DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER
Australians hunted over Harir d
Twelve people wanted over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri are believed to be in Australia.
By AP02/18/05 "SMH" - - Lebanon's Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said authorities had contacted Interpol in Sydney over the departure from Beirut to Australia of 12 men - most bearded - on Monday, the day of the bombing that killed Hariri and 16 others.Addoum said the 12 were among 14 men with Australian citizenship who tried to leave Lebanon, but two missed the flight for unknown reasons. Their whereabouts are unknown.Interpol has agreed to interrogate the 12 in relation to the killing, Addoum said, adding that three have agreed to come forward.Addoum did not elaborate and it was unclear what connection, if any, the men might have had in the attack.No credible claims of responsibility have emerged, but the interior minister has said a suicide bomber backed by "international parties" may have killed Hariri.Some also suggest rogue Syrian intelligence operatives or factions among Lebanon's different religious groups may be responsible.Reports earlier this week said Australian authorities were helping Lebanon investigate the murder.
http://207.44.245.159/article8121.htm
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Bombings kill at least 42 in Iraq on Shiite holy day; most were suicide attacks
BAGHDAD (AP) - Eight suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks across Iraq on Saturday killed at least 42 people, including a U.S. soldier, a Ministry of Defence official said, as Shiite Muslim worshippers celebrated their holiest day of the year.
The steady stream of attacks included suicide bombings, mortars and gunmen, defence ministry official Capt. Sabah Yasin said.
At least eight suicide bombers staged attacks in and around Baghdad, targeting religious gatherings and Iraqi checkpoints. An Associated Press count of the dead from those attacks totalled 24, but many more explosions were audible in the capital throughout the day.
In one of the deadliest attacks, a suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 30 kilometres south of the capital, killing nine Iraqi soldiers, said Yasin.
The attacks occurred as a five-member U.S. congressional delegation, including Senators Hillary Clinton (D - N.Y.) and John McCain (R - Ariz.), met with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/02/16/932454-ap.html
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Israel's Sharon speaks to Arab media for first time, hoping to shed hawk image
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In his first interview with an Arab newspaper since taking office, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he understood the costs of war and was willing to make painful concessions for peace, though not at the price of his country's security.
Sharon told Egypt's daily Al-Ahram, an independent but pro-government newspaper, that if calm prevailed between the Israelis and Palestinians, the sides could soon begin political negotiations toward a final settlement.
The two-hour interview was conducted in Hebrew in Sharon's office in Jerusalem and published in Arabic in the newspaper's Saturday editions. It seemed aimed at softening Sharon's image in the Arab world as the peace process picks up momentum.
"Generals are always seen as people who want wars. The truth is otherwise," Sharon said, according to a translation of the Arabic by The Associated Press. "I think it is important ... for our generation who lived through it all to really take over the mission of pushing the peace process."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/02/19/936177-ap.html
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North Korea no longer interested in direct nuclear talks with U.S., report says
BEIJING (AP) - North Korea no longer wants direct negotiations with the United States to ease the nuclear standoff, China's state news agency Saturday cited a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman as saying, as a top Chinese official met the communist country's No. 2 leader
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/
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Demonstrators in Rome march to press for release of Italian hostage in Iraq
ROME (AP) - Thousands of people marched in Rome on Saturday to demand the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist, days after she was seen in a video pleading for Italians to pressure their government to withdraw the country's troops from Iraq.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/
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Hizbollah cools down anti-Syria rhetoric
The head of Hizbollah Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that anti-Syria rhetoric could plunge the country back into civil war. The religious leader was speaking at a rally in Beirut to mark Ashoura, one of the most religious days for Muslim Shiias.
http://www.aljazeera.com/
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U.S. army to investigate killings of Afghans
Following the revelations in Friday's New York Times of several U.S. soldiers being under investigation over a February 11th incident outside a military base at Shindand in western Afghanistan; the American military announced Saturday it will be investigating the shooting deaths of two Afghans by their soldiers.
The paper quoted the base commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Ashton Hayes, as saying the two Afghan victims were ordinary villagers, not Taliban or al Qaeda suspects, and compensation of $2,000 had been paid to their families. A spokesman for the U.S. military in Kabul confirmed the incident was under investigation. "This incident has happened; coalition forces were involved," said Major Steve Wollman. "It is under investigation." http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID
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El Baradei says U.S. involvement in Iran talks essential
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed El Baradei has called on the U.S. to join the European lead diplomacy talks with Iran. El Baradei's call comes in the wake of talk of a possible U.S. military strike on Iran which many in Washington have not ruled out.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/b17.asp?offset
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Peres: Israel to evacuate from Philadelphi corridor
Vice president Shimon Peres announced Friday that Israel is preparing to withdraw from the road along the Egypt-Gaza border known as the 'Philadelphi corridor'.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/b17.asp?offset=
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New U.S. files detail detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan
Photographs of uniformed U.S. forces in Afghanistan posing with hooded and bound prisoners during mock executions were damaged to avoid a repetition of the Abu Gharib scandal in Iraq, according to new Army papers released Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said that "It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to silence them,"
Also ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer said that "These documents provide more evidence that abuse was not localized or aberrational, but was widespread and systemic. They also provide further evidence that at least in some cases the government is not aggressively investigating credible allegations of abuse,
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7128
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US, Japan share security worry
From correspondents in WashingtonFebruary 20, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
THE US and Japan today declared Taiwan a common security issue.The move came amid concerns over China's military build up and threat to invade the island if it declares independence.
The two allies for the first time acknowledged that easing tensions in the Taiwan Strait was part of their "common strategic objectives".
A joint statement was released after a top ministerial meeting in Washington of the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12311872-23109,00.html
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Clinton, Bush meet tsunami victims
By Griffin Shea in Baan Nam Khem, ThailandFebruary 20, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
FORMER US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush said today they were seeking billions more dollars in US donations to meet long-term needs of tsunami-stricken countries after visiting a Thai fishing village.They warned that while an unprecedented $US7 billion ($8.9 billion) in post-tsunami aid had been raised to date, as much as $US5 billion ($6.4 billion) more was needed for reconstruction across the Indian Ocean.
Affected nations needed "$US11 or $US12 billion ($14bn-$15.3bn) to restore homes, rebuild wells, sanitation facilities (and) the economic infrastructure", Mr Clinton said.
"What we have to do now is not to forget these people and places when all the cameras are not there
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12311871-23109,00.html
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WAR WOUNDS
An overseas report from a U.S. military hospital in Germany about how the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has treated more than 20,000 service members wounded from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
VIDEO
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june05/wounded_2-15.html
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Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attack
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were killed in separate guerrilla attacks in Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military said Friday, three in or near the northern city of Mosul, one north of Baghdad and the fifth south of the capital.
The deaths brought to 1,119 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
In the latest incident Friday, one soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military base north of the town of Diwaniya, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, the military said.
Earlier Friday, a soldier was killed and two were wounded in a car bomb blast about 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital, the military said in a statement.
The other incidents happened Thursday. In the first, a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. army patrol in Mosul, killing one soldier and wounding three.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050218/us_nm/iraq_soldier_dc_4
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Sen. Clinton Says Iraq Insurgents Failing
BAGHDAD, Iraq - As 55 people died in Iraq (news - web sites) on Saturday, the holiest day on the Shiite Muslim religious calendar, Sen. Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) said that much of Iraq was "functioning quite well" and that the rash of suicide attacks was a sign that the insurgency was failing.
Clinton, a New York Democrat, said insurgents intent on destabilizing the country had failed to disrupt Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 elections.
"The concerted effort to disrupt the elections was an abject failure. Not one polling place was shut down or overrun," Clinton told reporters inside the U.S.-protected Green Zone, a sprawling complex of sandbagged buildings surrounded by blast walls and tanks. The zone is home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_go_co/iraq_senators&cid=512&ncid=1480
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Journalist group calls US to account over Iraq Dominic TimmsFriday
February 18, 2005 The US government was today accused of hiding behind a "culture of denial" over the deaths of at least 12 journalists who are alleged to have perished at the hands of the US military in Iraq.
Re-igniting the debate that US soldiers deliberately "targeted" journalists during the Iraqi occupation, a press freedom body called on the US to take "responsibility" for its actions in the country.
Responding to what it said was the "hounding out" of the CNN news chief, Eason Jordan, the International Federation of Journalists called on the US administration to come clean over its "mistakes" in the region.
Since US, British and other soldiers first began Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, more than 70 journalists have been killed in the country.
The IFJ said that at least 12 journalists had met their deaths at the "hands of US soldiers", including the killings of Taras Protsyuk of Reuters and Jose Couso of Spain's Telecinco after US tanks opened fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
The US military claimed the tanks had been responding to small arms fire coming from the hotel, which housed journalists who were non-embedded with military forces, but later withdrew the claim saying: soldiers fired at "what was believed to be an enemy firing platform and observation point".
Almost a year after journalists' groups first demanded it, a US military investigation into the attack found that "no fault or negligence" could be attributed to US soldiers.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1417691,00.html
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Clash over 'Kurdish veto' looms in Iraq:
A law promulgated during the US-led occupation of Iraq, which governs how the country's new constitution is to be written, has been largely rejected by members of the United Iraqi Alliance, which has a majority of seats in the new parliament.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2620cbe8-8199-11d9-9e19-00000e2511c8.html
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U.S. military killed two Afghan civilians near air base close to Iranian border:
The U.S. military is investigating why American troops fatally shot two civilians outside a base near Afghanistan's western border with Iran, officials said Saturday.
http://cbsnewyork.com/international/Afghan-US-Killing-ai/resources_news_html
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Questioned men 'happy to help'
By Vera Deva19feb05
THE 10 Lebanese Australians questioned by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) over the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister were innocent people who did nothing but support Rafiq Hariri, an Australian Lebanese community leader said today.But New South Wales Lebanese Muslim Association vice-president Keysar Trad said the 10 men were more than happy to volunteer information to the AFP and praised officials on their attempts to find the culprits.
The AFP said last night it had cleared 10 men who were investigated as part of its inquiries into the Beirut bombing that killed Mr Hariri on Monday.
Lebanon's Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said yesterday authorities had contacted Interpol in Sydney over the departure from Beirut to Australia of 12 men on the day of the bombing that killed Mr Hariri and 16 others.
Mr Addoum said the 12 were among 14 men with Australian citizenship who tried to leave Lebanon. Two missed the flight for unknown reasons.
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12300562%255E1702,00.html
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Veteran of dirty wars wins lead US spy role
: He is tainted by his time between 1981 and 1985 in Honduras, a country that was being used as a launchpad for the illegal US-backed war waged by the contras against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Honduran military was accused of taking part in torture and extra-judicial killings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1417267,00.html
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Ray McGovern: Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here
: The appointment of John Negroponte to be director of National Intelligence is the latest evidence that President Bush is strengthening his cabinet's capacity to mislead Congress and trample civil liberties. Ray McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, examines the meaning of the Negroponte appointment and the dark trend it confirms.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/hail_hail_the_gangs_all_here.php
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When Real News Debunks Fake News
By Frank Rich The International Herald Tribune
Saturday 19 February 2005
New York - The prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time.
Let me explain.
On "Countdown," a nightly news hour on MSNBC, the anchor, Keith Olbermann, led off with a bit in the classic style of Stewart's classic "Daily Show": a rapid-fire montage of sharply edited video bites illustrating the apparent idiocy of those in Washington. In this case, the eight clips stretched over a year in the White House briefing room - from February 2004 to late last month - and all featured a reporter named "Jeff." In most of them, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says "Go ahead, Jeff," and "Jeff" responds with a softball question intended not to elicit information but to boost President George W. Bush and smear his political opponents. In the last clip, "Jeff" is quizzing the president himself, in his first post-inaugural press conference of Jan. 26. Referring to Harry Reid and Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Jeff" asks, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
If we did not live in a time when the news culture itself is divorced from reality, the story might end there: "Jeff," you'd assume, was a lapdog reporter from a legitimate, if right-wing, news organization like Fox, and you'd get some predictable yuks from watching a compressed video anthology of his kissing up to power. But as Olbermann explained, "Jeff Gannon," the star of the montage, was a newsman no more real than a "Senior White House Correspondent" like Stephen Colbert on "The Daily Show." Yet the video broadcast by Olbermann was not fake. "Jeff" was in the real White House, and he did have those exchanges with the real McClellan and the real Bush.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021905Z.shtml
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February 18, 2005
Afghan refugees return to their tents after receiving supplies from U.S. soldiers near Kabul. Aid workers and officials sounded alarm bells over a looming humanitarian crisis in western Afghanistan saying they feared up to 1,000 children may have died during severe winter weather.
http://www.truthout.org/
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Bomb warning for aid workers
18:45 (AEST) TERRORISTS appear to be planning a bomb attack on foreign aid workers in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh region, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/breakingnews/
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Hillary Clinton visits Iraq with US senators
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US senator Hillary Clinton (news - web sites), wife of former president Bill Clinton (news - web sites), was in Baghdad as part of a delegation from the US Congress led by senator John McCain that met Iraqi and US military leaders.
Clinton, who along with McCain has often criticized US management of the Iraq (news - web sites) conflict, said that after meeting the country's prime minister as well as the US commander in charge of training and equipping Iraqi forces, her impression was one of "cautious optimism."
"Cautious because there are so many challenges, cautious because there are neighbours of Iraq that are not necessarily enthusiastic about the success of the Iraqi people in creating and sustaining a multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracy," she told reporters
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&u=/afp/20050219/pl_afp/iraquscongress&printer=1
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Ark. Votes Against Church-State Proposal
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The state House on Friday voted against affirming the separation of church and state in a resolution brought by a legislator who said he was fed up with a religious undertone at the Capitol. The House voted 44-39 against the proposal. Only two Republicans voted for it, and one of them, Rep. Jim Medley, said he had intended to vote no but didn't get to his machine in time to change his vote. Democratic Rep. Buddy Blair said he offered the measure because he was tired of conservative colleagues "making every issue into a religious issue." "It's unbelievable to me. They have just voted against the U.S. Constitution and the constitution of the state of Arkansas," Blair said. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-church-and-state,0,4924875,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines
Twelve people wanted over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri are believed to be in Australia.
By AP02/18/05 "SMH" - - Lebanon's Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said authorities had contacted Interpol in Sydney over the departure from Beirut to Australia of 12 men - most bearded - on Monday, the day of the bombing that killed Hariri and 16 others.Addoum said the 12 were among 14 men with Australian citizenship who tried to leave Lebanon, but two missed the flight for unknown reasons. Their whereabouts are unknown.Interpol has agreed to interrogate the 12 in relation to the killing, Addoum said, adding that three have agreed to come forward.Addoum did not elaborate and it was unclear what connection, if any, the men might have had in the attack.No credible claims of responsibility have emerged, but the interior minister has said a suicide bomber backed by "international parties" may have killed Hariri.Some also suggest rogue Syrian intelligence operatives or factions among Lebanon's different religious groups may be responsible.Reports earlier this week said Australian authorities were helping Lebanon investigate the murder.
http://207.44.245.159/article8121.htm
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Bombings kill at least 42 in Iraq on Shiite holy day; most were suicide attacks
BAGHDAD (AP) - Eight suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks across Iraq on Saturday killed at least 42 people, including a U.S. soldier, a Ministry of Defence official said, as Shiite Muslim worshippers celebrated their holiest day of the year.
The steady stream of attacks included suicide bombings, mortars and gunmen, defence ministry official Capt. Sabah Yasin said.
At least eight suicide bombers staged attacks in and around Baghdad, targeting religious gatherings and Iraqi checkpoints. An Associated Press count of the dead from those attacks totalled 24, but many more explosions were audible in the capital throughout the day.
In one of the deadliest attacks, a suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 30 kilometres south of the capital, killing nine Iraqi soldiers, said Yasin.
The attacks occurred as a five-member U.S. congressional delegation, including Senators Hillary Clinton (D - N.Y.) and John McCain (R - Ariz.), met with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/02/16/932454-ap.html
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Israel's Sharon speaks to Arab media for first time, hoping to shed hawk image
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In his first interview with an Arab newspaper since taking office, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he understood the costs of war and was willing to make painful concessions for peace, though not at the price of his country's security.
Sharon told Egypt's daily Al-Ahram, an independent but pro-government newspaper, that if calm prevailed between the Israelis and Palestinians, the sides could soon begin political negotiations toward a final settlement.
The two-hour interview was conducted in Hebrew in Sharon's office in Jerusalem and published in Arabic in the newspaper's Saturday editions. It seemed aimed at softening Sharon's image in the Arab world as the peace process picks up momentum.
"Generals are always seen as people who want wars. The truth is otherwise," Sharon said, according to a translation of the Arabic by The Associated Press. "I think it is important ... for our generation who lived through it all to really take over the mission of pushing the peace process."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/02/19/936177-ap.html
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North Korea no longer interested in direct nuclear talks with U.S., report says
BEIJING (AP) - North Korea no longer wants direct negotiations with the United States to ease the nuclear standoff, China's state news agency Saturday cited a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman as saying, as a top Chinese official met the communist country's No. 2 leader
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/
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Demonstrators in Rome march to press for release of Italian hostage in Iraq
ROME (AP) - Thousands of people marched in Rome on Saturday to demand the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist, days after she was seen in a video pleading for Italians to pressure their government to withdraw the country's troops from Iraq.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/
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Hizbollah cools down anti-Syria rhetoric
The head of Hizbollah Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that anti-Syria rhetoric could plunge the country back into civil war. The religious leader was speaking at a rally in Beirut to mark Ashoura, one of the most religious days for Muslim Shiias.
http://www.aljazeera.com/
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U.S. army to investigate killings of Afghans
Following the revelations in Friday's New York Times of several U.S. soldiers being under investigation over a February 11th incident outside a military base at Shindand in western Afghanistan; the American military announced Saturday it will be investigating the shooting deaths of two Afghans by their soldiers.
The paper quoted the base commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Ashton Hayes, as saying the two Afghan victims were ordinary villagers, not Taliban or al Qaeda suspects, and compensation of $2,000 had been paid to their families. A spokesman for the U.S. military in Kabul confirmed the incident was under investigation. "This incident has happened; coalition forces were involved," said Major Steve Wollman. "It is under investigation." http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID
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El Baradei says U.S. involvement in Iran talks essential
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed El Baradei has called on the U.S. to join the European lead diplomacy talks with Iran. El Baradei's call comes in the wake of talk of a possible U.S. military strike on Iran which many in Washington have not ruled out.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/b17.asp?offset
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Peres: Israel to evacuate from Philadelphi corridor
Vice president Shimon Peres announced Friday that Israel is preparing to withdraw from the road along the Egypt-Gaza border known as the 'Philadelphi corridor'.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/b17.asp?offset=
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New U.S. files detail detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan
Photographs of uniformed U.S. forces in Afghanistan posing with hooded and bound prisoners during mock executions were damaged to avoid a repetition of the Abu Gharib scandal in Iraq, according to new Army papers released Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said that "It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to silence them,"
Also ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer said that "These documents provide more evidence that abuse was not localized or aberrational, but was widespread and systemic. They also provide further evidence that at least in some cases the government is not aggressively investigating credible allegations of abuse,
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7128
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US, Japan share security worry
From correspondents in WashingtonFebruary 20, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
THE US and Japan today declared Taiwan a common security issue.The move came amid concerns over China's military build up and threat to invade the island if it declares independence.
The two allies for the first time acknowledged that easing tensions in the Taiwan Strait was part of their "common strategic objectives".
A joint statement was released after a top ministerial meeting in Washington of the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12311872-23109,00.html
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Clinton, Bush meet tsunami victims
By Griffin Shea in Baan Nam Khem, ThailandFebruary 20, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
FORMER US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush said today they were seeking billions more dollars in US donations to meet long-term needs of tsunami-stricken countries after visiting a Thai fishing village.They warned that while an unprecedented $US7 billion ($8.9 billion) in post-tsunami aid had been raised to date, as much as $US5 billion ($6.4 billion) more was needed for reconstruction across the Indian Ocean.
Affected nations needed "$US11 or $US12 billion ($14bn-$15.3bn) to restore homes, rebuild wells, sanitation facilities (and) the economic infrastructure", Mr Clinton said.
"What we have to do now is not to forget these people and places when all the cameras are not there
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12311871-23109,00.html
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WAR WOUNDS
An overseas report from a U.S. military hospital in Germany about how the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has treated more than 20,000 service members wounded from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
VIDEO
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june05/wounded_2-15.html
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Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attack
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were killed in separate guerrilla attacks in Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military said Friday, three in or near the northern city of Mosul, one north of Baghdad and the fifth south of the capital.
The deaths brought to 1,119 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
In the latest incident Friday, one soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military base north of the town of Diwaniya, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, the military said.
Earlier Friday, a soldier was killed and two were wounded in a car bomb blast about 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital, the military said in a statement.
The other incidents happened Thursday. In the first, a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. army patrol in Mosul, killing one soldier and wounding three.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050218/us_nm/iraq_soldier_dc_4
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Sen. Clinton Says Iraq Insurgents Failing
BAGHDAD, Iraq - As 55 people died in Iraq (news - web sites) on Saturday, the holiest day on the Shiite Muslim religious calendar, Sen. Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) said that much of Iraq was "functioning quite well" and that the rash of suicide attacks was a sign that the insurgency was failing.
Clinton, a New York Democrat, said insurgents intent on destabilizing the country had failed to disrupt Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 elections.
"The concerted effort to disrupt the elections was an abject failure. Not one polling place was shut down or overrun," Clinton told reporters inside the U.S.-protected Green Zone, a sprawling complex of sandbagged buildings surrounded by blast walls and tanks. The zone is home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_go_co/iraq_senators&cid=512&ncid=1480
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Journalist group calls US to account over Iraq Dominic TimmsFriday
February 18, 2005 The US government was today accused of hiding behind a "culture of denial" over the deaths of at least 12 journalists who are alleged to have perished at the hands of the US military in Iraq.
Re-igniting the debate that US soldiers deliberately "targeted" journalists during the Iraqi occupation, a press freedom body called on the US to take "responsibility" for its actions in the country.
Responding to what it said was the "hounding out" of the CNN news chief, Eason Jordan, the International Federation of Journalists called on the US administration to come clean over its "mistakes" in the region.
Since US, British and other soldiers first began Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, more than 70 journalists have been killed in the country.
The IFJ said that at least 12 journalists had met their deaths at the "hands of US soldiers", including the killings of Taras Protsyuk of Reuters and Jose Couso of Spain's Telecinco after US tanks opened fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
The US military claimed the tanks had been responding to small arms fire coming from the hotel, which housed journalists who were non-embedded with military forces, but later withdrew the claim saying: soldiers fired at "what was believed to be an enemy firing platform and observation point".
Almost a year after journalists' groups first demanded it, a US military investigation into the attack found that "no fault or negligence" could be attributed to US soldiers.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1417691,00.html
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Clash over 'Kurdish veto' looms in Iraq:
A law promulgated during the US-led occupation of Iraq, which governs how the country's new constitution is to be written, has been largely rejected by members of the United Iraqi Alliance, which has a majority of seats in the new parliament.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2620cbe8-8199-11d9-9e19-00000e2511c8.html
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U.S. military killed two Afghan civilians near air base close to Iranian border:
The U.S. military is investigating why American troops fatally shot two civilians outside a base near Afghanistan's western border with Iran, officials said Saturday.
http://cbsnewyork.com/international/Afghan-US-Killing-ai/resources_news_html
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Questioned men 'happy to help'
By Vera Deva19feb05
THE 10 Lebanese Australians questioned by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) over the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister were innocent people who did nothing but support Rafiq Hariri, an Australian Lebanese community leader said today.But New South Wales Lebanese Muslim Association vice-president Keysar Trad said the 10 men were more than happy to volunteer information to the AFP and praised officials on their attempts to find the culprits.
The AFP said last night it had cleared 10 men who were investigated as part of its inquiries into the Beirut bombing that killed Mr Hariri on Monday.
Lebanon's Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said yesterday authorities had contacted Interpol in Sydney over the departure from Beirut to Australia of 12 men on the day of the bombing that killed Mr Hariri and 16 others.
Mr Addoum said the 12 were among 14 men with Australian citizenship who tried to leave Lebanon. Two missed the flight for unknown reasons.
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12300562%255E1702,00.html
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Veteran of dirty wars wins lead US spy role
: He is tainted by his time between 1981 and 1985 in Honduras, a country that was being used as a launchpad for the illegal US-backed war waged by the contras against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Honduran military was accused of taking part in torture and extra-judicial killings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1417267,00.html
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Ray McGovern: Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here
: The appointment of John Negroponte to be director of National Intelligence is the latest evidence that President Bush is strengthening his cabinet's capacity to mislead Congress and trample civil liberties. Ray McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, examines the meaning of the Negroponte appointment and the dark trend it confirms.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/hail_hail_the_gangs_all_here.php
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When Real News Debunks Fake News
By Frank Rich The International Herald Tribune
Saturday 19 February 2005
New York - The prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time.
Let me explain.
On "Countdown," a nightly news hour on MSNBC, the anchor, Keith Olbermann, led off with a bit in the classic style of Stewart's classic "Daily Show": a rapid-fire montage of sharply edited video bites illustrating the apparent idiocy of those in Washington. In this case, the eight clips stretched over a year in the White House briefing room - from February 2004 to late last month - and all featured a reporter named "Jeff." In most of them, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says "Go ahead, Jeff," and "Jeff" responds with a softball question intended not to elicit information but to boost President George W. Bush and smear his political opponents. In the last clip, "Jeff" is quizzing the president himself, in his first post-inaugural press conference of Jan. 26. Referring to Harry Reid and Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Jeff" asks, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
If we did not live in a time when the news culture itself is divorced from reality, the story might end there: "Jeff," you'd assume, was a lapdog reporter from a legitimate, if right-wing, news organization like Fox, and you'd get some predictable yuks from watching a compressed video anthology of his kissing up to power. But as Olbermann explained, "Jeff Gannon," the star of the montage, was a newsman no more real than a "Senior White House Correspondent" like Stephen Colbert on "The Daily Show." Yet the video broadcast by Olbermann was not fake. "Jeff" was in the real White House, and he did have those exchanges with the real McClellan and the real Bush.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021905Z.shtml
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February 18, 2005
Afghan refugees return to their tents after receiving supplies from U.S. soldiers near Kabul. Aid workers and officials sounded alarm bells over a looming humanitarian crisis in western Afghanistan saying they feared up to 1,000 children may have died during severe winter weather.
http://www.truthout.org/
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Bomb warning for aid workers
18:45 (AEST) TERRORISTS appear to be planning a bomb attack on foreign aid workers in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh region, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/breakingnews/
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Hillary Clinton visits Iraq with US senators
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US senator Hillary Clinton (news - web sites), wife of former president Bill Clinton (news - web sites), was in Baghdad as part of a delegation from the US Congress led by senator John McCain that met Iraqi and US military leaders.
Clinton, who along with McCain has often criticized US management of the Iraq (news - web sites) conflict, said that after meeting the country's prime minister as well as the US commander in charge of training and equipping Iraqi forces, her impression was one of "cautious optimism."
"Cautious because there are so many challenges, cautious because there are neighbours of Iraq that are not necessarily enthusiastic about the success of the Iraqi people in creating and sustaining a multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracy," she told reporters
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&u=/afp/20050219/pl_afp/iraquscongress&printer=1
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Ark. Votes Against Church-State Proposal
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The state House on Friday voted against affirming the separation of church and state in a resolution brought by a legislator who said he was fed up with a religious undertone at the Capitol. The House voted 44-39 against the proposal. Only two Republicans voted for it, and one of them, Rep. Jim Medley, said he had intended to vote no but didn't get to his machine in time to change his vote. Democratic Rep. Buddy Blair said he offered the measure because he was tired of conservative colleagues "making every issue into a religious issue." "It's unbelievable to me. They have just voted against the U.S. Constitution and the constitution of the state of Arkansas," Blair said. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-church-and-state,0,4924875,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 7:08 PM
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