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A pass on the daily cartoon in favor of this shot of the woods behind Haus Greyhawk. The significance? A day before this there was no green in the trees.
Tomorrow, perhaps, I'll post the birdsong.
TOP STORIES
1. Deal Struck On Fallujah Attacks
(Washington Post)...Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Pamela Constable
American officials and local Iraqi leaders agreed Monday to a series of measures aimed at defusing tensions in the violence-wracked city of Fallujah, where fierce clashes between insurgents and U.S. Marines have killed hundreds of people over the past two weeks.
2. Support Is Growing For Sending More Troops To Iraq
(USA Today)...Rick Hampson
For three weeks the nation has been battered by the worst news from Iraq since the war began 13 months ago. But despite the shootings, bombings, sieges, ambushes, kidnappings and combat deaths, most Americans still support the war. And an increasing number think it should be stepped up.
3. Road Perils In Iraq Add To Chaos, Shortages
(Los Angeles Times)...Nicholas Riccardi and Edmund Sanders
At a sprawling desert camp in southern Iraq, U.S. soldiers sleep in trucks and Humvees because Iraqi merchants are afraid to deliver tents to them.
4. Bush Criticizes Spanish Pullout
(Washington Times)...Bill Sammon
President Bush yesterday rebuked Spain's new socialist prime minister for pulling Spanish troops out of Iraq, a move that prompted Honduras to follow suit while other nations stood firm.
5. Jordanian King Puts Off Meeting Bush Over Israel
(New York Times)...Steven R. Weisman
...The problems with Egypt and Jordan came as the administration faced another round of difficulties in its plans for Iraq, especially after the abrupt announcement by Spain that it would quickly withdraw its forces there in the face of a deteriorating security situation. Honduras announced Monday night that it would withdraw its 370 troops, which have been operating in Iraq as part of the Spanish contingent. Administration officials also said that Poland faced a decision on whether to renew its commitment to keep troops in Iraq, and that it was far from clear whether it would renew its pledge.
6. Poll Shows New Gains For Bush
(Washington Post)...Richard Morin and Dan Balz
President Bush holds significant advantages over John F. Kerry in public perceptions of who is better equipped to deal with Iraq and the war on terrorism, and he has reduced the advantages his Democratic challenger held last month on many domestic issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News Poll.
IRAQ
7. Deal Is Reached In Volatile Fallujah
(USA Today)...Jim Michaels
...Together, the developments suggested at least a temporary cooling of tensions in the two major hotspots of the anti-American insurgency that has made April the deadliest month of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
8. U.S. Gives Leaders In Falluja A Chance To End The Insurgency
(New York Times)...Ian Fisher
After days of talks and threats of a military showdown, American officials agreed Monday to call off an offensive in the flash point city of Falluja if civic leaders can persuade insurgents there to turn in their heavy weapons.
9. Insurgents Endanger Mosques, U.S. Military Warns Iraqis
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
...Marines and soldiers distributed leaflets in this farming village outside the encircled city of Fallouja asking residents to keep insurgents from using the local mosque for meetings or to store weapons. Included in the message was a warning: If insurgents shoot at U.S. forces from mosques, the buildings will lose their protected status and will be fired on.
10. U.S. Commanders Say Increased Border Patrols Are Halting The Influx Of Non-Iraqi Guerrillas
(New York Times)...Eric Schmitt
American and allied forces have choked the flow of foreign fighters coming into Iraq from Syria and Iran, curbing a small but persistent source of combatants that has fueled the insurgency, especially in the Sunni Muslim heartland, American military officers said Monday.
11. For Engineering Battalion, A Longer Haul
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
Army Spec. Matthew Rushing had packed his rucksack and was just two hours from departing on the convoy that would take him out of this turbulent country when he got the news: His battalion had been ordered to remain in Iraq for another four months. But Rushing, like many others in his engineering unit from the 1st Armored Division, is handling the delayed departure with equanimity.
12. Marines' Demeanor Toughens After Attack
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)...Ron Harris
The day after fighting in Husaybah left five of their brethren dead and at least a dozen wounded, a different, grimmer 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, returned to the city Sunday.
13. Marines Uncover Weapons Cache
(North County (CA) Times)...Darrin Mortenson
Without firing a shot or shedding any blood, Marines struck a huge blow to the insurgency on Monday when they uncovered a sizeable cache of heavy weapons in a roughneck neighborhood in northwest Fallujah.
14. 'It's Real Now,' Troops Say As Bullets Start To Fly
(Los Angeles Times)...Edmund Sanders
...For the next four hours, the soldiers got more contact with the enemy than they had bargained for. Unlike the usual skirmishes with insurgents, the 50 to 100 Al Mahdi fighters held their positions, even as the U.S. pummeled the grove with 150 mortars. Three U.S. soldiers were wounded. An estimated 20 to 40 Al Mahdi fighters were killed, the military said. The battle outside the Shiite holy city of Kufa on Friday marked first time many of the soldiers had seen combat or fired a shot. Their division, the 25th Infantry, hadn't seen combat since Vietnam.
15. Iraqis Show Captured U.S. Vehicle, Brag Of Fight
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Gunmen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr towed a battered Second Armored Cavalry Regiment humvee into Kufa police headquarters yesterday and said it was a trophy from a firefight they said left 16 Americans dead or wounded.
16. Bush Picks U.N. Envoy As Ambassador To Iraq
(Washington Post)...Robin Wright
President Bush yesterday nominated John D. Negroponte, the top U.S. diplomat at the United Nations, to be the new American ambassador to Iraq. He would head the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
17. Some Delayed Casualties Of Vietnam War
(Washington Post)...Monte Reel
Hundreds of family members gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial yesterday to read aloud the names of relatives who died of the lingering effects of the war, including illness linked to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange and suicides attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.
18. Soldiers' Stories From the Latest War
(Washington Post)...Philip Kennicott
...The NEA project is organized in partnership with the Department of Defense and the Southern Arts Federation, a nonprofit group based in Atlanta, and $250,000 of the $300,000 cost is being paid by Boeing. Writers visiting military bases will be paid a $3,000 honorarium. NEA officials say they don't expect the military to place any constraints on what is written, and that the volume that is eventually published will represent a diversity of viewpoints about the war.
19. Nontoxic Gas Test Near Pentagon To Aid Defense Against Attacks
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
The military will release an invisible nontoxic gas into the air around the Pentagon in the coming weeks as part of an effort to develop defenses against a chemical or biological attack, officials said Monday.
NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE
20. Army Fears Reservists Are Stretched Thin
(Dallas Morning News)...Richard Whittle
...Combined with the war on terrorism, the unexpected turmoil in Iraq has boosted the Army's demand for Reserve and National Guard troops to unprecedented levels – leaving their leaders worried that many reservists may quit to avoid repeated and often dangerous deployments.
WHITE HOUSE
21. Cheney Was Unwavering In Desire To Go To War
(Washington Post)...Bob Woodward
This is the third of five articles adapted from "Plan of Attack," a book by Bob Woodward that is a behind-the-scenes account of how and why President Bush decided to go to war against Iraq.
22. Bush Officials Deny Money Was Diverted For Iraq War
(New York Times)...Richard W. Stevenson and Carl Hulse
The Bush administration on Monday denied a report in a new book that it secretly diverted money intended for the effort to prevent terrorism in 2002 to prepare for an invasion of Iraq.
23. Powell Says He Was 'Committed' To Iraq War
(Washington Post)...Dan Morgan
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, responding to a new book about the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, said yesterday he was closely involved with planning for the attack and had been as "committed as anyone else" to toppling the government of Saddam Hussein.
CONGRESS
NA
24. Clinton To Push G.I. Health Tests
(New York Daily News)...Tamer El-Ghobashy
Sen. Hillary Clinton will call today on Pentagon officials to beef up programs that track radiation levels in soldiers returning from Iraq.
NORTH KOREA
NA
25. N. Korea's Kim Reportedly In China For Talks
(Washington Post)...Edward Cody and Anthony Faiola
The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, was reported to have pulled into Beijing aboard a special train car Monday for unusual face-to-face talks with Chinese leaders on the standoff over his country's nuclear weapons program.
26. N. Korean Nuclear Issue Simmers On A Back Burner
(Los Angeles Times)...Barbara Demick
...Dealing with Pyongyang's headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons, once described as the biggest security threat to the United States, has been downgraded to a droning diplomatic process with little sense of urgency — at least until after the U.S. presidential election.
AFGHANISTAN
27. Al Qaeda Disrupted In Pakistani Tribal Areas, General Says
(New York Times)...Carlotta Gall
The commander of American-led forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, said Monday that Pakistan had successfully disrupted the Qaeda network in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and had significantly affected its ability to support a suspected Taliban insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
28. Eight Al-Qaeda Suspects Arrested In Afghan Raid
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Unattributed
Local police and international peacekeepers raided a compound yesterday in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and arrested eight men suspected of ties to both al-Qaeda and a group loyal to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a peacekeeping spokesman said. Authorities seized weapons, explosives and documents that showed the suspects had links to both groups, the spokesman said. He did not reveal the names or nationalities of those held.
TERRORISM
29. At Court: Terror-War Detentions
(Christian Science Monitor)...Warren Richey
Legal challenges to the indefinite detention of Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have placed the US Supreme Court at a constitutional crossroads, with potential historic implications for the balance of power in American government.
30. Ridge Says Security Must Be Tightened
(USA Today)...Mimi Hall
The federal government plans to "ratchet up" security through early 2005 based on concerns that terrorists will strike during high-profile political, economic and athletic events, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday.
UNITED NATIONS
31. U.S. Effort On Arms Opposed
(Washington Post)...Colum Lynch
Pakistan, Brazil, Germany and other Security Council members are working to scale back a U.S. initiative meant to halt the spread of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to terrorist groups, on grounds the proposals could subject governments to sanctions and weaken the international system of disarmament treaties.
32. Probe Of Iraq Oil-For-Food Program Clears Hurdle
(Washington Times)...Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press
Russia dropped its opposition yesterday to a U.N. resolution endorsing an investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, clearing the way for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to take charge of the inquiry.
MEDIA
33. Rising Peril Impels Reporters To Join U.S. Units In Field
(Chicago Tribune)...John Cook
The number of journalists embedded with U.S. military units in Iraq has more than doubled over the past two weeks as a growing insurgency and a series of kidnappings have made it increasingly dangerous for civilians traveling without military protection.
34. 2 TV Station Workers Shot
(Miami Herald)...Associated Press
U.S. troops shot to death two employees of U.S.-funded television station Al Iraqiya and wounded a third in the central city of Samarra, the station said.
BUSINESS
35. Boeing Combat System Backed
(Seattle Times)...Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
Boeing's $92 billion program to develop a family of armored ground vehicles linked by high-speed communications, unmanned drones and new combat radios retains strong Pentagon support, the former comptroller of the Defense Department said.
OPINION
36. Treatment Of Terror Captives Diminishes U.S. Values
(USA Today)...Editorial
After U.S. forces attacked al-Qaeda and its Taliban protectors in October 2001, thousands of prisoners were swept up amid the fighting across Afghanistan. More than two years later, nearly 600 captives remain jailed in a military prison built at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments over whether the Bush administration must justify its claimed right to hold these captives indefinitely.
37. U.S. Acts Under Laws Of War
(USA Today)...Thomas W. O'Connell
...We have a right to defend ourselves. And yet, faced with our enemy's barbaric conduct, the United States continues to act in accordance with the laws of war. Under such laws, captured enemy combatants may be detained until the end of hostilities.
NA
38. War Comes To Court
(Wall Street Journal)...Ruth Wedgwood
Today the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal regarding wartime operations abroad and the capture of foreign enemy combatants that could have grave consequences for the outcome of the war on terror. The high court has been asked to overthrow settled precedent and extend the writ of habeas corpus to foreign combatants captured outside the U.S. and interned at Guantanamo. The plea is to require the president of the United States to prove to the satisfaction of a federal judge that each capture of an al Qaeda or Taliban combatant is supported by sufficient evidence.
39. America's Prisoners, American Rights
(New York Times)...David Cole
Today the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether the United States government can detain foreign nationals held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as "enemy combatants" without charge and without hearings. Next week the court will hear arguments in similar cases involving American citizens. Many consider the detention of citizens to be more dubious legally. But from a constitutional standpoint, citizenship should not matter.
40. Bicycling To War
(Washington Post)...Richard Cohen
...But as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Vanity Fair in an amazingly candid interview, Hussein's purported arsenal was almost beside the point -- not the prime reason for going to war. The real reason, as Woodward's book makes clear, was the president's conviction that he was in an epochal fight against evil and had the historic opportunity to reorder the Middle East.
NA
41. Farewell To The New Europe?
(Washington Times)...Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
...Unfortunately, Old Europe is poised to have the last laugh. The European Union is about to foist a draft constitution on all its New European members and Great Britain that will virtually ensure that, from now on, the French and Germans will be able, among other things, to enforce a single foreign and defense policy. Inevitably, the party line will more closely resemble their anti-American predilections than the trans-Atlantic reflexes of our traditional and new-found friends there.
42. U.S. Saber Rattling Worries Castro Regime
(USA Today)...DeWayne Wickham
Ricardo Alarcón believes the Bush administration has Cuba in its cross hairs. He thinks it is only a matter of time before a U.S. invasion force descends upon this island nation in an attempt to force a regime change.
NA
43. Navy's Central Planning On Computers Bogs Down -- (Letter)
(Wall Street Journal)...David R. Henderson
The article on EDS's megacontract with the U.S. Navy ("Sink or Swim: After Landing Huge Navy Pact, EDS Finds It's In Over Its Head," April 6) understandably focused on EDS's huge losses from the contract. But the situation is even worse. Most rank and file Navy users are unhappy with the Navy's and EDS's centralized plan for personal computers and for the Navy's own Intranet. According to the Feb. 23 Government Computing News, 72% of respondents to a survey disagreed that the vaunted Navy-Marine Corps Intranet was on track.
EDITORIAL
NA
44. Bush's Brahimi Gamble
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
One mystery of the last year in Iraq is that a U.S. occupation that is supposed to midwife democracy has put so little trust in Iraqis. The Bush Administration may be compounding that error now by abdicating decisions about the June 30 transition to Iraqi rule to U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
45. The U.N. In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Editorial
...A year ago we argued for the internationalization of Iraq's postwar administration. Regrettably, that option no longer exists. After a year of occupation, Iraqis are impatient to take back control of their country and are not likely to accept continued rule by foreigners, even under U.N. auspices. Meanwhile, the United Nations' standing in Iraq, already questionable during the rule of Saddam Hussein, has been weakened. The bombing of the agency's headquarters in Baghdad has shaken the institution and left Secretary General Kofi Annan and his staff deeply reluctant to reestablish a large presence. A growing scandal over U.N. management of the oil-for-food program has further damaged its reputation.
NA
46. 'Gestapo' Tactics
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
...Another Woodward disclosure about Mr. Powell's collegiality is the way America's top diplomat refers privately to the Pentagon policy shop run by Undersecretary Douglas Feith. Mr. Powell reportedly accuses Dick Cheney, Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Mr. Feith and his "Gestapo office" of running what amounted to a separate government.
