30 Mar 2004 Morning Briefing

As a service to readers and fellow bloggers The Mudville Gazette presents The Morning Brief, the same compilation of news stories that leaders of the US armed forces get every morning.

Why? So if you run into General Myers in the elevator you'll have something to talk about.

TOP STORIES

1. 7 Former Communist Countries Join NATO
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
President Bush welcomed seven former Communist countries into NATO yesterday, pressing the alliance's boundaries farther into what once was Warsaw Pact territory and emphasizing its post-Cold War rebirth as a partnership aimed increasingly at fighting terrorism in Europe and beyond.

2. Majority Supports Bush On Terrorism
(USA Today)...Richard Benedetto
Most Americans still approve of President Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism, even after a week of accusations that he failed to pay enough attention to intelligence warnings before the Sept. 11 attacks.

3. G.I.'s In Afghanistan On Hunt, But Now For Hearts And Minds
(New York Times)...David Rohde
Standing in a bleak, dust-covered village 15 miles from Pakistan, Lt. Reid Finn, a 24-year-old Louisiana native known as Huck, supervised as his men unloaded a half dozen wooden boxes with American flags on them.

4. Big Pay Luring Military's Elite To Private Jobs
(New York Times)...Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
Senior American commanders and Pentagon officials are warning of an exodus of the military's most seasoned members of Special Operations to higher-paying civilian security jobs in places like Baghdad and Kabul, just as they are playing an increasingly pivotal role in combating terror and helping conduct nation-building operations worldwide.

5. Chicago, L.A. Towers Were Next Targets
(Washington Times)...Paul Martin
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.

6. 9/11 Panel Wants Rice Under Oath In Any Testimony
(New York Times)...Philip Shenon and Richard W. Stevenson
The chairman and vice chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said on Monday that they would ask Condoleezza Rice to testify under oath in any future questioning because of discrepancies between her statements and those made in sworn testimony by President Bush's former counterterrorism chief.

IRAQ

7. U.S. Soldier Killed Near Baghdad
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
A U.S. soldier was killed in a bomb attack west of Baghdad yesterday, and British troops in the south fired rubber bullets to disperse anti-coalition activists.

NA - Original press release here
8. Rebuilding To Create Thousands Of Jobs
(USA Today)...Unattributed
U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said he expects 50,000 Iraqis to be working on U.S.-funded jobs at construction sites across the country by the time Iraq is sovereign June 30. Construction is set to begin in six key sectors: electricity; water resources and public works; security and justice; transportation and communications; buildings, education and health; and oil.

NA
9. Bremer: Full Police Force To Take Year
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Ken Dilanian
In an uncommonly downbeat assessment of Iraq's security challenges, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told local officials yesterday that it would take at least a year for Iraq to hire, equip and train enough police and border guards to meet its needs.

10. Marines Hunt Smugglers At Iraq-Syria Border
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
Along hundreds of miles of lonely desert along the Iraq-Syria frontier, U.S. Marines have begun an aggressive effort to block weapons and foreign fighters from flowing into Iraq through one of the world's most notorious smuggling corridors.

11. Securing Iraq's Frontier, Step By Step
(Los Angeles Times)...Kim Murphy
This country's 900-mile border with Iran is now officially closed at all but three remote posts. The mission of the lonely sentinels here: to prevent combatants and weapons from seeping into a nation that already has more than enough of both.

NA
12. Deal To Outfit Iraqi Army Creates A Stir
(Wall Street Journal)...Christopher Cooper
Washington has doled out billions of dollars to reconstruct Iraq, but no contract has sown more hard feelings and confusion than a midsize deal to outfit the new Iraqi army.

13. Army Says Troops Killed Two Iraqi Journalists
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
The U.S. Army accepted responsibility Monday for the shooting deaths of two Iraqi journalists this month near a roadblock in the capital but said the killings were accidental.

14. Attacks Test Muslim Unity In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Karl Vick
Abdulsattar Abdulraheem, a stringy 72, looked up from the bag of portland cement at his feet. While patching a hole in his driveway, he laid his dusty hands on a metaphor for the common quality Iraqis say will spare them a civil war.

15. Saddam Mum In Interrogations
(Washington Times)...Associated Press
He doesn't have an attorney in the room, but Saddam Hussein apparently is practicing what most lawyers would advise: Don't talk. Diplomatic and military officials say the former Iraqi leader has provided little useful information in interrogations so far — and may even be having fun.

16. Five Penalized By U.N. Chief In Iraq Bombing
(New York Times)...Warren Hoge
Acting on a damning report of United Nations security failures in the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters last August, Secretary General Kofi Annan fired his chief of global security, demoted a second senior official, penalized three staff members and received — but did not accept — the resignation of his own deputy, his spokesman said Monday.

17. U.N. Envoy Sent To Shape Plan For Iraq
(Washington Post)...Robin Wright and Anthony Shadid
A U.N. special envoy heads to Baghdad this week to chart a course for forming a new Iraqi government in just six to eight weeks, amid growing signs that the pivotal players in Iraq's political drama are deeply divided over how to proceed.

18. Senate Panels To Get New Iraq Weapons Report
(New York Times)...Douglas Jehl
The new chief American weapons inspector in Iraq has prepared a classified report on the hunt for illicit weapons there and will brief two Senate committees in closed sessions on Tuesday about his interim findings, Congressional officials say.

19. Rumors Are A Bombardment That Never Stops
(USA Today)...Tom Squitieri
...Fighting the information war on the streets and in the bazaars of Iraq's cities and villages is proving as tough as combating the elusive fighters who attack soldiers. In November, the coalition set up a 50-member rumor-control team in recognition of the importance of the information war. The team monitors rumors on the streets and in cafes, what's published in countless Iraqi newspapers and what appears on television.

20. US Fights Shifting Iraqi Foes
(Christian Science Monitor)...Dan Murphy
...For now, the US military is staying focused on the insurgents. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of the 1st Infantry Division and head of security in and around Baghdad, sees four threats.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

NA
21. Pentagon Blasts Air Force Contract For Boeing Tankers
(Wall Street Journal)...Andy Pasztor
The Pentagon's inspector general, lambasting some Air Force acquisition procedures, dealt a potentially crippling blow to Boeing Co.'s controversial plans to quickly provide air-refueling tankers to the military. In a briefing to congressional staffers yesterday, Inspector General Joseph Schmitz and his staff summarized the conclusions of a report that criticizes the Air Force for relying on "an inappropriate procurement strategy" for the tankers, along with failing to use "prudent acquisition procedures," comply fully with five federal statutes and falling short of adequately protecting taxpayers.

22. Pentagon Favors Boeing Deal
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
The Pentagon's inspector general said there is "no compelling reason" to block an Air Force plan to acquire 100 air refueling tankers from Boeing, despite significant questions about the deal.

WHITE HOUSE

23. Rice 9/11 Testimony May Be Released
(Washington Post)...Mike Allen
After resisting for months, White House officials worked yesterday to negotiate a compromise that would allow public release of national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the independent commission looking into the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to administration aides.

24. Colleague Of Ex-Official Disputes Part Of Account
(New York Times)...David E. Sanger
A senior national security official who worked alongside Richard A. Clarke on Sept. 11, 2001, is disputing central elements of Mr. Clarke's account of events in the White House Situation Room that day, declaring that it "is a much better screenplay than reality was."

POLITICS

25. Battleground In The Heartland
(Washington Post)...David Maraniss
Voters torn between support of military, concerns about war.

ARMY

26. Muslim Chaplain Appeals Reprimand
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)...Mike Barber
Army Capt. James Yee, 36, a Muslim chaplain the Army tried but failed to link to a suspected espionage ring at Guantanamo Bay naval station in Cuba, has appealed his reprimand for committing adultery and storing pornography on an Army computer.

NAVY

27. Navy Jet Crashes Off San Diego
(Los Angeles Times)...Deborah Schoch
A Navy fighter jet experienced engine problems and plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, but the two crew members ejected and were rescued, Navy officials said.

28. Navy Pilot Safe After Jet Crashes In Eastern Tenn.
(Baltimore Sun)...Unattributed
A Navy F-18 fighter jet on a training mission crashed yesterday, but the pilot ejected and was taken to a hospital with a broken ankle, authorities said. The one-seat plane, based at the Naval Air Station Atlanta, went down about 11 a.m. and hit some trees about 30 miles north of Chattanooga, the Navy said. No one on the ground was injured. The pilot's name was not released.

MARINE CORPS

29. Marine May Be Punished For 'Friendly Fire' Deaths
(Washington Post)...Will Dunham, Reuters
A U.S. Marine Corps general will consider possible disciplinary action against a ground-based Marine air controller faulted in the most deadly U.S. "friendly fire" incident in the Iraq war, officials said yesterday.

TERRORISM

30. Officials: U.S. 'Outed' Iran's Spies In 1997
(USA Today)...Barbara Slavin
After a bombing killed 19 U.S. airmen at a barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the Clinton administration struck back by unmasking Iranian intelligence officers around the world, significantly disrupting Iranian-backed terrorism, according to a high-level U.S. official and a former top official who was serving at the time of the operation.

31. Officials Hopeful Of Al-Qaida Leader's Death
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
Intercepted radio conversations indicate al-Qaida's top intelligence chief might have been killed in fighting in Pakistan, intelligence officials said yesterday, but they admitted they cannot produce his body. The radio transmissions disclosed that a man named Abdullah had been killed and that the death caused a great deal of distress among the al-Qaida forces, a Pakistani intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.

NATO

(Subscription)
32. New NATO Nations Should Find Niche Military Capability, Secretary General Says
(Defense Daily)...Ann Roosevelt
The seven new NATO members should develop niche military capabilities to support the alliance’s military forces and missions, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said ahead of White House accession ceremonies yesterday.

MIDEAST

33. Iran Says It Stopped Making Uranium-Enrichment Device
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Unattributed
Iran announced yesterday that it had stopped building centrifuges for uranium enrichment, a bid to allay suspicions about its nuclear intentions as U.N. inspectors visit the country. Iran suspended uranium enrichment last year under strong international pressure. But it continued to build centrifuges, which are used in enrichment, despite criticism that such activity violated the spirit of its pledge to cease enrichment.

ASIA/PACIFIC

34. 19 Killed In Uzbekistan; Terrorism Blamed
(New York Times)...Seth Mydans
Nineteen people were killed and at least 26 wounded in a series of terrorist incidents in the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek prosecutor general said Monday.

35. Taiwan's President Maintains Hard Line
(Washington Post)...Philip P. Pan and David E. Hoffman
President Chen Shui-bian declared Monday that his narrow reelection victory was a mandate from voters to press ahead with an aggressive agenda to develop Taiwan as an "independent, sovereign country" despite the risk of war with China.

AFGHANISTAN

36. U.S. To Nearly Double Its Aid To Afghanistan
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is expected to nearly double the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction at a donors conference this week in Berlin.

37. Madrid To Double Afghanistan Contingent
Spain's incoming government, under pressure over its plan to withdraw its troops from Iraq, has agreed to double the country's contingent in Afghanistan to 250 soldiers this summer, an aide to the future defense minister said yesterday.

OPINION

NA
38. Kerry's Stalling On Base Closures Delays Big Savings
(USA Today)...Editorial
Imagine a $400 billion business that relies increasingly on borrowed money because its revenues have fallen far short of expenses. Yet it isn't allowed to shut down unnecessary plants because of politics. That's the situation the U.S. Department of Defense faces in trying to close military bases that no longer are needed.

39. Kerry Proceeds With Caution
(USA Today)...John M. Shalikashvili
America is at war. And the next president will inherit enormous responsibilities to keep America safe and win the war on terror. He will face key decisions on the size of America's military and how best to rebalance the roles of the active and reserve components.

40.A Dollop Of Deeper American Values
(Washington Post)...Joseph S. Nye Jr.
...After the war in Iraq, I spoke about soft power to a conference co-sponsored by the Army. One of the speakers was Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. When someone in the audience asked Rumsfeld for his opinion on soft power, he replied, "I don't know what it means." That is part of our problem. Some of our leaders don't understand the importance of soft power in our post-Sept. 11 world.

41. Funds To Secure Afghanistan
(Washington Times)...Said Tayeb Jawad
At the donors' conference tomorrow in Berlin, we will present a detailed report on how to secure Afghanistan's future — and the security internal stability brings to the world.

42. Constitutional Tempest In Iraq
(Washington Times)...Bruce Fein
Volcanic. That characterizes a heated symposium I attended in Ankara, Turkey, last week sponsored by the Foreign Policy Institute and Bilkent University to appraise "Iraq on the way to its new Constitution." The attendees included Iraqi participants in the March 8, 2004, interim constitution promulgated by the 25 member Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). Other attendees hailed from Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

43. Cooperation, Not Control, Key To Iraqi Democracy
(USA Today)...DeWayne Wickham
Last week, while much of the nation's attention was focused on the swirling debate over how and why the U.S. went to war in Iraq, the Bush administration formally extended America's military dominance of that troubled country.

44. Keep Iraq Above Politics
(Los Angeles Times)...James R. Schlesinger and Thomas R. Pickering
In the coming months, President George W. Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry will disagree about many critical national security issues, including the timing of the decision to go to war with Iraq and the effectiveness of our efforts since major combat ended.

EDITORIAL

45. Hearts, Minds And Padlocks
(New York Times)...Editorial
With so many forces trying to prove that America cannot bring stability and democracy to Iraq, it was sad to see the Bush administration's proconsul there, Paul Bremer III, issuing an order that is likely to set back both of those desirable goals.

46. Countdown In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Editorial
With only 93 days before the United States is to end its postwar occupation of Iraq, American troops still are immersed in a bloody and inconclusive conflict.

47. Time To Send In The Marines
(Long Island Newsday)...Editorial
One of the most biting arguments against President George W. Bush's obsessive focus on the Iraq war is the resulting dilution of military resources that could have been used to search out and destroy al-Qaida in its Afghan and Pakistani redoubts. That criticism will continue to haunt the Bush White House, but it's not too late to make up for that mistake. That's what the Pentagon is now doing. The timing is right.