DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER
Chavez says US plans to kill him
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he believes the US government is planning to assassinate him.
"If they kill me, the name of the person responsible is [President] George Bush," Mr Chavez said.
Mr Chavez - who offered no evidence to back his claim - said any attempt on his life would backfire and threatened to cut off oil supplies to America.
He was apparently reacting to growing criticism by top US officials of his left-wing government.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently described the former paratrooper as a "negative force" in Latin America, while CIA chief Porter Goss said Venezuela was a possible source of instability in the region.
Washington blames Mr Chavez of being heavy-handed towards Venezuela's opposition, and has recently criticised Caracas for arms purchases from Russia.
Diplomatic ties between Washington and Caracas have soured since Mr Chavez came to power in 1999.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4282603.stm
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Bush in Europe to mend relations
US President George W Bush has arrived in Brussels at the start of a visit aimed at repairing the strains in ties with Europe over the Iraq war.
"Now is the time for us to set aside that difference and to move forward," Mr Bush said before leaving the US.
On Monday, he will give the key speech of his trip, calling for "a new era of transatlantic unity" and praising the US' "strong friendship" with Europe.
He will then dine with French President Jacques Chirac, one of his key critics.
A huge security operation has been put in place for Mr Bush's five-day trip
Some 2,500 Belgian police and 250 US secret agents are being deployed in Brussels.
Parts of the Belgian capital had been turned into a no-go zone before Mr Bush's plane landed in the city airport just after 2100 (2000 GMT).
Thousands of protesters are expected to stage rallies during Mr Bush's first foreign tour since his second term in office began in January.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators rallied in central Brussels, carrying slogans "Bush is not welcome"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4282051.stm
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Syria replaces intelligence chief
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed his brother-in-law as head of military intelligence, reports say.
Brig Gen Asef Shawkat replaced Gen Hassan Khalil, who had reportedly reached retirement age.
Syrian sources say the appointment could suggest Mr Assad is consolidating his hold over the security services.
The move follows the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which has intensified calls for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon.
As head of military intelligence, Gen Shawkat will oversee Syria's domestic and foreign intelligence operations, including in Lebanon.
As head of military intelligence, Gen Shawkat will oversee Syria's domestic and foreign intelligence operations, including in Lebanon.
He assumed the post on Monday when Gen Khalil turned 60, Reuters news agency quoted Syrian sources as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4277595.stm
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Violence mars Iraq Shia festival
Suicide bombers have killed more than 30 people in Iraq as Shia Muslims marked Ashura, one of their holy days.
Religious processions, mosques and funerals were struck, in a second day of attacks targeting Ashura.
In the deadliest incident, at least 17 people were killed when a suicide bomber walked onto a bus in a northern district of Baghdad, police said.
But major security in Karbala seemed to have prevented attacks, as thousands of Shias converged on the holy city.
Security was tightened this year after more than 180 people were killed in bombs in Baghdad and Karbala during last year's festival.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4279139.stm
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'Chemical Ali led Basra massacre'
The former Iraqi general widely known as "Chemical Ali" has been accused by a human rights group of killing scores of Shia Muslims in Basra in 1999.
Ali Hassan al-Majid is one of 11 former Saddam Hussein lieutenants currently in US custody.
The general is already facing trial for his alleged role in gassing to death thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq.
Rights group Human Rights Watch said new charges could be made against him on the basis of evidence it had found.
"Al-Majid's role in the genocide against the Kurds is well-known, but it appears his hands are dirty in Basra in 1999 as well," Human Rights Watch official Joe Stork said.
List evidence
The New York-based body said witness statements, documents and mass graves it had uncovered implicated Mr Majid in the deaths of 120 men during the so-called "Basra uprising" of 1999
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4274103.stm
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US gloss masks nerves over Iraq
The official White House reaction to the Iraqi election result has been nothing but positive.
President George W Bush has praised the 8.5 million Iraqis who "defied terrorists and went to the polls", adding that the US and its allies could all "take pride" in making the elections possible.
The US state department hailed the result as "a positive and significant accomplishment".
But it also signalled the underlying worries at the low turnout among the country's Sunni Muslim minority, encouraging those Iraqis who were not elected or who did not take part to remain part of the political process.
The positives that the US administration is taking out of the elections is that they took place on schedule without major incident - that the turnout was reasonable, and that the Shia Muslim majority has been making conciliatory noises towards the other parties.
Blow for Allawi
But there is no getting away from the fact that this is not the outcome President Bush would have wanted in an ideal world.
For a start the US administration would have liked interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's coalition to have done better than receive under 14% of the vote
He was the man handpicked by the US and UN officials to lead the interim government.
He was the man more in tune with more liberal Western views
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4266521.stm
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Hungry to vote in Iraqi Kurdistan
In a mountain hamlet so small and remote that it does not even have a name, Aisha was drawing water from the outside standpipe which supplies her family of eight and her neighbours in the cluster of mud-brick houses.
The spectacular ranges which crowd the horizon were mantled in snow.
"Of course we'll all be voting in the elections," she said.
"If the weather's good, we'll go by car. If not, we'll have to walk through the snow. We're doing it for our own good, for the future of the Kurds."
In 10 days of travelling through Iraqi Kurdistan, I did not meet a single person who did not intend to go to the polls in the first Iraqi election since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The Kurds turned out in their masses to elect their own Kurdistan National Assembly in 1992, demonstrating a huge hunger for democracy and self-expression.
That same eagerness is now focused on winning the biggest possible bloc of seats for Kurdistan in the new Iraqi parliament in Baghdad.
'National duty'
Because of the proportional representation system adopted, the scale of the turnout determines the number of seats allocated to each list contesting the polls.
This persuaded the two main Kurdish parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to shelve their normal rivalry and form a United Kurdistan Coalition with Turcoman, Assyrian, Islamic and other parties.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4219463.stm
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Abizaid Discusses Progress in Afghanistan
By John ValceanuAmerican Forces Press Service
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Feb. 20, 2005 -- U.S. and coalition forces have made significant progress against the al Qaeda terrorist group and remnants of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan, but the coalition must remain vigilant because the threat has not been completely eliminated, the U.S. general in charge of forces in the region said.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, visited Afghanistan Feb. 18-19, during a tour of countries in the region. While in Afghanistan, he met with troops and senior leaders, and received briefings about the situation in the area.
"Afghanistan is a place where military and economic, political and diplomatic activity at both the national level of the United States and also the international level came together in a way that, over the three years that we've been operating there, has shown interesting progress," said Abizaid, who is responsible for an area that includes the Middle East, central Asia and the horn of Africa.
Afghanistan's first free elections, held in November 2004, along with the end of decades of war in the country, marked major milestones for the nation, Abizaid said.
The general said progress in Afghanistan can be seen in "the establishment of an elected Afghan government, reconstruction projects that showed some tangible progress, the cessation of hostilities after 25 years worth of hostilities in the vast majority of the country, pretty effective counterinsurgency and counterterrorism activity by coalition forces, and a general belief, probably most importantly, by people of the country that things can get better."
The vast majority of Afghan people is tired of war and only wants to lead a better life, Abizaid said. He added that most Afghans have come to realize that al Qaeda and the Taliban have nothing to offer them, so they are increasingly denying anti-coalition fighters any support.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02202005_2005022001.html
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Pakistan's gas fields blaze as rape sparks threat of civil war Fight for provincial autonomy escalates after attack
Visitors are not welcome at the house in Karachi where Shazia Khalid is living; not even with an invitation. A police team is posted at the gate and army rangers prowl the grounds inside. "You need the permission from the bosses at the top," says a moustached officer firmly. "The very top."
Hours later Dr Shazia picks up the phone inside.
Her strained voice crumbles into sobs. "We are very scared," she says, her husband at her side. "In Pakistan there is no law, no protection, nothing. Who can we trust? Nobody."
She has good reason to worry. Until six weeks ago the 31-year-old was a company doctor at the Sui gas plant, at the farthest reaches of remote Baluchistan province. On January 3 she was raped in her bed.
Normally in Pakistan, where crimes against women are rife, such an act would barely raise an eyebrow. In her case, it nearly started a war.
Members of the local Bugti clan saw a rape in their heartland as being a breach of their code of honour - especially when the alleged rapist was a captain in the despised national army. They attacked the gas field with rockets, mortars and thousands of AK-47 rounds.
President Pervez Musharraf sent an uncompromising response: tanks, helicopters and an extra 4,500 soldiers to guard the installation. If the tribesmen failed to stop shooting, he warned on television, "they will not know what hit them".
But the guerrilla attacks have escalated, propelling a long-ignored province into the headlines and threatening civil war. Every day sees a new attack on military and government targets across the province. Insurgents have blown up railway tracks, toppled pylons and fired rockets into army camps. Sui supplies 45% of Pakistan's gas, so supplies to Karachi, Lahore and other cities have been cut
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,1419040,00.html
Bush: Why I won't admit trying dope
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday February 21, 2005
The Guardian
Bill Clinton said he'd tried it but hadn't inhaled. George Bush decided that it was best just to duck the issue altogether. "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," the president told a friend and adviser during his first presidential campaign. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
The implied admission that the president used marijuana comes in a series of taperecorded conversations between the future president and Doug Wead, an author and aide to the first president Bush, published on the eve of his fence-mending trip to Europe.
In another aside, Mr Bush displays his sense of destiny. "It's me versus the world," he tells Mr Wead. "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it." The private conversations, recorded between 1998 and 2000 without the knowledge of the then governor of Texas, reveal him to be both repentant and unrepentant.
Warned that journalists were talking about his "immature" past, including allegations of cocaine use and drinkdriving, Mr Bush insisted that he had "not denied anything" and said that he intended to turn his past to his advantage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1418944,00.html
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'Great Satan' warned of a burning hell
The US is making threatening noises towards Iran, but, says Ian Black, any military action would have dire consequences
No one knows whether the US is serious about attacking Iran to destroy its alleged nuclear weapons programmes, and today's assertion from Tehran that US spy planes have been overflying the country will have done nothing to calm the jitters.
But everyone is perfectly clear that if that should happen, it will be a very big deal indeed - and one which might make the invasion of Iraq look like quite a minor incident.
It takes two to create a sense of crisis, and George Bush deliberately used his state of the union address on February 2 to depict Iran as "the world's primary state sponsor of terror", as well as accusing it of secretly developing an atomic arsenal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1415966,00.html
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Coast Guard Protecting Shores,
Waterways of Guantanamo Bay
By Kathleen T. RhemAmerican Forces Press Service
U.S. NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 18, 2005 --
U.S. Coast Guardsmen are helping their Defense Department brethren by working to protect the coasts and waterways of this American military outpost in the Caribbean.
A team of roughly 50 Coast Guardsmen patrols Guantanamo Bay in TPSBs, transportable port-security boats -- or "fast boats" in Coastie lingo.
The Coast Guard detachment here typically assists with port security and escorts Cuban and other foreign vessels through the bay.
"We have Cuban vessels, foreign vessels come through the bay because of the Cuban territory up north of Guantanamo," explained Coast Guard Lt. Robert Rimer, officer in charge of the Coast Guard detachment here. "We provide escorts to ensure that no terrorist attack can come off of them."
The unit also provides armed escorts for high-profile visitors to the naval base. "We provide armed escorts for VIPs," Rimer said. "Our boats will either provide the transportation or provide protection on whatever vessel would be taking them around."
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02182005_2005021801.html
Rumsfeld Discusses State of Iraqi Forces in Senate Testimony
By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2005
- Training and equipping Iraqi security forces will speed up, and is the cornerstone of coalition policy in the country, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee today.
Iraqi security forces "demonstrated considerable valor during the operations to liberate Fallujah, and in providing security for Iraq's successful recent elections," Rumsfeld said.
This is a far cry from the situation in April, when many Iraqi forces melted away in the face of an uprising by Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Iraqi units fought alongside U.S. Marines and soldiers in Fallujah and provided the two inner rings of security around the more than 5,000 polling places for the country's Jan. 30 election.
State Department officials said 136,342 members of Iraqi security forces are "trained and equipped." With the absorption of the Iraqi National Guard into the Iraqi army Jan. 6, 57,303 servicemembers are under the control of the Defense Ministry. Some 56,589 serve in the army, with 186 in the air force and 528 in the navy.
The Interior Ministry has 57,336 Iraqis in the police, and 21,703 members of other security groups - the border patrol and specialty units - for a total of 79,039.
The total does not count the more than 74,000 people in the Iraqi site protection force. All of this has been accomplished since June, when the Iraqi interim government was formed and coalition trainers arrived.
"Beyond the numbers, it seems to me the capability is what really is important. And capability is a function … partly of numbers, to be sure, but it's also of training, equipment, leadership, mobility, sustainability, access to intelligence, experience," Rumsfeld said
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02172005_2005021715.html
Rice Outlines State's Supplemental Budget Request
By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005 –
The State Department's $5.6-billion budget supplemental request now before Congress "is absolutely critical to our national security," America's top diplomat noted at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Feb. 17.
With most of the money earmarked for initiatives in Afghanistan and Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told committee members the supplemental funds will "ensure that we are able to respond speedily and effectively to the needs of our steadfast coalition partners in the war on terror."
Rice said the money would be used to aid newly elected governments in Afghanistan and Iraq "who are seeking our stabilizing assistance to move forward with reforms, and to the men, women and children swept up in humanitarian emergencies."
The request contains about $2.2 billion in international affairs funds earmarked for President Hamid Karzai's Afghan government, Rice said. Some $265 million of that money would be used to train public officials, she noted, as well as to "increase the participation of women in public life."
About $800 million would be applied "to improve the lives of Afghan citizens," Rice said, through infrastructure rehabilitation and improvement projects, including work on building schools, roads and health clinics.
Rice noted that $500,000 is earmarked for counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, whose poppy crops produce much of the world's supply of opium. That money, she said, would be divided among anti-drug public information, law enforcement, alternative livelihoods, interdiction, and eradication initiatives
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02182005_2005021804.html
Troops Deployed In Combat Areas Get Tax Credit Options
By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2005 – Servicemembers receiving federal tax exemptions for some or all of their military pay may now elect to apply for certain tax credit options, the chief of the Armed Forces Tax Council said here today.
Troops deployed to combat zones can now apply for tax refunds based on earned income tax credits, as well as additional child-tax credits, explained Army Lt. Col. Janet Fenton, the AFTC's executive director. The AFTC monitors and coordinates tax issues involving active and reserve-component military members.
The earned income credit, Fenton explained, primarily involves lower-income filers with children. The additional child tax credit, she added, may provide refunds for children under age 17.
Servicemembers who want to apply for the credit refunds are required to fill out and file a federal tax return, Fenton noted.
Enlisted troops serving in combat areas already have all of their military pay excluded from federal taxes, Fenton pointed out, while officers in combat zones can exclude up to $6,529 of their monthly pay.
Troops deployed to non-combat overseas areas have until June 15 to file their income taxes, Fenton said.
Troops serving in a combat zone, she pointed out, have up to 180 days to file their taxes after departing the area.
For example, "someone who is in Iraq right now," she noted, "would not have to file their 2004 tax return until they leave Iraq."
However, some overseas servicemembers would want to file early, Fenton said, because they may be due a refund. Military-operated tax centers at stateside and overseas locales, she noted, can provide service members with tax filing assistance.
And, married service members deployed to combat and non-combat overseas locales can opt to have spouses file tax returns, she noted, provided there's an applicable power of attorney
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02172005_2005021707.html
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he believes the US government is planning to assassinate him.
"If they kill me, the name of the person responsible is [President] George Bush," Mr Chavez said.
Mr Chavez - who offered no evidence to back his claim - said any attempt on his life would backfire and threatened to cut off oil supplies to America.
He was apparently reacting to growing criticism by top US officials of his left-wing government.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently described the former paratrooper as a "negative force" in Latin America, while CIA chief Porter Goss said Venezuela was a possible source of instability in the region.
Washington blames Mr Chavez of being heavy-handed towards Venezuela's opposition, and has recently criticised Caracas for arms purchases from Russia.
Diplomatic ties between Washington and Caracas have soured since Mr Chavez came to power in 1999.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4282603.stm
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Bush in Europe to mend relations
US President George W Bush has arrived in Brussels at the start of a visit aimed at repairing the strains in ties with Europe over the Iraq war.
"Now is the time for us to set aside that difference and to move forward," Mr Bush said before leaving the US.
On Monday, he will give the key speech of his trip, calling for "a new era of transatlantic unity" and praising the US' "strong friendship" with Europe.
He will then dine with French President Jacques Chirac, one of his key critics.
A huge security operation has been put in place for Mr Bush's five-day trip
Some 2,500 Belgian police and 250 US secret agents are being deployed in Brussels.
Parts of the Belgian capital had been turned into a no-go zone before Mr Bush's plane landed in the city airport just after 2100 (2000 GMT).
Thousands of protesters are expected to stage rallies during Mr Bush's first foreign tour since his second term in office began in January.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators rallied in central Brussels, carrying slogans "Bush is not welcome"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4282051.stm
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Syria replaces intelligence chief
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed his brother-in-law as head of military intelligence, reports say.
Brig Gen Asef Shawkat replaced Gen Hassan Khalil, who had reportedly reached retirement age.
Syrian sources say the appointment could suggest Mr Assad is consolidating his hold over the security services.
The move follows the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which has intensified calls for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon.
As head of military intelligence, Gen Shawkat will oversee Syria's domestic and foreign intelligence operations, including in Lebanon.
As head of military intelligence, Gen Shawkat will oversee Syria's domestic and foreign intelligence operations, including in Lebanon.
He assumed the post on Monday when Gen Khalil turned 60, Reuters news agency quoted Syrian sources as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4277595.stm
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Violence mars Iraq Shia festival
Suicide bombers have killed more than 30 people in Iraq as Shia Muslims marked Ashura, one of their holy days.
Religious processions, mosques and funerals were struck, in a second day of attacks targeting Ashura.
In the deadliest incident, at least 17 people were killed when a suicide bomber walked onto a bus in a northern district of Baghdad, police said.
But major security in Karbala seemed to have prevented attacks, as thousands of Shias converged on the holy city.
Security was tightened this year after more than 180 people were killed in bombs in Baghdad and Karbala during last year's festival.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4279139.stm
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'Chemical Ali led Basra massacre'
The former Iraqi general widely known as "Chemical Ali" has been accused by a human rights group of killing scores of Shia Muslims in Basra in 1999.
Ali Hassan al-Majid is one of 11 former Saddam Hussein lieutenants currently in US custody.
The general is already facing trial for his alleged role in gassing to death thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq.
Rights group Human Rights Watch said new charges could be made against him on the basis of evidence it had found.
"Al-Majid's role in the genocide against the Kurds is well-known, but it appears his hands are dirty in Basra in 1999 as well," Human Rights Watch official Joe Stork said.
List evidence
The New York-based body said witness statements, documents and mass graves it had uncovered implicated Mr Majid in the deaths of 120 men during the so-called "Basra uprising" of 1999
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4274103.stm
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US gloss masks nerves over Iraq
The official White House reaction to the Iraqi election result has been nothing but positive.
President George W Bush has praised the 8.5 million Iraqis who "defied terrorists and went to the polls", adding that the US and its allies could all "take pride" in making the elections possible.
The US state department hailed the result as "a positive and significant accomplishment".
But it also signalled the underlying worries at the low turnout among the country's Sunni Muslim minority, encouraging those Iraqis who were not elected or who did not take part to remain part of the political process.
The positives that the US administration is taking out of the elections is that they took place on schedule without major incident - that the turnout was reasonable, and that the Shia Muslim majority has been making conciliatory noises towards the other parties.
Blow for Allawi
But there is no getting away from the fact that this is not the outcome President Bush would have wanted in an ideal world.
For a start the US administration would have liked interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's coalition to have done better than receive under 14% of the vote
He was the man handpicked by the US and UN officials to lead the interim government.
He was the man more in tune with more liberal Western views
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4266521.stm
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Hungry to vote in Iraqi Kurdistan
In a mountain hamlet so small and remote that it does not even have a name, Aisha was drawing water from the outside standpipe which supplies her family of eight and her neighbours in the cluster of mud-brick houses.
The spectacular ranges which crowd the horizon were mantled in snow.
"Of course we'll all be voting in the elections," she said.
"If the weather's good, we'll go by car. If not, we'll have to walk through the snow. We're doing it for our own good, for the future of the Kurds."
In 10 days of travelling through Iraqi Kurdistan, I did not meet a single person who did not intend to go to the polls in the first Iraqi election since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The Kurds turned out in their masses to elect their own Kurdistan National Assembly in 1992, demonstrating a huge hunger for democracy and self-expression.
That same eagerness is now focused on winning the biggest possible bloc of seats for Kurdistan in the new Iraqi parliament in Baghdad.
'National duty'
Because of the proportional representation system adopted, the scale of the turnout determines the number of seats allocated to each list contesting the polls.
This persuaded the two main Kurdish parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to shelve their normal rivalry and form a United Kurdistan Coalition with Turcoman, Assyrian, Islamic and other parties.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4219463.stm
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Abizaid Discusses Progress in Afghanistan
By John ValceanuAmerican Forces Press Service
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Feb. 20, 2005 -- U.S. and coalition forces have made significant progress against the al Qaeda terrorist group and remnants of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan, but the coalition must remain vigilant because the threat has not been completely eliminated, the U.S. general in charge of forces in the region said.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, visited Afghanistan Feb. 18-19, during a tour of countries in the region. While in Afghanistan, he met with troops and senior leaders, and received briefings about the situation in the area.
"Afghanistan is a place where military and economic, political and diplomatic activity at both the national level of the United States and also the international level came together in a way that, over the three years that we've been operating there, has shown interesting progress," said Abizaid, who is responsible for an area that includes the Middle East, central Asia and the horn of Africa.
Afghanistan's first free elections, held in November 2004, along with the end of decades of war in the country, marked major milestones for the nation, Abizaid said.
The general said progress in Afghanistan can be seen in "the establishment of an elected Afghan government, reconstruction projects that showed some tangible progress, the cessation of hostilities after 25 years worth of hostilities in the vast majority of the country, pretty effective counterinsurgency and counterterrorism activity by coalition forces, and a general belief, probably most importantly, by people of the country that things can get better."
The vast majority of Afghan people is tired of war and only wants to lead a better life, Abizaid said. He added that most Afghans have come to realize that al Qaeda and the Taliban have nothing to offer them, so they are increasingly denying anti-coalition fighters any support.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02202005_2005022001.html
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Pakistan's gas fields blaze as rape sparks threat of civil war Fight for provincial autonomy escalates after attack
Visitors are not welcome at the house in Karachi where Shazia Khalid is living; not even with an invitation. A police team is posted at the gate and army rangers prowl the grounds inside. "You need the permission from the bosses at the top," says a moustached officer firmly. "The very top."
Hours later Dr Shazia picks up the phone inside.
Her strained voice crumbles into sobs. "We are very scared," she says, her husband at her side. "In Pakistan there is no law, no protection, nothing. Who can we trust? Nobody."
She has good reason to worry. Until six weeks ago the 31-year-old was a company doctor at the Sui gas plant, at the farthest reaches of remote Baluchistan province. On January 3 she was raped in her bed.
Normally in Pakistan, where crimes against women are rife, such an act would barely raise an eyebrow. In her case, it nearly started a war.
Members of the local Bugti clan saw a rape in their heartland as being a breach of their code of honour - especially when the alleged rapist was a captain in the despised national army. They attacked the gas field with rockets, mortars and thousands of AK-47 rounds.
President Pervez Musharraf sent an uncompromising response: tanks, helicopters and an extra 4,500 soldiers to guard the installation. If the tribesmen failed to stop shooting, he warned on television, "they will not know what hit them".
But the guerrilla attacks have escalated, propelling a long-ignored province into the headlines and threatening civil war. Every day sees a new attack on military and government targets across the province. Insurgents have blown up railway tracks, toppled pylons and fired rockets into army camps. Sui supplies 45% of Pakistan's gas, so supplies to Karachi, Lahore and other cities have been cut
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,1419040,00.html
Bush: Why I won't admit trying dope
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday February 21, 2005
The Guardian
Bill Clinton said he'd tried it but hadn't inhaled. George Bush decided that it was best just to duck the issue altogether. "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," the president told a friend and adviser during his first presidential campaign. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
The implied admission that the president used marijuana comes in a series of taperecorded conversations between the future president and Doug Wead, an author and aide to the first president Bush, published on the eve of his fence-mending trip to Europe.
In another aside, Mr Bush displays his sense of destiny. "It's me versus the world," he tells Mr Wead. "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it." The private conversations, recorded between 1998 and 2000 without the knowledge of the then governor of Texas, reveal him to be both repentant and unrepentant.
Warned that journalists were talking about his "immature" past, including allegations of cocaine use and drinkdriving, Mr Bush insisted that he had "not denied anything" and said that he intended to turn his past to his advantage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1418944,00.html
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'Great Satan' warned of a burning hell
The US is making threatening noises towards Iran, but, says Ian Black, any military action would have dire consequences
No one knows whether the US is serious about attacking Iran to destroy its alleged nuclear weapons programmes, and today's assertion from Tehran that US spy planes have been overflying the country will have done nothing to calm the jitters.
But everyone is perfectly clear that if that should happen, it will be a very big deal indeed - and one which might make the invasion of Iraq look like quite a minor incident.
It takes two to create a sense of crisis, and George Bush deliberately used his state of the union address on February 2 to depict Iran as "the world's primary state sponsor of terror", as well as accusing it of secretly developing an atomic arsenal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1415966,00.html
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Coast Guard Protecting Shores,
Waterways of Guantanamo Bay
By Kathleen T. RhemAmerican Forces Press Service
U.S. NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 18, 2005 --
U.S. Coast Guardsmen are helping their Defense Department brethren by working to protect the coasts and waterways of this American military outpost in the Caribbean.
A team of roughly 50 Coast Guardsmen patrols Guantanamo Bay in TPSBs, transportable port-security boats -- or "fast boats" in Coastie lingo.
The Coast Guard detachment here typically assists with port security and escorts Cuban and other foreign vessels through the bay.
"We have Cuban vessels, foreign vessels come through the bay because of the Cuban territory up north of Guantanamo," explained Coast Guard Lt. Robert Rimer, officer in charge of the Coast Guard detachment here. "We provide escorts to ensure that no terrorist attack can come off of them."
The unit also provides armed escorts for high-profile visitors to the naval base. "We provide armed escorts for VIPs," Rimer said. "Our boats will either provide the transportation or provide protection on whatever vessel would be taking them around."
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02182005_2005021801.html
Rumsfeld Discusses State of Iraqi Forces in Senate Testimony
By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2005
- Training and equipping Iraqi security forces will speed up, and is the cornerstone of coalition policy in the country, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee today.
Iraqi security forces "demonstrated considerable valor during the operations to liberate Fallujah, and in providing security for Iraq's successful recent elections," Rumsfeld said.
This is a far cry from the situation in April, when many Iraqi forces melted away in the face of an uprising by Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Iraqi units fought alongside U.S. Marines and soldiers in Fallujah and provided the two inner rings of security around the more than 5,000 polling places for the country's Jan. 30 election.
State Department officials said 136,342 members of Iraqi security forces are "trained and equipped." With the absorption of the Iraqi National Guard into the Iraqi army Jan. 6, 57,303 servicemembers are under the control of the Defense Ministry. Some 56,589 serve in the army, with 186 in the air force and 528 in the navy.
The Interior Ministry has 57,336 Iraqis in the police, and 21,703 members of other security groups - the border patrol and specialty units - for a total of 79,039.
The total does not count the more than 74,000 people in the Iraqi site protection force. All of this has been accomplished since June, when the Iraqi interim government was formed and coalition trainers arrived.
"Beyond the numbers, it seems to me the capability is what really is important. And capability is a function … partly of numbers, to be sure, but it's also of training, equipment, leadership, mobility, sustainability, access to intelligence, experience," Rumsfeld said
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02172005_2005021715.html
Rice Outlines State's Supplemental Budget Request
By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005 –
The State Department's $5.6-billion budget supplemental request now before Congress "is absolutely critical to our national security," America's top diplomat noted at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Feb. 17.
With most of the money earmarked for initiatives in Afghanistan and Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told committee members the supplemental funds will "ensure that we are able to respond speedily and effectively to the needs of our steadfast coalition partners in the war on terror."
Rice said the money would be used to aid newly elected governments in Afghanistan and Iraq "who are seeking our stabilizing assistance to move forward with reforms, and to the men, women and children swept up in humanitarian emergencies."
The request contains about $2.2 billion in international affairs funds earmarked for President Hamid Karzai's Afghan government, Rice said. Some $265 million of that money would be used to train public officials, she noted, as well as to "increase the participation of women in public life."
About $800 million would be applied "to improve the lives of Afghan citizens," Rice said, through infrastructure rehabilitation and improvement projects, including work on building schools, roads and health clinics.
Rice noted that $500,000 is earmarked for counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, whose poppy crops produce much of the world's supply of opium. That money, she said, would be divided among anti-drug public information, law enforcement, alternative livelihoods, interdiction, and eradication initiatives
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02182005_2005021804.html
Troops Deployed In Combat Areas Get Tax Credit Options
By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2005 – Servicemembers receiving federal tax exemptions for some or all of their military pay may now elect to apply for certain tax credit options, the chief of the Armed Forces Tax Council said here today.
Troops deployed to combat zones can now apply for tax refunds based on earned income tax credits, as well as additional child-tax credits, explained Army Lt. Col. Janet Fenton, the AFTC's executive director. The AFTC monitors and coordinates tax issues involving active and reserve-component military members.
The earned income credit, Fenton explained, primarily involves lower-income filers with children. The additional child tax credit, she added, may provide refunds for children under age 17.
Servicemembers who want to apply for the credit refunds are required to fill out and file a federal tax return, Fenton noted.
Enlisted troops serving in combat areas already have all of their military pay excluded from federal taxes, Fenton pointed out, while officers in combat zones can exclude up to $6,529 of their monthly pay.
Troops deployed to non-combat overseas areas have until June 15 to file their income taxes, Fenton said.
Troops serving in a combat zone, she pointed out, have up to 180 days to file their taxes after departing the area.
For example, "someone who is in Iraq right now," she noted, "would not have to file their 2004 tax return until they leave Iraq."
However, some overseas servicemembers would want to file early, Fenton said, because they may be due a refund. Military-operated tax centers at stateside and overseas locales, she noted, can provide service members with tax filing assistance.
And, married service members deployed to combat and non-combat overseas locales can opt to have spouses file tax returns, she noted, provided there's an applicable power of attorney
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/n02172005_2005021707.html
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