GWOT Media Summary Feb 15

[RAMESES the Great]

U.S. Joint Forces Command
GWOT Media Summary
Operations Iraqi Freedom/Enduring Freedom/Noble Eagle
Current as of February 15, 2008

 New Developments
 Mistaken Iraq Battle Kills 6 Fighters Allied With U.S. Six members of an Awakening Council, groups composed mostly of Sunni Muslims who have turned against the insurgency, were killed early Thursday after they mistakenly fired on American soldiers in the north, the Iraqi police said. The American forces fired back, killing them and two women in nearby houses, the police said. A police commander said the group had thought that the Americans were insurgents. Local American commanders said they could not confirm the episode. But it appeared to underscore the growing danger to Awakening Council members, wedged between United States forces and the insurgent groups many of them once supported, amid a recently begun operation to go after insurgents more aggressively in certain areas. (New York Times – see attached)
 In A First, Ahmadinejad To Visit Iraq Next Month. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to Iraq next month in the first such visit by a leader of the Islamic Republic, Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that Iran had postponed a fourth round of talks with the United States to discuss Iraq's security. Invited by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive March 2 for a visit of two to three days to discuss bilateral relations, the officials said. He will also meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The two neighbors fought an intense eight-year conflict in the 1980s during the rule of Saddam Hussein. But the ascent of a Shiite-dominated government in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ushered in a new era of friendship with overwhelmingly Shiite Iran. (Washington Post – see attached)
 Judges Condemn Police Lies After 9/11 Attacks That Ruined Pilot's Life. Six years of fighting for justice left Lotfi Raissi an emotional and physical wreck and his marriage close to ruin. But Thursday, the Algerian pilot falsely accused of training the September 11 terrorists heard, finally, that he was “completely exonerated” of any part in the attacks on the twin towers. As Mr. Raissi pored over the Court of Appeal’s densely worded judgment, the lengths to which the authorities had bent the rules to detain him in the febrile days after September 11 became clear. Three of Britain’s most senior judges condemned the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for abusing the court process, presenting false allegations and not disclosing evidence. (London Times)

 Military Coverage
 Navy Will Attempt To Down Spy Satellite. A Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean will try an unprecedented shoot-down of an out-of-control, school-bus-size U.S. spy satellite loaded with a toxic fuel as it begins its plunge to Earth, national security officials said Thursday. President Bush made the decision because it was impossible to predict where a tank containing the fuel might land in an uncontrolled descent, officials said. The Pentagon decided to use a modified, ship-fired anti-ballistic missile to make the attempt sometime after Feb. 20 to avoid creating debris that could threaten the space shuttle on its return from the international space station, according to a military source. Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Navy missile will be fired as the satellite reenters the atmosphere and "has a reasonably high opportunity for success." (Washington Post – see attached)
 U.S. Ground Forces: More Money Needed. The Army and Marine Corps need nearly $7 billion more than President Bush requested in next year's budget, according to documents that highlight a significant shortfall at a time when ground forces are carrying the brunt of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Service officials said Bush's proposal for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 was adequate to meet their objectives. But they said much more could be done -- and faster -- to improve the military's ability to fight. "In a time of war and in an era of persistent conflict ... significant challenges remain," Gen. George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, wrote lawmakers. The Navy and Air Force also identified a multibillion-dollar budget gap in what is known on Capitol Hill as service "wish lists." (Chicago Tribune/AP)
 White House Appeals To Top Court On Detainee Data. The Bush administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday in an effort to limit the information it must provide when Guantanamo Bay prisoners challenge their continued captivity. Administration lawyers appealed a ruling by a federal appeals court that would require the U.S. government to turn over virtually all its information on many detainees as part of the legal review. The administration argued that it should be required to provide to the appeals court and to defense lawyers only the evidence that had been presented to the military tribunal that designated the prisoner an enemy combatant. (Reuters)

 Homeland Security
 House Defies Bush On Wiretaps. The House of Representatives defied the White House Thursday by refusing to make an expiring surveillance law permanent, prompting a harsh exchange between Republicans and Democrats as they prepared for an extended, election-year battle over national security. The episode was a rare uprising by Democrats against the White House on a terrorism issue, and it inspired caterwauling on both sides about the dire ramifications of the standoff. Republicans said Democrats were putting the nation at risk, while President Bush offered to delay his scheduled departure for Africa Friday to reach a deal. Democrats responded with charges of administration recklessness and fearmongering. (Washington Post – see attached)
 U.S. Senators Appeal To Rice Over Anti-Terrorist Law. A group of U.S. senators has written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge the government not to sacrifice the interests of U.S. citizens in favor of better relations with the Palestinians. The issue centers on Palestinian demands to reverse payments awarded in U.S. courts under anti-terrorist legislation to U.S. victims of militant attacks. The eight senators drew attention to the case of a U.S. woman whose husband was killed in a Palestinian attack in 2002 and who successfully sued the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Palestinian Authority has now sought to overturn the court's award and has asked Washington to file a so-called statement of interest in the case, which it is expected to do by February 29. (Google/AFP)

 World Developments
 Hezbollah Chief Warns Israel Of Wide War. Hezbollah's leader threatened Thursday to strike Israel anywhere in the world in retaliation for what he said was its role in assassinating Imad Mughniyah, a Hezbollah commander blamed by the United States and Israel for killing hundreds in bombings, kidnappings and hijackings over a quarter-century. In a video speech broadcast to thousands of mourners in a spare but sprawling tent in southern Beirut, Hasan Nasrallah said that because Israel had struck beyond what he called the "traditional battlefield" of Lebanon and Israel, it risked a borderless war with the Shiite Muslim group. Israel has denied involvement in the car bombing Tuesday that killed the 45-year-old Mughniyah in a tony neighborhood of Damascus, the Syrian capital. (Washington Post – see attached)
 In A Reversal, U.S. Agrees To Produce Data Pointing To Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions. The Bush administration has agreed to turn over to international inspectors intelligence data it has collected that it says proves Iran worked on developing a nuclear weapon until a little more than four years ago, according to American and foreign diplomats. The decision reverses the United States’ longstanding refusal to share the data, citing the need to protect intelligence sources. The administration acted as the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to issue a report as early as next week on Iran’s past nuclear activities. Administration officials hope that the nuclear inspectors can now confront Iran with what the Americans believe is the strongest evidence that the Iranians had a nuclear program. (New York Times – see attached)
 Rice To Visit Strife-Torn Kenya. President Bush said Thursday that he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya to try to bring an end to postelection violence, as he laid out a U.S. agenda in Africa to promote economic and political development and expand a massive campaign against HIV/AIDS and malaria. Bush delivered the twin announcements on the eve of his second presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa. The president is scheduled to leave Friday afternoon for a six-day trip to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. Rice will split off from Bush's party Monday and fly to Nairobi to meet with Kenyan leaders and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is trying to mediate a dispute between the country's two dominant political groups. (Los Angeles Times – see attached)
 Australian PM pledges E. Timor Support. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed Friday his nation's troops would stay in East Timor as long as they were needed following assassination bids on the president and prime minister this week. Rudd jetted into Dili for a half-day visit in the wake of Monday's attacks, which critically wounded President Jose Ramos-Horta and threw the six-year-old democracy into fresh crisis. "The purpose of my visit today is to state in clear and loud terms that Australia will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with East Timor into the future in defense of its democratic system of government," Rudd said. Asked how long Australian troops – whose figures were boosted by 350 in the wake of the attacks to some 1,000 – would stay in the fledgling nation, Rudd said, "So long as they are invited here by the government of East Timor." (Agence France Presse)
 Philippines Reports Assassination Plot. Security officials on Thursday reported uncovering plots to kill President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and bomb foreign embassies, just as opposition leaders were calling for more protests urging the unpopular Philippines leader to resign. Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza, head of the Presidential Security Group, said the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group and its allies were behind the planned attacks. Few details were announced. That sparked opposition claims the government was using scare tactics in hopes of curtailing an anti-Arroyo demonstration Friday in Manila's financial district and a Sunday prayer rally involving the Roman Catholic Church and a democracy icon, former President Corazon Aquino. (Kansas City Star/AP)

 Public Opinion
 Palestinians Still Reject Hamas Actions In Gaza. The vast majority of Palestinians continue to think negatively of Hamas’ forceful takeover of the Gaza Strip last year, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 72% of respondents oppose the group’s actions, down two points since December. Fatah candidate Mahmoud Abbas won the January 2005 presidential ballot in the Palestinian Territories with 62.32% of all cast ballots. In January 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council election, securing 74 of the 112 seats at stake. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh officially took over as prime minister in March. The Israeli government believes Hamas is directly responsible for the deaths of 377 citizens in a variety of attacks, which include dozens of suicide bombings. (Angus Reid Global Monitor)

*AP = Associated Press UPI = United Press International KR = Knight Ridder

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Mistaken Iraq Battle Kills 6 Fighters Allied With U.S.
New York Times
February 15, 2008

Six members of an Awakening Council, groups composed mostly of Sunni Muslims who have turned against the insurgency, were killed early Thursday after they mistakenly fired on American soldiers in the north, the Iraqi police said. The American forces fired back, killing them and two women in nearby houses, the police said. A police commander said the group had thought that the Americans were insurgents. Local American commanders said they could not confirm the episode.

But it appeared to underscore the growing danger to Awakening Council members, wedged between United States forces and the insurgent groups many of them once supported, amid a recently begun operation to go after insurgents more aggressively in certain areas. In recent weeks, Sunni extremists have increasingly aimed their attacks at Awakening Council members, killing at least 33 people in car bombings aimed at the groups this week alone. The American military reported Thursday that it had killed 7 insurgents and arrested 16 in north and central Iraq.

The firefight between American troops and Awakening Council members occurred near the village of Raween in Salahuddin Province, northeast of Baghdad, an area that has remained restive despite a 60 percent decrease in violence in Iraq since last summer, after the United States military increased its troop strength by 30,000 soldiers. Also on Thursday, nine members of the same family — a couple and their seven children — were found dead, apparently executed, in their house in Auja, 70 miles south of the firefight with Awakening Council members, in the same province. Auja is the hometown of Saddam Hussein. The children ranged in age from 7 to 17 years. Ragi Ali, 25, the brother of the slain father, Labeeb Ali Khatir, 50, said each family member had been shot with one bullet in the head and another in the stomach. He said a note was left, signed in red by Tawhid Wal Jihad, a group that is part of the Sunni insurgency. The family is distantly related to Mr. Hussein and lives next to the cemetery where he was buried after he was executed in December 2006.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up a car at midday on Thursday at a busy market in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Hospital officials said one person was killed, a 13-year-old boy, though the Ministry of Interior said later that as many as four had died and 33 were wounded. Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the United States military’s second in command in Iraq, said Thursday as he was leaving Iraq for a new job in Washington that the recent overall decline in violence was fragile and that the gains needed to be reinforced by political and economic development. “Security is at such a level now, I believe if you can create jobs, if you can develop an economy, if you can get proper leadership, you’re going to see another significant drop in violence,” he told reporters here after a ceremony in which he handed off his command to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, based in Fort Bragg, N.C. General Austin has served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gen. David A. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, praised General Odierno as one of the chief architects of the increase in American troops that the military says has helped bring about the reduction in violence over the last year. “He recognized the importance of identifying and separating the ‘irreconcilables’ — hard-core Al Qaeda in Iraq — from the ‘reconcilable,’ ” General Petraeus said, referring to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners. General Petraeus said General Odierno, who has been named Army vice chief of staff, understood that “you cannot kill your way out of an insurgency.” While some critics said early in the war that General Odierno, as a brigade commander, had used overly aggressive tactics, he later encouraged the growth of the Awakening groups and a counterinsurgency strategy in which United States soldiers worked more closely with Iraqis.

Iraqi officials said that Iran, without giving any reason, had postponed a series of talks with American officials on improving security in Iraq. The two sides have met three times, most recently in August. The fourth round of talks was scheduled to begin shortly. Iraq also announced that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would visit Baghdad on March 2, the first trip from a leader of the Islamic republic. American officials, who accuse Iran of supporting anti-American fighters here, said they wanted to encourage good relations between the nations. In Washington, Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said, “The fastest way for that to happen is for Iran to stop supporting extremists in Iraq who kill innocent Iraqis and Americans.”

In A First, Ahmadinejad To Visit Iraq Next Month
Washington Post
February 15, 2008

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to Iraq next month in the first such visit by a leader of the Islamic Republic, Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that Iran had postponed a fourth round of talks with the United States to discuss Iraq's security. Invited by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive March 2 for a visit of two to three days to discuss bilateral relations, the officials said. He will also meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The two neighbors fought an intense eight-year conflict in the 1980s during the rule of Saddam Hussein. But the ascent of a Shiite-dominated government in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ushered in a new era of friendship with overwhelmingly Shiite Iran.

The United States and Iran set aside their own animosities and held three rounds of talks to discuss ways to improve Iraq's security. But on Thursday, Iran postponed the next session for the fourth time, Iranian and Iraqi officials said. "These negotiations have been postponed, not canceled," said a diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad. "We believe these negotiations should continue, but we postponed them for technical problems." The diplomat declined to elaborate but said he expected the talks to occur "in the near future." But a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said Iran seemed increasingly unwilling to meet for the discussions, which had been scheduled for Friday. "We are happy to sit down for the talks, but it is increasingly clear Iran is not," said Mirembe Nantongo. "We've been ready to participate for weeks." The Iraqi government, she added, informed the U.S. Embassy of the postponement.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iranian officials did not provide a reason for the postponement. "The Iranians just told us that they are not coming on Friday," Dabbagh said. "We've been informed that it is a matter of a few more days." Last May, the United States and Iran broke a 27-year-old diplomatic freeze when U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker met with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi. Those and more recent discussions have centered on U.S. allegations that Iran is providing weapons and training to Shiite militias in Iraq, charges the Iranians have denied. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to visit the southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, Dabbagh said.

Among other issues, the two neighbors are slated to discuss joint projects, mostly along their 900-mile-long border, including electricity stations and oil fields, Dabbagh said. Dabbagh said Iraq would not conduct its foreign relations in the shadow of the United States. "We are a sovereign country. Our good relationship with Iran will help everybody in the region," he said. In the Baghdad district of Sadr City, the stronghold of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a car bomb detonated in a crowded market Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 36, police said. West of the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed a member of the U.S.-backed Sunni Awakening forces, the latest in a spate of attacks against the fighters, widely credited with helping to decrease violence in Iraq.

Navy Will Attempt To Down Spy Satellite
Washington Post
February 15, 2008

A Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean will try an unprecedented shoot-down of an out-of-control, school-bus-size U.S. spy satellite loaded with a toxic fuel as it begins its plunge to Earth, national security officials said Thursday. President Bush made the decision because it was impossible to predict where a tank containing the fuel might land in an uncontrolled descent, officials said. The Pentagon decided to use a modified, ship-fired anti-ballistic missile to make the attempt sometime after Feb. 20 to avoid creating debris that could threaten the space shuttle on its return from the international space station, according to a military source.

Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Navy missile will be fired as the satellite reenters the atmosphere and "has a reasonably high opportunity for success." The Pentagon and NASA have been working on the missile modifications for the past three weeks. Deputy national security adviser James F. Jeffrey said the decision was based on the fact that the satellite is carrying a substantial amount of the hazardous rocket fuel hydrazine. When the pending crash was first announced last month, however, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe minimized the danger, saying that the potential for pieces hitting a populated area was "very small."

Unless it is shot down, the satellite, which has been out of ground communication since its launch more than a year ago, is expected "to make an uncontrolled reentry . . . on or about March 6," according to documents the Bush administration provided to the United Nations Thursday. "At present," said an official notification sent Thursday to countries around the world as well as to the U.N. and NATO, "we cannot predict the entry impact area." Officials Thursday acknowledged that many satellites -- some of them much larger -- have fallen to Earth in the past without harm. But they said the presence of 1,000 pounds of hydrazine -- unexpended fuel contained in a 40-inch sphere that was likely to hit the ground intact -- led Bush to approve the Pentagon's recommendation to attempt the shoot-down.

The announcement set off an immediate debate on defense blogs and among experts who questioned whether there is an ulterior motive. Some experts said the military is seizing an opportunity to test its controversial missile defense system against a satellite target. But others noted that the Standard Missile-3 has successfully been tested against warhead targets, which are far smaller than the satellite. "There has to be another reason behind this," said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a liberal arms-control advocacy organization. "In the history of the space age, there has not been a single human being who has been harmed by man-made objects falling from space."

NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin insisted that the interception attempt is not a ruse to try the defense system on a satellite or to one-up other countries that have made similar attempts. The administration was harshly critical of China when it destroyed an aging satellite in orbit. The difference, Griffin said, "is, one, we are notifying, which is required by treaties and law, okay?" The Chinese satellite was destroyed at a much higher altitude -- about 600 miles -- creating a field of orbiting space debris that creates hazards for other spacecraft.

The United States and Soviet Union conducted anti-satellite tests in the mid-1980s but stopped once it became clear that the debris from the destroyed spacecraft became a danger to other satellites and even spaceships. Griffin said the low altitude at which the satellite will be targeted -- about 150 miles -- would minimize orbiting debris. "The lower we can catch this, the quicker the debris reenters," he said. More than half the pieces will burn up or land before making two revolutions around the Earth, and the rest will come down in "weeks, maybe a month, but it's a very finite period of time that we can manage."

Jeffrey said that the fuel tank is the only piece of the craft that was not expected to break up on reentry and it is hoped the missile can destroy it in space. If it hits the ground, it could leak gas and cause potentially fatal injury over an area of the size of about two football fields, he said, adding that "this is all about trying to reduce the danger to human beings." Other experts, however, said that they believed the heat of reentry would cause the tank to explode safely high in the air. Cartwright said two other Navy cruisers with backup missiles have been dispatched and, if necessary, they could take additional shots at the satellite. He said, however, that the window for shooting down the spacecraft is quite small.

The National Reconnaissance Office satellite lost contact with ground control soon after it was launched in December 2006. Never ordered to burn its maneuvering fuel, it still carries about 1,000 pounds of frozen hydrazine, a substance Cartwright said is "similar to chlorine or to ammonia in that when you inhale it, it affects your tissues in your lungs," adding: "It has the burning sensation. If you stay very close to it and inhale a lot of it, it could in fact be deadly." The Columbia spacecraft, which lost control and hit the Earth in 2003, also contained a canister of hydrazine gas that landed intact in a Texas woodland. The Columbia was at the end of its mission, however, and most of the hydrazine had burned.

Cartwright said that the Aegis missile system aboard the cruiser would fire an SM-3 missile with a heat-seeking nose that destroys its target by hitting it, not blowing it up. The missile, known as Block III, was developed primarily for intermediate missile defense against warheads coming in at low altitude. The Navy has spent the past three weeks modifying missile software normally set for hitting much higher targets, he said. Asked whether the plan is really an attempt to test the Aegis system as an anti-satellite system -- which would be a very controversial step internationally -- Cartwright said the amount of special modifications being done to the programs used to guide the system would "not be transferable to fleet use." He also rejected widely disseminated blog allegations that the destruction of the satellite had been planned to keep classified information aboard from landing in non-U.S. hands. Everything other than the gas container, he said, would be destroyed on reentry even without a missile strike.

Members of Congress were briefed on the plan Thursday, as were diplomats from other nations. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) said in a statement that "I attended a Congressional briefing this morning by the Department of Defense, and I am satisfied that the destruction of the malfunctioning satellite is the best option available to protect public safety." "However, it should be understood by all, at home and abroad, that this is an exceptional circumstance and should not be perceived as the standard U.S. policy for dealing with errant satellites," he said. "The House Armed Services Committee will work closely with the Department of Defense and other concerned agencies to oversee the broader policy implications of this action in relation to our space assets."

House Defies Bush On Wiretaps
Washington Post
February 15, 2008

The House of Representatives defied the White House Thursday by refusing to make an expiring surveillance law permanent, prompting a harsh exchange between Republicans and Democrats as they prepared for an extended, election-year battle over national security. The episode was a rare uprising by Democrats against the White House on a terrorism issue, and it inspired caterwauling on both sides about the dire ramifications of the standoff. Republicans said Democrats were putting the nation at risk, while President Bush offered to delay his scheduled departure for Africa Friday to reach a deal. Democrats responded with charges of administration recklessness and fearmongering.

The conflict erupted on the same day that House Democrats approved contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers over their refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the mass firings of U.S. attorneys. That vote -- resulting in the first citations ever issued against White House officials -- infuriated the Bush administration and helped torpedo a short-lived political truce with Democrats, who had celebrated the signing of a bipartisan economic stimulus package on Wednesday. Republicans staged a walkout before the vote.

The surveillance dispute centers on the Protect America Act, a temporary law approved over Democratic misgivings last August. It expanded the powers of the government to monitor the communications of foreign suspects without warrants, including international phone calls and e-mails passing through or into the United States. It is set to expire at the end of the day Saturday. The Bush administration wants to make the law permanent, while adding legal immunity for telecommunication companies that were sued for invasions of privacy after helping U.S. intelligence agencies conduct warrantless wiretapping. The Senate has approved a bill backed by the White House, but the House has balked at the immunity provision and raised other objections because of civil-liberties concerns. Without the law, administration officials said Thursday in interviews and statements, the monitoring of terrorist groups overseas will be severely hampered. Telecom firms may also become reluctant to help the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies conduct surveillance, officials said.

"If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning will be compromised," Bush said in a hastily arranged news appearance on the South Lawn of the White House. He said that intelligence officials were "waiting to see" if Congress would "tie their hands." Democrats immediately said that the expiration of the temporary law would have little, if any, immediate impact on intelligence gathering. "He has nothing to offer but fear," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters after Bush's address. "I regret your reckless attempt to manufacture a crisis over the reauthorization of foreign surveillance laws," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a letter to Bush, in defense of his colleagues in the House. "Instead of needlessly frightening the country, you should work with Congress in a calm, constructive way." The acrimony reflects the long-simmering anger among some Democratic lawmakers and their liberal allies over their inability to thwart Bush on Iraq policy and terrorism issues since the Democrats took control of Congress last year after the 2006 elections. It also indicates a new willingness to risk election-year attacks by Republicans who say that Democrats are unfit to protect the country.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the Democrats will pay a political price for leaving a national security issue unfinished and recessing for a break. "They're just playing with fire on this," he said. The secret court directives issued under the Protect America Act are valid for a year, meaning that all will remain in effect until at least August, intelligence officials said. The underlying law that has governed covert spying for 30 years, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, will also remain in effect. In addition, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Rep. Sylvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), said in a letter to Bush Thursday that existing surveillance orders "may cover every terrorist group without limitation," and that new groups, telephone numbers and e-mails can be added to those orders regardless of whether the temporary law expires. "If our nation is left vulnerable in the coming months, it will not be because we don't have enough domestic spying powers," Reyes wrote. "It will be because your Administration has not done enough to defeat terrorist organizations -- including al-Qaeda -- that have gained strength since 9/11."

Bush has used the veto pen to block repeated Democratic efforts to put restrictions on war funding and has won most of the tools he considers necessary to wage the fight against terrorists despite criticism from civil libertarians. Bush also threatened a veto during the surveillance bill dispute, saying he would reject any legislation that reached his desk without retroactive immunity for the telecom firms. Several Democrats said Thursday that many in their party wish to take a more measured approach to terrorism issues, and they refused to be stampeded by Bush. "We have seen what happens when the president uses fearmongering to stampede Congress into making bad decisions," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). "That's why we went to war in Iraq." White House officials and their allies were angry that the Democrats did not "blink," as one outside adviser said. The decision to defy the White House came in the form of a weeklong adjournment of the House Thursday afternoon. Pelosi said she instructed committee chairmen to begin talks with their Democratic counterparts in the Senate, who this week supported the administration's position on the surveillance bill, suggesting that a compromise might be possible in the coming weeks.

The move prompted House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to stage a walkout with scores of other GOP lawmakers just before Democrats voted to cite the two Bush aides for contempt of Congress. "We have space on the calendar today for a politically charged fishing expedition, but no space for a bill that would protect the American people from terrorists who want to kill us," Boehner said. He then told his colleagues: "Let's just get up and leave." In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Kenneth L. Wainstein, head of the Justice Department's national security division, said that the Protect America Act had enabled surveillance agencies to fill "the intelligence gaps that were so troubling to us."

Expiration of the law, he said, would force the Justice Department to seek new surveillance approval, requiring more paperwork and time, if the telecommunication provider of a new terrorism suspect is not covered under existing directives. Ben Powell, general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said on the same call that the government had "obtained significant information" about terrorists using its expanded powers, allowing it to disrupt "planned terrorist attacks" and to gain intelligence about a potential suicide bomber. He did not provide details.

Hezbollah Chief Warns Israel Of Wide War
Washington Post
February 15, 2008

Hezbollah's leader threatened Thursday to strike Israel anywhere in the world in retaliation for what he said was its role in assassinating Imad Mughniyah, a Hezbollah commander blamed by the United States and Israel for killing hundreds in bombings, kidnappings and hijackings over a quarter-century. In a video speech broadcast to thousands of mourners in a spare but sprawling tent in southern Beirut, Hasan Nasrallah said that because Israel had struck beyond what he called the "traditional battlefield" of Lebanon and Israel, it risked a borderless war with the Shiite Muslim group. Israel has denied involvement in the car bombing Tuesday that killed the 45-year-old Mughniyah in a tony neighborhood of Damascus, the Syrian capital.

"You have crossed the borders," he said in the speech, which was vehement even by Nasrallah's fiery standards. "Zionists, if you want this type of open war, then let it be, and let the whole world hear: We, like all other people, have a sacred right to defend ourselves, and everything we can do to defend ourselves, we will do." "At your service, Nasrallah!" the crowd shouted to the cadence of fists in the air. Israel put its embassies and other interests abroad on alert Thursday, reinforced its troops on the Lebanese border and warned its citizens of the prospect of kidnapping. Hezbollah was last accused of attacking Israeli interests abroad in the 1990s, when Argentina implicated the group and its Iranian backers in fatal bombings of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Many Lebanese believe the attacks were in retaliation for Israel's 1992 assassination of Abbas Musawi, Nasrallah's predecessor.

Mughniyah's funeral took place on a day that displayed the stark contrasts in a country still reeling from Hezbollah's war with Israel in 2006 and a deepening standoff that pits the Shiite movement and its Christian allies against a coalition of Sunni Muslims, Druze and Christians gathered around the government. That 15-month confrontation has left Lebanon without a president since November and paralyzed the work of its cabinet and parliament, marking the worst crisis since its 15-year civil war ended in 1990. Hours before Mughniyah's funeral, tens of thousands of government supporters gathered at Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut to mark the third anniversary of the killing of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. His followers blame his assassination on Syria, which denies the allegation. Unlike in past demonstrations downtown, the crowds appeared more dutiful than inspired, soaked as they were by a driving rain. But everywhere, there were signs of crisis. Followers of Hariri donned paramilitary outfits similar to those worn by Hezbollah's men, and supporters casually discussed the prospect of a renewal of the country's civil war.

"If they want war, we want war. If they want peace, we want peace," said Moussa Khader, a 55-year-old pro-government demonstrator. "We're just waiting for an order." He then quoted a proverb: "Things have to get bigger if they're going to get smaller." The men venerated at the different events encapsulated the contest between the two cultures that has often defined the crisis. Hariri envisioned Lebanon returning to its place as a commercial hub of the Levant, albeit one infused with often spectacular corruption in the service of deal-making.

Mughniyah sought to fulfill Hezbollah's vision of a country engaged in an ongoing confrontation with Israel that, as Nasrallah put it, made Lebanon "a land of resistance." The two cultures spoke to each other at a distance. "Our hand is extended and will remain extended, no matter what the difficulties," Hariri's son, Saad, told the crowd, in which many held banners that celebrated "Our Lebanon." "When we see that the extended hand is sincere, it will only be met by an extended hand," Nasrallah answered hours later in a stentorian voice at Mughniyah's funeral.

A coffin said to hold Mughniyah's body was draped in the yellow banner of Hezbollah, beneath a portrait that declared him "a great leader and martyr." The mournful iconography of Shiite Islam's holiest day, Ashura, was still hanging around it. Men in black uniforms and berets stood at attention on the stage, joined by an honor guard bearing flags and a military band that played Hezbollah's anthem, then Lebanon's. Every one of the thousands of seats was filled, and the crowd spilled into nearby, hardscrabble streets. Some mourners cried. Others photographed the coffin with their cellphones or held aloft pictures of the bearded, stocky Mughniyah. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who was in attendance, read a message of condolence from Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a mark of the group's ties to Iran, which helped found Hezbollah in the wake of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Mottaki was seated between Hezbollah's deputy leader and Mughniyah's father. "Let the Israelis hear me well. In any war, you wouldn't face one Imad Mughniyah, but tens of thousands of Imad Mughniyahs," said Nasrallah, whose remarks were broadcast live onto a theater-size screen.

The portrait of Mughniyah was the first time that many at the funeral had seen the face of a man whose elusiveness over the years had made him a ghostlike figure. His supporters, who knew him as Hajj Radwan, his nom de guerre, revered him for helping to drive U.S. forces out of Lebanon in the early 1980s. To his foes, he was the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on Israeli and American targets in a generation. The Americans blamed him for the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon in 1983 and 1984, and the 1983 attack on the U.S. Marine barracks there that killed 241 service members.

Nasrallah said Mughniyah had played a key role in organizing Hezbollah's defenses during its 33-day war with Israel in 2006, which the group considers a victory. But in a 2006 interview with the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, published Thursday, Mughniyah played down the scope of exploits attributed to him. The Americans "make it sound as if I hold the keys to the universe," he was quoted as saying. "It was difficult for them to be convinced that I am part of an organization that plans its steps with calm, an organization that patiently thinks and plans to achieve what needs to be achieved, and that doesn't do it as a reaction or with anger."

At the earlier rally, both Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, another pro-government leader, suggested that Syria, not Israel, was behind Mughniyah's killing. Some have suggested that Syria's cooperation would have been necessary to kill a man who evaded U.S. and Israeli agencies for 25 years and adhered to a caution that earned the grudging respect of even his enemies. He was said to have undergone plastic surgery to change his identity, and his whereabouts -- in Lebanon, Iran or elsewhere -- were always a matter of speculation. "Look what happened yesterday," Jumblatt told the crowd. Syria and its allies "are tearing each other apart. They are eating each other. This is a regime of treason." In Damascus, there were no signs of an investigation at the scene of the attack, and onlookers were not barred from the site. A patch of black that designated the blast had been washed away by rain, and on Thursday, a car was parked over it. Residents said the Mitsubishi Pajero in which Mughniyah was killed had been parked for at least three days. "The police came and asked a few questions," said a woman whose apartment was near the attack site. "But had even I been an inspector, I would have asked more questions. They came for a couple of minutes and left. That was all."

In A Reversal, U.S. Agrees To Produce Data Pointing To Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions
New York Times
February 15, 2008

The Bush administration has agreed to turn over to international inspectors intelligence data it has collected that it says proves Iran worked on developing a nuclear weapon until a little more than four years ago, according to American and foreign diplomats. The decision reverses the United States’ longstanding refusal to share the data, citing the need to protect intelligence sources. The administration acted as the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to issue a report as early as next week on Iran’s past nuclear activities. Administration officials hope that the nuclear inspectors can now confront Iran with what the Americans believe is the strongest evidence that the Iranians had a nuclear program. The Bush administration’s refusal to turn over the data has been a source of friction with Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the agency, who has argued that Iran must be given a fair chance to examine some of the case that Washington has developed. But it remains unclear how much of the data Dr. ElBaradei will be allowed to disclose to the Iranians. In particular, it is not clear if the information includes diagrams and designs that were secretly taken out of Iran on a laptop computer in 2004 and turned over to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Under the terms of a “work plan” concluded last summer, Iran was to have met a series of deadlines set by the agency to resolve any unanswered questions about its nuclear activities. Dr. ElBaradei is eager to resolve all of the outstanding questions before he issues his next report to the agency’s 35-member board, which could be as early as the end of next week. The Bush administration’s decision came two months after the publication of a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded, with what it terms “high confidence,” that Iran was designing a weapon through 2003. But the assessment indicated that Iranian officials ordered the work halted later that year, perhaps because they feared it would ultimately be discovered. The publication of the new estimate in early December undercut efforts to toughen sanctions that were initially imposed because Iran refused to follow a United Nations Security Council demand that it stop enriching uranium. On Sunday, in an interview with Fox News, Mr. Bush made it clear that he disagreed with the idea that the intelligence estimate lowered the threat from Iran. “Iran is a threat, and that’s what the N.I.E. said, if you read it carefully,” he said. “It showed they had a weapons — secret military weapons program, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have another secret weapons military program.”

According to American and foreign officials interviewed about the contents of the laptop, the information found there included descriptions of the so-called Green Salt Project. That project, which involved uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design, demonstrated what the agency suspected were links between Iran’s military and its ostensibly peaceful nuclear program. If that evidence were substantiated, it would undercut Iran’s claims that its program is aimed solely at producing electrical power. The documents on the laptop described two programs, termed L-101 and L-102 by the Iranians, describing designs and computer simulations that appeared to be related to weapons work. Iran, while dismissing as baseless the assertions that such a program existed, agreed to examine documents that the United States said pertained to Green Salt. But Iran has said it wants to take possession of the documents, something the United States has refused to allow. Iran could cry foul unless the Americans turn over the documents, which Dr. ElBaradei said it has a right to have.

“We have to give them access to the documents — I think it’s fair,” he said in an interview last August. “I’m a lawyer, and due process will tell me that I cannot accuse a person without providing him or her with the evidence.” He added, “I can’t accuse a country saying, ‘You will get your charges but I am not going to tell you what the charges are.’ ” Officials cautioned that they did not know whether the information to be shared with Iran would be enough to persuade the country to be more forthcoming about certain aspects of its past nuclear activities. The most likely outcome, officials said, is that Iranian officials will be allowed to view a sanitized presentation, similar to the one that American intelligence officials showed in 2005 to countries it was trying to persuade to vote for sanctions against Iran. The presentation included selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments that, according to the American officials, showed a longstanding effort to design what appeared to be a nuclear warhead or similar “re-entry vehicle.”

In recent months, France, Britain and Germany have been strongly urging the United States to turn over to Iran any relevant intelligence information, including documents found on the laptop, that could shed light on Iran’s nuclear history, European officials said. The Europeans did not want Iran to avoid cooperating fully in revealing its past by trying to blame the United States. While Dr. ElBaradei is trying to bring the outstanding past issues to closure before he issues his report on the status of the Iranian program, the officials said that they were doubtful that Iran could clear up the remaining questions in such a short time. On Thursday, Dr. ElBaradei met in Paris with President Nicolas Sarkozy and other senior French officials, who urged him to be firm with Iran, stressing that the credibility of his agency was at stake. France has taken a hard line against Iran, joining the United States and Britain in pressing for new, tougher international sanctions against the country for flouting Security Council resolutions demanding that it stop making nuclear fuel. In a speech on Wednesday night to France’s Jewish community, Mr. Sarkozy called on Iran to “renounce military nuclear power” and “live up to its word.” He added that Iran’s uranium enrichment program “has no civilian purpose.”

Rice To Visit Strife-Torn Kenya
Los Angeles Times
February 14, 2008

President Bush said Thursday that he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya to try to bring an end to postelection violence, as he laid out a U.S. agenda in Africa to promote economic and political development and expand a massive campaign against HIV/AIDS and malaria. Bush delivered the twin announcements on the eve of his second presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa. The president is scheduled to leave Friday afternoon for a six-day trip to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. Rice will split off from Bush's party Monday and fly to Nairobi to meet with Kenyan leaders and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is trying to mediate a dispute between the country's two dominant political groups.

Bush, whose itinerary across the continent's midsection skirts its most troubled states and highlights instead its success stories, has come under pressure to involve his administration in efforts to stem the violence in Kenya, until weeks ago considered one of the most stable examples of democratic progress in Africa. Rice, Bush said, will "deliver a message directly to Kenya's leaders and people: There must be an immediate halt to violence, there must be justice for the victims of abuse, and there must be a full return to democracy." Annan is seeking to mediate a crisis that has left more than 1,000 people dead since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election. He hopes to complete a power-sharing agreement between the two sides by the end of this week.

In a speech at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, Bush sought to assure Africans that "the United States is committed to them today, tomorrow and long into their continent's bright future," and he declared Africa "increasingly vital to our strategic interests." Bush outlined a broadened U.S. role in Africa well beyond the end of his administration and promised that the so-called Dark Continent would enjoy "the light of liberty. "Africa in the 21st century is a continent of potential," he said, "where democracy is advancing, where economies are growing, and leaders are meeting challenges with purpose and determination." Bush presented both a religious and a security underpinning to the U.S. commitment.

"Our brothers and sisters in Africa have dignity and value, because they bear the mark of our Creator," he said, while also recognizing that a declining Africa "would be more likely to produce failed states, foster ideologies of radicalism and spread violence across borders." Bush's first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president, in 2003, took him to two of the continent's economic heavyweights, South Africa and Nigeria, among other stops. The five countries he will visit now were chosen to highlight economic and political successes and, in the examples set by Rwanda and Liberia, recent histories of overcoming genocide, civil war and political corruption. But the president is sidestepping some of the continent's most troublesome locales not far from the signs of stability on which he is focusing: warfare in Sudan's Darfur region and in Congo, the rule of warlords in Somalia, turmoil on the Chad-Sudan border, and even the competition China poses as it seeks an increasingly deep hold on the continent's natural resources. Bush said the United States remained committed to U.N. efforts to deploy a peacekeeping force in Darfur but that he was "a little frustrated by how slow things are moving."

But Gayle Smith, who oversaw National Security Council work on Africa during the final years of the Clinton administration, said that "this growing arc of crisis" was missing from the trip. She estimated peacekeeping operations were underfunded by as much as $600 million. "The administration wants to focus on a number of relative success stories -- countries that have been working hard to resolve their internal problems, to overcome corruption and governance issues, to institutionalize democracy, to liberalize their economies," said J. Anthony Holmes, an expert on Africa at the Council on Foreign Relations and a veteran of 28 years in the U.S. Foreign Service. "The focus of this trip is legacy, legacy, legacy. They really want to highlight and enshrine what the president has accomplished," Holmes said in a telephone conference call with reporters, adding that the trip would allow Bush to score "some political points" because it would show the U.S. domestic audience "that the U.S. is engaged in helping Africa."

The administration's primary health initiative in Africa, the anti-AIDS and malaria program, is widely seen as the largest international health campaign in history. "He has put his money where his mouth is," Holmes said, but, in a reference to the need for even greater aid programs, added that "there is much more the United States could do." The $15-billion emergency program for AIDS relief will be one of the central themes of the trip. Bush is seeking a new five-year outlay of $30 billion for the program; some critics have said at least $50 billion is needed. Bush said that five years ago when he visited Africa, 50,000 people were receiving medicine to treat HIV/AIDS. Now, he said, more than 1.3 million people are being treated, and the program has benefited tens of millions of people on the continent. "Some call this a remarkable success," he said. "I call it a good start." He is also calling attention to his administration's refocusing of foreign aid, under the Millennium Challenge Account, built around rewarding efforts to build democracy and cut corruption in the developing world. Bush noted that two-thirds of the program's $5.5 billion was being spent in Africa, on programs intended to promote economic development, and that he would sign a compact for the largest project, worth $700 million, in Tanzania.