Al-Sadr wounded in Najaf clashes

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm and chest during Friday fighting in Najaf, according to spokesman Sayed Hazim al-Arajy in Baghdad.

Insurgents loyal to al-Sadr have been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces in the Shia holy city for the past week.

Al-Sadr was treated at the Imam Ali Mosque and is expected to make a full recovery, al-Arajy said.

The mosque is a holy Shiite Muslim site. Thousands of al-Sadr loyalists are holed up there, Iraqi authorities say, and have been attacking their forces with mortars and laying land mines in the sacred compound.

The mosque compound is surrounded by Iraqi forces, but there is no plan to storm the site.

"It's extremely important to the local Iraqi security forces as well as to U.S. military forces that we minimize collateral damage to any holy sites," Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said Friday. "Right now there's absolutely no indication that any damage has been done to the Imam Ali Shrine."

Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Sha'alan stressed that Iraqi forces are near but not in the shrine compound. He said the multinational forces, referring to the Americans, are farther away, in the 1920 Revolution Square.


posted by Frodgie at 6:49 AM

 

Cheney Mocks Kerry's 'Sensitive' War on Terror

DAYTON, Ohio (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney mocked Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Thursday for pledging to wage a more "sensitive" war against terrorism.

Cheney's speech in the campaign battleground state of Ohio extended a week of Republican attacks on Kerry's security credentials. Kerry's camp said it showed desperation in President Bush's campaign over losing a perceived edge on security issues.

"America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," Cheney said.

"Those that threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively, they need to be destroyed," he said.

Cheney accented some form of the word "sensitive" a half-dozen times and drew laughter from the partisan crowd. He said Kerry had a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the world.

Kerry had told a meeting of minority journalists last week that he could do a better job than Bush of cultivating allies in the war on terrorism. "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side," he said.

Campaigning in California on Thursday, Kerry brushed off Cheney's remarks. "It's sad that they can only be negative. They have nothing to say about the future vision of America. I think Americans want a positive vision for the future," he said.

Kerry' campaign went farther and said Cheney had reached a "new low" by launching "desperate misleading attacks."


posted by Frodgie at 6:48 AM

 

White House urged broader withdrawal

The Bush administration played a major behind-the-scenes role in pressing Israel to broaden a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to include four Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said yesterday.
That and other changes were the price Israel had to pay for securing President Bush's written endorsement of the plan in a letter he presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington in April, Mr. Ayalon said.

"We were thinking just of Gaza. They suggested [some withdrawal] from the West Bank. I think this is a very major change," the ambassador told The Washington Times in an interview at the Israeli Embassy.
"We agreed to modify our plan ... so they really had their imprint," he said.
Mr. Ayalon said that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, her deputy Stephen Hadley, and Elliott Abrams, senior director for Near East and North African affairs at the National Security Council, were deeply engaged in negotiating the plan's final version.
"They didn't give us a blank check and endorse the plan without careful studies and questions — they sent their people to Israel," Mr. Ayalon said.
Another Israeli official, who asked not to be named, said the first time the plan was discussed officially with the United States was in Rome in November.
That happened during a previously undisclosed meeting between Mr. Sharon, who was on a visit to Italy, and Mr. Abrams, who flew in from London, the official said.

posted by Frodgie at 6:48 AM

 

Marine Helicopter Down in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. helicopter crashed near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan on Thursday, killing one Marine and injuring 14 others, the military said.

A U.S. statement ruled out hostile fire in the crash.

The injured troops were taken to Camp Salerno, an American base near Khost city, 90 miles south of the capital, Kabul. Four with serious injuries were then taken to the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, the statement said.

"The helicopter was destroyed in the crash, but did not burn," the statement said. "Hostile fire was not involved."

A local official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a technical fault caused the helicopter to go down in Gurbuz, a district in Khost province along the mountainous frontier.

More than 130 American soldiers have died since U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (search) to drive the Taliban (search) from power and attack its Al Qaeda (search) allies.

Many of the deaths have come in accidents, including several helicopter crashes. The last deadly crash, in which five soldiers died, occurred near Bagram in November.


posted by Frodgie at 6:47 AM

 

Man launches multimedia search for liver

HOUSTON (AP) -- Todd Krampitz's message to the world is simple: He needs a liver to save his life.

But the methods he is using to deliver his plea are unique, employing all the characteristics of a multimedia advertising blitz, including billboards, a Web site, a toll-free number and media interviews.

The two billboards, acquired at a large discount, along one of Houston's busiest freeways each announce "I Need A Liver -- Please Help Save My Life!" The Web site offers Krampitz's story and a flier to print out and post.

Krampitz, 32, was diagnosed in May with liver cancer and by July his doctors said only a transplant would save his life. He is hoping for a directed donation, meaning a family would ask that their loved one's harvested liver go to Krampitz.

"Unfortunately, tragedies happen every day," the Web site says. "If you hear of anyone that is in a situation where they could be a donor, they or their family can request that the liver be designated to Todd Krampitz."

The liver is the second most commonly transplanted major organ, after the kidney, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which coordinates the nation's organ transplant system. As of July 30, there were 17,471 people nationwide waiting for a liver transplant, with 1,155 of them from Texas.

Krampitz's sister came up with the idea for the billboards, but his wife was hesitant at first, worried about perceptions that her husband is unfairly trying to get a liver ahead of others. But she believes he should be at the top of the list because the cancer could endanger the rest of his body.


posted by Frodgie at 6:46 AM

 

Marines capture center of Najaf

NAJAF, Iraq — U.S. Marines backed by tanks and aircraft seized the heart of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf yesterday in a major assault on Shi'ite rebels that helped drive world oil prices to record highs.
Warplanes pounded militia positions in a cemetery next to the Imam Ali Mosque while U.S. forces stormed the home of Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric at the center of the weeklong uprising that has killed hundreds in seven cities.
Sheik al-Sadr was believed to be holed up in the mosque along with hundreds of his Mahdi's Army militia, witnesses said.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a Shi'ite, urged the militiamen to lay down their arms and leave the mosque, a site sacred to millions of Shi'ites around the world.
The U.S.-led assault in such a sacred city for Iraq's majority Shi'ite community could spark a firestorm for Mr. Allawi, who needs to crush a rebellion that has disrupted vital oil exports and threatened to undermine his six-week-old government.
"This government calls upon all the armed groups to drop their weapons and rejoin society. We call upon all the armed men to evacuate the holy shrine and not to violate its holiness," Mr. Allawi said in a statement read by a senior official.

posted by Frodgie at 6:46 AM

 

GOVERNOR: 'I AM A GAY AMERICAN'

TRENTON, N.J. - Gov. James E. McGreevey will announce his resignation Thursday, a longtime friend and political adviser has told The Associated Press.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was one of several advisers and staff members who met with McGreevey throughout the afternoon to discuss his political future.

"He's made up his mind," the source said, just before the governor was to attend an afternoon news conference.

McGreevey, the state's 51st governor, took office 2 1/2 years ago, and despite inheriting a $5 billion budget deficit, he steadfastly refused to boost income taxes for most New Jerseyans, instead raising taxes on millionaires, casinos and cigarettes.

But he has been dogged by several scandals involving fund-raising.





posted by Frodgie at 4:44 PM

 

Pakistan Nabs Five More Suspected Al Qaeda

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan authorities arrested five more suspected members of Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda (search) network in the past 48 hours, including "valuable targets," a senior government official said Thursday.

He said the arrests were made during raids in different parts of the country and that the detainees were being questioned in efforts to capture other Al Qaeda members.

"Our forces raided some places in the past two days and captured five terrorists, including foreigners, who are valuable targets," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official would not name the suspects or give their nationalities, and it wasn't clear if any were on the FBI list of most-wanted terrorists. Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed confirmed the arrests, but refused to share any further details.

Pakistan (search) is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror. In recent weeks, police and security agencies have detained about 30 terror suspects, including Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian with a $25 million bounty on his head for his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.


posted by Frodgie at 7:16 AM

 

America as predators paradise

Two weeks ago, at a McAllen, Texas, airport, U.S. agents stopped a woman boarding a flight for New York and asked for her visa.
She had none. Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed was traveling on a South African passport with several pages torn out. She had flown from Johannesburg to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, on to London and, six days later, to Mexico City. Inside her bag were wet and muddy pants.
Farida Ahmed admitted to having crossed the Rio Grande. More interesting, her name turned up on a terrorist watch list.
As columnist Michelle Malkin writes, when George W. Bush says, "Family vaues do not stop at the Rio Grande," he might add, "neither do the Islamofascists."
Yet, it is not only terrorists who are illegally crossing our borders. So, too, are sexual predators. According to reporter Jerry Seper of the Washington Times, three convicted child molesters who had been deported were caught in the Tucson, Ariz., sector last week, trying to sneak back into the United States.
All were Mexicans. Since October, he writes, Border Patrol agents have "arrested 9,559 illegal aliens with criminal records, 143 of which were for sexually related charges."
Moreover, as Seper reported in a recent series in the Times, only 18 squads of immigration agents are "seeking to arrest 80,000 criminal aliens – including killers, rapists, drug dealers and child molesters – and at least 320,000 'absconders,' foreign nationals who were ordered deported but disappeared [inside the United States]."


posted by Frodgie at 7:14 AM

 

Allawi gives OK for hit on militants

From combined dispatches
NAJAF, Iraq — U.S. troops prepared yesterday for a final showdown with Shi'ite militants in the holy city of Najaf, where fighting with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has raged for a week.
"Iraqi and U.S. forces are making final preparations as we get ready to finish this fight that the Muqtada militia started," said Col. Anthony Haslam, commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Najaf.
The offensive had been expected as early as yesterday, but Marine Maj. David Holahan said preparations were taking longer than thought.
"It doesn't matter now; they know we're coming," Maj. Holahan said.
Najaf's governor has given U.S. troops permission to enter the city's holiest site, the Imam Ali shrine.
But underscoring the political sensitivity of such an operation, now that the U.S.-led coalition has returned sovereignty to the Iraqis, Maj. Holahan said Prime Minister Ayad Allawi "makes the final decision."
Attempts to contact Mr. Allawi's office last night were not successful.
A Bush administration official in Washington told The Washington Times that U.S. officials had gone to Mr. Allawi with a package of options for dealing with Sheik al-Sadr and that Mr. Allawi had given the go-ahead for an assault.
However earlier in the day, Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari called on U.S. troops to withdraw from Najaf.
"Only Iraqi forces should stay in Najaf. These forces should be responsible for security and should save Najaf from this phenomenon of killing," Mr. al-Jaafari told the Arab TV network Al Jazeera from London.

posted by Frodgie at 7:12 AM

 

SEPARATE HOTEL ROOMS AFTER SHOUTING MATCH

Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry and his wife got into a heated argument after a campaign rally in Arizona Sunday night -- a heated argument so hot they spent the night in different rooms!

A well-placed law enforcement source tells DRUDGE how Kerry and Teresa Heinz moved to separate suites at Flagstaff's Little America Hotel.

"It was a cooling off, nothing more," says a top source.

The stress of the campaign and the nonstop tour of battleground states is taking a toll on the Kerrys.

Teresa Heinz Kerry has been confiding in staffers how the tour is just "nonstop movement" and how there "is no time just to 'be.'"


posted by Frodgie at 7:06 AM

 

Bin Laden hints major assassination

U.S. intelligence officials say a high-profile political assassination, triggered by the public release of a new message from Osama bin Laden, will lead off the next major al Qaeda terrorist attack, The Washington Times has learned.
The assassination plan is among new details of al Qaeda plots disclosed by U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the killing could be carried out against a U.S. or foreign leader either in the United States or abroad.

The officials mentioned Saudi Arabia and Yemen, two nations that are working with the United States in the battle against al Qaeda, as likely locales for the opening assassination.
The planning for the attacks to follow involves "multiple targets in multiple venues" across the United States, one official said.

posted by Frodgie at 6:58 AM

 

Truck Bombs Favored in Terrorists' Arsenal

NEW YORK — Truck bombs (search) aren't a new terror weapon of choice, but since they're fairly easy to make, deadly and extremely destructive, they're certainly one of the most effective.

"It is the definite, definite weapon of the next attack," said Juval Aviv (search), president and CEO of Interfor, Inc., an international corporate intelligence and investigations firm. "This is the easiest one to do — this is a weapon they've been using for 35 years all over the world and is extremely successful."

Walter Purdy, a vice president of the Terrorism Research Center, said the risk of such an attack was huge. "Terrorists love to use truck bombs. ... The bigger the truck, the more explosives they can get into the things."

The United States has spent more than $1 billion on defense measures to guard against car and truck bombs, which proved deadly in attacks like those in Beirut in 1983, the first World Trade Center bombing and at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad last August.


posted by Frodgie at 6:55 AM

 

U.S. warns militia: Quit or die

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces have been using loudspeakers to urge militants to surrender and residents to evacuate battle zones in the holy city of Najaf, while authorities in Baghdad are bracing for more attacks.

An explosion Wednesday in Diyala province north of Baghdad killed at least four people and wounded 11 others, an Iraqi Health Ministry official said.

The bomb went off around 10 a.m. (0600 GMT) in the town of Kan Banny Sa'ad.

In Najaf, Iraqi forces and U.S. Marines have been pounding fighters loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr over the past week.

U.S. military officials took advantage of a slight lull in fierce fighting on Tuesday to tell insurgents: lay down your arms or face death.

Al-Sadr's Mehdi militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces fought pitched battles earlier this year. But a shaky truce that began several weeks ago collapsed last week.

One day after al-Sadr vowed to fight American troops to the death, he issued a statement Tuesday saying he would welcome help from the United Nations in solving the crisis.


posted by Frodgie at 6:52 AM

 

U.S. to Give Border Patrol New Powers to Deport Illegal Aliens

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 — Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's land borders, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers abutting Mexico and Canada without providing the aliens the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge.

The move, which will take effect this month, represents a broad expansion of the authority of the thousands of law enforcement agents who currently patrol the nation's borders. Until now, border patrol agents typically delivered undocumented immigrants to the custody of the immigration courts, where judges determined whether they should be deported or remain in the United States.

Homeland Security officials described the immigration courts — which hear pleas for asylum and other appeals to remain in the country — as sluggish and cumbersome, saying illegal immigrants often wait more than a year before being deported, straining the capacity of detention centers and draining critical resources. Under the new system, immigrants will typically be deported within eight days of their apprehension, officials said.

Immigration legislation passed in 1996 allows the immigration service to deport certain groups of illegal aliens without judicial oversight, but until now the agency only permitted officials at the nation's airports and seaports to do so. The new rule will apply to illegal aliens caught within 100 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders who have spent 14 days or less within the United States. The border agents will focus on deporting third-country nationals, rather than Mexicans or Canadians, and they are expected to begin exercising their new powers on Aug. 24 in Tucson and Laredo, Tex.


posted by Frodgie at 6:48 AM

 

Iran arming militia, says Iraqi official

NAJAF, Iraq — With fighting raging for a fifth day in Najaf, Iraq's interim defense minister yesterday accused Iran of sending weapons to Shi'ite insurgents in the city.
Meanwhile, radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr vowed, that he would continue the battle "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."
The uprising by Sheik al-Sadr's militia began to affect Iraq's crucial oil industry, as pumping to the southern port of Basra was halted by threats to infrastructure, an official with the South Oil Co. said.
Clashes also intensified in Basra, where a British soldier was killed and several others wounded in fighting near Sheik al-Sadr's office, the British Defense Ministry said. Iraqi police reported three militants killed and more than 10 wounded.
Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, who previously had described Iran as Iraq's "first enemy," made the comments about his country's eastern neighbor during an interview broadcast on the Arab-language television network Al Arabiya.
"There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the hands of criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across the Iranian border," Mr. Shaalan said.
Asked whether Iran was still considered the "top enemy" of Iraq, he answered ambiguously.
"From far and near, the facts that we have say that what has happened to the Iraqi people is done by the one who is considered the top enemy," he said.
posted by Frodgie at 6:54 AM

 

Immigration plan envisions 'incentives' to illegal aliens

Millions of illegal aliens in the United States would be free from arrest and deportation, have access to tax-deferred savings accounts and Social Security credits, and get unrestricted travel to and from their home countries under President Bush's guest-worker program.
According to previously undisclosed details of the president's plan, which some critics have described as a limited amnesty, the proposal offers numerous "incentives" for the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens to come "out of the shadows," Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, the nation's border and transportation security czar, told a Senate panel.
Mr. Hutchinson, in a written response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Bush plan would help eliminate sleepless nights for illegal aliens worried that a simple misstep, such as a traffic ticket or accident, "could result in bringing them to the attention of federal authorities and their subsequent deportation."
"Eliminating the fear of deportation will be an incentive," Mr. Hutchinson said in the 13-page response. "Undocumented aliens will tell you they often have trouble sleeping at night, and leaving for work each day, not knowing if they will make it home at the end of the day."

posted by Frodgie at 6:51 AM

 

XM-8 Is Gun of the Future

NEW YORK — U.S. soldiers have been waiting for a long time for weapons to replace current ones that rely on Vietnam-era technology. And the new weapons are right around the corner.

One of these weapons is the XM-8 (search), a rifle with chameleon-like qualities that allows soldiers to interchange parts, outfitting it for urban warfare or long-range sniping. Military and civilian weapons experts are still working out the kinks in the XM-8, which will replace the M-16.

"The ability to reconfigure the weapon to the mission was very, very important. ... It grew out of soldiers telling us they need these kinds of capabilities," said Col. Michael J. Smith, project manager for Soldier Weapons.

The XM-8 is designed to be lighter and more user-friendly than current weapons. It is part of a new family of weapons, including machine-gun type weapons like the XM-307 and XM-312 that are lethal at more than a mile away.

In addition to being lighter, the new technology in the XM-8 makes hitting targets extremely easy. The rifle could be in soldiers' hands as early as next summer.


posted by Frodgie at 6:46 AM

 

Kerry: Still Would Have Approved Force for Iraq

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said on Monday he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then no weapons of mass destruction would be found.

Taking up a challenge from President Bush, whom he will face in the Nov. 2 election, the Massachusetts senator said: "I'll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively."

Speaking to reporters from the Powell's Landing on the rim of the Grand Canyon above a mile-deep drop, Kerry also said reducing U.S. troops in Iraq significantly by next August was "an appropriate goal."

"My goal, my diplomacy, my statesmanship is to get our troops reduced in number and I believe if you do the statesmanship properly, I believe if you do the kind of alliance building that is available to us, that it's appropriate to have a goal of reducing the troops over that period of time," he said.

On that timetable, Kerry's aim would be to pull out a large number of the 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq in the first six months of his administration.

"Obviously, we'd have to see how events unfold," he added. "I intend to get more people involved in that effort and I'm convinced I can be more successful than President Bush in succeeding in doing that. It is an appropriate goal to have and I'm going to try to achieve it."


posted by Frodgie at 6:44 AM

 

Fresh fighting erupts in Najaf

NAJAF, Iraq - Fresh fighting broke out in Najaf on Tuesday, with explosions and gunfire coming from the heart of the holy city where militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite Muslim cleric are dug in, a witness told Reuters.

He said U.S. warplanes were flying overhead while smoke was rising from near the city's ancient cemetery, a haven for fighters from Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army who have been battling American Marines since last Thursday.

The clashes erupted just after 8 a.m. following a night of intermittent gunfire.

Sadr on Monday defied demands from Iraq's interim government that his militia pull out of Najaf.

U.S. Marines say they have killed 360 of al-Sadr's loyalists in the city since last Thursday. The fighting is part of a radical Shi'ite uprising that has hit several other Iraqi cities, including a predominantly Shi'ite district of Baghdad.

On Monday, Marines took back control of two Iraqi provinces from multinational forces after only 10 days because of the worsening security situation, the Polish military said.

Maj. Krzysztof Plazuk, a spokesman for the Polish military, told The Associated Press that the sudden reversal in Najaf and Qadisiyah provinces was ordered by Gen. George Casey, the senior U.S. officer in Iraq. U.S. forces in Najaf have been fighting a rebellion by militiamen loyal to al-Sadr.


posted by Frodgie at 6:41 AM

 

Saudi Royal Family Faces Troubles

WASHINGTON — Behind a façade of control, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia (search) is in tough shape and teetering on the brink of collapse, a victim of its own corruption and a violent Islamic insurgency at its door, some U.S. experts warn.

"It is a pretty fragile royal family, it's pretty corrupt and it's sitting on some pretty weak legs," S. Enders Winbush, director of the Center for Future Security Strategies (search) with the Hudson Institute, told FOXNews.com.

"The question is, can it do enough soon enough to put off what I suspect will be the inevitable — that at some point it will come apart," he said.

"Anyone who knows anything about the area knows it's not a question of 'if,' but of 'when,'" said Bill Lind, a military analyst with the Free Congress Foundation (search). "We need to delay it as much as possible … and think of what to do when it does happen."


posted by Frodgie at 7:03 AM

 

A new era of Christian persecution

"If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." So Christ told his disciples, and so it has again come to pass.

Not since Stalin's time have Christians been so savagely persecuted. But it is no longer communists who are the great persecutors, but Islamist mobs from Africa to the Balkans to Indonesia.

Last Sunday during evening services, terrorists detonated car bombs outside five Catholic churches in Mosul and Baghdad. A dozen worshipers perished. Scores of women and children were injured.

Now the Christians are fleeing. In Damascus, Rita Zekert, who heads the Caritas Migrant Center, says that where, a year ago, the refugees were Shiite, Sunni, Christian and Kurd in rough proportion to each's share of the population, "nowadays, 95 percent of the people coming to us are Iraqi Christians."

According to the New York Times, these refugees "tell of Christian shopkeepers killed by Islamist gangs for daring to sell alcohol, of family businesses sold to ransom stolen children ... They left Iraq, they say, only because they were too terrorized to stay."

"All Sunday's attacks were against Catholics rather than Eastern Orthodox churches, suggesting that Christians who owed their allegiance to Rome had become targets in the anti-Western campaign, Catholic clerics said," says the Financial Times, adding, "Iraq's 650,000-strong Christian community is depleting fast. Most of the 3 million Christians of Iraqi origin now live abroad, mainly in the U.S. and Western Europe. Tens of thousands have moved to Syria and Jordan, many crammed into tenement blocks, living on charity, banned from work and waiting for visas out of the Arab world."

From Lebanon, scores of thousands of Catholics have fled in recent decades, leaving those behind as a shrinking minority in a Muslim land where they once flourished and, indeed, led.


posted by Frodgie at 7:00 AM

 

International team to monitor presidential election

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A team of international observers will monitor the presidential election in November, according to the U.S. State Department.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.

"The U.S. is obliged to invite us, as all OSCE countries should," spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said. "It's not legally binding, but it's a political commitment. They signed a document 10 years ago to ask OSCE to observe elections."

Thirteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 election, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July, asking him to send observers.

After Annan rejected their request, saying the administration must make the application, the Democrats asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to do so.

The issue was hotly debated in the House, and Republicans got an amendment to a foreign aid bill that barred federal funds from being used for the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections, The Associated Press reported.

In a letter dated July 30 and released last week, Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kelly told the Democrats about the invitation to OSCE, without mentioning the U.N. issue.

"I am pleased that Secretary Powell is as committed as I am to a fair and democratic process," said Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who spearheaded the effort to get U.N. observers.


posted by Frodgie at 6:58 AM

 

Bush Urges Kerry to Say Yes-Or-No on Iraq

STRATHAM, N.H. - President Bush (news - web sites) challenged Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites) on Friday to give a yes-or-no answer about whether he would have supported the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) "knowing what we know now" about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction.

"I have given my answer," Bush told a cheering crowd. "We did the right thing and the world is better off for it."

Kerry's campaign said he already had answered the question — and then criticized Bush's handling of the war anew.

Kerry voted to give Bush the authority to send troops to Iraq. "As John Kerry has said previously, it was right to hold Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) accountable and we're glad he's gone," said Susan Rice, the Democrat's senior adviser for national security affairs.

She said that Bush had "rushed into war without our allies, without a plan to win the peace and without properly equipping our troops."

With persistent violence and climbing casualties, Iraq has become a problem for Bush, turning what once was believed to be an asset for his re-election campaign into a vulnerability. Only about four in 10 Americans support the president's handling of Iraq, polls show, and just a third say he has a clear plan to deal with the situation. Nevertheless, Bush tried to put Kerry on the defensive.

"Now, there are some questions that a commander in chief needs to answer with a clear yes or no," Bush said. "My opponent hasn't answered the question of whether, knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq. That's an important question and the American people deserve a clear yes or no answer."

Bush said America was safer because Saddam Hussein sits in a prison cell. "Even though we did not find the stockpiles that we thought we would find, we did the right thing," the president said. "He had the capability and he could have passed that capability on to our enemies."

Bush also said Kerry's criticism of his Iraq policies merely shows the Democrat doesn't understand who America is up against.

"My opponent said something the other day I strongly disagree with — he said that going to war with a terrorist is actually improving their recruiting efforts," Bush said, referring to a remark Kerry made Monday.

"Now, that's upside-down logic," Bush said. "It shows a misunderstanding of the enemy."

Anti-American forces were training in the 1990s, Bush said. "They don't need an excuse for their hatred, and it is wrong to blame America for the anger and evil of the killers."

"We don't create terrorists by fighting back. We defeat the terrorists by fighting back," he said."

Bush spoke to several hundred cheering supporters at a political picnic.

Kerry, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said Monday, "The policies of this administration, I believe and others believe very deeply, have resulted in an increase of animosity and anger focused on the United States of America."

"The people who are training terror are using our actions as a means of recruitment," he said.

The Democrat has pointed out that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asked in a memo earlier this year whether terrorists were being created faster than the United States could capture and kill them.

Bush's trip to New Hampshire offered a glimpse of high emotions on both sides of the presidential election.

Two groups tried to shout each other down as Bush's motorcade rounded a bend onto a farm, one contingent shouting "Four more years!" and the other "Three more months!"

As always, Bush's team carefully weeded out the dissenters, and "four more years!" was the only cry heard in a pasture-turned-political venue here.

But polls show this state is a dead heat this year and Bush tried to tip it back his way with his seventh visit as president.

From New Hampshire, Bush flew to his family's home in Kennebunkport, Maine, where his nephew, George P. Bush, is to be married on Saturday.











posted by Frodgie at 5:49 PM

 

U.S.: al-Qaida Suspect Cased New York

WASHINGTON (AP) - An al-Qaida terror suspect detained in England was sent to the United States in early 2001 by the principal architect of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings to perform surveillance on economic targets in New York, according to U.S. officials and government interviews with other captured terror suspects.

They said the suspect claimed he has associates in America, possibly in California.

Abu Eisa al-Hindi was arrested in a roundup last week in Britain along with 11 others.

The disclosure that al-Hindi also was known as Issa al-Britani provides tantalizing details that further link al-Hindi to recent Bush administration warnings about possible terror attacks against U.S. financial buildings in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J.

It also has spurred a furious investigation in New York and elsewhere to trace al-Hindi's travels in the United States and to try to identify his associates during the American period.

"They're looking pretty hard to find anyone in the United States who might be part of this network, but they haven't found anyone so far who's still here," Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterror chief, said Saturday.

The FBI believes al-Hindi may have had two collaborators helping perform the reconnaissance, said a high-ranking law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

U.S. counterterror officials have said previously that they believe al-Hindi, known by dozens of aliases, was the author of documents describing surveillance at U.S. financial buildings during 2000 and 2001. The documents, written in fluent English, were found among a trove of papers, computer files, sketches and photographs recovered during mid-July raids in Pakistan.

The FBI and city detectives on a federal terrorism task force are looking for witnesses with information about al-Hindi's time in New York, the law enforcement official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.


posted by Frodgie at 5:12 PM

 

Judge: Arrest Warrant Issued for Chalabi

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Chalabi, a former governing council member, on counterfeiting charges and another for Salem Chalabi (search), the head of Iraq's special tribunal, on murder charges, Iraq's chief investigating judge said Sunday.

The warrant was a new sign of the fall of Ahmad Chalabi (search) from the centers of power. Chalabi, a longtime exile opposition leader, had been a favorite of many in the Pentagon but fell out with the Americans in the weeks before the U.S. occupation ended in June.

His nephew, Salem Chalabi, heads the tribunal that is due to try Saddam on war crimes charges.

"They should be arrested and then questioned and then we will evaluate the evidence, and then if there is enough evidence, they will be sent to trial," said Judge Zuhair al-Maliky.

The warrants, issued Saturday, accused Ahmad Chalabi of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars — which had been removed from circulation following the fall of Saddam's regime last year, he said.

Ahmad Chalabi appeared to have been hiding the counterfeit money amid other old money and changing it into new dinars in the street, he said.


Police found the counterfeit money along with old dinars in Ahmad Chalabi's house during a May raid, he said.

Salem Chalabi was named as a suspect in the June killing of the Haithem Fadhil, director general of the finance ministry.

Both men were reportedly out of the country Sunday.


posted by Frodgie at 5:06 PM

 

Allawi makes surprise visit to Najaf

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi paid a surprise visit to the holy Muslim city of Najaf on Sunday, the scene of recent fierce fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents that has left an estimated 300 rebels dead.

Allawi called on the militia fighters to "leave the holy sites quickly, lay down their weapons and return to the rule of order and law."

"They will leave, God willing," Allawi said.

Allawi said Saturday he believes that the people behind the violence in Najaf are common criminals and foreign forces -- not part of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

U.S. officials have accused al-Sadr, a maverick, anti-U.S. Shiite cleric, of fomenting unrest. He is wanted in connection with the killing of a rival cleric last year.

A senior U.S. military official Sunday said there was no direct evidence that the fighters in Najaf were acting on al-Sadr's orders although they are wearing the black uniforms representative of the Mehdi Army.

That official said that there is evidence of competing factions within al-Sadr's organization and that the fighters appear to be broken into squads of 10 to 12 men each.

The military official said U.S. Marines have created a ring around the bulk of the rebel forces gathered at the Imam Ali mosque -- one of the holiest Shiite shrines -- and an ancient Najaf cemetery. The goal is to prevent the rebels from being resupplied and reinforced at the mosque, which, he said, they are using as a safe house.


posted by Frodgie at 5:04 PM

 

Al-Qaeda's Plans for U.S.

TIME MAG DETAILS EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE AL-QAEDA ATTACK ON U.S. ‘This is looking more real every day,’ says senior intelligence official
Sun Aug 08 2004 09:59:10 ET

FBI official warned a congressional leader he and others could be targeted in Washington and on trips around U.S.

New York – An FBI official warned a congressional leader that he and other top legislative officials could be targeted by al-Qaeda in Washington or on their trips around the country, TIME has learned. The warning came two days before Ridge issued his nationwide alert.

TIME reveals exclusive new detail of al-Qaeda attack plans, in the cover story/special report “Al-Qaeda in America. Inside the Terrorist Group’s Plot to Attack the U.S. Can We Get to Them Before They Strike?” (on newsstands Monday, Aug. 9).

Assessing the accumulation of evidence of a possible attack inside the U.S., a senior intelligence official tells TIME, “This is looking more like the real deal every day.” TIME also learns that Osama bin Laden may already have ordered up another attack: a top homeland security official tells TIME “We have a number of times picked up information that al-Qaeda wants to attack us before the election, and some of the communications attribute that desire to Osama bin Laden.”

Though surveillance for the al-Qaeda attack plans seized July 24 was mostly done in 2000 and 2001, “there remains plenty of cause for concern,” according to TIME. A surveillance report notes windows behind the six columns in front of the New York Stock Exchange building make it appear “a little fragile.” Operatives specifically discuss using “usual methods” such as a heavy gas truck or oil tanker to attack facilities. Surveillance of helicopter ports and cockpits in New York City suggest al-Qaeda has investigated using them for an airborne attack.

A U.S. law-enforcement official told TIME that a recent Pakistani intelligence report made available to senior U.S. intelligence and security officials offers details of alleged al-Qaeda plans to use speedboats and divers for attacks in New York harbor before the November 2004 elections.

TIME has learned that one seized disc contains an updated photo of the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey that was added in January of this year. Operatives noted it might be difficult to drive a truck or van into the Prudential’s underground parking garage. So they proposed acquiring a black limo, gutting all but the front seat and presumably filling the empty portion with explosives, TIME reports. They also discussed using an oil truck to ram through the front entrance. Information on New Jersey Transit passenger rail systems and PATH train timetables suggested al-Qaeda may have been exploring ways to escape after pulling off the attack, TIME reports.


posted by Frodgie at 5:01 PM