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Yesterday I promised birdsong, and the earlybirds got to hear and see it. The link is down now. I'll describe: The video was dark, of course, but the birds were at their loudest at dawn. The image above is from a couple hours later. Enjoy.
Perhaps more such things will come and go today, as I celebrate record bandwidth use.
TOP STORIES
1. Pentagon Drafts Iraq Troop Plan To Meet Violence
(New York Times)...Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger
The Pentagon has drawn up plans to send fresh troops quickly to Iraq in case it decides it must keep 135,000 or more American soldiers deployed beyond July, senior officials said Tuesday.
2. War May Require More Money Soon
(Washington Post)...Jonathan Weisman
Intense combat in Iraq is chewing up military hardware and consuming money at an unexpectedly rapid rate -- depleting military coffers, straining defense contractors and putting pressure on Bush administration officials to seek a major boost in war funding long before they had hoped.
3. Allies Expected To Stay On 'Sidelines'
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz yesterday told a Senate committee that he doesn't expect more allies to put troops on the ground in Iraq as long as fighting continues, even if the United Nations is given a greater role.
4. Several Blasts Kill 30 In Basra
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry, Said Rifai and Jeffrey Fleishman
Car bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside three police stations in the southern city of Basra early today, killing at least 30 people and injuring dozens of others.
5. Pentagon Deleted Rumsfeld Comment
(Washington Post)...Mike Allen
The Pentagon deleted from a public transcript a statement Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made to author Bob Woodward suggesting that the administration gave Saudi Arabia a two-month heads-up that President Bush had decided to invade Iraq.
6. Justices Question Wartime Powers
(USA Today)...Joan Biskupic
Several Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism Tuesday about the Bush administration's effort to block court hearings for nearly 600 foreigners who are being held at a military base in Cuba as part of an anti-terrorism policy.
IRAQ
7. U.S. Generals Fault Ban On Hussein's Party
(New York Times)...Eric Schmitt
Two American generals warned Tuesday that the occupation authority's policy of barring former Baath Party members, including senior Iraqi Army officers, from government jobs was self-defeating and breeding resentment against the American-led efforts in the country.
8. Shelling Kills 22 Prisoners In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Insurgents launched a mortar attack on the former Abu Ghraib prison outside the capital on Tuesday, killing 22 Iraqi prisoners and injuring more than 90 others. The U.S. military said those killed in the 18-shell barrage were either former members of Saddam Hussein's government or people involved in attacks on American forces.
9. Troops Start To End Siege Of Najaf
(Washington Times)...P. Mitchell Prothero, United Press International
U.S. troops began to withdraw from a base near the city of Najaf yesterday, signaling an unwillingness to enter the Shi'ite holy city in pursuit of a radical cleric the U.S.-led coalition once vowed to capture "dead or alive."
10. Tribunal Arranged To Try Saddam
(Washington Times)...Louis Meixler, Associated Press
Iraqi leaders have set up a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and other members of his Ba'athist regime, a spokesman announced yesterday.
11. Attacks On Convoys Isolate Coalition's HQ
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Carol Rosenberg
...Two weeks into a wave of attacks that have destroyed dozens of convoys carrying crucial goods to the capital, the insurgent campaign has disrupted life for the U.S.-led coalition - even in the Green Zone, the city within this city where U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and 5,000 coalition members live and work. The experience has underscored how isolated the U.S. operation is from the Iraqi society it's trying to transform. Outside the zone, life goes on, and food and other necessities appear to be plentiful.
12. Cleric's Militia Upends Shiite Power Balance
(New York Times)...Edward Wong
The meeting signaled a change in the balance of Shiite political power in this inflamed country and a triumph, at least for now, of the Kalashnikov over the Koran.
NA
13. Army Chief Admits Friction With US Commanders
(London Times)...Michael Evans
CONTRASTING ideas about the way to keep the peace in Iraq led to friction between British and American commanders, the head of the Army admitted yesterday.
14. Truce Lets Families Return To Falluja, A Few At A Time
(New York Times)...John Kifner
A tenuous peace deal between the American occupation forces and the embattled city of Falluja got off to a slow and sometimes chaotic start on Tuesday. A handful of families managed to return home, hundreds of people trying to were stranded along the road and Iraqi security forces whose loyalty was suspect only days ago lined up to return to patrol.
15. Another Nation To Pull Iraq Troops
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Services
The Dominican Republic will pull its 302 troops out of Iraq early, and Thailand will withdraw its 451 medical and engineering troops if they are attacked, officials said.
16. Iraqi Backer Of U.S. Became Its Victim
(Los Angeles Times)...Patrick J. McDonnell
Journalist slain with his driver by troops had supported occupation. Reaction to his death shows moderates losing faith in Americans.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
17. Academies Taking Attitude Surveys
(Colorado Springs Gazette)...Pam Zubeck
Students at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies began filling out identical attitude surveys Monday for the first time in history.
18. World In Brief
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
A Spanish High Court judge asked the United States to hand over documents on the death of a Spanish cameraman killed in a U.S. tank attack on a Baghdad hotel during the Iraq war.
NAVY
19. Judge Blocks Navy's Plan For Airfield Near Flyway
(New York Times)...Felicity Barringer
A federal judge in North Carolina has ordered the Navy to halt its efforts to create a new landing field for training pilots five miles from a large migratory bird refuge, pending further court rulings.
NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE
20. Army Hopes It Has Enough In Reserve
(Baltimore Sun)...Dan Fesperman
...With the Reserves and the National Guard filling an ever-busier role in military forces already stretched to the limit, re-enlistment decisions have become a worrisome issue for the Pentagon, especially because the 90-day waiting period has begun expiring for many citizen soldiers who were part of the first lengthy deployments to Iraq.
WHITE HOUSE
21. Blair Steady In Support
(Washington Post)...Bob Woodward
This is the fourth 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-Cheney Interview On 9/11 Is Set
(New York Times)...New York Times
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will appear together on April 29 before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, an official said Tuesday.
CONGRESS
23. Wolfowitz Denies Woodward Report
(Washington Post)...Dan Morgan
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday denied a report in a new book that the Pentagon in 2002 secretly diverted $700 million to a covert military construction program in Kuwait linked to a future war with Iraq without adequately informing Congress.
24. Wolfowitz Denies Secret Iraq War Funding
(USA Today)...Tom Squitieri
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz denied on Tuesday to angry Democrats on Capitol Hill that the Bush administration secretly financed preparations for the war in Iraq long before last year's invasion.
25. Hil Takes Brass On And G.I.s Win
(New York Daily News)...Richard Sisk
The U.S. military's top general pledged yesterday to shake up the system to improve the screening and tracking of troops who may have been exposed to uranium dust in the Iraq war.
26. Defense Official: U.N. Act May Not Sway Allies
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press
Even though the United States intends to seek a new U.N. resolution on Iraq, the effort is unlikely to persuade more allies to send troops as long as fighting continues, the Pentagon's No. 2 official said yesterday.
27. Administration Takes Friendly Fire At Hearing
(Los Angeles Times)...Mary Curtius And Janet Hook
Stifling private concerns about the direction of events in Iraq, Senate Republicans on Tuesday gave the Bush administration a largely supportive platform for restating its case for war as Congress began three days of hearings on the planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty.
28. Byrd Questions Use Of Money For Iraq
(New York Times)...Carl Hulse
Senator Robert C. Byrd, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that the administration might have broken the law by failing to inform Congressional leaders in mid-2002 of its use of emergency antiterror dollars to begin preparations for an invasion of Iraq.
29. Constituents' Iraq Worries Growing, Lawmakers Say
(Washington Post)...Helen Dewar
Lawmakers returning from their spring break say constituents are increasingly concerned about what they see as a lack of progress toward stability in Iraq, and want President Bush to spell out a clear strategy for victory.
30. Congress To Consider Tax Break For Guard And Reserve Families
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
Financially strapped National Guard and Reserve troops on duty for six months or more would be allowed to tap into their retirement accounts without penalty under a bill coming up for debate today.
NA
31. House Armed Services Committee May Authorize War Supplemental For FY05
(National Journal's CongressDailyAM)...Amy Klamper
As violence against U.S. troops escalates in Iraq, the House Armed Services Committee may consider authorizing appropriations to pay for an increase in the number of active duty and reserve troops and other costs associated with the ongoing fight against terrorism, according to congressional aides.
32. We May Need Draft For Iraq: GOPer
(New York Post)...Niles Lathem
A senator said yesterday that the United States might have to reinstate the military draft to cope with the shortage of soldiers in strife-torn Iraq.
BUSINESS
NA
33. Former Boeing Official Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy
(Wall Street Journal)...J. Lynn Lunsford and Andy Pasztor
A former senior Air Force official pleaded guilty to improperly discussing a job with Boeing Co. weeks before removing herself from negotiations involving a $23 billion defense contract sought by the company.
34. Ex-Pentagon Official Admits Job Deal
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle and Jerry Markon
...Darleen A. Druyun, 56, is the highest-ranking Pentagon official to be implicated in a corruption case since the 1980s. After pleading guilty in federal court in Alexandria, she was released on a $25,000 personal-recognizance bond and faces up to five years in prison when sentenced in August. Her voice breaking, she stood before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III and said she "would like to apologize for my actions, apologize to my family and to my nation."
35. Air Force's Top Brass Praises Raptor
(Atlanta Journal and Constitution)...Dave Hirschman
Despite concern among government auditors that Lockheed Martin's F/A-22 Raptor and C-130J Hercules aircraft are too costly or fail to meet performance requirements, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper gave the Marietta-built planes glowing reports Tuesday.
MIDEAST
36. U.S. Sees Syria 'Facilitating' Insurgents
(Washington Times)...Rowan Scarborough
Syria is "facilitating" the movement of foreign fighters into Iraq and helping supply them with arms, according to U.S. military officials with access to intelligence reports.
37. Arab Allies Tell U.S. Of Rising Anger
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Barry Schweid, Associated Press
...The war in Iraq, and a shift on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, has left the Bush administration facing growing hostility and an estrangement from friends across the Middle East.
NORTH KOREA
38. China Reportedly Urges N. Korea To Ease U.S. Stance
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
China reportedly is urging North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to ease his hard-line stance toward the United States, a sign of Beijing's impatience with its Communist ally's insistence on building nuclear weapons.
ASIA/PACIFIC
NA
39. Musharraf May Pose Dilemma For U.S.
(Wall Street Journal)...Zahid Hussain and Jay Solomon
...Political analysts in Islamabad say that should Gen. Musharraf quit his army post by Dec. 31 -- as he is required to do by Pakistan's constitution -- he will lose significant influence within the military. That, in turn, could diminish Pakistan's support for the war on al Qaeda's Islamist terrorists, since many Pakistanis are critical of Islamabad's alliance with Washington.
NA
40. U.S. To Provide 26 Utility Helicopters To Pakistan
(Defense Daily)...Sharon Weinberger
The United States government is set to approve the sale of a range of new military equipment to the Pakistani military, including 26 utility helicopters, according to a senior Pentagon official.
HAITI
41. U.N. Team To Offer U.S. Relief In Securing Haiti
(Washington Post)...Colum Lynch
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called Tuesday for establishment of a force of 6,700 U.N. troops to relieve a U.S.-led multinational mission that has maintained security in Haiti since the Feb. 29 departure of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
POLITICS
42. A Marine Jumps Party Lines To Join Democrats In Trenches
(Wall Street Journal)...Michael M. Phillips
...With Vietnam veteran John Kerry at the top of the ticket and unease growing over the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and terrorism, Democrats are hoping to tap a new constituency: members of the military and veterans, who vote overwhelmingly Republican.
TERRORISM
43. U.S. Depicts A Weaker Al Qaeda, But Bin Laden Remains Elusive
(Miami Herald)...Katherine Pfleger Shrader, Associated Press
The nation's top counterterrorism and intelligence officials have reassured Congress repeatedly about the significantly diminished capabilities of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Yet outside experts note that bin Laden has evaded capture during almost three years of pursuit by U.S. and other forces and remains able to communicate an increasingly sophisticated and targeted message to possible followers worldwide.
OPINION
NA
44. Secure Borders, Open Doors
(Wall Street Journal)...Colin L. Powell
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacked our homeland, ruthlessly exploiting our openness, and killing some 3,000 people from 90 countries. But President Bush and the American people are determined that they shall not shatter our will or shut down our free and democratic society. In response to the attacks, the U.S. and our allies launched a global war on terrorism. At the same time, the president resolved to keep our doors open and our borders secure. We are doing our utmost to balance the need to protect our citizens with the need to preserve America's accessibility.
45. The Real Nuclear Danger
(New York Times)...Nicholas D. Kristof
...North Korea is potentially more dangerous than the mess in Iraq. It probably has at least 1 to 3 nuclear weapons already, it is producing both plutonium and uranium, and it is on track to have close to 10 nuclear weapons by the end of this year. Yet because President Bush's policy has failed in North Korea, Washington is determinedly looking the other way. When we next focus on North Korea, after the election, it could be a nuclear Wal-Mart.
NA
46. Public Still Backs Bush On Iraq War, Though It's Fretting
(Wall Street Journal)...Gerald F. Seib
A spate of new public polling produces a surprising picture: After three weeks of the worst news yet from the yearlong American engagement in Iraq, public support for the effort hasn't seriously eroded.
EDITORIAL
47. Privatizing Warfare
(New York Times)...Editorial
It's one thing for the military to outsource food and laundry services to private firms, as it started doing aggressively in the 1990's, but it's quite another to outsource the actual fighting. That is what the Pentagon is perilously close to doing in Iraq.
