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As a service to our readers and fellow bloggers, the Mudville Gazette presents The Morning Briefing, the same compilation of news from around the world that top US militay officials are starting their day with. Links in this section are presented without editorial comment and do not represent an endorsement by this web site, the DoD, any component thereof, etc.
Don Rumsfeld has a copy in the limo on the ride in. Why shouldn't you start your day the same way? We ask only that you, like our SecDef, use this information only for good.
(Well, you could also hat tip this way should you use this info or find it potentially useful.)
By the way if you're a blogger and find an article here you'd like to use as in an entry on your blog, feel free to leave a comment here and use the url entry to link your story.
TOP STORIES
1. Rice Defends Refusal To Testify
(Washington Post)...Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, at the center of a controversy over her refusal to testify before the Sept. 11 commission, yesterday renewed her determination not to give public testimony and said she could not list anything she wished she had done differently in the months before the 2001 terrorist attacks.
2. President Asked Aide To Explore Iraq Link To 9/11
(New York Times)...Eric Lichtblau
The White House acknowledged Sunday that on the day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush asked his top counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, to find out whether Iraq was involved.
3. G.I.'s Padlock Baghdad Paper Accused Of Lies
(New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman
American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.
4. Shiites Organize To Block U.S. Plan
(Washington Post)...Anthony Shadid
...The clergy's campaign is steeped in the religious symbolism that binds much of the country's Shiite majority, whose political ascendancy is a defining feature of postwar Iraq. It turns on a term -- legitimacy -- that is far easier to deny than to bestow. The campaign signals a willingness to confront U.S. authorities at a moment when time is short, as the American administration prepares to formally end the occupation on June 30 and turn over authority to an interim Iraqi government.
5. Iraq Economy Shakes Off The Shackles Of Saddam
(USA Today)...Paul Wiseman
...Anything goes these days in Baghdad's teeming streets, crowded souks and back alleys. An exhilarating but virtually lawless economy has risen from the ashes of Saddam Hussein's government. Business opportunities are everywhere, but so are corruption and crime.
IRAQ
6. Iraqi Minister Escapes Attack
(Washington Times)...Christopher Torchia, Associated Press
Gunmen opened fire yesterday on a convoy carrying Iraq's minister of public works, killing a driver and a bodyguard and injuring two persons, the U.S.-led coalition said. The minister, Nisreen Berwari, was unharmed.
7. U.S. Soldiers Kill 4 Insurgents In Iraq
Associated Press
U.S. soldiers in the northern city of Mosul shot and killed four rebels suspected of involvement in attacks in the region, the military said Monday. Two American soldiers were wounded in the firefight.
8. U.S. Plan Seeks To Build Civilian-Run Iraqi Army
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
U.S. officials are moving rapidly to create a civilian-run Iraqi Defense Ministry that will work in tandem with the American military after the handover of Iraqi sovereignty on June 30 and could form the nucleus of a strategic alliance between the two countries.
9. Iraqis Take Control Of Health Ministry
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
U.S. officials turned over control of the Health Ministry to Iraqi officials Sunday, making it the first autonomous ministry of the 25 slated to become so by the formal end of the U.S.-led occupation on June 30.
10. Blast Clues Lead To Dead Ends
(USA Today)...Kevin Johnson
Danger, lack of records in Iraq help foil investigators.
11. U.S. Pitches In For Iraqi Kids
(Washington Times)...Willis Witter
Contributions of clothes and toys from Americans to poor Iraqi children have swamped flights of military mail into Baghdad, forcing officials to scramble for ways to handle an influx of generosity that no one had anticipated.
(Paid reg required)
12. Devil's Advocate Takes Up Brief To Defend Saddam
(London Times)...Charles Bremner
A FRENCH lawyer who has made his name defending tyrants and terrorists claims that he has been engaged to defend Saddam Hussein and will call Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, and other officials to show that the Americans and British were the true criminals in Iraq.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
13. Censored Study On Bioterror Doubts U.S. Preparedness
(New York Times)...Judith Miller
Two years after a report on the 2001 anthrax attacks was completed, the Pentagon has released parts of the unclassified document, which concludes that the nation is woefully ill-prepared to detect and respond to a bioterrorist assault.
14. Shifts From Bin Laden Hunt Evoke Questions
(USA Today)...Dave Moniz and Steven Komarow
...The Bush administration says the hunt for bin Laden continued throughout the war in Iraq. Officials say it's wrong to speculate that he would have been captured, or other terrorist attacks prevented, if the Iraq war hadn't happened. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking on ABC's This Week, called the example of the Special Forces switch "simplistic."
15. Growing Doubts On Vaccine In Military
(Washington Post)...Marilyn W. Thompson
With each report on the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Airman Jessica Horjus asked a question: If inspectors could find no signs of anthrax, why should the Pentagon risk her health by requiring her to get the anthrax vaccine?
16. Defense Panel Faults Nuclear Plans
(Washington Post)...Walter Pincus
A prestigious Defense Department panel has recommended major changes to the United States' nuclear arsenal, saying the current plans to refurbish the existing weapons stockpile will not protect the nation from new threats from rogue states and terrorist groups.
ARMY
17. Gitmo Cleric: I'm On Watch List
(New York Daily News)...James Gordon Meek
The former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay probed, and later cleared, for spying and aiding the enemy has been stopped seven times from boarding U.S. airliners, his lawyer said yesterday.
18. Army Spouses Expect Reenlistment Problems
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
...Morgan's experience is part of a significant change in Army life brought about by the post-9/11 world: The extended, or repeated, deployments that have characterized the Army since then have intensified the burdens traditionally borne by military families. And most of the spouses who have remained behind are wondering how long the Army can keep it up.
MARINE CORPS
19. Report Details 'Friendly Fire' Casualties In Deadly Battle
(Los Angeles Times)...Hector Becerra, Robert J. Lopez and Rich Connell
As many as 10 Marines may have been killed by friendly fire in the midst of the deadliest battle of the Iraq war when a Marine air controller mistakenly cleared Air Force A-10 jets to shoot on U.S. positions, according to a long-awaited military investigation.
AIR FORCE
20. Cadet Accused Of Rape Allowed Back In Academy
(Miami Herald)...Robert Weller, Associated Press
An Air Force Academy cadet who had been accused of rape and threatened to crash a glider into a dining hall was allowed to remain at the school for several more months, during which he was arrested for sodomizing a woman in a wheelchair and accused of raping another cadet, according to files obtained by The Associated Press.
ASIA/PACIFIC
21. Musharraf Has Rumsfeld's Support In Nuclear Case
(Los Angeles Times)...Chuck Neubauer
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday that there was no reason to believe that Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, was involved in the nuclear black-market network operated by the country's former top atomic scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
22. Conflict Ends In Pakistani Tribal Lands
(Washington Post)...Pamela Constable
A deadly, 12-day confrontation between government troops and Islamic fighters in a remote tribal region reached a peaceful settlement Sunday after the militants released 12 paramilitary fighters and two civilian officials held hostage for more than a week and soldiers began pulling out of the area.
AFGHANISTAN
23. New Attacks In Afghanistan Raise Concerns About Security
(New York Times)...Reuters
After President Hamid Karzai formally postponed Afghanistan's presidential and parliamentary elections, from June to September, new violence on Sunday underlined the security concerns behind the delay.
NA
24. Afghans to Seek $4.5 Billion In New Assistance
(Wall Street Journal)...Michael M. Phillips
Afghanistan, faced with mounting violence and public frustration at the slow pace of reconstruction, will ask the U.S., Europe and other donors this week to contribute $4.5 billion in new aid for the coming year.
AFRICA
25. U.S. Seeks Military Access In N. Africa
(Los Angeles Times)...Esther Schrader
Citing evidence that North Africa is increasingly becoming a refuge for Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, a top Pentagon official said Friday that the U.S. was stepping up efforts to win military access to small bases from Morocco to Mali and ramping up aerial and maritime surveillance of the region.
HAITI
26. Troops Offer Hand, And Native Tongue
(Miami Herald)...Michael A.W. Ottey
...Henriquez, born in Haiti, is one of about two dozen men and women of Haitian background serving with the U.S. military here, playing critical roles in the multinational peacekeeping force deployed to quell a bloody February revolt.
MIDEAST
NA
27. Israeli Arms, Gear Aid U.S. Troops
(Defense News)...Barbara Opall-Rome
The shroud of secrecy obscuring U.S.-Israel cooperation in special operations was lifted slightly last week to reveal a host of Israeli-developed technologies and weapon systems now or soon to be in use by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NATO
28. Baltic States Mark New Era With NATO
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Michael Tarm, Associated Press
...Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are among seven former Soviet bloc countries formally joining NATO today, and they are realizing a long-denied dream - entering a military alliance by choice instead of by coercion.
EUROPE
29. Prodi Would End Italy's Role In Iraq
Associated Press, Reuters
Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission who also leads Italy's largest opposition coalition, said in a letter published over the weekend that leftists would end Italy's military role in Iraq if elected to power.
30. Keep Bases Here, Germany Implores U.S.
(Miami Herald)...Melissa Eddy, Associated Press
As host to 170,000 American soldiers and dependents, Germany has a lot to lose under Pentagon plans to shift forces out of western Europe, and officials in areas facing a pinch are lobbying heavily for them to stay.
TERRORISM
31. Hamas Leader Calls Bush Foe Of Muslims
(New York Times)...Greg Myre
The new Hamas leader, Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said Sunday that President Bush is the enemy of Muslims and that God has declared war on the United States.
32. U.S., Allies Stingy In Sharing Terror Intelligence
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Dafna Linzer, Associated Press
More than two years after the Bush administration won pledges of support from dozens of countries eager to join the war on terrorism, Washington and its allies still keep a jealous hold on intelligence - snarling the sharing of information needed to shut down al-Qaeda.
BUSINESS
33. Air Force Work Renewal Brightens SI's Outlook
(Washington Post)...Anitha Reddy
SI International Inc. won a contract potentially worth $800 million to continue providing communication network support to the Air Force Space Command, removing a major uncertainty that has hung over the stock for months.
34. Tanker Bid Was Tailored To Boeing
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Joseph L. Galloway
The Air Force gave the Boeing Co. five months to rewrite official specifications for 100 aerial refueling tankers so that the company's 767 aircraft would win a $23.5 billion deal, according to e-mails and documents obtained by The Inquirer's Washington Bureau.
OPINION
35. Expanding The Alliance Of Democracies
(Wall Street Journal (Europe))...R. Nicholas Burns
In ceremonies today in Washington, D.C., U.S. President George Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell will preside over an event that has been little noted by the European press, but that bears momentous historic significance: the accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia -- the greatest round of enlargement in NATO's 55-year history.
36. An Essential War
(Wall Street Journal)...George P. Shultz
We have struggled with terrorism for a long time. In the Reagan administration, I was a hawk on the subject. I said terrorism is a big problem, a different problem, and we have to take forceful action against it. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan agreed with me, but not many others did. (Don Rumsfeld was an outspoken exception.)
37. The Question We Should Be Asking
(Washington Post)...William Raspberry
...But I can't get past the previous question: Why are we in Iraq?
38. Follow-Up To Kofigate
(New York Times)...William Safire
Never has there been a financial rip-off of the magnitude of the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.
39. South Koreans Cuddle Up To The North
(Wall Street Journal)...Danny Gittings
...But why keep American lives at risk in a country in denial about the nature of the enemy? And why is it in our strategic interest to stay, if that cripples our options? If Kim Jong Il were caught peddling plutonium to al Qaeda, President Roh would probably find some excuse to do nothing. A pullback of U.S. forces to Guam, by contrast, would free us from South Korean shackles in responding to such proliferation.
EDITORIAL
40. An Insulting Waste
(Washington Post)...Editorial
..."Don't ask, don't tell" wastes federal resources while impugning the patriotism and wrecking the careers -- at the convenience of the brass -- of Americans who want to serve their country. It is past time to repeal the policy.
41. Bottom-Of-The-Sea Treaty
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
...But the treaty's central flaw remains unfixable: It is not in the best interests of the U.S. to have its maritime activities -- military or economic -- subject to the control of a highly politicized U.N. bureaucracy. That was a bad idea in 1982 and it's even worse today, as we fight the war on terror. It's also a terrible precedent, especially as we do more in space.
