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Today's Morning Brief is ready for you, General.
Our nominee for the "I hate America This Much" award - with bonus points for audacious headline - today goes to entry #40 "U.N. Record In Iraq Is Strong" in which our hero boldly defends the UN against the "scandal" of Oil For Food.
Enjoy
TOP STORIES
1. Marines Roll Into Fallouja
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry and Edmund Sanders
Thousands of Marines surrounded this anti-American stronghold early today and began moving in to retake control of the city and apprehend those responsible for last week's slayings of four U.S. security contractors.
2. Eight U.S. Troops Killed In Shiite Uprising
(Washington Post)...Karl Vick and Saad Sarhan
An armed Shiite revolt against the U.S.-led occupation erupted Sunday in Baghdad and other cities across Iraq's normally quiescent south. Nine soldiers, eight of them Americans, were killed, and three dozen were wounded, U.S. officials said.
3. 7 U.S. Soldiers Die In Iraq As A Shiite Militia Rises Up
(New York Times)...John F. Burns
...Within hours of a call by Mr. Sadr to his followers to "terrorize your enemy," his militiamen, said to number tens of thousands across Iraq, emerged into the streets of Baghdad, Najaf, Kufa and Amara, a city 250 miles south of Baghdad where four Iraqis were reported killed in clashes with British troops.
4. A Young Radical's Anti-U.S. Wrath Is Unleashed
(New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman
For months, as American occupation authorities have focused on a moderate Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a radical young Shiite cleric named Moktada al-Sadr has been spewing invective and threatening a widespread insurrection. On Sunday, he unleashed it.
5. Agenda For Iraqi Control Still Murky For U.S. And U.N.
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Warren P. Strobel
A counter on the Coalition Provisional Authority's Web site announces how long until the United States returns sovereignty to the Iraqi people. Yesterday, it stood at 88 days. For the Bush administration, there is little reason - or time - to celebrate.
NA (excerpts may follow)
6. How A Marine Lost His Command In Race To Baghdad
(Wall Street Journal)...Christopher Cooper
Two weeks into the war in Iraq, Marine Col. Joe D. Dowdy concluded the crowning military maneuver of his life, attacking an elite band of Iraqi troops and then shepherding 6,000 men on an 18-hour, high-speed race toward Baghdad.
IRAQ
7. Security Posts Created In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
On a day when violence raged throughout much of Iraq, the U.S. official in charge of the country announced the appointment of a defense minister and an intelligence director, who he said would help protect the nation.
8. Fallujah Leaders Set Defiant Tone
(USA Today)...Kevin Johnson
In a warning to the U.S.-led coalition, some local leaders in this restive city said they would endorse the continued killing of soldiers and foreign civilians as part of what they described as a justified resistance to the continued occupation of Iraq.
9. Militia May Disarm, But It Won't Dissolve
(Los Angeles Times)...Kim Murphy
Deadly clashes Sunday between soldiers with the U.S.-led coalition and fighters loyal to a radical Shiite cleric underscore the potential of militia groups to upset Iraq's transition to sovereignty and plunge the nation into armed conflict.
10. U.N. Envoy Arrives To Assist Transition
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
A U.N. team led by senior adviser Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Baghdad yesterday to guide Iraqis on an interim government after the U.S.-led occupation ends on June 30, the United Nations said.
11. Petraeus To Get Key Job In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who spent most of the past year in Iraq as commander of the 101st Airborne Division, is being sent back to that country to oversee the organization and training of all Iraqi military and security forces, Pentagon insiders said yesterday.
12. Prober: I Knew In Days U.S. 'Wrong' On WMD
(New York Daily News)...James Gordon Meek
The CIA's former weapons hunter in Iraq realized within days of arriving in Baghdad last summer that dictator Saddam Hussein was no longer stockpiling a banned arsenal, according to a new report.
13. Press Office Spreads Good News For Bush
(Miami Herald)...Associated Press
Inside the marble-floored palace hall that serves as the press office of the U.S.-led coalition, Republican Party operatives lead a team of Americans promoting mostly good news about Iraq.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
14. Agency Follows The Money Trail
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Seth Borenstein
...Defense Department Comptroller Dov Zakheim told Congress he created a special office of 25 defense contract agency auditors in Iraq last year and is increasing it to 31. He praised their work and said it showed how the Pentagon was unearthing its contracting problems and taking them seriously. Democrats also praise the agency but said it is being ignored.
15. U.S. Releases 15 More From Guantanamo
(Los Angeles Times)...Reuters
The United States has released 15 more prisoners from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sending them to Afghanistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Sudan, Iraq, Jordan and Yemen, the Pentagon said Friday.
ARMY
16. Commander Punished As Army Probes Detainee Treatment
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
The Army is investigating an allegation that U.S. troops killed an Iraqi detainee when they forced him and another man to jump from a bridge into the Tigris River, and a battalion commander has been disciplined for impeding the probe, officers familiar with the investigation said.
17. Army To Test N.Y. Guard Unit
(New York Daily News)...Juan Gonzalez
Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd Military Police Company of the New York Army National Guard for depleted uranium contamination.
18. Unit Gets New Look For Return To Iraq
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)...Ron Martz
...The brigade will have a significantly different look when it returns to Iraq. It is the first of the Army's 33 combat brigades to undergo reorganization into smaller, more mobile units that can operate independently and can be picked up and sent anywhere in the world when needed.
AIR FORCE
NA
19. New Type Of Jet To Be Based In Va.
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
Langley Air Force Base in Hampton will be the first to receive the next-generation fighter jet, the F/A-22 Raptor, according to the Air Force.
20. Safety Concerns Again Ground Academy Aircraft
(Colorado Springs Gazette)...Bill Hethcock
Fewer than 10 weeks after returning to the sky, 45 gliders and other aircraft were ordered grounded Friday by the Air Force Academy because of safety concerns.
TERRORISM
21. Spain Says Blast Killed Head Of Terror Cell
(Washington Post)...Pamela Rolfe
The alleged ringleader of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid was among four suspects who blew themselves up Saturday night as police stormed an apartment where they were hiding, Spain's interior minister said Sunday.
SEPTEMBER 11
22. Leaders Of 9/11 Panel Say Attacks Were Probably Preventable
(New York Times)...Philip Shenon
The leaders of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks agreed Sunday that evidence gathered by their panel showed the attacks could probably have been prevented.
23. Rice To Face Questions On Clarke
(Washington Post)...Charles Lane
The chairman of the national commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks outlined his strategy yesterday for questioning national security adviser Condoleezza Rice when she appears Thursday for public testimony.
CONGRESS
24. June 30 Goal Is Questioned By 2 Senators
(New York Times)...Felicity Barringer
L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator in Iraq, is scheduled to hold a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill early this week, two senior senators said Sunday. They warned that the June 30 date for transferring sovereignty to the Iraqis might be premature.
25. Key Senator Criticizes Prewar Data
(Los Angeles Times)...Bob Drogin
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday for the first time that Saddam Hussein's alleged mobile germ factories and labs probably "did not exist," and he sharply criticized prewar U.S. intelligence about Iraq's suspected weapons.
26. Silence On Deaths Of Iraqi Scientists Troubles Lawmaker
(Washington Times)...Rowan Scarborough
A Republican congressman says U.S. arms inspectors need to make the public better aware that Iraqi insurgents are assassinating scientists who could hold the key to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
ASIA/PACIFIC
27. Japan Support Of Missile Shield Could Tilt Asia Power Balance
(New York Times)...Norimitsu Onishi
As the United States races to erect a ballistic missile defense system by the end of the year, it is quietly enlisting Japan and other allies in Asia to take part in the network, which could reshape the balance of power in the region.
RUSSIA
28. U.S. Defense Visit
(Moscow Times)...Associated Press
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov will travel to the United States next week, visiting a facility that oversees transformation and modernization of NATO's military capabilities and participating in a conference on terrorism.
BUSINESS
NA
29. Boeing Will Soon Be Free To Bid For Rocket Work
(Wall Street Journal)...Andy Pasztor
The U.S. Air Force is about to reinstate Boeing Co. as an upstanding corporate citizen, making it eligible again for a share of government rocket work valued at as much as $5 billion through the end of the decade.
NA
30. The Dark Side Of Acquisition Reform
(Defense News)...David Phinney
...But the reforms also have spawned new varieties of contracts that may be too big and complex to effectively manage and oversee — especially because federal contracting and auditing staffs have been cut in half since the end of the Cold War. This reduction in force, Pedeleose and others say, has made it more difficult for contract auditors to do their jobs while making it increasingly tempting for companies to inflate their prices.
31. Defense Department Orders Viisage Printers
(Washington Post)...Anitha Reddy
The Defense Department agreed to buy 1,700 printers from Viisage Technology Inc. to print up to 10 million employee identification cards that could eventually store a range of biometric information, from fingerprints to retinal scans.
32. Combat In Iraq Dulls Appetite For Trade
(New York Times)...New York Times
Violence in Iraq is making foreign companies think twice about attending the country's first trade expo since Baghdad fell, an event aimed at bringing foreigners together with local businesses and government officials to plan Iraq's reconstruction.
33. Pentagon May Revise Aerial Tanker Plans
(Los Angeles Times)...Bloomberg News
The Pentagon is considering cheaper alternatives to replace its fleet of aerial refueling tankers after a $23-billion plan to lease and buy as many as 100 Boeing Co. 767s was delayed by a conflict-of-interest probe.
34. Boeing Tanker Falls Into 'If' Realm
(Wichita Eagle)...Alan Bjerga
...While still a believer that leasing Boeing tankers to the Air Force is the fastest way to fill a military need, Roberts, a staunch supporter of the $23.5 billion program, acknowledges that others think differently, and might end up killing plans for the Air Force to lease 20, then buy 80 tankers.
OPINION
35. Planes The Air Force Doesn't Need
(Washington Post)...George C. Wilson
Imagine paying $300 million for just one fighter plane. That's enough to build a 300-bed hospital or 10 new high schools, or pay for the national school lunch programs in the District, Maryland and Virginia for more than a year. Yet, the way things are going, now $300 million is what one Air Force F-22 fighter plane is going to cost us taxpayers.
36. Bold Basing Plan
(Washington Times)...Michael O'Hanlon
In an effort under way since 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his regional combatant commanders are completing a plan to revamp how the United States stations its military forces overseas.
37. The Lessons Of Mogadishu
(Wall Street Journal)...Mark Bowden
...The rebels in Iraq who ambushed those American security workers in Fallujah ought to be hunted down and brought to justice, but they are not the only ones responsible. The public celebration that followed was licensed and encouraged by whatever leadership exists in Fallujah. Whether religious or secular, its insult, warning, and challenge has been broadcast around the world. It must be answered. The photographic evidence should be used to help round up those who committed these atrocities, and those who tacitly or overtly encouraged it. A suitable punishment might be some weeks of unearthing the victims of Saddam Hussein's mass graves.
38. The Floo Floo Bird
(New York Times)...William Safire
...Today we are engaged in the wrong debate. The brouhaha about whether the new Bush administration treated the threat of Al Qaeda as "important" versus "urgent" is history almost as ancient as whether F.D.R. did enough to avert Pearl Harbor.
39. Corruption Charges Threaten Valuable U.N. Role In Iraq
(USA Today)...Editorial
...The charges could be shrugged off as the unfortunate but all-too-typical type of corruption that defines both dictators and international aid programs, except for one thing: The scandal tars an organization that could play a crucial supporting role in U.S. efforts to turn Iraq into a stable democracy. The oil-for-food corruption scandal raises serious questions about how the U.N. would handle that daunting job.
40. U.N. Record In Iraq Is Strong
(USA Today)...Joy Gordon
There has been much discussion lately about the ''scandal'' of the U.N.-run oil-for-food program. The Iraqi Governing Council charges that hundreds of Iraqi officials, foreign companies and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein skimmed 10% or so from the humanitarian contracts.
41. Bases In Iraq -- (Letter)
(Chicago Tribune)...William J. Luti, Deputy undersecretary
It is important to correct a misleading impression left by "14 'enduring bases' set in Iraq; Long-term military presence planned" (News, March 23). Iraq belongs to the Iraqis. Iraqi bases belong to the Iraqis.
EDITORIAL
42. Mystery Tribunal
(Washington Post)...Editorial
THE JUSTICE Department denies any detailed knowledge of it. The State Department's ambassador for human rights refuses -- "at this time" -- to answer questions about it. The Defense Department refers questions to the Coalition Provisional Authority -- and the CPA doesn't respond to queries about it. Given the nearly complete absence of information, how is it possible to judge the progress of Iraq's war crimes tribunal?
43. Tripoli Can Show The Way
(Los Angeles Times)...Editorial
...Iran may be more like Libya. It has no nuclear weapons yet, and the trade-offs for giving up its nuclear program — world recognition and economic aid — could be persuasive. Washington, London and their allies have carrots to offer Iran as well as sticks; they should extend both to get Tehran to stop concealing key elements of its nuclear program from international inspectors. Stopping nuclear proliferation should be the goal of every country. Having Kadafi preach that gospel will help.
