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Archive for 200804 ( return to current blog )
Wednesday April 30, 2008
 More
than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the last month
between Shia militias and US and Iraqi forces, hospital officials in
Baghdad say. The fighting has been concentrated in the
capital's eastern district of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army
militia of the cleric, Moqtada Sadr. Five US soldiers have been killed in fighting in Baghdad since Tuesday. April has been the most lethal month for US troops in Iraq, with 49 deaths, since September, when 65 soldiers died. The
US military said two soldiers were killed on Wednesday afternoon in
southern Baghdad when a bomb exploded near their patrol. A third was
killed by a roadside bombing overnight in the north. Two US
soldiers were killed in the north-west of the city on Tuesday evening
in separate attacks. The first died when he came under small-arms fire,
while the other was killed by a roadside bomb. Hospitals 'struggling' The
large number of casualties came after US and Iraqi forces launched an
offensive in March to disarm militias in Baghdad and the southern city
of Basra. The clashes in the capital flared up again on Sunday after militia members attacked coalition positions during a sandstorm.  Many civilians have been caught up in the Baghdad clashes | The
US military said at least 28 militants were killed during battles in
the Sadr City area of the capital on Tuesday, while four US soldiers
were killed by rocket and mortar fire in the east of the capital on
Monday. Doctors said more than 50 civilians were injured in the fighting on Tuesday. The
two main hospitals in Sadr City are struggling to cope with the recent
influx of casualties, officials at the Imam Ali and the Sadr General
hospitals have said. More than 400 people have died and almost 2,500 others have been injured since the end of March, they added. Staff
at the hospitals are worried they are running out of clean water and do
not have enough severe trauma specialists to treat all those who need
help. An Iraqi government spokesman, Tahsin al-Sheikhli, later
said as many as 925 people had died in the Sadr City fighting, but he
gave no timeframe or further details about how the figure was reached. An
independent website, icasualties.org, estimates that 4,058 US soldiers,
and 310 soldiers from other nations, have been killed in Iraq since the
2003 invasion. Another website run by academics and peace
activists, iraqbodycount.net, estimates up to 90,782 Iraqi civilians
have been killed in the same period. Government defiant Later,
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki vowed not to ease the military
offensive until all militias, both Sunni and Shia, were crushed. Speaking
at a news conference in Baghdad, he said the militias were no better
then al-Qaeda because they brought instability and destruction to Iraq.
Last
week Moqtada Sadr told his supporters that while they should continue
"resisting" what he called the US "occupation", they should not fight
Iraqis. He also rejected the government's demands. The BBC's
Clive Myrie in Baghdad says this is the first time the prime minister,
himself a Shia, has tried to crush the Shia militias. Intense
pressure from the Sunni and Kurdish members of his government, and
behind the scenes from the US government, has helped force his hand,
our correspondent says. Are you in the area? Have you been affected by the clashes? Send us your comments by filling out the form below. The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
| | Posted by alfred at 11:11 PM - | |
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More
than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the last month
between Shia militias and US and Iraqi forces, hospital officials in
Baghdad say. The fighting has been concentrated in the
capital's eastern district of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army
militia of the cleric, Moqtada Sadr. Five US soldiers have been killed in fighting in Baghdad since Tuesday. April has been the most lethal month for US troops in Iraq, with 49 deaths, since September, when 65 soldiers died. The
US military said two soldiers were killed on Wednesday afternoon in
southern Baghdad when a bomb exploded near their patrol. A third was
killed by a roadside bombing overnight in the north. Two US
soldiers were killed in the north-west of the city on Tuesday evening
in separate attacks. The first died when he came under small-arms fire,
while the other was killed by a roadside bomb. Hospitals 'struggling' The
large number of casualties came after US and Iraqi forces launched an
offensive in March to disarm militias in Baghdad and the southern city
of Basra. The clashes in the capital flared up again on Sunday after militia members attacked coalition positions during a sandstorm. Many civilians have been caught up in the Baghdad clashes | The
US military said at least 28 militants were killed during battles in
the Sadr City area of the capital on Tuesday, while four US soldiers
were killed by rocket and mortar fire in the east of the capital on
Monday. Doctors said more than 50 civilians were injured in the fighting on Tuesday. The
two main hospitals in Sadr City are struggling to cope with the recent
influx of casualties, officials at the Imam Ali and the Sadr General
hospitals have said. More than 400 people have died and almost 2,500 others have been injured since the end of March, they added. Staff
at the hospitals are worried they are running out of clean water and do
not have enough severe trauma specialists to treat all those who need
help. An Iraqi government spokesman, Tahsin al-Sheikhli, later
said as many as 925 people had died in the Sadr City fighting, but he
gave no timeframe or further details about how the figure was reached. An
independent website, icasualties.org, estimates that 4,058 US soldiers,
and 310 soldiers from other nations, have been killed in Iraq since the
2003 invasion. Another website run by academics and peace
activists, iraqbodycount.net, estimates up to 90,782 Iraqi civilians
have been killed in the same period. Government defiant Later,
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki vowed not to ease the military
offensive until all militias, both Sunni and Shia, were crushed. Speaking
at a news conference in Baghdad, he said the militias were no better
then al-Qaeda because they brought instability and destruction to Iraq.
Last
week Moqtada Sadr told his supporters that while they should continue
"resisting" what he called the US "occupation", they should not fight
Iraqis. He also rejected the government's demands. The BBC's
Clive Myrie in Baghdad says this is the first time the prime minister,
himself a Shia, has tried to crush the Shia militias. Intense
pressure from the Sunni and Kurdish members of his government, and
behind the scenes from the US government, has helped force his hand,
our correspondent says. Are you in the area? Have you been affected by the clashes? Send us your comments by filling out the form below. The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
| | Posted by alfred at 11:09 PM - | |
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Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A15  Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A15 The Defense Department has contracted with three companies that are closely tied to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
and some lawmakers want to know if money from those deals supported the
sect, whose ranch was raided this month after allegations of child
abuse. Pentagon officials said the Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency
bought $1.7 million worth of airplane parts from three companies with
close ties to the sect. Some officials are raising questions about
statements by an employee of one of the companies that much of that
money went directly to the FLDS church and its polygamist leader, Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was convicted of rape last year for arranging an underage marriage. On April 3, authorities raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch
outside El Dorado, Tex., run by the polygamist group after a tip that
young girls there had been sexually abused. More than 400 children are
in state custody, as authorities try to sort out what happened at the
ranch. The Pentagon
said airplane parts were bought between 1998 and 2007 from Utah Tool
& Die Inc., Western Precision Inc. and NewEra Manufacturing Inc.,
all companies with ties to the church. One of the contracts with NewEra
Manufacturing in Las Vegas is still open -- with a May delivery date
scheduled for 800 Navy bearing hubs at a cost of $40,920, according to
the Defense Department. Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.), vice chairman of the Republican Conference, has asked the House Armed Services Committee to hold investigative hearings, fearing that federal tax dollars may have been used to fund the sect's activities. "While
religious affiliation should certainly not be a determining factor, DoD
has a responsibility to closely scrutinize any company under
consideration before contracts are awarded," Granger wrote in an April
16 letter to the committee. "I am concerned that such scrutiny did not
occur in this case, and that funds from this company may have been used
to support the FLDS church's activities." The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
reported this month that NewEra's president and chief executive is an
FLDS leader and close associate of Jeffs's and that NewEra is the
latest iteration of Western Precision, which was located in Utah. John
Nielsen, who worked for Western Precision, said in an affidavit in a
2005 lawsuit that he and other FLDS sect members worked at the company
for extremely low wages. He said tens of thousands of dollars of the
company's earnings were sent each month to the church, according to the
Star-Telegram. NewEra officials declined to speak about the
church sect. They said that there was nothing improper about the
contracts and that the federal government had not been cheated. "Our
contracts are based on competition in the business world, and the
business goes and pays its costs and its labor and works hard for the
money," said Steve Barlow, NewEra's human resources manager, who said
he could not comment on the church. "If they choose us, it's because we
make good parts, on time." Defense officials said that there
was nothing wrong with awarding the relatively small defense contracts
and that the department does not consider religious affiliation or
marital status in selecting vendors. Although illegal activity
could lead to the termination of a contract, defense officials have
found no criminal allegations against anyone affiliated with the
companies and do not monitor a company's charitable donations. "We are the world's largest and most complex organization, with a budget of nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars," said Geoff Morrell,
the Pentagon's press secretary. "It is extraordinarily difficult to
monitor the behavior of every employee of every company with which we
do business, but when a vendor is proven guilty of a criminal activity,
we take prompt and appropriate action." | | Posted by alfred at 2:40 PM - | |
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Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Page A14 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 29 -- At least 18 people were killed in a suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the second high-profile attack in the country this week, according to Afghan officials. 
Around the same time that the blast was set off in the district of
Khogiani, near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, assailants fired
small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, killing an unspecified number
of Afghan police officers, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
ISAF troops were near the center of Khogiani at the time of the blast,
but none was injured, a spokeswoman for the force said. Meanwhile, security remained tight in Kabul two days after an assassination attempt against Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a military ceremony.
On Tuesday, Afghanistan's intelligence chief told parliament that the
government had been warned of a plot against Karzai. "We had technical
information . . . that this work would happen," said Amrullah Saleh.
"We passed this information to the national security [adviser] and to
the president of Afghanistan." Despite security measures, Saleh said, "the result is that we failed." The
brazen daylight assault occurred at a ceremony celebrating the 16th
anniversary of the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Karzai
and several foreign dignitaries, including U.S. Ambassador William B.
Wood, scattered for cover after Taliban fighters peppered the parade grounds with gunfire.
Three people were killed in the attack, including a member of
Afghanistan's parliament. At least eight others were injured. Officials
said they had rounded up more than 100 people in connection with the
attack. The blast Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan occurred just
after 9 a.m. when a lone suicide bomber detonated his explosives near
the headquarters of the district chief, according to the Afghan
Interior Ministry. An estimated 35 people were injured. "There
were a lot of people there because that is where many of the shops are,
and there is a market bazaar there," said Hakim Asher, a ministry
spokesman. A spokesman for the governor of Nangahar, the
province where the blast occurred, said the attack targeted a group of
local officials who were part of a poppy eradication team. Khogiani's
police chief was killed in the attack and the district chief was
injured, the spokesman said. The Interior Ministry said the
Taliban asserted responsibility for the suicide blast -- one of more
than 140 such attacks conducted by Taliban forces in Afghanistan within
the last year. Asher said security had been tightened in Khogiani
immediately following the blast. The succession of attacks came as U.S. Marines
rolled out an operation in the southern province of Helmand, a Taliban
stronghold. More than 3,000 Marines were deployed in Afghanistan's
south last month in an effort to shore up British and Canadian NATO
forces there. Special correspondent Javed Hamdard in Kabul contributed to this report.
| | Posted by alfred at 2:29 PM - | |
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Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 30, 2008; 12:56 PM
At the request of the White House, General Services Administration
chief Lurita Alexis Doan resigned last night as head of the
government's premier contracting agency, ending a tumultuous tenure in
which she was accused of trying to award work to a friend and misusing
her authority for political ends. "It has been a great
privilege to serve our nation and a great President," Doan said in a
statement released this morning by the agency. A White House spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Doan's
resignation came almost a year after Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.),
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said
he believed Doan could no longer be effective because of the
allegations about her leadership. Waxman's committee began
investigating Doan after stories in The Washington Post showed that she
had approved a $20,000, no-bid arrangement last July with a business
run by a friend and had tried to reduce the budget of the agency's
inspector general. Doan had been under scrutiny by the
inspector general, Brian Miller, as well as members of Congress and the
U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal employees from
prohibited personnel practices. The committee investigation
turned up evidence that Doan might have violated the Hatch Act in
January 2007 by asking political appointees how they could "help our
candidates" at an agency briefing conducted by a White House official,
according to several of the appointees present for the briefing. After
a more extensive probe, the Office of Special Counsel concluded that
those remarks violated the Hatch Act. The act generally prohibits
employees of federal agencies from using their positions for political
purposes. In a letter in June, Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch
urged President Bush to discipline Doan "to the fullest extent," which
would include removing her from office. In the ensuing 10 months, the
White House said it was considering Bloch's recommendation but made no
further comment. During a hearing of the oversight committee
in June, Doan testified that she did not recall asking the political
appointees to help Republican candidates. She asserted that she
operated her agency without regard for political concerns. "I'm
not engaged in partisan political activities," she told lawmakers at
the time. "And I haven't directed anyone to do anything." In the GSA statement, Doan expressed satisfaction with her tenure at the agency. "The
past twenty-two months have been filled with accomplishments: together,
we have regained our clean audit opinion, restored fiscal discipline,
re-tooled our ability to respond to emergencies, rekindled
entrepreneurial energies, reduced bureaucratic barriers to small
companies to get a GSA Schedule, ignited a building boom at our
nation's ports of entries, boldly led the nation in an aggressive
telework initiative, and improved employee morale so that we were
selected as one of the best places to work in the Federal government,"
she wrote. David L. Bibb, the GSA's deputy administrator, will serve as acting administrator in Doan's absence.
| | Posted by alfred at 2:19 PM - | |
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We will use force until we reach the end and get rid of the weapons and gangs who are carrying weapons 
