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January 5, 2008Use of these news articles does not reflect official endorsement.

Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions.Story numbers indicate order of appearance only.

IRAQ1. A Darker Shade Of Green Zone

(Washington Post)....Karen DeYoungIn Baghdad, low expectations have supplanted high ideals.

2. Unrest In Iraq's Diyala Province(Los Angeles Times)....Kimi YoshinoPersistent violence in volatile Diyala province prompted security forces to impose a daylong vehicle ban Friday inthe provincial capital, Baqubah, as frictions grew over a U.S.-backed program to recruit Sunnis to fight the militantgroup Al Qaeda in Iraq.

3. Clerics Loyal To Sadr Ask His Followers To Respect Cease-Fire(Boston Globe)....Patrick Quinn, Associated PressClerics loyal to radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers yesterday to respect a cease-fire andasked them to try to make peace with rival factions.

4. 46,000 Iraqis Have Left Syria(Washington Post)....Amit R. PaleyNearly 50,000 Iraqi refugees returned home from Syria in the final 3 1/2 months of 2007, the latest sign ofdiminishing violence in this war-pocked country, according to new data from relief workers.

5. Attacks By Women May Signal Militants' Growing Desperation(San Diego Union-Tribune)....Diaa Hadid, Associated PressIt goes against religious taboos in Iraq to involve women in fighting, but recent suicide bombings carried out bywomen could indicate insurgents are growing increasingly desperate.

6. Iraqi Soldier Kills U.S. Servicemen(New York Times on the Web)....ReutersTwo U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded along with a civilian interpreter on Dec. 26 when an Iraqisoldier opened fire on them during a joint patrol, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

7. The Politics Of Body Counts(National Journal)....Neil Munro and Carl M. CannonThree weeks before the 2006 midterm elections gave Democrats control of Congress, a shocking study reported onthe number of Iraqis who had died in the ongoing war. It bolstered criticism of President Bush and heightened thewaves of dread -- here and around the world -- about the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

8. Counting Corpses(National Journal)....Neil MunroFour decades ago, American leaders sought to measure their progress in Vietnam by counting dead enemy soldiers.But that ghoulish yardstick created an international backlash that damaged the U.S. effort. These days, the military isattracting criticism again, but this time it's for not counting the enemy casualties in the war in Iraq.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT9. Many Marines, Soldiers Have Missed Combat

(San Diego Union-Tribune)....Scripps Howard News Service...Now, an Army check has found about 40 percent of 515,000 active-duty soldiers have not yet set foot in a combatzone even as the wars stretch into their fifth and sixth years, with some soldiers having served up to five tours.

GUANTANAMO10. O.C. Lawyer Argues Against Tribunals

(Los Angeles Times)....Myron LevinThe decorated intelligence officer blows the whistle on reviews of Guantanamo detainees.

NAVY11. Judge Imposes Stricter Rules On Navy To Protect Marine Life

(New York Times)....Carolyn Marshall...A spokesman at the Pentagon said Friday that the Navy was reviewing the judge’s ruling to determine its nextmove, which could include an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

12. US Sailor Missing In Arabian Sea(Boston Globe)....Associated PressA sailor from USS Hopper went overboard during Navy operations in the Arabian Sea, the US military saidyesterday.

AIR FORCE13. GAO Report Critical Of Air Force Tanker Deal

(Washington Times)....Jim McElhattonThe fate of a $1.2 billion federal contract for upkeep of Air Force refueling tankers has been cast in doubt after a newgovernment ruling criticized military officials for a "flawed" analysis of prospective bids.

WHITE HOUSE14. Area Federal Workers Get 4.49% Raise

(Washington Post)....Stephen BarrPresident Bush signed an executive order yesterday that provides pay raises this year for federal employees, militarypersonnel, Cabinet officers and members of Congress.

15. Bush May Add Lebanon, Iraq To Stops On Trip(Wall Street Journal)....John D. McKinnonPresident Bush takes off Tuesday on a much-anticipated trip to Israel, the Persian Gulf states and Egypt. Or is itLebanon and Iraq?

AFGHANISTAN16. Video Shows British Troops 'Under Friendly Fire'

(London Daily Telegraph)....Stephen AdamsShocking new footage has been posted on the web which appears to show a British Army unit coming within yardsof being killed in a 'friendly fire’ incident with an American jet in Afghanistan.

17. U.S. Helping To Integrate Afghan Forces(Mideast Stars and Stripes)....Seth RobsonRacial tensions can be a problem within this country’s security forces, as American soldiers are finding.

ASIA/PACIFIC18. North Korea Says Earlier Disclosure Was Enough

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(New York Times)....Choe Sang-hun and Steven Lee MyersNorth Korea said Friday that it had already explained enough about its nuclear programs to meet a deadline fordeclaring its nuclear activities, saying the information was in a nuclear declaration it prepared in November and gaveto the United States.

19. Russia To Join RimPac Maneuvers Off Hawaii(Honolulu Advertiser)....William ColeUp to 1,800 more Marines may be shifted to Kane'ohe Bay in the next several years; Russia has accepted a first-everU.S. invitation to participate in the Rim of the Pacific Naval exercises off Hawai'i; and the 8th U.S. Army flag andheadquarters will be moved from South Korea to Fort Shafter in about a year.

20. No Changes: Gates(Japan Times)....Kyodo NewsU.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in November that the United States will notaccept any changes in the contentious plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa,sources said Friday.

21. U.S. Opposed To New MSDF Bill Fuel Restrictions(Japan Times)....Kyodo NewsJapan's plans for the Maritime Self-Defense Force to only provide fuel in the Indian Ocean to vessels participating inoperations to interdict terrorist activities at sea have been opposed by the United States, according to sources close toJapan-U.S. relations.

22. Hospital Closure 'Never Happened'(Manila Times)....Rommel C. LontayaoThe United States Embassy in Manila has denied reports that US Special Forces troops providing training andintelligence to Filipino counterparts had ordered the closure of a hospital in Sulu province, giving assurance that theincident “never happened.”

PAKISTAN23. U.S.-Pakistan Divide Over Bhutto's Death Widens

(Wall Street Journal)....Jay Solomon, Yaroslav Trofimov and Siobhan GormanU.S. intelligence officials and diplomats increasingly believe former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto diedfrom a gunshot wound, placing Washington at odds with Islamabad over the cause of her death.

24. British Team Arrives To Join Bhutto Probe(Washington Times)....UnattributedBritish anti-terror police joined the inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto yesterday, invited by PresidentPervez Musharraf in an effort to dispel accusations of government involvement.

25. U.N. Probe Unlikely In Bhutto Slaying(Washington Post)....Colum Lynch...The muted reaction reflects the degree to which Pakistan, a powerful ally of the United States, has been able toevade the kind of international scrutiny that dogged Syria, which has been the target of an intrusive U.N. inquiry intothe Hariri assassination. It has also raised charges that the council's main champions of international investigations --the United States, Britain and France -- apply a double standard to their friends and foes.

AFRICA26. Qaeda Thugs: We Put Hit On U.S. Diplomat

(New York Daily News)....James Gordon MeekU.S. counterterror officials were caught by surprise yesterday when an Al Qaeda-linked group in Sudan claimed itsgoons assassinated U.S. diplomat John Granville this week to “defend their religion.”

27. U.S. Forces Build School In Ethiopia(Mideast Stars and Stripes)....Zeke MinayaThe familiar din of children filled the hallways and classrooms of Abiot Ermeja Elementary School. Clad in reddishuniforms, the students laughed and yelled, called out answers to teachers’ questions and ran between rooms.

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28. In The World(Philadelphia Inquirer)....UnattributedThe bodies of two U.S. Navy sailors who were found dead in a hotel room in the West African nation of Ghana onNew Year's Eve have been flown to Germany for a postmortem examination, a top Ghanaian police official saidyesterday.

VETERANS29. Group Helps Injured Vets Buy Homes

(Arizona Republic (Phoenix))....Michelle Roberts, Associated PressNon-profit ensures servicemen find houses in communities near VA medical centers.

LEGAL AFFAIRS30. Padilla Sues Over Detention

(Washington Post)....UnattributedConvicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla sued a key architect of the Bush administration's counterterrorismpolicies, claiming John Yoo's legal arguments led to Padilla's alleged mistreatment and illegal detention at a Navybrig.

TERRORISM31. Antimissile Tests Set For 3 Airliners

(New York Times)....Associated PressUp to three American Airlines jetliners will be outfitted this spring with laser technology being developed and testedto protect planes from missiles fired by terrorists.

32. Saharan Motorsport Race Canceled Over Terrorism Threats(Washington Post)....Jamey Keaten, Associated PressThe Dakar Rally, the epic motorcycle, car and truck race across the western Sahara desert, was canceled Friday by itsorganizers, who cited "direct" threats of terrorism from militants linked to al-Qaeda.

SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM33. Man Who Didn't Register For Draft Sues IRS Over Firing

(Boston Globe)....Anna Badkhen...Last week, Elgin, 42, of Stoughton, challenged his dismissal in federal court in Boston on the grounds that itdiscriminated against him because he is a man. Women are not allowed to register.

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Washington PostJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 11. A Darker Shade OfGreen ZoneIn Baghdad, Low ExpectationsHave Supplanted High IdealsBy Karen DeYoung,Washington Post Staff Writer

BAGHDAD -- Severaldozen soldiers and embassystaff members relaxed on thepatio around Saddam Hussein'sold swimming pool, shiveringin the desert chill, as aboombox blared Latin rhythmsover the racket of low-flyinghelicopters. It was Salsa Nightin the Green Zone, but on aFriday evening in lateNovember, only a fewbundled-up couples shuffledawkwardly to the beat.

Suddenly, a 30-somethingwoman and a 20-somethingman, both in Air Forceuniform, took the dance floor,their camouflage jackets andholstered sidearms swingingwith each smooth, expert turn.The bored patio denizensperked up, transfixed by a raremoment of magic.

The moment was a fleetingreminder of the good times inthe war's early days, when thepool patio was the GreenZone's social hub and youngconservative staffers, eager toremake Iraq, danced away thecares of nation-building. Thosetimes and people are longgone, replaced by soberdiplomats and soldiers withlower expectations, sloggingdiligently through their duties,collecting combat pay, andenvisioning an Iraq where theelectricity works and where atrip to the market does notcourt death.

When the music stopped,Tech Sgt. Heather Warr ofMiami smiled and left thefloor. She had been here threemonths, and the best thingabout the Green Zone, she said,is that she has a "wet trailer" --one with an inside bathroom.

Her dance partner, Capt.Jaime Bastidas ofAlbuquerque, had arrived threedays earlier, and he said the

best thing so far had beenfinding someone else whocould dance. The next day,they would return to work --Warr assisting Iraq's Air Force,Bastidas working with theDefense Ministry, and bothcounting the days until theirtours end.

Always more MASH thanMalibu, today's Green Zone is"not nearly as social as it usedto be," said Richard H.Houghton III, a three-yearresident. "It's now our ownisolated little jail cell."

Good IntentionsShortly after triumphant

U.S. forces arrived in Baghdadin April 2003, they took overHussein's Presidential Palacealong the Tigris River,enclosed the surrounding 5.9square miles with concretewalls and concertina wire, anddeclared it the seat of theiroccupation government. Inthose days, soldiers thoughtthey would return home withinmonths. Many U.S. civilianstaff members who arrived inthe military's wake were youngconservatives working up theRepublican Party ladder. Theysaw Iraq as a place to transfertheir ideals to a grateful nation,fight terrorism and have anexciting time.

They set up no fewer thansix bars, a disco, a cafe, twoChinese restaurants and anoutdoor shopping arcade.Personnel stationed inside thezone would jog on thesidewalks and relax in thegarden behind the RepublicanPalace.

But before the first yearended, violence exploded inthe Red Zone -- the 437,000square miles that make up therest of Iraq -- and the soldierssettled in for a long fightagainst a growing insurgency.As the attacks against U.S.forces escalated, Iraqis provedresistant to American ideas ofhow to organize theirgovernment and lives, and theybegan to fight amongthemselves.

Inside the Green Zone,fear replaced enthusiasm asmortar shells rained from the

sky during 2006 and 2007, andmany hours were spent insideconcrete bunkers. Over the pastseveral months, the attackshave largely stopped, exceptfor a burst of two dozen shellson Thanksgiving, but the wallsgrew higher and civilian tripsoutside the wire becameinfrequent.

"When I got here, it wasjust getting to the end of thetime when you could go out inthe city. You could hop into acab or walk across the bridge,"said Houghton. "The watershedwas the bombing of Samarra"in February 2006, when theSunni insurgent groupal-Qaeda in Iraq destroyed thehistoric Askariya Shiite shrinein that city north of Baghdad,sparking all-out sectarian war.

With the muscled bulk andhaircut of a Marine, Houghton,48, came here in early 2005with the nongovernmentalInternational RepublicanInstitute. He quit after a closecolleague was killed lastJanuary in a Baghdad ambush,but he stayed on with the StateDepartment. Houghton nowadvises Ambassador Ryan C.Crocker on U.S. legislativeaffairs and serves as organizerand guide for congressionaldelegations -- in 2007, a record57, bringing 208 lawmakers --passing through Iraq.

Rankled by how littleAmericans here knew about thefortress in which they lived,Houghton has written a41-page "Visitor's Guide toBaghdad's Green Zone,"complete with color photos ofzone landmarks from theMonument to the UnknownSoldier to the Believer's Palace-- actually a fake shell of abuilding Hussein hadconstructed to conceal anunderground bunker.

"There was no institutionalmemory," Houghton lamented,adding that he has "beenthrough 12 Air Force rotations,three State Departmentrotations" and numerous otherturnovers.

For example, on a recentdriving tour of what isofficially known as the

International Zone, or the IZ,he stopped inside a trafficcircle at the junction ofal-Kindi Avenue and theQadissiyah Expressway, emptyboulevards once a part of busycentral Baghdad.

"Nobody knows what thatstatue is," he said, referring to ahuge pedestal at the center ofthe circle showing three bronzesoldiers with a dead comrade attheir feet. He explained that itcommemorates the July 14,1958, military coup thatoverthrew the Iraqi Hashemitemonarchy. The coup createdthe Republic of Iraq and pavedthe way for Hussein's takeover.

Farther down al-Kindi,behind a U.S. military base andsurrounded by war litter, stooda small, exquisite building witha blue tiled dome. The tomb ofMichel 'Aflaq, who was theideological founder ofBaathism, it was home to aU.S. Marine unit, Houghtonsaid, until he told the Marinesthey were sleeping on thesarcophagus. They soonvacated, leaving behind fourportable toilets.

Thousands of Iraqis liveinside the zone, which alsocontains the offices of thegovernment of Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki, severalministries and the Iraqiparliament.

A city within a city, theGreen Zone encompasses ageographic area that was oncethe center of Iraqi governmentpower and a residentialneighborhood crisscrossed bymajor highways. It is as if anoccupying army had built awall around federalWashington, includingPennsylvania Avenue, themonuments and a substantialpart of the housing on CapitolHill. The few entrances areheavily guarded by coalitionforces from the Republic ofGeorgia. There are signs inEnglish and Arabic that read"Do Not Enter or You Will BeShot."

Inside, it is divided intocompounds -- one for theembassy, others for the U.S.Agency for International

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Development, Iraqigovernment installations, ahospital, and numerousmilitary installations -- eachwith its own walls, checkpointsand guards. Movementbetween compounds can takeminutes or hours. A recentovercast afternoon foundHoughton standing in a parkinglot outside a bunker, whilePeruvian checkpoint guardssearched a car that abomb-sniffing dog had foundsuspicious.

Houghton had just seenSen. James Webb (D-Va.) onhis way out of Iraq after aone-day visit. As the sun setand the temperature dropped,he spent his time on acellphone. Most zone residentscarry around two or threephones -- an Iraqi local, aU.S.-listed mobile and aBlackBerry.

The embassy itself, withits huge blue palace dome, wasjust spitting distance away, butthe Peruvians were adamantthat no one pass. After a90-minute wait, Houghtonorganized a mile-long march toanother checkpoint.

Looking DiplomaticThe zone feels more gray

than green. At the end of Iraq'slong dry season, scattered palmtrees stand limp under the dustthat covers every surface.Head-high walls of sandbagswrapped in gray canvas linethe walls and pathways; theyare used as protection againstmortar attacks. The clusters ofmetal boxes that provideembassy housing, whimsicallysignposted with such names as"The Oasis" and "The Palms,"are surrounded with stacks ofthe fat, gray bags, worn withage and dripping sand. Themakeshift wooden stairs thatreach the high palace back doorare painted gray.

When Crocker arrived asambassador last spring, a goalwas to turn the embassy --established in June 2004 butstill permeated with a feelingof catch-as-catch-canimpermanence -- into a"normal" diplomatic posting.Khakis and T-shirts were

deemed unacceptable, andyoung women now stumblealong the potholed sidewalks instiletto heels.

The U.S. government hasdone its best to make Hussein'sPresidential Palace, ahalf-mile-long behemoth at theheart of the zone, look like anembassy. Drab drywall andmetal slabs divide itsextravagant rooms intocubicles. The furnishings areU.S. government-issue desksand chairs, but pieces of thepalace's past remain -- theimmense rotunda at itsentrance, marble floors and ascattering of gaudy,Hussein-era sofas and chairs,upholstered in heavy fabric.The bathrooms, where sinksand toilets are painted withpink flowers, are bigger thanmost offices.

A walk through the wide,dim, marble corridors reveals asurreal mix of people. Amid-level Foreign Serviceofficer whispers that the entireIraq enterprise is "screwed,"and that somebody inWashington ought to dosomething about it. A publicdiplomacy expert explains thegift of democracy that Iraqishave been given, while a seniordiplomat reflects on thedifficulties of persuading theIraqi government to do whatWashington wants, saying,"This is really, really hard."

Filipino cleaners sweepthrough the dust, while arumpled soldier snores on ablack leather couch in theStarbucks-imitation coffeeshop. An aide to commandingGen. David H. Petraeus,working late into the night, eatsfrom a foam box as he proudlyclicks through a slide show ofthe general's visit to a prisonthat day.

On the poolside patio,Peruvian guards dressed incamel-colored jackets, riflesslung over their chest, standchatting in the dark, watchingSgt. Warr and Capt. Bastidassalsa-dance.

Alcohol is forbidden inpublic areas of the zone, butfood is free and plentiful,

imported to guard againstsabotage and to ensure thatAmericans and foreign workershave their fill of iceberg lettuceand Jell-O mold. No cooking isallowed in the trailers, and theair in the huge, boxlike DiningFacility, known as the D-Fac,is laced with the scent ofhamburger grease. Servers tryto spice up the menu withentree themes -- "Louisiananight" or Salisbury steak -- butit is easy to imagine thedrudgery of eating in thecompany cafeteria three timesa day, every day, all year.

No spouses or families areallowed. After dinner, there isnothing to do but work, sit bythe pool or watch U.S. cabletelevision. Status and jobclassification determine if atrailer is shared. Some fix uptheir "hooches" -- standardboxes of about 20 feet by 10feet with linoleum floors,plywood bed frames and hugetelevisions -- with carpets orcabinetry, but most seem not totry.

Military activity in the RedZone picks up after dark, andthe embassy compound is onthe landing path for a constantflow of helicopters carryingbattle wounded to the nearbyhospital. There are booms andgunfire in the distance, and theoccasional loudspeaker yell of"Incoming" jolts one fromsleep onto the cold floor towedge beneath the bed.

So Close, So FarThe last stop on

Houghton's tour is a stretch ofhulking buildings behind high,ocher walls on a broadhighway outside the existingembassy compound. The NEC,or New Embassy Compound,is the most expensive U.S.embassy in history, costingmore than $600 million.Scheduled for completion lastSeptember, it is stillunoccupied.

Built to standard StateDepartment specifications, itincludes a modern child-carecenter unlikely to be used anyyear soon. Originally designedto provide work and livingspace for 600 people, it must

now must accommodate atleast 1,000. Like Manhattanefficiencies, its one-bedroomapartments are being dividedwith drywall to accommodatemore. There is no D-Fac, andno one has figured out howhordes of hungry diplomatswill commute three times aday, through the Peruviancheckpoint, to the facility inthe old compound.

Los Angeles TimesJanuary 5, 20082. Unrest In Iraq'sDiyala ProvinceIraqis protest the allegedarrest of two Sunni volunteerfighters as U.S. troops continueto battle Al Qaeda in Iraqmilitants.By Kimi Yoshino, Los AngelesTimes Staff Writer

BAGHDAD — Persistentviolence in volatile Diyalaprovince prompted securityforces to impose a daylongvehicle ban Friday in theprovincial capital, Baqubah, asfrictions grew over aU.S.-backed program to recruitSunnis to fight the militantgroup Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Hundreds of protestersalso took to the streets in twoother Diyala towns, Muqdadiyaand Buhriz, alleging that U.S.forces had detained at least twomembers of the localAwakening Council, theU.S.-financed citizen securitygroups, local police officialssaid.

The protests underscorethe U.S. military's tenuousposition: Many of the volunteerfighters are former Sunniinsurgents who joined forceswith the Americans for $10 aday and the promise of a job inthe security forces. Althoughthe effort has been creditedwith a significant reduction inviolence in the region, Shiiteleaders are suspicious of theeffort, and some militaryofficials have said that theprogram's success may bedifficult to sustain.

Brig. Gen. MohammedAbid Bresem, police chief ofMuqdadiya, said two

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Awakening Council memberswere among seven peoplestopped on the road toBaghdad. The U.S. military,however, could neither confirmnor deny that it had detainedthe men, but said it was tryingto determine whether "theywere arrested, where it tookplace and who did thearresting."

Even so, protesters saidthey planned to demonstrateagain today, and somevolunteers have threatened topull out of the AwakeningCouncil.

Khalid Khalidi, a streetcommander of one of the localcitizens groups, the SalahuddinBrigade, said members of theAwakening Council had issuedan ultimatum that if the menwere not released, they would"cease from further operationstargeting Al Qaeda in Iraq, andmaybe even withdraw frompositions that they are currentlyholding."

"God knows what wouldhappen if the people's demandsare not met," Khalidi said.

In Muqdadiya, anethnically and religiouslymixed town that was once astronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq,residents Friday credited theAwakening Council forimprovements in security there.Many flowed in and out ofmosques for Friday prayers,and flags of Shiite returneeshung from houses and lightpoles.

At a fabric store not farfrom the site of a recent suicidebombing, owner MohammedHassen said, "Before, no onecame out. All the shops wereclosed. But because of theAwakening and the Americans,security is good now."

In Baqubah, residents alsopraised the groups butexpressed fear that the councilsmay be fracturing.

The U.S. military hasformed partnerships withcriminals who once aided AlQaeda in Iraq, said YousifBilal.

"I think in the comingdays, they might represent athreat," he said. "These are new

militias under legal cover."The Shiite-led central

government has repeatedlyexpressed fear that the newlyarmed Sunnis will targetShiites once U.S. forces leave.

A Shiite militia, the MahdiArmy, also was credited withhelping reduce the violence lastyear. In Baghdad's Shiitedistrict of Sadr City, astronghold of the militia,leading cleric Sheik JassimMuttairi on Friday praised theMahdi Army for holding to acease-fire that its leader, clericMuqtada Sadr, declared lastyear during the U.S. troopbuildup.

And at a mosque in thesouthern city of Kufa, SheikAbdul-Hadi Muhammadawi, aleader in Sadr's movement,said, "We introduced securityand the peace plan in theprovinces, especially thosewho witnessed conflicts, withthe participation of Sadrleaders.

"We believe this is the bestway to solve our problems; it'salso a good opportunity for allto reach security."

In Baghdad, two bombingstargeting U.S. patrols injured atleast three civilians.

The U.S. military reportedthat troops killed two suspectedinsurgents north of Muqdadiyaand detained 12 suspectsduring operations targeting AlQaeda in Iraq.

And in Amarah, 190 milessoutheast of Baghdad, a tankerfilled with petroleum explodedat a checkpoint, killing fourpeople, including at least onepolice officer, police said.Terrorism was not believed tobe the cause.

Times staff writersAlexandra Zavis and Said Rifaiand correspondents inBaghdad, Amarah and Diyalacontributed to this report.

Boston GlobeJanuary 5, 20083. Clerics Loyal To SadrAsk His Followers ToRespect Cease-FireAl Qaeda targets Sunni fighters

allied with USBy Patrick Quinn, AssociatedPress

BAGHDAD - Clericsloyal to radical Shi'ite leaderMoqtada al-Sadr called on hisfollowers yesterday to respect acease-fire and asked them totry to make peace with rivalfactions.

The appeals came asauthorities ordered a one-dayvehicle ban in the city ofBaqubah after deadly suicidebombings and other attacks byAl Qaeda in Iraq againstpredominantly Sunni fighterswho have allied with theUnited States.

The US military hasstepped up operations againstAl Qaeda cells and networksnorth of Baghdad in Diyalaprovince, of which Baqubah isthe capital.

The overwhelminglySunni groups have increasinglybecome the targets of deadlyattacks after a Dec. 29 call byOsama bin Laden that labeledthem as traitors.

Known as AwakeningCouncils in some areas and asConcerned Local Citizens inothers, the groups have beenconsidered one of the factorsthat led to a 60 percent drop inviolence around Iraq in the lastsix months. The others are aninflow of tens of thousands ofUS troops and the cease-firedeclared in August by Sadr forhis Mahdi Army militia.

The Sadrist calls for peacecame during Friday prayers inthe Shi'ite holy city of Kufaand the cleric's Baghdadstronghold of Sadr City. Theyappeared to be part of ongoingattempt by Sadr to patch thingsup with two of Iraq's moreinfluential Shi'ite movements:Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim'sSupreme Islamic Iraqi Council,the largest Shi'ite politicalparty, and Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki's Dawa party.

"We Sadrists are movingin the way of Moqtada'speaceful initiatives in theprovinces, and especially theones that witnessed violence,"Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi,a senior aide to Sadr, said in

his sermon.In August, followers of

Sadr and those loyal to Hakimfought in the holy city ofKarbala during a religiousfestival, killing 52 people. InOctober, the two leaders signeda truce, which has largely held.

"We think that the bestway to solve existing problemsand provide all with the chanceto reach the shores of peace is acomprehensive dialogue,instead of acts of violence,"Mohammadawi toldworshippers.

On Thursday, Sadr'srepresentatives met withofficials from Hakim's party inKufa, 100 miles south ofBaghdad.

Mohammadawi alsowarned the leaders of "Dawaand the Supreme Islamic IraqiCouncil that there are somepeople who do not want thispeace to be accomplished intheir provinces," and he saidthat "if you want peace, youshould expel them from theirposts."

In Sadr City, a cleric loyalto Sadr urged Mahdi Armymembers to honor thecease-fire declared by theirleader.

"We praise the positiverole of the Imam al-MahdiArmy for obeying its leader'sfreezing order, until Godwishes otherwise," said SheikJasim al-Metery.

Metery condemned rogueelements of the militia whowere "defaming" Sadr byviolating his cease-fire, whichmany expect will be extended.

The cease-fire has allowedthe US military to concentrateon pursuing Al Qaeda in Iraq,which was pushed out ofAnbar province by theAwakening Councils andlargely expelled from swaths ofBaghdad by the US and Iraqiarmies.

In another sign ofincreasing desperation amongthe insurgents, coalition forcessay they have been catchingmilitants suspected of trainingwomen to become humanbombs or finding evidence ofefforts by Al Qaeda in Iraq to

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recruit women.Three female suicide

bombers blew themselves upwithin a few weeks late lastyear in Iraq, killing orwounding dozens - a tactic thatgoes against religious tabooson involving women infighting.

With coalition forcespushing extremists out offormer strongholds andshrinking their pool ofpotential recruits, the militantsare being forced to come upwith other methods to penetratestiffened security measures,said Diaa Rashwan, whofollows Islamic militancy forEgypt's Al-Ahram Center forPolitical and Strategic Studies.

"There's a sense that this isan act of desperation," saidColonel Donald Bacon, a USmilitary spokesman inBaghdad.

The majority of theinsurgents who have beenuprooted are thought to havesought shelter in Diyalaprovince, its northeast Diyalariver valley region, and aroundthe town of Muqdadiyah andthe northern city of Mosul.

The US military saidyesterday that it killed twoinsurgents and detained 12 inthat area. The operations alsoresulted in the deaths of twoAmerican soldiers and thewounding of another in asmall-arms attack Thursday.

Baqubah police chiefBrigadier Hasan al-Obaidi saidthe one-day vehicle ban wasimposed because of the"increased violent eventsduring last week." The ban inthe city 35 miles northeast ofBaghdad also aimed to protectworshippers going to mosques.

There have been a seriesof suicide attacks targetingmembers of the burgeoningSunni tribal movement,including one in Baqubah onWednesday that police saidkilled seven people; the USmilitary said four people died.

Washington PostJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 11

4. 46,000 Iraqis HaveLeft SyriaReturns Reflect Security Gains,Aid Workers SayBy Amit R. Paley, WashingtonPost Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 --Nearly 50,000 Iraqi refugeesreturned home from Syria inthe final 3 1/2 months of 2007,the latest sign of diminishingviolence in this war-pockedcountry, according to new datafrom relief workers.

"Security has definitelyimproved, and improved byfar," said Said I. Hakki,president of the Iraqi RedCrescent Organization, the aidgroup that compiled thestatistics. "And yet the return isreally not that dramatic, whenyou consider that there arealmost 2 million Iraqi refugeesout of the country."

The new figures, containedin a report scheduled forrelease Monday, aresignificantly lower than thoseprovided by some Iraqiofficials. One Iraqi spokesmansaid nearly 50,000 returned inOctober alone.

But the minister ofdisplacement and migration,Abdul Samad Rahman Sultan,said in an interview Friday thatthe Red Crescent numberswere more or less accurate. Hesaid the growing number ofreturning refugees wasbecoming a major challengefor his ministry, which has notyet received money to supportthem.

"We need more support,more backup," Sultan said."We have funds to supportinternally displaced people, butnot those refugees returningfrom outside the country."

The Red Crescent reportestimates that 45,913 refugeesreturned to Iraq from Syriabetween Sept. 15 and Dec. 27.Most of them came toBaghdad, with only 7,177returning to provinces in therest of the country, the groupconcluded.

Those figures represent asignificant increase since a RedCrescent report at the end of

November found that only25,000 to 28,000 Iraqis hadreturned from Syria sincemid-September. The aid groupsaid most of Iraq's 1.5 millionto 2 million refugees havesettled in Syria.

The new report said thedecrease in violence thatfollowed the buildup ofAmerican troops over the pastyear had been a major factor inthe return of refugees. "In Iraq,the security situation improvedas a result of law enforcement,"it said. "Consequently, asignificant number ofExternally Displaced familiesreturned to Iraq starting midSeptember."

But Hakki, the Iraqi RedCrescent president, had anotherexplanation.

"People are comingbecause they are desperate," hesaid. "The majority of them arebroke or their visas haveexpired. That's the bottomline."

Gen. David H. Petraeus,the top U.S. commander inIraq, told reporters last monththat there were no reliablefigures on refugees comingback to the country. Referringto the Red Crescent, he said,"There is certainly a softness totheir data and the otherorganizations that try to trackthis."

American military officialshave expressed concern that aflood of refugees could sparkmore sectarian violence in Iraq,but Petraeus said U.S. forcescould not be in charge ofresettlement.

"We obviously do nothave that kind of capability onthe ground here," he said. "Ithink this is just going toremain a very, very tough issuefor some time and, again, isone that Iraqis, as the securitysituation continues to improve,are going to have to come togrips with more and more."

Sultan, the displacementand migration minister, said hisagency has budgeted suppliesfor internally displaced people-- including 1 million shoes,300,000 blankets and 140,000mattresses -- but none for

refugees from Syria. He hopedparliament would approve abudget including new fundingin the next two months.

In other developments inIraq, a one-day vehicle ban wasimposed on several cities involatile Diyala provincefollowing several recentsuicide attacks.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Kareemal-Rubaie, the militarycommander in Diyala, said thecurfew was imposed in theprovincial capital of Baqubahand the towns of Khalis andMoqtadiya because of threatsof violent attacks, the influx ofpilgrims returning from Mecca,Saudi Arabia, and several largedemonstrations protestingdetentions of Sunnis accused ofkilling civilians.

Iraqi troops also arrestedthe commander of the MahdiArmy militia for the southernprovince of Qadisiyah, an Iraqimilitary official said. Theofficial said the commander,Kefah al-Qreeti, wasresponsible for kidnapping andkilling Iraqi military officials.

Correspondent JoshuaPartlow and specialcorrespondents K.I. Ibrahimand Zaid Sabah in Baghdad,special correspondent SaadSarhan in Najaf and otherWashington Post staff in Iraqcontributed to this report.

San Diego Union-TribuneJanuary 5, 20085. Attacks By WomenMay Signal Militants'Growing DesperationBy Diaa Hadid, AssociatedPress

BAGHDAD – It goesagainst religious taboos in Iraqto involve women in fighting,but recent suicide bombingscarried out by women couldindicate insurgents are growingincreasingly desperate.

The female suicide attackscome as U.S.-led coalitionforces are increasingly catchingmilitants suspected of trainingwomen to become humanbombs or finding evidence ofefforts by al-Qaeda in Iraq to

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recruit women, according tomilitary records.

With coalition forcespushing extremists out offormer strongholds andshrinking their pool ofpotential recruits, the militantsare being forced to come upwith other methods to penetratestiffened security measures,said Diaa Rashwan, whofollows Islamic militancy forEgypt's Al-Ahram Center forPolitical and Strategic Studies.

Female suicide bombersare a small part of theinsurgents' battle to force U.S.troops from Iraq and rattleShiites from newly acquiredpower.

Women have beenresponsible for at least 13 of667 suicide attacks since May2005, or 2 percent. They havecaused at least 107 deaths, or 5percent of the 2,065 peoplekilled during this time period,according to Associated Pressstatistics.

But those attacks appear tobe increasing.

In November andDecember, women carried outup to three suicide bombings inDiyala province, one of Iraq'smost violent areas, whereal-Qaeda in Iraq has astronghold. The previousfemale suicide bombing hadbeen in July.

On Nov. 27, a womandetonated an explosives vestnext to a U.S. patrol in Diyala'sregional capital, Baquba, 35miles northeast of Baghdad,wounding seven U.S. soldiersand five Iraqis.

On Dec. 7, a womanattacked the offices of aDiyala-based Sunni groupfighting al-Qaeda in Iraq,killing 15 people andwounding 35.

Then, on Dec. 31, a personwho may have been a femalebomber in Baquba detonated asuicide vest close to a policepatrol, wounding fivepolicemen and four civilians.

Devastating attackscontinue in Iraq even as Iraqicasualties are down by 55percent nationwide since June2007, according to an AP

count. U.S. and Iraqi forces,and thousands of Sunni tribalgroups who turned againstal-Qaeda in Iraq, have pushedthe extremist group fromBaghdad and Anbar province,west of the capital.

The al-Qaeda fighters havemoved into Diyala, northeastof Baghdad, and farther northinto Mosul, 225 milesnorthwest of the capital.

The tightening noose – atleast for now – appears to beprompting the militants to turnto female attackers, Rashwansaid, noting that extremistMuslim groups use womenonly when they see noalternative.

“Women should be in thelast rows” of fighting, he said.“So to see women (suicidebombers) shows an abnormalsituation – the absence ofmen.”

Women have acted assuicide bombers for othercauses. The first known femalesuicide bomber was SanaMheidali, a Lebanese womanwho killed two Israeli soldiersin 1985. Female Tamil Tigerrebels in Sri Lanka havecarried out at least 60 suicidebombings in 24 years.Palestinian Muslim militantssend out female suicidebombers, as does the KurdistanWorkers Party, which haswaged a guerrilla war since1984 for autonomy in Turkey'ssoutheast.

Because of Muslimcultural sensitivities, womencan be excellent candidates forsuicide attacks when there areno female security guards.Most Iraqis are conservativeMuslims who believe physicalcontact is forbidden betweenwomen and men not related byblood or marriage. As a result,women are often allowed topass through male-guardedcheckpoints without beingsearched.

In October, the U.S. Armytrained 20 women to work assecurity guards in a Baghdadsuburb after a female suicidebomber entered a nearbybuilding without beingsearched.

At least twice in Decemberand once in August, al-Qaedamembers suspected of trainingwomen to use suicide beltswere captured, the U.S.military has said.

New York Times on the WebJanuary 5, 20086. Iraqi Soldier KillsU.S. Servicemen

BAGHDAD, Jan 5(Reuters) - Two U.S. soldierswere killed and three otherswounded along with a civilianinterpreter on Dec. 26 when anIraqi soldier opened fire onthem during a joint patrol, theU.S. military said on Saturday.

"The incident occurred asU.S. and Iraqi army soldierswere conducting operations toestablish a combat outpost,"U.S. military spokesmanLieutenant-Colonel JamesHutton said, adding that twoIraqi soldiers had been takeninto custody.

The spokesman'scomments confirmed earlierreports of the incident by twoIraqi Army generals.

National JournalJanuary 5, 2008Cover Story7. The Politics Of BodyCountsBy Neil Munro and Carl M.Cannon

Three weeks before the2006 midterm elections gaveDemocrats control ofCongress, a shocking studyreported on the number ofIraqis who had died in theongoing war. It bolsteredcriticism of President Bush andheightened the waves of dread-- here and around the world --about the U.S. occupation ofIraq.

Published by The Lancet, avenerable British medicaljournal, the study [PDF] usedpreviously accepted methodsfor calculating death rates toestimate the number of"excess" Iraqi deaths after the2003 invasion at 426,369 to793,663; the study said themost likely figure was near the

middle of that range: 654,965.Almost 92 percent of the dead,the study asserted, were killedby bullets, bombs, or U.S. airstrikes. This stunning toll wasmore than 10 times the numberof deaths estimated by the Iraqior U.S. governments, or by anyhuman-rights group.

In December 2005, Bushhad used a figure of 30,000civilian deaths in Iraq. Iraq'shealth ministry calculated that,based on death certificates,50,000 Iraqis had died in thewar through June 2006. Acautiously compiled databaseof media reports by aLondon-based anti-war groupcalled Iraq Body Countconfirmed at least 45,000 wardead during the same timeperiod. These were all horrificnumbers -- but the death countin The Lancet's study differedby an order of magnitude.

Queried in the RoseGarden on October 11, the daythe Lancet article came out,Bush dismissed it. "I don'tconsider it a credible report,"he replied. The Pentagon andtop British governmentofficials also rejected thestudy's findings.

Such skepticism would notprove to be the rule.

CBS News called thereport a "new and stunningmeasure of the havoc theAmerican invasion unleashedin Iraq." CNN began its reportthis way: "War has wiped outabout 655,000 Iraqis, or morethan 500 people a day, sincethe U.S.-led invasion, a newstudy reports." Within a week,the study had been featured in25 news shows and 188 articlesin U.S. newspapers andmagazines, including The NewYork Times, The WashingtonPost, and the Los AngelesTimes.

Editorials in many majornewspapers cited the Lancetarticle as further evidence thatthe invasion of Iraq was a badidea, and the liberalblogosphere ridiculed Bush forhis response. Prominentmainstream media outletsquoted various academics whovouched for the study's

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methodology, including somewho said they had reviewed thedata before publication.

Within a few weeks abacklash rose, although thecontrarian view of the studygenerated far less pressattention than the Lancetarticle. In the ensuing year,numerous skeptics haveidentified various weaknesseswith the study's methodologyand conclusions. Political blogsand academic journals haveregistered and responded to theobjections in a debate that hasbeen simultaneously arcaneand predictable. The argumentsare arcane because that is thenature of statistical analysis.They are predictable becausethat is the nature of today'spolarized political discourse,with liberals defending theLancet study and conservativescontesting it.

How to explain theenormous discrepancy betweenThe Lancet's estimation of Iraqiwar deaths and those fromstudies that used othermethodologies? For starters,the authors of the Lancet studyfollowed a model that ensuredthat even minor components ofthe data, when extrapolatedover the whole population,would yield huge differences inthe death toll. Skepticalcommentators have highlightedquestionable assumptions,implausible data, andideological leanings among theauthors, Gilbert Burnham,Riyadh Lafta, and Les Roberts.

Some critics go so far as tosuggest that the field researchon which the study is basedmay have been performedimproperly -- or not at all. Thekey person involved incollecting the data -- Lafta, theresearcher who assembled thesurvey teams, deployed themthroughout Iraq, and assembledthe results -- has refused toanswer questions about hismethods.

Some of these questionscould be resolved if otherresearchers had access to thesurveyors' original field reportsand response forms. Theauthors have released files of

collated survey results but notthe original survey reports,citing security concerns and thefact that some information wasnot recorded or preserved inthe first place. This was alegitimate problem, and itunderscored the difficulty ofconducting research in a warzone.

Over the past severalmonths, National Journal hasexamined the 2006 Lancetarticle, and another [PDF] thatsome of the same authorspublished in 2004; probed theproblems of estimatingwartime mortality rates; andinterviewed the authors andtheir critics. NJ has identifiedpotential problems with theresearch that fall under threebroad headings: 1) possibleflaws in the design andexecution of the study; 2) alack of transparency in thedata, which has raisedsuspicions of fraud; and 3)political preferences held bythe authors and the funders,which include George Soros'sOpen Society Institute.

Origins Of The SurveySince the beginning of the

war, the media havemeticulously tracked anddocumented the number ofAmerican soldiers killed inIraq -- which reached 3,904 onJanuary 1 -- particularly as thetotal approached and thensurpassed (in December 2006)the 2,973 people killed in the9/11 terrorist attacks. Butdetermining the number ofIraqis who have died is muchmore difficult, as isdetermining how many of thedead were insurgents and howmany were innocent civilians.With Iraq's central governmentbarely functioning, healthservices overwhelmed, andpolitical agendas coloring allagencies, no reliable statisticsexist so far.

The Lancet study wasbased on techniques developedby public health experts todetermine rates of illness anddeath from epidemics andfamines in large populations.This "cluster" sampling is arelatively new methodology

that attempts to replicate thelogic of public opinion pollingin Third World locales thatlack a telecommunicationsinfrastructure.

Following this method,questioners undertake ahouse-to-house survey incertain areas and thenextrapolate the results fromthat statistical sample to theentire national population.According to this study'sdesign, teams of Iraqiquestioners would visitapproximately 47 randomlychosen clusters of homesthroughout the country and aska series of census-stylequestions at 40 contiguoushouseholds in each cluster:How many people live in yourhousehold? How many livedhere on January 1, 2002? Inthat time, how many were born-- and how many died?

In 2004, several of thesame authors had done apreliminary Iraq study usingthis method. Also published inThe Lancet (and alsodeliberately timed, by theauthors' admission, to appearjust before a U.S. election),that article reported at least98,000 "excess" Iraqi deaths.Perhaps because that estimatecontrasted sharply with theobservations of embeddedreporters, human-rightsactivists, and others on theground in Iraq, the media gaveit limited coverage.

The AuthorsThe origins of the Lancet

studies can be traced to 1993,when two officials from theU.S. Centers for DiseaseControl and Preventiontraveled toBosnia-Herzegovina to viewthe devastation caused by theBalkan war. Only nine yearsafter Sarajevo hadtriumphantly hosted the WinterOlympics, the once-lovely citywas making the tragictransition from a cosmopolitanregional oasis to a hellholeidentified by a chilling newphrase: "ethnic cleansing." Theterrorized Bosnian populacerelated tales of brutality soappalling that the visiting

Americans dismissed them asabsurd rumors: Croatianguerrillas were buyingcastration devices from theGermans to use on Bosnianmen; Serbian snipers wereshooting children in the legsand using them as "bait" tobring their parents withinrange.

In pursuit of an accuratepicture, the U.S. healthofficials toured a hospital inSarajevo. In the surgical ward,they saw many children inpost-operative recovery -- frombullet wounds in their legs. The"absurd" urban myths,apparently, had some truth tothem. In the face of suchexceptional horror, one of theAmericans -- Les Roberts --experienced an epiphany. First,he realized that in a sectariancivil war, the unthinkable is notonly possible, it iscommonplace. Second, thetribulations of children trappedin war zones are especiallyhorrifying. Third, a publicofficial who has seen suchsuffering has a moral duty totry to stop it.

"I think that's when I fullyunderstood the need to stepbeyond peer-review journalsand statistical analyses if youare going to do effective publichealth work in times of war,"Roberts explained in a recentinterview with a Belgian-basedpublication. This determinationto become an advocate wouldlead him to Rwanda and theCongo, where in 2001 he wasinvolved in studies thatproduced jaw-droppingestimates of more than 3million dead in that nation'scivil war. Roberts also wentback to the Balkans -- this timeto Kosovo -- and ultimately,when war came to Iraq in2003, he traveled to Baghdad.

By then, Roberts was aresearcher at the JohnsHopkins University'sBloomberg School of PublicHealth. He broached the ideaof a postwar mortality study inIraq with Gilbert Burnham,co-director of the school'sCenter for Refugee andDisaster Response. The two

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men approached RichardGarfield, a ColumbiaUniversity epidemiologist whosigned on and put them intouch with an Iraqi scientist heknew, Riyadh Lafta, to recruitand oversee researchers whocould conduct field surveys inIraq.

Lafta had been achild-health official in SaddamHussein's ministry of healthwhen the ministry was tryingto end the internationalsanctions against Iraq byasserting that many Iraqis weredying from hunger, disease, orcancer caused by spent U.S.depleted-uranium shellsremaining from the 1991Persian Gulf War. In 2000,Lafta authored at least twobrief articles contending thatU.N. sanctions had causedmany deaths by starvationamong Iraqi children. In onearticle, he identifiedmalnutrition as the maincontributor to 53 percent ofdeaths among hospitalizedchildren younger than 2, duringa 1997 survey carried out atSaddam Central TeachingHospital. The article cited nohealth data from before thesanctions, yet it asserted, "Wecan conclude from results thatthe most important andwidespread underlying causeof the deterioration ofchild-health standards in Iraq isthe long-term impact of thenonhumanized economicsanction imposed throughUnited Nations resolutions."The article was published in2000 by the Iraqi Journal ofCommunity Medicine. Robertstold National Journal he hadnot read Lafta's articles, andBurnham said he did not have acopy of the articles.

Lafta is now atMustansiriya University inBaghdad, where he brieflyserved as dean of the medicalcollege in 2003.

Lafta and his surveyorsoften worked under brutalpolitical pressure. In January2007, a Sunni suicide bomberkilled more than 70 students atthe university, partly because itis perceived as being under the

control of Moktada al-Sadr, theShiite religious leader whoseMahdi Army militia crippledSunni insurgent groups inBaghdad during 2006. Untilthis fall, Sadr's party and hisMahdi Army also controlledthe health ministry, whichemployed some of Lafta'sresearchers.

Dramatic FindingsIn his first study of Iraqi

war deaths, in September 2004,Lafta sent six Iraqi questionersto 33 clusters of homesthroughout the country to askhow many people in eachhousehold had died sinceJanuary 1, 2002. Theresearchers reported that 808 ofthe 998 identified householdsparticipated in the survey, andthen extrapolated the numberof deaths reported to the entirepopulation of 24.4 millionIraqis. "Making conservativeassumptions, we think thatabout 100,000 excess deaths ormore have happened since the2003 invasion of Iraq,"concluded the authors --Roberts, Lafta, Garfield, JamalKhudhairi, and Burnham. Thatwas when the war was just 19months old.

"Violence accounted formost of the excess deaths, andair strikes from coalition forcesaccounted for most violentdeaths," the report said.According to subsequentexplanations by the authors,the total included 57,600 deadfrom violence, 24,000 deadfrom wartime accidents, and13,600 dead from disease. Theaccidental deaths included15,000 Iraqis killed by U.S.vehicles in road incidents --extrapolated from five deathreports.

Little is known aboutLafta's decision-making inamassing the data for theLancet surveys. Robertsprovided some information,however, about Lafta's 2004survey of casualties in Falluja.At the time, al-Sadr waspublicly supporting theanti-American Sunni radicalswho controlled the city. InSeptember, Roberts said, hepleaded with "his Muslim

friend Lafta not to go" intoFalluja, according to aninterview with a magazinepublished by Johns Hopkins.Roberts told the interviewerthat Lafta replied, "God haspicked these clusters. If Godwants me, he will take me. Imust go." Roberts also said ofLafta, "I know no one [who]perceives themselves sohumbly to be a tool of God'sdestiny.... He sees his scienceas synonymous with service toGod."

In Falluja, Lafta recorded52 deaths in 29 households,which amounted to 71 percentof the violent deaths recordedby the first Lancet survey. Ifrepresentative, Lafta's sampletranslated into 50,000 to70,000 dead in Falluja bySeptember 2004 -- two monthsbefore the start of the secondmajor American militaryoperation to restore order.Falluja's prewar populationwas estimated to be 250,000,although U.S. officials said thatthe vast majority of residentshad fled before the battlesbegan. Lafta's Falluja deathestimate was so far off thechart that his colleaguesdropped it from the study, theauthors said.

The 2006 study, known asLancet II, was somewhatlarger, involving 47 clustersand using similar surveytechniques. In all, 302 violentdeaths reported in those 1,849households became the basisfor estimating that 601,000Iraqis had died violently fromthe start of the war throughJune 2006.

Even though the secondstudy was even further out ofline with other sources'estimates than the first, it gottremendous attention --probably because its findingsfit an emerging narrative: Iraqwas a horrific mess. TheFebruary 2006 bombing ofSamarra's Golden Mosque, inparticular, had sent the countryspiraling toward sectarianwarfare.

Democrats who hadopposed Bush's Iraq campaignembraced the report. Sen.

Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., forexample, issued a statementsaying that the "new study is achilling and somber reminderof the unacceptably highhuman cost of this war.... Wemust not stay on the samefailed course any longer." Suchremarks, amplified by myriadarticles, broadcasts, and blogs,helped to cement Americans'increasingly negativeperceptions of the war. "Forthose who wanted to believe it,it gave them a new number tocirculate, [and] it was adefining moment" in attitudestoward the war, said pollsterJohn Zogby, who commendedthe report in a CNN interview.

The Lancet II article wasalso publicized widelyoverseas, especially in theMiddle East. One Al Jazeerapundit said that the studyrevealed "what is surely thegreatest crime in humanhistory." A Pakistani columnistdeclared, "According to [the]highly reputed Lancet, anEnglish science and medicaljournal, 650,000 Iraqis havebeen killed since the Americaninvasion ... to fulfill theimperial lust of Washingtonand its cohorts."

Muslim commentators inthe United States have beenonly slightly more restrained."The Arab masses and theMuslims understand what's atstake here; they know what theU.S. is doing; they can see thecasualties and suffering,"Osama Siblani, the publisher ofthe Michigan-based ArabAmerican News, said in aninterview. The United States'destructive policies in theMiddle East "are creating afertile ground for Osama [binLaden] to come in and recruit,"he said, describing the electedIraqi government as a "puppet"that should be removed frompower.

In the Middle East, bothSunni and Shiite Islamistgroups have used the study tobolster their claims that theWest is waging a war againstIslam. In an October 30, 2007,debate on Al Jazeera, forexample, an Egyptian cleric,

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Sheik Ibrahim al-Khouli,slammed a Syrian author'scriticism of fundamentalistIslam. The United States andEurope had "fought in Iraq anddestroyed it," he said. They"killed one and a half millionpeople ... [and] killed a millionIraqi children during the[1990s sanctions] siege; lefttraces of enriched uraniumfrom the weapons that wereused [in 1991]; and destroyedthe environment for the next 35billion years, according toAmerican estimates."

The study had such asignificant impact partlybecause of where it appeared.The Lancet, founded in 1823,is one of the world's most-citedmedical journals, credited withpublishing articles thatestablished the principles ofantiseptics in 1867 anddocumented the dangers ofthalidomide in 1961. Althoughfew mainstream journalistsever plow through the journal'sarticles, news outlets typicallyrefer to it as "the respectedLancet." In recent years,however, the journal'sreputation has suffered fromcharges of politicization and afew prominent instances ofscientific fraud.

Also driving the pressattention was the study'sassociation with Johns HopkinsUniversity, whose School ofPublic Health was the first andis now the largest suchinstitution in the world. Facultymembers participated in thestudy, and the school's reviewboard conducted an ethicalreview of the research plan.The Arab American's Siblanisaid that the universityconnection was one reason heput the study on the front pageof his newspaper.

Potential ProblemsBoth Lancet studies of

Iraqi war deaths rest on thedata provided by Lafta, whooperated with little Americansupervision and has rarelyappeared in public or beeninterviewed about his role. InMay, Lafta and Robertspresented their study to anoff-the-record meeting of

experts in Geneva, but otherattendees declined to describeLafta's remarks. Despitemultiple requests sent viae-mails and through Burnhamand Roberts, Lafta declined tocommunicate with NationalJournal or to send copies of hisarticles about Iraqi deathsduring Saddam's regime.

When asked questionsabout the reliability of theirIraqi partner, the studies'American authors defend Laftaas a nice guy and a goodresearcher.

"I've known him foryears," Garfield told NJ. "Iused to work with his boss in2003, studying how Saddamhad pilfered cash [intended] forthe health care system. He'sthoughtful, careful, and webecame friends."

John Tirman, a politicalscientist at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology,described Lafta as "a medicaldoctor, a professor ofmedicine. Those factors were asufficient level of credibility. Inever asked [Lafta] about hispolitical views." Tirmancommissioned the Lancet IIsurvey with $46,000 fromGeorge Soros's Open SocietyInstitute and additional supportfrom other funders.

Lancet Editor RichardHorton shares this fundamentalfaith in scientists. He told NJthat scientists, including Lafta,can be trusted because "scienceis a global culture that operatesby a set of norms and standardsthat are truly international, thatdo not vary by culture orreligion. That's one of thebeautiful aspects of science --it unifies cultures, not dividesthem."

Still, the authors havedeclined to provide thesurveyors' reports and formsthat might bolster confidencein their findings. Customaryscientific practice holds that anexperiment must be transparent-- and repeatable -- to wincredence. Submitting to thatscientific method, the authorswould make the unvarnisheddata available for inspection byother researchers. Because they

did not do this, citing concernsabout the security of thequestioners and respondents,critics have raised the mostbasic question about thisresearch: Was it verifiablyundertaken as described in thetwo Lancet articles?

"The authors refuse toprovide anyone with theunderlying data," said DavidKane, a statistician and afellow at the Institute forQuantitative Social Statistics atHarvard University. Somecritics have wondered whetherthe Iraqi researchers engagedin a practice known as"curb-stoning," sitting on acurb and filling out the formsto reach a desired result.Another possibility is that theteams went primarily intoneighborhoods controlled byanti-American militias andwere steered to homes thatwould provide informationabout the "crimes" committedby the Americans.

Fritz Scheuren, vicepresident for statistics at theNational Opinion ResearchCenter and a past president ofthe American StatisticalAssociation, said, "They failedto do any of the [routine]things to prevent fabrication."The weakest part of the Lancetsurveys is their reliance on anunsupervised Iraqi surveyteam, contended Scheuren,who has recently trainedsurvey workers in Iraq.

The research is "a fieldstudy in unstable conditions,"Columbia University'sGarfield, one of the authors ofthe preliminary 2004 study,told National Journal inOctober. "You know that it'simperfect, but ... I'll say this:It's much easier to discreditthan to go into a place like thisand try and find answers. Noneof these harpies are dodgingbullets."

Perhaps. But overall, thepossible shortcomings of theLancet studies persist, in threebroad categories.

Design AndImplementation

Critics say that the surveysused too few clusters, and too

few people, to do the jobproperly.

Sample size. The designfor Lancet II committed eightsurveyors to visit 50 regionalclusters (the number ended upbeing 47) with each clusterconsisting of 40 households.By contrast, in a 2004 survey,the United NationsDevelopment Program usedmany more questioners to visit2,200 clusters of 10 houseseach. This gave the U.N.investigators greatergeographical variety and 10times as many interviews, andproduced a figure of about24,000 excess deaths --one-quarter the number in thefirst Lancet study. The LancetII sample is so small that eachviolent death recordedtranslated to 2,000 dead Iraqisoverall. The question ariseswhether the chosen clusterswere enough to be trulyrepresentative of the entireIraqi population and therefore avalid data set for extrapolatingto nationwide totals.

"Main street" bias?According to the Lancet IIarticle, surveyors randomlyselected a main street within arandomly picked district; "aresidential street was thenrandomly selected from a listof residential streets crossingthe main street." This methodpulled the survey teams awayfrom side streets and towardmain streets, where car bombscan kill the most people, thusboosting the apparent deathrate, according to a critique ofthe study by Michael Spagat,an economics professor at theRoyal Holloway, University ofLondon, and Sean Gourley andNeil Johnson of the physicsdepartment at OxfordUniversity.

Burnham responds thatThe Lancet's description ofhow the researchers pickedsites was an editing error, andthat the method usedeliminated main-street bias.

Oversight. To undertakethe first Lancet study, Robertswent into Iraq concealed on thefloor of an SUV with $20,000in cash stuffed into his money

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belt and shoes. Daring stuff, tobe sure, but just eight daysafter arriving, Robertswitnessed the police detainingtwo surveyors who hadquestioned the governor'shousehold in a Sadr-dominatedtown. Roberts subsequentlyremained in a hotel until thesurvey was completed. Thus,most of the oversight forLancet I -- and all of it forLancet II -- was donelong-distance. For this reason,although he defends themethodology, Garfield took hisname off Lancet II. "The studyin 2006 suffered because Leswas running for Congress andwasn't directly supervising thework as he had done in 2004,"Garfield told NJ.

Black-Box DataWith the original data

unavailable, other scholarscannot verify the findings, akey test of scientific rigor.

Response rate. Thesurveyors said that 1.7 percentof households -- fewer thanone in 50 -- were unoccupiedor uncooperative, even thoughquestioners visited each houseonly once on one day; thatanswers were taken only fromthe household's husband orwife, not from in-laws or adultchildren; and that householdershad reason to fear that theirparticipation would exposethem to threats from armedgroups.

To Kane, the study'sreported response rate of morethan 98 percent "makes nosense," if only because manymale heads of householdswould be at work or elsewhereduring the day and Iraqiwomen would likely refuse toparticipate. On the other hand,Kieran J. Healy, a sociologistat the University of Arizona,found that in four previousunrelated surveys, the pollingresponse in Iraq was typicallyin the 90 percent range.

The Lancet II questionershad enough time to accomplishthe surveys properly, Burnhamsaid.

Lack of supporting data.The survey teams failed tocollect the fraud-preventing

demographic data that pollstersroutinely gather. For example,D3 Systems, a polling firmbased in Vienna, Va., that hasbegun working in Iraq, tries toprevent chicanery among its100-plus Iraqi surveyors byrequiring them to askrespondents for such basicdemographic data as ages andbirthdates. This anti-fraudmeasure works becauseparticular numbers tend toappear more often in surveysbased on fake interviews anddata -- or "curb-stoning -- thanthey would in truly randomsurveys, said MatthewWarshaw, the Iraq director forD3. Curb-stoning surveyorsmight report the ages of manypeople to be 30 or 40, forexample, rather than 32 or 38.This type of fabrication iscalled "data-heaping,"Warshaw said, because oncethe data are transferred tospreadsheets, managers caneasily see the heaps of fakednumbers.

Death certificates. Thesurvey teams said theyconfirmed most deaths byexamining government-issueddeath certificates, but they tookno photographs of thosecertificates. "Confirmation ofdeaths through deathcertificates is a linchpin fortheir story," Spagat told NJ."But they didn't record (orwon't provide) informationabout these death certificatesthat would make themtraceable."

Under pressure fromcritics, the authors did release adisk of the surveyors' collateddata, including tables showinghow often the survey teamssaid they requested to see, andsaw, the death certificates. Butthose tables are suspicious, inpart, because they showdata-heaping, critics said. Forexample, the database revealsthat 22 death certificates forvictims of violence and 23certificates for other deathswere declared by surveyors andhouseholds to be missing orlost. That similarity looksreasonable, but Spagat noticedthat the 23 missing certificates

for nonviolent deaths weredistributed throughout eight ofthe 16 surveyed provinces,while all 22 missingcertificates for violent deathswere inexplicably heaped inthe single province of Nineveh.That means the surveyorsreported zero missing or lostcertificates for 180 violentdeaths in 15 provinces outsideNineveh. The odds againstsuch perfection are at least10,000 to 1, Spagat told NJ.Also, surveyors recordedanother 70 violent deaths and13 nonviolent deaths withoutexplaining the presence orabsence of certificates in thedatabase. In a subsequent MITlecture, Burnham said that thesurveyors sometimes forgot toask for the certificates.

Suspicious cluster. Lafta'steam reported 24 car bombdeaths in early July, as well asone nonviolent death, in"Cluster 33" in Baghdad. Theauthors do not say where thecluster was, but the only majorcar bomb in the city during thatperiod, according to Iraq BodyCount's database, was in SadrCity. It was detonated in amarketplace on July 1, likelyby Al Qaeda, and killed at least60 people, according to pressreports.

The authors should nothave included the July data intheir report because the surveywas scheduled to end on June30, according to DebaratiGuha-Sapir, director of theWorld Health Organization'sCollaborating Center forResearch on the Epidemiologyof Disasters at the Universityof Louvain in Belgium.Because of the study'smethodology, those 24 deathsultimately added 48,000 to thenational death toll and tripledthe authors' estimate for totalcar bomb deaths to 76,000.That figure is 15 times the5,046 car bomb killings thatIraq Body Count recorded upto August 2006.

According to a data tablereviewed by Spagat and Kane,the team recorded the violentdeaths as taking place in earlyJuly and did not explain why

they failed to see deathcertificates for any of the 24victims. The surveyors didremember, however, to ask forthe death certificate of the oneperson who had diedpeacefully in that cluster.

The Cluster 33 data iscurious for other reasons aswell. The 24 Iraqis who diedviolently were neatly dividedamong 18 houses -- 12 housesreported one death, and sixhouses reported two deaths,according to the authors' data.This means, Spagat said, thatthe survey team found a line of40 households that neatlyshared almost half of thedeaths suffered when amarketplace bomb explodedamong a crowd of peopledrawn from throughout thebroader neighborhood.

The data also bolsterSpagat's criticism that thesurveyors selected too manyclusters in places where bombexplosions and gunfights weremost common.

Ideological BiasVirtually everyone

connected with the study hasbeen an outspoken opponent ofU.S. actions in Iraq. (So areseveral of the study's biggestcritics, such as Iraq BodyCount.) Whether this affectedthe authors' scientificjudgments and led them to turna blind eye to flaws is up fordebate.

Follow the money. LancetII was commissioned andfinanced by Tirman, theexecutive director of the Centerfor International Studies atMIT. (His most recent book is100 Ways America Is ScrewingUp the World.) After Lancet Iwas published, Tirmancommissioned Burnham to dothe second study, and sent him$50,000. When asked whereTirman got the money,Burnham told NJ: "I have noidea."

In fact, the funding camefrom the Open Society Institutecreated by Soros, a topDemocratic donor, and fromthree other foundations,according to Tirman. Themoney was channeled through

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Tirman's Persian GulfInitiative. Soros's group gave$46,000, and the Samuel RubinFoundation gave $5,000. Ananonymous donor, and anotherdonor whose identity he doesnot know, provided thebalance, Tirman said. TheLancet II study cost about$100,000, according to Tirman,including about $45,000 forpublicity and travel. Thatmeans that nearly half of thestudy's funding came from anoutspoken billionaire who hasrepeatedly criticized the Iraqcampaign and who spent $30million trying to defeat Bush in2004.

Partisan considerations.Soros is not the only personassociated with the Lancetstudies who had one eye on thedata and the other on the U.S.political calendar. In 2004,Roberts conceded that heopposed the Iraq invasion fromthe outset, and -- in a muchmore troubling admission --said that he had e-mailed thefirst study to The Lancet onSeptember 30, 2004, "under thecondition that it come outbefore the election." Burnhamadmitted that he set the samecondition for Lancet II. "Wewanted to get the survey outbefore the election, if at allpossible," he said.

"Les and Gil putthemselves in position to becriticized on the basis of theirviews," Garfield concedes,before adding, "But you canhave an opinion and still dogood science." Perhaps, but theLancet editor who agreed torush their study into print, withan expedited peer-reviewprocess and without seeing thesurveyors' original data, alsomakes no secret of his leftistpolitics. At a September 2006rally in Manchester, England,Horton declared, "This axis ofAnglo-American imperialismextends its influence throughwar and conflict, gatheringpower and wealth as it goes, somillions of people are left todie in poverty and disease." Hisspeech can be viewed onYouTube.

Mr. Roberts tries to go to

Washington. Roberts, whoopposed removing Saddamfrom power, is the mostpolitically outspoken of theauthors. He initiated the firstLancet study and repeatedlyused its conclusions to criticizeBush. "I consider myself anadvocate," Roberts told aninterviewer in early 2007."When you start workingdocumenting events in war, thepublic health response -- themost important public healthresponse -- is ending the war."

In 2006, he acted on thisbelief, seeking the Democraticnomination for New York's24th Congressional Districtbefore dropping out in favor ofthe eventual winner, DemocratMichael Arcuri. Asked why heran for office, Roberts told NJ:"It was a combination of Iraqand [Hurricane] Katrina thatjust put me over the top. Ithought the country was goingin the desperately wrongdirection, particularly withregard to public health andscience."

Politics At WorkRoberts was hardly the

only American to loseconfidence in Bush. Thequestion is whether he and histeam lost their objectivity asscientists as well.Unanimously, the authors insistthat the answer is no.

Roberts concedes that theonly certain way to collectinformation for a study of Iraqiwar casualties would bethrough a full census,something he says isimpossible in the midst ofsectarian civil war. His study'smethod "has limitations," hetold NJ. "It works less wellwhen bombs are killing peoplein clusters -- and they arekilling people in clusters inIraq -- but it remains afundamentally robust way ofdetermining changes inmortality rates." Asked if heremains certain that Lafta'sIraqi teams truly collected thedata they turned in, Robertsanswered, "I'm just absolutelyconfident this data is notfabricated."

"Dr. Burnham and his

colleagues are confident thatthe data presented in the 2004and 2006 are accurate, and theyfully stand by the conclusionsof their research," according toa November 27 statement fromthe Bloomberg School ofPublic Health. "The findings ofindependent surveys of Iraqisconducted by the UnitedNations in March 2005, by theBBC in March 2007, and bythe British polling firm ORB inSeptember 2007 support theconclusions of the Hopkinsmortality studies."

Critics say, however, thatthe other national reports citedin the Johns Hopkinsstatement, particularly theORB poll, havemethodological flaws andpolitical overtones similar tothose in the Lancet studies.

"Just stating, 'We have nobiases of that type' isn't veryconvincing," says OxfordUniversity's Johnson. "Using 'Iam an expert' argumentssounds to me like 'Trust me, Iam a doctor.' " Johnson andtwo of his colleagues havecalled on the scientificcommunity to conduct anin-depth re-evaluation of bothLancet studies. "It's almost acrime to let it gounchallenged," Johnson said.

Even Garfield, a co-authorof the first Lancet article, isbacking away from hisprevious defense of his fellowauthors. In December, Garfieldtold National Journal that heguesses that 250,000 Iraqis haddied by late 2007. That totalrequires an underlying casualtyrate only one-quarter of thatoffered by Lancet II.

The authors -- Laftaexcepted -- have been willingto engage their critics indebate, returning journalists'calls and, for the most part,avoiding ad hominemarguments. Yet, sometimestheir defenses raise newquestions. Burnham says, forinstance, that Lafta offered totake reporters to visit some ofthe neighborhoods used in theclusters, although he declinedto say whether the reporterswould be allowed to visit the

surveyed households or to pickthe clusters to see.

Roberts and his defendersemphasize that when theircluster method producedshockingly high mortality ratesin the Congo, no onequestioned them -- not seemingto understand that journalistslooking at the Iraq study arenow indeed wondering if theCongo results are valid.

Roberts, when asked if hetimed the release of his Lancetstudies to hurt the Republicanson Election Day, contends thathis biggest concern wasensuring the safety of hisresearchers. "If this study wasfinished in September and notpublished until after theNovember elections -- and itwas perceived that we weresitting on the results -- my Iraqicolleagues would have beenkilled," he told NationalJournal. Even if true, thisassertion undermines hisexpressions of confidence inthe integrity and skill of theIraqi researchers. How cantheir data be trusted if theirvery lives depended on theresults?

No matter whether a latentdesire to feed the Americanpublic's opposition to the warmight have shaped thesestudies, another audience waspaying close attention: jihadistswho used this research as ajustification for killingAmericans. Roberts alreadybelieved that jihadi attackswere, in part, driven by theinternational image of theUnited States. "The greatestthreat to U.S. national security[is] the image that the UnitedStates is a violator ofinternational laws and orderand that there is no meansother than violence to curb it,"Roberts wrote in a July 2005article for Tirman's center.When NJ asked Roberts aboutthe risk that his estimate wouldincite more violence, hisconfidence seemed to waverfor the only time during theinterview. "This area of studyis a minefield," he said. "Thepeople you are talking aboutare the same kind of people

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who deny the Holocaust." Doesit give him qualms that some ofthose people use his study torecruit suicide bombers? "Itdoes," he replied after a pause."My guess is that I've provideddata that can be narrowly citedto incite hatred. On the otherhand, I think it's worse to haveour leaders downplaying thelevel of violence."

Burnham also pausedwhen asked whether Iraqifactions manipulated him andhis colleagues and then replied,"We're reasonably confidentthat we were not manipulated."

ProfessionalResponsibilities

Officials at Iraq BodyCount strongly opposed theIraq war yet issued a detailedcritique of the Lancet II study.Researchers wading into a fieldthat is this fraught with dangerhave a responsibility not to bereckless with statistics, thegroup said. The numbersclaimed by the Lancet studywould, under the normal ratiosof warfare, result in more thana million Iraqis woundedseriously enough to requiremedical treatment, according tothis critique. Yet officialsources in Iraq have notreported any suchphenomenon. An Iraq BodyCount analysis showed that theLancet II numbers would havemeant that 1,000 Iraqis weredying every day during the firsthalf of 2006, "with less than atenth of them being noticed byany public surveillancemechanisms." The February2006 bombing of the GoldenMosque is widely credited withplunging Iraq into civil war,yet the Lancet II report positsthe equivalent of five to 10bombings of this magnitude inIraq every day for three years.

"In the light of suchextreme and improbableimplications," the Iraq BodyCount report stated, "a rationalalternative conclusion to beconsidered is that the authorshave drawn conclusions fromunrepresentative data."

Against these criticisms,the authors maintain that theywere using methods of study

unfamiliar to human-rightsgroups and that the scientificcommunity widely acceptedthe Lancet studies. "There havebeen 56 studies using thisretrospective household surveymethod," Garfield said. "Theestimation of crude mortality ina population does work.... Itdoesn't mean you can't do itwrong. It is the best method wehave. The question is, 'Did theydo it right?' "

When it comes to thequestion of peer review, thestudy's defenders sometimesseem to want it both ways. Onthe one hand, Roberts talksabout the need "to step beyondpeer review." Yet the authorsinsist that their study waspeer-reviewed extensively (ifrapidly, in order to bepublished before the election).The authors also maintain thatone of the reasons they went toThe Lancet with these studiesis its quick turnaround time.

Surprisingly, not one ofthe peer reviewers seems tohave thought to ask a basicquestion: Are the data in thetwo studies even true? Thepossibility of fakery, editorHorton told NJ, "did not comeup in peer review." Medicaljournals can't afford to repeatevery scientific study, he said,because "if for every paper wepublished we had to think, 'Isthis fraud?' ... honestly, wewould fold tomorrow."

In Belgium, Guha-Sapir'steam is completing a paperoutlining numerousmathematical and proceduralerrors in the Lancet II article,and its corrections will likelylower the estimate of deadIraqis to 450,000, even withoutconsideration of possible fraudduring the surveying, a sourcesaid.

Perhaps medical journals,like respected newsorganizations, will learn thatthey have to factor thepossibility of wartime fraudinto their fact-checking. Hortonknows the peacetime risks onlytoo well: In a Lancet article inOctober 2005, exactly halfwaybetween the two Iraq mortalitystudies, a Norwegian physician

named Jon Sudbo wrote that areview of 454 patients showedthat such common painkillersas ibuprofen and naproxenreduced smokers' risk ofcontracting oral cancer whileincreasing their risk for heartdisease; it later turned out thatSudbo had faked his research.

Today, the journal's editortacitly concedes discomfortwith the Iraqi death estimates."Anything [the authors] can doto strengthen the credibility ofthe Lancet paper," Horton toldNJ, "would be very welcome."If clear evidence of misconductis presented to The Lancet, "wewould be happy to go ask theauthors and the institution foran official inquiry, and wewould then abide by theconclusion of that inquiry."

National JournalJanuary 5, 20088. Counting CorpsesBy Neil Munro

Four decades ago,American leaders sought tomeasure their progress inVietnam by counting deadenemy soldiers. But thatghoulish yardstick created aninternational backlash thatdamaged the U.S. effort. Thesedays, the military is attractingcriticism again, but this timeit's for not counting the enemycasualties in the war in Iraq.

Opponents of the warhighlight figures that point tothe human cost of the U.S.military intervention.Supporters trumpet datashowing that Iraqi casualtieshave been dropping and thatliving conditions have beenimproving in the past year.

But for the U.S military,counting corpses isstrategically risky becausebody counts create propagandaopportunities and even providean incentive for the enemy toraise the toll by killingbystanders. In September,however, the U.S. militaryannounced that it had killed18,000 enemy fighters since2003.

During the initial fightingand the immediate occupation,

no effective civilian Iraqigovernment existed to countcasualties -- some of whomwere blown to bits or buriedsecretly. Recently, thegovernment has been in abetter position to count thebodies, because Iraqis whowish to claim pensions andother government services aftera relative dies must have adeath certificate.

When a body arrives at themorgue or hospital, relativesand government agenciesreceive copies of a deathcertificate. Conditions in Iraqare so dangerous, however, thatit is difficult for Baghdadofficials to stop localauthorities from selling fakedeath certificates, or to find allof the buried, blasted, andmissing bodies. Moreover,various factions within theIraqi government haveincentives to inflate or deflatethe total number of deaths.

Outside organizations --some with ideological agendasof their own -- track casualtiesby accumulating governmentand media reports. TheiCasualties.org website and theAssociated Press keep carefultrack of U.S. deaths, and in lateDecember, Terrorist DeathWatch's ticker reported that20,010 Iraqi insurgents haddied in the war.

The most comprehensiveaccumulation of casualtyreports can be found at thewebsite of London-based IraqBody Count, which on January1 reported that 81,174 to88,585 civilians had diedviolently. This estimateincludes murdered policeofficers but excludesunreported deaths, Iraqimilitary deaths, and the deathsof confirmed insurgents.

Some critics say that IraqBody Count records only asmall proportion of the dead,but the group's operators areconfident about their numbersbecause they collect data frommany sources, includingreports translated from Araboutlets. Iraq Body Countmisses few casualties from carbombs, for example, says

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spokesman Josh Dougherty,because Iraqi reporters usecellphones to publicize 99.4percent of car bomb attackswithin 24 hours, by way of anaverage of six competingmedia outlets. In November,the group reported that carbombs had killed 11,700 Iraqissince 2003.

Polls and surveys areanother counting method, butthey are complex and subjectto error and bias. An Iraqipolling company reported, forexample, that an August 2007survey of households showed1.2 million dead, including264,126 car bomb victims. Thecompany's owner told NationalJournal that he began pollingto help drive U.S. forces fromIraq and that he timed therelease of his estimate tocoincide with Gen. DavidPetraeus's September testimonybefore Congress.

The two best-knownsurveys were conducted byresearchers in Iraq and at JohnsHopkins University, whopublished their results in TheLancet. In 2004, they polled 33neighborhoods and announcedan estimate of at least 98,000"excess" deaths from violence,disease, and infant mortality. In2006, the team polled 47neighborhoods and announcedthat 654,965 had died, mostlyin violent incidents. Criticshave challenged these polls onnumerous grounds.

A U.N. agency and theIraqi Central Organization forStatistics and InformationTechnology conducted thelatest study in 2006. The finalestimate is being keptconfidential until publicationby a medical journal, perhapsearly this year. This survey hasconcluded that the death toll iswell below what the so-calledLancet II study found in 2006,several sources told NationalJournal.

One advantage of surveys,compared with body counts, isthat they can also track thenumber of lives saved by theremoval of a despoticgovernment, by better medicalcare, and other factors. In Iraq,

this effect is likely to besmaller than in Afghanistan,where improved medical careis saving an estimated 89,000infants per year, according to arecent survey managed byGilbert Burnham, the JohnsHopkins professor whomanaged the controversialLancet surveys. This figure farexceeds the estimates of peoplereported dead in the fightingbetween the government andthe Taliban -- which meansthat the war in Afghanistan is,at least by one count,producing more lives thandeaths.

Unscientific Methods?The 2006 Johns Hopkins

University study [PDF] on wardeaths in Iraq includes eightpages of numbers, tables, andexplanations, plus a short,placid paragraph declaring,"This study received ethicalapproval from the Committeeon Human Research at JohnsHopkins Bloomberg School ofPublic Health."

Skeptics say that thecontroversial study, publishedin The Lancet, is built onunreliable data, perhaps evenfaked responses. In examiningthe scientific controversy,National Journal also revieweda variety of statements anddocuments suggesting that thestudy's researchers may havesidestepped standard ethicalpractices designed to safeguardrespondents from recklesssurveyors—and perhaps evenskirted federal law.

Any door-to-door surveyin a war zone presents ethicalproblems for researchersbecause the surveyors may beput in danger and becausepolitical factions have anincentive to skew the results. InIraq, for example, Al Qaeda,some Iraqi Sunni insurgents,and some Shiite militias wantthe United States out of Iraqbecause they say that Americanintervention is costing Iraqilives. Each group has theincentive and the means topressure locals and surveyorsto exaggerate the death tollfrom the U.S. overthrow ofSaddam Hussein. The Hopkins

authors recognized some ofthese dangers, and they tooksteps to reduce the risks tosurveyors and respondents whoparticipated in the study.

It's unclear, however, ifthe steps they took compliedwith relevant U.S. ethicalnorms and regulationsgoverning scientific research.

The federal governmentdrafted patient protectionregulations in the 1970s andfinalized them in 1991,responding to public outrageover a series of medicalexperiments that harmedprisoners and poorAfrican-Americans. Like manyother universities, JohnsHopkins agreed to apply thoserules to all of its "humansubject" projects.

The regulations are crucialbecause anyone can use themto lodge a complaint against auniversity with the federalOffice for Human ResearchProtections, which can barindividual researchers or entireuniversities from conductingfurther experiments thatinvolve people, and can cut offfederal funding.

In 2001, the governmenttemporarily froze all ofHopkins's federalfunding—about $992 million --because of complaints aboutthe death of a volunteer in amedical trial. The universitysubsequently agreed to tightenoversight of its research.Hopkins now receives morefederal funding -- almost $1.3billion in 2004 -- than anyother university. The OHRP,part of the Health and HumanServices Department, says thatno one has filed a complaintabout the Hopkins study ofIraqi mortality.

The designated principalinvestigator in the study wasGilbert Burnham, a professorof international health at JohnsHopkins Bloomberg School ofPublic Health. He workedunder the supervision of theuniversity's InstitutionalReview Board, whose legalduty is to verify that proposedprojects comply with theprotection rules. Panels

typically have five members;their sole role is to protect thesubjects involved in a study,not to protect the quality of thescience or the welfare of theresearchers. Hopkins declinedto release the IRB's review orto name the reviewers for theIraq study.

Burnham said that the IRBapproved the survey plan withsome departures from routinepractice, as allowed by law.For example, the panel saidthat the survey teams had to getonly verbal consent, rather thansigned consent, from Iraqirespondents, Burnham said,because of the fear that militiasmight capture the signaturesfrom the surveyors and thenattack the respondents.

Burnham briefly discussedthe IRB review with NationalJournal in November, but hesubsequently declined tocomment once questions wereraised about Hopkins'scompliance with the standardrules and practices. MichaelKlag, who is the school's deanand Burnham's boss, alsodeclined to discuss complianceissues. Instead, the universitye-mailed a statement saying,"The Johns HopkinsBloomberg School of PublicHealth is satisfied that Dr.Burnham and his research teamconducted their studies in anethical manner and incompliance with theBloomberg School's policiesand procedures."

Anonymous SurveysA central question is

whether the Iraq survey wasconducted anonymously.Under section 46.101b(2) ofthe regulations, if surveyorsrecord the names ofrespondents, federal lawrequires that risks torespondents be minimized. If asurvey does not collect names,the IRB can exempt it from thefederal rules, although notfrom commonly held ethicalduties. (The regulations can befound here.) Johns Hopkinsofficials declined to say if theydeemed the study to beanonymous, or to release theanswer form that surveyors

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used to record respondents'answers during the survey.

Burnham and hiscolleagues have frequently saidthat their Iraqi surveyors didnot record names. But the Iraqiresearcher who directed thesurvey may have used ananswer form that had spaces torecord names, with or withoutHopkins's approval. In May2007, the chief of the Iraqisurvey team, Riyadh Lafta,gave a copy of what he saidwas his form to Ali Mohamed,a United Nations official whotracks deaths in Iraq, Mohamedtold National Journal. On theform that Mohamed providedto NJ, the top line has spaces torecord the location of thesurvey and the "name ofhouseholder." The form alsohas spaces to record the namesof infants and deceased people.

The form is a MicrosoftWord document that includes a"properties" feature. Thefeature reveals that the file wascreated by "Dr. Riyadh" inDecember 2005 but that it hadbeen modified to an unknownextent by an unknown personmost recently inmid-November 2007. Lafta didnot reply to several e-mailqueries.

If a survey team collectednames after being exemptedunder section b(2), "they wouldbe carrying out what isarguably covered researchwithout IRB approval," IvorPritchard, the acting director atthe OHRP, said in an interviewabout surveys and the federalregulations. However, headded, the regulations also saythat a survey can be exemptedfrom the rules even if it recordsnames, providing that the IRBfinds that the survey is not"damaging to the subjects'financial standing,employability, or reputation."

Such a finding would be astretch for Hopkins becauseBurnham also said that the IRBdetermined that the Iraqirespondents faced risks forparticipating in the survey, andthus classified the respondentsas "vulnerable." OHRPregulations require extra

safeguards for "vulnerable"populations.

ConsentEven if the Hopkins's

board declared the surveyexempt from federalregulations, evidence suggeststhat the survey ignored normalpractices intended to protectrespondents. "The regulationsare a floor and not a ceiling,"Prichard said. "Institutions arefree to impose additional[ethical] requirements" onexempted surveys.

The federal regulations[PDF], and customary medicalpractice, for example, say thatsurveyors must informrespondents in their ownlanguage of the risks andbenefits of the study, and thatrespondents usually must givetheir consent before they areasked questions. But althoughthe researchers submitted anEnglish-language consent formto the IRB, the review paneldid not check the teams' Araband Kurdish translations,Burnham said. The consentdocument "was a basic thing,"he said, and "they did notrequire us to get approval forthe back translation," becausesuch approval is needed onlywhen the IRB believes "risks toparticipants … aresubstantially above what theyregularly experience."

Yet in a 2006 article "TheHuman Cost of the War inIraq" [PDF], published by theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology, the study's authorswrote that the Iraqi respondentsdid fear the survey. Once theyarrived in a neighborhood, "theteams faced suspicion initially,especially at the first house,"the article said. "Lengthyexplanations of the purpose ofthe survey -- and that it wouldhelp the Iraqi people -- werenecessary to allay fears."

Modifying ProceduresHopkins's guidelines say

that substantial modification ofsurvey procedures withoutapproval by the university'sIRB can be deemed a seriousviolation. "All intentionalnoncompliance is considered tobe serious," the guidelines

state.The survey "was carried

out as we designed it,"Burnham told NationalJournal.

He also said, however, thatthe survey teams worked toreduce risks to themselves byasking neighborhood childrento spread the news of theirarrival. "That’s actually whathappened; that wasn't part ofthe study design," he said. Thesurvey teams also wore whitedoctor's coats and conductedall interviews on the doorstepsof respondents' houses,Burnham said, not in theprivacy of their homes. Lafta,the survey team's Iraqi leader,acknowledged contact withlocal militias. "The militias,"he said, "are unpredictable,[but] they are very smoothwhen they know that we arefrom ‘their side,' " according tothe authors' "Human Cost"article.

Minimizing RiskThe federal law states that

the IRB can approve anon-exempt study only if risksto the respondents are"minimized."

But the survey teams'interaction with local militias,the doorstep interviews, andthe use of children ensured thatrespondents' participation inthe study was public and thuspotentially exposed therespondents to pressure fromlocal armed groups. Doorstepsare "not a private location forthe conduct of a survey thatmay have sensitiveinformation" such as whethermembers of the household haddied violently, said MoiraKeane, director of ResearchSubjects' Protection Programsat the University of Minnesota.

In response to this critique,Burnham said that the IRB hadnot barred the surveyors fromconducting doorstepinterviews. Also, the use ofchildren "probably does not toadd to the risk" of a privacyviolation, he said.

"There may be somestudies exempt from theregulations where there areidentifiable risks to subjects,"

Pritchard said. "Hopefully,ethical researchers will askthemselves to take stepsbeyond the regulatoryrequirements to protect thosesubjects."

San Diego Union-TribuneJanuary 5, 20089. Many Marines,Soldiers Have MissedCombatBy Scripps Howard NewsService

WASHINGTON – Thistime last year, the MarineCorps scrubbed its personnelrosters and found more than66,000 leathernecks who hadnot yet done a tour in Iraq orAfghanistan. The top brass putthem at the front of the line.

Now, an Army check hasfound about 40 percent of515,000 active-duty soldiershave not yet set foot in acombat zone even as the warsstretch into their fifth and sixthyears, with some soldiershaving served up to five tours.

The check showed thatsome of the soldiers who havenot served in a war zone arescheduled to deploy in the nearfuture but that at least 37,000other troops have no reason fortheir lack of war duty andshould start packing.

Los Angeles TimesJanuary 5, 200810. O.C. Lawyer ArguesAgainst TribunalsThe decorated intelligenceofficer blows the whistle onreviews of Guantanamodetainees.By Myron Levin, Los AngelesTimes Staff Writer

Stephen Abraham, aNewport Beach lawyer andlieutenant colonel in the ArmyReserves, hardly seemed likewhistle-blower material.

A decorated intelligenceofficer, he served after 9/11 aslead counter-terrorism analystat the Joint Intelligence Centerat Pearl Harbor. He was alongtime Republican, a patriotdevoted to protecting national

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security.When he began a

six-month tour of duty with themilitary tribunals reviewing thestatus of detainees atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba, hesaw it as a "fantasticopportunity" to participate in ahistoric effort to help hiscountry.

Instead, his account of theexperience has becomepowerful ammunition forlawyers fighting for detainees'rights. In June, Abrahambecame the first insider topublicly criticize the tribunalscreated by the Bushadministration asfundamentally unfair. Hiscriticism, contained in anaffidavit filed with the U.S.Supreme Court, figured in arare decision by the court toreverse itself and heararguments about whetherdetainees had been given anadequate chance to plead theirinnocence. Arguments wereheld in December, and a rulingis pending.

"We give rights to themost reviled of accusedcriminals," Abraham said in aninterview last month. It is"beyond the power that wegive to government to say toanybody, 'Whatever notion offair play we have, it won'tapply to you.' "

Abraham's stand has madehim a hero in the eyes ofhuman rights groups anddetainees' lawyers. And it hasput him publicly at odds withthe military.

"Lt. Col. Abraham was notin a position to have acomplete view of the ...process," said Navy Capt. LanaD. Hampton, a Pentagonspokeswoman. Tribunalprocedures "afford greaterprotection for wartimedetainees than any nation hasever before provided," she said.

Abraham's six-month tourbegan in September 2004.Among other duties, he servedas a liaison between tribunalsand defense and intelligenceagencies with information onthe captives. He said he wasstruck immediately by the

general nature of theallegations against detainees.And he was concerned thatinformation potentiallyfavorable to detainees was notbeing submitted to thetribunals. When he requestedwritten statements that no suchevidence existed, "the requestswere summarily denied," hesaid in his affidavit.

With two other officers,Abraham sat on the tribunal ofa detainee held since early2002. According to hisaffidavit, the case "lacked eventhe most fundamental earmarksof objectively credibleevidence." His paneldetermined that the detaineeshould not be classified as anenemy combatant.

He learned later that a newtribunal had been convenedand reached the oppositeconclusion. The entire processwas biased, he said.

As a result of 572 reviewsby the tribunals held mostly in2004 and 2005, 38 detaineeswere judged to have beenimproperly classified as enemycombatants.

Said Thomas Wilner, alawyer who has represented 15Guantanamo detainees:"Stephen was the first personfrom the government who said... the process was a sham."

"It's very easy ... in timesof hysteria to go along with thecrowd -- particularly whenyour superiors are ordering it --and shave your principles abit."

Despite his conservativepolitics, Abraham's stand wasnot out of character, saidSteven Fink, his law partner.Fink describes his friend as ahighly principled man whodoes not suffer fools gladly.

As a student at UC Davis,where his father was aprofessor of French literature,Abraham joined the ROTC. Hewas commissioned an Armyofficer after graduating in 1981with a degree in anthropology.Of his decision to join themilitary, Abraham said thecountry had opened its arms tohis father, a Holocaustsurvivor, and he considered

that "a debt worth beginning torepay."

Married and the father ofan 11-year old daughter,Abraham is an avid musicianwho plays the viola and violin.His two-man law firm handlesreal estate and other matters forsmall to mid-size businesses.

When Abraham learnedthat officers with legal andintelligence backgrounds wereneeded to staff the tribunals, hesaid, he was eager to offer hisservices. In preparation, hereviewed legal rulings andtreaties on prisoners of wargoing back more than 50 years.

His tour coincided withcontentious debate overwhether habeas corpus -- theright to challenge the legalbasis for detention -- extends toforeigners held as enemycombatants in the war onterror.

The Bush administrationargued that the detainees hadno such right, but the SupremeCourt ruled in 2004 that theremust be a process forreviewing whether they werebeing properly held. Inresponse, Pentagon officialscreated the military tribunals.

The program faced a stricttime limit, with more than 500detainee status reviews to becompleted in a few months.Detainees were not representedby lawyers before thethree-member tribunals. Theywere not informed of much ofthe evidence against them. Norwas there a budget allocationfor outside witnesses to appearon a detainee's behalf.

Midway through thesix-month assignment,Abraham sent a memo to theunit commander, Navy RearAdm. James McGarrah,seeking release from duty ongrounds that it "may be inconflict with my obligations asan attorney." He said he did notget a direct response but wastold informally that he wouldnot be asked to serve on anymore tribunals.

About three months later,Abraham returned to civilianlife. There the matter wouldhave ended but for the

intervention of his sister, SusanJ. Borschel, a lawyer in theWashington, D.C., suburbanarea.

Though she did notrepresent detainees, some ofBorschel's colleagues did. InJune, at her request, Abrahamagreed to speak to thoselawyers. At their request, hereviewed an affidavit thatdescribed the tribunal process.

Abraham said it reflected a"Pollyanna view" of thetribunal system that was "atbest disingenuous."

Abraham responded June15 with his own affidavit,which defense lawyers filed aspart of their successful petitionto the U.S. Supreme Court toreconsider a Kuwaiti captive'sappeal of his detention.

Although they were onceroutinely described by U.S.authorities as "the worst of theworst," many detainees,according to their lawyers,were simply war refugees orother innocent bystanderssnatched by bounty hunters andturned over for rewards. Mosthave been sent home -- withoutexplanation or apology, theirlawyers say.

Of 780 individuals held atGuantanamo, about 300remain.

Among them is AbdulHamid Al-Ghizzawi, the mancleared by Abraham's tribunalbefore a second panel restoredhis combatant status.

According to court papersby his attorney, Al-Ghizzawihas hepatitis B andtuberculosis, has not seen ortalked to his family in almostsix years and "is rapidly losinghis mind as he sits in totalisolation."

Abraham expresses someempathy for the man.

"He's about my age,"mused Abraham. "He's got adaughter. He hasn't seen her ina long time. He's close todeath."

New York TimesJanuary 5, 200811. Judge ImposesStricter Rules On Navy

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To Protect Marine LifeBy Carolyn Marshall

SAN FRANCISCO — Afederal judge has ordered theNavy to adopt stringent newsafeguards intended to improveprotection of whales anddolphins during its sonartraining exercises off SouthernCalifornia.

The ruling, issuedThursday by JudgeFlorence-Marie Cooper of theUnited States District Court forthe Central District ofCalifornia, orders the Navy tolimit its use of medium-rangesonar to an area beyond 12nautical miles from shore.Closer to the shore, marinemammals have exhibitedfrenzied and disorientedbehavior during the emissionsof sonar blasts as part of theNavy’s practice missions.

Judge Cooper’s order alsooutlined safeguards, whichinclude a monitoring sessionone hour before a militaryexercise to detect the presenceof marine mammals, the use oftrained aerial lookoutsthroughout exercises and amandatory sonar shutdownwhen mammals are spottedwithin 2,200 yards of trainingmaneuvers.

The ruling stems from along-running legal battlebetween environmental groups,led by the Natural ResourcesDefense Council, and theNavy, which has argued thatmid-frequency sonar is vital tothe training of submarineseamen and other crews whonow face a new generation ofquiet submarines that cannot bedetected by traditional passivesonar waves.

A spokesman at thePentagon said Friday that theNavy was reviewing thejudge’s ruling to determine itsnext move, which couldinclude an appeal to the UnitedStates Court of Appeals for theNinth Circuit.

“Despite the care the courttook in crafting its order,” saidthe spokesman, Cmdr. JeffDavis of the Navy, “we do notbelieve it struck the rightbalance between national

security and environmentalconcerns.”

The Navy, CommanderDavis said, remains especiallyconcerned over the largersafety buffer zone now offeredto protect marine mammals.Additionally, he said, Navyexperts worry that somerestrictions may make itdifficult to adequately trainsubmarine crews in certainunderwater warfare techniques.

A senior lawyer with theNatural Resources DefenseCouncil, Joel Reynolds, saidthe order established aprecedent for court cases inother jurisdictions, although itapplied only to a specific set ofmilitary exercises used inSouthern California.

“Although the court’sorder recognizes the Navy’sneed to train with sonar for ournational defense,” Mr.Reynolds said, “this is the mostsignificant environmentalmitigation that a federal courthas ever ordered the U.S. Navyto adopt in its training withmid-frequency sonar.”

Boston GlobeJanuary 5, 2008Bahrain12. US Sailor Missing InArabian Sea

MANAMA - A sailor fromUSS Hopper went overboardduring Navy operations in theArabian Sea, the US militarysaid yesterday. The sailor wasreported missing around 7:30a.m. Thursday, while the shipwas conducting maritimesecurity operations. Air andsurface forces from theHopper, the USS Port Royal,and the USS Ingraham beganconducting a search. Thesailor, whose name was notreleased, had not been foundby last night. Lieutenant JohnGay, spokesman for the FifthFleet, said that watertemperatures in the part of theArabian Sea where the sailorwent overboard are about 79degrees.

--AP

Washington TimesJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 213. GAO Report CriticalOf Air Force TankerDealBy Jim McElhatton,Washington Times

The fate of a $1.2 billionfederal contract for upkeep ofAir Force refueling tankers hasbeen cast in doubt after a newgovernment ruling criticizedmilitary officials for a "flawed"analysis of prospective bids.

The ruling by theGovernment AccountabilityOffice at the least delays theaward of the massive contractto Boeing Corp., though acompetitor has said it couldnow land the deal.

"We believe the GAOfully understood our protestand was able to provide aruling we think provides therelief we have sought for along time," said Ron Aramini,president of Alabama AircraftIndustries Inc.

But Brian Ames, a Boeingspokesman, said the companythinks it will ultimately win thecontract.

"We remain confident thatonce the analysis isdocumented, Boeing will againbe determined to have offeredthe best value to the Air Forcefor the KC-135 ProgrammedDepot Maintenance program,"Mr. Ames said.

The GAO has yet torelease a copy of the ruling, butan attorney for the office saidofficials are working to issue aredacted version for publicrelease.

Last week, the GAO said itwas sustaining "in part" aprotest filed in September byPemco Aeroplex Inc. againstthe Air Force's decision toaward the tanker contract toBoeing. Pemco has sincechanged its name to AlabamaAircraft Industries Inc.

The GAO ruled that "therecord does not reflect any AirForce analysis as to the realismof certain changes Boeingintroduced in its finalproposals, or the potential risk

associated with those changes."In addition, the GAO said

it did not rule on accusations of"bias" surrounding the AirForce's award to Boeing, citingan ongoing investigation of theapparent suicide of a top AirForce contracting official,Charles Riechers, in October.

"In light of the ongoinginvestigation, and consistentwith this office's past practice,our decision does not expressany opinion regarding Pemco'sbias allegations," the GAO saidin a statement issued byMichael R. Golden, managingassociate general counsel.

The GAO also gave theAir Force a two-monthdeadline to say whether it willperform a "risk and realism"analysis of the Boeing offer.

An Air Force spokesmancould not be reached forcomment yesterday, but aspokeswoman told Reutersnews agency that militaryofficials would evaluate theGAO's ruling.

Washington PostJanuary 5, 2008Pg. D114. Area FederalWorkers Get 4.49%RaiseBush Signs Order AffectingAbout 336,000 in the RegionBy Stephen Barr, WashingtonPost Staff Writer

President Bush signed anexecutive order yesterday thatprovides pay raises this yearfor federal employees, militarypersonnel, Cabinet officers andmembers of Congress.

The order covers about336,000 federal employees inthe Washington-Baltimoreregion. Workers will receive a4.49 percent increase under asalary formula that giveshigher adjustments to certainmetropolitan areas whereofficials believe federal payhas lagged the private sectorthe furthest.

The average civil serviceraise will be 3.5 percent,according to the order.

The base pay for military

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personnel will rise by anaverage of 3 percent, butCongress and the White Houseplan to add 0.5 percent to themilitary raise after anagreement is reached on anIraq-related issue in the fiscal2008 defense authorization bill,which Bush rejected lastmonth. Officials said theadd-on military raise would beretroactive to Jan. 1.

Salaries for members ofthe House and Senate will riseto $169,300 from $165,200.Congress did not receive araise in 2007 becauseDemocrats did not want toaccept one while debating anincrease in the minimum wage.

Cabinet secretaries willmake $191,300, up from$186,600. The vice president'ssalary will be $221,100, upfrom $215,700. The president'ssalary, set by Congress, hasbeen fixed at $400,000 since2001.

U.S. District Court judgeswill earn $169,300, a $1,900increase. The chief justice ofthe United States will be paid$217,400, up $1,700, andSupreme Court justices willmake $208,100, up $1,600.

Pay tables in Bush's ordershow that an Army captainwith four years of service willearn $54,284 in base pay thisyear, and that a typical ForeignService officer with five yearsof service will earn $64,510 inbase pay.

In the Washington area,where the federal workforcetilts heavily towardwhite-collar professionals andheadquarters staff, theprojected median federal salarywill be $90,698. Civil servicepay varies by metropolitanarea, and Washington area payis several thousand dollarshigher than the average forfederal employees nationwide.

Pay raises are negotiatedbetween the White House andCongress each year as part ofthe government's budget, andthe raises help shore up theWashington region's economy.The projected federal employeepayroll for the Washingtonregion is $30.1 billion for the

year, about $116 million perwork day, officials said. Thatpayroll does not include themilitary, intelligencecommunity and U.S. PostalService.

Salaries for federalemployees in theWashington-Baltimore regionwill range from $20,607 to$149,000, the Office ofPersonnel Management said.This region's employees makeup about 10 percent of thefederal workforce.

The salary scale thatcovers the majority of federalemployees has a pay range of$19,293 to $140,355.

Bush proposed a 3 percentraise for the 1.4 millionmembers of the military andnearly 1.8 million civil serviceemployees in his fiscal 2008budget, but Congress approvedthe slightly higher raise of 3.5percent for both groups.

During last year's budgetdebate, the White Houseobjected to the higher civilservice raise, saying it wouldeat up funds that could go toprograms and was notnecessary to attract jobapplicants. House MajorityLeader Steny H. Hoyer(D-Md.), Rep. Thomas M.Davis III (R-Va.) and otherarea members of Congresssought the 3.5 percent raisebecause they think thegovernment needs to becomemore competitive in the jobmarket as thousands of babyboomers start to leave federalservice for retirement in thenext few years.

Officials warn againstcomparing federal pay to theprivate sector, in part becauseit is difficult to match federaljob descriptions for the twosectors. It appears, however,that the federal raise for 2008is not out of line with thoseplanned at some corporations.

A survey of more than1,000 employers conducted byMercer Human ResourceConsulting last year showedthe companies estimated givingaverage pay raises of 3.8percent this year, about thesame as in 2007. The

companies projected higherraises for their top-performingemployees.

Wall Street JournalJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 215. Bush May AddLebanon, Iraq To StopsOn TripBy John D. McKinnon

President Bush takes offTuesday on a much-anticipatedtrip to Israel, the Persian Gulfstates and Egypt.

Or is it Lebanon and Iraq?With some details of his

mission still conspicuouslyunder wraps, speculation isgrowing in Washington thatMr. Bush's itinerary mightinclude one or moreunscheduled stops along theway.

The official nine-dayitinerary begins in Israel onWednesday and continues withthe Palestinian stronghold ofRamallah in the West Bank;Kuwait; Bahrain; the UnitedArab Emirates, includingDubai and Abu Dhabi; SaudiArabia, and Egypt. It is Mr.Bush's first trip as president toIsrael or Saudi Arabia.

The possible unannouncedstops include Iraq andLebanon, two of the placeswhere Mr. Bush has pushed his"freedom agenda" for theMiddle East harder thananywhere. Mr. Bush also has alongstanding invitation to visitSaudi King Abdullah's farmnear Riyadh.

The White House wasbeing vague. "I will tell you,partly because of theholiday...we're still nailingdown the specifics of this trip,"National Security AdviserStephen Hadley told skepticalreporters Thursday.

Think-tank denizens werebuzzing with the possibilities.

"My guess is the headlinesfrom this trip are going tocome from the unannouncedvisits," said JonathanAlterman, head of the Mideastprogram at the Center forStrategic and International

Studies, in a briefing withreporters. "There are lots ofplaces he could go that youwouldn't want...announced inadvance for security reasonsthat would be a big deal. And Ithink that is part of thebittersweet irony of this trip:that the two places that theadministration has closest to itsheart, Iraq and Lebanon, areplaces the president can'tannounce he's visiting."

It is become routine for theWhite House to includestopovers at hotspots duringofficial travels. On his way toAustralia for a regional summitlast year, Mr. Bush made anunannounced stop in Iraq'sAnbar province to showcaseprogress being made by theU.S. against al Qaeda. Earlierin the year, Vice PresidentDick Cheney used a trip toAustralia and Japan as anexcuse to drop by Afghanistan.

Mr. Bush's Mideast triphas several official purposes.The White House wants tomake progress in negotiationsover a future Palestinian state,which could lead to a peacedeal between the Palestiniansand the Israelis. It is alsohoping to push the prospectsfor a broader Arab-Israelipeace. At the same time, Mr.Bush wants to reassure alliesamong the Gulf Arab statesthat the U.S. remainscommitted to safeguardingtheir security and stability, aswell as to promoting Iraq'sfuture success and curbingIran's regional ambitions.

One unofficial purposeappears to be leaving relationsin the troubled region in thebest possible shape for Mr.Bush's successor whiledemonstrating to U.S. votershis desire for peace near theend of his war-torn presidency.

Expectations are runninglow. They might be helped ifMr. Bush can win a concreteagreement by Israel to endexpansion of its settlements inoccupied areas.

"I think, more thananything else, that would senda signal to the Arabs that thepresident was serious about

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pushing the Annapolisprocess," said Bruce Riedel, aBrookings Institution expertwho is a former defense,national security and CIAofficial. "Conversely, if thereare continued disagreementsbetween the Israelis andPalestinians on the settlementprocess, that could sink thedeal right from the start."

London Daily TelegraphJanuary 5, 200816. Video Shows BritishTroops 'Under FriendlyFire'By Stephen Adams

Shocking new footage hasbeen posted on the web whichappears to show a BritishArmy unit coming within yardsof being killed in a 'friendlyfire’ incident with an Americanjet in Afghanistan.

The video clip shows theunit coming under fire fromwhat one renowned armsexpert thought was cannon firefrom an American A10 jet.

The men are picturedslowly advancing throughtrenches after a powerful bombis dropped on the Taliban halfa mile or more away. But asthey rise to view the explosionthey themselves come underfire.

The men’s position isstrafed by “intense” aerialcannon fire, said former BritishArmy soldier and arms expertMike Yardley.

Mr Yardley, a contributingauthor to the Oxford History ofthe British Army, said: “Theirposition appears to come underintense cannon fire. It was avery very close shave.

“From my own experienceof being mortared inAfghanistan, I can say it is nota mortar. It’s nothing that theTaliban can throw at them. Iam 90 per cent certain it wasaerial cannon fire.”

He went on: “It’s almostcertainly cannon fire from thegatling gun of an A10Thunderbolt.”

Its GAU-8 gatling gun iscapable of firing more than

4,000 rounds a minute, he said.The video clip, possibly

shot on a mobile phone, wasposted on January 3 on the sitewww.liveleak.com.

The clip was titled: “A10Close Call”. 'Friendly fire’ - or'blue-on-blue’ fire as it is alsoknown - from A10 aircraft hasbeen responsible for the deathsof a number of British soldiers.

In March 2003, LanceCorporal Matty Hull, 26, waskilled in Iraq when his Scimitararmoured car was attacked bycannon fire from an A10'Tankbuster’.

Eight American and nineBritish soldiers were also killedduring the Gulf War in 1991after the crew of an A10mistook their vehicle for thatof the enemy.

A Ministry of Defencespokesman said it took friendlyfire incidents “very seriously”but could not comment on thevideo without specificinformation.

She said: “We are unableable to comment on thecontents of this particular videowithout specific information onthe incident.

"The reality of our currentoperations in Afghanistan isthat on a day to day basis ourcoalition allies are savingBritish lives with the rapid andtargeted air cover they supply.

“They make an enormouscontribution to the safety andeffectiveness of British forceson operations.

“In addition, we take therisk of friendly fire incidentsvery seriously and are workingactively to prevent them.

"We work closely with ourallies on common operatingprocedures and deploy a widerange of equipment tominimise the risk of incidents.”

Mideast Stars and StripesJanuary 4, 200817. U.S. Helping ToIntegrate Afghan ForcesBy Seth Robson, Stars andStripes

ZABUL PROVINCE,Afghanistan — Racial tensionscan be a problem within this

country’s security forces, asAmerican soldiers are finding.

The Afghan government ismaking efforts to integrate theforces to include a mixture ofthe country’s ethnic groups —including Pashtuns, Tajiks,Uzbeks, Hazars and Turkmen— but the process is notwithout its hiccups.

At Forward OperatingBase Mizan, in southernAfghanistan’s Zabul province,soldiers from 1st Platoon,Company A (Team Apache),1st Battalion, 4th InfantryRegiment recently stepped into resolve a dispute betweenthe Pashtun assistant districtchief, Ahmadullah Ahmady,and 10 newly arrived UzbekAfghan National Policeofficers.

At a meeting with thewarring parties, 1st Platoonleader 1st Lt. Joshua Sims, 25,of Talladega, Ala., heard theUzbeks complain that Pashtunpolice laugh at them, forcethem to do demeaning workand won’t let them visit Uzbeksoldiers at the nearby AfghanNational Army compound.

The Uzbeks threatened togo back to Qalat, the districtcapital.

But after someencouraging words from Simsand Capt. Jason Cowden, 28,of Cincinnati, an embeddedtactical trainer working withthe ANA in Mizan, the Uzbekschanged their tune.

“I will run into gunfire foryou. I will cut off my own headfor you,” said Haiatallah, anUzbek policeman, after hearingthat the Americans would talkto Ahmady, who is in charge ofthe police, about his concerns.

When Sims sat down withAhmady he told him to assignunpleasant jobs evenlybetween Pashtuns and Uzbeks.

He agreed that the Uzbeksshould tell Ahmady if theywere going to visit their friendsin the ANA.

Sims said these types ofproblems happen in army unitsall over the world.

“It is a problem with thenew guy who is not fromaround here. The cultural and

language differences causeproblems. It is just a leadershipchallenge. It would be if youhad two different nationalitiesin a unit. It is like cliques andhe (Ahmady) is having aproblem bridging that gap,” hesaid.

Maj. Harry Bird, 44, ofCharleston, S.C., whocommands an embeddedtactical training team workingwith the ANA in Zabul, saidANA units tend to be moreethnically diverse than ANPunits.

There are plans tointegrate various ethnic groupsin the ANP but it likely willtake years in isolated placessuch as Zabul province, ANPofficers said.

The problems in Mizanwere echoed recently at FOBBaylough in the nearby DeyChopan district where the localpolice chief threatened to leavealong with his men, fellowHazars, who patrol an areaoverwhelmingly populated byPashtuns.

The Hazar policecomplained that they do nottrust nine Pashtun policemenwho recently joined their unit.

First Lt. Alex Sanchez, 24,of La Mirada, Calif., who leadsTeam Apache’s 2nd Platoon, atFOB Baylough, said threePashtun policemen who wereat Baylough before slept in aseparate room from the Hazarsand two later defected to theTaliban with their weapons.

Sanchez told the Hazarsthat he would talk to thedistrict chief, a Pashtun, aboutthe problem.

New York TimesJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 518. North Korea SaysEarlier Disclosure WasEnoughBy Choe Sang-hun and StevenLee Myers

SEOUL, South Korea —North Korea said Friday that ithad already explained enoughabout its nuclear programs tomeet a deadline for declaring

page 21

its nuclear activities, saying theinformation was in a nucleardeclaration it prepared inNovember and gave to theUnited States.

The statement from theNorth Korean Foreign Ministryon Friday was carried by theKorean Central News Agency,North Korea’s voice to theoutside world. It was thecountry’s first officialpronouncement after it misseda Dec. 31 deadline to disableits main nuclear complex atYongbyon, north ofPyongyang, and, according toother nations involved insix-nation talks, failed toprovide a full list of its nuclearactivities, including weapons,facilities and fissile material.

The statement said thatNorth Korea had alreadyconducted “enoughdiscussions” with the UnitedStates officials after theydemanded more negotiationson its November draftdeclaration. Using theabbreviation of the North’sofficial name, the DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea,the Foreign Ministry said, “Asfar as the nuclear declarationon which wrong opinion isbeing built up by some quartersis concerned, the D.P.R.K. hasdone what it should do.”

In Washington, officialsdisputed North Korea’s claims,saying the government inPyongyang had not yetprovided a declaration. Theymuted their criticism, however,and said that issue had notreached an impasse.

“The North Koreans knowwhat’s expected of them andwhat the rest of the parties arelooking for, and that is a fulland complete and accuratedeclaration of their nuclearactivity,” said Tony Fratto, aWhite House spokesman.“They know that.”

The chief Americannegotiator, Assistant Secretaryof State Christopher R. Hill,left Washington on Friday enroute to China, where the statusof North Korea’s adherence toits commitments to dismantleits nuclear weapons program

will be the focus of a newround of negotiations. Anadministration official,speaking on condition ofanonymity because of thedelicacy of the situation,played down the North Koreanstatement, saying it followed apattern of public posturing inadvance of new talks.

Since the passing of thedeadline, agreed on in October,the United States, South Koreaand Japan have criticized theNorth and called for details onhow much plutonium it hadproduced at Yongbyon,whether it had providednuclear assistance to Syria andwhat it had done with tons ofaluminum tubes it had boughtfrom Russia, the type thatcould be used to buildcentrifuges to enrich uranium.

The State Department’sspokesman, Sean McCormack,said that the United States andthe other countries involved inthe talks had not reacted morestrongly to the missed deadlinebecause foreign nuclear expertswere continuing their work todismantle the Yongbyon plant,hoping through that work tolearn more about aspects ofNorth Korea’s nuclearprogram.

“We’re breaking newground here,” Mr. McCormacksaid. “This hasn’t been donebefore.”

Earlier in the day, NorthKorea also renewed its threatto bolster its “war deterrent,” aphrase it uses for its nucleararsenal. The North, with one ofthe world’s largest standingarmies, usually threatens tobolster its deterrent when itfeels international pressure incrucial negotiations.

North Korea hasacknowledged building bombswith plutonium, but has deniedpursuing an alternativeweapons program usingenriched uranium.

In the October deal thatNorth Korea struck with theUnited States, South Korea,Japan, China and Russia, itpromised to disable its nuclearfacilities and give a full list ofits nuclear programs in

exchange for one million tonsof heavy fuel oil, or itseconomic equivalent, anddiplomatic concessions.

It has so far received150,000 tons of oil and 5,010tons of steel products torenovate its aging powerplants.

On Friday, North Koreaaccused the United States andother countries of delaying thefulfillment of theircommitments to provide theaid and remove the North fromAmerican terrorism and tradeblacklists.

“We still hold hope thatthe Oct. 3 agreement will beimplemented smoothly if allcountries participating in thesix-party talks make sincereefforts based on the principleof action for action,” thestatement said.

North Korea said thedisablement work at Yongbyonwas “completed within thetechnologically possible scopeas of Dec. 31.”

But since the aid delivery“has not been done even 50percent,” the North had to“adjust the speed of the nucleardisablement process,” it said.The work of unloading spentfuel rods from the North’snuclear reactor at Yongbyon, acrucial part of the disablement,will take an additional 100days, it said.

Choe Sang-hun reportedfrom Seoul, and Steven LeeMyers from Washington.

Honolulu AdvertiserJanuary 4, 200819. Russia To JoinRimPac Maneuvers OffHawaiiBy William Cole, AdvertiserMilitary Writer

Up to 1,800 more Marinesmay be shifted to Kane'oheBay in the next several years;Russia has accepted a first-everU.S. invitation to participate inthe Rim of the Pacific Navalexercises off Hawai'i; and the8th U.S. Army flag andheadquarters will be movedfrom South Korea to Fort

Shafter in about a year.Those and other updates

came as military commandersspoke at the annualHawaii-U.S. MilitaryPartnership conferenceyesterday hosted by theChamber of Commerce ofHawai'i.

Lt. Gen. John Goodman,the Hawai'i-based commanderof Marine Forces Pacific, saidabout 8,200 of 18,400 Marineson Okinawa will be moved toGuam.

The total of about 28,000Marines in the Pacific may goup to 30,000, he said. "Some ofthat will come to Hawai'i," headded. Already, 300 to 400more Marines are on their wayto O'ahu.

About 6,500 Marines arebased at Kane'ohe Bay. Theforce could grow by between1,500 and 1,800 Marines overthe next few years, possibly inthe form of one or twoadditional helicopter squadronsor an unmanned aerial vehiclesquadron.

Providing an update onU.S. Army Pacific plans, Lt.Gen. John M. Brown III saidthat in about a year a mergerwill take place that will resultin Fort Shafter also becominghome to the headquarters of the8th U.S. Army that's now inSouth Korea.

A forward command postwill remain in South Korea, hesaid.

Russians are comingA three-star general

commands the 8th Army.Whether that means theaddition of another generalofficer at Fort Shafter isunclear, officials saidyesterday.

Perhaps the biggestsurprise to come fromyesterday's conference wasword that the Russians willjoin the Rimpac exercises.

Russia's military had goneinto decline since about 1995,but new oil money has led toreinvestment in the RussianPacific Fleet. A Russianbomber flew within severalhundred miles of Guam inAugust, and President Vladimir

page 22

Putin announced theresumption of long-rangepatrols in international airspacein a return to a Cold Warpractice.

U.S. Pacific Commanddeputy commander Lt. Gen.Dan Leaf said Russia is "nothelping" in efforts to maintainstability in the Pacific withincreased bomber flights andstepped-up rhetoric.

But U.S. militarycommanders also spoke of theneed for continued engagementto develop trust and preventmisunderstandings withcountries including Russia andChina, which are both buildingup military capability.

Great progressAdm. Robert Willard, the

commander of U.S. PacificFleet, said Russia's agreementto participate in Rimpac is"great progress if we believethat (military-to-militaryexchange) is one of themethods of finding commonground with these othernavies."

He cautioned that worldevents and politics may resultin Russia not participating inthe summer exercise that's stillabout a half year away.

Eight nations, 35 ships,160 aircraft and 19,000personnel two years agoparticipated in the biennialexercise, which usually is heldaround July. Russia was anobserver in 2006.

Brad Glosserman,executive director of thePacific Forum Center forStrategic and InternationalStudies, said the Navy is thekey force in the Pacific and hasalways been at the forefront ofpromoting militarycooperation.

"Being inclusive in yourapproach to this sort of stuffjust makes a lot of sense," hesaid.

The Navy said theNational DefenseAuthorization Act of 2000allows search and rescue,humanitarian assistance, anddisaster relief participationwith China, but it precludesparticipation in Rimpac.

Concerns about ChinaA China delegation did

observe the Valiant Shieldexercise off Guam in 2006, butthe U.S. also feels China hasnot reciprocated enough inallowing American access toChina's military.

"We have concerns aboutChina. We're concerned abouttheir military buildup," Leafsaid, calling it "troubling."

Leaf said he's notassuming a slide toward anadversarial relationship, but headded there is a disconnectbetween China's stated desireto have a peaceful military riseand actions like an anti-satellitemissile test that left a hugedebris field in low Earth orbit.

Sonar training neededWillard, the U.S. Pacific

Fleet commander, said Chinahas three times the number ofsubmarines of the U.S. Navy inthe Pacific Ocean. Many arequiet diesel boats, he said.

"They are not, we believe,as skilled as our Navy is intheir ability to locatesubmarines," Willard said.China has a very small fleet ofballistic missile subs withnuclear capability "that stayspretty close to home," headded.

Willard also saidmid-frequency sonar trainingto detect submarines is"imperative" for the Navy, buthe noted that environmentallawsuits have challenged sonaruse in Rimpac and offSouthern California.

Leaf, the deputycommander of U.S. PacificCommand, said U.S. forces arecapable of taking on challengesin the Pacific, even withregular Army and Marinedeployments to Iraq andAfghanistan.

However, he added: "Weare stretched. We're chewingup a lot of equipment, andwe're concerned about it."

Japan TimesJanuary 5, 200820. No Changes: GatesBy Kyodo News

U.S. Defense Secretary

Robert Gates told PrimeMinister Yasuo Fukuda inNovember that the UnitedStates will not accept anychanges in the contentious planto relocate the U.S. MarineCorps Air Station Futenma inOkinawa, sources said Friday.

Gates made the remarks onNov. 16 at a luncheon inWashington attended byFukuda and U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush, dismissingOkinawa's demand that thecurrent plan to build arelocation site on the coast ofNago be redesigned and thefacility be moved fartheroffshore, they said.

Fukuda promised to"steadily" implement therelocation in line with a "roadmap" agreed on in May 2006,according to the sources.

Before the luncheon, Gatesvisited Japan and pressed ChiefCabinet Secretary NobutakaMachimura on Nov. 8 toadhere to the bilateralagreement.

The sources said Gates'remarks apparently reflectedU.S. concerns that changes inthe Futenma relocation plancould lead to a full revision ofthe bilateral accord on therealignment of U.S. militaryfacilities in Japan.

Japan and the U.S. agreedin 2006 to move the base inGinowan to a facility to bebuilt using part of the landalong the coast of the U.S.Marine Corps Camp Schwaband a new coastal fill area inNago.

But the process has beendeadlocked due to resistanceby the local community, whichworries about safety and noise.

To break the impasse,Fukuda's administration hasinformally proposed a redesignof the relocation plan bypartially accepting Okinawa'sdemand, the sources said.

Japan TimesJanuary 5, 200821. U.S. Opposed ToNew MSDF Bill FuelRestrictions

By Kyodo NewsJapan's plans for the

Maritime Self-Defense Forceto only provide fuel in theIndian Ocean to vesselsparticipating in operations tointerdict terrorist activities atsea have been opposed by theUnited States, according tosources close to Japan-U.S.relations.

It would imposerestrictions on U.S.antiterrorism operations ifJapan's government-sponsoredbill to resume the MSDFrefueling mission clearly statedthat the fuel should not be usedfor purposes other than theoriginal intent, the U.S. sidetold Japan, according to thesources.

The Japanese governmentand ruling coalition aim tohave the bill passed by the Dietand the related law enactedsometime this month, but givenWashington's stance, theywould have no choice but togive up clearly specifying in abilateral document for whatpurposes the Japan-providedfuel should be used, thesources said.

Japan's effectiveabandonment of specifyingconditions for use of the fuel inthe document will notnecessarily mean Washingtoncan use the fuel freely, aJapanese government sourcesaid.

But heated debate over theissue is expected when the Dietreconvenes next week, after itwas thrown into turmoil overan allegation thatJapan-provided fuel wasdiverted for use in the U.S.-ledwar in Iraq.

However, the DefenseMinistry released a report inNovember that said no fuelwas diverted for the Iraqi war.

Japan terminated theMSDF's refueling mission inthe Indian Ocean on Nov. 1when a special law authorizingthe mission expired after theruling coalition and oppositionparties failed to reachagreement to extend the law.

A bilateral documentbased on the expired law had

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no reference to restrictions onthe use of fuel Japan providedto U.S. and allied vessels.

Japanese governmentofficials briefed U.S. officialsabout when the governmentand the Liberal DemocraticParty-New Komeito rulingbloc would be able to pass therefueling bill in the Diet.

At the same time, theJapanese officials requestedthat Washington not useJapan-provided fuel formaritime activities other thanto interdict terrorists becausethe refueling bill is designed toassist U.S. and allied shipstaking part in such operations.

But a U.S. governmentofficial dismissed the request,saying U.S. military operationscould not be influenced byJapan's refueling mission.

The U.S. official said itdoes not matter how long ittakes for the two sides toconclude the document,provided it has no reference toconditions for the use ofJapan-provided fuel.

Manila TimesJanuary 5, 200822. Hospital Closure'Never Happened'By Rommel C. Lontayao,Reporter

The United StatesEmbassy in Manila has deniedreports that US Special Forcestroops providing training andintelligence to Filipinocounterparts had ordered theclosure of a hospital in Suluprovince, giving assurance thatthe incident “never happened.”

During an exclusiveinterview with The ManilaTimes on Thursday, RebeccaThompson, press attaché of theUS Embassy in Manila, said itstroops never issued the closureof the hospital, saying “It is not[the soldier’s] role to issueorders to anyone in thePhilippines, much less to ahospital.”

Thompson made thestatement a few days after aPhilippine Army general saidthe US troops have alreadyapologized for forcing a local

hospital in Panamao town onJolo island to close every night.

US troops allegedlyordered Muslim doctors andhospital staff to close down thePanamao District Hospital atnight since December 3.American troops who put up abase near the hospital even toldthe doctors to treat theirpatients at the municipal hall.

The US military tried tocover up the incident anddenied it ever happened,blaming the local media for the“blunder.”

The Philippine military’sWestern Mindanao Commandbased in Zamboanga Cityquoted a US militaryspokesman, Lt. Cdr. MelissaSchuermann, as saying: “Allthese information wereallegations and are not true,unless proved otherwise.”

Since 2006, the USsoldiers have been in southernPhilippines to providecounterterrorist training andintelligence to Filipino troops.

Thompson said thesoldiers “do have someinvolvement in medicalthings,” but these were limitedto providing assistance tomedical workers.

“They go to somecommunities and providetreatments, free dental andmedical care to the people inthose communities. They evenhelp vaccinate livestock andtransport medical supplies,”she said.

Armed US troopsreportedly entered the hospitalin Panamao town on Joloisland in late November andordered doctors to close itdown every night, preventingthem from treating patients.The Philippine military saysthe US forces have sinceapologized.

Jolo is a stronghold of AbuSayyaf Islamic militantsblamed for the country’s worstterrorist attacks.

Brig. Gen. RupertoPabustan, the chief of FilipinoSpecial Forces in Jolo, hadconfirmed that the US soldierslate last month told officials toclose the hospital, thus,

preventing medical personnelfrom treating patients duringthe evening.

A Philippine militaryspokes-man, Maj. EugeneBatara, said Western MindanaoCommand chief Maj. Gen.Nelson Allaga ordered aseparate investigation of themeddling of US forces in theoperation of the hospital.

He said the WesternMindanao Command and theUS Joint Special OperationsTask Force-Philippines haveexerted coordi-native efforts toaddress the reported incidentsand bring out the truthregarding the matter.

“The directive toinvestigate is to determine thetruthfulness of the allegationsand the result of theinvestigation shall serve as thebasis in recommending theappropriate punishment to theguilty party or mediate thedifferences ormisun-derstanding between theparties involved if any.”

“The Western MindanaoCom-mand chief furtherstressed that the Armed Forcesof the Philippines shall upholdthe sovereignty and integrity ofthe Filipinos and shall bringthe matter to proper USauthorities if warranted,pending the result of theinvestigation of [PhilippineArmy’s] Joint Task ForceComet [in Sulu],” Batara said.

The incident “had anadverse impact on the ongoingjoint humanitarian efforts ofthe US forces and the ArmedForces of the Philippines”operating in Jolo and nearbyislands, a Philippine militarystatement said.

Local military officialshave said the Americans mighthave wanted the hospitalclosed at night to prevent itbecoming a launching pad forattacks on their nearby camp.

US soldiers insist therewas a threat against them in thetown from suspected AbuSayyaf militants, but the reportwas disputed by local securityforces.

Dr. Silak Lakkian, head ofthe hospital, has complained

about how US troops meddledin their operations. US soldiersreportedly threatened to shootanybody in the hospital in caseof a terrorist attack.

On Monday, the Philippinemilitary banned US soldiersfrom going near the hospitaland even sent Filipino soldiersto guard the hospital.

The governor of Sulu,Abdulsakur Sakur Tan,allowed the resumption of thehospital operations at night tocater to emergencies andpatients in Panamao after ameeting with military and townofficials over the weekend.

At this meeting, USmilitary commanders in Suluapologized for the incident asGovernor Tan insisted that “UStroops have no authority toimpose on us.”

“The hospital has resumedoperations at night andeverything is back to normalagain,” Brig. Gen. RupertoPabustan, commander of thePhilippines Army SpecialForces in Sulu, told TheManila Times.

The meddling of UStroops in local affairs drewwidespread criticism andprotests from provincialleaders and has triggered callsfrom political activists inManila for Congress andSenate to hold an investigationof the incident.

The militant KilusangMagbu-bukid ng Pilipinas(KMP) called on Congress andthe Senate to immediatelylaunch a thorough probe on thereal role of US troops inMindanao.

“We have to uphold oursovereignty if not thenforeigners will just trample itunder their feet,” RafaelMariano, KMP chairman whorepresents the Anakpawisparty-list in Congress, said.

News of the incident onlybroke out Saturday afterhospital staff complained toauthorities and journalistsabout how US troops forciblyshut down the hospital at night,even threatening to shootanybody if there was anyattack against the foreigners.

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Local villagers and someFilipino troops also havecomplained about thearrogance of US soldiers inSulu. Some US troops haveallegedly treated Filipinosoldiers like vassals, andprevented curious Muslimvillagers to go near them inpublic places as though thelocals were terrorists.

In the past, Americantroops also harassed Filipinojournalists covering jointRP-US military war games inZamboanga City and Sulu. Onsome occasions, the journalistswere arrested, and cameras ofreporters who took photos andvideos of them wereconfiscated.

It was also in Sulu thathundreds of US soldiersslaughtered some 800 Muslimvillagers, including innocentwomen and children, duringthe Moro rebellion in March1906 that has become knownas the First Battle of Bud(Mount) Dajo also called the“Moro Crater Massacre.”

During this battle, 790men and officers, under thecommand of Col. J.W. Duncan,assaulted the volcanic crater,then being held by severalhundred rebels protectingMuslim villagers.

--With Al Jacinto and AFP

Wall Street JournalJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 323. U.S.-Pakistan DivideOver Bhutto's DeathWidensBy Jay Solomon, YaroslavTrofimov and Siobhan Gorman

KARACHI, Pakistan --U.S. intelligence officials anddiplomats increasingly believeformer Pakistani PrimeMinister Benazir Bhutto diedfrom a gunshot wound, placingWashington at odds withIslamabad over the cause of herdeath.

The government ofPresident Pervez Musharrafhas held Ms. Bhutto died onDec. 27 from a fractured skull,sustained when the shock wave

from a suicide bombing threwthe opposition politicianagainst the lever of hervehicle's sunroof.

But U.S. officials saidinformation independentlygathered from Pakistan,including eyewitness accountsand video footage, left fewdoubts that Ms. Bhutto wasshot by one or more assailants."There is a consensus emergingthat she must have been shot,"said a U.S. administrationofficial working in Pakistan.

The diverging opinions,U.S. officials acknowledged,could prove problematic as theBush administration attemptsto stabilize the fragile nuclearpower.

Washington had hoped tobuild an alliance between Mr.Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto'sPakistan People's Party as away to guide Pakistan back tocivilian rule. But Ms. Bhutto'swidower, Asif Ali Zardari, hascharged Mr. Musharraf'sgovernment with involvementin his wife's death. The PPP'sleadership believesdiscrepancies in theinvestigation and thegovernment's shiftingexplanations point to acover-up, a charge Mr.Musharraf denied Thursday.

The U.S. is in a difficultposition to mediate, Bushadministration officials said,given Washington's growingdoubts about the Pakistanigovernment's probe. Voicingsuch concerns could furtherundermine Mr. Musharraf.Staying silent brings risks, too.

"If the U.S. doesn't standup against this, we're going tolose more support insidePakistan," said a U.S.government strategist workingon Pakistan.

On Thursday, Mr.Musharraf said he had invitedthe United Kingdom's ScotlandYard to help with the probe.Pakistan's presidentacknowledged mistakes in theinvestigation to date, signalinghis government could changeits accounting of Ms. Bhutto'sdeath. One U.S. officialspeculated that the Pakistani

government may beembarrassed that a shooter gotto Ms. Bhutto in Rawalpindi,the headquarters of thePakistani army.

Scotland Yard arrivedFriday morning in Pakistan,according to a Europeanofficial, who emphasized thatthe British agency will have towork under a number ofconstraints. "We have to bearin mind that they have adifferent way of doing things,"the official said. In addition, hesaid, much evidence was lost inthe hasty cleanup in theaftermath of the attack.

Complicating matters, Mr.Zardari hasn't responded to theIslamabad government'srequest to exhume his latewife's body in order to conducta full autopsy. He refused toauthorize an autopsyimmediately after the attack,contending he didn't trustgovernment doctors. Instead,medics performed only anexternal post-mortem, takingX-rays of Ms. Bhutto'sfractured skull.

Ms. Bhutto faced a similarpredicament after the death ofher father, former PrimeMinister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto,in 1979. At the time, many PPPactivists believed Mr. Bhuttohad been tortured to deathrather than hanged byPakistan's military regime, asthe official version described.Ms. Bhutto wrote in hermemoirs that she refused toexhume the body: "History willjudge him on his life," she saidshe replied to the activists."The details of his death arenot important."

American officials sayWashington is pursuing severalavenues to pinpoint the causeof Ms. Bhutto's death:eyewitness accounts, medicalrecords and technical toolssuch as telecommunicationsand video intercepts. U.S.intelligence officials wouldn'tcite specifically whatinformation helped themconclude Ms. Bhutto was shot.

Eyewitness accounts seemto back up the U.S. position.Sherry Rehman, the PPP's

information secretary and oneof Ms. Bhutto's closest aides,said in an interview that thehole in Ms. Bhutto's head wasso big that the former premier"bled buckets." She added herbelief that "this was a shooting.The sunroof lever just doesn'tdo that."

After the attack, Ms.Bhutto was transferred fromher SUV to Ms. Rehman's car,which was following behind,for the ride to the hospital. Ms.Rehman helped wash Ms.Bhutto's corpse in accordancewith Muslim tradition and saidthe rest of her body was intact.

Despite concern over theprofessed cause of Ms.Bhutto's death, U.S.intelligence officials say theyare increasingly confidentabout a separate Islamabadclaim: that a Pakistani militant,Baitullah Mehsud, was themastermind behind theassassination.

Mr. Mehsud is the leaderof a Pakistani Islamist groupbelieved aligned with theTaliban and al Qaeda.President Musharraf said Mr.Mehsud and an ally, MaulanaFazlullah, were behind 19suicide attacks inside Pakistanover the past three months.

The morning after Ms.Bhutto's death, Pakistansecurity services interceptedtelecommunications interceptsthey said proved Mr. Mehsud'sinvolvement.A spokesman forthe Pakistani insurgent deniedthe charges. U.S. intelligenceofficials say their owninvestigation has backed thisclaim.

Intelligence analystsbelieve "Mehsud probably,most likely, was responsiblefor this," said a U.S.intelligence official, addingthat intelligence officials don'tbelieve the Pakistanigovernment was behind theplot.

The U.S. has chalked suchaccusations to "PR gone bad,"the official said. In the U.S. orBritain, the area would havebeen sealed off immediately,he said, but that is not standardpractice in Pakistan. "There's

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no CSI Pakistan running inthere," he said.

Washington TimesJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 6Pakistan24. British TeamArrives To Join BhuttoProbe

ISLAMABAD — Britishanti-terror police joined theinquiry into the assassinationof Benazir Bhutto yesterday,invited by President PervezMusharraf in an effort to dispelaccusations of governmentinvolvement.

Mr. Musharraf also wantsto quell growing demands for aU.N. investigation into theshooting and bombing attackthat killed the former primeminister after a campaign rallyDec. 27.

The arriving BritishScotland Yard investigatorsdeclined to comment toreporters at Islamabad's airportyesterday.

Washington PostJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 1325. U.N. Probe UnlikelyIn Bhutto SlayingNo Push From SecurityCouncilBy Colum Lynch, WashingtonPost Staff Writer

UNITED NATIONS --When former Lebanese primeminister Rafiq al-Hariri wasassassinated nearly three yearsago, the United States andFrance prodded the U.N.Security Council into orderinga U.N. inquiry into the killingwithin 24 hours.

But more than a week afterthe Dec. 27 killing of formerPakistani prime ministerBenazir Bhutto, the 15-nationcouncil has expressed nointerest in even considering aU.N. probe, despite calls fromPakistani opposition leaders,human rights advocates andeven Bhutto's husband. "Wehaven't really discussed it,"said Italy's U.N. ambassador,

Marcello Spatafora, whoserved as the council'spresident last month.

The muted reactionreflects the degree to whichPakistan, a powerful ally of theUnited States, has been able toevade the kind of internationalscrutiny that dogged Syria,which has been the target of anintrusive U.N. inquiry into theHariri assassination. It has alsoraised charges that the council'smain champions ofinternational investigations --the United States, Britain andFrance -- apply a doublestandard to their friends andfoes.

Since the killing, PakistaniPresident Pervez Musharrafhas successfully persuadedWashington and its Europeanallies not to press for anindependent investigation intoa crime that Bhutto's familysuspects included governmentcomplicity. U.N. lawyers,meanwhile, have counseledU.N. Secretary General BanKi-moon not to offerinvestigators from the UnitedNations.

The lawyers argued thatwhile the global body hasexpertise in high-stakespolitical investigations, it canonly act upon a request by thePakistani government or theU.N. Security Council. "He'snot at all ready to give anopinion," said Ban'sspokeswoman, MicheleMontas.

In an effort to allaysuspicions of governmentcomplicity in the assassination,Musharraf invited a small teamof Scotland Yard detectives toPakistan this week to assistgovernment investigators. Buthe has also made clear thattheir role would be limited totechnical and forensicassistance, and that the Britishinvestigators would not bepermitted to carry out a"wild-goose chase" searchingfor the culprits, he said.

Despite those limits, theBush administration saidBritish involvement gave theprobe credibility. "We don't seea need for an investigation

beyond that at this time,"White House spokeswomanDana Perino said Wednesday.

Administration officialsdenied playing favorites withPakistan. Jackie Wolcott, asenior U.S. diplomat here, saidthat in the case of the Haririassassination, the Lebanese hadmade a formal request for aU.N. investigation. "In thiscase, as far as I know, that hasnot happened," she said.

The Hariri probe hasserved to widen the gulfbetween Lebanon'spro-Western government andits powerful pro-Syrianopposition parties, includingthe Shiite militant groupHezbollah. Lebanesegovernment officials believethat the Syrian government hasbacked a series of politicalassassinations in Lebanon aspart of a campaign to pitch thecountry into political chaos andprevent the case from everreaching trial.

Pakistan's governmentbungled the initial phase of theinvestigation into Bhutto'skilling, hosing down evidenceat the crime scene andproviding conflicting accountsof how she died. Musharraf hassince acknowledged hisgovernment's mishandling ofthe case, but he has insistedthat Bhutto was assassinated byal-Qaeda militants involved ina spree of suicide attacksagainst Pakistani authorities."The same military andintelligence agencies are usingthe same people who areattacking them? It's a joke,"Musharraf said.

But Pakistani oppositionfigures, human rightsadvocates and political analystssay an independent probe isvital, and that political pressurefor a credible inquiry is likelyto increase if the oppositionwins control of the governmentthrough elections Feb. 18. "Theregime has lost all credibility,"according to a statement issuedWednesday by Bhutto'sPakistan People's Party."Neither a domestic inquiry norvague foreign involvementwhen all traces of evidence

have been systematicallydestroyed would lay to rest thelingering doubts andsuspicions."

"I don't think many peoplein Pakistan are going to accepta government investigation,even if it comes with assistanceof Scotland Yard," said RobertTempler, an Asia specialistwith the International CrisisGroup, which has pressed for aU.N.-mandated probe. "Thereneeds to be some sort ofindependent investigation,otherwise things will simplyfester."

Some analysts believeMusharraf will never subjectPakistan's own security forcesto international scrutiny andthat Bhutto will join thepantheon of Pakistani rulers --including Pakistan's first primeminister, Liaquat Ali Khan,and the country's formermilitary dictator MuhammedZia ul-Haq -- whose killingshave never been solved.

"As long as Musharraf isin power there will not be anyU.N. inquiry; he will notcooperate with it; he will notallow for it," said Ali DayanHasan, a Pakistan-basedresearcher for Human RightsWatch.

New York Daily NewsJanuary 5, 200826. Qaeda Thugs: WePut Hit On U.S.DiplomatBy James Gordon Meek, DailyNews Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — U.S.counterterror officials werecaught by surprise yesterdaywhen an Al Qaeda-linkedgroup in Sudan claimed itsgoons assassinated U.S.diplomat John Granville thisweek to “defend theirreligion.”

Despite sending six FBIcounterterror agents toKhartoum, Sudan, to probe themurder, the claim ofresponsibility on a crediblejihadist forum was unexpectedby many senior U.S. officials.

Most assumed the U.S.

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Agency for InternationalDevelopment officer died in aburst of random street crime,sources said. “This is nowgetting a lot of attention”inside the intelligencecommunity, a U.S. official toldthe Daily News.

Jihadists callingthemselves “Ansar al-Tawhid”boasted on apassword-protected Internetsite, Al-Ekhlaas, that the“global infidels” were slain sothey couldn’t “raise the crossover the land of Sudan,”according to the private SITEIntelligence Group.

Granville, 33, of Buffalo,and his driver were killed inKhartoum on New Year’s Daywhile driving home from aparty. The little-known groupsaid it “carried out an operationof killing the Americandiplomat and his Sudanesedriver who sold his religion forfew benefits of life.”

Osama Bin Laden hasurged jihadists to fight the U.S.and UN in Sudan’s Darfurregion. This week’sslayingmirrors the 2002murder of U.S. diplomatLawrence Foley in Jordan,whose killers included the lateAl Qaeda in Iraq leader AbuMusab al-Zarqawi.

Meanwhile, Granville’sbody arrived in Virginia fromSudan on its way to Dover,Del., for a forensic exam bygovernment experts, a USAIDofficial said.

Mideast Stars and StripesJanuary 5, 200827. U.S. Forces BuildSchool In EthiopiaBy Zeke Minaya, Stars andStripes,

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia— The familiar din of childrenfilled the hallways andclassrooms of Abiot ErmejaElementary School. Clad inreddish uniforms, the studentslaughed and yelled, called outanswers to teachers’ questionsand ran between rooms.

English teacher AbdulWasie Nessredine said hebelieves in the potential of his

students.“This is a poor school, but

if these children could haveaccess to decent facilities, Ibelieve they can go anywhere,do anything.”

But, as in much of Africa,belief and faith meet up againstharsh realities.

The students do not havescience or language labs, andthey lack computers,Nessredine said. And, outsideof school hours, many of thechildren struggle to survive inthe face of crushing poverty, hesaid.

“Many of the kids heartheir parents have died” —victims of the AIDS pandemicin Africa, Nessredine said.

In many ways, the studentsand teachers of the school havebeen fortunate. In November,dignitaries for the U.S. StateDepartment and the U.S.Combined Joint TaskForce-Horn of Africa gatheredat the school for a dedicationceremony.

In conjunction with theU.S. Embassy and the U.S.Agency for InternationalDevelopment, Navy Seabeesconstructed walls and roofingfor the school buildings, built alibrary and installed newsanitation facilities anddrainage systems.

At the dedicationceremony, U.S. Army Brig.Gen. Sanford Holman, deputycommander of the task force,said that the school was “ademonstration of the Americanpeople’s faith in the people ofEthiopia, an investment in thelives and future of our friendshere in Addis Ababa,”according to a U.S. Embassypress release.

School administratorswere very grateful, they said,but the improvements are onlya beginning to the changesneeded to make a lastingimpact on the students.

The needs of the school ofroughly 750 students rangingin age from 7 to 13 are thesame needs reflected in manypoor classrooms of Africa,Nessredine said. For studentsto become successful they must

become familiar withcomputers. Bridging the digitaldivide — the gap betweeninformation technology and thepoor populations withoutaccess to these advances —must be a priority, AbiotErmeja teachers said.

“This gap is very, veryfar,” Nessredine said.“Students with poorbackgrounds have a lot ofcatching up to do.”

Language instruction isanother area of critical concernfor students, Nessredine said.Ethiopia, like much of Africa,is a multilingual society,teachers and administratorssaid. For their students toadvance to university andsuccessful careers afterward,learning English and otherlanguages is a must,Nessredine said.

The teachers hope to havelanguage lab facilities installedin the future, they said.

Another persistentproblem is getting girls into theclassroom. Widespread culturalattitudes on gender often keepgirls from getting schooling,Nessredine said.

“In places like thecountryside they believe thatwomen are not intelligentenough to learn,” he said. Butthe girls who have enrolled inAbiot Ermeja are performingquite well, he said.

“Girls are learning here,better than the boys,” he said.

Philadelphia InquirerJanuary 5, 200828. In The World

The bodies of two U.S.Navy sailors who were founddead in a hotel room in theWest African nation of Ghanaon New Year's Eve have beenflown to Germany for apostmortem examination, a topGhanaian police official saidyesterday.

Arizona Republic (Phoenix)January 5, 200829. Group Helps InjuredVets Buy HomesNon-profit ensures servicemen

find houses in communitiesnear VA medical centersBy Michelle Roberts,Associated Press

CIBOLO, Texas - The glutof unsold houses pocking thenation's newer neighborhoodsmay be just what the doctorordered for thousands ofwounded service membersfacing homelessness andserious financial hardshipssince returning home from Iraqand Afghanistan, advocatessay.

Operation Homefront, anon-profit that aids the familiesof deployed and woundedservice members, has launchedwhat it says is a first of its kindeffort to match woundedsoldiers with lenders and homebuilders to help them buyhomes at prices they can affordin communities near VeteransAdministration medicalfacilities.

"Especially with so muchinventory, it seems like theperfect match," said MeredithLeyva, co-founder ofOperation Homefront.

The physical woundssuffered by the more than30,000 service membersinjured in Iraq and Afghanistanare often followed by financialchaos as the families absorbextra travel and livingexpenses, forgo combat payand transition to civilian lifewith a disability, Leyva said.

Her group, which helped1,700 injured service members'families pay utility bills orother living expenses last year,is seeing more families fall intobankruptcy and the threat ofhomelessness, she said.

A service member who isinjured and decides to leave themilitary usually qualifies fordisability payments. But often,it can take 18 months to getmilitary, VeteransAdministration and SocialSecurity benefits determined,Leyva said.

Meanwhile, families,many of which have littlesavings, fall behind on bills ata time when travel expensesfor medical treatment areclimbing and they are least

page 27

able to work, she said. Theircredit is badly damaged, andthey must move out of basehousing when the servicemember is discharged from themilitary.

Veterans have access toVA loan guarantees. But thelimits mean they don't offermuch help in many housingmarkets, and in any event,lenders still apply typicalcreditworthiness requirementsto mortgages, Leyva said.

On average, it takes sixmonths for the VA todetermine disability payments,and the lag can get longer if aveteran appeals to get a largeramount, VA spokesman JimBenson said.

The agency has beenworking to decrease the wait,but the workload andpaperwork requirements oftenbog down processing, he said.

The VA, which isprimarily concerned withmedical care and disability,doesn't track bankruptcyamong wounded veterans buthas estimated that 195,000veterans are homeless on anygiven night. As many as twicethat number have beenhomeless within the last year,the agency says. Many of thehomeless are Vietnam-eraveterans.

"These systems aresuperbly designed to deal withmedical issues," Leyva said."They are not designed to dealwith the messy lives of theseservice people."

To launch what it hopeswill be a model for otherwounded service members,Operation Homefront helpedSpc. Austin Johnson and hiswife buy a home in Cibolo,northeast of San Antonio. Theymoved in Thursday.

Johnson suffered atraumatic brain injury from ablast in Iraq last August. Whilehe was being treated in SanAntonio for stuttering, memoryloss and other symptoms, hiswife and three children were ina rollover accident whiledriving from El Paso. All threechildren, ages 2, 5 and 9, werekilled.

Physical and emotionalwounds were then followed byfinancial ruin. Johnson and hiswife, Monalisa, had to file forbankruptcy, crushed by theextra expenses of travel andother unanticipated costs at atime when paying bills seemedunimportant.

Washington PostJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 430. Padilla Sues OverDetention

MIAMI -- Convictedterrorism conspirator JosePadilla sued a key architect ofthe Bush administration'scounterterrorism policies,claiming John Yoo's legalarguments led to Padilla'salleged mistreatment andillegal detention at a Navy brig.Yoo, a former senior JusticeDepartment official, wroteseveral legal memos that ledPresident Bush to designatePadilla as an enemy combatant,the lawsuit contends. Yoo, nowa law professor at theUniversity of California atBerkeley, declined to commentin an e-mail.

New York TimesJanuary 5, 200831. Antimissile Tests SetFor 3 AirlinersBy Associated Press

Up to three AmericanAirlines jetliners will beoutfitted this spring with lasertechnology being developedand tested to protect planesfrom missiles fired byterrorists. Officials said theantimissile systems would notbe tested on passenger flights.The tests, which could involvemore than 1,000 flights, willdetermine how well thetechnology holds up under therigors of flight, they said. Thefirst Boeing 767-200 will beequipped in April or later, saidTim Wagner, an airlinespokesman. American said itwas “not in favor” of puttingthe systems on commercialplanes but agreed to take partin the tests to understand

technologies that might beavailable in the future.

Washington PostJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 1832. Saharan MotorsportRace Canceled OverTerrorism ThreatsBy Jamey Keaten, AssociatedPress

PARIS, Jan. 4 -- TheDakar Rally, the epicmotorcycle, car and truck raceacross the western Saharadesert, was canceled Friday byits organizers, who cited"direct" threats of terrorismfrom militants linked toal-Qaeda.

The race was deemed tooinviting -- and too easy -- atarget for the terrorist group'sNorth African affiliate. Theroughly 550 competitors wereto have embarked Saturday onthe 16-day, 5,760-mile trekthrough remote and hostiledunes and scrub from Europeto Senegal in West Africa.

Organizers of the rally,once known as theParis-Dakar, cited warningsfrom the French governmentabout safety after theal-Qaeda-linked slaying of afamily of French tourists Dec.24 in Mauritania, where mostof the competition was to beheld. In a statement, theorganizers also cited "threatslaunched directly against therace by terrorist organizations."

It was the first time thatthe nearly 30-year-old rally,one of the biggest competitionsin automobile racing, has beencalled off.

The cancellation of such aworld-renowned sports event israre, particularly as apreemptive measure againstterrorism. The 1972 OlympicGames in Munich continued,following a 34-hour pause,after 11 Israeli team memberswere killed by Palestiniangunmen.

Victor Anderes, vicepresident of special projects atGlobal Security Associates, aNew York-based firm that

provides security forhigh-profile events, includingthe 2006 Olympic Games inTurin, Italy, called thecancellation unprecedented.

"Smaller cultural eventshave been canceled beforebecause of terror threats, butthis hasn't happened with sucha major international event," hesaid.

"The threat is significant,"Anderes said. "It would bealmost impossible to secure theentire course." He said the raceis particularly vulnerablebecause it crosses severalcountries and large,unpopulated areas.

"When you are told ofdirect threats against the eventand when the sinister name ofal-Qaeda is mentioned, youdon't ask for details," PatriceClerc, who heads the companythat organizes the rally, said ina telephone interview. "It wasenough for me to hear mygovernment say, 'Beware, thedanger is at a maximum.' "

But some expertsexpressed cautions.

"They scored a mediavictory without firing a shot,"said Louis Caprioli, a formerassistant director at France'scounterintelligence agencyDST, referring to al-Qaeda'sNorth African affiliate."Everybody gets theimpression that they are verypowerful, when they in factrepresent a small number ofpeople in this region."

Adam Raisman, senioranalyst at the SITE Institute, aWashington nonprofit groupthat studies terroristorganizations, said, "Thejihadist Internet community isquite happy with the closing,seeing it as a victory."

Mauritania's governmenthad said last week that it wouldmobilize a 3,000-man securityforce for the race. Its foreignminister said the cancellationwas not justified. "We havetaken every measure to ensurethat the rally goes forwardwithout incident," Babah SidiAbdallah said on RTLtelevision.

The terrorist group, which

page 28

calls itself al-Qaeda in theIslamic Maghreb, is anAlgeria-based organizationonce known as the SalafistGroup for Preaching andCombat.

Boston GlobeJanuary 5, 2008Pg. 133. Man Who Didn'tRegister For Draft SuesIRS Over FiringBy Anna Badkhen, Globe Staff

When he turned 18,Michael B. Elgin Jr. was ahomeless father of a toddler,trying to get himself throughhigh school while living withfriends, relatives and,sometimes, in his car. Elgin didnot know at the time, hislawyer says, but by failing toregister for selective militaryservice within 30 days of his18th birthday, he broke thelaw.

Last year, Elgin'semployer of 18 years, theInternal Revenue Service, firedhim, citing a ban on federalemployment of men who havenot registered, despite hisexemplary record and appealsfrom his supervisors andco-workers. Last week, Elgin,42, of Stoughton, challengedhis dismissal in federal court inBoston on the grounds that itdiscriminated against himbecause he is a man. Womenare not allowed to register.

Elgin declined to speak forthe record.

His lawsuit is the latestchallenge to the SelectiveService System, the federalregistry of all men 18 and olderthat would serve as the basis ofany future military draft.

"It labels women assecond-class, and it imposes aburden and a penalty on men ...that it doesn't impose onwomen," said Elgin's attorney,Boston civil rights lawyerHarvey A. Schwartz. Men whofail to register for selectiveservice are barred from everworking for federal agencies orreceiving federal loans, and, in35 states, are not allowed to

obtain a driver's license, saidDan Amon, a spokesman forthe registry. Violators also canbe fined up to $250,000 orimprisoned for up to five years,Amon said, but thoseprovisions have not beenenforced since the 1980s.

Schwartz said barringwomen from registering forselective service is an"anachronism."

Elgin was hired by theInternal Revenue Service in1991 as a low-level datatranscriber in Andover andworked his way up in theagency, according to thelawsuit he filed Dec. 28,naming as plaintiffs Henry M.Paulson Jr., the secretary of theTreasury, and the TreasuryDepartment, which overseesthe IRS. Elgin's son grew upand served an 18-month tour ofduty with the US Army in Iraq,the lawsuit states.

Elgin received repeatedpraise and numerouspromotions at work, until theagency discovered, during aroutine backgroundinvestigation when he wasproposed for a promotion in2002, that he had failed toregister for selective service,the lawsuit states.

The Office of PersonnelManagement, a federal agencythat manages civilian federalemployees, said Elgin hadknowingly failed to register forselective service, and ruled thathe could not hold a federal job.

For five years, Elgin'ssupporters tried to overturn thatdecision. Elgin's supervisorsand members of the NationalTreasury Employees Unionwrote letters to US SenatorJohn F. Kerry, asking him tointervene, said JamesChisholm, a Kerry spokesman.Chisholm said Kerry wrote twoletters to the IRS on Elgin'sbehalf in 2006, asking theagency to issue an eligibilitywaiver that would allow Elginto remain employed at theagency.

"He seems like a man whomade an honest mistake," saidChisholm. "He seems like anhonest and decent man."

Senator Edward M.Kennedy also sent letters to theIRS and the Office ofPersonnel Management onElgin's behalf, said hisspokeswoman, MelissaWagoner.

The IRS, in turn, asked thepersonnel management agencyto reconsider. That request wasdenied last February, Elgin'slawsuit states. July 27, 2007,Elgin was fired.

"Simply put, if Mr. Elginwere a woman and not a man,he would have retained hisfederal employment," hislawsuit states.

Officials at the TreasuryDepartment and the IRS officein Massachusetts declined tocomment yesterday. The Officeof Personnel Management alsodid not comment. In addition toreinstating Elgin in his old job,the lawsuit asks that the courtrule it unconstitutional topenalize men for failing toregister for selective servicebecause that contravenes theconstitutional ban onpunishment without trial.

The lawsuit also seeks tohave the court rule that theSelective Service Systemdiscriminates on the basis ofgender.

The debate over genderdiscrimination by the SelectiveService System began soonafter the registration wasreintroduced in 1980, fiveyears after the end ofregistration for the draft. In onechallenge, the US SupremeCourt ruled in 1981 that sinceall men registered with theSelective Service areconsidered combatreplacements, and sinceCongress forbids women to gointo combat, women should notbe registered. All subsequentattempts to allow women toregister were struck down onthe basis of that ruling.

"But that decision wasbased on the status of womenin the military at that time, andit's a whole new world now,"Schwartz said. About 196,000women are serving in themilitary. The Pentagon hasmaintained that women do not

serve in combat positions buthas said that servicewomenhave killed and died in thewars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is the second timeSchwartz has filed a lawsuitquestioning selective service.In 2003, Schwartz filed alawsuit demanding that womenbe allowed to register forselective service on behalf ofhis son, who was 18 at thetime, his daughter, who was17, and three of theirMassachusetts friends.

Schwartz lost that lawsuit,did not appeal it, "and I'veregretted it ever since."

This case, he hopes, willbe different. "It's a real lifeperson who was treated poorly.I think it has a lot of appeal,"he said. No hearing date hasbeen set yet.

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