Cost of Iraq War Could Be in the $1-3 Trillion Range

President Bush today gave an address at the Pentagon on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war. He argued that the war is still worth fighting despite the cost in blood and treasure. The Voice of America reports that the president says critics have exaggerated the war's costs because they can no longer argue the U.S. is losing the conflict.

CNN reports that the president said the debate over the world is understandable but he insisted that a U.S. presence in Iraq is crucial. He also asked Americans for more patience with the ongoing U.S. involvement in Iraq, calling it a fight that America "can and must win."

But Democrats disagree with almost everything the president said today, pointing out that not only is the situation far from being resolved in Iraq, but that the cost to the American taxpayer is far beyond what Bush had originally said it would be. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cost will hit the $1 trillion mark by the end of next year. The yearly cost has doubled since the 2003 appropriation of $74 billion - which the Bush administration expected to be the total cost of the war.

The BBC reports that some economists argue that the cost of the war will be far greater.

A study by the Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Linda Bilmes, a budget expert from Harvard, concludes the cost could be at least $3 trillion. The figure is so large because, Professor Stiglitz says, it includes costs that official estimates do not, such as the cost of the lifetime medical care for 65,000 injured American personnel.

Bush administration officials call the $3 trillion cost "exaggerated."

The war is without a doubt going to play a role in the 2008 presidential election. NPR has a timeline of the three remaining presidential candidates positions on the Iraq war.

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Update: TPMCafe reports on a reconciliation conference in Iraq that was boycotted by many of the county's key Sunni and Shiite parties and politicians.

10:50 AM ET | 03-19-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Poll: More Americans Optimistic About Iraq

For the first time in many months, nearly half of Americans now believe that the war in Iraq is going fairly well.

But the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reports this new optimism is not translating into support for a long-term U.S. mission there — 54 percent of those surveyed say the troops should be brought home as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the situation has further stabilized. That number has been pretty steady for the past nine months.

Much of the good news for the Bush administration in the poll, which surveyed 1,399 adults across the country, related to security in Iraq.

The number of Americans who say that the United States is making progress in reducing the number of civilian casualties in Iraq has doubled from 21% to 43% since June. The proportion saying that progress has been achieved in preventing terrorists from establishing bases in Iraq is also up substantially, as is the number saying the U.S. is making progress in defeating the insurgents militarily.

In other areas, the news wasn't quite so good for the White House. President Bush's approval rating stayed virtually unchanged since the last survey in September; only 30 percent of Americans approve of the job he's doing. And the country remains almost evenly divided on whether the U.S. effort in Iraq will succeed.

10:59 AM ET | 11-28-2007 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post

Officials Downplay Expectations for Mideast Summit

When President Bush opens the Middle East summit in Annapolis, Md., today, he will tell the attendees that the time is right to relaunch peace talks because "a battle is under way for the future" of the troubled region. But he's not expected to detail any of his own ideas on how to achieve the goal.

Meanwhile, the two main participants are having trouble even agreeing on a joint statement about the purpose of the talks, despite heavy pressure from the United States to produce one. Palestinians want the statement to address, "at least in general terms, key issues of Palestinian statehood — final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost homes in Israel following its 1948 creation. Israel has pressed for a more vague statement of commitment to two states living side by side in peace," The Associated Press reports.

In the Middle East itself, a series of polls found widespread skepticism among Israelis and Palestinians about the summit, McClatchy reports.

Nearly three-quarters of Israelis expect the conference to lead to nothing. A majority of Palestinians expect that a failure at Annapolis will lead to a surge in violence. And while most people on both sides support peace talks, they aren't willing to make the painful sacrifices necessary to end the conflict.

Participants in the summit are publicly expressing optimism about the talks, while at the same time trying to downplay any expectations that they will lead to a settlement quickly. However, both Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have said they will try to find a solution before Bush leaves office next year.

10:55 AM ET | 11-27-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Focus Group Tests Attitude Toward Conflict with Iran

When they need to take the public's pulse, politicians and corporations often turn to focus groups. Advocacy organizations use this strategy as well, and Mother Jones reports that one of them, the Israel Project, even used a focus group to test-market language that could be used to gain support for military action against Iran.

The Israel Project, which "conducts extensive polling on American public attitudes toward Israel and the Middle East," is a nonprofit group with a board of advisers that includes 15 Democratic and Republican members of Congress.

The focus group test, held earlier this month in Alexandria, Va., was "designed" by Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm. One of the people chosen to be in the group was Laura Sonnenmark, a Democratic Party volunteer. "The whole basis of the whole thing was, 'we're going to go into Iran and what do we have to do to get you guys to along with it?'" Sonnenmark says.

After about two hours of talking about the situation in the Middle East, Sonnenmark said the focus group leader asked three questions: "How would you feel if Hillary [Clinton] bombed Iran? How would you feel if George Bush bombed Iran? And how would you feel if Israel bombed Iran?"

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi of the Israel Project told Mother Jones that the focus group test was intended to help the organization promote "our belief in pushing sanctions."

2:43 PM ET | 11-20-2007 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Concerns About Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Mount

The United States continues to be concerned about the "state of emergency and curtailment of basic freedoms" in Pakistan, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said today.

Another U.S. concern, NPR national security correspondent Jackie Northam reports, is Pakistan's nuclear weapons. (The country is believed to have 50.) Jackie told me U.S. officials are worried what might happen if Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is overthrown or becomes too weak.

But their biggest worry isn't that the weapons will fall into the hands of the Islamic militants the United States has been relying on Musharraf to help fight. It's that insiders in the Pakistani nuclear movement might try to sell materials, Jackie says. Officials point to the case of A.Q. Khan, a Pakistani engineer who bought and sold nuclear knowledge and supplies on the international black market.

The U.S. has worked with Pakistan to safeguard materials, but that has actually sparked some resentment in Pakistan, Jackie says, describing it as a feeling of "the Americans are coming to Pakistan to steal all of our nukes."

While the general in charge of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is pro-Western, and the military is the most stable intuition in the country, Jackie told me one expert compared the situation to money left sitting on a bank counter. Even an honest person might be tempted to pick some up if it's just lying around. And a Pakistani nuclear scientist might be willing to sell some nuclear secrets if safeguards start to appear weak.

6:22 PM ET | 11- 9-2007 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post

Diplomats Protest Move to Force Some to Go to Iraq

Some U.S. diplomats told senior State Department officials during a contentious meeting Wednesday that they aren't happy about a decision that could force some of them to serve in Iraq.

Karen DeYoung, senior diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post, talked to Alex Cohen on Day to Day about the diplomats' protests. She said the meeting came after department officials sent e-mails to about 200 diplomats, notifying them that they are prime candidates to fill the remaining 48 of about 250 positions that will become vacant next summer. Some of those vacancies will be at the U.S. embassy and others with the provincial reconstruction teams around Iraq. If enough people don't volunteer by Nov. 12, then the State Department will use "directed assignments" that will force people to go.

DeYoung, who listened to a tape of the meeting, said the head of the diplomats' union said his membership didn't feel like they had the training to do the job. Another diplomat talked about coming back from Iraq and not getting help coping with her readjustment, despite asking for it.

But the diplomats' protests aren't sitting so well with soldiers in Iraq, according to JJ Sutherland, currently working in NPR's Baghdad bureau. One soldier he talked to laughed about their protests. He said lots of guys had been there for 15-month tours in brutal, urban combat conditions, so it was hard to understand the anxiety about working in the heavily fortified Green Zone.

But most importantly, the soldiers say the lack of diplomats impedes their work. The military can only do so much, and to rebuild the government, State Department expertise is required.

DeYoung said that the diplomats don't want to be seen as "wimps," and they point out that hundreds of them have served in Iraq since 2003. But the way the potential forced assignments are being handled has made them angry.

4:38 PM ET | 11- 1-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Iraq Proposes Removing Contractors' Immunity

The immunity that private security contractors working in Iraq have enjoyed since 2004 could be on its way out. The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft law today that would allow foreign security contractors to be arrested and prosecuted if they break Iraqi laws.

The Iraqi government's move followed the news that the U.S. State Department offered employees of one of the contractors, Blackwater USA, immunity from prosecution by the United States in exchange for their statements about a shooting last month that killed 17 Iraqi civilians. NPR national security correspondent Jackie Northam reports that the State Department wasn't authorized to make that offer and that the FBI now has to re-interview the guards without a promise of immunity, making it much harder to prosecute anyone. Several guards have reportedly refused to answer questions again.

But could the Iraqis prosecute the security guards under their own laws if immunity is removed?

Continue reading "Iraq Proposes Removing Contractors' Immunity" »

1:20 PM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

U.S. Role in Turkey-PKK Conflict Scrutinized

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (right) talks to Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan (left) with the help of a translator during a meeting today in Baghdad.

Ali Al-Saadi-Pool/Getty Images

Diplomatic efforts aimed at convincing Turkey not to invade northern Iraq to go after Kurdish rebels continued today with a promise from Iraq to help curb their attacks. As I've been following these unfolding negotiations, one thing I've been wondering about is the United States' role in the conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

"What role is that?" Jenny White responded with a laugh when I asked her to talk about it. White is an associate professor of anthropology at Boston University and an expert on Turkey.

"Really, it's kind of ludicrous," she continued. "I was in Turkey this past summer, and you could sense how mad Turks are at the U.S. And the decline in popular support was due to the fact that the U.S. was doing nothing to stop the PKK attacks against Turkish soldiers and civilians, despite the fact that the PKK was operating in territory supposedly under U.S. control. And the whole Armenian business in Congress made relations between Turkey and the U.S. even worse."

But, of course, the United States already has a lot to deal with in Iraq. On All Things Considered on Monday, Michele Kelemen talked to experts who pointed out that the U.S. military is not likely to transfer much-needed troops in areas like Baghdad to the northern edges of Iraq. And then there is the sense that the United States and Turkey are no longer "on the same wavelength," as they were in the days of the Cold War.

White said that when she was last in Washington, a military official talked about how things have changed, saying the U.S. was displeased with Turkey's relationship with Iran, which has tried to help fight the PKK.

With limited military options, the United States seems to be getting tough with its Kurdish allies in northern Iraq, even saying publicly that it is disappointed with Kurdish inaction against the PKK. So it becomes yet another diplomatic balancing act: putting pressure on one ally to avoid losing another in the largely hostile region.

4:00 PM ET | 10-23-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Mistrials in Muslim Charity Case Spark Questions

Now that the government's largest terrorism-funding case has spiraled into confusion and mistrials, one expert says it's time to look at how the government went after the now-defunct Muslim charity on trial in the first place.

David Cole, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, says what should cause concern about the case is the "secret process" the government used to shut down and freeze the assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which has been accused of financing terrorists, almost six years ago.

"Now that the government has put all its evidence on the table, and they were unable to establish that a crime was committed, it really is time to look at how the initial decision was made," said Cole, the co-author of Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror. "It looks like the government is trying to go farther than the law would justify."

However, The Investigative Project on Terrorism notes that a federal judge did find there was sufficient evidence connecting the charity to the Palestinian militant group Hamas to reject Holy Land's request to remove its designation as a terrorist group and unfreeze its funds in 2002.

And conservative Rod Dreher writes in his Crunchy Con blog at Beliefnet that he thinks the government didn't get a verdict in its favor in the criminal case because the jury didn't understand it.

Cole, a frequent critic of the Bush administration's policies in the war on terror, points out that this isn't the first time the government has had trouble getting a conviction in a federal terrorism case. Statistics from the 2006 Terrorist Trial Report Card from New York University's Center on Law and Security show the government has won 29 percent of cases since 2001.

12:07 PM ET | 10-23-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Canadian Gets Apology from U.S. Congressmen

Canadian Maher Arar heard two things Thursday he probably didn't expect. First, he got apologies from both Democratic and Republican congressmen for being wrongly sent by U.S. authorities in 2002 to Syria for suspected terrorist links. Arar was repeatedly tortured during the year he was in a Syrian prison.

And he heard Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler say, "There is nothing [in the U.S. government's secret dossier on Arar] to justify the continuation of this campaign of vilification against you or to deny you entry into this country." Nadler made the comments after saying he had read the file. "This was a kidnapping," Nadler said.

But the one thing Arar didn't get was permission to travel to the United States, which was the reason that he was testifying, by video link from Ottawa, to a House Judiciary subcommittee in Washington about his experiences. The Bush administration has refused to take Arar off its no-fly list even though he's been completely cleared by Canadian officials after an extensive judicial inquiry. The U.S. is also trying to squash a lawsuit that Arar has filed in New York.

And while they apologized to Arar for his treatment, Republican members of the committee defended the practice of extraordinary rendition, calling it a vital tool in the war on terror. They also noted that Canadian officials had made the first mistake about Arar. But the committee's chairman, Democrat William Delahunt, praised Canada for being accountable for its culpability in the case and said it "cries out" for a similar independent probe in the U.S.

11:48 AM ET | 10-19-2007 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Helping Iraqi Refugees in America and Abroad

Abood al-Khafajee says he's lucky. Out of the more than 2 million Iraqi refugees around the world, he's one of the 1,600 who have been allowed to settle in the U.S. in the past year.

Deborah Amos, who covers Iraq for NPR, spent time with al-Khafajee's family, now living in Brooklyn, N.Y. It's a new, unfamiliar landscape for the family members, who, for instance, had no idea what asparagus was the first time they saw it in a supermarket.

The family was forced to leave Iraq because al-Khafajee, who had worked as a translator for the U.S. military, was threatened. There are many Iraqis in similar situations, and one of al-Khafajee's daughters, Shaima, says she doesn't think the U.S. is doing enough to help others who were forced to flee.

Many refugees wind up stuck in a kind of legal limbo in places like Syria. They don't want to go home, but no countries will take them. Earlier this week, Deborah examined the problems facing these refugees and, in particular, their children. There are almost half a million Iraqi children in Syria, and their parents often can't afford school there, meaning a generation of Iraqi kids may go uneducated.

For its part, Syria says the international community is not doing enough to help. After leaving its borders open much longer than other neighboring countries, Syria imposed a strict visa requirement on all Iraqis on Oct. 1.

Now, as Deborah said to me, where will they go?

12:31 PM ET | 10-17-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Ill, Disabled Account for Many Afghan Suicide Attacks

It's a shake-your-head statistic. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reported on Morning Edition that a doctor's work shows most Afghan suicide bombers are sick, physically disabled or mentally ill.

Afghan security officials say that most of the bombers are foreigners. But a recent United Nations report says bombers caught before they could attack were overwhelmingly Afghan. Regardless of their nationalities, 80 percent of bombers are disabled or sick, says Dr. Yusef Yadgari, a pathologist who examines their remains.

"They are probably resentful because in Afghan society they are outcasts," Yadgari says. "They hold a grudge because many of them can't get a job. So, to make money for their families, they agree to become suicide bombers."

Interestingly, Afghan suicide bombers are "not celebrated" in the way that their counterparts elsewhere often are, says Christine Fair, co-author of the U.N. report. "Many parents don't even seem to know that their child or their relative blew themselves up in this act," she said.

4:47 PM ET | 10-15-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Blackwater Wants to Expand Military Work

U.S. officials are mulling a request from the Iraqi government to expel security firm Blackwater USA from the country within six months. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports, company founder Erik Prince is "laying plans for an expansion that would put his for-hire forces in hot spots around the world doing far more than guard duty."

Already, the 10-year-old company — which went from renting out shooting ranges for thousands of dollars in its early years to revenue of almost a half-billion dollars last year — is bidding on military work against industry giants such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. Mr. Prince says he is planning to build Blackwater's expertise in training, transportation and military support while expanding into making everything from remotely piloted blimps to an armored truck called the Grizzly that is tough enough to compete for the Army's latest armored-vehicle contract.

And on Sunday night, Prince defended his employees and himself against the accusations that they are mercenaries that have followed a shooting in Baghdad last month that left 17 Iraqis dead. "You know the definition of a mercenary is a professional soldier that works in the pay of a foreign army. I'm an American working for America," he said on CBS' 60 Minutes.

1:35 PM ET | 10-15-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Pentagon Uses Security Letters to Investigate Its Own

It is, as reporter Dina Temple-Raston called it, "sort of a big deal."

As she reported on All Things Considered Sunday, the American Civil Liberties Union has learned that the Pentagon, apparently working with the FBI, has used "national security letters" to investigate 455 people connected with the Defense Department over the past five years. These letters allow investigators to get people's personal records without a court order.

Dina noted that the most interesting aspect of the revelations is that officials have to show suspicion of a link to terrorism to obtain the letters, which would mean that the Pentagon has suspected hundreds of its own employees of being connected to terrorism in some way.

Bruce Fein, a former associate deputy attorney general and now head of a conservative group that monitors executive power, told Guy Raz on Morning Edition that if this is true, it indicates that there is a serious security breach in the Defense Department.

A senior Pentagon official told NPR that far fewer than 450 Pentagon employees are actually under investigation. Some are contractors and some are people who "made approaches" to Pentagon employees.

The ACLU, which accessed documents about the letters through a public records lawsuit, accuses the Pentagon of using the FBI as a "foil" to get information on its own people.

Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, says it also raises the issue of the Pentagon investigating civilians. Fein says this kind of probe should be left to the FBI.

10:34 AM ET | 10-15-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Security Firm Apologizes for Baghdad Shooting

The Australian-run security firm involved in a shooting Tuesday in Baghdad that killed two women has apologized and says "they will do whatever the Interior Ministry asks them to do," the Iraqi ministry's chief spokesman says. The Washington Post reports that Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Unity Resources Group, which is registered with the Iraqi government, has "admitted what they have done."

The women were shot when their car drove up behind the last vehicle in a Unity-led convoy. A spokesman for the company said the occupants of the car were given repeated warnings before shots were fired, but Iraqi witnesses said the car didn't pose a threat.

Unity also was investigated for a shooting last year. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that in March 2006, an Iraqi-born Australian, Kays Juma, who was teaching at a Baghdad university, was killed when his vehicle apparently did not stop at a checkpoint. An internal Unity investigation cleared its staff of wrongdoing, and the Coalition Provincial Authority accepted the findings.

Meanwhile, as All Things Considered reported, the Iraqi prime minister's office says an initial investigation found that the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA "deliberately killed" 17 civilians in a Sept. 16 shooting. The Iraqi government wants Blackwater to pay $8 million in compensation to the families of those killed.

10:11 AM ET | 10-10-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Rice Orders New Measures for Security in Iraq

It appears that the days of little oversight of private security contractors in Iraq are ending.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced today an overhaul of U.S. security practices, introducing new measures that will allow the State Department to keep a tighter rein on contractors hired to protect government convoys.

The Associated Press reports that Rice accepted preliminary recommendations of an internal review board calling for "Diplomatic Security agents to accompany every convoy, the installation of video cameras in security vehicles, audio recordings of radio traffic between the embassy and such convoys and improved coordination and communication between convoys and the U.S. military."

This announcement comes the day after members of the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation holding U.S. contractors overseas accountable to U.S. law.

Rice ordered a review of security procedures after a Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater security guards that killed several Iraqis. Blackwater has denied its employees did anything wrong, but the Iraqi government has said the security contractors fired first. The Washington Post quotes a senior U.S. military official who says that military reports "indicate that [Blackwater] guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force against Iraqi civilians."

12:56 PM ET | 10- 5-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Iraq Goes Shopping for Weapons in China

Saying that the U.S. couldn't provide what it wanted and was too slow to deliver what it did want, the Iraqi government has decided to buy $100 million worth of light weapons from China. The Washington Post reports that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the weapons will be used for the Iraqi police force. Talabani was in Washington for talks with President Bush.

The Post says that the deal worries military analysts because Iraq already has lost track of 190,000 weapons supplied by the United States. Many of those weapons are suspected to be in the hands of "Shiite and Sunni militias, insurgents and other forces seeking to destabilize Iraq and target U.S. troops."

"The problem is that the Iraqi government doesn't have — as yet — a clear plan for making sure that weapons are distributed, that they are properly monitored and repeatedly checked," said Rachel Stohl of the Center for Defense Information, an independent think tank. "The end-use monitoring will be left in the hands of a government and military in Iraq that is not yet ready for it. And there's not a way for the U.S. to mandate them to do it if they're not U.S. weapons."

A Pentagon spokesman says the U.S. is working with Iraq on weapons purchases but acknowledged that there is a delivery problem. "We haven't converted toaster factories to produce carbines and we're working hard just to supply our own troops," an administration official told the newspaper.

9:44 AM ET | 10- 4-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Maliki Again Questions Future of Blackwater in Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (right) speaks as Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi looks on during a press conference today in Baghdad.

Hadi Mizban/Getty Images

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seemed to toughen his stance against the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA today, questioning whether the company has any future in Iraq after being involved in a number of shooting incidents.

"I believe the big numbers of accusations directed against (Blackwater) do not make it valid to stay in Iraq," Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad, according to Reuters.

On Tuesday, Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder, defended his company before a House committee. "I believe we acted appropriately at all times," he said. "We're the targets of the same ruthless enemies that have killed more than 3,800 American military personnel and thousands of innocent Iraqis."

But a report in today's Washington Post quotes former Blackwater guards who said security contractors fired their weapons far more often than has been previously reported. One former Blackwater guard told the Post that "his 20-man team averaged 'four or five' shootings a week, or several times the rate of 1.4 incidents a week reported by the company. The underreporting of shooting incidents was routine in Iraq, according to this former guard."

1:43 PM ET | 10- 3-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Britain to Withdraw More Troops from Iraq

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced during a surprise trip to Iraq that 1,000 additional British soldiers will be pulled out of southern Iraq by Christmas. However, opponents are criticizing his statement as spin.

USA Today reports that Brown said Britain would "fully turn control of Basra province over to Iraqi army and security forces in the next two months."

The reductions are a continuation of a plan started by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Brown's office refused to comment on reports such as one in The Guardian that said even more troops would be withdrawn by spring, perhaps another 1,500 or more. Britain would have 4,500 troops in Iraq after the reductions announced Tuesday.

But The Telegraph reports that the announcement seems to have backfired on Brown. It emerged that half of the troop withdrawal had already been announced and some of the soldiers were already back in England. Critics were angry that the announcement wasn't made in parliament and accused Brown of treating the military like a "political football."

9:47 AM ET | 10- 3-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Report: Blackwater Involved in Other Civilian Deaths

A report prepared by congressional Democrats shows that Blackwater USA security contractors in Iraq were involved in at least 195 incidents in which weapons were fired since early 2005, including several previously unreported killings of Iraqi citizens, and that 122 employees have been fired for reasons such as misusing weapons, violent behavior and drug abuse problems.

Jackie Northam reported for All Things Considered that the State Department has asked the FBI to go to Iraq and examine the evidence in the Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater that killed at least 11 Iraqis. The FBI also may pursue any possible criminal charges related to the shooting. In a statement released Monday, Blackwater promised full cooperation with the FBI investigation.

Northam noted that the congressional report states that in more than 80 percent of the 195 shooting incidents, Blackwater employees fired first, often from moving vehicles and without stopping to see if anyone had been killed or injured. The data was gathered from hundreds of internal Blackwater and State Department documents.

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have tried unsuccessfully to get the chairman, California Democrat Henry Waxman, to delay today's hearing into Blackwater's conduct until the investigations are completed, cautioning against turning the shooting into the State Department's "Abu Ghraib."

9:43 AM ET | 10- 2-2007 | permalink | comments (18) | e-mail post

Idea of Dividing Iraq Unites Iraqis in Opposition

In a rare show of political unity, the Iraqi parliament has basically told American politicians to leave the future of Iraq to the Iraqis.

Over the weekend, the divided political leadership of Iraq showed its contempt for a nonbinding resolution passed last week in the U.S. Senate that called on Iraq to be divided into three partitions (Sunni, Shiite and Kurd) with a weak central government. The Los Angeles Times reports that for many Sunni and Shiite parliamentarians in particular, the measure reminded them of how often outside powers have tried to shape the future of their country.

"We refuse the resolutions which decide Iraq's destiny from outside Iraq. This is a dangerous partitioning based on sectarianism and ethnicity," said Hashim Taie, a member of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the parliament's main Sunni representation.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political supporters joined their rivals in denouncing the U.S. Senate's measure. "This project is the strategic option for the American administration in its failure to igniting a sectarian war inside Iraq," Nasr Rubaie said. "They started to search for a replacement, which is to divide Iraqi."

In another rare occurrence, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad joined in criticizing the Senate resolution. In an unsigned statement, embassy officials said the resolution could seriously hamper Iraq's future stability.

9:28 AM ET | 10- 1-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Where Have All the Recruits Gone?

It might not seem like the best idea for a Navy recruiter to use the phrase "narcissistic praise junkies" to refer to potential sailors. But it turned up in a presentation at the Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference to describe the qualities of so-called "millennial" kids, the ones they're trying to get to join the Navy now. Here's a link to the whole presentation. (Warning: It's a PowerPoint document.)

But along with the amusing pieces in the presentation (favorite line: "This is not just a generation gap, but dealing with a somewhat alien life force." And a translation of l33t speak: Navy! FTW!), there is something that shows what we've been hearing all along: that the kids today just aren't all that interested in heading over to Iraq. Check out the slide below, showing the negative effect of the Iraq war on kids' patriotism and their likelihood to join the military.

Total sidenote: In the slide of the presentation that talks about the millennials' trademarks (never seen a film camera, always been online, etc.), there is one odd lapse for a military document. It says, "WW1 started nearly a century before he was born (For Boomers, Civil War started a century before birth)." Now, check me on this, but World War I started in 1914 (1917 if you're dating it to when America entered the war), which is 60-70 years before the millennials start being born (depending on when you count the beginning of the millennial generation). And the Civil War started in 1861, and assuming we're counting the boomers as being born after World War II but before the Vietnam War, that's about 80-some-odd years later. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but don't they teach bloody dates at Annapolis anymore?

(Thanks to Danger Room.)

- JJ Sutherland

A slide from a presentation about recruiting members of the millennial generation at the Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference.

Conference Web site

 

4:58 PM ET | 09-28-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

The Questions Being Asked Later

(Tom Regan is off today. NPR's JJ Sutherland is filling in.)

I never saw Baghdad before the war. I've heard it described as impeccably clean. A spread-out city more akin to Los Angeles than the densely packed old cities in the Middle East. Not much traffic, not a lot of cars.

It's still spread out, but the cleanliness and traffic have changed. Rubble and trash litter the streets. Sometimes someone has made a half-hearted effort to sweep the rubble into loose piles. The occasional burned-out car, usually from a car bomb, can be seen on the side of the road. Massive concrete walls seal off buildings and neighborhoods and markets in an attempt to secure them. Miles of razor wire spill in loose coils onto the street. It is not a pretty city.

But the scariest part to me is all the guys with guns. There seem to be dozens of different uniforms and vehicles, and many of them wear masks. But they all carry weapons, and they seem to be pointed at you all the time. It is not uncommon to be sitting in Baghdad's horrific traffic with some guy in a pickup truck or van or SUV pointing a rifle at you, and the only thing you can think is: "Who are those guys?"

And of those guys with guns, the Blackwater guys with their mirrored shades stood out. The rumors and stories about them among Iraqis are unending.

And so, this latest incident that is causing all the furor here and in Iraq didn't really surprise me. But reading The New York Times today did.

Continue reading "The Questions Being Asked Later" »

11:19 AM ET | 09-28-2007 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

GAO: Canadian Border Presents Security Concerns

A threat from the Great White North, eh?

A Government Accountability Office report, presented today to the Senate Finance Committee, says there are too many vulnerable spots along the 5,000-mile-long U.S.-Canadian border where someone could smuggle radioactive materials into the United States.

CongressDaily reports that on three separate occasions GAO officials "probed apparently unmonitored and unmanned sections of the northern border, finding that they could sneak from Canada into the United States undetected even while carrying a red duffel bag to simulate the smuggling of radioactive materials or other contraband." A GAO video shows agents going back and forth across the border.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesman downplayed the findings and hinted that officials might have been aware of what the GAO was doing but determined it wasn't a threat. CBS reports that border officials still believe the border with Mexico is a far greater threat.

3:57 PM ET | 09-27-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

GAO Takes Administration to Task over Vet Benefits

The Government Accountability Office took the Bush administration to task today over veterans' benefits — or, to be more precise, the lack of them. The testimony before a House subcommittee was the first preliminary assessment of how things are going since The Washington Post documented problems with outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Army has touted the creation of more personalized medical care units to prevent wounded veterans from falling through the cracks, but GAO officials found that 46 percent of returning service members who were eligible didn't get the service because of staffing shortages.

GAO officials reported that the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department remain "far away" from having a comprehensive system for sharing medical records, even after 10 years of review, The Associated Press reports. The administration also lacks a solution for delays in disability payments, which average almost six months, despite reviews at multiple levels of government.

USA Today's On Politics blog speculates that the GAO's report could reignite a debate about veterans' care among the presidential candidates. You might even see it discussed during the Democrats' debate tonight in New Hampshire.

3:05 PM ET | 09-26-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Report: U.S., Israel Shared Data about Syrian Site

Well, it looks like the recent speculation that Israel conducted a raid in Syria because of possible nuclear activity there might have been on the money. The Washington Post reports that Israel decided to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear site after sharing information with the United States that indicated North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria.

Ultimately, however, the United States is believed to have provided Israel with some corroboration of the original intelligence before Israel proceeded with the raid, which hit the Syrian facility in the dead of night to minimize possible casualties, the sources said.

But some proliferation experts have doubts about the intelligence that precipitated Israel's strike, the Post reports. They say Syria showed no interest in nuclear weapons in the past and it's possible North Korea was just unloading what it didn't need. North Korea denied this week that it was giving the country any nuclear aid.

Simon Tisdall of The Guardian writes that this "nuclear spectre has been conjured largely by American officials, some of whom famously misdirected similar WMD allegations at Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq." He says another explanation for the attack seems more plausible: that Israel was targeting Iranian arms on their way to Hezbollah. While Iran says it only provides financial support to the Lebanese organization, Tisdall writes, there are "persistent, credible reports" that Iranian weapons are making their way through Syria from northern Iraq.

10:17 AM ET | 09-21-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Blackwater Affair a Propaganda Victory for U.S. Foes

While U.S. politicians and talk show hosts debate what really happened in Sunday's deadly shooting involving security firm Blackwater USA in Baghdad, the Iraqi public seems to have already decided the matter — they think Blackwater's employees are guilty of murder, CBS News reports.

For instance, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a press conference Wednesday that he cannot tolerate "the killing of our citizens in cold blood."

The shooting has become a "huge propaganda victory for America's enemies in Iraq" at a time when the U.S. felt it was making positive strides, CBS reports.

The already negative image of the security contractors was reinforced by televised interviews with survivors of the shooting (including Hassan Jaber Salma, 50, a lawyer who suffered eight gunshot wounds), who said they had been trying to help the diplomatic convoy that Blackwater employees were guarding get through the intersection but were shot anyway.

Anne Garrels reported for All Things Considered that reports of similar incidents involving Blackwater have poured out since Sunday's shootings, as if "the lid of compliance and silence was suddenly broken."

Karim Muhammed, who owns a furniture store, said he's seen people killed by foreign security companies. He said Iraqi officials should have done something about this a long time ago. "Why do they consider American blood first class, and ours a cheap commodity?" Muhammed said. "Are they better than us?"

11:24 AM ET | 09-20-2007 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post

Iraqi Report: Blackwater Convoy Was Not Ambushed

The Iraqi Interior Ministry's preliminary report on a shooting involving security firm Blackwater USA, in which several Iraqis were killed, seems to contradict the company's account that their employees only fired after they were fired upon. According to The New York Times, the report, though unverified, says that Blackwater personnel "were not ambushed ... but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman's call to stop, killing a couple and their infant."

The ministry also says 20 civilians were killed in the shooting, a higher number than was reported earlier.

The United States has suspended all land travel by diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone — a sign of just how much the shooting has increased tensions between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on the U.S. to replace Blackwater with another firm.

"This is what happens when government fails to act," writes Peter Singer, a security industry expert, on the Brookings Institution's Web site. According to Singer, The Associated Press reports, nearly a year after a law was passed that holds contracted employees to the same code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers should do that.

Laura Dickinson, a University of Connecticut law professor who has studied the use of private contractors on the battlefield, says to enforce the many laws that apply to contracted security firms, a single government office should monitor contracts and keep Congress informed.

12:06 PM ET | 09-19-2007 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Iraqi Refugees Face Long, Often Dangerous Waits

We all know that living in Iraq can be dangerous. Trying to leave it can be a problem, too.

The number of displaced Iraqis has topped 4 million: 2 million within the country, along with 2.2 million refugees. The U.S. has said that it will help resettle more than 2 million refugees, but as Deborah Amos reported for Morning Edition today, that is often complicated by U.S. relations with Syria and other countries where the refugees are living.

But waiting for a visa in Syria is probably preferable to waiting for one in Iraq. Newsweek tells the story of Hazim Hanna and his wife, Emel Meskoni, two of the first Iraqis to work for the U.S.-led coalition after the fall of Baghdad. They passionately believed in a new Iraq, but as the situation in the country grew worse, life became too dangerous for them. They were waiting for final approval to immigrate to the United States in late May when kidnappers grabbed Hanna. Meskoni disappeared a few days later when she went to deliver the ransom for her husband. Their bodies were found about a month later.

Their deaths prompted Ambassador Ryan Crocker to send a memo pressing Washington to process visas for Iraqis more quickly. (Newsweek reports that the United States will have approved about 1,700 asylum requests by the end of September, according to a Homeland Security estimate.) Judging from the Morning Edition report, however, it doesn't seem to have sped things up.

4:10 PM ET | 09-18-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

French Foreign Minister: Get Ready for War with Iran

Ah, the French. It seems their new government's desire to make amends with the Bush administration is no passing fancy. Officials seem to be taking a tougher approach to foreign affairs. For instance, take the statement Sunday by France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who said that the world should prepare for war over Iran's nuclear program.

Kouchner also called for "more effective sanctions" against Iran if it continues to resist the demands of the international community to curtail its nuclear program. He said the European Union should prepare its own set of sanctions outside of any imposed by the United Nations Security Council, and he has asked several large private companies not to do business with Iran.

Not everyone is happy with the new tough garcon image Kouchner projected. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said she can't comprehend why Kouchner "is resorting to such martial rhetoric at this time." Ha'aretz reports that Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called the comments "hype."

"There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 70,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons," ElBaradei told reporters.

But if the French keep up all this tough talk, which the BBC reports is seen as a way to court favor with the U.S., there might not be any more talk of "freedom fries" in the congressional cafeteria.

2:03 PM ET | 09-17-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Iraq Cancels Blackwater's Operating License

The Iraqi government says it's canceling the operating license of U.S. security firm Blackwater USA after accusations that it was involved in a deadly shootout in Baghdad. The firm provides personal security for many U.S. officials working in the country.

Agence-France Presse reports that the shootout Sunday in a Baghdad neighborhood, which involved a U.S. diplomatic convoy, left at least eight people dead and 13 others wounded. Officials say that most of the dead and wounded were bystanders.

"The interior minister (Jawad al-Bolani) has issued an order to cancel Blackwater's licence and the company is prohibited from operating anywhere in Iraq," interior ministry director of operations Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf said. "We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime."

All Blackwater employees have been told to leave Iraq immediately, except for those involved in the shooting, the BBC reports. Blackwater hasn't commented so far.

As Jackie Northam reported recently for Morning Edition, there are thousands of private contractors in Iraq — with little oversight. Critics say the contractors often are not trained properly, the BBC reports.

11:16 AM ET | 09-17-2007 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post

Pentagon Releases Audio of Terror Suspects' Hearings

The Pentagon has released audio recordings from the military hearings of several terror suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. Morning Edition reports that the detainees were among those sent to Cuba about a year ago after being held in secret CIA prisons for years.

The audio, available on the Pentagon's Web site, includes the 40-minute-long hearing of suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. However, officials deleted a section that they felt could be used to recruit future terrorists, NPR's Jackie Northam reports.

The censored section includes a 10-minute passage about the capture and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and Mohammed explaining why Islamic radicals are waging war on the U.S., The Associated Press reports.

A transcript of Mohammed's hearing, which was posted on the Pentagon's Web site in March, includes some of the sections removed from the tape. Officials told AP that they felt the audio version could be used by al-Qaida in recruitment.

In another statement cut from the audio, Mohammed said he felt some sorrow over Sept. 11.

"The language of the war is victims," Mohammed said in a part of the transcript that was cut from the audio. He compared al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to George Washington, saying Americans view Washington as a hero for his role in the Revolutionary War and many Muslims view bin Laden in the same light.

9:37 AM ET | 09-14-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Bomb Kills Sheik Helping U.S. in Anbar Province

Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha

Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images

Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq today — a blow that has the potential to set back some of the gains the U.S. has made in Anbar province.

Abu Risha was the leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, the group of Sunni clans backing U.S. troops in the province. He was among a group of tribal leaders that met with President Bush at al-Asad Air Base earlier this month.

The Associated Press reports that no group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion has fallen on al-Qaida in Iraq. U.S. officials say the terrorist group has suffered serious setbacks because of Abu Risha and the movement referred to as the "Anbar Awakening." It also appears that an act of generosity may have led to his death. A Ramadi police officer said Abu Risha had received a group of poor people at his home earlier in the day to mark the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The policeman said authorities believe one of the visitors planted the bomb.

Gen. David Petraeus told The Washington Post that Abu Risha's death is a tragic loss. "It's a terrible loss for Anbar province and all of Iraq. It shows how significant his importance was and it shows al-Qaeda in Iraq remains a very dangerous and barbaric enemy."

2:04 PM ET | 09-13-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Poll Results Question Assumptions about Muslim World

Here's an eye-opener for you.

The Gallup World Poll analyzed a series of polls taken between 2005 and 2007 that covered about 90 percent of the Muslim world. It found that just 7 percent of those surveyed said the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were morally justi