7 Apr 04 Morning Briefing

TOP STORIES

1. U.S. Forces Take Heavy Losses As Violence Spreads Across Iraq
(Washington Post)...Anthony Shadid
Sunni Muslim insurgents killed about a dozen U.S. Marines in heavy fighting Tuesday in the western city of Ramadi, a military spokesman said. Troops from the United States and several allied countries also came under fire from militiamen loyal to Moqtada Sadr, a militant Shiite Muslim cleric, in cities across southern Iraq.

2. Fierce Fighting With Sunnis And Shiites Spreads To 6 Iraqi Cities
(New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman and Douglas Jehl
...It was one of the most violent days in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with half a dozen cities ignited. One of the biggest questions at day's end was the role of most of the majority Shiites previously thought to be relatively sympathetic to American goals. The heaviest fighting raged in Falluja and Ramadi, strongholds of the Sunni minority favored by Mr. Hussein that have been flash points of anti-American resistance.

3. Troops Gaining Grip In Sections Of Fallujah
(Washington Post)...Pamela Constable
U.S. Marines established control Tuesday over portions of this volatile city, following two days and nights of resistance by insurgents firing from rooftops, windows and doorways.

4. In Visit To Norfolk, Rumsfeld Calls For U.N. To Take Leading Role In Iraq
(Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)...Dale Eisman
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld looked longingly toward NATO on Tuesday for help in responding to rapidly escalating violence in Iraq, but he acknowledged that the Atlantic alliance will be busy for the foreseeable future with attempts to rebuild Afghanistan. “I would be delighted to see NATO take a larger role,” said Rumsfeld after a private meeting with defense ministers from the alliance’s 26 nations.

5. Rumsfeld Sets NATO Priorities
(Newport News Daily Press)...Stephanie Heinatz
NATO is likely to play a larger role in Afghanistan before it commits any additional support to the war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said here Tuesday. At a news briefing, also attended by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Rumsfeld also said American forces in Iraq had captured several people thought to have taken part in last week's killing and mutilation of four private security workers in Fallujah. And he said that if military commanders in Iraq asked for more troops, they would get them.

6. U.S. Firm On Iraq Handoff
(Los Angeles Times)...Paul Richter and Sonni Efron
One of the few things untouched by the new violence spreading across Iraq is the ringing U.S. insistence that no amount of instability will derail American plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.

IRAQ

7. Iran, Hezbollah Support Al-Sadr
(Washington Times)...Rowan Scarborough
Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery Iraqi Shi'ite cleric who ordered his fanatical militia to attack coalition troops, is being supported by Iran and its terror surrogate Hezbollah, according to military sources with access to recent intelligence reports. Sheik al-Sadr's bid to spark a widespread uprising in Iraq comes at a particularly pivotal time. The United States is conducting a massive troop rotation that leaves inexperienced troops in some locations, including Fallujah, which is west of Baghdad and where Sunnis have mounted another series of rebellions.

8. U.S. Says It Won’t Move Quickly Against Sadr
(New York Times)...Douglas Jehl
American military commanders and civilian officials have decided to move slowly in carrying out any retaliation against Moktada al-Sadr, fearing that if American forces kill or arrest the rebellious Shiite cleric now, wider violence may be ignited, senior Defense Department officials said Tuesday.

9. Fear Of Losing Control Drives Assault
(USA Today)...Tom Squitieri
...The Marines planned on using different tactics even before the civilian contractors' murders. Marine officers had planned on having troops patrolling the streets and neighborhoods in an effort to win over the population and gather intelligence. But the killings last Wednesday required a quick and aggressive response and indicated the local police and civil defense forces can't be counted on to confront insurgents.

10. Marines Fight On, Roof To Roof
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...David Swanson
The fighting here started as a series of well-coordinated Iraqi ambushes of routine Marine patrols. It turned into a day of nonstop, house-to- house, roof-to-roof fighting with Marines at times surrounded and holding on desperately. It was a cacophony of fire for five or six hours, leaving the bodies of Iraqi attackers lying mangled in the dust, one with its head gone, but still clad in a vintage U.S.-made flak jacket. Marines stepped warily around the Iraqi bodies, looking for their own comrades. American Cobra and Chinook helicopters thumped overhead, and Bradley Fighting Vehicles rumbled on the roads.

11. Crackdown A Gamble, U.S. Officials Concede
(Miami Herald)...Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott
Bush administration officials sought Tuesday to cast the rebellion in Iraq as the work of a minority, saying plans to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30 remain on target despite spreading violence. Privately, however, senior officials said the spreading battle between the United States and followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr could be a turning point in the yearlong U.S. effort to pacify and rebuild Iraq.

12. Attacks Against U.S. Urged On Audiotape
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Samia Nakhoul, Reuters
An audiotape purportedly recorded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, regarded by the United States as a top al-Qaeda operative, urges Islamic militants to step up attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and their Shiite Muslim "collaborators." Zarqawi, widely believed to be in Iraq, was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan yesterday in connection with the killing of U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley in October 2002.

13. Muslim Rivals Unite In Baghdad Uprising
(Washington Post)...Karl Vick
On the streets of Baghdad neighborhoods long defined by differences of faith and politics, signs are emerging that resistance to the U.S. occupation may be growing from a sporadic, underground effort to a broader insurrection by militiamen who claim to be fighting in the name of their common faith, Islam.

14. At Word Of U.S. Foray, A Baghdad Militia Erupts
(New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman
The word went out on Tuesday at noon, with the blast of the call to prayer: American soldiers had raided an office of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, and torn up a poster of his father, one of Iraq's most revered martyrs. The Khadamiya bazaar exploded in a frenzy. Shopkeepers reached beneath stacks of sandals for Kalashnikov rifles. Boys wrapped their faces in black cloth. Men raced through the streets, kicking over crates and setting up barriers. Some handed out grenades. Within minutes this entire Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad had mobilized for war.

15. Clashes In Iraq Threaten To Undermine Political Process
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan and Robin Wright
Three days of violent clashes have shaken the already fractious and fragile political process that is supposed to result in a sovereign Iraq in less than 90 days.

16. Anxious Moments In Grip Of An Outlaw Iraqi Militia
(New York Times)...John F. Burns
If Moktada al-Sadr has chosen a grand mosque in this Euphrates River town for a last stand against American troops, as many of his militiamen have claimed in recent days, he appears to be relying more on the will of God than anything like military discipline to protect him.

17. Iraqis Meet With War Crimes Trial Experts
(New York Times)...Marlise Simons
Ten Iraqi judges and prosecutors preparing to try Saddam Hussein and members of his government have quietly met here with veterans of international war crimes tribunals to draw on their experience of judging atrocities in the Balkans, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, according to the Iraqis and other participants.

NA
18. U.N. Envoy Busy Despite Violence
(USA Today)...Unattributed
United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met politicians, women’s groups and hu­man rights activists in Iraq in his quest to help the country decide on an interim gov­ernment to take power on June 30.

19. Japanese Troops Halt Operations
(Unattributed
Japanese troops helping with recon­struction in Iraq will suspend operations outside their base because of security con­cerns following clashes in a nearby city, a media report said.

20. Blix: Iraq Worse Off Than Under Hussein
(Dallas Morning News)...Associated Press
Iraq is worse off now after the U.S.-led invasion than it was under Saddam Hussein, Hans Blix told a Danish newspaper Tuesday.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

21. Rumsfeld Talks At Academy Of Changing Role Of Forces
(Annapolis Capital)...Earl Kelly
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that Naval Academy graduates in the future should expect to serve in a military in which different branches of the service work closer together than in the past. Speaking to a small group of journalists at the academy, Mr. Rumsfeld said wars in the foreseeable future will be different from traditional wars that featured "big armies and big navies."

22. DOD Proposes Easing Green Laws
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
The Defense Department wants the government to ease environmental laws to avoid costly cleanups of military ranges and give states more time to handle air pollution from training exercises. The proposed changes were submitted to Congress as part of the Pentagon's renewed drive to ease several environmental laws in the name of military readiness.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

23. Fighter Jet Escort Of Passenger Planes Was Only For Show
(Washington Post)...Liz Seymour
Some of the tourists and office workers enjoying a sunny lunchtime in Washington yesterday were startled to see two fighter jets flying escort-style near two passenger planes, but it turned out to be an aerial photo shoot staged by the D.C. Air National Guard.

BUSINESS

24. Boeing's Tanker Program Unfazed
(Wichita Eagle)...Molly McMillin
As the political furor continues in Washington over Boeing's plan to sell or lease modified 767s as refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force, life goes on for 900 Boeing Wichita workers already working on the tanker program.

NA
25. Boeing Tanker Profit Clause Flawed, Audit Says
(Bloomberg.com)...Tony Capaccio
Boeing Co. and the Air Force negotiated a "highly detrimental" provision in their proposed $23 billion aerial-refueling tanker program that doesn't adequately protect the government, Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz said in a report.

NA
26. Boeing Official Predicts Tanker Deal To Be Completed In '04
(National Journal's CongressDaily)...Amy Klamper
The president and CEO of the Boeing Co. defense and space unit said today that audits and investigations into the proposed lease of its airborne tankers will not keep the deal from moving forward.

SEPTEMBER 11

27. 'Armageddon' Plan Was Put Into Action On 9/11, Clarke Says
(Washington Post)...Howard Kurtz
An "Armageddon" program designed to ensure that the federal government would continue to function in the aftermath of a nuclear war was put into place during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to ABC's "Nightline," which plans to report its findings tonight, every federal agency shifted its control to an alternate headquarters outside Washington.

AFGHANISTAN

28. Afghanistan Not Ready For Election, U.N. Official Says
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
Afghanistan's elections, already postponed until September, will still be jeopardized unless security improves and military forces are disarmed, a senior U.N. official warned yesterday. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno said it is vital that the Afghan government meet its commitment to speed up disarmament efforts, demobilize 40 percent of current militias and lock up all heavy weapons by June.

29. Mullah Omar Threatens Afghan Suicide Blitz
(London Sunday Times)...Christina Lamb
...Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime, has broken his silence. Denying that he has been injured, he claims that the Taliban has created a 2,000-strong suicide squad and warns that it will attack targets ranging from women aid workers to people registering to vote in forthcoming Afghan elections. “We will kill all those who support the US and its allies in any manner,” he said. “America is the greatest evil on earth. Whoever is the friend of the US is the enemy of Islam. We have already consigned to hell more than 1,000 infidels, including Americans, their allies and their Afghan flunkies.”

ASIA/PACIFIC

30. Looking For Friendly Overseas Base, Pentagon Finds It Already Has One
(New York Times)...James Brooke
...Away for more than a decade, the B-52's, the United States' largest bombers, are back in Guam, part of a wide-ranging drive by the Pentagon to make this island, an American territory, a "power projection hub" on the edge of Asia. "We are openly talking about putting a fighter wing there, a tanker squadron there, a Global Hawk group there," Gen. William J. Begert, Pacific Air Forces commander, said by telephone from Hawaii, almost 4,000 miles east of here.

NA
31. China To Press U.S. Over Taiwan Arms Sales
(Wall Street Journal)...Associated Press
China will use a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney next week to press Washington to stop selling advanced weapons to rival Taiwan , arguing the practice damages regional stability, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Mr. Cheney's visit comes two weeks after the Pentagon approved the sale to Taiwan of an early-warning military radar system that could help the island defend itself against Chinese missiles.

NA
32. U.S. Backs Off Ambassador’s Comments
(USA Today)...Unattributed
The State Department praised Pakistan’s military efforts to track down extremist elements and ap­peared to back away from comments by a U.S. diplo­mat that the Pakistanis should be doing more. U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Monday that Pakistan must eliminate terrorist sanc­tuaries on its territory or the United States will do it. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said there has been “concerted and courageous actions by Paki­stani forces” against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces.

GUANTANAMO

NA
33. U.S. Navy Lawyer Files Suit Over Tribunal Policy, Practices
(Wall Street Journal)...Jess Bravin
A U.S. Navy lawyer filed a lawsuit charging that planned military tribunals for foreign terror suspects are unconstitutional and that authorities at Guantanamo Bay might have tried coercing a prisoner's confession before he could meet with an attorney.

OPINION

34. As NATO Grows, So Do Russia’s Worries
(New York Times)...Sergei Ivanov
Russians have been remarkably calm about the latest stage in NATO's eastward enlargement — the addition of seven new members, including the neighboring Baltic states, last week. However, one question remains on all our minds: why is an organization that was designed to oppose the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe still necessary in today's world?

35. Two-Front Insurgency
(New York Times)...William Safire
In light of about a dozen American combat deaths yesterday, we should keep in mind our historic bet: that given their freedom from a savage tyrant, the three groups that make up Iraq could, with our help, create a rudimentary democracy that would turn the tide against terror.

36. A War President's Job
(Washington Post)...George F. Will
...Since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have been told that they are at war. They have not been told what sacrifices, material and emotional, they must make to sustain multiple regime changes and nation-building projects. Telling such truths is part of the job description of a war president.

37. In Iraq, Without Options
(Washington Post)...Harold Meyerson
So now the president's war of choice has led to an occupation with no good options.

38. A Soldier Assures Us: Our Progress Is Amazing
(Houston Chronicle)...Joe Roche
I'm a soldier with the U.S. Army serving in the 16th Combat Engineer Battalion in Baghdad. The news you are hearing stateside is awfully depressing and negative. The reality is we are accomplishing a tremendous amount here, and the Iraqi people are not only benefiting greatly, but are enthusiastically supportive.

NA
39. Religious Fervor Takes Iraq Conflict Into A Scary Phase
(Wall Street Journal)...Gerald F. Seib
The U.S. suddenly finds itself trapped not so much in a civil war in Iraq, but in something different: a religious war.

40. North Korea And Nuclear Terror
(Washington Times)...William C. Triplett II
For all its good work, the September 11 commission is a debate about the past. The prime threat for the future, that a rogue state such as North Korea will sell a nuclear weapon to a terrorist group, is of a magnitude far greater than the threats we have faced heretofore, and the relevant authorities are just now beginning to come to grips with it.

41. Slowness Kills
(Wall Street Journal)...Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
Contract scandals have become the most purely partisan exercise related to the Iraq war, starting with the hilariously disingenuous attempts to link every snafu related to Halliburton's many duties and projects in the war zone with the vice president's office.

EDITORIAL

42. Iraq Needs A Credible U.N.
(New York Times)...Editorial
For the first time since last May, word came yesterday that American forces were engaged in serious combat in Iraq, this time against Iraqi insurgent forces who attacked American marines in a city southwest of Baghdad, and against an armed Sunni resistance in the town of Falluja. Reports of significant casualties on both sides in the pitched battle in the city of Ramadi were a grim and powerful reminder of how badly the United States needs a strong, credible and engaged United Nations.

43. All Nations Have A Stake In Stabilizing Iraq
(USA Today)...Editorial
...The flare-up of fighting shows how U.S. plans to turn over power to Iraqis on June 30 could be set back by unexpected events. Still, the sooner an independent Iraqi government can emerge, the sooner it can try to rally global support. A successful appeal would give the Iraqi people hope that the world community — not just U.S. troops — wants to help them achieve a peaceful future.

NA
44. Saddam's U.N. Financiers
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee opens hearings today on the Iraqi Oil for Food scandal, to be followed by the House later this month. We hope the Members are serious, because the unfortunate truth is that without pressure from the U.S. we'll never get to the murky bottom.