and reach final agreement," Putin said. "There are still a lot of outstanding problems that need to be discussed." Putin's comments came ahead of his meeting here with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. The U.S. officials also spent an hour with Putin's successor, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, who takes office in May. Rice and Gates are scheduled to meet with their Russian counterparts today. Although Putin did not say in which areas he anticipated new agreements, Rice told reporters after the meeting that they probably would be in less-contentious areas of the relationship, such as civilian nuclear cooperation and Russian accession to the World Trade Organization. The two U.S. Cabinet officials acknowledged that the sides remained far apart on the issue of the missile defense system, as well as on American efforts to gain a new agreement regulating nuclear arms that would replace Cold War treaties. But Gates, who had expressed frustration with what the U.S. sees as Russian intransigence on missile defense ahead of the talks, said he now believed the Kremlin was interested in seriously considering a U.S. proposal to link Russian defenses with the new U.S. system. The Bush administration says the system, which would be built in Poland and the Czech Republic, is needed to guard Europe against potential missile strikes from Iran. The Kremlin argues that the defense system could be used against Russian ballistic rockets, reducing the weapons' value as a deterrent against attack. "I frankly was surprised at the relatively positive tone of the meetings," Gates told reporters traveling with him. "And I think we have some opportunities here." Putin also disclosed that he had received a letter from President Bush ahead of the meeting, a missive he called a "very serious document." U.S. officials described the letter, sent last week, as an attempt by Bush to gauge whether Putin was interested in holding substantive talks. They suggested that Bush would send Rice and Gates to Moscow only if the Russian government was willing to offer concrete responses to recent American proposals. Despite Putin's warm words and the upbeat tenor of the meeting, neither side expressed much hope of substantive progress on the missile defense program. During a similar visit six months ago, Rice and Gates presented a new plan that would link the inauguration of the system to direct proof of long-range Iranian missile capabilities. But in brief remarks ahead of his meeting with Rice and Gates, Medvedev said the U.S. and Russia still had disagreements about the system. Gates was similarly cautious, despite saying Putin appeared "intrigued" by the U.S. proposal. "I wouldn't say I'm optimistic on any of this stuff," Gates said. "The Russians hate the idea of missile defense. We are trying to figure out a way to make them partners in it in a way that assuages their concerns." The meeting with Medvedev, 42, was the first by a high-level U.S. delegation since he won election as president this month. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588491.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washingtonpost.com March 18, 2008 U.S.-Russia Talks To Start On Upbeat Note By Anne Gearan and Robert Burns, Associated Press MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin, president of Russia for a few more weeks, surprised President Bush's top Cabinet officers with welcoming words about cooperation with the U.S., even as he warned that serious disagreements remain. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a point of scheduling meetings that spotlight one of main examples of U.S.-Russia tension -- American disappointment over Putin's consolidation of political and economic power in the Kremlin. She and Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with leaders outside government, including a banker and a political opposition figure, to start their day Tuesday. "I'm very much looking forward to your thoughts about the politicial siutation where and how the transition in this country is taking place," she said at the beginning of a private breakfast meeting with the leaders. Rice also said she wanted to know what the United States could do to "make this a more open and participatory political system" and encourage economic and entreprenaurial development. Among those Rice and Gates saw was long-time political opposition figure Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the Yabloko Party. During a brief greeting witnessed by reporters Monday, Putin did not mention U.S. plans for a missile shield system in Eastern Europe that had angered Russia and stoked Cold War rhetoric about an imperial United States meddling at Russia's doorstep. Gates and Rice were exploring whether U.S. concessions have softened Putin's opposition to the shield system and brought the two nations closer to an arms control deal to succeed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty born in the Reagan era. Although Bush was expected to see Putin during a NATO summit next month, the two-day visit closes a chapter in negotiations with Putin as president. The two Cabinet secretaries were taking the measure of President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's hand-picked successor, and gauging the balance of power when Putin assumes the nominally weaker role of prime minister. Greeting Gates and Rice in his ornate office, Putin recalled that they had held talks last October _ a session dominated by differences over missile defense and marked by sharp rhetoric from the Russian president. "Six months have passed and we believe that in some of these issues we can probably dot the I's and reach final agreement," Putin said. Putin's vague optimism was matched by cautious words later from Gates. "I wouldn't say I'm optimistic on any of this stuff," Gates told reporters. "The Russians hate the idea of missile defense. We are trying to figure out a way to make them partners in it," in ways that ease Russian suspicion that the missiles are really intended to be used against them, Gates said. The Russians have criticized U.S. missile defense efforts for decades, but their opposition intensified when the Bush administration began negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic to build missile defense sites on their territory. The Russians argue that it is a potential threat to their own nuclear deterrent. Gates said he told Putin that the administration would be willing to negotiate limits on the European missile defense sites as a way of assuring the Russians that the sites will not at some point be transformed into a weapon system that could threaten Russia. He did not say if Putin accepted that idea. Even before the Americans arrived, Bush had sent Putin a letter framing the discussions. Bush wanted to make sure Putin stuck to the script, and U.S. participation in the unusual session hinged on Putin's agreement. "The president wanted to assess whether there was openness to cooperation on some of these issues that have been difficult, like missile defense," Rice told reporters afterward. "He wanted to see ... whether President Putin is really interested in pursuing progress on a number of fronts." When Medvedev is inaugurated as president on May 7, he will formally inherit the considerable powers of the office as spelled out in the constitution. Some experts predict he will serve a lengthy apprenticeship before actually using those powers, while others wonder if he will ever use them. The constitution provides for a strong president and a weak prime minister, but political analysts say Putin -- by far the dominant figure in Russia's political landscape -- may not settle for the subordinate role. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588492.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Reuters.com March 18, 2008 Rice Meets Opposition Heavyweights In Moscow By Sue Pleming, Reuters MOSCOW -- Seeking ways to open Russia's Kremlin-dominated political system, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met civil society leaders and Kremlin opponents on Tuesday. "I am very much looking forward to your thoughts about the political situation here... and what the United States can do to make this a more open and participatory political system", Rice told participants before the breakfast meeting. Guests included leaders of Russia's shrunken and embattled political opposition, who have lost representation in parliament and score only a few percentage points in opinion polls. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also attended the breakfast. Rice has repeatedly said there is too much power concentrated in the Kremlin and that outgoing President Vladimir Putin's government has rolled back democratic freedoms. Putin is by far Russia's most popular politician, regularly scoring over 70 percent in opinion polls, though pollsters say skewed media coverage on state-run television and a lack of serious opponents flatter his ratings. Asked whether she expected Russia to be angered by her meetings with civil society leaders and NGOs, Rice said: "I think it is expected." Among those invited to the U.S. embassy residence for the meeting were Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the social democratic Yabloko party, and Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent who lost his seat in the State Duma (parliament) last year. However, the most ardent Putin critics whose presence could irk the Kremlin -- former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and ex-world chess champion Garry Kasparov -- were not present. On each visit to Moscow, Rice has made a point of seeing Russian human rights activists. Rice is hoping that president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, whom she saw on Monday along with Gates, will take a new approach to human rights. Gates and Rice are in Moscow for meetings with their Russian counterparts to discuss a wide range of tricky bilateral issues, including the U.S. missile defense system. "With each change the possibilities are there for change," she told reporters traveling with her. Medvedev won a landslide victory in an election on March 2 which was criticized by the West as not fully democratic. "I hope to see some greater transition in Russia on human rights and on political freedoms," Rice told reporters traveling with her. "I have said before that I do hope that one day we will be looking at Russian elections that will have more contests," she said, in a snipe at the latest parliamentary and presidential elections in Russia. The State Department's human rights report released last week took aim at Russia's record, citing numerous government and other abuses throughout 2007, including harassment of the media and reported killings and torture by the security forces. Russia rejected the report and said it was proof of the U.S. government's own "double standards" when it came to human rights. Washington's own record has been in the spotlight in recent years, particularly over the detention of terrorism suspects at a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as cases of abuse and torture by U.S. security at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588440.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times March 18, 2008 Pg. 6 Bombing Kills 43 In Shiite Holy City In Iraq By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Qais Mizher BAGHDAD — A bombing on Monday evening killed 43 people near the Imam Hussein shrine in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, penetrating one of the most secure perimeters in Iraq. Iraqi police officers at the scene and several witnesses said it had been carried out by a female suicide bomber, but the police chief later said the bomb had been hidden. The explosion, the deadliest attack in Karbala in nearly a year, overshadowed a Baghdad visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, who met with Iraqi and American leaders and extolled what he described as “phenomenal” security improvements in the country. The explosion rocked central Karbala about 6 p.m. “Many people were killed and wounded,” said Abu Ahmed, 36, who minutes earlier had walked past the site and then came rushing back to help the wounded. “Everyone near the bomber was killed.” Iraqi forces sealed off the area, and a grim pall descended on the city. Areas that are normally brisk evening shopping districts were deserted, and the shops were closed. In the aftermath of the attack, a dispute broke out about what had happened. Several witnesses and Iraqi policemen said the attack was by a female suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest. An American military statement also later attributed the bombing to a suicide attacker. But hours after the bombing the Karbala police chief, Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, asserted that the explosion was from a large bomb that had been hidden in the area. He also told reporters in Karbala that he believed that the bomb was made in the city. The conflicting versions could not be reconciled. But if the accounts of other policemen and witnesses are correct, it would be one of the most devastating suicide bombings carried out by a woman. The number of female suicide bombers has increased recently, facilitated by Muslim customs that do not allow men to touch women, so they usually cannot be searched at security checkpoints. In a religious center like Karbala, most women wear a flowing head-to-toe black overgarment, known as an abaya, which provides an easy way to conceal an explosive vest or belt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Nor was it clear whether the attack was meant to upstage visits to Iraq by Mr. Cheney and by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, who, like Mr. Cheney, is a strong proponent of keeping large numbers of troops in the country. Abdul al-Yassiri, the leader of the provincial council in Karbala, said the final toll was 43 dead and 73 wounded, including 8 Iranians. North of Baghdad, two American soldiers were killed Monday when a large roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle, the American military command in Baghdad said. The soldiers were part of a team working to clear a roadway of bombs and other threats, the military said. In Baghdad, Mr. Cheney signaled that a large reduction in troop levels was unlikely anytime soon. “It would be a mistake now to be so eager to draw down the force that we risk putting the outcome in jeopardy,” he said. “And I don’t think we’ll do that.” Violence has dropped sharply over the past six months, but attacks nationwide are running at 2005 levels, and American service members are still dying at an average of one per day. Some American officials in Iraq worry about whether the drop in violence is permanent. Much of the decline, for example, is attributable to a decision by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to order his militia to stop fighting. In addition, thousands of former Sunni insurgents are now being paid by the American military to serve in neighborhood militias. It is not clear what may happen if Iraqi leaders disband the militias. After meeting with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the powerful Shiite party known as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, Mr. Cheney suggested that the Iraqis had made a “tremendous amount of progress” not just on security but also on the political front. Privately, many American officials in Iraq are concerned that political progress has been limited, though. A bill intended to allow some former Baath Party members back into the government may end up causing as many problems as it fixes, for example. And another crucial bill that called for provincial elections by October was vetoed. An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Karbala. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588459.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post March 18, 2008 Pg. 10 Cheney Visits Baghdad And Praises War Effort; Bomb Kills 40 In Karbala By Joshua Partlow and Peter Baker, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, March 17 -- As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq neared, Vice President Cheney flew unannounced into Baghdad on Monday and declared the U.S. effort to install democracy and stabilize Iraq a "successful endeavor" that has been "well worth the effort." Making his first visit since the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops last year, Cheney characterized the changes in Iraq's security and political landscape as "phenomenal" and "remarkable." The vice president used the opportunity to reassert that there was "a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda" before the U.S. invasion, despite reports that have found no operational ties between the two. The vice president's visit came on the same day that two U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb near Baghdad and a female suicide bomber killed at least 40 people outside a Shiite shrine in Karbala. While Cheney traveled outside the heavily fortified Green Zone during the day, the streets were lined with troops and barriers, and some reporters traveling with him reported hearing explosions elsewhere in the city. The five-year anniversary of the start of the war on Wednesday has prompted a variety of appraisals, not all as upbeat as the vice president's. Many Iraqis feel more optimistic because of the recent decline in violence, according to a new poll by ABC News and other news organizations, but they remain dissatisfied with the provision of basic services and job opportunities. A report issued Monday by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded that a humanitarian "crisis" has left millions of Iraqis with inadequate clean water, sanitation and health care. "Five years after the outbreak of the war in Iraq, the humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world," the 15-page report says. The attack in Karbala occurred around sunset, just before the evening prayer. It took place a few hundred yards from the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the holiest houses of worship for Shiite Muslims. Iraqi police said a woman wearing a suicide vest blew up in a street crowded with pedestrians and lined with outdoor cafes. A security guard stationed at an office of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's organization said she screamed "God is great" three times before the bomb detonated. The bomb killed 40 people and wounded 65 others, according to a U.S. military statement, citing Iraqi security forces in Karbala. A spokesman for the Karbala health office, Salim Kadhum, said 42 people died and 73 were injured. Jassem Mohammed, 28, owns a nearby men's clothing store, whose windows shattered and ceiling collapsed around him. "It was just horrible," he said, "something seen only in movies." Cheney, who arrived aboard a C-17 transport on the first stop of a 10-day tour of the Middle East, focused on recent security gains and praised Iraqi leaders for making progress toward political reconciliation. While he pressed them to approve a law governing the oil industry and to set provincial elections in October, he said the situation had already improved enough to show the invasion was justified. "If you reflect back on those five years, it's been a difficult, challenging, but nonetheless successful endeavor," he said at a news conference with Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. "We've come a long way in five years, and it's been well worth the effort." Cheney's argument that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was tied to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda came despite a Pentagon study last week that found "no smoking gun" to prove an "operational relationship." But the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine that supports the war, published an article saying the report's executive summary oversimplified its findings, which it said bolster Cheney's case. Cheney brought along Stephen Hayes, the article's author and a biographer of the vice president, who asked why the White House was not pressing its argument further. Cheney said he had long known that Hussein supported a range of terrorist groups and that the new report "pretty conclusively makes that case." Noting that the report said there was no "operational" link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, he said it documented "extensive links with Egyptian Islamic Jihad," a group headed bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, that later merged into al-Qaeda. "Now was that a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda?" he said. "Seems to me pretty clear that there was." Democrats in Washington leapt on Cheney's comments, comparing them to his prewar assertion that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators and his 2005 declaration that the insurgency was in its "last throes." Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said Cheney should instead figure out how "to find Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's senior leadership -- neither of whom are in Iraq." Former congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), co-chairman of the bipartisan commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and found "no operational relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaeda, said Cheney was parsing words to create a false impression. "They just keep repeating it -- the vice president uses the word 'links,' " Hamilton said in an interview. "Nobody really denies that. The question is 'Was there an operational relationship?,' and there's no evidence of that." The security gains Cheney hailed have prompted cautious optimism among Iraqis, according to the ABC poll. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said their lives are "going well," compared with 39 percent last August. Thirty-seven percent said security over the past six months had remained the same, while 36 percent said it had improved and 26 percent said it had deteriorated. But the vast majority were still dissatisfied with access to electricity (88 percent), fuel (81 percent) and jobs (70 percent). The Red Cross report likewise highlighted dire living conditions. Poor maintenance, insufficient fuel supplies, acts of sabotage and failure to conduct repairs threaten the electrical supply throughout Iraq, and many Iraqis rely on unsafe water sources, the report says. The health-care system is in crisis because of shortages of supplies and hospital beds as well as a shrinking pool of Iraqi doctors, the report says. About 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed and more than 250 kidnapped since 2003, it says, and 20,000 of the 34,000 doctors registered in Iraq in 1990 have left the country. "The Iraqi health-care system is now in worse shape than ever," the report concludes. "Many lives have been lost because prompt and appropriate medical care is not available." Although violence has subsided compared with a year ago, Iraq remains a dangerous place. Two U.S. soldiers were killed Monday when a bomb exploded on their vehicle north of Baghdad during a mission to clear a road of such explosives. The attack raised the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq to at least 3,990. Baker reported from Washington. Special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Najaf, Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and Mohanned Saif Aldin in Samarra and staff writer Josh White in Washington contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588490.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today March 18, 2008 Pg. 6 Cheney Cautions Against Quick Drawdowns Violent day across Iraq claims at least 72 lives From wire reports BAGHDAD — Vice President Cheney declared the U.S. invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavor" during a visit to Baghdad on Monday. Also Monday, a bomb killed at least 40 people in the Muslim holy city of Karbala. At a news conference with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, Cheney said it is very important that "we not quit before the job is done" in Iraq. "If you look back on those five years" since the invasion in 2003, "it has been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavor … and it has been well worth the effort," Cheney said. Cheney, who stayed on a military base reporters were asked not to reveal for safety reasons, credited recent reductions in violence to President Bush's decision last year to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq. In deciding whether to draw back more than those 30,000 before he leaves office, Bush will weigh whether the United States can continue on a track toward political reconciliation and stability in Iraq, Cheney said. "It would be a mistake now to be so eager to draw down the force that we risk putting the outcome in jeopardy," Cheney said. "And I don't think we'll do that." Petraeus and Crocker are working on a status report on the war and will testify to Congress next month. Petraeus said discussions on the report would continue within the chain of command this week and then with the president. "We're keenly aware of the strain and the stress that these extended deployments have put on soldiers and their families, and we would love to draw down further, but that is dependent on conditions on the ground," Petraeus said. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party, was also in Baghdad on Monday for a second day of meetings with Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "We recognize that al-Qaeda is on the run, but they are not defeated," McCain said after meeting al-Maliki. "Al-Qaeda continues to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a democracy. So we know there's still a lot more of work to be done." The suicide bombing in Karbala was the deadliest in a series of attacks across the country that left at least 72 Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in eastern Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll closer to 4,000 as the U.S.-led war enters its sixth year. The Karbala attack came after worshipers had gathered at a sacred historical site about half a mile from the golden-domed shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Mohammed who was killed in a seventh-century battle. A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, told the Associated Press the attacker was a woman. The U.S. military described the attack as a suicide operation and said 40 Iraqis were killed and 65 were wounded. The U.S. statement said the bomber's identity was unknown. The U.S. Embassy and military issued a joint statement blaming al-Qaeda in Iraq for the attack. Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, Karbala's police chief, said 43 people were killed and 73 wounded. He denied it was a suicide attack, saying a bomb had been planted in the area. The discrepancies could not immediately be resolved. Karim Khazim, the city's chief health official, said seven of those killed were Iranian pilgrims who had traveled to the holy site. Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 20 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the bombings of two markets in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people last month. The U.S. military has warned that insurgents use women in the attacks because they are more easily able to avoid being searched at checkpoints and can hide the explosives under traditional all-encompassing black Islamic robes. Police closed the area around the twin golden-dome mosques and blocked all roads leading to the sites. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588481.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wall Street Journal March 18, 2008 Pg. 4 Troop Levels Re-Emerge As A Political Flash Point By Yochi J. Dreazen and John D. McKinnon U.S. commanders are assessing whether recent security gains in Iraq can be maintained with fewer American forces, a question important to both U.S. policy in Iraq and the presidential campaign at home. The war has re-emerged as a political flash point as the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion approaches. Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain touts his support for a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq, while Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton offer plans for a significant withdrawal. The faltering U.S. economy is emerging as potentially the biggest issue of the election, but all three candidates believe Iraq remains a top concern for most voters. The Democrats, in particular, are trying to link the two issues, arguing that hundreds of billions of dollars that could have been spent on services like health care have instead been allocated toward the war. In a speech in Washington, Sen. Clinton repeated her pledge to begin withdrawing combat forces from Iraq within 60 days of taking office and accused Sen. McCain of wanting to continue indefinitely the Bush administration's "failed" policies in Iraq. Sen. McCain fired back during an ostensibly nonpolitical visit to Baghdad, telling CNN Sen. Clinton's policies would mean "al Qaeda wins." The debate is taking place as the U.S. military presence in Iraq shrinks -- and fears grow that the country's violence, once clearly on the decline, may be beginning to tick back up. Approximately 7,000 of the 30,000 combat troops deployed to Iraq as part of the administration's "surge" either have returned home or begun redeploying to the U.S., and the remaining forces are set to withdraw by July. That will bring the overall U.S. troop presence in Iraq down to its lowest levels in almost 15 months. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is scheduled to testify before Congress in April. Aides said he will call for a freeze of at least one month after the last of the surge troops leave Iraq. On the ground in Iraq, there is some evidence the recent security gains may prove temporary. Just hours after a visiting Vice President Dick Cheney described the war as a "successful endeavor," a female suicide bomber killed at least 40 people in a crowded cafe in the Shiite holy city of Karbala. Senior White House and Pentagon officials are debating what to do if the violence in Iraq worsens as the last surge troops depart. Gen. Petraeus and his aides want to keep as many troops in Iraq as possible to protect the security gains. At the Pentagon, most high-ranking commanders say troop levels need to fall further this year -- even if security conditions worsen -- to relieve the strains on the military and ensure there are adequate forces available in case of unforeseen conflicts elsewhere in the world. President Bush and Mr. Cheney appear to be siding with Gen. Petraeus. Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, Mr. Cheney said there had been a "remarkable turnaround" in Iraq's overall security situation and said it was crucial the next president "take into account the success that we've achieved." In the political arena, all three candidates are trying to draw distinctions among their positions on how many troops should remain in Iraq, and for how long. Sen. McCain, who has wagered his candidacy on his early and enthusiastic embrace of the surge, told CNN yesterday that he would be willing to deploy additional U.S. forces to Iraq if his commanders there requested them. "I would much rather lose a political campaign than lose a war...so I will do what is necessary," he said. Sen. Clinton accused Sen. McCain of wanting to "stay the course" when it came to the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, leaving the U.S. "tied to another country's civil war, a war we cannot win." Sen. Clinton also had harsh words for Sen. Obama. "Giving speeches alone won't end the war, and making campaign promises you might not keep certainly won't end it," she said. The jab brought her a sarcastic rejoinder from Sen. Obama, who mocked Sen. Clinton's insistence that she only voted for a 2002 bill authorizing the use of force against Iraq to strengthen the Bush administration's hand diplomatically. "The truth is, the judgment of Hillary Clinton and John McCain gave President Bush a blank check for war," he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588460.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today March 18, 2008 Pg. 1 Medical Director: Pentagon Put Off Brain Injury Tests Fear of Gulf syndrome repeat behind delay By Gregg Zoroya, USA Today For more than two years, the Pentagon delayed screening troops returning from Iraq for mild brain injuries because officials feared veterans would blame vague ailments on the little-understood wound caused by exposure to bomb blasts, says the military's director of medical assessments. Air Force Col. Kenneth Cox said in an interview that the Pentagon wanted to avoid another controversy such as the Gulf War syndrome. About 10,000 veterans blamed medical conditions from cancer to eczema on their service. The Pentagon did not acknowledge the syndrome until Congress created a committee to study it in 1998. For troops who believe they may have a condition not designated as war-related, Cox said, often "they're reacting to rumors, things that they've read about or heard about on the Internet or (from) their friends." That uncertainty, Cox said, means "some individuals will seek a diagnosis from provider to provider to provider." It also makes treating veterans "much more difficult and much more costly," he said. Asked whether mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) could turn into another Gulf War syndrome, Cox said, "It could." "That's baloney," says Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force. "There was no need to delay this." In a January 2006 report, scientists at the federal Defense and Veteran Brain Injury Center urged that troops be screened for TBI "immediately." The Pentagon will soon require that troops be checked as they come home, according to Cox. Cox says research shows screening is the most appropriate step. An Army mental health report last month indicated that 11% of 2,195 soldiers surveyed in Iraq and Afghanistan show signs of mild brain injury, but fewer than half were identified and evaluated in the field. That's more proof of the need to screen troops as they leave Iraq, says Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Jaffee, a neurologist who heads the brain injury center. Screening includes a series of questions about a soldier's experience and symptoms relating to head injury, such as balance or memory. Scientists at the center first found evidence of mild brain injury in troops in 2003. About 1.6 million U.S. troops have served in Iraq. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., says, "Here we are five years into this war, and the Pentagon is just now coming to grips with how to track and treat those … with TBI." One concern, Cox says, was that mild TBI symptoms often resemble simple problems such as a lack of sleep or stress. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588461.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today March 18, 2008 Pg. 4 Kennedy Rebukes General On MRAP Request By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today WASHINGTON — The commandant of the Marine Corps "misrepresented" the Corps' February 2005 request for armored vehicles to Congress and is unwilling to fix the way the Marines handle urgent pleas for new equipment, Sen. Edward Kennedy says in a letter to the commandant. Gen. James Conway told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that combat commanders didn't ask for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in February 2005 but for new armored Humvees. That, Kennedy wrote Conway, is contradicted by the request itself. "This is a clear request for MRAPs, and not armored Humvees," Kennedy writes. The Massachusetts Democrat and three other senators have criticized the Marines' slow response to requests from troops. Conway has said the Marines sought armored Humvees in 2005 because they represented the "gold standard" for protection from roadside bombs that targeted the sides of vehicles. Further, the Marines have contended that industry was incapable at the time of producing large numbers of MRAPs, making armored Humvees the best choice. Last May, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made MRAPs the Pentagon's top acquisition priority and a $22 billion program. Kennedy, in his letter, states that MRAPs were noted 17 times in the 2005 urgent request while Humvees were not mentioned once. "Your mischaracterization of the request itself, coupled with your inaccurate testimony on the status of the Marine Corps order on the urgent needs request process, concerns me a great deal," Kennedy writes. The Marine Corps had no immediate comment on the letter, Maj. Manuel Delarosa said. Last month, Kennedy joined Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri in calling on Gates to review how the Pentagon handles wartime requests for equipment. In his letter Friday, Kennedy writes that Conway's testimony "underscores that the urgent needs process is broken, and that the review should start with the Marine Corps." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588496.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Aerospace Daily & Defense Report March 18, 2008 Pg. 13 Boeing Shops Tanker Argument On Hill Where Oil Concerns Rise Boeing tanker advocates are seizing upon growing concern on Capitol Hill with the U.S. military's large appetite for oil, namely mobility demands under the Air Force, to drive up support for Boeing's losing bid for the Air Force aerial refueling replacement tanker. A Boeing-backed study that the giant contractor announced March 17 claimed the Air Force would pay $30 billion more in fuel bills over 40 years to operate a fleet of 179 Airbus A330-200 aerial refueling tankers, compared to a similar number of tankers based on the Boeing 767-200ER. The Air Force, the largest energy consumer in the U.S. government, has estimated before that it pays an additional $600 million a year for each $10 per barrel cost increase. "We are acutely aware as members of the [House] Armed Services Committee that the Defense Department is the largest consumer of oil in the country," Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) said. "We know that mobility platforms consume the most energy used by the Department, with jet fuel representing nearly 60 percent of fuel consumed by DOD," the energy issue provocateur said March 13. Meanwhile, the Air Force said March 17 that it plans the first supersonic flight of an aircraft using the 50/50 synthetic fuel blend in coming days. A B-1B will take off from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. "This week's flight will further demonstrate the Air Force's commitment to using alternative fuels and is the next step in the certification process before the fuel can go into widespread use," the service said. -- Michael Bruno http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588495.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wichita Eagle March 18, 2008 Brownback Says EADS Had Unfair Advantage By Brent D. Wistrom, The Wichita Eagle Standing with a bar graph depicting billions of dollars in foreign government subsidies to a consortium of European aircraft companies, Sen. Sam Brownback on Monday stressed that a massive tanker contract must be overturned. It was the latest in a string of harsh criticism of the Air Force's decision to award a $35 billion contract to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., Airbus' parent company, and Northrop Grumman, instead of to the Boeing Co., to build the next generation of aerial-refueling tankers. Brownback said U.S. government figures show the European companies received $5 billion in subsidies that were intended to jump-start their commercial aircraft program. Now that subsidy is undercutting an American company on a military contract, Brownback told about 150 people at a downtown Rotary lunch at the Broadview Hotel. "Do you think Boeing could launch a good aircraft with $5 billion?" he asked. The crowd of business leaders and government officials applauded loudly when Brownback said the contract decisions should be overturned. Brownback said the tanker deal "popped us right in the jaw" in Kansas. He later noted that he is working with other officials to determine the full economic impact of losing the contract. "I'm still mad about this," he said. Brownback said questions remain about what it means to have vital American military equipment built overseas. He suggested, for example, that foreign governments may try to restrict use of their airspace or stop sending spare parts for the planes if the governments disagree with America's involvement in foreign affairs, such as the war in Iraq. The senator also reflected some on his failed presidential bid and the contenders still in the race. But he didn't talk about his party's candidate, Sen. John McCain. Instead, he told the crowd he believes that the longer the Democratic race drags on, the better Sen. Hillary Clinton's chances are. Brownback called Sen. Barack Obama a "gifted, very-good speaker" whose image was hurt some by Clinton's attack ads suggesting Obama wouldn't be prepared to handle a major crisis when the phone rings in the White House at 3 a.m. Of his own presidential bid, Brownback said he learned a lot from traveling the country and listening to people's concerns. He said it will make him a better senator. But, as he has before, he addressed his success with self-depreciating humor. "The most successful thing I did was get out of the race," he said. "That's what I got the most publicity for." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588437.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times March 18, 2008 Pg. 1 U.S. Adapts Cold-War Idea To Fight Terrorists By Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker WASHINGTON — In the days immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, members of President Bush’s war cabinet declared that it would be impossible to deter the most fervent extremists from carrying out even more deadly terrorist missions with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. Since then, however, administration, military and intelligence officials assigned to counterterrorism have begun to change their view. After piecing together a more nuanced portrait of terrorist organizations, they say there is reason to believe that a combination of efforts could in fact establish something akin to the posture of deterrence, the strategy that helped protect the United States from a Soviet nuclear attack during the cold war. Interviews with more than two dozen senior officials involved in the effort provided the outlines of previously unreported missions to mute Al Qaeda’s message, turn the jihadi movement’s own weaknesses against it and illuminate Al Qaeda’s errors whenever possible. A primary focus has become cyberspace, which is the global safe haven of terrorist networks. To counter efforts by terrorists to plot attacks, raise money and recruit new members on the Internet, the government has mounted a secret campaign to plant bogus e-mail messages and Web site postings, with the intent to sow confusion, dissent and distrust among militant organizations, officials confirm. At the same time, American diplomats are quietly working behind the scenes with Middle Eastern partners to amplify the speeches and writings of prominent Islamic clerics who are renouncing terrorist violence. At the local level, the authorities are experimenting with new ways to keep potential terrorists off guard. In New York City, as many as 100 police officers in squad cars from every precinct converge twice daily at randomly selected times and at randomly selected sites, like Times Square or the financial district, to rehearse their response to a terrorist attack. City police officials say the operations are believed to be a crucial tactic to keep extremists guessing as to when and where a large police presence may materialize at any hour. “What we’ve developed since 9/11, in six or seven years, is a better understanding of the support that is necessary for terrorists, the network which provides that support, whether it’s financial or material or expertise,” said Michael E. Leiter, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center. “We’ve now begun to develop more sophisticated thoughts about deterrence looking at each one of those individually,” Mr. Leiter said in an interview. “Terrorists don’t operate in a vacuum.” In some ways, government officials acknowledge, the effort represents a second-best solution. Their preferred way to combat terrorism remains to capture or kill extremists, and the new emphasis on deterrence in some ways amounts to attaching a new label to old tools. “There is one key question that no one can answer: How much disruption does it take to give you the effect of deterrence?” said Michael Levi, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of a new study, “On Nuclear Terrorism.” The New Deterrence The emerging belief that terrorists may be subject to a new form of deterrence is reflected in two of the nation’s central strategy documents. The 2002 National Security Strategy, signed by the president one year after the Sept. 11 attacks, stated flatly that “traditional concepts of deterrence will not work against a terrorist enemy whose avowed tactics are wanton destruction and the targeting of innocents.” Four years later, however, the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism concluded: “A new deterrence calculus combines the need to deter terrorists and supporters from contemplating a W.M.D. attack and, failing that, to dissuade them from actually conducting an attack.” For obvious reasons, it is harder to deter terrorists than it was to deter a Soviet attack. Terrorists hold no obvious targets for American retaliation as Soviet cities, factories, military bases and silos were under the cold-war deterrence doctrine. And it is far harder to pinpoint the location of a terrorist group’s leaders than it was to identify the Kremlin offices of the Politburo bosses, making it all but impossible to deter attacks by credibly threatening a retaliatory attack. But over the six and a half years since the Sept. 11 attacks, many terrorist leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, have successfully evaded capture, and American officials say they now recognize that threats to kill terrorist leaders may never be enough to keep America safe. So American officials have spent the last several years trying to identify other types of “territory” that extremists hold dear, and they say they believe that one important aspect may be the terrorists’ reputation and credibility with Muslims. Under this theory, if the seeds of doubt can be planted in the mind of Al Qaeda’s strategic leadership that an attack would be viewed as a shameful murder of innocents — or, even more effectively, that it would be an embarrassing failure — then the order may not be given, according to this new analysis. Senior officials acknowledge that it is difficult to prove what role these new tactics and strategies have played in thwarting plots or deterring Al Qaeda from attacking. Senior officials say there have been several successes using the new approaches, but many involve highly classified technical programs, including the cyberoperations, that they declined to detail. They did point to some older and now publicized examples that suggest that their efforts are moving in the right direction. George J. Tenet, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, wrote in his autobiography that the authorities were concerned that Qaeda operatives had made plans in 2003 to attack the New York City subway using cyanide devices. Mr. Zawahri reportedly called off the plot because he feared that it “was not sufficiently inspiring to serve Al Qaeda’s ambitions,” and would be viewed as a pale, even humiliating, follow-up to the 9/11 attacks. And in 2002, Iyman Faris, a naturalized American citizen from Kashmir, began casing the Brooklyn Bridge to plan an attack and communicated with Qaeda leaders in Pakistan via coded messages about using a blowtorch to sever the suspension cables. But by early 2003, Mr. Faris sent a message to his confederates saying that “the weather is too hot.” American officials said that meant Mr. Faris feared that the plot was unlikely to succeed — apparently because of increased security. “We made a very visible presence there and that may have contributed to it,” said Paul J. Browne, the New York City Police Department’s chief spokesman. “Deterrence is part and parcel of our entire effort.” Disrupting Cyberprojects Terrorists hold little or no terrain, except on the Web. “Al Qaeda and other terrorists’ center of gravity lies in the information domain, and it is there that we must engage it,” said Dell L. Dailey, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief. Some of the government’s most secretive counterterrorism efforts involve disrupting terrorists’ cyberoperations. In Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, specially trained teams have recovered computer hard drives used by terrorists and are turning the terrorists’ tools against them. “If you can learn something about whatever is on those hard drives, whatever that information might be, you could instill doubt on their part by just countermessaging whatever it is they said they wanted to do or planned to do,” said Brig. Gen. Mark O. Schissler, director of cyberoperations for the Air Force and a former deputy director of the antiterrorism office for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Since terrorists feel safe using the Internet to spread ideology and gather recruits, General Schissler added, “you may be able to interfere with some of that, interrupt some of that.” “You can also post messages to the opposite of that,” he added. Other American efforts are aimed at discrediting Qaeda operations, including the decision to release seized videotapes showing members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely Iraqi group with some foreign leaders, training children to kidnap and kill, as well as a lengthy letter said to have been written by another terrorist leader that describes the organization as weak and plagued by poor morale. Dissuading Militants Even as security and intelligence forces seek to disrupt terrorist operations, counterterrorism specialists are examining ways to dissuade insurgents from even considering an attack with unconventional weapons. They are looking at aspects of the militants’ culture, families or religion, to undermine the rhetoric of terrorist leaders. For example, the government is seeking ways to amplify the voices of respected religious leaders who warn that suicide bombers will not enjoy the heavenly delights promised by terrorist literature, and that their families will be dishonored by such attacks. Those efforts are aimed at undermining a terrorist’s will. “I’ve got to figure out what does dissuade you,” said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the Joint Chiefs’ director of strategic plans and policy. “What is your center of gravity that we can go at? The goal you set won’t be achieved, or you will be discredited and lose face with the rest of the Muslim world or radical extremism that you signed up for.” Efforts are also under way to persuade Muslims not to support terrorists. It is a delicate campaign that American officials are trying to promote and amplify — but without leaving telltale American fingerprints that could undermine the effort in the Muslim world. Senior Bush administration officials point to several promising developments. Saudi Arabia’s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Asheik, gave a speech last October warning Saudis not to join unauthorized jihadist activities, a statement directed mainly at those considering going to Iraq to fight the American-led forces. And Abdul-Aziz el-Sherif, a top leader of the armed Egyptian movement Islamic Jihad and a longtime associate of Mr. Zawahri, the second-ranking Qaeda official, has just completed a book that renounces violent jihad on legal and religious grounds. Such dissents are serving to widen rifts between Qaeda leaders and some former loyal backers, Western and Middle Eastern diplomats say. “Many terrorists value the perception of popular or theological legitimacy for their actions,” said Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser. “By encouraging debate about the moral legitimacy of using weapons of mass destruction, we can try to affect the strategic calculus of the terrorists.” Denying Support As the top Pentagon policy maker for special operations, Michael G. Vickers creates strategies for combating terrorism with specialized military forces, as well as for countering the proliferation of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Much of his planning is old school: how should the military’s most elite combat teams capture and kill terrorists? But with each passing day, more of his time is spent in the new world of terrorist deterrence theory, trying to figure out how to prevent attacks by persuading terrorist support networks — those who enable terrorists to operate — to refuse any kind of assistance to stateless agents of extremism. “Obviously, hard-core terrorists will be the hardest to deter,” Mr. Vickers said. “But if we can deter the support network — recruiters, financial supporters, local security providers and states who provide sanctuary — then we can start achieving a deterrent effect on the whole terrorist network and constrain terrorists’ ability to operate. “We have not deterred terrorists from their intention to do us great harm,” Mr. Vickers said, “but by constraining their means and taking away various tools, we approach the overall deterrent effect we want.” Much effort is being spent on perfecting technical systems that can identify the source of unconventional weapons or their components regardless of where they are found — and letting nations around the world know the United States has this ability. President Bush has declared that the United States will hold “fully accountable” any nation that shares nuclear weapons with another state or terrorists. Rear Adm. William P. Loeffler, deputy director of the Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction at the military’s Strategic Command, said Mr. Bush’s declaration meant that those who might supply arms or components to terrorists were just as accountable as those who ordered and carried out an attack. It is, the admiral said, a system of “attribution as deterrence.” http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588494.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP NavyTimes.com March 17, 2008 SEAL To Receive Medal Of Honor For Iraq Heroism By Gidget Fuentes, Staff writer SAN DIEGO — A California-based SEAL who threw his body on a grenade to save his comrades in Iraq will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, a Defense Department official has confirmed. Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, of Garden Grove, Calif., was holed up on the roof of a Ramadi house with three other SEALs on Sept. 29, 2006, when an insurgent grenade landed nearby. Monsoor, a 25-year old with SEAL Team 3, grabbed the grenade and clutched it to his chest. The blast killed him, but his actions, officials said at the time, saved the men on the rooftop. Monsoor will be the second member of the Navy to receive the Medal of Honor since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, and the first sailor to receive it for combat in Iraq. Michael Fumento, who’s written about Monsoor and combat operations in Ramadi, reported on his Internet blog over the weekend that Monsoor’s family would receive the posthumous award on the fallen SEAL’s behalf during a White House ceremony April 8. A Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the award had been approved. “We understand the decision has been made to give that award,” the official said Monday. However, it’s not clear when the medal would be presented by President Bush, as is tradition, and the White House hasn’t yet made any announcement. “[The date is] very likely to change,” the Pentagon official said. A spokeswoman at the Navy Office of Information referred questions to the White House. A call to the White House press office was not immediately returned. Monsoor, a platoon machine gunner, had received the Silver Star, the third-highest award for combat valor, for his actions pulling a wounded SEAL to safety during a May 9, 2006, firefight in Ramadi. The Medal of Honor would be the second awarded to a Navy SEAL since 2001. Last year, the family of the late Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a SEAL officer from Long Island, N.Y., received the medal during an Oct. 22 White House ceremony. Murphy was killed June 28, 2005, along with two other teammates, in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains when their four-man team battled a larger force of Taliban fighters. Eight other Navy SEALs and eight special operations soldiers with a quick-reaction force died when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down. Murphy is the only service member so far awarded the Medal of Honor for combat operations in Afghanistan. Only two other Medals of Honor have been awarded, so far, and both posthumously for combat heroics during military operations in Iraq. The first was Army Sergeant 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who died during an April 4, 2003, firefight with insurgent fighters near Baghdad International Airport. Smith was noted for his bravery and quick actions to organize a hasty defense and counter attack during which he fired anti-tank weapons, tossed hand grenades, mounted an armored personnel carrier to fire its .50-caliber machine gun and evacuate three wounded soldiers before he was felled by enemy fire. Officials credited him with killing as many as 50 enemy forces. Monsoor’s actions closely parallel that of Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, a machine gunner from Scio, N.Y., the second service member to receive the medal for combat actions in Iraq. Dunham, 22, took his Kevlar helmet and muffled a grenade dropped by an insurgent fighting with him and his fire team in a house near Husaybah on April 14, 2004. He died a week later, April 22, at National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md. His family received the medal during a Jan. 11, 2007, ceremony at the White House. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080318588448.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1649186_AKj OjkQAACPjR%2BAPFgSyDxkPfkg&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080318aaindex_concat.html&cred=bM4IlpvmL4Amry ZGsA9bZUN_spuXXhW7w84G4gSU_NTWWu7UMwGC_yFUcr_Xqj#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times March 18, 2008 Pg. F1 Queenfish: A Cold War Tale By William J. Broad Atop the globe, the icy surface of the Arctic Ocean has remained relatively peaceful. But its depths have boiled with intrigue, no more so than in the cold war. Although the superpowers planned to turn those depths into an inferno of exploding torpedoes and rising missiles, the brotherhood of submariners — the silent service, both Russian and American — has worked hard over the decades to keep the particulars of those plans hush-hush. Now, a few secrets are spilling through a crack in the wall of silence, revealing some of the science and spying that went into the doomsday preparations. A new book, “Unknown Waters,” recounts the 1970 voyage of a submarine, the Queenfish, on a pioneering dive beneath the ice pack to map the Siberian continental shelf. The United States did so as part of a clandestine effort to prepare for Arctic submarine operations and to win any military showdown with the Soviet Union. In great secrecy, moving as quietly as possible below treacherous ice, the Queenfish, under the command of Captain Alfred S. McLaren, mapped thousands of miles of previously uncharted seabed in search of safe submarine routes. It often had to maneuver between shallow bottoms and ice keels extending down from the surface more than 100 feet, threatening the sub and the crew of 117 men with ruin. Another danger was that the sub might simply be frozen in place with no way out and no way to call for help as food and other supplies dwindled. The Queenfish at one point became stuck in a dead end. The rescue took an hour and tense backtracking out of what had threatened to become an icy tomb. “I still dream about it every other week,” Dr. McLaren, 75, the book’s author, recalled in an interview. “It was hairy.” The University of Alabama Press is publishing his re |
