28 May 04 Morning Briefing

TOP STORIES

1. U.S. Halts Attacks On Sadr's Militiamen
(Washington Post)...Daniel Williams
After weeks of urban fighting in southern Iraq, U.S. troops suspended attacks on Shiite Muslim insurgents Thursday in response to an offer by rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr to partially withdraw militia forces from the holy city of Najaf and evacuate government buildings.

2. Agreement By U.S. And Rebels To End Fighting In Najaf
(New York Times)...Dexter Filkins
American forces and guerrillas loyal to the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr agreed Thursday to quit fighting in Najaf, in a deal that signaled the possible end of seven weeks of fighting in the city, during which scores of Iraqis have died.

3. Hidden Identities Hinder Probe
(USA Today)...Toni Locy
Efforts to determine who orchestrated the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison may be complicated by the ways in which many military intelligence officials, covert U.S. agents and civilian contractors obscured their identities.

4. Suspicion Surrounds Death Of Iraqi Scientist In U.S. Custody
(Los Angeles Times)...Alissa J. Rubin
...Responding to a Times query, the Pentagon's criminal investigation division declined to comment on Alazmirli's death. A spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, Christopher Grey, issued a six-word response: "No releasable information at this time." Alazmirli's case raises questions about whether similar ones exist — suspicious deaths that are not on any official U.S. lists — and what method the military is using to determine which cases are worthy of review

5. In The Scrapyards Of Jordan, Signs Of A Looted Iraq
(New York Times)...James Glanz
As the United States spends billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq's civil and military infrastructure, there is increasing evidence that parts of sensitive military equipment, seemingly brand-new components for oil rigs and water plants and whole complexes of older buildings are leaving the country on the backs of flatbed trucks. By some estimates, at least 100 semitrailers loaded with what is billed as Iraqi scrap metal are streaming each day into Jordan, just one of six countries that share a border with Iraq.

6. Vocal Cleric Arrested In London At U.S. Behest
(Washington Post)...Craig Whitlock and Susan Schmidt
A Muslim cleric whose London mosque has served as a magnet and megaphone for Islamic militants was arrested early Thursday by British police after U.S. officials unsealed a federal indictment charging him with planning terrorist acts in Oregon, Afghanistan and Yemen.

IRAQ

7. Shiite Politicians' Objections Lead Candidate To Withdraw
(Washington Post)...Rajiv Chandrasekaran
A politically independent Shiite Muslim who had been a top choice of the United States and the United Nations to become Iraq's prime minister withdrew from consideration after objections from formerly exiled Shiite politicians who want the job for themselves, officials involved in the political transition said Thursday.

8. An Iraqi Council Member Is Reported To Survive After Ambush; A Bodyguard Is Killed
(New York Times)...Edward Wong and Christine Hauser
Gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying a member of the Iraqi Governing Council on Thursday as she was returning to Baghdad after taking part in cease-fire negotiations in the southern city of Najaf, American and Iraqi officials said.

9. Breeding Ground For Iraqi Insurgency
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Robert Moran
In the sprawling slum known as Sadr City, prominently displayed banners written in English taunt American soldiers. "Welcome," they declare, to a "second Vietnam." Militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr regularly attack U.S. forces. Bystanders are struck by stray bullets. Residents suspected of helping the Americans are killed.

10. The Army's Stern Words Beat Sadr's Men In Basra
(London Daily Telegraph)...Jack Fairweather
...Much of the credit for Sadr's taming in Basra lies with the British "softly, softly" approach, tempered with a touch of steel. Unlike the American approach, with assaults on Najaf and Karbala, the British military has maintained direct lines of communication with Sadr's senior officials.

11. Cashiered Over Cache In Baghdad
(Los Angeles Times)...David Zucchino
...A year after American soldiers discovered about $760 million of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's cash hidden in several cottages, the case still raises questions. U.S. Treasury Department officials are trying to determine whether Hussein got the money from illegal oil sales and kickbacks, even as the cash is being spent on the U.S. occupation and rebuilding effort. For Novak, one of six soldiers accused of stealing seven-inch-thick bundles of $100 bills, the affair has been a bitter lesson in military justice. He confessed, named higher-ups and led investigators to millions he and others had tried to hide. He has since been kicked out of the Army and banned from nearby Ft. Stewart, while the five others implicated received administrative punishments — and two were promoted, Novak's lawyer said.

12. U.N. Envoy Under Fire In Effort To Rebuild Iraq
(Baltimore Sun)...Mark Matthews
As he labors on a mission crucial to President Bush's strategy on Iraq, United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is drawing fire not only from some American conservatives and former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi but from the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry. In remarks that stunned U.N. officials, Kerry adviser Richard C. Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the world body, criticized the president's decision to give primary authority for forming the future government of Iraq to Brahimi.

IRAQ -- ABU GHRAIB

13. Greater Urgency On Prison Interrogation Led To Use Of Untrained Workers
(New York Times)...Douglas Jehl and Kate Zernike
The interrogation effort at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq took on such urgency last fall that untrained personnel were pressed into service as analysts and even interrogators, according to accounts spelled out in documents and interviews.

14. Some Prisoners Allege Abuse By Poles, Other Coalition Troops
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
Some Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib said they were abused by troops from Poland and other unspecified coalition countries, according to copies of statements to Army investigators obtained Thursday.

ARMY

15. Army Personnel Chief Aims To Keep Ranks Full
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's personnel chief, is facing a challenge no American officer has had to contemplate for at least a century: keeping the all-volunteer Army fully manned as it undergoes sustained ground combat.

16. Army Rescinds Order To Tighten Environmental Spending
(Los Angeles Times)...Elizabeth Shogren
The Army on Thursday rescinded an order, issued earlier this month, for garrison commanders around the globe to stop spending money on many environmental protection activities as part of an effort to conserve funds for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

17. Captors Killed Soldier In Lynch Convoy
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
A soldier initially listed as killed in action while riding in the same convoy with former prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch had actually been captured by Iraqi fighters before he was killed, the Oregon National Guard said yesterday.

NAVY

18. With Graduation Today, Mids Thinking Of War
(Baltimore Sun)...Molly Knight
...As 990 midshipmen graduate in Annapolis today - after a commencement address by Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan loom large.

19. Cole Back Home From Mission
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
The U.S. destroyer Cole came home Thursday from six months in the Mediterranean Sea — its first overseas deployment since terrorists bombed it in Yemen's port of Aden in October 2000, killing 17 sailors.

WHITE HOUSE

20. Panel Holds Hearings On U.S. Intelligence
(Washington Post)...Walter Pincus
President Bush's commission investigating the quality of U.S. intelligence concluded its first two days of closed-door hearings yesterday after taking testimony from more than 20 current and former intelligence officials who discussed programs to produce weapons of mass destruction in prewar Iraq and in other countries.

CONGRESS

21. Warner Bucks GOP Right On Probe Of Prison Abuse
(Washington Post)...Helen Dewar and Spencer S. Hsu
The silver-haired Virginian with courtly manners is a throwback to a forgotten era of congressional comity. But as he leads the Senate's inquiry into abuse of Iraqi prisoners, Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) also shows another side: a penchant for bucking his party, taking heat and surviving.

22. Tougher Interrogations Needed In Iraq, Lott Says
(Washington Times)...Associated Press
Sen. Trent Lott says saving American lives should be the priority in Iraq, even if it means dealing harshly with prisoners to get vital security information.

NA
23. Rep. Hunter: USAF Tankers 'Vital' To Air Power
(Aerospace Daily & Defense Report)...Kathy Gambrell
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the plan to equip the U.S. Air Force with 100 KC-767A tanker program should continue.

NORTH KOREA

24. U.S. To Abandon N. Korea Project
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
The Bush administration plans to cancel an international project to build two light-water nuclear reactors for North Korea before the end of the year, State Department officials said.

25. N. Korea Flirts With 'Red Line'
(Christian Science Monitor)...Donald Kirk
The reported export by North Korea of the uranium material needed to build warheads has escalated the stakes in the Korean nuclear crisis, threatening the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its program.

ASIA/PACIFIC

26. Pakistani Links Military To Failed Plot To Kill Him
(New York Times)...Salman Masood and Talat Hussain
President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that members of Pakistan's army and air force were among "dozens" of people who had been arrested in connection with two assassination attempts against him in December. He also said the man who planned the attacks was a Pakistani who remained at large.

27. U.S. Honors 19 Soldiers Killed In Korean War
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Reports
The U.S. military in South Korea honored 19 soldiers whose remains were recovered in North Korea more than 50 years after the troops were killed in the Korean War.

28. Ban Dismisses US General's Remarks On Allied Forces' Role
(Korea Times)...Ryu Jin
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Thursday denied comments by a senior U.S. military official on plans for the future role of the ROK-U.S. allied forces.

AFGHANISTAN

29. Afghanistan: Karzai Signs Election Law
(New York Times)...Reuters
President Hamid Karzai signed the first election law in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

NATO

30. Explosives Found Near Site Of NATO Summit
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Reports
Two bags filled with explosives were found in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, near a venue where hundreds of NATO parliamentary officials are to meet today, officials said.

EUROPE

31. Defense Chief Says Britain Will Expand Its Iraq Force
(New York Times)...Lizette Alvarez
Britain will send 370 troops and extra firepower to Iraq while it continues to weigh whether to deploy thousands more soldiers to the area, Defense Minister Geoff Hoon announced Thursday.

RUSSIA

32. U.S. And Russia Sign Agreement To Counter Nuclear Threat
(Los Angeles Times)...David Holley
The United States and Russia took their first step Thursday in a new program to reduce the risk of poorly guarded nuclear materials at research facilities around the world falling into the hands of terrorists.

AMERICAS

33. Death Toll Climbs In Caribbean Flood
(Washington Post)...Amy Bracken, Associated Press
U.S. and Canadian troops rushed medical supplies, drinking water and chlorine tablets to flood-battered towns where bodies were seen floating in rising waters on Thursday. Haitians and Dominicans braced for a death toll that could reach well over 1,500.

34. U.S. Military Relocating Out Of Caracas Compound
(Miami Herald)...Andres Oppenheimer and Juan O. Tamayo
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it was reviewing its relations with Venezuela's military and moving U.S. military officers out of a Caracas military compound, signaling yet another bump in U.S. relations with leftist President Hugo Chávez.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

35. U.S. Agencies Collect, Examine Personal Data On Americans
(Washington Times)...Audrey Hudson
Numerous federal government agencies are collecting and sifting through massive amounts of personal information, including credit reports, credit-card purchases and other financial data, posing new privacy concerns, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO).

POLL

36. Worry And Anger Over Iraq Situation
(Washington Post)...T.R. Reid
From this edge of the western plains to California's palm-lined drives to New York's urban canyons, Americans say they are worried and angry about the U.S. role in Iraq, with their anxiety matching that of the earliest days of the war when the success of the push to Baghdad was far from secure.

37. Americans Split On How To Interrogate
(Washington Post)...Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Most Americans reject torture as a technique to force suspected terrorists to answer questions about possible attacks but are divided on whether less harsh forms of physical abuse should be allowed to compel uncooperative suspects to reveal information that could save lives, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

MEDIA

38. Koppel To Read Names Of 122 Killed In Terror War
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Unattributed
ABC News' Nightline will follow its tribute to U.S. troops killed in Iraq with a similar reading tonight of the names of 122 service personnel killed in the war on terror, mostly in Afghanistan. Anchor Ted Koppel will read the names at the end of the broadcast, which will largely focus on the elite Army unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

BUSINESS

39. Navy Names Coastline Ship Contractors
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle
The Navy picked Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. yesterday to build versions of a small combat ship that can hug enemy coastlines.

40. CACI Faces New Probe Of Contract
(Washington Post)...Ellen McCarthy
CACI International Inc. said yesterday that the General Services Administration is investigating whether the Arlington-based company violated contracting rules and whether it should be banned from future government contracts.

OPINION

41. Honor Military Sacrifices, Don't Exploit Those Who Fall
(USA Today)...Editorial
...Nonetheless, the expression of appreciation and sorrow without regard for politics reflects Memorial Day's truest meaning. By contrast, efforts to manipulate the battle deaths of American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen to advance political causes dishonor their sacrifices, as well as the holiday designed to remember them. Still it happens, most recently in the debate over the government's ban on images of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 900 troops have died in those countries, yet the nation is denied the opportunity to weigh the true cost of war by being denied the opportunity to bear witness to its human cost.

42. Give Heroes' Families Privacy
(USA Today)...John M. Molino
...Despite notions to the contrary, Dover is not a place where military honors are rendered. That is reserved for the gravesite. Dover's sole focus is to identify and expedite the remains to the families so they can properly lay their loved ones to rest. Public coverage of arrivals would almost certainly make some families feel obliged to journey to Dover, perhaps over great distances and at considerable expense. Others may not desire media coverage, or find themselves upset by a public display of their loved one. The current policy places the decision for the media coverage of the deceased where it belongs: in the hands of the families who have the right — as they should have — to grant or deny media access to funeral or memorial services.

43. Making Do With Lemons
(Washington Post)...David Ignatius
If you're stuck with lemons, make lemonade. That folk wisdom applies to U.S. policy in Iraq, which is as seedy and sour as any foreign policy challenge America has encountered in decades. We certainly aren't making champagne there, but how are we doing in the lemonade business?

44. Gaining The Iraqis' Toleration
(Washington Post)...James Dobbins and Philip H. Gordon
...Reaching the goal of a stable, unified and non-threatening Iraq does look increasingly difficult, but the consequences of abandoning even that minimalist objective could be severe. Leaving Iraq under the pressure of terrorist attacks would be viewed as a strategic defeat of historic proportions for the United States. The message sent around the world would be that enough roadside bombs, suicide attacks and beheadings of civilians can succeed in forcing the United States (and by extension, any government) to abandon its goals. Success in driving out the American superpower would go down in terrorist lore as a great "victory," inspiring new campaigns on new battle fronts all around the world.

45. Obsessed With Iran
(Washington Post)...Jim Hoagland
George Shultz says that life in official Washington is not one damn thing after another. It is the same damn thing over and over again. A sudden lurch by the Bush administration to using Iraq's Sunnis to contain Iran's Shiite rulers shows that the former secretary of state is on to something, again.

EDITORIAL

46. The Homicide Cases
(Washington Post)...Editorial
PRESIDENT BUSH'S persistence in describing the abuse of foreign prisoners as an isolated problem at one Iraqi prison is blatantly at odds with the facts seeping out from his administration. These include mounting reports of crimes at detention facilities across Iraq and Afghanistan and evidence that detention policies the president approved helped set the stage for torture and homicide. Yes, homicide: The most glaring omission from the president's account is that at least 37 people have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and that at least 10 of these cases are suspected criminal killings of detainees by U.S. interrogators or soldiers.

47. Accounting For The Cost Of War
(New York Times)...Editorial
The dominant cliché in Congress is that the forthcoming Pentagon budget will not include a "blank check" for President Bush in Iraq. Such watchdog keenness, which would have been welcome from the start, must be attributed in large measure to election year polls. But it is still good to see that lawmakers sense the need to tightly vet the president's $422 billion military budget request.

NA
48. Bush, The U.N. And Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
The best thing about President Bush's Monday speech was that it directly challenged Washington's rampant defeatism regarding Iraq. He even used the phrase "defeat the enemy," which is precisely what Americans want to hear in a war. We only wish the President's current strategy for political victory inspired as much confidence.

49. A Real Nuclear Danger
(New York Times)...Editorial
While the Bush administration has been distracted by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it has neglected the far more urgent threat to American security from dangerous nuclear materials that must be safeguarded before they can fall into the hands of terrorists. That is the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from a new report that documents the slow pace of protecting potential nuclear bomb material at loosely guarded sites around the world.

NA
50. Memorial Day
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
This is Fleet Week in New York City, with thousands of sailors and Marines touring the sites and sampling other, er, attractions on shore leave. So it was no surprise that a small company of Marines ran and chanted in formation in front of our downtown Manhattan offices yesterday morning. They were applauded everywhere as they passed.