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 The Pentagons Early Bird for 10-27-2007 Scroll down to Headline then to that Stories Headline number, to read entirely. Use of these news articles does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Story 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.) IRAQ/TURKEY
October 27, 2007 Pg. 1 In Turkey, Pressure Builds To Attack Iraq Leaders are said to be wary, fearing a military quagmire and international repercussions, but nationalist politicians are beating the war drums. By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer ISTANBUL, TURKEY —The Turkish government is coming under enormous domestic pressure to crush Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, but even as rebel positions are shelled and tens of thousands of troops moved to the border, leaders are reluctant to invade, fearing international isolation and a military quagmire. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would prefer to avoid a full-scale invasion, according to people familiar with his thinking, and is pursuing diplomatic options. His government is also considering using economic leverage by rerouting valuable trade away from Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan region, where the Turkish Kurd rebels have found safe harbor. On Friday, Turkey warned that its "patience has run out" and demanded that Iraq extradite rebel leaders. Erdogan and his government want to show they are exhausting diplomatic options while waving the military threat, the sources say, because they expect international scorn if Turkey is seen as having opened a battlefront in the only relatively peaceful part of Iraq. "You can lessen the public pressure with an all-out invasion, but it would be a short-term gain," Turkish military expert Lale Sariibrahimoglu said. "The government and the armed forces are well aware of the repercussions. This is a serious test of democracy and diplomacy." Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's top military commander, was quoted Friday by private broadcaster NTV as saying that the government would wait until Erdogan returns from a Nov. 5 visit with President Bush before deciding whether to launch a military offensive into Iraq. An invasion also risks dragging Turkey into a quagmire that would play into the hands of Turkish nationalists keen to undermine the pro-Islamic government. Some of the loudest war drums are being beaten by extreme nationalists with a certain sway in parliament and who would no doubt raise their voices further if a military effort proved ineffective. And experience makes it clear that swift success is by no means guaranteed. The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, survived repeated attacks by Turkey in the 1990s, its members hiding safely in the rugged mountain terrain on the Iraqi side of the border. And with winter coming, the chances of a decisive Turkish victory are even bleaker. For days, tens of thousands of Turkish troops have been massing along the 200-mile southern border with Iraq, and commandos have entered several miles into Iraq in hot pursuit of rebels. Combat helicopters and F-16 fighter planes daily attack suspected guerrilla hide-outs and escape routes. At the same time, Turkey is feverishly pursuing diplomatic solutions, looking especially to Baghdad and Washington to uproot the PKK and stop its violence. The Turkish foreign minister rushed to Baghdad; an Iraqi delegation arrived in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Thursday for crisis talks that were to continue today; and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit Turkey next week. In a TV interview Friday, Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, accused Turkey of seeking a pretext to mount a major assault in the area. "The PKK is a justification," Barzani told Al Arabiya satellite channel. "The goal is to stop or hamper the growth of Kurdistan region." The latest Turkish military action is in response to an ambush Sunday in which the PKK killed 12 soldiers and captured eight in southern Turkey, about three miles from the border with Iraq. But hostilities along the remote border have been building for months. Each day since the ambush, thousands of Turks have taken to the streets across the nation to demand tough military action. The clamor became so intense that the government attempted to restrict television coverage of the soldiers' funerals and crying mothers. And Friday, mosques were instructed to read a sermon calling for brotherhood and discouraging citizens from disunity. The public outcry almost always goes hand in hand with a pitched fury of anti-U.S. sentiments; many Turks are convinced that America is aiding the PKK, or at the least turning a blind eye to rebel activities -- charges Washington denies. The U.S. maintains that its troops in Iraq are already stretched thin and cannot sustain a significant presence in largely peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan. U.S. officials are demanding that Iraqi authorities crack down on the PKK, but the Iraqis have not done so. On Friday, Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said he planned to do "absolutely nothing" to counter PKK activity, and that he was neither tracking the rebels' movements nor reinforcing the military presence in the region. Mixon, speaking to Pentagon reporters by videoconference, also said he had not seen Iraqi Kurdish authorities acting against the guerrillas. In Istanbul's Taksim Square, the heart of the city, police braced for more demonstrations as passersby vented their anger and vendors sold huge Turkish flags. Ahmed Keskin, 60, said war was necessary to put an end to the "humiliation" that Turks were suffering at the hands of the Kurdish rebels. "And I'd go straight to northern Iraq, kill the Americans there and then kill Kurds wherever I find them," said Keskin, who makes a living taking photographs of tourists. In less dramatic terms, Murat Ayan, a recent college graduate looking for a job in the business world, also advocated robust military action regardless of the consequences. "As long as we solve the problem, it does not matter what we sacrifice," Ayan, 22, said when asked about the possible blood bath that would accompany an invasion. "We always talk about entering northern Iraq. If you talk about it, you have to show it, you have to show your power." That is the kind of public pressure Erdogan faces. Weighing against it, in addition to the expected political and diplomatic fallout, are the lessons of the past. In two dozen previous incursions in the last decade or so, including a massive operation in 1995, the Turkish army, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's second largest, was not able to destroy the PKK. The guerrillas are intimately familiar with the forbidding mountains where they are based, a roadless swath of hidden caves and hard-to-detect, rudimentary camps. The PKK is believed to have about 3,500 to 5,000 fighters grouped roughly 15 to 20 miles inside northern Iraq, according to intelligence sources. It is a largely lawless region that even Kurdistan regional officials say they have no control over. After years of guerrilla strikes into Turkey, the PKK has developed as a highly mobile mini-army with expertise in explosives, especially roadside bombs. Because the pinpoint strikes have not eliminated the rebels, Turkey is considering, among various military options, setting up a buffer zone up to 30 miles deep. That suggests a different dilemma, according to Cengiz Candar, a leading commentator on Middle East affairs. Turkish forces, he said, would have to in effect occupy the zone much as Israel occupied southern Lebanon for nearly 20 years in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Hezbollah militant group. And then there's the approaching winter. Some of the mountains where the PKK is based are already dusted with snow, and much of the area will be impassable within a month's time. The recent violence quickly inflamed tensions between ethnic Turks and Kurds, a long-repressed minority in Turkey. There have been several attempts to attack offices of Kurdish political parties. The government in recent years took a number of limited steps aimed at giving Kurds some political and cultural freedom, such as allowing the use of the Kurdish language in television broadcasts. Giving Kurds more rights could deprive the PKK of one of its key reasons for fighting. But the "Kurdish question," as it is often called here, remains remarkably emotional and gut-wrenching. Many Turks regard Kurds with suspicion and even racism, unwilling to show tolerance for expressions of cultural difference. The reasons for this are rooted in history and the creation of the Turkish state early in the 20th century. The modern Turkish state was created from the ruins of the once-mighty Ottoman Empire after its defeat in World War I. Its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, fended off attempts by Western powers to further chop it into pieces, and pulled together its diverse peoples into what he envisioned as a single Turkish identity. For the new Turkey to survive, modernize and prosper, Ataturk ordered, ethnic differences had to be suppressed in the interest of national unity. To this day, Turkish children aren't taught about the messy backdrop to their country's creation. "There is a deep, deep fear among many Turks that more rights for the Kurds means the disintegration of the nation," Sariibrahimoglu, the military analyst, said. It is this same visceral context that makes discussion of the World War I-era Armenian genocide, and even Turkey's more recent invasion of Cyprus, such an emotionally fraught matter. At a certain point, of course, if it quacks and waddles, it's a duck. So, even if Turkey refrains from a massive invasion and merely continues with the current cross-border raids and shelling, a war of sorts is already being fought, the repercussions already unleashed. Those include the fraying of Turkish-U.S. relations and delaying of democratic reform inside Turkey. In predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, most residents regard with dread the prospect of a war. It is there that civilians suffered the most during previous offensives, with tens of thousands killed or displaced. "If there is war, what am I going to do with my children? How can I leave them, how can I take them?" said Akide Soz, 35, a Turkish Kurd in the southern village of Kurubas, a collection of dirt roads where chickens peck. Soz has five children, the eldest 7. Wearing billowing paisley pants, a head scarf and golden hoop earrings, she bemoaned especially that Muslims would be forced to kill one another. "What," she asked, "is the future?" Times staff writers Julian E. Barnes at the Pentagon and Ned Parker in Baghdad contributed to this report. <A name=e20071027556219.html> New York Times October 27, 2007 Pg. 8 Iraq Plan To Add U.S. Troops At Kurdish Border Is Rejected By Turkey By Sebnem Arsu and Andrew E. Kramer ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 26 — Turkey’s prime minister on Friday rejected an Iraqi proposal that included a military role for the United States in resolving a standoff over raids by Kurdish guerrillas across the rugged border into Turkey. The offer, made by a delegation of senior Iraqi officials, was rejected by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said it failed to meet his country’s demands in dealing with the guerrillas, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K. In its latest raid, on Sunday, the group killed 12 Turkish soldiers and took eight captive. “I can say that there is not really anything positive or anything that met our expectations,” Mr. Erdogan said, after his foreign minister, Ali Babacan, met with the Iraqi delegation here. The Iraqis proposed positioning American soldiers in border forts in the Qandil Mountains, a jagged area that has never been fully under the control of any government. Although American military officials were part of the delegation taking part in the meetings, it was unclear what role, if any, the military might ultimately agree to. The offer was intended to avert an incursion by Turkey’s military into Iraq’s Kurdish region to fight the rebels. The Turkish Parliament has approved the use of troops to follow the fighters into Iraq if necessary, and the United States and Iraq have been trying at all costs to avert a conflict in the region, which is one of the few relatively peaceful areas of Iraq. Turkish troops continued to pour into staging areas near the border on Friday, while Turkish officials said that airstrikes had already been carried out inside Iraq. In spite of the rejection of the Iraqi offer, the head of the Turkish Army, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said Friday that no broad attack was imminent. He said Turkish troops would wait until after Nov. 5, when Mr. Erdogan is to return from a visit to the United States, according to the state-run Anatolian News Agency. His comments were quickly qualified by the prime minister, however. “I cannot tell what will happen before my visit to the United States,” Mr. Erdogan said in a televised news conference. “We are now momentarily sensitive.” Meanwhile, a senior American general in Iraq played down the chances of any new American military commitment in the conflict. The officer, Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, the top American commander in northern Iraq, said that he had no plans to order his troops to confront Kurdish rebels in the mountains. The general, speaking to reporters in Washington over a video link from Iraq, was asked what American forces plan to do about fighters of the P.K.K. “Absolutely nothing,” he responded. His comments underscored a deep apprehension among administration officials and American military officers about playing any direct role in the tense cross-border situation that pits P.K.K. fighters against the Turkish military. In Baghdad, a military spokesman later said, in clarification, that the general’s answer referred to current military plans in the region. “We are not currently planning any role in that conflict,” the spokesman, Maj. Brad Leighton, said. “If the Iraqis request our assistance in those areas, then we’ll consider their request as we would consider any request for help from an ally.” The Iraqi offer, delivered by a delegation led by the minister of defense, Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim, and the minister of national security, Shirwan al-Waili, suggested that multinational forces would take up positions at new border posts to be opened in the mountains to prevent infiltration of the P.K.K. guerrillas into Turkey. Turkey says about 3,000 rebels operate out of bases in the area. Mohammad al-Askari, a spokesman for the Iraqis, said the offer was for multinational forces to “monitor and control the border.” Iraqi officials also suggested that regular military contacts be conducted and that cooperation be improved among the United States, Turkey and Iraq, Mr. Askari told reporters in Ankara. Turkey, for its part, has demanded that Iraq and the United States take more robust steps, including the extradition of the militant leaders to Turkey, to stop attacks by the guerrilla group. Kurdish groups in northern Iraq claim that Turkey’s ultimate motive is to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq by occupying its territory and ultimately controlling part of its natural resources. Turkey denies those accusations. “We have no desire for Iraq’s land, Iraqi petrol, and we have no problem with the Iraqi people,” said Cemil Cicek, Turkey’s deputy prime minister. “Our problem is the P.K.K.” Sebnem Arsu reported from Ankara, and Andrew E. Kramer from Baghdad. <A name=e20071027556241.html> Washington Post October 27, 2007 Pg. 9 Turkey Pulls U.S. Into Decision On Kurds Ankara Postpones Reaction to Iraq-Based Militants Until After Meeting With Bush By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer Turkey's military chief said yesterday that Ankara will delay a decision on whether to launch a cross-border offensive into Iraq until after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets here with President Bush 10 days from now. "We will wait for his return," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told reporters in the Turkish capital. In Washington, officials were relieved that an attack does not appear imminent. But they were also discouraged by the statement, which leaves the Bush administration precisely where it does not want to be: in the middle of a confrontation between its troubled client state in Baghdad and a key NATO ally. Since cross-border attacks this month by Iraq-based militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) left 40 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians dead, the Bush administration has sought to persuade Ankara and Baghdad to resolve their differences peacefully and directly. "We think this is an opportunity for the Iraqis and the Turks to work together," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress Thursday. So far, however, it is an opportunity that neither side appears eager to take. While administration officials enthusiastically called attention to a meeting of Iraqi and Turkish defense and security officials in Ankara yesterday, Turkish officials said that no progress had been made. "Everyone there is guilty," Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said in a Turkish television interview, referring to the PKK, which both the United States and Europe have labeled a terrorist organization. Ankara has given Baghdad a list of names of PKK members, he said, "and we want all of them to be handed over." U.S. officials have estimated the PKK to number about 4,000 fighters, most of them based in remote camps close to the border. Turkey's movement of nearly 100,000 troops to the Iraqi border has suddenly focused attention on an issue long relegated to the category of "too hard," a senior administration official said. Retired Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, a former NATO commander Bush appointed last year as his special envoy to work on the issue, left the job recently because of what several sources described as his frustration at the administration's failure to devote serious attention to the problem. Ralston, vice chairman of an international consulting firm led by former defense secretary William S. Cohen, did not return several calls for comment. "He never said he was leaving in protest," another administration official said of Ralston, adding that the one-year appointment had expired. "But I guess you could speculate that if things were really going gangbusters, maybe he would have stayed on." Until the recent escalation, U.S. action was largely paralyzed by divisions between Pentagon and State Department officials responsible for the Middle East -- and Iraq -- and those charged with looking after European and NATO interests, including Turkey. "If you're a Turkey hand, you say, 'For crying out loud, why isn't Centcom taking action?' " the senior official said, referring to the military's Central Command, which oversees the Middle East. Turkey has repeatedly and loudly asked the same question, demanding that U.S. forces turn some of their considerable firepower in Iraq against the PKK camps. "If you're looking at it from Iraq, you say, 'Hey, we've got our hands full; let's not stir the nest up.' " Iraq's Kurdish north, where the U.S.-allied leadership has long looked away from the renegade PKK's efforts to ignite rebellion among Turkey's 12 million Kurds, has been one of the few relatively peaceful places in the country. The problem, this official said, is balancing the possible alienation of Iraqi Kurds with the threat of Turkish movement across the border. The latter risk, he said, "right now, is pretty high." In recent weeks, U.S. officials in Baghdad, Ankara and Washington have worked feverishly to bring the two sides toward a rapprochement that keeps the United States out of the cross hairs. According to several officials, the administration has overcome its earlier reluctance to involve the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in the Turkish problem and task it with exerting greater pressure on Iraqi officials. U.S. diplomats have reminded Iraqi officials that Turkey -- in addition to being the entry point for a major part of the U.S. military supply route into Iraq -- is one of their country's prime trading partners. The administration particularly wants Baghdad and Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government to begin sharing intelligence with Turkey on the location of PKK camps. Early this week, U.S. officials in Baghdad persuaded the regional government to issue a statement condemning the PKK, although they expressed some disappointment that it was signed by a spokesman rather than by regional President Masoud Barzani. On Tuesday, after telephone calls to Ankara by Bush and Rice, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan flew to Baghdad for crisis talks and received promises that Iraq would take action against PKK activities and funding. But six hours of talks in Ankara yesterday produced no visible movement. "We do not expect much from this delegation," Erdogan said of the Iraqi visitors as he returned from a meeting in Romania. In another blow to the effort that reflected the deep animosities any negotiators will have to overcome, Barzani told al-Arabiya television yesterday that Turkey's real aim is to "stop or hinder the development of the Kurdish region." As for the PKK, Barzani said, it has "no site in any city, area or village in the Kurdish region . . . the PKK is present inside Turkey." Rice has scheduled a stop in Ankara next week on her way to a long-planned ministerial meeting on Iraq scheduled to be held in Istanbul Nov. 2-3. The Istanbul meeting follows one held in Egypt last spring, where senior officials from the region and around the world gathered to pledge their assistance to Iraqi reconstruction and democracy. Now, however, U.S. officials concede that the Istanbul meeting is likely to be dominated by the border conflict. "We have to put something on the table," a senior administration official said. "We want to come out of Istanbul with at least a political framework for resolving" the dispute. As it struggles to keep interfering neighbors Iran and Syria at bay, the U.S. military in Iraq is adamantly opposed to opening another border front. Asked yesterday what he was planning to do about the Kurdish militants, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq responded, "Absolutely nothing." "I have not been given any requirements or any responsibility for that," Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon said in a videoconference with Pentagon reporters. Asked why Turkey considers the PKK such a serious threat, Mixon replied: "I have no idea. You'll have to ask Turkey." Correspondent Molly Moore in Paris contributed to this report. <A name=e20071027556234.html> Washington Post October 27, 2007 Pg. 1 State Dept. To Order Diplomats To Iraq As Many as 50 Positions Are Expected to Be Open By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer The State Department will order as many as 50 U.S. diplomats to take posts in Iraq next year because of expected shortfalls in filling openings there, the first such large-scale forced assignment since the Vietnam War. On Monday, 200 to 300 employees will be notified of their selection as "prime candidates" for 50 open positions in Iraq, said Harry K. Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service. Some are expected to respond by volunteering, he said. However, if an insufficient number volunteers by Nov. 12, a department panel will determine which ones will be ordered to report to the Baghdad embassy next summer. "If people say they want to go to Iraq, we will take them," Thomas said in an interview. But "we have to move now, because we can't hold up the process." Those on the list were selected by factors including grade, specialty and language skill, as well as "people who have not had a recent hardship tour," he said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice previewed a possible shortfall in June, when she ordered that positions in Iraq be filled before any other openings at the State Department headquarters in Washington or abroad are available. At the time, Rice said it was her "fervent hope" that sufficient numbers would continue to volunteer. Her order followed a request by Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker in Baghdad for an increase in the number and quality of economic and political officers. Although a few skilled individuals were ordered to "hard-to-fill" diplomatic posts in past decades, there have been no mass "directed assignments" in the Foreign Service since 1969, when an entire class of 15 to 20 entry-level officers was sent to Vietnam, Thomas said. Those who receive the selection letters will have 10 days to file a written notice of objection. The review panel will consider the objections, but Thomas made clear that a serious, documented medical condition is likely to be the only valid excuse. The department has the authority to fire anyone who refuses to accept an assignment. The union representing U.S. diplomats has officially objected to the Iraq call-up. "We believe, and we have told the secretary of state, that directing unarmed civilians who are untrained for combat into a war zone should be done on a voluntary basis," said Steve Kashkett, vice president of the American Foreign Service Association. "Directed assignments, we fear, can be detrimental to the individual, to the post, and to the Foreign Service as a whole." Kashkett said the association had contended in meetings with Rice and Thomas that a diplomatic draft is unnecessary and that "thousands" of diplomats have volunteered for Iraq over the past five years. "We're not weenies, we're not cowards, we're not cookie pushers in Europe," he said. "This has never been necessary in a generation." Thomas also praised the service and noted that more than 1,200 of 11,500 Foreign Service personnel have already served in what has become the largest U.S. embassy in history. But the embassy's sheer size and the truncated, one-year diplomatic tours there have strained the service. The embassy and other U.S. diplomatic outposts in Iraq employ about 6,000 people, including several hundred Foreign Service officers, other State Department specialists, American contractors, third-country nationals and Iraqi hires. The number of diplomatic positions in Iraq has increased every year since the embassy was opened in 2004. The expansion of Provincial Reconstruction Teams -- made up of diplomats who work with local communities outside of Baghdad -- from 10 to 25 last summer as part of President Bush's new strategy added another 30 Foreign Service personnel and many more outside contractors. Volunteers have filled all but about 50 slots that will be empty as of next summer, Thomas said. At congressional hearings last summer, Kashkett testified that medical and psychiatric symptoms have become a growing problem for personnel serving in high-danger zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, the constant need for personnel in Baghdad has drawn new dividing lines between those who have volunteered and those who have not. Although the secretary of state has the authority to direct assignments, "State Department discipline exists on paper only," one senior official said. "They rarely make people go to places they don't want to go." Crocker requested a management review of the embassy when he became ambassador in March. In a cable to Rice two months later, he asked for more -- and more experienced -- political and economic officers. "In essence," he wrote, "the issue is whether we are a Department and a Service at war. If we are, we need to organize and prioritize in a way that reflects this, something we have not done thus far." At the time, President Bush had declared a new push for political reconciliation and economic progress in Iraq, and the State Department was struggling to meet those ambitious goals. When it could not quickly mobilize enough diplomats and other civilians to fill the new Provincial Reconstruction Teams, the far larger Pentagon agreed -- with barely concealed resentment -- to provide temporary manpower. "The military in the last 12 months has been fed a diet of how the State Department failed and sent a bunch of second-stringers" to Iraq, the senior official said. Some department officials took umbrage at Crocker's cable, which seemed to confirm that assessment, but the end result was a determination to marshal whatever resources it took to fill the need. Those who are ordered to Baghdad as part of the new call-up will receive incentives, known as the Iraq Service Package, already offered to volunteers. It includes additional pay of about 70 percent for most mid-level officers, plus another 20 percent of basic salary to compensate for long hours. Officers are not allowed to take their families to Baghdad, but the package allows them to leave spouses and children in whatever post they transfer from for the length of their tour, or to send them back to Washington. U.S. diplomats in Baghdad are given five "rest and relaxation" breaks during the year, including up to three of them in the United States, for a total of 60 days outside Iraq. Those completing a Baghdad tour are also given preference in choosing their next assignment. <A name=e20071027556236.html> Washington Post October 27, 2007 Pg. 1 'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life' After 14 months in a Baghdad district torn by mounting sectarian violence, members of one U.S. unit are tired, bitter and skeptical. By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, Oct. 26 Their line of tan Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles creeps through another Baghdad afternoon. At this pace, an excruciating slowness, they strain to see everything, hoping the next manhole cover, the next rusted barrel, does not hide another bomb. A few bullets pass overhead, but they don't worry much about those. "I hate this road," someone says over the radio. They stop, look around. The streets of Sadiyah are deserted again. To the right, power lines slump down into the dirt. To the left, what was a soccer field is now a pasture of trash, combusting and smoking in the sun. Packs of skinny wild dogs trot past walls painted with slogans of sectarian hate. A bomb crater blocks one lane, so they cross to the other side, where houses are blackened by fire, shops crumbled into bricks. The remains of a car bomb serve as hideous public art. Sgt. Victor Alarcon's Humvee rolls into a vast pool of knee-high brown sewage water -- the soldiers call it Lake Havasu, after the Arizona spring-break party spot -- that seeps in the doors of the vehicle and wets his boots. "When we first got here, all the shops were open. There were women and children walking out on the street," Alarcon said this week. "The women were in Western clothing. It was our favorite street to go down because of all the hot chicks." That was 14 long months ago, when the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, arrived in southwestern Baghdad. It was before their partners in the Iraqi National Police became their enemies and before Shiite militiamen, aligned with the police, attempted to exterminate a neighborhood of middle-class Sunni families. Next month, the U.S. soldiers will complete their tour in Iraq. Their experience in Sadiyah has left many of them deeply discouraged, by both the unabated hatred between rival sectarian fighters and the questionable will of the Iraqi government to work toward peaceful solutions. Asked if the American endeavor here was worth their sacrifice -- 20 soldiers from the battalion have been killed in Baghdad -- Alarcon said no: "I don't think this place is worth another soldier's life." While top U.S. commanders say the statistics of violence have registered a steep drop in Baghdad and elsewhere, the soldiers' experience in Sadiyah shows that numbers alone do not describe the sense of aborted normalcy -- the fear, the disrupted lives -- that still hangs over the city. Before the war, Sadiyah was a bustling middle-class district, popular with Sunni officers in Saddam Hussein's military. It has become strategically important because it represents a fault line between militia power bases in al-Amil to the west and the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Dora to the east. U.S. commanders say the militias have made a strong push for the neighborhood in part because it lies along the main road that Shiite pilgrims travel to the southern holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. American soldiers estimate that since violence intensified this year, half of the families in Sadiyah have fled, leaving approximately 100,000 people. After they left, insurgents and militiamen used their abandoned homes to hold meetings and store weapons. The neighborhood deteriorated so quickly that many residents came to believe neither U.S. nor Iraqi security forces could stop it happening. The descent of Sadiyah followed a now-familiar pattern in Baghdad. In response to suicide bombings blamed on Sunni insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Shiite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army, went from house to house killing and intimidating Sunni families. In many formerly mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad, such as al-Amil and Bayaa, Shiites have become the dominant sect, with their militias the most powerful force. "It's just a slow, somewhat government-supported sectarian cleansing," said Maj. Eric Timmerman, the battalion's operations officer. The focus of the battalion's efforts in Sadiyah was to develop the Iraqi security forces into an organized, fair and proficient force -- but the American soldiers soon realized this goal was unattainable. The sectarian warfare in Sadiyah was helped along by the Wolf Brigade, a predominantly Shiite unit of the Iraqi National Police that tolerated, and at times encouraged, Mahdi Army attacks against Sunnis, according to U.S. soldiers and residents. The soldiers endured repeated bombings of their convoys within view of police checkpoints. During their time here, they have arrested 70 members of the national police for collaboration in such attacks and other crimes. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police, has said that officials are working hard to root out militiamen from the force and denied that officers have any intention of participating in sectarian violence. But in one instance about two months ago, the American soldiers heard that the Wolf Brigade planned to help resettle more than 100 Shiite families in abandoned houses in the neighborhood. When platoon leader Lt. Brian Bifulco arrived on the scene, he noticed that "abandoned houses to them meant houses that had Sunnis in them." "What we later found out is they weren't really moving anyone in, it was a cover for the INP to go in and evict what Sunni families were left there," recalled Bifulco, 23, a West Point graduate from Huntsville, Ala. "We showed up, and there were a bunch of Sunni families just wandering around the streets with their bags, taking up refuge in a couple Sunni mosques in the area." As the militiamen and insurgents battled it out, the bodies mounted up. U.S. troops said that earlier this year it was common for them to find at least half a dozen corpses scattered on the pavement during their daily patrols. Militiamen in BMWs rode around the neighborhood with megaphones, demanding that residents evacuate. Mortar rounds launched from nearby Bayaa, a Mahdi Army stronghold, began crashing down regularly in Sadiyah. Three mosques in the neighborhood were rigged with explosives and destroyed. The national police erected checkpoints outside other mosques and prevented Sunnis from attending services. The U.S. soldiers began facing ever more sophisticated armor-piercing roadside bombs known as EFPs, short for explosively formed penetrators. Some of them were linked in arrays that blasted out as many as 18 heated copper slugs. Over time, the neighborhood became a battleground that residents fled by the thousands. Hundreds of shops shut down, schools closed, and access to basic services such as electricity, fuel and food deteriorated. "The end state was people left. They felt unsafe," said Timmerman, the operations officer. "We were so committed to them as a partner we couldn't see it for what it was. In retrospect, I've got to think it was a coordinated effort," Timmerman said. "To this day, I don't think we truly understand how infiltrated or complicit the national police are" with the militias. Lt. Col. George A. Glaze, the battalion commander, says his soldiers are playing the role of a bouncer caught between brawling customers. Alone, they can restrain the fighters, keep them off balance, but they cannot stop the melee until the house lights come on -- that is, until the Iraqi government steps in. "They're either going to turn the lights on or we're all going to realize they've moved the switch," he said. "I'm frustrated. After 14 months, I've got a lot of thoughts in my head. Do they fundamentally get giving up individual rights and power for the greater good?" Glaze said. "I'm going to leave here being skeptical of everything." Over the past two months, the U.S. soldiers have recruited more than 300 local residents, most of them Sunnis, into a neighborhood defense force. This has proved more controversial in Sadiyah than elsewhere; the Iraqi government has openly accused the force's members of abusing residents and has limited their freedom of movement. In September, after Glaze led an eight-month campaign to kick out the Wolf Brigade, soldiers from the Iraqi army's Muthanna Brigade, which has clashed with Sunni volunteers in the Abu Ghraib area, arrived in Sadiyah. The Iraqi army's arrival and the emergence of the Sunni volunteers have coincided with some positive signs, the soldiers said. Some of the shops along the once-busy commercial district of Tijari Street now open for a few hours a day. The number of violent incidents has dropped, although it rose again over the past two weeks, officers said. "This is a dangerous place," said Capt. Lee Showman, 28, a senior officer in the battalion. "People are killed here every day, and you don't hear about it. People are kidnapped here every day, and you don't hear about it." On Oct. 14, Washington Post special correspondent Salih Saif Aldin was killed while on assignment in Sadiyah. Those who patrol the neighborhood every day say the fight has left them tired, bitter, wounded and confused. Many of their scars are on display, some no one can see. Sgt. 1st Class Todd Carlsrud has a long gash on the right side of his neck and carries a lump of shrapnel lodged against his spine that his doctors would not risk cutting out. Another sergeant felt the flaming pain of a bullet tearing through his cheek and learned the taste of his own warm blood. He was one of three soldiers that day to get shot in the head -- a fourth was hit in the biceps -- when his squad walked into a house and found two gunmen waiting. "The closer we get to leaving, the more we worry about it," said Alarcon, 27, sitting at a plastic table with several other soldiers outside their outpost in Sadiyah. "Being here, you know that any second, any time of the day, your life could be over." "Gone in a flash," said Sgt. Matthew Marino. "We had two mechanics working in the motor pool get hit by mortars," Alarcon said. "You would have never thought." Both died. Many of the soldiers from the battalion are on their second tour in Iraq. Three years ago, they were based in Tikrit, the home of Saddam Hussein, a city they entered expecting to fight a determined Sunni insurgency. By the end of their tour, with much of the violence contained, many of them felt optimistic about progress in Iraq. "I honestly thought we were making a difference in Tikrit. Then we come back to a hellhole," Marino said. "That was a playground compared to Baghdad." The American people don't fully realize what's going on, said Staff Sgt. Richard McClary, 27, a section leader from Buffalo. "They just know back there what the higher-ups here tell them. But the higher-ups don't go anywhere, and actually they only go to the safe places, places with a little bit of gunfire," he said. "They don't ever [expletive] see what we see on the ground." <A name=e20071027556220.html> New York Times October 27, 2007 Pg. 1 Execution Case Tests Iraq’s Bid To Ease Divide By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Alissa J. Rubin BAGHDAD, Oct. 26 — In late June, three of Saddam Hussein’s senior military officials were found guilty of war crimes, including the notorious henchman known as Chemical Ali. Iraqi law required that they be executed no more than 30 days after the Iraqi courts rejected their final appeals. That deadline has passed, but the men are still alive and in United States custody. The execution has been delayed because of questions raised by some Iraqi politicians and a spirited behind-the-scenes discussion involving senior Iraqi and American officials over the death sentence of one of the other men, Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Jabouri al-Tai, the former minister of defense. Now, Mr. Hashem’s fate has become a test case for reconciliation and whether Iraq’s fractious sects and political alliances can work together to resolve the difficult issues surrounding his death sentence. There are also doubts among some Iraqi officials about the fairness of his punishment. Beyond the heated arguments about Mr. Hashem’s guilt lies the fraught question of whether Iraqis are ready to stop the retributive killing of members of the former government. It seems that some of them are. “We need to show there have been enough deaths; we are tired of it, we need to stop it,” said a senior adviser to President Jalal Talabani. The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issues. In an emotional press conference in Iraqi Kurdistan last month, Mr. Talabani, who has often spoken against the death penalty, said he refused to ratify Mr. Hashem’s execution. Other Iraqi politicians are unwilling to forgive those involved in the atrocities perpetrated by Mr. Hussein and his lieutenants, when so many of their victims were shown no mercy. Both Shiite and Kurdish officials believe that if Mr. Hashem’s life is spared, it might set a precedent by which others who committed crimes while the former government was in power would similarly seek to be let off. They also fear that Mr. Hashem would become a hero to many members of the former government, and provide a dangerous rallying point. “All other defendants will say that they were only receiving orders and as a result no one would be tried,” said Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a member of Parliament from the largest Shiite bloc. “The Al Qaeda militants will adopt the same argument.” Still, the price of insisting on Mr. Hashem’s hanging could be high because of the respect he commands in the largely Sunni community of former Iraqi military officers. If the government executes him, it risks alienating potential allies in the fight against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni insurgent group that American intelligence officials say is foreign-led. Mr. Hashem’s execution would also anger Sunni factions that long composed the backbone of the insurgency but have begun to work with the American military. Despite their new alliance with the Americans, many of these Sunnis deeply distrust the Shiite-dominated central government, and American officials fear that hanging Mr. Hashem would set back hopes for a détente with the government and any larger Sunni-Shiite reconciliation. “Once you execute someone, you can’t unexecute him,” one American military official said. “Any benefit that could be derived from sparing his life will be lost. It would be better to see what benefit could be brought out, rather than to see what might be lost from his death.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, like other American officials, because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. The Iraqi Constitution empowers the president to ratify death sentences, but he does not have the power to pardon or commute sentences in cases like this one. Mr. Talabani would like to reduce Mr. Hashem’s death sentence, his aides said, but there is no legal mechanism for that. One possibility raised by several people close to the case would be for a group amnesty to be offered to several members of Mr. Hussein’s government, including Mr. Hashem, but that would require new legislation. Mr. Hashem was one of Iraq’s top military officers for decades, winning respect from many Iraqis for his professionalism. He was a military leader of the Anfal operation in 1988, in which as many as 180,000 Kurds were killed. That operation was led by Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali. Mr. Hashem also negotiated a cease-fire with American commanders during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. And he was defense minister when American troops invaded in March 2003. Some American officials say Mr. Hashem helped limit the resistance of the Iraqi Army in 2003. “Had he told the military to dig in and fight, they would have dug in and fought,” the American military official said. After the defeat of Mr. Hussein’s forces, Mr. Hashem fled to Mosul, his birthplace. In August 2003, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the commander of American forces in northern Iraq, wrote a letter praising him as a “man of honor and integrity,” and asking him to surrender. “I offer you a simple, yet honorable alternative to a life on the run from Coalition Forces in order to avoid capture, imprisonment and loss of honor and dignity befitting a General Officer,” he wrote. To Mr. Hashem, it was a promise that he would avoid lengthy incarceration, his son, Ahmed Sultan Hashem, said in an interview. “Petraeus said that the investigation would take two to three weeks and after that he would be released and could resume his normal life,” he said. “The Americans promised us they would treat him with dignity and respect and keep him alive and release him afterward. They didn’t fulfill their promises.” General Petraeus, now a four-star general in charge of all American forces in Iraq, never made a promise that Mr. Hashem would be released, said a senior American military official in Baghdad. “It doesn’t mean that somebody else may have said that, but General Petraeus did not,” the official said. The language about avoiding “imprisonment” pertained solely to Mr. Hashem’s time in the custody of General Petraeus’s 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, he said. No offer of immunity from prosecution was extended, he said. While American officials do not want Mr. Hashem executed, they insist that they will turn him over and allow the sentence to be carried out once a proper “authoritative” request is made by the government of Iraq. Iraqi officials asked for him to be turned over in early September, but American officials refused. One senior American official in Baghdad characterized the Iraqi requests as “informal,” and cited President Talabani’s objections to the execution. “If the president isn’t signing the document, then I don’t think we have an authoritative request,” the official said. “We’re not blocking anything. We are awaiting their decision.” Mr. Hashem’s son says his father believes that he acted appropriately, under orders from commanders. In his last telephone call, he said, his father said, “I am innocent, and I did nothing that I should be ashamed or afraid of.” Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting. <A name=e20071027556242.html> Washington Post October 27, 2007 Pg. 11 Iraq Is Criticized For Slow Hire Of Police Sunnis Often Passed Over, General Says By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer A senior U.S. commander in Iraq yesterday criticized the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for "foot-dragging" in failing to hire thousands of Sunni and other volunteers needed to expand and balance the police force. Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, the U.S. commander for northern Iraq, said he initiated plans in April to boost by 6,000 the number of police in Diyala province, a volatile region that stretches east from Baghdad to the Iranian border. But despite Maliki's endorsement, he said the plan has not come to fruition. "We're sitting here today, now in October, with an approval for 6,000 hires signed by Prime Minister Maliki, with no movement. In my book, that's foot-dragging," Mixon said in his final videoconference with Pentagon reporters before leaving northern Iraq, where he has commanded U.S. forces since September 2006. The hiring of police in Diyala is a test of the U.S. military's effort to harness the emergence of tens of thousands of local volunteers to improve security across Iraq. Senior Pentagon officials have said that some 50,000 to 60,000 local residents -- many of them Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents -- have come forward over the past seven months to work with U.S. and Iraqi forces to help guard their neighborhoods. "This fairly recent development is perhaps the greatest sign of progress during my time in Iraq," said Mixon, echoing recent statements by Gen. David H. Petraeus. Mixon said that the emergence of more than 15,000 volunteers in northern Iraq shows that popular support "is swinging in our direction." Yet while the volunteers have helped pacify the western province of Anbar, which is 95 percent Sunni, commanders acknowledge that the Maliki government is more wary of incorporating Sunni volunteers in mixed sectarian areas such as Diyala and Baghdad. The momentum could erode unless volunteers are permanently hired as Iraqi police or soldiers, U.S. officials have said. Currently many volunteers in Diyala are funded by temporary security contracts with the U.S. military that do not pay the full police wage. Some volunteers have quit in frustration at not being hired as police, U.S. commanders in Diyala said. The obstruction is rooted in sectarianism inside the Iraqi government, Mixon said. "The problem we're dealing with now is what appears to be still sectarian divides in the Ministry of Interior that is responsible for the support to the police," he said, adding that "certain individuals may be trying to influence exactly who's being hired." Mixon warned that time is running out for the Iraqi government to incorporate the local volunteers and take other steps toward political reconciliation -- such as holding provincial elections -- that can help solidify the security gains resulting from major U.S. military operations in Diyala and other parts of northern Iraq, where he said total attacks -- including those on U.S. forces, Iraqi forces and civilians -- have declined by 30 to 40 percent in the past four months. Northern Iraq remains "a coveted terrorist sanctuary" with porous borders with Iran and Syria, as well as an area where unemployment creates a "fertile ground for an active insurgency," he said. "We bought time for the government to act. They need to act and include the concerned local citizens and their security forces," Mixon said. "We are giving them an opportunity to resolve these issues," he said, but "that opportunity is now almost going to come to an end." <A name=e20071027556270.html> Baltimore Sun October 27, 2007 Iraq Contract Fraud Focus Of Army Probe By Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Investigators will hunker down in an Army office north of Detroit on Monday to begin poring over hundreds of Iraq war contracts in search of rigged awards. The team of 10 auditors, criminal investigators and acquisition experts is starting with a sampling of the approximately 6,000 contracts, worth $2.8 billion, issued by an Army office in Kuwait that Army officials have identified as a hub of corruption. The office at Camp Arifjan buys supplies to support U.S. troops as they move in and out of Iraq. The pace of that operation has exploded since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Based on what the team finds, the investigation could expand, and the number of military and civilian employees accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks could grow, U.S. officials said. Nearly two dozen have been charged. Signs of trouble include contracts continually awarded to vendors without the usual competition and awards that were competed for but went to the highest bidder rather than the lowest. A mismatch between the product that was to be purchased and what was delivered is another red flag. "Is there anything in there that might indicate to us that there might be some potential fraudulent activity?" Jeffrey Parsons, director of contracting at Army Materiel Command, said in an interview. "If there are patterns that we start to identify, then we're going to do further review." Contracts with significant problems will be forwarded to the Army Audit Agency and the Army Criminal Investigation Command. If evidence of wrongdoing is found, the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors will be notified. In Warren, Mich., home of a large Army acquisition center, the contracting review team will examine 314 of the Kuwait contracts, each worth more than $25,000 and issued from 2003 to 2006. In Kuwait, a separate team of 10 investigators at Camp Arifjan has begun going through 339 smaller contracts that were awarded during the same time period, the Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., said. Both reviews are to be finished before the end of the year. An investigation of contracts awarded this year through the office in Kuwait found numerous problems with that office, including inadequate staffing and oversight, high staff turnover and poor recordkeeping. <A name=e20071027556265.html> Boston Globe October 27, 2007 Sadr Aide Says Cleric May End Cease-Fire Anger over raids is the key factor By Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press BAGHDAD - Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr could end a ban on his militia's activities because of rising anger over US and Iraqi raids against his followers, an aide said yesterday amid concerns about rising violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly Shi'ite south. Sadr's call for a six-month cease-fire has been credited with a sharp drop in the number of fatal shootings on the streets of Iraq, which are believed to be victims of Shi'ite death squads. Baghdad police found three people slain execution-style and bearing signs of torture yesterday, compared with the dozens often found on a typical day before Sadr's declaration. The morgue in the southern city of Kut received two bodies, including one pulled from the Tigris River. Another five Iraqis were killed in attacks nationwide, including a woman who was caught up in a suicide attack north of Baghdad while walking to the market. The US military reported that an American soldier was killed and four were wounded in southern Baghdad on Thursday when their unit was hit with an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP. The United States claims Iran supplies Shi'ite militants with the weapon, which fires an armor-piercing, fist-sized copper slug. The United States welcomed Sadr's August cease-fire declaration but has continued to target what it says are Iranian-backed breakaway factions of his Mahdi Army militia, and appears to have escalated the campaign recently. The military said US paratroopers in combat yesterday in the southern Shi'ite city of Hillah found a cache of weapons including 27 Iranian-made 107mm rockets and two launch systems, each capable of firing 20 rockets at once. The military has announced a series of such finds in recent days as it seeks to bolster its claim of Iranian support for rogue Shi'ite fighters. Tehran denies the allegations. The United States also said this week that American forces killed 49 Shi'ite extremists in a ground and air assault in the militia stronghold of Sadr City. Witnesses and officials said 15 people were killed - all civilians. Sadr nonetheless renewed his appeal to uphold the cease-fire and threatened to expel Mahdi Army members who don't in what his office called a response to questions from supporters about whether the cease-fire still applied in the face of the US crackdown. Sadr aide Sheik Assad al-Nasseri said during a sermon in Kufa that patience with US operations was running out and the freeze could be lifted anytime. <A name=e20071027556258.html> Los Angeles Times October 27, 2007 U.N. To Look Into Iraq Deaths The special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings will investigate the Blackwater slayings and others. By Reuters UNITED NATIONS —The U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings said Friday that he planned to investigate deaths caused by the U.S. military and contractors in Iraq, including the recent Blackwater case. Private security firm Blackwater has been under intense scrutiny since the shooting deaths of at least 17 Iraqis last month in Baghdad. Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur, said at a news conference that the United States was among the few countries that had agreed to have him visit them as part of his mandate to investigate allegations of extrajudicial killings. "The range of issues remains open," he said. Alston, an Australian law professor at New York University, reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, a body Washington has criticized for focusing too much on Israel. Alston said he was frequently asked why he visited certain countries, and said that many countries he would like to visit refused to invite him. He listed some, including Human Rights Council members Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Russia and China. <A name=e20071027556224.html> New York Times October 27, 2007 Pg. 7 Afghanistan: 2 NATO Soldiers Killed By Associated Press Insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in the mountainous Korangal Valley in eastern Kunar Province late Thursday, leaving two alliance soldiers dead and three others wounded, officials said. NATO did not identify their nationalities. Most of the troops in that part of the country are American. <A name=e20071027556199.html> New York Daily News October 26, 2007 Karzai Urges U.S. To Curb Air Strikes By Dave Goldiner, Daily News Staff Writer Afghan premier Hamid Karzai wants the U.S. to dramatically cut back on bombing campaigns that have accidentally killed hundreds of civilians. “The Afghan people understand that mistakes are made,” Karzai told CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” “but five years on, six years on... they cannot comprehend as to why there is still a need for air power.” Although Karzai has criticized the U.S. and its allies for individual raids that killed civilians, the interview is the first time he has demanded wholesale changes. “In clear words and I want to repeat that [there are] alternatives to the use of air force,” he told Scott Pelley in an interview airing Sunday evening. Six years after the fall of the Taliban, the U.S. has unleashed bombing raids across wide swaths of Afghanistan in hopes of smashing the Islamic rebels. They have inadvertently killed almost as many civilians as insurgents. The famously dapper Karzai was responding to questions about a U.S. attack that killed nine civilians in the province of Kapisa. A 7-year-old boy whose mother was killed in the raid — launched to target two suspected insurgents — says he now hates Americans. “That’s . . . why I’m so strongly asking for a rethink of the use of air force,” says Karzai. “I will share his pain with him, as do the rest of the Afghan people. And try to get him a future.” U.S. generals say they use extreme caution when bombing targets and often cancel raids if they suspect civilians might be in harm’s way. <A name=e20071027556262.html> Philadelphia Inquirer October 27, 2007 Putin: U.S. Plan Recalls Cuba Crisis He said the proposed missile-defense system in Europe harked back to the 1962 face-off. By Mike Eckel, Associated Press MAFRA, Portugal - Russian President Vladimir V. Putin yesterday spoke of one of the most dangerous confrontations of the Cold War to highlight his country's opposition to a proposed U.S. missile-defense system in Europe, comparing it to the Cuban missile crisis of 45 years ago. The comments - made at the end of a summit between Russia and the European Union that failed to resolve several festering disputes - were the latest in a series of tough statements from Putin. Emboldened by oil- and gas-fueled economic clout, Russia is increasingly at odds with the United States and much of Europe. Putin used a news conference at the summit's conclusion to reiterate Russia's stalwart opposition to U.S. plans to put elements of a missile-defense system in the former Soviet bloc countries of Poland and the Czech Republic to defend against potential long-range missile attacks from countries such as North Korea and Iran. "Analogous actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles in Cuba, prompted the 'Caribbean crisis,' " Putin said, using the Russian term for the Cuban missile crisis. "For us, the situation is technologically very similar," he said. "We have withdrawn the remains of our bases from Vietnam, from Cuba, and have liquidated everything there, while at our borders, such threats against our country are being created." The October 1962 crisis erupted when President John F. Kennedy demanded that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev remove his country's nuclear missiles from Cuba because they could have been used to launch a close-range attack on the United States. The Americans imposed a naval blockade on Cuba, and the world teetered on the edge of war before the Soviets backed down. Putin also suggested that the tension was much lower than in 1962 because the United States and Russia were now "partners," not Cold War enemies. He called Bush a "personal friend" and said his relationship with the U.S. leader helped solve problems. In Washington, White House press secretary Dana Perino underscored those remarks rather than the Cuban missile-crisis analogy, saying: "There's no way you could walk away without thinking that he thinks that we can work together." <A name=e20071027556282.html> Dallas Morning News October 27, 2007 Gates Touts Importance Of Public Service Defense secretary urges students to be part of public life COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates returned Friday to Texas A&M University, where he served as president for four years, to accept the 2007 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service. "I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be back in Aggieland," said Dr. Gates, who used his speech to call on young people to reject apathy "or else the decisions that affect your life and the future of our country will be made for you and without you," he said. "So, as we approach the 2008 campaign, get involved. Vote. And, he told the crowd at Reed Arena, "Consider devoting at least a part of your life to public service." Dr. Gates, who has served under seven presidents, was chosen for the award for his work as defense secretary and director of the CIA, where he served under former President George Bush. "Bob Gates is a man of exceptional skill, total integrity and the kind of leader you can rely on to do the right thing when it matters the most," Mr. Bush said. Dr. Gates greeted the audience of 3,000 with a boisterous "Howdy!" and was met with whoops, cheers and a standing ovation, making the award ceremony seem more like a homecoming celebration. He was sworn in as the 22nd secretary of defense in December, replacing Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned in November 2006. Before that, he served as president of Texas A&M from August 2002 to December 2006, and as interim dean of A&M's George Bush School of Government and Public Service from 1999 to 2001. From 1991 to 1993, Dr. Gates served as director of the CIA under Mr. Bush, and as the agency's deputy director from 1986 until 1989. He was also assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser at the White House from January 1989 to November 1991. Dr. Gates is the only person to rise from an entry-level position at the CIA to director of the agency. In the past, the Bush award has gone to evangelist Billy Graham, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Associated Press <A name=e20071027556283.html> Bryan-College Station (TX) Eagle October 27, 2007 Gates Receives Bush Award Former A&M president encourages Aggies to pursue life after public service By Holly Huffman, Eagle Staff Writer Gripping a lectern on the stage at Reed Arena, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called upon the thousands of Aggies before him to step forward and commit to public service. Doing so isn't easy, the former Texas A&M University president acknowledged Friday to the crowd of 3,000 packed into the arena on the Texas A&M University campus. Public servants work long hours and are often away from home, Gates said, and in return they face harsh criticism from an unforgiving public and are subject to national ridicule. But America -- facing challenges at home and abroad -- will need its best and brightest to step forward if the country is to remain a force in the world for good, freedom, social justice, the rule of law and the inherent value of each person, he told the crowd. "If America is to be a beacon for all who are oppressed ... then the most able and idealistic of today's young people must step forward and accept the duty and the burden of public service," said Gates, who also challenged the students to vote in the 2008 election. The former Texas A&M University president was in Aggieland on Friday to accept the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service. The award, now in its sixth year, was created to recognize dedication to public service at the local, state, national or international level. The honor is designed to pay homage to its namesake, highlight the achievements of the recipient and encourage the public to take on similar challenges, according to the Bush Presidential Library Foundation. Former winners are former German chancellor Helmet Kohl, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Sen. Edward Kennedy, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and evangelist Billy Graham. "Bob [Gates] is a man of exceptional skill, total integrity, and the kind of leader you can rely on to do the right thing when it matters most," former President Bush said as he presented the award to Gates. He went on to describe Gates as the most capable public servant and most capable man he had ever met. The crowd -- including a large section of Corps of Cadets members, all dressed in their signature tan uniforms -- whooped loudly when Gates' name was first mentioned and again when he was introduced. Stepping close to the microphone, Gates greeted the crowd with a "Howdy" that reverberated throughout the arena. "I love saying that," Gates said, flashing a smile. "I tried saying it yesterday morning at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in the Netherlands. I didn't get quite the same response." Gates is a former CIA director who has worked under seven presidents. He came to Texas A&M in 1999 to serve as interim dean of the Bush School, a post he held until 2001. The following year, he was named Texas A&M president, a post he held until December, when he stepped down to become defense secretary. When Bush lured Gates to Texas A&M, he did so under false pr |
