IRAQ

7. Shiite Politicians' Objections Lead Candidate To Withdraw
(Washington Post)...Rajiv Chandrasekaran
A politically independent Shiite Muslim who had been a top choice of the United States and the United Nations to become Iraq's prime minister withdrew from consideration after objections from formerly exiled Shiite politicians who want the job for themselves, officials involved in the political transition said Thursday.

8. An Iraqi Council Member Is Reported To Survive After Ambush; A Bodyguard Is Killed
(New York Times)...Edward Wong and Christine Hauser
Gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying a member of the Iraqi Governing Council on Thursday as she was returning to Baghdad after taking part in cease-fire negotiations in the southern city of Najaf, American and Iraqi officials said.

9. Breeding Ground For Iraqi Insurgency
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Robert Moran
In the sprawling slum known as Sadr City, prominently displayed banners written in English taunt American soldiers. "Welcome," they declare, to a "second Vietnam." Militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr regularly attack U.S. forces. Bystanders are struck by stray bullets. Residents suspected of helping the Americans are killed.

10. The Army's Stern Words Beat Sadr's Men In Basra
(London Daily Telegraph)...Jack Fairweather
...Much of the credit for Sadr's taming in Basra lies with the British "softly, softly" approach, tempered with a touch of steel. Unlike the American approach, with assaults on Najaf and Karbala, the British military has maintained direct lines of communication with Sadr's senior officials.

11. Cashiered Over Cache In Baghdad
(Los Angeles Times)...David Zucchino
...A year after American soldiers discovered about $760 million of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's cash hidden in several cottages, the case still raises questions. U.S. Treasury Department officials are trying to determine whether Hussein got the money from illegal oil sales and kickbacks, even as the cash is being spent on the U.S. occupation and rebuilding effort. For Novak, one of six soldiers accused of stealing seven-inch-thick bundles of $100 bills, the affair has been a bitter lesson in military justice. He confessed, named higher-ups and led investigators to millions he and others had tried to hide. He has since been kicked out of the Army and banned from nearby Ft. Stewart, while the five others implicated received administrative punishments � and two were promoted, Novak's lawyer said.

12. U.N. Envoy Under Fire In Effort To Rebuild Iraq
(Baltimore Sun)...Mark Matthews
As he labors on a mission crucial to President Bush's strategy on Iraq, United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is drawing fire not only from some American conservatives and former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi but from the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry. In remarks that stunned U.N. officials, Kerry adviser Richard C. Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the world body, criticized the president's decision to give primary authority for forming the future government of Iraq to Brahimi.

IRAQ -- ABU GHRAIB

13. Greater Urgency On Prison Interrogation Led To Use Of Untrained Workers
(New York Times)...Douglas Jehl and Kate Zernike
The interrogation effort at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq took on such urgency last fall that untrained personnel were pressed into service as analysts and even interrogators, according to accounts spelled out in documents and interviews.

14. Some Prisoners Allege Abuse By Poles, Other Coalition Troops
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
Some Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib said they were abused by troops from Poland and other unspecified coalition countries, according to copies of statements to Army investigators obtained Thursday.

ARMY

15. Army Personnel Chief Aims To Keep Ranks Full
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's personnel chief, is facing a challenge no American officer has had to contemplate for at least a century: keeping the all-volunteer Army fully manned as it undergoes sustained ground combat.

16. Army Rescinds Order To Tighten Environmental Spending
(Los Angeles Times)...Elizabeth Shogren
The Army on Thursday rescinded an order, issued earlier this month, for garrison commanders around the globe to stop spending money on many environmental protection activities as part of an effort to conserve funds for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

17. Captors Killed Soldier In Lynch Convoy
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
A soldier initially listed as killed in action while riding in the same convoy with former prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch had actually been captured by Iraqi fighters before he was killed, the Oregon National Guard said yesterday.

NAVY

18. With Graduation Today, Mids Thinking Of War
(Baltimore Sun)...Molly Knight
...As 990 midshipmen graduate in Annapolis today - after a commencement address by Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan loom large.

19. Cole Back Home From Mission
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
The U.S. destroyer Cole came home Thursday from six months in the Mediterranean Sea � its first overseas deployment since terrorists bombed it in Yemen's port of Aden in October 2000, killing 17 sailors.

WHITE HOUSE

20. Panel Holds Hearings On U.S. Intelligence
(Washington Post)...Walter Pincus
President Bush's commission investigating the quality of U.S. intelligence concluded its first two days of closed-door hearings yesterday after taking testimony from more than 20 current and former intelligence officials who discussed programs to produce weapons of mass destruction in prewar Iraq and in other countries.

CONGRESS

21. Warner Bucks GOP Right On Probe Of Prison Abuse
(Washington Post)...Helen Dewar and Spencer S. Hsu
The silver-haired Virginian with courtly manners is a throwback to a forgotten era of congressional comity. But as he leads the Senate's inquiry into abuse of Iraqi prisoners, Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) also shows another side: a penchant for bucking his party, taking heat and surviving.

22. Tougher Interrogations Needed In Iraq, Lott Says
(Washington Times)...Associated Press
Sen. Trent Lott says saving American lives should be the priority in Iraq, even if it means dealing harshly with prisoners to get vital security information.

NA
23. Rep. Hunter: USAF Tankers 'Vital' To Air Power
(Aerospace Daily & Defense Report)...Kathy Gambrell
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the plan to equip the U.S. Air Force with 100 KC-767A tanker program should continue.

NORTH KOREA

24. U.S. To Abandon N. Korea Project
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
The Bush administration plans to cancel an international project to build two light-water nuclear reactors for North Korea before the end of the year, State Department officials said.

25. N. Korea Flirts With 'Red Line'
(Christian Science Monitor)...Donald Kirk
The reported export by North Korea of the uranium material needed to build warheads has escalated the stakes in the Korean nuclear crisis, threatening the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its program.

ASIA/PACIFIC

26. Pakistani Links Military To Failed Plot To Kill Him
(New York Times)...Salman Masood and Talat Hussain
President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that members of Pakistan's army and air force were among "dozens" of people who had been arrested in connection with two assassination attempts against him in December. He also said the man who planned the attacks was a Pakistani who remained at large.

27. U.S. Honors 19 Soldiers Killed In Korean War
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Reports
The U.S. military in South Korea honored 19 soldiers whose remains were recovered in North Korea more than 50 years after the troops were killed in the Korean War.

28. Ban Dismisses US General's Remarks On Allied Forces' Role
(Korea Times)...Ryu Jin
South Korea�s Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Thursday denied comments by a senior U.S. military official on plans for the future role of the ROK-U.S. allied forces.

AFGHANISTAN

29. Afghanistan: Karzai Signs Election Law
(New York Times)...Reuters
President Hamid Karzai signed the first election law in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

NATO

30. Explosives Found Near Site Of NATO Summit
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Reports
Two bags filled with explosives were found in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, near a venue where hundreds of NATO parliamentary officials are to meet today, officials said.

EUROPE

31. Defense Chief Says Britain Will Expand Its Iraq Force
(New York Times)...Lizette Alvarez
Britain will send 370 troops and extra firepower to Iraq while it continues to weigh whether to deploy thousands more soldiers to the area, Defense Minister Geoff Hoon announced Thursday.

RUSSIA

32. U.S. And Russia Sign Agreement To Counter Nuclear Threat
(Los Angeles Times)...David Holley
The United States and Russia took their first step Thursday in a new program to reduce the risk of poorly guarded nuclear materials at research facilities around the world falling into the hands of terrorists.

AMERICAS

33. Death Toll Climbs In Caribbean Flood
(Washington Post)...Amy Bracken, Associated Press
U.S. and Canadian troops rushed medical supplies, drinking water and chlorine tablets to flood-battered towns where bodies were seen floating in rising waters on Thursday. Haitians and Dominicans braced for a death toll that could reach well over 1,500.

34. U.S. Military Relocating Out Of Caracas Compound
(Miami Herald)...Andres Oppenheimer and Juan O. Tamayo
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it was reviewing its relations with Venezuela's military and moving U.S. military officers out of a Caracas military compound, signaling yet another bump in U.S. relations with leftist President Hugo Ch�vez.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

35. U.S. Agencies Collect, Examine Personal Data On Americans
(Washington Times)...Audrey Hudson
Numerous federal government agencies are collecting and sifting through massive amounts of personal information, including credit reports, credit-card purchases and other financial data, posing new privacy concerns, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO).

POLL

36. Worry And Anger Over Iraq Situation
(Washington Post)...T.R. Reid
From this edge of the western plains to California's palm-lined drives to New York's urban canyons, Americans say they are worried and angry about the U.S. role in Iraq, with their anxiety matching that of the earliest days of the war when the success of the push to Baghdad was far from secure.

37. Americans Split On How To Interrogate
(Washington Post)...Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Most Americans reject torture as a technique to force suspected terrorists to answer questions about possible attacks but are divided on whether less harsh forms of physical abuse should be allowed to compel uncooperative suspects to reveal information that could save lives, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

MEDIA

38. Koppel To Read Names Of 122 Killed In Terror War
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Unattributed
ABC News' Nightline will follow its tribute to U.S. troops killed in Iraq with a similar reading tonight of the names of 122 service personnel killed in the war on terror, mostly in Afghanistan. Anchor Ted Koppel will read the names at the end of the broadcast, which will largely focus on the elite Army unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

BUSINESS

39. Navy Names Coastline Ship Contractors
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle
The Navy picked Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. yesterday to build versions of a small combat ship that can hug enemy coastlines.

40. CACI Faces New Probe Of Contract
(Washington Post)...Ellen McCarthy
CACI International Inc. said yesterday that the General Services Administration is investigating whether the Arlington-based company violated contracting rules and whether it should be banned from future government contracts.

OPINION

41. Honor Military Sacrifices, Don't Exploit Those Who Fall
(USA Today)...Editorial
...Nonetheless, the expression of appreciation and sorrow without regard for politics reflects Memorial Day's truest meaning. By contrast, efforts to manipulate the battle deaths of American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen to advance political causes dishonor their sacrifices, as well as the holiday designed to remember them. Still it happens, most recently in the debate over the government's ban on images of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 900 troops have died in those countries, yet the nation is denied the opportunity to weigh the true cost of war by being denied the opportunity to bear witness to its human cost.

42. Give Heroes' Families Privacy
(USA Today)...John M. Molino
...Despite notions to the contrary, Dover is not a place where military honors are rendered. That is reserved for the gravesite. Dover's sole focus is to identify and expedite the remains to the families so they can properly lay their loved ones to rest. Public coverage of arrivals would almost certainly make some families feel obliged to journey to Dover, perhaps over great distances and at considerable expense. Others may not desire media coverage, or find themselves upset by a public display of their loved one. The current policy places the decision for the media coverage of the deceased where it belongs: in the hands of the families who have the right � as they should have � to grant or deny media access to funeral or memorial services.

43. Making Do With Lemons
(Washington Post)...David Ignatius
If you're stuck with lemons, make lemonade. That folk wisdom applies to U.S. policy in Iraq, which is as seedy and sour as any foreign policy challenge America has encountered in decades. We certainly aren't making champagne there, but how are we doing in the lemonade business?

44. Gaining The Iraqis' Toleration
(Washington Post)...James Dobbins and Philip H. Gordon
...Reaching the goal of a stable, unified and non-threatening Iraq does look increasingly difficult, but the consequences of abandoning even that minimalist objective could be severe. Leaving Iraq under the pressure of terrorist attacks would be viewed as a strategic defeat of historic proportions for the United States. The message sent around the world would be that enough roadside bombs, suicide attacks and beheadings of civilians can succeed in forcing the United States (and by extension, any government) to abandon its goals. Success in driving out the American superpower would go down in terrorist lore as a great "victory," inspiring new campaigns on new battle fronts all around the world.

45. Obsessed With Iran
(Washington Post)...Jim Hoagland
George Shultz says that life in official Washington is not one damn thing after another. It is the same damn thing over and over again. A sudden lurch by the Bush administration to using Iraq's Sunnis to contain Iran's Shiite rulers shows that the former secretary of state is on to something, again.

EDITORIAL

46. The Homicide Cases
(Washington Post)...Editorial
PRESIDENT BUSH'S persistence in describing the abuse of foreign prisoners as an isolated problem at one Iraqi prison is blatantly at odds with the facts seeping out from his administration. These include mounting reports of crimes at detention facilities across Iraq and Afghanistan and evidence that detention policies the president approved helped set the stage for torture and homicide. Yes, homicide: The most glaring omission from the president's account is that at least 37 people have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and that at least 10 of these cases are suspected criminal killings of detainees by U.S. interrogators or soldiers.

47. Accounting For The Cost Of War
(New York Times)...Editorial
The dominant clich� in Congress is that the forthcoming Pentagon budget will not include a "blank check" for President Bush in Iraq. Such watchdog keenness, which would have been welcome from the start, must be attributed in large measure to election year polls. But it is still good to see that lawmakers sense the need to tightly vet the president's $422 billion military budget request.

NA
48. Bush, The U.N. And Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
The best thing about President Bush's Monday speech was that it directly challenged Washington's rampant defeatism regarding Iraq. He even used the phrase "defeat the enemy," which is precisely what Americans want to hear in a war. We only wish the President's current strategy for political victory inspired as much confidence.

49. A Real Nuclear Danger
(New York Times)...Editorial
While the Bush administration has been distracted by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it has neglected the far more urgent threat to American security from dangerous nuclear materials that must be safeguarded before they can fall into the hands of terrorists. That is the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from a new report that documents the slow pace of protecting potential nuclear bomb material at loosely guarded sites around the world.

NA
50. Memorial Day
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
This is Fleet Week in New York City, with thousands of sailors and Marines touring the sites and sampling other, er, attractions on shore leave. So it was no surprise that a small company of Marines ran and chanted in formation in front of our downtown Manhattan offices yesterday morning. They were applauded everywhere as they passed.

Looking for something to do? Click the picture above for the Armed Forces Day
home page, and a list of associated events. Or cruise the MilBlogs ring, and visit some you may have never stopped at before.

National Military Appreciation Month continues...

Update: This post reminded me of this post, which reminded me that Armed Forces Day is also the anniversary of www.mudvillegazette.com. Now I might have to update the "greatest hits" post (or perhaps this one.) If you are a newcomer to this site, you may enjoy my trip down memory lane...

IRAQ

7. At Prison, Rumsfeld Promises Justice
(USA Today)...Donna Leinwand and John Diamond
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld walked the dusty yard of Abu Ghraib prison Thursday and decried the abuse of prisoners there as "something over the edge." In Washington, two of his top lieutenants said they knew nothing about U.S. military guidelines in place last fall that allowed for the harsh treatment of prisoners.

8. Rumsfeld Dismisses Criticism
(Washington Times)...Guy Taylor
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told troops in a surprise trip to the Abu Ghraib prison yesterday that he is "a survivor" who knows better than to take too seriously a score of calls from the press and politicians for his resignation over prisoner-abuse charges.

9. U.S. Missed Chances To Stop Abuses
(USA Today)...Dave Moniz
Pentagon and White House officials missed numerous opportunities to head off abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, according to interviews, testimony and public documents that have emerged since the scandal erupted last month.

NA
10. In Iraq Prison Trial, Defense May Rely On Photos Of Abuse
(Wall Street Journal)...Christopher Cooper
...The defendants who are talking say they were simply taking orders from military intelligence officers, Central Intelligence agents and government contractors who told them to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation. Many top officials at the Pentagon have rejected this defense, saying they have seen no evidence suggesting the incidents of abuse at Abu Ghraib were anything more than the independent acts of an undisciplined cadre of military police.

11. Iraqi Tells Of U.S. Abuse, From Ridicule To Rape Threat
(New York Times)...Ian Fisher
...Mr. Aboud spoke, reluctantly at first, for several hours on Thursday after a chance encounter with a reporter at the office of a human rights group here in Baghdad, where he had gone to register what he said was torture during four months at Abu Ghraib. Despite his anger and shame at what he said the Americans had done to him, he even told of some kind behavior by soldiers. "I just want to clarify one thing," he said at one point. "Most of the American soldiers were not bad." As with other accounts by Iraqis of abuse, it was impossible to verify his claims ? and the job gets ever harder amid the widespread rage, the possible desire for compensation and the sheer volume of detailed coverage of the case.

12. Let Iraqis Decide How To Try Ex-Rulers, U.S. Justices Say
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Gina Holland, Associated Press
Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy said yesterday that Iraqis alone must determine the right way to mete out justice to the country's former leaders.

13. Marine Killed In Convoy
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Staff and Wire Reports
One Marine was killed and five were wounded Thursday when their Humvee was destroyed by a powerful bomb in a paved road outside the farming village of Saqlawiya.

NA
14. Fighting Rages In Karbala
(New York Times)...Unattributed
Fighting continued Thursday in the center of this Shiite holy city, where insurgents loyal to the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr attacked American soldiers and Iraqi policemen in the area around an occupied mosque.

15. Poland, Bulgaria Won't Leave Iraq
(Miami Herald)...Unattributed
Poland and Bulgaria on Thursday stressed their commitment to keep troops in Iraq ``until we've done our job.''

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

16. Military Faulted On Assault Cases
(Washington Post)...Bradley Graham
...The report, ordered by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld three months ago, comes after scores of alleged assaults against female soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, which have confronted senior defense officials with the most extensive set of sexual misconduct cases in years. Although Pentagon authorities have claimed strides in preventing and punishing such misconduct, the new report points to serious lapses still in the military's ability to protect female service members from assaults, to provide medical care and counseling to victims of attacks, and to punish violators.

17. Vaccine Reaction Documented
(Atlanta Journal and Constitution)...M.A.J. McKenna
Members of the armed forces who have been vaccinated against smallpox are developing an unexpectedly high rate of reactions that affect their hearts, military doctors said Thursday.

CONGRESS

18. Wolfowitz Draws Democrats' Ire
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
Senate Democrats lit into the Bush administration's Iraq policies yesterday, using an uncharacteristically contentious hearing on additional war spending to attack the Pentagon's number two official in personal and bitter terms.

19. Congress Hesitant To Write 'Blank Check'
(Washington Post)...Dan Morgan
President Bush asked Congress yesterday to approve a new $25 billion "contingency fund" for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but members of both parties in Congress indicated strong reservations about giving the Pentagon the free hand it is seeking to spend the money.

20. Congress Seeking To Clarify Iraqis' Role Under Self-Rule
(New York Times)...Steven R. Weisman
The Bush administration, seeking to quell questions about the limitations on the sovereignty of a future government in Iraq, said Thursday that the leaders of that interim government would negotiate their own control over security and other matters once they are chosen later this month.

21. Boeing Tanker Lease Gets A Push In House
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)...Matthew Daly, Associated Press
Seeking to jump-start a flagging Air Force deal to acquire 100 air refueling tankers from The Boeing Co., the House Armed Services Committee reasserted the need yesterday for the aging tanker fleet to be replaced as soon as possible. Language inserted into a $422 billion defense authorization bill would require the Air Force secretary to enter into a multiyear contract for new tankers.

WHITE HOUSE

22. Confidence In Bush, Iraq War Is Sinking, Polls Show
(Los Angeles Times)...Peter Wallsten
Even as President Bush's reelection campaign spends millions of dollars to burnish his image as a steadfast leader in the fight against terrorism, an array of new polls shows that the Iraqi prisoner abuse furor is undermining that effort and shaking public confidence in the administration's ability to win the war in Iraq.

ARMY

23. U.S. Military Lawyers Felt 'Shut Out' Of Prison Policy
(Los Angeles Times)...Ken Silverstein
A group of senior military lawyers were so concerned about changes in the rules designed to safeguard prisoners during interrogation that they sought help outside the Defense Department, according to a New York lawyer who headed a recent study of how prisoners have been treated in the war on terrorism.

24. Wave Of Mental Problems Follows GIs Home
(UPI.com)...Mark Benjamin, United Press International (alternate source)
Soldiers at Fort Carson report a wave of serious mental problems among troops back from the "war on terrorism," according to interviews with soldiers, their families and a therapist working with them.

NAVY

25. Secretary Of Navy Says Brig Performed Well In Inspection
(Charleston (SC) Post and Courier)...Terry Joyce
The prisoner abuse scandal that has snared the U.S. Army in Iraq apparently hasn't tainted the Navy brig in Hanahan or the Navy prison built in Cuba, both of which hold suspects in the war on terror, Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said Wednesday.

NA
26. USS Jimmy Carter Goes Into Water
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
The nuclear submarine Jimmy Carter was put in the water yesterday, six days earlier than planned and one day after a portion of a wall in its construction dry dock collapsed.

AIR FORCE

27. Survey: Cadet Behavior Improves
(Colorado Springs Gazette)...Pam Zubeck
The latest Air Force Academy survey shows cadets are behaving better, causing Superintendent Lt. Gen. John Rosa Jr. to express hope the academy is recovering from its worst scandal in 50 years.

GUANTANAMO

28. Red Cross Renews Criticism Of Conditions At Guantanamo
(Los Angeles Times)...Mary Curtius
The International Committee of the Red Cross this week delivered the latest in a series of critical reports on the treatment of prisoners held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials at the State Department and the Pentagon said Thursday.

29. Duo Alleges Guantanamo Abuse In Letter To Bush
(Washington Post)...John Mintz
Two British men who were released from the Guantanamo Bay prison and repatriated in March charged in a letter sent yesterday to President Bush that they had been physically abused during their two years in detention there.

MISSILE DEFENSE

30. Planned U.S. Missile Shield Is Useless, Scientists Warn
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Jim Wolf, Reuters
The multibillion-dollar U.S. ballistic-missile shield due to start operating by Sept. 30 appears incapable of shooting down any incoming warheads, an independent scientists' group said yesterday.

EUROPE

31. Britain Says Photos Showing Abuse Are Fake
(New York Times)...Patrick E. Tyler
The British government said Thursday that its investigation into a series of published photographs purporting to show the brutal treatment of an Iraqi prisoner has concluded that the photos were not taken in Iraq and had been faked.

32. France And Germany Jointly Criticize Abuse Of Iraqis And Express Horror At Beheading
(New York Times)...Elaine Sciolino
President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schr? of Germany on Thursday criticized the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers and expressed horror over the beheading of an American civilian.

AFRICA

33. Libya Halts Military Trade With North Korea, Syria And Iran
(New York Times)...Judith Miller
Following on its renunciation of unconventional weapons, Libya announced Thursday that it would stop all military trade with countries that spread such weapons, including, according to its Foreign Ministry, North Korea, Syria and Iran.

34. Chad Rebel Group Says It Holds Qaeda-Linked Terrorist
(New York Times)...Craig S. Smith
A rebel group in Chad says it is holding one of North Africa's most powerful terrorists and wants to turn him over to the United States or any of its allies.

RUSSIA

35. Rice Has Iraq, Terror On Her Mind
(Moscow Times)...Combined Reports
U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice arrives late Friday for talks with President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. Embassy confirmed Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS

36. Broader Coalition Expected After Transfer
(Washington Times)...Nicholas Kralev
The Bush administration said yesterday it expects up to "three handfuls of countries" to send troops to Iraq once the United Nations endorses the transfer of power to Iraqis on June 30, but winning a Security Council resolution appeared far from a done deal.

37. Brahimi Faces Heat On Leader Selection
(Washington Times)...Annia Ciezadlo
Would-be leaders of a democratic Iraq are turning up the heat on United Nations' envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, leveling furious criticism as the Algerian diplomat nears a decision on who should lead an interim government until elections in January.

38. Restraints Urged On American Military
(Baltimore Sun)...Mark Matthews
...The amount of control granted to U.S. troops has become a key issue in closed-door meetings of the United Nations Security Council, where France and Russia, which wield veto power, are pushing for restraints on U.S.-led coalition troops.

TERRORISM

39. Zarqawi Beheaded Berg, CIA Finds
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
The CIA concluded yesterday that the hooded terrorist shown beheading an American civilian in a videotape is al Qaeda-linked terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi.

MEDIA

40. Al-Jazeera: Beheading A Fake
(New York Post)...Unattributed
In a bizarre twist, the anti-American TV station al-Jazeera is questioning the "authenticity" of the horrific video of American Nick Berg's beheading - suggesting it's a fake to divert attention from the Iraqi prison abuse scandal.

BUSINESS

41. Reports Further Imperil Boeing Bid
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle
Boeing Co.'s high-stakes bid to boost its aircraft business with the help of a large military contract appears in danger of collapsing after two Pentagon reports cast doubt on the scandal-tarnished program.

42. Firms Stymied By Backlog On Security Clearances
(Washington Post)...Ellen McCarthy
Companies rushing to compete for intelligence and military contracts have run into a major glitch: The government's system of verifying the trustworthiness of people in sensitive jobs has not kept up with its push to privatize the work.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

7. Rumsfeld Preserves Bearing, But Weighs Ability To Serve
(New York Times)...Elisabeth Bumiller
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the man at the center of the furor over American soldiers' abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison, spent last Sunday in the backyard garden of his elegant Washington home, poring over Pentagon documents piled 10 inches high in his lap. Mr. Rumsfeld barely listened as his wife chatted with a visiting friend.

8. Rumsfeld Has Doubts
(New York Daily News)...Richard Sisk
For the first time in public, a somber Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility yesterday that the U.S. mission in Iraq could fail.

9. Money Request Coming Next Year
(USA Today)...Peronet Despeignes
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that the Bush administration will likely ask for more money for military operations in Iraq next year, beyond the $25 billion in additional funds it has already requested.

NA
10. Military Missions In Afghanistan, Iraq May Cost $66 Billion In '05
(Wall Street Journal)...David Rogers
U.S. military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan are running close to $4.7 billion a month, and with the additional expense of replenishing worn armored vehicles, helicopters and other equipment, they could easily reach $66 billion for fiscal 2005.

11. New Tankers Not Needed, Report Says
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle
A Pentagon advisory panel has concluded that the Air Force's aging fleet of refueling tankers is not in need of immediate modernization, dealing a setback to Boeing Co.'s controversial plan to sell and lease the planes to the military.

NA
12. Rumsfeld Set To Shake Up Leadership At Two Key Combat Commands
(Inside The Pentagon)...Elaine M. Grossman
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is preparing to buck tradition and hand the top leadership posts at U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Strategic Command to services that have never commanded them before, defense officials tell Inside the Pentagon.

IRAQ

NA
13. Behind The Scenes, U.S. Tightens Grip On Iraq's Future
(Wall Street Journal)...Yochi J. Dreazen and Christopher Cooper
...As Washington prepares to hand over power, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and other officials are quietly building institutions that will give the U.S. powerful levers for influencing nearly every important decision the interim government will make.

14. Iraqi Politicians Press For Wider Role
(Washington Post)...Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Politicians on Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council are pushing for significant changes in the interim government being crafted by a U.N. envoy, posing a new complication to the Bush administration's plan to relinquish civilian administrative powers here in 50 days.

15. U.S. Turns Up Pressure On Shiite Cleric's Militia
(Washington Post)...Scott Wilson and Daniel Williams
U.S. forces, using tanks, armored personnel carriers and attack helicopters, pushed into the centers of two holy cities Wednesday in pursuit of bands of masked guerrillas loyal to a rebellious cleric at the heart of the Shiite insurgency.

16. In Najaf, Gunfire And A Peace Plan
(Los Angeles Times)...Patrick J. McDonnell
Gunfire erupted in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf early today as clerics, civic authorities and tribal leaders vowed to present a peace plan to U.S.-led occupation authorities in the coming days.

17. Shiite Leaders Report Progress In Talks On Najaf, But Cleric Balks
(New York Times)...Edward Wong and Dexter Filkins
Shiite leaders reported progress Wednesday toward an agreement that would end a five-week-old standoff with the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf, but Mr. Sadr himself vowed to fight on and gun battles continued between American forces and his followers.

18. General Took Guantᮡmo Rules To Iraq For Handling Of Prisoners
(New York Times)...Tim Golden and Eric Schmitt
When Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller arrived in Iraq last August with a team of military police and intelligence specialists, the group was confronted by chaos.

19. Witness Faults Actions Of Prison Interrogators
(Los Angeles Times)...Richard A. Serrano and Patrick J. McDonnell
A member of the military intelligence battalion operating at the Abu Ghraib prison testified at a secret hearing in Baghdad this month that interrogators at the prison sometimes went too far in trying to extract information from detainees.

20. Two Sergeants Ordered To Face Courts-Martial
(Washington Post)...Christian Davenport
The two highest-ranking soldiers charged in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse case have been ordered to face courts-martial, a military official announced yesterday.

21. Soldier Charged In Abuse Scandal Is Moved Away From Other Suspects
(New York Times)...Kate Zernike and Adam Liptak
The government has moved Jeremy C. Sivits, the first soldier facing court-martial in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, from a tent in Baghdad where he and five other suspects have been housed since the investigation into the abuse began, lawyers for other defendants said.

22. Court-Martial Will Lay Foundation For Other Cases
(USA Today)...Toni Locy
Next week's court-martial of Army Spc. Jeremy Sivits is a crucial step in the U.S. military's investigation into who planned and participated in the scheme to sexually humiliate Iraqi prisoners, legal analysts say.

23. Abuse Less Shocking In Light Of History
(USA Today)...Rick Hampson
One of the most surprising things about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers is that so many Americans are surprised.

24. Some In Baghdad Say U.S. Troops No Longer Wanted
(USA Today)...David J. Lynch
...Seven weeks before Washington plans to transfer limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, the U.S. military says it is making steady progress in a low-intensity military conflict with shadowy insurgents. But in perhaps its most important fight, the battle for Iraqi "hearts and minds," the U.S. may be losing ground.

25. Line Increasingly Blurred Between Soldiers And Civilian Contractors
(Washington Post)...Ariana Eunjung Cha and Renae Merle
...The confusion demonstrates that in many situations soldiers and civilian contractors have become virtually indistinguishable -- and interchangeable -- in postwar Iraq.

26. U.S. Officials Failed To Protect Slain Civilian, Family Says
(New York Times)...Richard Lezin Jones and Jill P. Capuzzo
The family of Nicholas E. Berg challenged American military officials on Wednesday, insisting that the man beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Iraq had earlier been in the custody of federal officials who should have done more to protect him.

More to come

IRAQ

7. Iraqi Leaders In Najaf Reach Deal In Effort To Resolve Crisis
(Los Angeles Times)...Monte Morin and Patrick J. McDonnell
Iraqi religious and political leaders in Najaf agreed late Tuesday on how to end the crisis gripping the city, while a U.S. general said he might recruit Shiite Muslim militiamen now fighting U.S. soldiers for a security force there.

8. Some In Najaf Protest Sadr
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
About 400 people joined a peaceful demonstration Tuesday in Najaf, demanding that the militia of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr leave the city.

9. Troops Move Cautiously As Sadr City Remains Tense
(Washington Post)...Daniel Williams
...Sadr City, the Baghdad front in Sadr's rebellion against the presence of U.S.-led occupation forces, was largely quiet Tuesday, two days after fighting there killed 34 insurgents. The masked gunmen who blocked streets, shut down commerce and drove police officers and civil administration workers out of their offices on Sunday had all but withdrawn from Sadr City's smelly, trash-filled alleys. On Tuesday, the neighborhood presented a confusing panorama, making it unclear who among the impoverished throng was friend or foe. Residents interviewed later generally blamed the violence on Sadr, a 30-year-old militia leader and the son of the assassinated cleric for whom Sadr City is named.

10. More Iraqis Accept Their US-Trained Forces
(Christian Science Monitor)...Scott Peterson
Accused of being collaborators with American occupation forces, Iraqi policemen, guards, and soldiers have endured ridicule, threats, and targeted violence that have left hundreds dead over the past year. But there are signs that hard-nosed attitudes toward the country's embattled, US-trained security forces are beginning to soften.

NA
11. Rumsfeld: Expect 'Mixed' Results From Iraqi Security Forces
(InsideDefense.com)...John Liang
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today cautioned against expecting miracles from the nascent Iraqi security forces.

12. U.S., Dutch Report 2 Iraq Troop Deaths
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Services
The U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that a service member attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force operating in and near Fallouja, Iraq, was killed in action, and Dutch authorities have announced the first death in Iraq among their 1,300 troops.

13. Honduras Starts Its Pullout Of Troops In Iraq
(Los Angeles Times)...Reuters
Honduran troops in Iraq have started to withdraw and are expected to be out of the country in about two weeks, a coalition military official said Tuesday.

14. Hussein May Be Handed Over, Tribunal Says
(Dallas Morning News)...Associated Press
The head of Iraq's war-crimes tribunal said Tuesday that the United States has pledged to hand over Saddam Hussein and about 100 other suspects to Iraqi authorities before July 1 if Iraq is ready to take them into custody. U.S. officials denied any decision had been reached.

15. Punished Officer Alleges Vigilantism
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Jim Krane, Associated Press
A female Army soldier in the 320th Military Police Battalion meted out "vigilante justice" on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from her battalion commander.

16. Quick Decision Expected In First Iraq Abuse Trial
(Washington Times)...Associated Press
The first court-martial arising from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners will probably be a quick affair, say lawyers with expertise in military trials.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

17. Rumsfeld Backs Military's Handling Of Abuse Scandal
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
A defiant Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday defended the military's handling of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and denied a "culture of deception" exists.

18. An Overseer Of Intelligence Efforts At The Defense Department
(New York Times)...Douglas Jehl
Stephen Cambone may have more influence over intelligence matters at the Pentagon than anyone who has previously tried to oversee that enterprise, so his words carry some weight.

19. 200,000 Employees Awaiting Clearance To Work For Military
(New York Times)...Joel Brinkley
A government investigation shows that even as the military has grown more reliant on private contractors to serve in highly sensitive positions in Iraq, the Pentagon has a backlog of nearly 200,000 people working for those and other contractors who are still awaiting security clearances.

ARMY

20. Lessons Of A By-The-Book Soldier
(Washington Post)...David Von Drehle
His name has been famous for about 10 days, since his report on the abuse of prisoners in Iraq burst into the global spotlight -- but only yesterday did the world get a good look at Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. Forthright, terse, direct, Taguba turned out to be a by-the-book soldier worthy of central casting. The man sent to investigate the warped doings at Abu Ghraib appeared to be the straightest arrow imaginable. He didn't just nod to Army rules and regulations; he seemed to have memorized every page of every manual.

MARINE CORPS

21. Where There's Battle, There's Bravery--And Recognition
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
The Marine Corps is usually conservative in distributing medals, but the battles of March and April here are certain to bring a significant number of citations for bravery, officials said.

AIR FORCE

22. Air Force Has Alert System For Explosive Cases
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)...Philip Dine
...But what was not mentioned in the daylong testimony by Rumsfeld and other Pentagon leaders was that the Air Force has a system that flags sensitive cases and alerts top officials so they can try to contain the damage and alert Congress or other agencies. The policy was designed in 1998, following the case of Kelly Flinn, a B-52 pilot whom the Air Force sought to court-martial for having an affair with the husband of a subordinate and other offenses.

WHITE HOUSE

23. U.S. Allies Tread Lightly Amid Abuse Scandal
(Washington Times)...Nicholas Kralev
The Bush administration said yesterday that its diplomatic efforts in Iraq remained on track despite the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but that the scandal has made its negotiating partners more cautious.

24. U.S. Troop Tasks In Iraq Spur Complaints
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
Missouri's governor and its National Guard leader raised concerns Tuesday that some service personnel in Iraq were improperly being used as drivers for civilian supply contractors.

CONGRESS

25. Outrage Erodes Morale Of Troops
(Washington Times)...Charles Hurt and Amy Fagan
The worldwide furor over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers imperils troop morale at a crucial time, say lawmakers from both parties. But what to do about it divides them, with Democrats blaming the Bush administration for creating a culture where it could happen and the Republicans accusing Democrats of hyping the situation in order to make political hay out of it.

26. Warner, Courtly Republican, Guides Panel In Rough Seas
(New York Times)...Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Senator John Warner, the courtly Virginia Republican leading the Senate's inquiry into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, was asked yet again on Tuesday for his opinion of Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. His reply was as revealing for what he did not say as for what he did.

27. Pentagon To Show Senators New Photos
(USA Today)...Kathy Kiely
U.S. senators will get their first look Wednesday at a new batch of photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse when Pentagon officials make them available for a brief, classified viewing.

NA
28. McCain May Lobby For Tanker Subpoena
(Defense Daily)...Sharon Weinberger and Amy Butler
Frustrated by a lack of response from the Pentagon, the lead congressional opponent of the Air Force tanker acquisition said he might consider asking the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) to subpoena documents related to the deal and would continue to place holds on administration nominees reported out of committee until the issue is resolved.

AFGHANISTAN

29. Warning In Afghanistan
(New York Times)...New York Times
The commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, warned Tuesday of more attacks from Taliban and Al Qaeda guerrillas, but he promised a relentless military response.

30. An Afghan Gives His Own Account Of U.S. Abuse
(New York Times)...Carlotta Gall
A former Afghan police colonel gave a graphic account in an interview this week of being subjected to beating, kicking, sleep deprivation, taunts and sexual abuse during about 40 days he spent in American custody in Afghanistan last summer. He also said he had been repeatedly photographed, often while naked.

31. U.S. Alters Treatment Of Afghan Detainees
(International Herald Tribune)...Combined Reports
Alleged abuse of prisoners - and three deaths - at U.S. jails in Afghanistan have prompted "very significant changes" in how the military treats detainees, including quicker transfers from jails at outlying bases, an American general said on Tuesday.

MIDEAST

32. President Imposes Sanctions On Syria
(Washington Post)...Glenn Kessler
Under pressure from Congress, President Bush slapped sanctions on Syria yesterday for supporting terrorism and interfering with U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.

EUROPE

NA
33. Army Urges Hoon To Censure Paper Over Fake Photos
(London Times)...Michael Evans and Russell Jenkins
GEOFF HOON is under pressure from the Army to denounce the Daily Mirror for publishing fake photographs of British soldiers beating up an Iraqi civilian.

34. Spanish Forces Refused US Order To Launch Najaf Offensive
(London Financial Times)...Joshua Levitt
...The violence in Najaf, along with that in Falluja, a Sunni town west of Baghdad, has threatened the overall US project of building a new Iraq. The Spanish military command in the region blamed the month-old uprising, which has engulfed coalition troops, on the incorrect reading of the situation by the Pentagon.

ASIA/PACIFIC

35. A Flurry Of Diplomacy In Asia On Eve Of Arms Talks
(New York Times)...James Brooke
Tokyo is abuzz with reports that the prime minister of Japan is planning a visit to North Korea. Meanwhile, South Korea and North Korea are organizing a meeting of army generals, the highest level inter-Korean military meeting in decades.

AMERICAS

36. Panama To Sign Shipping Accord
(Los Angeles Times)...Carol J. Williams
The U.S. Navy will be allowed to board Panamanian-registered commercial ships to search for weapons of mass destruction under a deal to be signed today by the two nations in Washington.

BUSINESS

NA
37. Western Contractors Upgrade Their Security In Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)...Russell Gold
Western contractors in Iraq are beefing up their security and taking extra precautions to protect their employees from escalating violence.

38. More Charges In Theft Of Lockheed Files
(New York Times)...Leslie Wayne
A former manager of the Boeing Company was charged on Tuesday in a federal court with using documents stolen from the Lockheed Martin Corporation to help Boeing win a Pentagon rocket contract in 1998.

39. Boeing Contract Under Review
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)...Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
Pentagon auditors said yesterday that they are reviewing whether The Boeing Co., second-largest contractor to the U.S. military, overcharged the Air Force "by a significant amount" on a $1.3 billion contract to upgrade NATO surveillance aircraft.

OPINION

40. Hold Fast, Idealists
(New York Times)...William Safire
...Those of us who believe in the nobility of exporting freedom cannot trivialize the scandal. But we need not let our dismay at the predations of some self-photographing creeps overwhelm the morally sound purpose of our antiterror campaign. Nor should the dereliction of some officers detract from the brave and upright service of almost all our warriors. Though polls show that most Americans understand this, the atmosphere in the BosNyWash corridor is that of panic. Even some of my hard-line brethren are urging that we throw a few leaders off the sled to palliate the pack in pursuit; others offer an emergency exit strategy that is "cut and walk fast."

41. Not Just Following Orders
(Washington Post)...James D. Villa
From 1989 to 1992 I commanded the 372nd MP Company, the Army Reserve unit from Cumberland, Md., that is at the center of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. In the years since then, I've had an enduring affection for the unit and those who serve in it. Today what I feel is a sort of sickness, and shame at having been affiliated with the 372nd.

42. What Would You Do?
(Washington Post)...Anne Applebaum
...At the same time, Army superiors have spoken of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib as a "rogue unit" -- as if no ordinary soldiers could do such things, as if the explanation for these events lies only in their psyches and not in the system created over many months. As I say, this kind of talk is inevitable, perhaps understandable. But it should be kept in perspective. The best way to do that is to keep reminding yourself that the only possible answer to the question "What would you do" in such a situation has to be: "I don't know."

NA
43. The Curse Of Pan-Arabia
(Wall Street Journal)...Fouad Ajami
Consider a tale of three cities: In Fallujah, there are the beginnings of wisdom, a recognition, after the bravado, that the insurgents cannot win in the face of a great military power. In Najaf, the clerical establishment and the shopkeepers have called on the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr to quit their city, and to "pursue another way." It is in Washington where the lines are breaking, and where the faith in the gains that coalition soldiers have secured in Iraq at such a terrible price appears to have cracked. We have been doing Iraq by improvisation, we are now "dumping stock," just as our fortunes in that hard land may be taking a turn for the better. We pledged to give Iraqis a chance at a new political life. We now appear to be consigning them yet again to the same Arab malignancies that drove us to Iraq in the first place.

44. War Management Follows The Wrong Corporate Model
(Washington Post)...Steven Pearlstein
There are lots of ways to explain why the Bush administration has made a hash of its Iraq policy. To my mind, however, this is fundamentally a story about management failure and a corporate leadership style that the first MBA president and his crew of former CEOs brought to Washington.

EDITORIAL

NA
45. Winning In Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
When all else fails, look to the good sense of the American people. Even amid a 24/7 news frenzy fed by dreams of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, the U.S. public isn't even close to buying. In almost inverse proportion to the bizarre perceptions of political reality that obsess those inside the Beltway, recent polls show a 2-to-1 majority of Americans rejecting any move to oust the Secretary of Defense.

46. Protecting The System
(Washington Post)...Editorial
THE BUSH administration still seeks to mislead Congress and the public about the policies that contributed to the criminal abuse of prisoners in Iraq. Yesterday's smoke screen was provided by Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Mr. Cambone assured the Senate Armed Services Committee that the administration's policy had always been to strictly observe the Geneva Conventions in Iraq; that all procedures for interrogations in Iraq were sanctioned under the conventions; and that the abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison were consequently the isolated acts of individuals. These assertions are contradicted by International Red Cross and Army investigators, by U.S. generals overseeing the prisoners, and by Mr. Cambone himself.

47. The Abu Ghraib Spin
(New York Times)...Editorial
The administration and its Republican allies appear to have settled on a way to deflect attention from the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib: accuse Democrats and the news media of overreacting, then pile all of the remaining responsibility onto officers in the battlefield, far away from President Bush and his political team. That cynical approach was on display yesterday morning in the second Abu Ghraib hearing in the Senate, a body that finally seemed to be assuming its responsibility for overseeing the executive branch after a year of silently watching the bungled Iraq occupation.

48. 'Trust Us' Won't Do
(Los Angeles Times)...Editorial
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sharply questioned President Bush's lawyers last month about whether the secretive and indefinite detention of terrorism suspects that Bush ordered at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could encourage torture and mistreatment. Now, after revelations of abuse and torture at Abu Graib prison near Baghdad, the concerns of Ginsburg and other justices have become anything but hypothetical.

Did I say inexplicable? Perhaps not. There's strong wishful thinking among many on the left for Taguba have been the source of the leak to 60 Minutes/Seymour Hersh - the theory being the man was fed up with the Army stonewalling and using his report to get the innocent instead of the guilty.

Wishful thinking, as readers here well know.

Maj General Taguba is a hero in anyone's book, by virtue of long and distinguished sevice to his nation. Sad that that's not enough for a large segment of the population.

Update:

"We did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition and I believe that they collaborated with several MI (military intelligence) interrogators at the lower level," Tugaba said.

There's still hope for spin. If the press and congressional Democrats continue their unprecedented support of the Abu Ghraib torture squad expect a barrage of training-related questions, and focused coverage of that angle. One usable quote is all that's needed...

Update 2: Well, that didn't take long

And note the link in the first update above was originally to a brief mention of the testimony, but now is to a longer story with a very different headline.

And this quote:

On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Mark Dayton of Michigan never asked a question during his time, instead using it to accuse Pentagon officials of sanitizing the abuse and obscuring the truth.

"That's why the pictures have been so important," he said. "The pictures showed us the truth. ... We were told there were papers and orders ... and everyone followed those orders except for a few people who did very bad things unbeknownst to anyone else who were all doing what they were supposed to be doing to save American lives."

"Those pictures were disruptive," he added, "because they defy that sanitizing."

Note that the CNN story is in the "Inside Politics" category. Best fit?

Footnote/disclaimer: The above erroneous reference to Sen Dayton's homestate noted by commenters below is from the CNN story, and not the fault of the Mudville Gazette. We offer no comment on the fact checking procedures used by CNN; we note this could cast doubt on the accuracy of their coverage, have considered apologizing for them but decided not to, and acknowledge the irony of the situation. ;)

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

7. Bush: U.S. Owes Debt To 'Superb' Rumsfeld
(USA Today)...Jim Drinkard and Tom Squitieri
President Bush visited the Pentagon on Monday to shore up his embattled Defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, as the administration and Congress grappled with how to handle potentially explosive new photos of prisoner sexual abuse.

8. Bush Views More Photos
(Los Angeles Times)...Maura Reynolds and Esther Schrader
President Bush, making an unusual visit to the Pentagon on Monday, viewed still-secret photographs of U.S. soldiers mistreating Iraqi prisoners and said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was doing "a superb job" for which the nation owes him "a debt of gratitude."

NA
9. Bush Backs Rumsfeld, For Now
(Wall Street Journal)...Carla Anne Robbins and Greg Hitt
President Bush again endorsed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, saying he is doing a "superb job." But that praise is unlikely to quiet demands for Mr. Rumsfeld's resignation in the wake of the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal, or halt the handicapping on his likely successor.

10. Bush Lauds Rumsfeld For Doing 'Superb Job'
(Washington Post)...Mike Allen and Bradley Graham
President Bush went before cameras at the Pentagon yesterday to unequivocally praise Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld in an effort to head off growing pressure for his resignation, then examined more than a dozen new photos documenting abuse of Iraqi detainees. Bush's aides had known for several days about the graphic photographs, which include sexual abuse of detainees and other mistreatment of naked, hooded detainees. But the session gave the commander in chief a vivid view of fuel that could continue to feed a scandal that was a distraction a week ago, but now is consuming the White House and creating real alarm among Republicans.

11. Military: Guantanamo Unlike Iraq
(Miami Herald)...Frank Davies, David Kidwell and Ronnie Greene
Interrogation techniques used at the Guantᮡmo Bay terror prison are meant to wear down detainees, but the rules forbid the kind of tortures coming to light in Iraq, say U.S. government officials and other experts familiar with the facility.

NA
12. At The Pentagon, Quirky Powerpoint Carries Big Punch
(Wall Street Journal)...Greg Jaffe
...Mr. Barnett's military is a far cry from the shape of today's armed forces. Instead of a single force to wage wars and rebuild nations, Mr. Barnett envisions two. The first, which he dubs "Leviathan," would be hard-hitting, ready to take on conventional foes such as Saddam Hussein on a moment's notice. The second, more unconventional force of "System Administrators" would focus on bringing dysfunctional states into the mainstream through the type of nation-building operations seen in Iraq, the Balkans and Eastern Africa. It wouldn't only mop up after wars but would travel the world during peacetime building local security forces and infrastructure.

IRAQ

13. Iraq Cleric Faces Showdown With Moderate Shiites
(Los Angeles Times)...Patrick J. McDonnell and Alissa J. Rubin
U.S. and British forces have recently inflicted heavy casualties on Muqtada Sadr's militia, but the Shiite cleric is bracing for a showdown with a more familiar foe: moderate Shiites who do not support his uprising.

14. U.S. Forces Raze Cleric's Office
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan and Daniel Williams
U.S. forces destroyed one of two Baghdad offices of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr early Monday during six hours of fighting in which 16 Iraqis were killed.

15. Marines Safely Venture Into Fallouja, Talk With Leaders
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
In a test of what U.S. Marines see as their new partnership with Iraqi security forces, a joint convoy Monday safely escorted an American general into this troubled city's downtown for a 25-minute meeting with the mayor and a group of sheiks, government officials and businessmen.

16. Violence, Collision Kill 3 U.S. Soldiers In Iraq
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
Three more American soldiers have died in Iraq, two from hostile fire and one in a traffic accident, military officials said Monday.

17. First Baghdad Court-Martial May Set Table For Later Ones
(New York Times)...Adam Liptak
The trial next week of an American military policeman on charges of mistreating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison is likely to disappoint people eager for a thorough airing of the available evidence. It may also frustrate those who would like to see tough punishment should his guilt be established.

18. A Double Ordeal For Female Prisoners
(Los Angeles Times)...Tracy Wilkinson
...Whether it was one or numerous cases of rape, many Iraqis believe that sexual abuse of women in U.S.-run jails was rampant. As a result, female prisoners face grave prospects after they are released: denial, ostracism or even death.

19. Allies Demand Justice In Abuse
(Washington Times)...William J. Kole, Associated Press
America's allies in Iraq, voicing disgust at abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, demanded yesterday that the Pentagon punish those responsible.

20. Secret World Of U.S. Interrogation
(Washington Post)...Dana Priest and Joe Stephens
...The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where a unit of U.S. soldiers abused prisoners, is just the largest and suddenly most notorious in a worldwide constellation of detention centers -- many of them secret and all off-limits to public scrutiny -- that the U.S. military and CIA have operated in the name of counterterrorism or counterinsurgency operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

More to come...

IRAQ

7. Cleric's Forces Battle For Section Of Baghdad
(Los Angeles Times)...Patrick J. McDonnell
...U.S. officials said 19 militiamen, all carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, were killed in the fighting. U.S. officials said the fighters took to the streets one day after the arrest of two men suspected of being a lieutenant in and a financier for Sadr's militia.

8. U.S. Pushes Deep Into Shi'ite City
(Washington Times)...Scheherezade Faramarzi, Associated Press
U.S. forces stepped up pressure on Shi'ite gunmen loyal to radical cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, pushing with tanks into the holy city of Kufa and assaulting militia positions in the narrow streets of a Shi'ite enclave in Baghdad. About 30 Iraqis were killed.

9. Falluja District Begins To Relax As Iraqi Force Patrols The Streets
(New York Times)...Christine Hauser and John Kifner
The faces of many houses in the Jolan district of Falluja are scorched black. Gaping holes puncture the walls, leaving glimpses of lifeless interiors through jagged brickwork and shattered windows.

10. U.S. Asks Politicians And Sheiks To Help Rebuild Iraqi Corps In South
(New York Times)...Edward Wong
The American military has begun to recruit Iraqi fighters from prominent Shiite political parties and tribal sheiks to rebuild the national security forces in the south that have been decimated by the uprising led by the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

NA
11. Red Cross Cited Detainee Abuse Over A Year Ago
(Wall Street Journal)...David S. Cloud
Even before the war in Iraq ended a year ago, and well before U.S. officials have generally acknowledged it, the Red Cross began periodically lodging complaints about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners in allied custody, according to a confidential report by the organization.

12. As Insurgency Grew, So Did Prison Abuse
(Washington Post)...Scott Wilson and Sewell Chan
In the fall of 2003, U.S. officials watched anxiously as a potent guerrilla resistance rose across broad swaths of northern and central Iraq. Insurgents assassinated diplomats, detonated car bombs and mounted daily hit-and-run strikes on U.S. soldiers. Fearful of reprisals, Iraqis shrank from collaborating with an occupation authority that appeared powerless to reverse the tide of violence and lawlessness.

NA
13. Marines In Iraq See Prison Photos Creating Enemies
(Wall Street Journal)...Michael M. Phillips
Watching a computer screen in a U.S. Marines command post here this weekend, Sgt. Maj. Philip Freed stared in disbelief at a photo of Army Pfc. Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a naked Iraqi prisoner.

14. Brutal Images Buttress Anger Of Ex-Prisoners
(New York Times)...Ian Fisher
...But now the scandal has given these complaints a new platform. And Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's promise in a Senate hearing last week to pay compensation to victims has provided a new incentive for people to come forward — though it may be increasingly hard to separate victims from opportunists. One reason for the anger is that the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison seemed to confirm the worst of what many Iraqis believed and more than a few have experienced: that American soldiers, under extreme danger here and thus usually seen patrolling the streets with guns raised, often use excessive force against Iraqis.

15. Analysts Say Iraqi Agencies Unlikely To Follow U.S. Rules
(Washington Post)...Walter Pincus
With less than two months before the Coalition Provisional Authority is to transfer sovereignty to an Iraqi government, CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer III has been establishing rules for key agencies in the fields of intelligence, defense and the law that analysts say may not survive long because they reflect American rather than Middle Eastern values.

16. 7 Iraqis Killed By Bomb Hidden In Box
(Washington Post)...Scott Wilson and Sewell Chan
A bomb hidden in a box in front of a crowded market in western Baghdad exploded Sunday, killing at least seven Iraqis and wounding more than a dozen others. Witnesses said two of the dead were children and three others were police officers who were trying to defuse the bomb when it detonated during morning rush hour.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

17. Officials Grapple With How And When To Release Images
(New York Times)...Thom Shanker
The Defense Department is planning to provide Congress with many more pictures of the abusive treatment of Iraqi detainees, but has not decided whether to release them to the public, Congressional leaders and Pentagon officials said Sunday.

18. A Father's Nemesis Who Became A Son's Trusted Aide(New York Times)...Elisabeth Bumiller
At the heart of the melodrama playing out in Washington is the complex character of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the great warrior of Iraq and Afghanistan who is now struggling to hang on to his job. If he survives, it will largely be because of President Bush, who spanked him last week for his handling of the Iraq prison abuse scandal but insisted Mr. Rumsfeld's position was secure.

19. Dissension Grows In Senior Ranks On War Strategy
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
Deep divisions are emerging at the top of the U.S. military over the course of the occupation of Iraq, with some senior officers beginning to say that the United States faces the prospect of casualties for years without achieving its goal of establishing a free and democratic Iraq.

20. Most Want Rumsfeld To Stay, Poll Finds
(Washington Post)...Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
A large majority of Americans believe that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should not resign over the Iraq prison scandal, but the public remains divided over whether the administration moved quickly enough to investigate reports of abuse, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

21. Interrogators Lacked List Of Proper Tactics
(Dallas Morning News)...Associated Press
U.S. military units holding prisoners in Iraq did not get a specific list of techniques permitted during questioning and were expected to follow long-standing limitations in the Geneva Conventions, a senior Pentagon official said Sunday.

NAVY

22. Navy Launches Vast Maritime Security Plan
(Washington Times)...Richard Halloran
Pacific Command has undertaken one of the most ambitious and complicated ventures in the war on terrorism as it seeks to prevent seaborne terrorist and criminal assaults on nations bordering the Pacific and Indian oceans.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

23. Iraq Prison Abuse Stains Entire Brigade
(Washington Times)...Associated Press
The prisoner-abuse scandal has so tarnished the Army's 800th Military Police Brigade that soldiers slated to receive a Bronze Star medal have been dropped from the list, the brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, said yesterday.

24. Prison Revolt
(Washington Post)...Libby Copeland
Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski has her back up. She says she has been scapegoated for the abuses that some U.S. soldiers inflicted on Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib, abuses that occurred when she was in charge of 16 prisons in Iraq, and that were carried out by soldiers under her command. Karpinski believes that higher-ups are attempting to make her the public face of failed leadership.

WHITE HOUSE

25. Bush Aims To Avoid Father's Mistakes
(Washington Times)...Bill Sammon
...The president, while acknowledging that "the rebuilding of Iraq is a difficult period," is optimistic about nurturing a democratic government there. "Freedom will prevail, so long as the United States and allies don't give the people of Iraq mixed signals, so long as we don't cower in the face of suiciders, or do what many Iraqis still suspect might happen, and that is cut and run early, like what happened in '91," Mr. Bush said.

NA
26. White House Defends Rumsfeld Following Testimony In Congress
(Wall Street Journal)...Glenn R. Simpson
The White House mounted a strong defense of embattled Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld in the wake of his congressional testimony on Friday on prisoner abuse in Iraq. "I think Donald Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defense the United States has ever had," said Vice President -- and former Defense Secretary -- Dick Cheney in a written statement issued Saturday. Other officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, were deployed to come to Mr. Rumsfeld's aid over the weekend, amid a growing clamor for his resignation.

27. Rice Says She And Bush 'Strongly' Support Rumsfeld
(New York Times)...Elisabeth Bumiller
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld retains "the strongest possible support" from President Bush and the White House, the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said Saturday, a day after Mr. Rumsfeld testified for six hours in Congress about the abuse by Americans of Iraqi prisoners.

CONGRESS

28. Senators Want All Photos To Be Shown
(Washington Times)...Audrey Hudson
Key senators yesterday called on the Pentagon to quickly make public all photographs, videos and other evidence of prisoner abuse in Iraq, which the senators described as systemic.

29. Prisoner Abuse Scandal Puts McCain In Spotlight Once Again
(New York Times)...Sheryl Gay Stolberg
...With the Senate preparing to take up a resolution condemning the abuse, possibly as soon as Monday, Mr. McCain has made it clear that he intends to use both his platform and his anger to prod the Bush administration to make the facts of the scandal public immediately. He is not interested, he said in an interview Friday, in "some commission to investigate and report out six or nine months from now." "They can do whatever they want," he said, "but the facts have got to come out now."

NA
30. Senate Considers Upgrading B-1 Bombers
(USA Today)...Unattributed
The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to increase funding to modernize B-1B bombers such as those stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., Sen. Tom Daschle said Sunday. Daschle, D-S.D., said the committee and the Air Force have indicated support for modernizing and expanding the B-1 fleet, about half of which is stationed at Ellsworth.

RUSSIA

31. U.S.-Russia Plutonium Disposal Project Languishing
(Washington Post)...Peter Slevin
...Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld are among those who have raised the issue with their Russian counterparts. Despite intensive discussions within the administration in recent weeks, a White House official conceded that the issue is "one of those things that have been on the one-yard line a long time."

AFGHANISTAN

32. World In Brief
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
U.S. forces swept through an Afghan province, detaining 35 Taliban suspects, including a rebel commander, an Afghan governor said.

33. As Heroin Flourishes, So Could Terror
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Mark McDonald
Heroin producers in Afghanistan, some of the principal financiers of al-Qaeda and other terrorists, have never been so brazen or so wealthy.

NORTH KOREA

34. Talks On North Korean Nuclear Program To Resume In Beijing
(Washington Post)...Glenn Kessler
After a helpful push from China -- which last month promised to double food assistance to North Korea -- mid-level officials from the Pyongyang government will sit down Wednesday in Beijing with their counterparts from the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. The topic concerns ending North Korea's nuclear programs, though the North Koreans and Americans have not quite agreed on the precise agenda.

ASIA/PACIFIC

NA
35. Pakistan Border Offensive Fails
(Wall Street Journal)...Zahid Hussain
...Tension between Pakistan and the U.S. has been heightened with an incursion by American troops into Pakistani territory. Islamabad protested the May 2 incident in which U.S. troops crossed into the North Waziristan region. But Washington said the entry was inadvertent and U.S. troops quickly returned to Afghanistan. The U.S. has been conducting its own search for al Qaeda leaders and Taliban insurgents along the Afghanistan border in an effort to trap the fighters between the two countries' forces. Military officials have said they believe al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been moving frequently across the border.

EUROPE

36. Blair Offers An Apology For Abuses By Soldiers
(New York Times)...Patrick E. Tyler
Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized Sunday for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers as his government prepared to make a detailed statement in Parliament on Monday about the investigations into mistreatment.

BUSINESS

37. CACI Defends Screening Of Interrogators
(Washington Post)...Ellen McCarthy
CACI International Inc. said yesterday that its interrogators were carefully screened and worked under the supervision of the U.S. military in Iraqi detention centers.

More to come...

IRAQ

7. Baghdad Blast Reportedly Kills 6; Troops, Insurgents Clash In South
(Los Angeles Times)...Alissa J. Rubin and Tony Perry
A car bomb exploded early this morning near a U.S. military checkpoint at the 14th of July Bridge, which leads into the Green Zone, as scores of mainly Iraqi contractors who work for the U.S.-led coalition were lined up in cars waiting to enter. The U.S. military confirmed that there were casualties but did not say how many. Wire services said one U.S. soldier and five Iraqis were dead, along with an unknown number of wounded.

8. Bush, On Arab TV, Denounces Abuse Of Iraqi Captives
(New York Times)...Richard W. Stevenson
President Bush went on Arab television on Wednesday in an effort to limit the diplomatic damage from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, offering no direct apology but saying the mistreatment "does not represent the America that I know."

9. Bush Scolds Rumsfeld On Abuse Inquiry
(Los Angeles Times)...Edwin Chen, John Hendren and Janet Hook
A clash erupted Wednesday between the White House and the Pentagon over the handling of the Iraq prison abuse investigation, with President Bush telling Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that he felt personally blindsided by the scandal and should have been more fully informed about its severity.

10. Rage Is On Display During Prison Tour
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
...Along with a slate of reforms that Miller announced to reporters, the four-hour tour suggested new efforts by the Army to bring transparency to Abu Ghraib in the wake of allegations that military police had subjected Iraqi prisoners to humiliating and sometimes abusive punishments late last year. The Army has launched five investigations, filed criminal charges against six members of a military police unit and notified seven officers and sergeants that they will receive letters of reprimand or admonishment that could end their careers.

11. Many Iraqis Are Skeptical Of Bush TV Appeal
(New York Times)...Christine Hauser
At a coffee shop on Karada Street here just before 8 p.m., eight men sat on plastic chairs around a crudely hewn wooden coffee table or alongside metal stands just big enough for a tea glass. They sat cross-legged, prayer beads in hand, their eyes glued to the television set, waiting for the American president to speak about the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

12. Ex-Detainee Tells Of Anguishing Treatment At Iraq Prison
(Washington Post)...Scott Wilson
Hasham Mohsen Lazim traded used tires for a living in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. He had been in trouble only once in his life, he said, a desperate time six years ago when he deserted Saddam Hussein's army to support his wife and four small children.

13. Most Prisoners In Iraq Jails Called 'Threat To Security'
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
Nearly all 8,080 prisoners being held by U.S. authorities in Iraq are considered security threats: insurgents linked to attacks on coalition forces, and terrorists and former officials of Saddam Hussein's regime suspected of having useful intelligence, military officials say.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

14. Rumsfeld To Give Talk At West Point Graduation
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Reports
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will deliver the commencement address May 29 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

15. At Guantanamo, Guards Punished
(Miami Herald)...Juan O. Tamayo and Frank Davies
Two confirmed cases of detainee abuses at the Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, prison for terror suspects resulted in ''administrative punishments'' of U.S. personnel, a Defense Department spokesman said Wednesday.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

16. Abuse Charges Bring Anguish In Unit's Home
(New York Times)...James Dao and Paul von Zielbauer
...Six soldiers from the 372nd, a reserve unit out of Cumberland, are expected to face courts-martial, including Specialist Graner and Sergeant Frederick. Six officers have been issued career-ending reprimands. And government leaders across the world, including President Bush, have demanded stiff punishment for anyone found guilty. But nowhere has the soul searching been more anguished than in this slice of Appalachia, where many members of the 372nd live and where, until last week, the unit was a huge source of patriotic pride.

17. One Soldier's Unlikely Act
(Washington Post)...Elizabeth Williamson
When reports this week named Spec. Joseph M. Darby as the soldier who sounded the first alarm on abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad, his family was both proud and anxious.

NAVY

NA
18. U.S. Navy Loses High-Tech Mini-Sub Off Norway
(USA Today)...Unattributed (Alternate source)
The Navy has been searching for nearly a week for a high-tech miniature unmanned submarine that vanished during a military exercise off Norway. The 11-foot-long submarine, or Battlespace Preparation Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, was being tested when it failed to surface, Norwegian officials said. The submarine is not remotely operated but is programmed before being launched to search for mines and, if necessary, destroy them. It did not return as planned to the USS Swift, a minesweeper.

CONGRESS

19. Lawmakers Demand Answers On Abuses In Military-Run Jails
(Washington Post)...Charles Babington and Helen Dewar
Irate lawmakers from both parties demanded yesterday that the top Pentagon and CIA leaders explain in detail why Iraqi prisoners were abused in prisons operated by U.S. military and intelligence officers, while a senior Democratic senator said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should resign if he can't adequately do so.

20. Rumsfeld Faces Swelling Tide Of Criticism
(USA Today)...Kathy Kiely
...On Friday, Rumsfeld is expected to face a withering interrogation from lawmakers of both parties when he testifies about the scandal before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

21. House Committee Calls For More Testing On New Ship Systems
(Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)...Dale Eisman
A key congressional subcommittee recommended delays Wednesday in two of the Navy�s prized shipbuilding programs. It said more testing is needed on a variety of new systems to be installed on the DDX destroyer and Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

22. Security Clearance Backlog Proves Costly
(Washington Times)...Hannah Bergman
...The House Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on the issue today to coincide with the release of a GAO report on the subject. Most of the security clearances held by an estimated 2 million Americans are the result of background checks by the Defense Security Service.

More to come...

McKenzie's account above can be found in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

According to the AP,

Miss Edmondson, a former student and security guard at the University of Scranton, would not discuss the charges in detail yesterday, saying she probably would be called back to Iraq to testify. But, speaking by telephone from her parents' home in Clarks Summit, about 110 miles north of Philadelphia, she said conditions in the camp were frightening and unsafe. Sometimes as few as 100 MPs were guarding 8,000 prisoners, she said. "We were doing our jobs, and that's about all I can say. People don't understand the conditions out there. It is war. It is not back home where everybody is safe," Miss Edmondson said. "Mistakes will be made. People are dying. Our soldiers are dying every day. But they seem to want to be nicer to the Iraqi POWs than our own people." Miss Edmondson said she will try to get her old job back at the university. Her discharge, which came after a demotion from sergeant to private, probably will bar her from pursuing her plan to become a police officer.

A grass roots support campaign is underway in their home state of Pennsylvania, and opinions like this one are popping up on the internet and in print media:

A story that you will not read in any of America?s elite media is rapidly unfolding in Kuwait. Four American soldiers, accused by Amnesty International, have been charged by the U.S. military with abusing Iraqi PoW?s on May 12, 2003. Amnesty International misses the warm and fuzzy compassion of the former Hussein regime.

As reported outside the U.S., "The four military police from a Pennsylvania-based US army reserve unit are accused of punching, kicking and breaking bones of prisoners at Camp Bucca, the largest US-run PoW camp in Iraq." Maybe these four, in the tradition of Uday Hussein, were just trying to get a date Iraqi style.

The four Pennsylvanian soldiers, Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, Pittson; Staff Sgt. Scott McKenzie, Clearfield; Sgt. Shawna Edmondson, South Abington Township; and Spc. Tim Canjar, Madison Township response: "...they acted only in self-defense, and that the 44 prisoners being shipped into Camp Bucca...were rebelling." "A few of my MPs (military police) were assaulted by the enemy prisoners, and we had to use force to regain control, all justifiable," accused Staff Sergeant Scott McKenzie said in an e-mail to relatives.

And speaking of e-mail...without it, this story would still be locked in a vault. The U.S. military authorities have placed a gag order on those involved and refuse to even release the names of the accused. Well, at least the Associated Press is good for something.

Just so that you can feel the evil of the four accused: Girman, 35, a state police officer stationed in Monroe County, served in Desert Storm and was wounded; Staff Sgt. Scott McKenzie volunteered to serve in both Bosnia and Korea so married reservists wouldn't have to go; Sgt. Shawna Edmondson is a security officer at the University of Scranton and Spc. Tim Canjar is 21 years old and enlisted after 9-11. Real tough hombres compared to the abused Iraqis.

But support for the four is not limited to right wing conservative types, outraged at the "wrongness" of the entire story. The case is also (perhaps ironically) attracting support from the Left, who can gleefully (and wrongfully) use it to bash the administration. (Admittedly though the support for these Military Police from that sector is currently hesitant and without a certain level of enthusiastic commitment reserved for Mumia-style cop killers.)

A look at local coverage from Pennsylvania:

Former soldier disillusioned Support of superiors lacking, ex-MP says By LAUREN ROTH Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times Leader

SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. - Former Pvt. Shawna Edmondson, 24, demoted from her previous rank and discharged from the Army, said Monday that incompetent leadership at Camp Bucca led to the alleged beating incident for which three local military police soldiers face courts-martial.
Edmondson was a sergeant on May 12 when the military alleges she and three others from the 320th Military Police Battalion in Ashley kicked, punched and broke the bones of Iraqi prisoners arriving at the prison camp in Iraq.

<...>

"They weren't like our regular, everyday prisoners," she said. They were high-profile prisoners, some of whom she could identify by name, though she declined to be more specific.

Edmondson said she is not denying her own role. "I wanted to take responsibility for what happened," she said. So she asked her military attorney about arranging a discharge. "I wanted to get out of the Army."

Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, 35, of Hazleton, Sgt. 1st Class Scott McKenzie, 38, of Clearfield, and Spc. Tim Canjar, 21, of Moscow, face courts-martial on Jan. 20, 25 and 30, respectively. The charges they face, including dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice and cruelty and maltreatment of an enemy prisoner of war, could send each of them to military prison for more than 20 years.

Perhaps lacking some of the drama of the Lt Col West case, (see here and here)this case has progressed farther (Lt Col West's article 32 hearing is concluded but awaiting decision) with much less notice of most of the public. While Col West's story is "front page news" in the blogosphere, the "Camp Bucca Four" are MIA.

An early AP report can be found here.

And coverage of the article 32 hearing by AP's Tarek Al-Issawi is here.

ABC news offers coverage of the pre-court martial arraignment here and here, and assures us that

"...The court martial will be held at both Camp Doha and at Camp Bucca to allow Iraqi prisoners of war to testify."

Update 5 Jan 2004:
The three soldiers who originally elected to face court martial have instead accepted non-judicial punishment:

-- Three American soldiers have been discharged from military service for abusing Iraqi prisoners, the U.S. Army said Monday.

The soldiers had been facing a court-martial proceeding, but agreed instead to a nonjudicial one. In addition to the discharges, two soldiers had their ranks lowered, and all three were ordered to forfeit pay for two months.

The soldiers were military police in a unit from Pennsylvania deployed a southern Iraq camp when the abuse occurred May 12, according to the Army. An investigation began after other soldiers saw and reported the incident. WASHINGTON (CNN)

More here.

Original post: 2003-11-29 16:17:41

Note that comments on this and all posts are open and unmoderated, although obscene remarks will be deleted when discovered. No claim is made regarding truth or accuracy of comments, to include identity of the commenter. In all matters the reader is advised to draw his or her own conclusions.

From the Atwater, Fl. News Press:

Carolyn Lachemayer of North Fort Myers said she got the best New Year�s news ever: Her son won�t face 22 years in prison.

Former military policeman Staff Sgt. Scott McKenzie, 38, phoned his mother on New Year�s Eve to say he was on his way home from Kuwait, ending eight months of investigation into charges he and three others mistreated Iraqi soldiers.

All charges were dropped � the court-martial trial was canceled � and McKenzie took a general discharge under honorable conditions � not quite an honorable discharge, but good under the circumstances, his mother said.

�He was fighting to the bitter end � he was going to hang in there. He said he was innocent and he was going to prove it,� Lachemayer said. �But he finally got to the point where he wanted out ... and this (deal) was pretty good considering all they�d been through.�

McKenzie has maintained his innocence since May when he, Master Sgt. Lisa Girman and Spc. Timothy Canjar were accused of dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners, filing false statements, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The fourth soldier requested a discharge in lieu of a court-martial, and it was granted under �other than honorable� conditions.

The statement in the above story that "all charges were dropped" is likely not completely true.

Non-judicial Punishment (NJP), commonly called an "article 15" in reference to the passage in the Uniform Code of Military Justice that details it, spares the soldiers the lifelong stigma of a federal conviction that can result from court martial proceedings. A commander, (usually after extensive consultation with military legal authorities) can offer NJP in lieu of court martial to an accused. The individual has a right to counsel, and in fact is normally required to seek legal assistance prior to accepting the punishment or declining and opting for court martial. Obviously they must carefully weigh their options; in some instances the path of least resistance is chosen. Rarely, in fact, do the accused elect court martial.

In many instances (normally the most severe crimes), the commander elects not to offer NJP, and a court martial ensues.

There are many other details involved in an article 15 hearing. The accused can present his case, witnesses, evidence, and character references. Commanders have broad authority to determine guilt or innocence and levy appropriate punishment. (Punishment phase is again normally done only after extensive consultation with military legal authorities.) Among other options, the commander can order additional duty, levy 'fines' (normally in the form of forfeiture of pay), order confinement and/or reduction in grade, or discharge for the accused. Likewise, he or she can opt to suspend punishment altogether.

In this case:

In addition to the discharges, two soldiers had their ranks lowered, and all three were ordered to forfeit pay for two months.

Note that the CNN story can be somewhat misleading, as the description of the article 15 actions read like court martial results.

Interestingly, if the story above is correct, the three who maintained their innocence longer did receive a preferable discharge. "General under honorable conditions" should allow them to keep their veterans benefits short of the GI Bill tuition assistance.

Original post: 2004-01-05 22:32:45

Note that comments on this and all posts are open and unmoderated, although obscene remarks will be deleted when discovered. No claim is made regarding truth or accuracy of comments, to include identity of the commenter. In all matters the reader is advised to draw his or her own conclusions.

IRAQ

7. White House And Pentagon Scurry To Draft Responses
(New York Times)...Eric Schmitt and Richard W. Stevenson
...The military had prepared a detailed 11-page plan nearly three weeks ago to address the fallout that officials expected once the photographs of Iraqi prisoners began circulating. Nevertheless the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House had difficulty explaining why they had not acted earlier and more aggressively to deal with the abuse.

8. Top U.S. Officials Apologize To Arabs For Prisoner Abuse
(Washington Post)...Robin Wright
The Bush administration's top foreign policy officials publicly apologized yesterday to the Arab world for abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. personnel at notorious Abu Ghraib prison, and officials said President Bush today would join the effort to limit damage from the revelations.

9. U.S. To Cut Count In Iraq Prison
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
The U.S. general overseeing Army-run prisons in Iraq said Tuesday that the population of overcrowded Abu Ghraib prison would be cut by more than half and that he has ordered military intelligence operatives to stop placing hoods over detainees' heads as an interrogation tactic.

10. CIA May Have Had A Role In Hiding Iraqi Prisoners
(Los Angeles Times)...Bob Drogin
The CIA is seeking to determine whether its operatives had a role in the imprisonment of so-called ghost detainees, Iraqi prisoners who were held without names, charges or other documentation at U.S.-run detention facilities across their homeland, intelligence officials said Tuesday.

NA
11. U.S. Probes More Prisoner Deaths, Weighs The Role Of CIA Officer
(Wall Street Journal)...Gary Fields, Greg Jaffe and David S. Cloud
...The CIA contacted the Justice Department last week to discuss opening a criminal case against the CIA officer and what charges could be brought, a senior law-enforcement official said. The incident involved the death of an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad and may have included Navy Seals, officials said.

12. Many Iraqis Outraged; Others Say Photos Pale Next To Saddam
(USA Today)...Jim Michaels and Sabah al-Anbaki
The news that detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison were abused by U.S. guards has prompted outrage in much of the Arab world. But in Iraq, where Saddam Hussein's torture and killings are still fresh in people's minds, the reaction has been more mixed.

13. Interrogators Pressured To Make Inmates Talk
(Washington Times)...Rowan Scarborough
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller arrived in Baghdad in September with one urgent mission: Improve the intelligence gathered from Iraqi detainees in 16 Army-run prisons, including Saddam Hussein's favorite, Abu Ghraib.

14. Iraqi Recounts Hours Of Abuse By U.S. Troops
(New York Times)...Ian Fisher
The shame is so deep that Hayder Sabbar Abd says he feels that he cannot move back to his old neighborhood. He would prefer not even to stay in Iraq. But now the entire world has seen the pictures, which Mr. Abd looked at yet again on Tuesday, pointing out the key figures, starting with three American soldiers wearing big smiles for the camera.

15. Dozens Of Prisoners Freed After Odd Odyssey
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Robert Moran
Scores of prisoners released from the Abu Ghraib prison yesterday were forced to take a winding, nearly five-hour journey through central Iraq on three buses escorted by U.S. military humvees before being deposited without explanation in the middle of a gravel quarry near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

16. Iraqis Line Up, Hoping To See Jailed Relatives
(New York Times)...Christine Hauser
Peering over the barriers and barbed wire, Iraqi women shook their fists in anger on Tuesday as a crowded bus pulled away from them at a checkpoint and lurched along a dirt road, headed for the gates of the prison here.

17. Shiites Shell U.S. Base; Accident Kills 4 Troops
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Jason Keyser, Associated Press
...North of Baghdad, four U.S. soldiers from the First Infantry Division were killed after their humvee overturned during a combat patrol north of Baghdad, the Army said.

NA
18. For Sgt. Frazier, First Weeks in Iraq Bring 3 Close Calls
(Wall Street Journal)...Yochi J. Dreazen
...But the rotation has meant that troops with little knowledge of Iraq or experience managing the complexities of guerrilla war here have been thrown into combat almost immediately. They have also been given an unwelcome crash course on two of the militants' weapons of choice: rocket-propelled grenades and the hidden roadside bombs known as "improvised explosive devices," or IEDs.

19. Casualties Of Iraq War Can 'Get To' U.S. Medics
(Washington Times)...Willis Witter and Maya Alleruzzo
The U.S. Army trauma physician reaches past the plastic tubes and blood-soaked bandages to gently squeeze the hand of a wounded American soldier being wheeled into the operating room.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

NA
20. Rumsfeld Condemns Abuse Of Iraqis
(Dallas Morning News)...Associated Press
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday condemned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers as "totally unacceptable and un-American" and said the Pentagon would take all steps necessary to bring those responsible to justice.

21. Accountability At Issue In Abuse Of Prisoners
(Los Angeles Times)...Esther Schrader
With public outrage growing, lawmakers and others are asking where responsibility will settle and whether higher-ups will be punished.

NA
22. Feith: No Unified Insurgency Against Coalition Forces
(InsideDefense.com)...Prairie Summer
Neither the attempted "power grab" by rebellious Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr nor the anti-coalition fighters centered in Fallujah represent a broad movement or insurgency in Iraq, Douglas Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, said today.

23. Training Flights Planned Today, Tomorrow
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
The North American Aerospace Defense Command plans to conduct training flights in the Washington area today and tomorrow in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration.

EUROPE

NA
24. Top US Genl Condemns Alleged Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners
(Wall Street Journal (wsj.com))...Associated Press
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in Iraq Tuesday condemned the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by guards at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Gen. Richard Myers made the comments while in Bosnia visiting U.S. troops near the northeastern town of Tuzla.

25. What If? Europe Simulates Qaeda Nuclear Hit
(International Herald Tribune)...Associated Press, Reuters
European officials have conducted a simulation showing how Al Qaeda could kill 40,000 people and plunge the continent into chaos if a crude nuclear device were detonated outside NATO headquarters in Brussels.

ARMY

26. Losing A Limb Doesn't Mean Losing Your Job
(USA Today)...Patrick O'Driscoll
...In today's military, amputation doesn't automatically mean "medical retirement," a discharge because of a disability. High-tech advances in artificial limbs and improved methods of rehabilitation now allow a significant number of amputees to stay in uniform. Some, like Rozelle, may even return to combat. At least 4,400 military men and women have been wounded in action since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq last year. More than 120 of them have lost a limb. Some have lost two or three.

27. Diversity Opened Doors For U.S. General
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Staff Writer
...Now one of the Army's top Asian Americans, the 53-year-old Taguba was serving in the low-profile post of deputy commanding general of the 3rd Army when allegations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison began working their way up the military chain of command. The 3rd Army's area of responsibility extends from East Africa through the Middle East and into south-central Asia and includes Iraq and Afghanistan, countries in which prisoner abuse is being investigated. Within about 10 days, Taguba found himself directing an administrative review that eventually set off a political firestorm in Washington ? and condemnation of the U.S. in much of the Islamic world.

MARINE CORPS

28. Navy Honors Four Marines' Valor In Combat
(San Diego Union-Tribune)...Rick Rogers
...Yesterday, Navy Secretary Gordon England presented the Navy Cross to the 22-year-old Martinez and the Silver Star to two other 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment Marines ? Staff Sgt. Adam R. Sikes, 27, of Aliso Viejo, and Cpl. Timothy C. Tardif, 22, of Huntington Beach ? before a gathering of hundreds of Marines at Camp Pendleton. A spokeswoman at the base said the combat medals might be the highest awards presented so far to members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force who fought their way into Baghdad last year. Gordon also presented the wife of Gunnery Sgt. Jeffrey E. Bohr Jr. of Fallbrook with a posthumous Silver Star.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

29. Soldier Sisters Report Back To Duty
(Washington Times)...Unattributed (alternate source here)
Two soldiers who decided against returning to combat in Iraq after their sister was killed there returned to active duty Monday, a spokesman for the Wisconsin National Guard said.

30. Ex-Guard Capt. Accused In Nude Photo Case
(New York Times on the Web)...Associated Press
A former National Guard commander is accused of taking naked pictures of female U.S. soldiers while they showered last year at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a newspaper reported.

CONGRESS

31. Intelligence Panel Votes To Abolish Term Limits
(Washington Post)...Dana Priest
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in an admission of its own role in U.S. intelligence failures of the last three years, yesterday voted unanimously to abolish the eight-year term limits imposed when the panel was established 28 years ago, committee members said.

NORTH KOREA

32. North Korea Offers US Pledge On Weapons
(London Financial Times)...Victor Mallet
North Korea, one of the world's most secretive and isolated nations, has offered an olive branch to the US by vowing not to sell nuclear materials to al-Qaeda, calling for Washington's friendship and saying it does not want to suffer the fate of Iraq.

33. Inside North Korea: Leaders Open To Ending Nuclear Crisis
(London Financial Times)...Selig Harrison
In unusually frank talks, high-ranking officials offered an olive branch to the US, promising never to sell nuclear materials to al-Qaeda and calling for US friendship, writes Selig Harrison, recently in Pyongyang.

34. North Korea Builds Up Missiles
(Korea Herald)...Joo Sang-min
North Korea is reported to be building two underground launching sites aimed at deploying an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a target distance of up to 4,000 kilometers following successful development last year.

AFGHANISTAN

35. Taliban Ambushes In South Kill 10 Policemen And Soldiers
(New York Times)...Carlotta Gall
Taliban gunmen have killed at least 10 Afghan policemen and soldiers in two ambushes in southern Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, government and Taliban officials said Tuesday. The attacks are part of a surge of violence by the Taliban and other insurgents that has killed at least 40 Afghan policemen and soldiers and one American soldier in the last two weeks.

BUSINESS

36. U.S. Addresses Control Of Security Companies
(Washington Times)...Sharon Behn
Pentagon officials are moving to tighten control over security contractors whose intelligence-gathering activities in Iraq are largely outside the control of U.S., military, international or Iraqi law.

37. Prison Scandal Indicates Gap In U.S. Chain Of Command
(Washington Post)...Ariana Eunjung Cha and Ellen McCarthy
Questions about the role of civilian interrogators in the abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison have put the spotlight on the accountability of tens of thousands of contractors in Iraq and on whether the administrative setup at the prison gave contractors too much freedom from and too much power over military units.

38. Private Guards' Status Outlined By Pentagon
(Washington Post)...Mary Pat Flaherty
At least 60 private security companies, employing 20,000 workers, operate in Iraq and even more will arrive as reconstruction work picks up, the Pentagon said yesterday in response to a Congressional inquiry.

39. Boeing Buys Ads To Defend Proposed Tanker Deal
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle
Boeing Co. bought full-page newspaper advertisements yesterday to defend its proposed $23.5 billion tanker deal with the Air Force as the Pentagon neared release of a key report that could help determine the fate of the controversial program.

40. Boeing Buys Developer Of Military Helicopter
(Los Angeles Times)...Bloomberg News
Boeing Co. acquired closely held Frontier Systems Inc., giving Boeing its first military-reconnaissance helicopter that may compete against Northrop Grumman Corp.'s new model.

41. Doubts Surface On Control Of Iraq Oil Revenue
(London Financial Times)...James Drummond
Iraq's interim government, due to take its seats this July, may not be given full control over the country's massive oil revenues after the end of US military occupation, it emerged yesterday.

42. Shell Puts Iraq Project On Hold
(London Financial Times)...Joanna Chung and Clay Harris
Royal Dutch/Shell has investigated the possibility of participating in an Iraqi oil project but decided not to proceed, at least for now, according to executives familiar with industry developments in the region.

OPINION

43. Administration, Outside Experts See Different Iraqs
(USA Today)...Walter Shapiro
Few administration insiders rival Douglas Feith as a passionate believer in America's ability to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Feith, the undersecretary of Defense for policy and a prot駩 of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, has played a lead role in what has turned out to be overly optimistic postwar planning.

44. Willing Torturers
(Washington Post)...Anne Applebaum
A few years ago, a scholarly book with the provocative title "Hitler's Willing Executioners" climbed to the top of U.S. bestseller lists. In part the book attracted attention because its author located the origins of the Nazi death camps in the German national character, in German history and in the specific nature of German anti-Semitism. What happened in Germany, he implied, could never happen anywhere else. Certainly it could never happen here.

45. Those Friendly Iranians
(New York Times)...Nicholas D. Kristof
...Left to its own devices, the Islamic revolution is headed for collapse, and there is a better chance of a strongly pro-American democratic government in Tehran in a decade than in Baghdad. The ayatollahs' best hope is that hard-liners in Washington will continue their inept diplomacy, creating a wave of Iranian nationalism that bolsters the regime ? as happened to a lesser degree after President Bush put Iran in the axis of evil.

46. Pakistan's Real Bulwark
(Washington Post)...Alfred Stepan and Aqil Shah
Amid the turmoil in Iraq and signs that Afghanistan still lacks a viable state, it's not surprising that doubts about the ability of the United States to support democratization are growing in the Middle East and even in the United States. This is all the more reason why the success of a homegrown democratic process anywhere in the Muslim world is so important -- especially in a strategically located nuclear state such as Pakistan. But is U.S. policy helping to achieve this end in Pakistan?

NA
47. Developing Missile Defense -- (Letter)
(Washington Times)...Dan Montgomery
As Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Kinetic Energy Interceptors program manager, I was surprised by James Hackett's column Thursday ("Missile defense going astray?" Commentary). For the record, KEI is one element of a global missile-defense system designed to protect our country and allies from enemy missile threats, which is a point Mr. Hackett missed. Simply put, if we're serious about adding capability to the initial ballistic-missile-defense system that will be deployed later this year, we need KEI.

EDITORIAL

48. A System Of Abuse
(Washington Post)...Editorial
SECRETARY OF Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday described the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison as "an exceptional, isolated" case. At best, that is only partly true. Similar mistreatment of prisoners held by U.S. military or intelligence forces abroad has been reported since the beginning of the war on terrorism.

49. The Torture Photos
(New York Times)...Editorial
It seems gloomily possible that in years to come, when people in the Middle East recall the invasion of Iraq, they will speak not of lost American lives or the toppling of a brutal dictator. The most enduring image of the occupation may be those pictures of grinning American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. This is the kind of outcome no one wanted, although one that the Bush administration should have worried about long ago, and taken far more care to avert. Now all the president and his top officials can do is clean up the mess and express the country's deep regrets. So far, they have accomplished neither.

IRAQ

7. The General In Charge Of Iraqi Force Is Replaced
(New York Times)...Dexter Filkins
American military commanders said Monday that they had selected a new commander for the Iraqi security force in Falluja, dropping a general who had been accused of involvement in widespread repression under Saddam Hussein.

8. Marines Plan Switch In Fallujah
(Washington Post)...Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Sewell Chan
The U.S. Marines have taken steps to replace the overall commander of a group of former Iraqi soldiers charged with restoring order in this restive city, a senior U.S. military official said Monday. The move appeared aimed at defusing a growing controversy over the former army general initially selected to lead the unit.

9. Marines' New Tactic In Fallujah Is Risky
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Carol Rosenberg
Somewhere on this base packed with enough firepower to flatten nearby Fallujah, the Marines have stashed thousands of Frisbees and soccer balls. They might seem frivolous, after weeks of the worst bloodshed since U.S. forces entered Iraq. Yet these nearly forgotten gifts for the people of Fallujah symbolize the failure of the Marines so far to achieve their mission of rebuilding the country and helping to pave the way for democracy after arriving in this area in mid-March. And the prospects for success are as uncertain as ever.

10. U.S. Forces Repulse Shi'ite Militia Men In Najaf Fighting
(Washington Times)...Denis D. Gray, Associated Press
Shi'ite militiamen yesterday launched their most intense attacks to date on U.S. forces in Najaf, prompting a measured response from Americans who feared angering the nation's Shi'ite majority. Up to 20 attackers were killed.

11. Iraq's Former Baathists Eager To Return To Work
(Washington Post)...Pamela Constable
...An estimated 400,000 Iraqi civilians and military personnel lost their jobs over the past year under the U.S.-led occupation authority's "de-Baathification" policy, established to rid society of the influence of Hussein's ruling Baath Party. Now, however, thousands of mid-level party members are being given a chance to return to work after U.S. officials acknowledged that the policy had been unfairly implemented.

12. Ex-Prisoners Of G.I.'s Offer More Claims Of Mistreatment
(New York Times)...Ian Fisher
The three times that Abbas Mehdi was interrogated by American soldiers, he claims that he told them the same thing: "I said: `You are creating enemies. You changed love into hate. Why do you make people hate you?' "

13. Salvadoran Soldiers Praised For Iraq Role
(Washington Times)...Denis D. Gray, Associated Press
...Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said recently that the Central American unit has "gained a fantastic reputation among the coalition" and expressed hope that the Salvadorans will stay beyond their scheduled departure.

14. For U.S. Hostage, The Timing Was Everything
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
Stumbling across a field, a disheveled man approached a U.S. Army patrol Sunday, shouting and waving a white T-shirt as if to surrender. For a moment, the soldiers thought he was a local farmer, before his speech and face identified him as Thomas Hamill, a Mississippi dairyman who had been held hostage in Iraq for more than three weeks.

15. Iraqi Editor Quits, Citing U.S. Meddling
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and said Monday that he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

16. CBS Delayed Report At Myers's Request
(Washington Post)...Associated Press
CBS News delayed for two weeks airing a report about U.S. soldiers' alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, following a personal request from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

NA
17. Pentagon Official Predicts $13.8 Billion Foreign Military Sales For ’04
(Defense Daily)...Sharon Weinberger
The head of the Pentagon’s foreign military sales program said he expects his agency to take in about $13.8 billion in revenues this year, slightly up from last year’s total of $13 billion.

18. Governor Visits U.S. Troops In Germany As He Wraps Up Trip
(Los Angeles Times)...Peter Nicholas
Ending his first foreign trip on an exultant note, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joked with appreciative American troops at a rally Monday and met privately with a civilian contractor who escaped his captors in Iraq.

MISSILE DEFENSE

19. This Time It's Real: An Antimissile System Takes Shape
(New York Times)...James Glanz
As early as this summer, rockets hidden in silos near this wind-swept town will give the nation its first operating defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles since the 1970's.

ARMY

20. Materiel Commander Says Gear For Iraq Moving Slowly But Steadily
(GovExec.com)...George Cahlink
Escalating violence has slowed the movement of parts and equipment in Iraq, but has yet to lead to any major shortfalls in gear for U.S. troops, according to Gen. Paul Kern, commander of Army Materiel Command.

21. Dying Mom Gets Wish; Soldier-Son Comes Home
(Chicago Tribune)...E.A. Torriero
Dying of cancer, Patrice Confer fought the military bureaucracy to bring her son home last week from the conflict in Iraq.

22. Spy Charges Dropped, But Fear Remains
(Chicago Tribune)...Geneive Abdo and E.A. Torriero
...Muslims say that if Yee, a 1990 West Point graduate could be accused, other Muslims far less accomplished face greater risk. And Muslims say there are greater reservations within their community to enter the military--a blow to plans by the U.S. government trying to recruit Muslims and Arabs to serve in intelligence agencies and armed forces to help the Bush administration fight the war on terror.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

23. Abuse Photos Rock Maryland Town
(Washington Times)...S.A. Miller
Families and neighbors of the soldiers in the Army Reserve unit accused of mistreating inmates in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said yesterday they do not condone their actions but will continue to support the troops and the war effort.

24. Pr. George's Challenged On Reservists' Pay
(Washington Post)...Jamie Stockwell
...Polimeni, along with about 90 other Prince George's County employees in the reserves -- most of them in county law enforcement -- was required to exhaust his accrued leave time before he could receive a salary supplement that, coupled with his military pay, would equal his income as a police officer. Police union officials say the county is violating a 1994 federal law designed to protect the rights of employees ordered to active duty.

NATO

25. 9 Held In Alleged Plot In Turkey
(Los Angeles Times)...Amberin Zaman
A Turkish court Monday charged nine suspected members of a group linked to Al Qaeda with plotting to bomb the NATO summit scheduled next month in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul. Turkey's CNN-Turk television news channel said at least three of the suspects had been planning a suicide bomb attack against President Bush, who will be among dozens of Western leaders expected to attend the June 28-29 gathering.

WHITE HOUSE

26. In U.S., Seeking To Limit Damage
(Washington Post)...Robin Wright
The Bush administration is struggling to develop a damage-control strategy to counter the mounting global backlash against the United States after revelations that U.S. military and intelligence personnel abused Iraqi prisoners, according to U.S. officials.

27. Iraq Costs Surge, May Force Bush To Shuffle Funds, Seek More
(Bloomberg.com)...James Tyson and Jon Steinman
U.S. military operations in Iraq may be $4 billion over budget by August, forcing President George W. Bush to shift money from other Pentagon accounts or ask Congress for more money before the November election, say Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

INTELLIGENCE

28. Intelligence Reform Will Not Be Quick
(Washington Post)...Walter Pincus
The White House, Congress and two independent commissions are discussing wholesale reform of the nation's intelligence community in the wake of its failures to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and accurately describe Iraq's weapons programs, mistakes that were highlighted in recent public hearings.

29. Senator Says Spy Agencies Are 'In Denial'
(Los Angeles Times)...Bob Drogin
U.S. intelligence agencies are "in denial" and have yet to hold anyone accountable for the failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and for the misjudgment that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Monday.

TERRORISM

NA
30. Terror Inquiries Are Clouded By Global Discord
(Wall Street Journal)...Keith Johnson and David Crawford
...Now people close to the prosecution say that after nearly 10 years of investigation into these cells, starting well before the Sept. 11 attacks, the case is in danger of falling apart. The reason: a lack of international cooperation, especially with U.S. authorities engaged in their own fight against terrorism. The obstacle, Spanish investigators say, is a question that also has come before the Sept. 11 Commission in Washington: Does the ultimate responsibility for fighting terrorism belong to law-enforcement officials or to the military?

31. 9/11 Still Haunts Pentagon Workers, WTC Rescuers
(USA Today)...Marilyn Elias
A sizable minority of Pentagon workers and Ground Zero cleanup crew still have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and many are not getting treatment, suggest reports out Monday.

NA
32. Gen.: We May Not Bag Osama Soon (Alternate source here)
(New York Daily News)...Associated Press
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan voiced caution about the prospects of catching Osama Bin Laden, saying it is "too early to tell" if a new U.S. strategy aimed at winning the trust of Afghans will yield crucial intelligence.

MIDEAST

33. Oil Workers To Leave Saudi Arabia
(Washington Post)...Associated Press
The U.S. ambassador traveled to this oil-industry city Monday with a simple message for the gathered Americans: Go home; we cannot protect you. Huddled in a meeting room in a Holiday Inn still pocked with bullet holes after the latest in a string of attacks on Westerners killed two Americans and four others, many said they would heed his words.

EUROPE

34. Doubt Is Cast On Photos Said To Show Britons Abusing Iraqi
(New York Times)...Lizette Alvarez
The British military on Monday was investigating the origins of widely published photographs that appear to show British soldiers on patrol in Basra beating and urinating on an Iraqi captive in the back of a truck.

UNITED NATIONS

35. U.N. Warns Of Delay In Iraqi Election
(Washington Post)...Colum Lynch
National elections in Iraq scheduled for January could be postponed unless security there improves, the top election official for the United Nations said Monday.

NA
36. UN Envoy Lines Up Caretaker Rulers
(London Times)...James Bone
THE United Nations envoy to Iraq returns to Baghdad this week for a final effort to pick a caretaker government before the handover of power on June 30.

BUSINESS

NA
37. Boeing May Hire An Ethics Watchdog
(Wall Street Journal)...Andy Pasztor
Boeing Co., trying to recover from a series of ethics scandals, has hired an outside ethics watchdog to alert the government about any future transgressions by the aerospace giant, according to people familiar with the details.

NA
38. Legal Loophole Arises In Iraq
(Wall Street Journal)...Greg Jaffe, David S. Cloud and Gary Fields
The abuse of Iraqis at a U.S. military prison outside Baghdad raises questions about whether private military contractors involved in illegal activity are subject to criminal prosecution.

39. Contract Workers Implicated In February Army Report On Prison Abuse Remain On The Job
(New York Times)...Joel Brinkley and James Glanz
More than two months after a classified Army report found that two contract workers were implicated in the abuse of Iraqis at a prison outside Baghdad, the companies that employ them say that they have heard nothing from the Pentagon, and that they have not removed any employees from Iraq.

OPINION

40. In Nasiriyah, Hopeful Pockets Of Pragmatism
(Washington Post)...David Ignatius
...Today Nasiriyah illustrates a new mood of pragmatism emerging in southern Iraq as Shiite political, religious and tribal leaders prepare for a transfer of sovereignty less than two months away. Iraqis here seem to understand that unless they quickly take more responsibility for security, the country could descend into chaos after June 30.

41. The Fallacies Of Fallujah
(Washington Post)...Richard Cohen
...It gets worse. The Iraqi army the United States summarily disbanded is now being reconstituted. Baath Party members who were persona non grata because of their presumed criminality are now being asked to return to their old jobs because, on second thought, many of them weren't really criminals after all. Some of them only joined the party so they could put bread on the table. The United Nations, once disparaged by the Bushies as little more than a dreamy student government with its own building, has now been welcomed back to Iraq with the hope it can govern the place. Amazingly, it seems ready to make that attempt.

42. Battlefield Of Dreams
(New York Times)...Paul Krugman
...What's truly shocking in Iraq, however, is the privatization of purely military functions. For more than a decade, many noncritical jobs formerly done by soldiers have been handed to private contractors. When four Blackwater employees were killed and mutilated in Falluja, however, marking the start of a wider insurgency, it became clear that in Iraq the U.S. has extended privatization to core military functions. It's one thing to have civilians drive trucks and serve food; it's quite different to employ them as personal bodyguards to U.S. officials, as guards for U.S. government installations and — the latest revelation — as interrogators in Iraqi prisons.

43. Stopping The Abuse Of Detainees
(Washington Post)...Leonard S. Rubenstein
...As early as 2002, news reports of abuse of prisoners began to surface, and new allegations have continued to emerge. The administration's response has been to stonewall. A year ago, in response to the first set of allegations of abuse of detainees, President Bush affirmed that the United States does not practice or condone torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and that it investigates allegations of violations. But the actions needed to convert this from a statement to a commitment have been absent.

44. A War For Us, Fought By Them
(New York Times)...William Broyles Jr.
...This abuse of the voluntary military cannot continue. How to ensure adequate troop levels, with a diversity of backgrounds? How to require the privileged to shoulder their fair share? In other words, how to get today's equivalents of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney — and me — into the military, where their talents could strengthen and revive our fighting forces? The only solution is to bring back the draft. Not since the 19th century has America fought a war that lasted longer than a week with an all-volunteer army; we can't do it now. It is simply not built for a protracted major conflict.

EDITORIAL

45. Pentagon Too Slow To Decry Shameful U.S. Acts In Iraq
(USA Today)...Editorial
...Nearly as disturbing as the repulsive behavior by some U.S. soldiers is the fact that the Pentagon has been so slow to share the sense of outrage over their actions, even though it has known about the allegations for almost six months.

46. Beyond Those Sick Images
(Los Angeles Times)...Editorial
...Credit Taguba for a blunt report and the MPs who blew the whistle for living up to Army standards. But the Abu Ghraib scandal raises issues beyond this one prison: about poor command, about the possible role of military intelligence in encouraging acts that violate international law, about military training and the extensive use of private contractors for a host of jobs once done by soldiers. U.S. officials can't fix what happened at Abu Ghraib, but they can show a commitment to fighting wrongdoing worldwide — including and especially when it's within U.S. ranks.

47. Prosecute Iraqi Abusers
(Washington Times)...Editorial
The shameful abusive conduct perpetrated on Iraqi detainees cries out for the most thorough investigation and prosecutions. Moreover, the investigation must go as far up the chain of command as the facts justify. It is inconceivable that following that process the sanctions should be limited to reprimands and early retirements.

48. Images Of Abuse Speak To U.S. Policy Adrift
(Miami Herald)...Editorial
In Iraq, the prison at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad became notorious as the place where Saddam Hussein held prisoners in hideous conditions and committed unspeakable crimes against them. There, Hussein tortured and murdered thousands of men. Now, under U.S. control, the prison at Abu Ghraib is achieving a different notoriety. Pictures broadcast worldwide last week show male and female U.S. soldiers, smiling and joking at the sight of Iraqi prisoners stripped naked, tortured and humiliated, purportedly to extract intelligence from them.

49. Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Editorial
This is no way to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis.

IRAQ

7. Authority Of Iraqi General Questioned By Myers
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
Iraqi Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh consolidated his military role Sunday, even as Shiites, Kurds and the top U.S. general in Washington questioned whether he was the man to lead Iraqi troops in this predominantly Sunni city.

8. 137 Troops Lost Lives In Iraq During April
(USA Today)...Gregg Zoroya
The deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq ended Friday with 137 servicemembers having lost their lives. The overwhelming majority of them were victims of hostile action such as gunfire, rocket attacks and explosions.

9. On Or Off? Odd U.S. Alliance With An Ex-Hussein General
(New York Times)...John Kifner
...But just how muddled the situation has become was underlined Sunday when the general chosen by the Americans, Jasim Muhammad Saleh, declared that no foreign fighters were in the city after all. "There are no foreign fighters in Falluja, and the local tribal leaders have told me the same," he told the Reuters news agency. The situation became even more confused when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, went on Sunday morning television talk shows to say that General Saleh would not be in charge of the Iraqi force.

10. Falloujans Cheer Changing Of Guard
(Los Angeles Times)...Raheem Salman
As U.S. Marines continued their withdrawal Sunday from Fallouja's dusty roads, residents sang and waved their head scarves in joy. Many returned to their battered homes, wondering who would rebuild the rubble.

11. Iraqi Force In Falluja, With City Still On Brink
(New York Times)...Christine Hauser
...Street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, Falluja is balancing on the brink between conflict and recovery, after weeks of battling between American marines and insurgents. Which way things go may be determined in the next few days, as a new Iraqi security force struggles to bring order to the city after fighting that killed more than 600 residents, according to doctors.

12. No More Troops Needed In Iraq, Says Gen. Abizaid
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said yesterday the fighting in the country has been the toughest in months, but added that no more troops are needed unless fighting there intensifies.

13. New Defense Chief Voices Concerns Over Insurgency
(Boston Globe)...Thanassis Cambanis
Iraq's new interim defense minister, who will seek to build an army and civil defense corps out of an interim force in shambles, said he worries that insurgents will escape from Fallujah and further roil Iraq's fragile security forces before they are properly trained and equipped.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

14. U.S. Official: Abuse Allegations Are 'A Big Deal'
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged Sunday that allegations that Iraqi prisoners were abused at a detention facility run by the Army have set back efforts to cultivate a positive image for the U.S. military in the region.

NA
15. U.S. Begins Prisoner-Abuse Probes
(Wall Street Journal)...Farnaz Fassihi, Greg Jaffe and David S. Cloud
The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department have launched multiple investigations into whether U.S. prisoners in Iraq were abused in an effort to elicit intelligence from them.

NA
16. 8 Programs, $40 Billion
(Defense News)...Gopal Ratnam
The U.S. Department of Defense is about to award contracts for a slew of new weapons that could reshape the business portfolios of major American defense contractors and determine winners and losers in the military?s transformation effort.

17. Military Sees No Evidence Of An Increase In Drug Use
(Washington Times)...Guy Taylor
Pentagon officials say they are not aware of an increase in the number of U.S. soldiers using illegal drugs, despite recent reports suggesting a growing problem, particularly among troops in Afghanistan.

18. Military Officials Dismiss Depleted Uranium Fears
(European Stars and Stripes)...Sandra Jontz
Since the war started last March, about 1,000 troops who indicated they might have been exposed to depleted uranium have been tested. Of those, three who have fragments of depleted uranium ammunition in their bodies have tested positive for higher-than-normal levels, but none show adverse health consequences, said William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs.

GUANTANAMO

19. Guantanamo -- A Holding Cell In War On Terror
(Washington Post)...Scott Higham, Joe Stephens and Margot Williams
The newest prison in the war on terrorism is a multi-winged $31 million complex of gray concrete and steel designed to hold 100 captives for years to come. It stands in stark contrast to the original detention camp here, a collection of chain-link cages used two years ago to hold suspected terrorists and Taliban fighters caught when their sanctuary in Afghanistan collapsed.

ARMY

20. Tillman Was Killed Saving Comrades
(New York Daily News)...Maki Becker
...Pat Tillman, the NFL-star-turned-G.I., was awarded a Silver Star yesterday for saving fellow Special Operations soldiers last month from a sneak attack by heavily armed militants in Afghanistan, the military disclosed yesterday.

AIR FORCE

21. Woman To Head Air Force Fighter Squad Unit
(Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))...Carol Ann Alaimo
...Lt. Col. Martha McSally, who once claimed persecution by the military, is now getting a plum position never before awarded to a woman. She's about to become the Air Force's first female fighter squadron commander, the choicest job the service offers for an aviator of her rank.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

22. Near Reservists' Base, Disappointment At Accusations Of Abuse
(New York Times)...Sherri Day
Stop anyone in this quaint town surrounded by mountains, and they will have an opinion about the war in Iraq and recent accusations that Army reservists abused Iraqi prisoners.

WHITE HOUSE

23. Bush Lauds Armed Forces, Reporters
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Kata Kertesz, Associated Press
President Bush tempered lighthearted remarks to a gathering of journalists Saturday with a declaration that the nation was in a "period of testing and sacrifice" spearheaded by a "new generation of Americans as brave and decent as any before it."

24. Bremer Regrets Criticism Of President
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, said Sunday that he regretted a statement he made more than six months before the Sept. 11 attacks that the Bush administration was "paying no attention" to terrorism.

CONGRESS

25. Outcry Grows Over Abuse Of Prisoners
(Washington Times)...Audrey Hudson
Congressional pressure grew yesterday on the Pentagon to press for a "credible" investigation into the abuse of prisoners of war in Iraq.

AFGHANISTAN

26. U.S., Afghan Officials Agree To Fight A New Insurgency
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Unattributed
The U.S. military and Afghan officials have agreed to establish a new militia to fight an insurgency flaring across the south and east of the country, the Afghan Defense Ministry said yesterday. Recruited from militias across the country, the force will consist of 2,000 men, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Defense Ministry spokesman.

27. U.S. Airstrikes In Afghanistan Kill 4 After Attack On Convoy
(Baltimore Sun)...Associated Press
U.S. airstrikes killed four alleged militants after an attack on a military convoy in eastern Afghanistan, but local officials said yesterday that the victims were policemen killed in a case of mistaken identity.

28. Afghan Faction Reaches Out To Karzai
(New York Times)...New York Times
Senior members of a mujahedeen party allied with Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers and opposed to the presence of American forces denounced violence at a news briefing here on Sunday and said they wanted to join the political process.

ASIA/PACIFIC

29. Pakistani Strategy Worries U.S. Military
(New York Times on the Web)...Associated Press
A top U.S. commander expressed concern Monday about Pakistan's counter-terrorism strategy near the Afghan border and said a ``significant'' number of foreign militants holed up there must be eliminated.

EUROPE

30. Doubts Surfacing On Abuse Of Iraqis In British Photos
(Washington Times)...Agencce France-Presse
Doubts arose yesterday over the authenticity of photos apparently showing British troops abusing an Iraqi detainee, after military sources quoted by the British Broadcasting Corp. said many aspects of the pictures were suspicious.

31. Britain To Send In A Further 4,000 Troops To Iraq Danger Zone
(London Sunday Telegraph)...Sean Rayment
Thousands of additional troops are to be sent to Iraq to take control of the Shia holy city of Najaf in the largest expansion of British Forces since the start of the Gulf war, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

32. German Protection Of U.S. Bases To End
(International Herald Tribune)...Reuters
Defense Minister Peter Struck said Germany would stop protecting U.S. military bases in the country at the end of 2004 and would not send troops to help a NATO force police Iraq, the newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported Sunday.

33. New Polish Prime Minister Vows To Back U.S. In Iraq
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Unattributed
New Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka promised to push ahead with tough reforms and keep supporting the United States in Iraq as he took the helm yesterday, a day after Poland joined the European Union. Belka, 51, replaces Leszek Miller, who resigned as his government was paralyzed by unpopularity, division and corruption scandals.

MIDEAST

34. Many Leaving After Saudi Attack
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Adnan Malik, Associated Press
American and European families packed their bags yesterday after a deadly attack on foreigners, and traumatized Saudi students recounted how the attackers summoned them to watch them drag a victim's body through the streets.

BUSINESS

35. CACI To Open Probe Of Workers In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Renae Merle and Ellen McCarthy
Defense contractor CACI International Inc. said yesterday it launched an independent investigation of its employees in connection with allegations that Iraqi detainees were abused by U.S. soldiers at an Army-run prison in Iraq.

36. War-Zone Security Is A Job For...Private Contractors?
(Christian Science Monitor)...Clayton Collins
For hundreds of foreign companies in the lucrative but perilous pursuit of business in violence-racked Iraq, security - especially the use of private forces instead of military personnel - has become an increasingly vexing issue.

OPINION

37. The Cruelest Month
(New York Times)...William Safire
...Casualties reached a peak. A Marine commander had to appeal to a Republican Guard general to come to terms with Baathist insurgents in Falluja. President Bush had to express America's disgust at the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by a handful of sadistic guards. Taken together, that's about as bad as it gets. However, a certain grim logic suggests a turn for the better may be coming this summer.

38. 11-Step Program For Iraq Failure
(Los Angeles Times)...Lawrence J. Korb
The Bush team is repeating the mistakes the U.S. made in Vietnam.

39. Success Requires Patience
(Washington Post)...Niall Ferguson
...Unfortunately, lack of patience has been one of the major flaws of the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. This impatience is nothing new. It has been a recurrent feature in the history of American overseas intervention.

40. Refusal To Tally War's Price Costs Public Needed Debate
(USA Today)...Editorial
...Today, the fighting in Iraq has worsened, the Pentagon is keeping more troops in the field than it had planned, and the price tag keeps rising. That has prompted Republicans to join in complaints that the Bush administration has not come clean about the costs.

41. Too Late To Tweak Budget
(USA Today)...James Jay Carafano
Set aside, for a moment, the charge made by some lawmakers that President Bush is playing politics when he says Congress doesn't need to provide more defense money now. They claim he wants to avoid public debate over the cost of the war in Iraq. After all, the countercharge ? that war opponents are the ones trying to score political points ? is just as easily made and just as impossible to prove.

42. The Pentagon And Terrorism -- (Letter)
(New York Times)...Lawrence Di Rita
"How Pair's Finding on Terror Led to Clash on Shaping Intelligence" (front page, April 28) usefully demystifies the so-called Pentagon intelligence unit.

EDITORIAL

43. The Nightmare At Abu Ghraib
(New York Times)...Editorial
The American military made a strange and ill-starred decision when it chose to incarcerate Iraqis in Abu Ghraib, the prison that had become a byword for torture under Saddam Hussein and a symbol of everything the invasion of Iraq was supposed to end. As United States officials have known for months, some of the American soldiers brought their own version of sadism to the site. Now that the rest of the world knows as well, the Bush administration will have to do more than denounce the scandal as the work of a few bad apples.

NA
44. Abuse And Accountability
(Wall Street Journal)...Editorial
The reported abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers is disgusting and depressing, not least because it undermines the very purpose for which other Americans are sacrificing their lives.

45. Sadistic Abuse Of Iraqi Inmates
(Christian Science Monitor)...Editorial
Sometimes military justice doesn't do justice. That's the case involving US troops recently caught humiliating and threatening Iraq prisoners in obscene ways. No matter what those prisoners may have done to be locked up, these actions by a few soldiers sent to liberate a nation from the atrocities of a dictator were so inhumane and so damaging to US interests in the Middle East that the Pentagon should not be left alone to punish those involved.

46. Don't Sink 'Law Of The Sea'
(Los Angeles Times)...Editorial
...Under current law, U.S. warships have no right to patrol such waterways as the Malacca Strait, an area in Southeast Asia where piracy is common and terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda sometimes traffic. The treaty would give U.S. military officials a legal basis for intervention.

Since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, opponents of President Bush have used the deaths of soldiers as political fodder, excoriating him as an uncaring man for not attending their funerals and for keeping in place the policy of no media coverage during the transport of deceased military personnel. The simmering debate has become an inferno, for there are now pictures.

The words of criticism are the same now as they were last year. On Friday, Mark Shields criticized President Bush for not attending a single funeral and for his refusal to lift the ban on media coverage at Dover. That same day, the New York Times reiterated its editorial opinion to have the ban lifted, saying that though the "theory" seems to be that the pictures are intrusive to bereaved families, "it seems far more likely" that the Pentagon is eager to check "the impact that photos of large numbers of flag-draped coffins may have on the American public's attitude toward the war."

I have lived through the numbing sadness of going to Dover to pick up my son, and have experienced the body-shaking pain of having to lay to his final rest a member of the U.S. Military.

The idea of criticizing President Bush on his choice not to attend the funerals is ludicrous. The simple fact is that President Bush either attends all or attends none for to attend some could be interpreted as an insult to those fallen heroes whose funerals he is seen to have "spurned." Besides, the logistics are impossible. On the day that my son was being buried in New Jersey his two buddies he was killed with were being buried at the same time at opposite ends of Pennsylvania. What was the president to do when the helicopter crashed and killed 17 soldiers? How to attend 17 funerals without forcing the families to wait for the president?

I would not have wanted the president to attend my son's funeral for it would have changed the entire dynamic of the day. The church service was a "Celebration of the Life of Kyle Andrew Griffin" and had President Bush honored us with his presence that would have all changed. It would have become a media circus. I knew full well just exactly how much President Bush honors my son and I am comforted by that.

The arguments put forth to have the ban on media coverage lifted vary from allowing the American people to bear witness to the sacrifice of the soldiers and thus honor them, to the need to deny President Bush the opportunity to hide the real costs in human terms of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Steve Capus, executive producer of "NBC Nightly News," arrogantly and presumptuously spoke for me when he stated, "It would seem that the only reason somebody would come out against the use of these pictures is that they are worried about the political fallout." Well I am that SOMEBODY and as I looked at those pictures the tears were not running because of my worry about political fallout. In all the criticism there has never once been put forth a single argument of how having the media coverage lifted would be of benefit to the loved ones of these heroes. We are never taken into account. We are the collateral damage in this all so obvious ideological struggle.

During those days between June 1 last year, when we were notified of our son's death, and June 6, when we picked him up at Dover, we were constantly (and privately) informed of the process that was taking place. We were aware that he would leave the evacuation hospital, and be transported to Kuwait and eventually to Dover. But as in all things military, exact time-frames were non-existent. Our Casualty Assistance Officer, SFC Tyrone Russell, who was with us every step of this process and who was to become an individual beloved by all who had the honor of meeting him, informed us on June 5 that we could pick up our son the next morning. That would have meant that our son would have arrived along with his buddies sometime on the later half of June 4. There would have been a certain time-requirement to perform the final identification process and conduct the final military-only ceremony to honor the fallen heroes.

Had the media ban not been in effect, we, the families of fallen soldiers, would not have had these moments to ourselves. Without the ban, it is conceivable that I could have viewed a procession of flag-draped coffins as they disembarked from the aircraft. But how would the families of those other fallen heroes, who would be unable to come to Dover because they lived in Iowa or North Dakota or Arizona, feel when they viewed on TV their loved ones arriving? Would they feel the honor that was being bestowed upon them from all those other Americans? Or would they suffer further when the pictures were used in the context of criticism?

If it is truly the intention of those who support the lifting of the ban to honor these gallant individuals while giving the American public the opportunity to grieve with them -- and if it is truly the intention to bear witness to sacrifice and view at first hand the cost of this war -- then let them visit the families of those who freely chose to join the military family. Let them visit the grave sites, let them journey to Fort Bragg or Fort Campbell or Fort Hood and speak to those who have returned or who might soon be joining the fight.

My son, Specialist Kyle Andrew Griffin, was a hero as a soldier and as a son. He died loving what he was doing with those he loved and respected. He will be forever remembered by those who knew him. The date of his birth will be seared into the memory of all Americans, for he was born on Sept. 11, 1982. But never should the memory of his death be intoned as ammunition on the political battlefield.

Mr. Griffin is the father of Spc. Kyle Andrew Griffin, a recipient of the Army Commendation Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal and the Bronze Star, who was killed in a truck accident on a road between Mosul and Tikrit on May 30, 2003.

More to come...