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 The Pentagon Early Bird 14 Nov 2007 Please scroll down to News headline then scroll down to read entire News Article. The links do not work is why. This is a newletter. 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
New York Times November 14, 2007 Pg. 1 F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause By David Johnston And John M. Broder WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case. The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter. The case could be one of the first thorny issues to be decided by Michael B. Mukasey, who was sworn in as attorney general last week. He may be faced with a decision to turn down a prosecution on legal grounds at a time when a furor has erupted in Congress about the administration’s failure to hold security contractors accountable for their misdeeds. Representative David E. Price, a North Carolina Democrat who has sponsored legislation to extend American criminal law to contractors serving overseas, said the Justice Department must hold someone accountable for the shootings. “Just because there are deficiencies in the law, and there certainly are,” Mr. Price said, “that can’t serve as an excuse for criminal actions like this to be unpunished. I hope the new attorney general makes this case a top priority. He needs to announce to the American people and the world that we uphold the rule of law and we intend to pursue this.” Investigators have concluded that as many as five of the company’s guards opened fire during the shootings, at least some with automatic weapons. Investigators have focused on one guard, identified as “turret gunner No. 3,” who fired a large number of rounds and was responsible for several fatalities. Investigators found no evidence to support assertions by Blackwater employees that they were fired upon by Iraqi civilians. That finding sharply contradicts initial assertions by Blackwater officials, who said that company employees fired in self-defense and that three company vehicles were damaged by gunfire. Government officials said the shooting occurred when security guards fired in response to gunfire by other members of their unit in the mistaken belief that they were under attack. One official said, “I wouldn’t call it a massacre, but to say it was unwarranted is an understatement.” Among the 17 killings, three may have been justified under rules that allow lethal force to be used in response to an imminent threat, the F.B.I. agents have concluded. They concluded that Blackwater guards might have perceived a threat when they opened fire on a white Kia sedan that moved toward Nisour Square after traffic had been stopped for a Blackwater convoy of four armored vehicles. Two people were killed in the car, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed and his mother, Mohassin, a physician. Relatives said they were on a family errand and posed no threat to the Blackwater convoy. Investigators said Blackwater guards might have felt endangered by a third, and unidentified, Iraqi who was killed nearby. But the investigators determined that the subsequent shootings of 14 Iraqis, some of whom were shot while fleeing the scene, were unprovoked. Under the firearms policy governing all State Department employees and contractors, lethal force may be used “only in response to an imminent threat of deadly force or serious physical injury against the individual, those under the protection of the individual or other individuals.” A separate military review of the Sept. 16 shootings concluded that all of the killings were unjustified and potentially criminal. One of the military investigators said the F.B.I. was being generous to Blackwater in characterizing any of the killings as justifiable. Anne E. Tyrrell, a Blackwater spokeswoman, said she would have no comment until the F.B.I. released its findings. Although investigators are confident of their overall findings, they have been frustrated by problems with evidence that hampered their inquiry. Investigators who arrived more than two weeks after the shooting could not reconstruct the crime scene, a routine step in shooting inquiries in the United States. Even the total number of fatalities remains uncertain because of the difficulty of piecing together what happened in a chaotic half-hour in a busy square. Moreover, investigators could not rely on videotapes or photographs of the scene, because they were unsure whether bodies or vehicles might have been moved. Bodies of a number of victims could not be recovered. Metal shell casings recovered from the intersection could not be definitively tied to the shootings because, as one official described it, “The city is littered with brass.” In addition, investigators did not have access to statements taken from Blackwater employees, who had given statements to State Department investigators on the condition that their statements would not be used in any criminal investigation like the one being conducted by the F.B.I. An earlier case involving Blackwater points to the difficulty the Department of Justice may be facing in deciding whether and how to bring charges in relation to the Sept. 16 shootings. A Blackwater guard, Andrew J. Moonen, is the sole suspect in the shooting on Dec. 24 of a bodyguard to an Iraqi vice president. Investigators have statements by witnesses, forensic evidence, the weapon involved and a detailed chronology of the events drawn up by military personnel and contractor employees. But nearly 11 months later, no charges have been brought, and officials said a number of theories had been debated among prosecutors in Washington and Seattle without a resolution of how to proceed in the case. Mr. Moonen’s lawyer, Stewart P. Riley of Seattle, said he had had no discussions about the case with federal prosecutors. Some lawmakers and legal scholars said the Sept. 16 case dramatized the need to clarify the law governing private armed contractors in a war zone. Workers under contract to the Defense Department are subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, or MEJA, but many, including top State Department officials, contend that the law does not apply to companies like Blackwater that work under contract to other government agencies, including the State Department. Representative Price’s bill would extend the MEJA legislation to all contractors operating in war zones. The bill passed the house 389 to 30 last month and is now before the Senate. He said it cannot be applied retroactively to the Sept. 16 case, but he said that the guards who killed the Iraqis must be brought to justice, under the War Crimes Act or some other law. Paul von Zielbauer contributed reporting from Camp Pendleton, Calif. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561114.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times November 14, 2007 Pg. 1 Are We Winning The War? U.S. military fatalities, Iraqi civilian deaths, rocket attacks down By David R. Sands and Sharon Behn, Washington Times No one is declaring victory, but cautious optimists on the U.S.-led war in Iraq suddenly find themselves armed with a growing number of indicators that the fighting has taken a new, more hopeful turn. U.S. military fatalities are down sharply, from 101 in June to 39 in October. Iraqi civilian deaths also were down sharply, from 1,791 in August to 750 in October, according to the Associated Press. Mortar rocket attacks by insurgents in October were the lowest since February 2006, as were the number of "indirect fire" attacks on coalition forces. Iraqi officials say they plan to reduce checkpoints, ease curfews and reopen some roads in and around Baghdad because of the improving security situation. Sunni Arab tribal leaders in western Anbar province, now allied with the U.S. military, say al Qaeda is "almost defeated" in their once-chaotic region. Having been burned repeatedly by past expressions of optimism in the 4½-year-old war, senior Bush administration officials and top military leaders are wary of any temptation to celebrate prematurely. "We're not shouting victory by any stretch," Col. Steven Boylan, spokesman for the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "We are still focused on extremists and criminal-type elements within the region. The violence is still too high." The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said this week that sectarian violence between Shi'ite and Sunni fighters in Baghdad had dropped 77 percent from last year's high. Mr. al-Maliki called it a sign that sectarian fighting in the capital "is closed now." Some skeptics countered that the drop reflects the fact that ethnic cleansing has now been completed in many once-mixed urban neighborhoods. An alliance of convenience between U.S. forces and once-hostile Sunni tribes against al Qaeda has become so solid that former Sunni insurgents say they warned American troops to stay away as they took on al Qaeda terrorists themselves in a pitched battle late last week in the city of Samarra that produced heavy al Qaeda casualties. For ordinary Iraqis like Hassan, a doctor raising his small family in Baghdad, things have clearly changed for the better. He said street life and public markets are returning to the city, which was under a virtual state of siege just a year ago. "Now people are moving; you can hear voices in the neighborhood; and for the first two hours of the evening people can walk, just some short distances," said the doctor, who declined to have his full name published. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that security improvements stemming in part from Mr. Bush's 30,000-troop "surge" this year are one reason that Iraq no longer dominates U.S. press coverage and political debates. "No one would say that this battle is over against insurgents and violent people, but clearly the security situation is improving," she said in an interview with a Nashville radio station yesterday. "The Iraqis are trying to practice more normal politics, normal economics, and perhaps that's why you're seeing less reporting," Miss Rice said. Critics still have plenty of grounds for attacking a war that has gone on far longer, cost far more, and spilled far more American and Iraqi blood than officials initially projected. Despite recent trends, 2007 is the deadliest year for U.S. forces since the war began in March 2003. Even on a day like Monday, considered a relatively quiet one with no reported coalition casualties, at least 33 Iraqis were killed and an equal number wounded in violence around the country. While declining, the fighting in Iraq has just returned to levels seen before the February 2006 bombing of the Shi'ite shrine in Samarra by extremists — an attack that sent violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites soaring. And ordinary Iraqis say the streets are full of danger, even with the improvement in security. Asmaa, a middle-aged Iraqi woman who did not wish to have her full name published, said daily life in the capital was still dangerous, despite the official figures. "It is true that the violence is 20 percent less in Baghdad, but there is still bombing and kidnapping," she said in an e-mail exchange. "There is still corruption everywhere, especially in the parliament." With U.S. forces and the weak Iraqi government still facing immense challenges, the central question in the Iraq war debate has shifted from who is winning to how to define victory — a question made even more urgent as the first of the U.S. troops that helped swell the military surge are now being withdrawn. Mr. Bush himself justified the escalation as a temporary measure to give Iraq's feuding ethnic and sectarian groups the space to come together on such difficult issues as sharing the country's oil wealth, disbanding religious militias and amending the constitution. "When you consider that Iraqi leaders are discussing the same issues today that they were fighting about in 2004, it's hard to see that the surge led to any forward political movement," said Brian Katulis, a national security analyst specializing in the Middle East at the Washington-based Center for American Progress. "While the numbers do seem to have come down on the violence, unfortunately the wheels have come off on the Iraqi political transition," he said. Baghdad remains a major security challenge; rival Shi'ite factions battle in the streets for power in southern Iraq; and control of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk looms as a flash point between the country's Arab and Kurdish populations. Huge numbers of Iraqis have been driven from their homes, though Iraqi officials say some are finally returning as the violence lessens. Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a recent analysis that "victory" in Iraq, however defined, will fall well short of the original hopes of many war supporters. "What is clear is that the military progress of the last 10 months is all too easy to waste at the political level, and that defeating al Qaeda is at best a prelude to dealing with the rest of Iraq's problems. Time is running out and Iraq's leaders need to act," he wrote. Sara Carter contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561072.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post November 14, 2007 Pg. 13 U.S.-Backed Fighters Attacked Outside Baghdad 5 Local Volunteers, 15 Insurgents Killed in Clashes, Military Says By Amit R. Paley, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, Nov. 13 -- Fierce clashes between the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and volunteer fighters supported by American troops left at least 20 people dead this week, marking one of the biggest assaults so far on the U.S.-led effort to create neighborhood-based armed patrols, American officials said Tuesday. As many as 45 fighters from al-Qaeda in Iraq, a predominantly Iraqi organization that American officials say is led by foreigners, attacked two checkpoints manned by the volunteer fighters just outside Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said. The clashes in Adwaniyah, located on the Tigris River 10 miles southeast of the capital, resulted in the deaths of 15 al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters and five "concerned local citizens," military jargon for the neighborhood fighters, said Maj. Alayne Conway, a military spokeswoman. The groups of volunteers, who are paid by the U.S. military, are part of the effort to enlist tribes and former insurgents, most of them Sunni, to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. But the effort has been sharply criticized by Shiites who fear the groups could turn against the Shiite-dominated government. The U.S. military and Iraqi security forces joined in the battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose fighters were unable to overrun the volunteer-run checkpoints, the military said. It said U.S. Air Force F-16s dropped two 500-pound bombs that killed the al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters. No American troops were seriously injured, Conway said. "I think all the elements that had a part in today's battle were impressed with the concerned citizens," 1st Lt. Robert Hamilton, a Troop B platoon leader from 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, said in a statement. "For the number of factors against them they handled themselves well." In other violence across Iraq, 19 people were killed or found dead in separate incidents, an Interior Ministry official said. Also Tuesday, Col. Hussein Tamir, an Iraqi army officer who supervises border guards, denied reports that Turkish military aircraft had attacked abandoned villages inside northern Iraq. Turkey said four of its soldiers were killed Tuesday by Kurdish guerrillas, the latest violence in ongoing clashes in recent months between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK. Other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561082.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times November 14, 2007 Turkish Aircraft Attack Abandoned Iraqi Villages By Damien Cave BAGHDAD, Nov. 13 — Turkish military aircraft attacked a handful of abandoned villages in northern Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, in the first confirmed cross-border assault since tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels began intensifying last month. Turkish officials also said Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey had killed four Turkish soldiers and wounded nine in clashes. It was unclear whether the confrontations were connected, but they appeared to signal a revival of the fighting between Turkish troops and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., a nationalist group of militants in Turkey and Iraq. The attacks represented the most significant military action between the groups since a round of diplomacy among American, Iraqi and Turkish officials this month, but there were no immediate reprisals. The early morning Turkish attack, in and around the remote village of Zahku, killed no one and damaged little. Officials from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region could not agree on whether helicopters or planes had been used, and they defined the assault as a scouting mission, possibly in search of P.K.K. positions. “It affected nobody and nothing,” said Fouad Hussein, chief of staff for Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader of northern Iraq. “It may have been to discover something, so they could see something.” The Turkish government has massed tens of thousands of troops along Iraq’s northern border, but so far has refrained from making a major attack. American officials have been pressing for a diplomatic solution, fearing that an invasion would destabilize Iraq, but no agreement has been reached. The attack on Tuesday by Turkish troops will probably not help that effort. It occurred in Sirnak Province in the southeast, Turkish officials said. A statement posted on the Turkish Army Web site said that an operation in search of rebels continued. The Web site of a Turkish news channel, NTV, reported that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his political party on Monday night, “If we don’t see concrete things from the other side, an operation is near” — echoing comments he has been making for weeks. American officials in Baghdad declined to comment on either attack. Leaders in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan questioned how Turkey could have crossed the border by air without American approval. “The sky is in the hands of the Americans, so they knew about this attack and they know Turkish planes entered Iraqi territory,” Mr. Hussein said. “We hope this will not be repeated again.” Also on Tuesday, American and Iraqi forces killed at least 15 gunmen they said were connected with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown militant group of Sunni extremists that American intelligence says is foreign-led, in a fierce fight south of Baghdad after the militants attacked checkpoints run by local security volunteers. Military officials said as many as 45 fighters, with heavy machine guns, ambushed two checkpoints in Adwaniya, less than 10 miles south of Baghdad. The battle lasted for hours and stopped only when American jets dropped two 500-pound bombs on the area. The military did not say if any of the volunteers had been killed. The assault occurred as military officials confirmed that a brigade of 3,000 American soldiers based in Diyala Province will not be replaced by a new unit when it leaves the area, which has become less violent but remains among Iraq’s deadliest. When the roughly 3,000 soldiers from the Third Brigade, First Cavalry Division, go home by January, officials said, a larger brigade based closer to Baghdad will assume control of the area, in addition to its current responsibilities. The move is part of the president’s plan to reduce troop levels to what they were before the “surge” added 30,000 this year. Political progress, meanwhile, has remained elusive. On Tuesday, a prominent lawmaker from the bloc loyal to Moktada al-Sadr called for the dissolution of Parliament and new elections to end the country’s political deadlock. The lawmaker, Bahaa al-Araji, said that the electoral law establishing a closed-list system — in which people voted for a party and not individual candidates — needed to be recast. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2009, but Mr. Araji said that Iraqis could not wait. “I am positive that this council, if it stays the way it is, will be an obstacle to democracy and the political process,” he said, declaring that he was speaking only for himself, not his party. “It will be a burden on Iraqis.” Also in Baghdad, the authorities said that five unidentified bodies were found across the city. Qais Mizher contributed reporting from Baghdad, Michael Kamber from Kurdistan, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561160.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times November 14, 2007 Diplomats Won't Be Forced To Go To Iraq, For Now The State Department says it hopes to fill foreign service posts with volunteers rather than compelling employees to accept them. By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON —Top State Department officials, struggling to avoid an embarrassing showdown with their own foreign service, backed away Tuesday from threats to fire diplomats who refuse to accept postings in Iraq. Trying to calm a furor that has spilled into public view, senior officials extended a deadline and said they won't issue any forced assignments until at least the end of the week. They said that before then they hope to find volunteers for most or all of the 23 unfilled jobs. "We certainly will continue to accept volunteers . . . to step forward to fill those jobs," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, noting that 12 volunteers have appeared in the last few days. He added, however, that there remained a chance that "a very small number" could be ordered to take jobs in strife-torn Iraq. U.S. officials have worked hard to fill jobs at the huge Baghdad embassy and its satellite offices. The problem grew to a crisis stage last month when it became clear that there were no volunteers for 48 slots for the 250-job rotation cycle that begins next summer. The State Department has not resorted to using "directed" -- forced -- assignments since the Vietnam War, and officials have confidently predicted since 2003 that they would continue to be able to avoid them. But the looming shortfall forced senior officials to warn that this time was different, provoking an outcry from many diplomats. At a staff meeting at the State Department on Oct. 31, one employee complained that a forced tour in Iraq was a "death sentence." Unwillingness of the diplomats to serve in Baghdad has been an embarrassment to the administration, coming at a time when the White House contends that violence in Iraq is declining. It also plays into accusations from Pentagon officials that their pinstriped counterparts have not been willing to accept enough heavy lifting in the 5-year-old war. The dispute also has stirred acrimony within the foreign service itself. Last week, a foreign service officer based in Anbar province posted a letter on the State Department's diplomatic website, "Dipnote," as a reminder to his "overwrought" colleagues: "All of us volunteered for this kind of work and we have enjoyed a pretty sweet lifestyle most of our careers." The officer, John Matel, wrote that he told Marine friends that foreign service officers "are not wimps and weenies." "I will not share this article with them, and I hope they do not see it," he wrote. "How could I explain this wailing and gnashing of teeth?" But Matel's comments didn't persuade all of his colleagues who read them. His posting generated 55 pages of comments. Among them, foreign service officers pointed out that the State Department usually shutters embassies in environments as violent as Iraq's. "I think very few diplomats ever thought they could be forced into such an environment," wrote "Fred in Thailand." "This is a draft, nothing more and nothing less," he wrote. The department's leaders have been unimpressed by such arguments. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told reporters last week that diplomats who put their own safety over their duties were "in the wrong line of business." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that "people need to serve where they are needed." She made the point in a diplomatic cable sent out Nov. 2. Of 11,500 U.S. foreign service officers, about 1,500 have so far served in Iraq, which has the largest American embassy in the city's fortified Green Zone. Since the war began, three foreign service officers have been killed in Iraq. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561135.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post November 14, 2007 Pg. 5 Iraq Jobs For U.S. Diplomats Still Not Completely Filled A State Department deadline for diplomats to object to being posted in Iraq passed yesterday with 23 jobs next summer in the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces still unfilled, officials said. Volunteers for the posts will be accepted until tomorrow, when a personnel panel will begin filling the jobs with "directed assignments." Late last month, State notified 200 to 250 diplomats that they have been identified as "potential candidates" for 48 unfilled jobs, and it asked them to volunteer for Iraq. Those who do not want to go were told they could submit one-page explanations of compelling reasons. Since then, 25 have volunteered, and officials said yesterday that 12 more potential volunteers have come forward and must be vetted. Tomorrow, the panel will begin examining the files of those who have not signed up to fill whatever jobs remain. Officials said that, next week, they will begin notifying those selected. Those who refuse to go would be subject to disciplinary action, including dismissal. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561155.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times November 14, 2007 U.S. Courts Sheiks In Hussein Terrain Hoping to replicate gains in Anbar, American officials have signed $5.2 million in deals with Salahuddin tribesmen. By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer TIKRIT, IRAQ —The stack of cash sat enticingly on the table beneath a beaded chandelier in one of Saddam Hussein's marbled palaces: $15,000 in red and green Iraqi notes. Three tribal leaders inched closer as an American military commander explained how the bundle was theirs if they agreed to secure a 30-mile road through a lawless stretch of countryside. Hoping to replicate Anbar province's decline in violence, the U.S. military has signed more than $5.2 million in contracts with local sheiks to protect roads and other infrastructure in Hussein's home province of Salahuddin. That cash has bought the loyalty of more than 2,700 men in a region where support for the executed dictator once ran deep. U.S. commanders say the strategy is yielding dividends: In the first 90 days, the number of bombs that exploded or were found in the areas secured by the tribesmen dropped by as much as 60% in some places. But the aggressiveness with which such deals are being pursued here and in other Sunni Muslim parts of the country has stoked tension with the Shiite Muslim-led national government in Baghdad, which fears Sunni tribesmen will turn their guns on it once they have defeated their common enemy: Al Qaeda in Iraq. If the Iraqi government does not pick up the short-term arrangements between the Americans and the tribes, the consequences could be explosive. "We have got 2,700 military-aged males that right now have a job and probably have some pride, and the rug is going to get ripped out from under them," said Army Lt. Col. Mark Edmonds, deputy commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, which recently wrapped up 15 months in Salahuddin. "If I am an insurgent leader, I'm going to capitalize on that." Even among Sunnis in the province, many are suspicious of the paid alliances with the U.S., which they say have caused disputes within families, emboldened local strongmen and triggered a backlash by the most extreme elements of the insurgency. Attacks picked up again during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which in recent years has been a time of increased insurgent violence, and many of the bombings and shootings targeted the United States' new tribal allies. Before the tribes began working with the Americans, "Salahuddin was respected and there was security," said Sheik Faisel Deham Draa, one of many leaders of the powerful Dulaimi tribe. "Since it was established, it has spread chaos." He maintained that the Iraqi police and military were capable of maintaining security without the help of U.S.-backed tribal fighters he dismissed as a "militia." U.S. commanders concede that Tikrit, with its educated, largely secular population, has never been fertile ground for Islamic extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq. The dominant influence here is Hussein's Baath Party, which is ideologically opposed to religious fundamentalism. But they say violence surged this year around the key refinery town of Baiji and around Samarra, where the bombing of a revered Shiite Muslim shrine in 2006 pushed parts of Iraq into a sectarian war. They blame the arrival of increased numbers of insurgents fleeing the U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala provinces. Salahuddin has not received additional U.S. troops. Until some tribes decided to work with them, the U.S. and Iraqi forces did not have the numbers to go after the insurgents in the rugged desert regions where they are based, said Army Lt. Col. Barry Di Ruzza, who commands the 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, responsible for Tikrit until last month. With the help of the tribes, the Iraqi security forces have launched major raids, including one targeting a training base southwest of Samarra that netted 37 insurgent suspects, killed at least six others and freed 27 kidnapped truck drivers, according to the participants. But some Iraqi commanders are unhappy about the participation of tribesmen in the offensive operations, particularly ones outside their own regions. Six tribal fighters were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb on the way to the training base. The tribal leaders initially tolerated Al Qaeda in Iraq because of a shared opposition to the U.S. occupation, but they quickly soured on the group's extremist views and brutal enforcement of Sharia, or Islamic law. Al Qaeda in Iraq is a homegrown group, but is believed to be foreign-led. "They have turned religion upside down," said Sheik Sabbah Shamari, a key U.S. ally in Salahuddin. "The one who smokes gets killed. The one who doesn't pray gets killed. The one who drinks gets killed. The one who wears traditional Arab dress gets killed. And all these things are part of me and my personality." It also did not escape the tribal leaders' notice that a relatively unknown sheik in Anbar was projected to national prominence and able to leverage major funding when he launched the Anbar Salvation Council to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq last year. In the spring, Shamari announced that he was forming a similar council. Another sheik, Hamed Jabouri, did the same. But when the latter's house was attacked, the two men decided they would be better off working together. Their alliance, named the Salahuddin Support Council, now claims 104 individual members. U.S. forces are not authorized to arm the tribesmen. But by contracting with sheiks to protect their areas, U.S. officers can give them some initial funding to buy equipment and pay fighters who might otherwise be working for the insurgency. The contracts are for up to three months, by which time the Americans hope to incorporate the fighters into the official security force. At least three-quarters of the Iraqi population belongs to one of the country's roughly 30 tribal confederations, which include hundreds of tribes, clans and extended families. Though their influence has declined in the cities, these complex networks are the basis on which rural Iraqi society is organized. The Salvation Council filled a void in Anbar, which had no functioning government or security forces when the alliance was formed last year. But in Salahuddin, tribal leaders have encountered resistance from the established authorities, many of whom view the idea of empowering the tribes as a step backward. Salahuddin also has many tribes, at least 30, whereas Anbar is dominated by the Dulaimi tribe. Many here see the tribal leaders who work with the Americans as opportunists. Even some within their own clan refer to them derisively as "dollar sheiks." "They are highwaymen. They are criminals. They are thugs," said a schoolteacher who is a member of Hussein's Albu Nasir tribe, which has not joined the council. "They only have their personal interests in mind." Council participants insist that their motives are patriotic, not financial. "The objective of the tribes, the objective of the Iraqi security forces, the objective of the Americans is one: We fight insurgents," Shamari said. But in the complex and conspiratorial realm of tribal politics, a leader's influence depends on his ability to dole out patronage. Di Ruzza carefully explained the terms of the contract to the three sheiks who gathered recently at the heavily guarded compound once owned by Hussein It would be the sheiks' responsibility to ensure that there were no bombings, kidnappings or shootings on the road, he told them. They nodded solemnly. They had to coordinate all operations with the Iraqi security forces and hand over any suspects they captured within two hours. They nodded again. The $15,000 would be a down payment. If the road remained secure, they would receive $25,000 a month for the next three months to pay a force of 150. Now there was a problem. "But I have 150 men. So does my brother here, and this brother has 200," said a burly man in flowing robes and a checked headdress, waving a hand with several missing fingers. Di Ruzza told them they could hire more men but said: "They are going to get $25,000 per month for the duration of the contract. That's it." The sheiks looked worried and said they did not know whether they could do the job with so few men. Exasperated, Di Ruzza sank into a faded sofa and drummed his fingers on his knee. No contract was signed that day. Di Ruzza would prefer that the tribal fighters worked for the Iraqi police or army. But officials in Baghdad say they have been overwhelmed by the number of applicants and aim to ensure that no wanted insurgents are among them. Shamari suspects that there is another reason for the delay: "Even a child can tell you that there is discrimination against this region because of our past affiliation [with Hussein]." A special correspondent in Tikrit contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561060.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Christian Science Monitor November 14, 2007 Pg. 1 The Sunni In Iraq's Shiite Leadership In interview, Tariq al-Hashemi urges greater focus on reconciliation. By Sam Dagher, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor BAGHDAD -- Tariq al-Hashemi says he cringes when he's described as Iraq's Sunni vice president. Mr. Hashemi, one of two vice presidents – the other, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, is Shiite – says he is trying to reach out to all Iraqis. In September, he met for the first time with Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, the reclusive Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, at his home in the holy Shiite city of Najaf. He also drafted an Iraqi National Compact – his 25-point plan to lessen sectarian and ethnic strife. At the same time, he remains utterly at odds with the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Indeed, the standoff between the two men underscores the fact that Iraq's political leaders have not capitalized on improved security to advance what US officials here have labeled "top-down reconciliation." Hashemi points to several grievances. Sunni Arabs, he says, have been unfairly targeted, imprisoned, and tortured. He faults Mr. Maliki's handling of the crisis with Turkey over Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, noting that a government official told the Turks there were enough Iraqi soldiers to pursue the rebels just after Hashemi had told the Turks the opposite. Last week, meanwhile, Maliki endorsed the resignation of six cabinet ministers from Hashemi's Sunni political alliance, the Iraqi Accordance Front, who have been boycotting the government since June. That paved the way for their replacement, though the bloc's members remain in parliament. "The obstacle toward reconciliation today and toward many laws, including the oil and gas, is fear among Iraqis," says Hashemi, referring to the long-stalled proposed law to equitably divide the country's oil riches. That law remains in limbo, along with numerous other benchmarks devised by Washington earlier this year to measure the Iraqi government's progress. "What you have in Iraq now are mutual fears. Whenever we sit at the negotiating table, the Shiite is afraid of the Sunni, and the Sunni fears the Shiite, and the Kurd fears the Turkmen, and so on," adds Hashemi, who spoke with the Monitor at his office inside the tightly secured International Zone (formerly the Green Zone). Behind his desk hang framed verses of the Koran, rendered in calligraphy. On another wall is a photo-mosaic of him, composed of miniature photos of Sunni Arab victims of sectarian killing. Talk to former Army officers Hashemi warns that it will be a serious blow to any hopes for reconciliation if the government carries out the death sentence, handed down by a special tribunal and upheld by an appeals court in September, against Sultan Hashem, the former defense minister during Saddam Hussein's regime, and former Army chief Hussein Rashid Muhammad, as well as Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid. They were convicted of genocide for their roles in a 1988 campaign against Iraq's Kurds, in which tens of thousands of people were killed. Hashemi says Mr. Hashem and Mr. Muhammad, both Sunnis, were merely military officers carrying out the orders of the political leadership. "This will ruin the Iraqi military establishment forever because this is an invitation to all military officers to question in the future the orders of politicians," he argues. "A dialogue is taking place with former Army officers in Jordan and Syria to return," he continues. "His [Hashem's] execution is a message to them not to come back and that's it – we burn all bridges." On Monday, the US military refused to hand over the three men to the Maliki government for hanging until, it said, authorities resolved their legal and procedural differences. Hashemi insists the presidency council, of which he is part, has the final say in signing death sentence decrees as spelled out by the Constitution, while Maliki says this does not apply to special tribunals. "We did not write the Constitution; they wrote it – and now they are contravening it," Hashemi says. Hashemi, who lost three of his siblings to targeted assassinations last year, gets very emotional when he speaks about the plight of prisoners, particularly those held in Iraqi facilities. He accuses the Maliki government of paying people it calls "secret informants" to fabricate evidence and reports used to round up hundreds of Sunni Arabs throughout Iraq this year on the pretense of being linked to Al Qaeda and the insurgency. He charges that the government runs secret detention facilities and refuses to disclose the number of prisoners it holds. In defiance of strong criticism from Maliki, Hashemi has continued his public campaign, calling for the release of all prisoners. TV crews accompany him as he visits Iraqi prisons. He speaks of overcrowding, rampant disease, and cases of children being held with their mothers. He says that many prisoners being held for months have not even undergone preliminary interrogation, let alone been officially charged. A judicial system in peril "I am convinced now that the judicial system in Iraq is in a pathetic state," he says, adding that the only way to push reconciliation forward and prove to Sunni Arabs once and for all that the Shiite-led government is not out to get them is to announce a sweeping amnesty to all prisoners. Last week, the US military released 500 prisoners from facilities it runs, which are strained to the limit and now hold nearly 26,000 detainees – most of them arrested this year as part of the drive to secure Baghdad and surrounding provinces. In a press conference on Sunday, Maliki took credit for the plunge in violence and sectarian killings over the past two months and said he was considering an amnesty to some of those held in Iraqi-run prisons. One point in Hashemi's national compact says that "true national reconciliation must embody the principle of letting bygones be bygones and must embrace everyone, including those [insurgents] who put down their weapons and declare their support for a free, democratic, federal, and diverse Iraq." Humam Hamoudi, a senior parliamentarian from Maliki's Shiite bloc, welcomes Hashemi's compact as a "step forward," but says that his vision for reconciliation may be "premature." "Under current conditions, it's not suitable; we need more time for coexistence and restoration of trust," he says. Critics: Hashemi close to Sunni states Many Shiite politicians and average Shiites accuse Hashemi and his Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) of receiving funds from regional Sunni Arab-led states like Saudi Arabia to undermine the Maliki government. They say the Saudis and other Sunni Arabs in the region have yet to reconcile themselves to an Iraq where Shiites play a pivotal role at the top. Hashemi laughs at the charges and says his meeting in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah in October was simply an invitation for iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal during the Muslim month of Ramadan. Emboldened by the recent security gains, many in Maliki's camp believe it's time to start looking for government partners among other Sunni Arabs in Iraq, particularly the tribes in western Anbar Province who stood up against Al Qaeda with US support. The IIP, which seeks to reinforce the role of "moderate" Islam in society, has nearly 435 offices throughout Iraq and continues to enjoy support among Sunnis. It also maintains contact with several factions of the insurgency. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561101.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today November 14, 2007 Pg. 1 Blinded By The War: Eye Injuries Hit Troops Hard Mortars, roadside bombs send lives into darkness By Gregg Zoroya, USA Today ARLINGTON, Va. — Two days before a 10-mile race here, Army 1st Lt. Ivan Castro is explaining how he will run tethered to another soldier — one who can see. As he speaks, his wife lovingly extends her right hand to Castro's face, fingers outstretched. But Evelyn Galvis pauses inches away. "I used to be able to reach out and touch him, caress him, without telling him first, 'I'm going to touch your face,' " she says. Now, "if I just reach out and touch him, he'll startle." Castro, 40, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, is one of more than 1,100 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan — 13% of all seriously wounded casualties — to undergo surgery for damaged eyes. That is the highest percentage for eye wounds in any major conflict dating to World War I, according to research published in the Survey of Ophthalmology. It's a reflection of how eye injuries have become one of the most devastating consequences of a war in which roadside bombs, mortars and grenades are the most commonly used weapons against U.S. troops. Brain injuries and amputations have long been the focus of the damage such weapons are inflicting, but the Army has acknowledged in recent weeks that serious eye wounds have accumulated at almost twice the rate as wounds requiring amputations. Body armor that protects vital organs and the skull is saving lives. But troops' eyes and limbs remain particularly vulnerable to the blizzard of shrapnel from such explosions. Each explosion unleashes large metal shards and thousands of fragments, says Army Col. Robert Mazzoli, an ophthalmological consultant to the Army surgeon general. "Those small missiles are generally innocuous if they hit the (protected) forehead, face (or) chest but are devastating when they hit the eye," he says. Surgical facilities are kept close to the fighting, so troops can be treated in minutes. Partial or total vision has been restored in most cases involving eye injuries, military statistics show. But hundreds of troops have been left with impaired vision, and dozens have been blinded. Troops in Iraq routinely wear protective eyewear, but it doesn't always work. When a roadside bomb in Baghdad blew a hole through the heavily armored vehicle carrying Army Sgt. Luis Martinez last April, the force from the blast stripped off his helmet, headset and goggles. After the dust settled, Martinez, 38, could see nothing out of his left eye and only streaks of blood in his right. He waited for help, terrified about the damage to his eyes. "That was the first thing I asked" hospital personnel, the National Guard soldier recalls. " 'Am I going to be blind?' " Surgeons later restored vision to his right eye, although bits of glass are embedded there. He remains blind in his left. "At least God was kind enough to protect me, to keep my right eye and see my family," says Martinez, of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, who is married and the father of three. Formidable challenges await troops who return home blind or with serious eye injuries. In the most severe cases, they will struggle to cope emotionally and financially. About 70% of all sensory perception is through vision, says R. Cameron VanRoekel, an Army major and staff optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. As a result, the families of visually impaired soldiers wrestle with a contradiction: The wounded often have hard-driving personalities that have helped them succeed in the military. Now dependent on others, they find it difficult to accept help. Because the Pentagon has no rehabilitation services for the blind, the path to recovery often leads directly to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA operates 10 centers across the country for blind rehabilitation that teach visually impaired veterans how to function in society. The centers have 241 beds, and it takes an average of nearly three months to get in. Iraq and Afghanistan casualties go to the front of the line, says Stan Poel, VA director of rehabilitation services for the blind. So far, 53 have enrolled in the blind rehabilitation programs, the VA says. The department plans to open three more centers beginning in 2010, Poel says. Even now, more than a year after her husband's return from Iraq, Connie Acosta is taken aback to find her home dark after sunset, the lights off as if no one is there. Then she finds him — sitting in a recliner in their Santa Fe Springs, Calif., house, listening to classic rock. Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta was blinded in a mortar attack 22 months ago. He doesn't need the lights. That realization often makes Connie cry. "You kind of never get used to the fact that he really can't see," she says. "He has no light in his life at all." The tiny piece of shrapnel that blinded Acosta, 50, an Army reservist, father of four and grandfather of three, was precise in its destruction. On the morning of Jan. 16 last year, Acosta led soldiers on a 3-mile fitness run across Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. Suddenly, insurgents attacked the camp with mortars. Acosta remembers that he stopped, turned to yell at his soldiers and then dived for cover. "Bam! That was it," he recalls. "Lights out." An explosion about 60 feet away sent a piece of shrapnel — perhaps three-quarters of an inch long — through his left eye. It struck his brain and came out his right eye. "It was a perfect hit," Acosta says. Rushed to the Air Force Hospital at Anaconda, he spent seven hours in surgery. Army Maj. Raymond Cho, an ophthalmologist, removed Acosta's right eye and carefully reassembled his left one. "I didn't want him waking up missing both eyes and wondering for the rest of his life, 'Gosh, could they have saved at least one?' " Cho says. "So he knows that we did everything we could." Acosta regained consciousness as he was being returned to the USA. In Germany, a doctor told him that his right eye was gone and his left eye, although stitched together, likely would never see light. "He said, 'You're going to have to start a whole new life from here on,' " Acosta recalls. "I go, 'So I won't be able to see my kids? My grandkids? Nobody? I won't be able to see blue skies?' "He said, 'Nope.' "I just sat there. What could I do? "A lot of things went through my mind," Acosta says. "Am I going to be accepted this way? Am I going to be rejected? I was pretty independent all my life, and I did everything. So it was pretty tough." Pentagon doctors can rebuild eyes, reconstruct eye sockets and nurse casualties back to health, but soldiers with serious vision problems who want to learn how to adapt into civilian life must rely on VA centers that also serve the elderly and other veterans. The VA plans to invest $40 million this fiscal year to create 55 outpatient clinics across the nation, providing rehabilitation for veterans learning to cope with partial vision, says James Orcutt, the VA's director for ophthalmology. The department also is taking part in two clinical trials focusing on artificial vision, says Ronald Schuchard, director of the Atlanta VA rehabilitation research and development center. The trials involve implanting silicon chips in eyes. The chips act as receptors that can transform light into electrical signals that can be transmitted to the brain. It is cutting-edge research, Schuchard says. However, Orcutt says, "I think we're a long way from a practical use of some of these." At the VA's rehab centers for the blind, specialists teach orientation and mobility skills. Visually impaired veterans learn to use a white cane, public transportation and perform daily routines. They also are offered computer instruction and the use of special scanners for reading text. They are assessed and treated, if necessary, for psychological readjustment to their sight loss. The VA does not provide guide dogs, but it helps link veterans with guide-dog schools that commonly provide a dog and training virtually free to veterans, Poel says. Iraq veterans sometimes find the VA blind rehab programs, which cater largely to elderly veterans, to be a poor fit for a younger generation. Army 1st Lt. Castro says he felt somewhat out of place during rehab at a VA facility in Augusta, Ga. After the Army sent Jesse Acosta to a VA center for the blind in Palo Alto, Calif., for rehabilitation in January 2006, he and his wife became unhappy with the facility, describing it as having a "nursing home" atmosphere. It is a five-hour drive from his home. "It did not fit my needs," Acosta says. He left the VA after a few months and was accepted, free of charge, into the Junior Blind of America rehab program near his home in Santa Fe Springs. Last month, he completed training with his new guide dog at The Seeing Eye school in Morristown, N.J., and now has Charlie, a German shepherd. All that is left, Acosta says, is figuring out the rest of his life. He has fought a medical discharge from the Army until his medical care is complete. Ultimately, he will earn disability income for his wounds. Acosta was an energy technician with Southern California Gas before he was called to active duty. He is still with the company, though unpaid, and a different job awaits him — one tailored to his disability, Connie Acosta says. It's unclear whether Jesse will want it, she says. "We're hoping for the best," she says. "He's the type that constantly has to be kept busy. We always have an agenda. I have a calendar going constantly with things happening." It begins when they wake, and he wants to know the weather and the color of the sky, she says. Nothing in the house can be moved; he's memorized the location of every chair and table. He has his routines and chores, including weightlifting in the backyard or fiddling with the fuel pump on the 1969 Dodge Dart. (He fixed it.) Daughter Brittany, 14, is mustered into duty to operate the computer for her father until she pleads for a break. "Taking care of Jesse has been an experience," Connie Acosta says. "He's a sergeant major in the Army, and they're tough people. He's a tough person to live with and then, worse, being blind. "Sometimes, he can be demanding. And I deal with it. I'm used to making sure that everything's in line. That he's got everything. And that's basically all I've got to do." Castro thought he knew how his life would play out. A former Army Ranger who had worked his way out of the enlisted ranks to earn an officer's commission, Castro commanded a scout reconnaissance platoon and dreamed of becoming a Special Forces team leader. Instead, the last thing he would ever see was the colorless expanse of an Iraqi roof in Youssifiyah, Iraq. A mortar round landed a few feet away from him there on Sept. 2, 2006. The blast killed two other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and sent shrapnel tearing into Castro's left side. The explosion damaged a shoulder, broke an arm, fractured facial bones and collapsed his lungs. Doctors amputated part of a finger. The blast also drove the frame of his protective eyewear into his face. When Castro regained consciousness days later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., his wife, Evelyn, sat at his bedside. She told him his right eye was gone, but doctors hoped to salvage vision in his left. The surgeons later removed one last piece of shrapnel from that eye. When they took off his bandages and flashed a light for Castro to see, he thought the eye was still covered. "That's when he told me, 'Ivan, you're not going to be able to see again,' " Castro recalls. "I swore (it was like) I was standing between the World Trade Center and the two towers had just come down on my shoulders." From that moment on, through convalescence and rehabilitation, Castro would struggle to regain a measure of independence. Castro has become an advocate of rehabilitation funding for the blind, visiting members of Congress. After the 10-mile race in October, he ran the Marine Corps Marathon three weeks later, finishing in 4 hours and 14 minutes. He concedes that he needs his wife's help. Evelyn Galvis gave up her career as a bilingual speech pathologist in Fayetteville, N.C., to help her husband. She supervises his medical care and drives him around. She guides him through crowds, keeping him aware of raised edges in the walkway and steps. She reads his menu in restaurants and tells him where the food sits on the table. She watches him memorize his hotel room, starting from the doorway and circling within the four walls to keep account of beds, the tables, the wastebasket, the bathroom. "My husband used to be a very independent individual," she says. Castro hopes to stay in the military. The Army has let several amputees stay in the ranks as well as one blind captain, who will be an instructor at West Point Military Academy after completing post-graduate education. Castro awaits word on his future; the Pentagon won't comment on his situation. "There's a world in front of me I can't predict or envision because I haven't been there yet. I haven't lived this yet. I haven't lived blind," he says. "All I ask is to stay in the Army and finish out my years … I want to feel productive." The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro says. "I've had dreams where I know I'm blind and, guess what? I've regained my vision," he says. Reality floods back each morning. "There's not a night that I don't pray and ask God, when I wake up, that I wake up seeing." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561142.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today November 14, 2007 Pg. 2 Brain Injuries Also Danger To Vision Glenn Minney lost most of his sight from a combat explosion. But it wasn't just the injuries to his eyes that cost him his vision — it also was damage to his brain. Minney, then a Navy corpsman, was wounded when a mortar landed near him in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005. The blast threw him 30 feet. His back struck a metal railing, whipping his head backward. He lost his right eye. Vision in his left eye is impaired from physical injury and brain damage, he says. An emerging threat from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan is damage to the brain that affects vision, Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs medical researchers say. This type of injury could mean that there are thousands of veterans with undiagnosed vision problems, says Tom Zampieri, of the Blinded Veterans Association. Doctors didn't find Minney's neurological damage until after he left the military and was screened for brain injuries by the VA. "The public doesn't know the true extent of these (brain) injuries," says Minney, 40, married and the father of two. He's now a patient advocate for the VA in Frankfort, Ohio. Concerns about eye injuries have prompted federal legislation that would create a $5 million Pentagon-based center for research and treatment of injured eyes. It also would create a registry to track eye wounds. Minney suffered severe vision loss. Researchers are finding that less-severe vision problems also can occur among troops who suffer minor brain concussions from combat, particularly exposure to a blast. "There are a lot of patients who have suffered mild to moderate brain injuries. Upon initial examination their eyes looked healthy, but they were still reporting problems with their vision," says R. Cameron VanRoekel, an Army optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Gregory Goodrich, a research psychologist at VA facilities in Palo Alto, Calif., had similar findings in a study of 101 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with mild traumatic brain injuries. Many are still in the service. Goodrich found that 40% to 45% of the patients suffered vision loss even though their eyes were physically healthy. The biggest problem was an inability for both eyes to operate precisely together. This can lead to eye strain and blurred vision. Left undiagnosed, it can also hamper vocational or educational training and aggravate depression and post-traumatic-stress disorder, Goodrich says. Veterans may need an eye care specialist and corrective eyewear, he says. But Goodrich fears that routine eye examinations may not uncover the problems. "In many cases, we're seeing active-duty troops, and they want to get back and join their units," he says. "So they don't want to hear that there's something they need to go get treated for." --by Gregg Zoroya http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071114561068.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3614404_AEP PjkQAAJK1Rzte%2FgzvH3Vpj2c&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071114aaindex_concat.html&cred=sivvHiBtz1oPtO DbgIKV6xugPr26sSaBLLejb3DBKIRN_UhVZLF.yvRLUeR0Wx#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post November 14, 2007 Pg. 3 Troops' Mental Distress Tracked Early Checkups Find Fewer Problems Than Later Ones By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer Soldiers who have served in Iraq are suffering substantially greater mental distress several months after leaving the combat zone than when they first return home -- with one out of five active-duty Army soldiers and more than 40 percent of Army reservists needing treatment, according to a study by Army researchers published yesterday. The study is the first to examine over time the psychological struggles of soldiers who have been deployed to Iraq, the vast majority of whom have seen people killed and wounded and have themselves felt being in danger of dying. Soldiers were far more likely to report mental health problems -- such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression -- in a military screening three to six months after returning from Iraq, compared with a screening done immediately after they came home, according to the study appearing in the Nov. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Particularly pronounced was the four- to fivefold rise in the proportion of soldiers reporting conflicts with family members and friends, mirroring trends from past wars. Timothy Bredberg, 26, of Springfield, Ill., returned in 2004 from a tour as a front-line medic in Iraq and said he felt he had to hide his psychological symptoms to stay in the Army. "Commanders were standing there saying if you check the wrong thing, you will be considered crazy and get kicked out," said Bredberg, a corporal, who was soon having nightmares and severe anxiety, and showing up drunk at formations. Combat stress worsened during Bredberg's tour in Iraq's violent Anbar province, where he was wounded by a mortar shell and had a friend who died in his arms. He was medically discharged with severe PTSD in 2005 and, unable to work, now spends most days at a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic undergoing treatment. Initial screenings "substantially underestimate the mental health burden," according to the study, which adds to growing evidence that more than a quarter of recent Iraq combat veterans are grappling with various psychological problems. "Soldiers reported more mental health concerns and were referred [for treatment] at significantly higher rates" several months after their return, says the study, written by Col. Charles S. Milliken and Col. Charles W. Hoge of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Jennifer L. Auchterlonie of the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. The study concludes that the Army should intervene earlier with mental health care for combat veterans -- reservists, in particular -- and their family members "before symptoms become chronically entrenched." But it also casts doubt on the effectiveness of the treatment for PTSD in what it calls today's "overburdened" military medical system, finding "no direct relationship of referral or treatment with symptom improvement." The study is based on Army questionnaires completed by 88,235 soldiers who served in Iraq, 90 percent of whom were male and nearly 60 percent of whom were married. About 56,000 of those surveyed were in the active-duty Army, and 32,000 were in the Army Reserve or the National Guard. One reason the early screening |
