U.S. Special Forces teams sent overseas on secret spying missions have clashed with the CIA and carried out operations in countries that are staunch U.S. allies, prompting a new effort by the agency and the Pentagon to tighten the rules for military units engaged in espionage, according to senior U.S. intelligence and military officials. The spy missions are part of a highly classified program that officials say has better positioned the United States to track terrorist networks and capture or kill enemy operatives in regions such as the Horn of Africa, where weak governments are unable to respond to emerging threats. But the initiative has also led to several embarrassing incidents for the United States, including a shootout in Paraguay and the exposure of a sensitive intelligence operation in East Africa, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. And to date, the Special Forces espionage effort has not led to the capture of a significant terrorism suspect...
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Editor - 23:19:00 12-17-06
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 Air war costs NATO Afghan supporters |
At a large gathering with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in this southern city last Tuesday, Abdul Ghafar sat among hundreds in the audience, clutching a piece of paper. On it were the names of 20 members of his family killed two months ago in a NATO airstrike. "This was my uncle's family. Eleven children, six women, and three innocent men were killed. He lost everyone but one small girl," he said. Mr. Ghafar was hoping to receive compensation from the Afghan government. "We got nothing," he said. Ghafar's extended family in the southern Panjwai district are among the nearly 4,000 people killed since the beginning of 2006 in a Taliban resurgence that is using civilians as human shields against escalating NATO air attacks. The US-based Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 of those killed were civilians. A recent spate of suicide bombings here has stoked public anger even further....
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1218/p01s02-wosc.html
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Editor - 23:17:00 12-17-06
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| U.S. Military Rehearses Terror Hearings |
The U.S. military is rehearsing for hearings on whether 14 top terror suspects can be held indefinitely without charge as enemy combatants, but defense lawyers say the outcome is preordained. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 13 others will be the highest-profile detainees to undergo the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals, and the first to do so in two years. The proceedings, expected early next year, are open to the media. At the hearings, a military panel will evaluate whether the men should be classified as "enemy combatants," a designation which allows them to be held indefinitely and prevents them from challenging their detention in the U.S. court system. It is unclear whether Mohammed and the others _ who until recently were being held in secret CIA prisons _ will agree to attend the hearings. If they do, the military says they will remain shackled and would be forbidden to talk to reporters...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16255334/
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Editor - 23:14:00 12-17-06
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| Padilla terror case gets closer look His lawyers, alleging abuse, want him freed. A judge may hold the first such hearing on the treatment of detainees. |
A federal judge in Miami will soon make one of the most important rulings in the Bush administration's war on terrorism and decide whether to publicly explore evidence that an accused terrorist was brutally mistreated for years inside a one-man isolation cell.The allegations involve Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen once portrayed as one of the most dangerous Al Qaeda operatives ever arrested. Padilla's lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to set him free because of the abuse they say he suffered. Though federal judges rarely dismiss criminal charges before trial, the allegations are so extreme that they may prompt Cooke to hold a pretrial hearing in what would be the first public court examination into how detainees were handled after the Sept. 11 attacks.Padilla's lawyers also hope to shut down his case by proving that his incarceration as an "enemy combatant" at a Navy brig for more than three years without charges had left him incompetent to stand trial. ...
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes640.html
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Editor - 23:10:00 12-17-06
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| Reid says troop surge OK, but only for a few months |
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Sunday he would support a temporary troop increase in Iraq only if it were part of a broader strategy to bring combat forces home by early 2008."If the commanders on the ground said this is just for a short period of time, we'll go along with that," said Reid, D-Nev., citing a time frame such as two months to three months. But a period longer than that, such as 18 months to 24 months, would be unacceptable, he said."The American people will not allow this war to go on as it has. It simply is a war that will not be won militarily. It can only be won politically," Reid said. "We have to change course in Iraq."...
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes641.html
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Editor - 23:07:00 12-17-06
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| Colin Powell: US losing Iraq war |
Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said overstretched US troops are losing the conflict in Iraq. Mr Powell told CBS News that bolstering troop numbers would be unlikely to reverse the "grave and deteriorating situation" in the country. President Bush is trying to shape a new strategy for Iraq, with officials suggesting more soldiers may be sent. Mr Powell's comments come a day before the new defence secretary, Robert Gates, is to be sworn in. During his confirmation hearings, Mr Gates also conceded that the US was not winning in Iraq and faced a "regional conflagration" unless the downward spiral was reversed. The recent Iraq Study Group review said the US strategy of "staying the course" was no longer viable and suggested combat troops could be withdrawn by early 2008. But on Friday, an administration official said up to 25,000 more troops could be deployed in the country to try to help end the violence and make cities like Baghdad more secure...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6188693.stm
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Editor - 22:40:00 12-17-06
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