Bush warns of increased Iraq attacks

President Bush yesterday said recent violence in Iraq would not delay the transfer of authority on June 30 and warned that attacks against Americans would intensify as the turnover draws near.
"The closer we come to the deadline, the more likely it is people will challenge our will," he told reporters during a visit to North Carolina. "It provides a convenient excuse to attack."
Mr. Bush insisted attempts to incite a religiously based civil war between Sunnis and Shi'ites will fail, referring to a strategy foreshadowed in a letter written by al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi to a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden.

posted by Frodgie at 9:27 AM

 

Coalition Uses Iron Fist to Quell Violence

FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S. Marines battled Iraqi guerrillas Tuesday on the edges of Fallujah — a violent anti-American city now circled by coalition military forces — as military officials said eight American GIs were killed in combat Monday.

Five Marines died in hostile fire in Fallujah (search) and three U.S. soldiers were killed while patrolling Baghdad as U.S.-led forces continued to try to quash violence in cities that pose the most danger for the coalition.

About 1,200 Marines and Iraqi troops launched Operation Vigilant Resolve (search) Monday to hunt down suspected insurgents in the Anbar Province, which stretches from Baghdad to the Jordanian and Syrian borders. U.S. and Iraqi forces are specifically looking for those responsible for last week's mob attack and mutilation of four U.S. civilian contractors in that region.

On Tuesday in Fallujah, some U.S. troops came under fire from a mosque, said Marine Capt. Michael Fehn. The Marines and helicopter gunships returned fire.

posted by Frodgie at 9:27 AM

 

Kennedy: Bush lied

WASHINGTON - Shifting his ongoing criticism from Iraq to domestic issues, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) yesterday took President George W. Bush to task for what he called misleading the American public on everything from Medicare to education.

"This president has now created the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon," Kennedy said in a speech at the Brookings Institute, a think tank in Washington. "He has broken the basic bond of trust with the American people."

Kennedy, a leader on health issues, said Bush, desperate to claim a win on Medicare, pushed a law that is a "raw" deal for seniors and a "sweetheart" deal for drug and insurance companies.

"This administration misled Congress, misled the public and misled even members of their own party about the cost of the Medicare bill," said Kennedy, a key supporter of Bush's Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "Why? Because they knew the bill would never pass if the real cost was known and they believed victory was more important than honesty."

Congress narrowly passed the controversial Medicare drug act last fall after much debate about its cost. Weeks after its passage, Bush officials acknowledged that the measure could cost $534 billion over 10 years - far higher than the $400 billion they had touted.

posted by Frodgie at 9:25 AM

 

West 'guilty' over Rwanda genocide

KIGALI, Rwanda -- Western powers bear "criminal responsibility" for Rwanda's 1994 genocide because they did not attempt to stop it, the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country at the time has said.

"The international community didn't give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance," General Romeo Dallaire told a conference in Kigali marking the 10th anniversary of the slaughter.

"It's up to Rwanda not to let others forget they are criminally responsible for the genocide," he said, singling out France, Britain and the United States.

"The genocide was brutal, criminal and disgusting and continued for 100 days under the eyes of the international community."


posted by Frodgie at 9:25 AM

 

Conservative gains in the Senate look likely.

Conservatives were a majority of the House Republican conference by the mid-1980s; they did not become a majority of the Senate Republican caucus until after the 1994 elections. Even those elections swept in at least as many conviction-less Republican hacks as they did conservative activists such as Rick Santorum and Spence Abraham.

The 2004 Senate Republican candidates are remarkably conservative. Indeed, it is almost certain that the Republican caucus will move rightward even if the party does not win seats this fall. The four seats that are most likely to be lost are currently held by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Peter Fitzgerald, Lisa Murkowski, and Arlen Specter. If Republicans merely make up for their losses elsewhere, it will be a win for conservatives.
posted by Frodgie at 9:20 AM

 

U.S. Marines lock down Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines on Monday closed all roads into Fallujah, the site of last week's slayings of four U.S. civilian contractors and the horrific mutilations of their bodies. The Marines engaged in firefights inside and around the city, sources there said.

One Marine was killed in the fighting, according to the Coalition Press Information Center.

At least seven Iraqis were killed Monday morning in several incidents, sources in the city said.

Witnesses in Haye Al-Jolan, an area in the northern section of Fallujah, said five Iraqis were killed and 15 wounded in a firefight that began when Marines raided homes there. They said 10 homes were destroyed in the battle.

In another area, U.S. Marines fired on two vehicles -- a truck and a car -- approaching a Fallujah checkpoint Monday morning, killing two Iraqis, sources said.

"Operation Vigilant Resolve" began early Monday when Marines set up checkpoints on all roads into and out of Fallujah, a Marine spokesman said.

The Marines are only letting cars with Fallujah license plates through the checkpoints, military sources said.

The operation may unfold slowly over several days and the Marines may not attempt to control the center of the town, military sources said.


posted by Frodgie at 9:24 AM

 

Sharon Drops Pledge Not to Harm Arafat

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (search) said his pledge to the United States not to harm Yasser Arafat (search) no longer holds, declaring that the Palestinian leader and the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah are potential targets for assassination.

In an interview set for broadcast Monday by Israeli Army Radio, Sharon also said for the first time that under his plan to leave the Gaza Strip (search), evacuated Jewish settlements would not be destroyed.

Sharon said that three years ago he promised President Bush (search) that Israel would not harm Arafat, but since then circumstances had changed.

"Arafat was (then) given red carpet treatment everywhere in the world. Today it is clear to the United States and to everyone just who Arafat is," Sharon said. Israel and the United States are boycotting Arafat, charging that he is responsible for Palestinian violence.

On March 22, Israel assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin (search), founder and leader of the violent Islamic Hamas movement, and officials said Israeli forces would mete out similar treatment to others involved in the organization or execution of attacks on Israel.


posted by Frodgie at 9:24 AM

 

CDC research finds no evidence stretching prevents injuries

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stretching does not live up to its reputation as an injury preventer, a survey has found.

"We could not find a benefit," said Stephen B. Thacker, director of the epidemiology program office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Athletes who stretch might feel more limber, but they shouldn't count on stretching to keep them healthy, he said.

Thacker and four CDC colleagues combed research databases for studies that had compared stretching with other ways to prevent training injuries. They combined data from five studies so they could look more closely for any benefits that might emerge as a pattern. Their report is in the March issue of the American College of Sports Medicine journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

People who stretched were no more or less likely to suffer injuries such as pulled muscles, which the increased flexibility that results from stretching is supposed to prevent, researchers found. And the injuries found in the study typically happened within the muscle's normal range of motion, so stretching them would not have made a difference, Thacker said.


posted by Frodgie at 9:22 AM

 

Fatwas vs. freedom.

The search for weapons of mass destruction is over. They were not found in underground bunkers or buried in the desert. According to the imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, they are on television. What he calls the "weapons of mass destruction that kill values and virtue," we call reality TV shows. The imam denounced reality TV in his weekly sermon just days after the Higher Ulema Committee in Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa outlawing the popular Lebanese Broadcasting Company (LBC) program Star Academy. The ruling stated that the show was banned for showing mingling between the sexes, lewdness, and "killing shame and honor in the hearts of Muslims by letting them get used to these shameful scenes." The newspaper Al-Watan criticized LBC for airing Star Academy instead of round-the-clock coverage of the IDF attack on Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin. Other conservative cultural commentators are outraged that kids would rather watch television shows about fashion and music rather than focusing on "U.S. imperialism" in Iraq.


posted by Frodgie at 9:17 AM

 

10 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraqi Violence

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Supporters of an anti-American cleric rioted in four Iraqi cities Sunday, battling coalition troops in the worst unrest since the spasm of looting and arson immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein. At least 22 Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and one Salvadoran soldier died.

Sunday's violence - along with the unrelated killings of two Marines in Anbar province - pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 610.

Hundreds were wounded as fighting raged in Baghdad, Najaf, Nasiriyah and Amarah. Tanks rolled through the Iraqi capital and two Humvees burned in the streets of its eastern Sadr City neighborhood.

Protesters, some dressed all in black or waving green banners, raced toward the fighting in Najaf as heavy gunfire echoed through the city. One man stood on a bridge, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at the ready.


posted by Frodgie at 9:16 AM