Saturday June 4, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's intelligence chief has instructed the U.S. military to share more classified information with allies and foreign partners, including those helping to combat Iraq's insurgency, officials said on Friday.
Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said in a memo that the Pentagon had too often designated information as "Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals" by imposing the security label, "NOFORN".
"Incorrect use of the "NOFORN" caveat on DoD information has impeded the sharing of classified national defense information with allies and coalition partners," Cambone said in the two-page document dated May 17.
Cambone told originators of military intelligence to limit their use of the official designation and instead mark information as releasable to the "maximum extent possible."
The change was prompted by a new defense strategy this year that emphasizes better collaboration with allies in the U.S. war on terrorism, a Defense Department spokesman said.
"No single event prompted this memo. It was not specific to one country," said the spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Chris Conway.
A European security source said information-sharing with U.S. intelligence has been good on terrorism matters since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but not so where military issues are concerned.
"In the area of terrorism we all work very closely ... There are fewer problems there. But as far as military matters are concerned, it's hard," said the source, whose country does not have troops in Iraq.
Cambone's memo, which was first reported by the Federation of American Scientists' e-mail newsletter, "Secrecy News," would allow combatant commanders to more easily include foreign liaison officers in strategy sessions and other meetings, officials said.
It would include the sharing of information with countries in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, they said.
Recipients of the memo included the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, the secretary of each military branch and the directors of defense agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency.
04 Jun 2005 01:33:22 GMT
Source: Reuters
MEXICO CITY, June 3 (Reuters) - Angry at the imminent release of a key drug suspect, Mexico's government raised suspicion on Friday that judges may be protecting drug cartels.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered Archivaldo Guzman, the son of the country's most-wanted man, set free on bail, saying there was no evidence to support money laundering charges against him.
Guzman, whose father is drug trafficker Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, was expected to be released on Friday, dealing a heavy blow to President Vicente Fox's fight against drug cartels.
"It is obvious that in the specific case of judges there is serious suspicion they are acting in favor of criminals," government spokesman Ruben Aguilar said at a news conference.
The younger Guzman was arrested in February and his case has been followed closely to see whether Mexico's often corrupt and inefficient judicial system will be up to the task of trying a relative of such a powerful drug lord.
The judge, Jose Luis Gomez, dropped the money laundering charges against Guzman but ordered he be investigated for the lesser crime of complicity.
The Attorney General's office is appealing the ruling.
Another judge set bail at $55,000, according to local media.
Guzman's father, who runs drugs out of the western state of Sinaloa, has been Mexico's most-wanted man since he escaped from a high-security prison in 2001.
Prosecutors say the elder Guzman is a major player in a drug war that has killed 500 people so far this year.
The Attorney General's office said this week it was struggling to capture the elder Guzman because local people in Sinaloa were helping him avoid detection.
Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, head of the federal police organized crime unit, said the judge who released Guzman this week would be investigated for releasing a suspiciously high number of suspects from one drug gang.
"All of them are related to the Sinaloa cartel, run by Joaquin Guzman," he told Mexican television.
AlertNet news
Date: 03 Jun 2005
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 3 (AFP) - Suspected Taliban rebels have killed at least five people in four separate gun and explosives attacks in southern Afghanistan, officials said Friday.
A remote-controlled bomb killed a local militia commander in the provincial capital of Lashkargah in Helmand on Friday, Helmand's intelligence chief Amanullah Jan told AFP.
In another attack the same day a government driver was killed and his assistant badly injured when rebels ambushed their vehicle in neighboring Zabul province, said local police commander Qaim Jan.
The previous day, suspected Taliban gunmen killed a truck driver and another man and torched their oil tanker on the road between central Uruzgan province and Kandahar, the birthplace of the fundamentalist Islamic movement.
The tanker had been transporting fuel for US forces, local military commander General Muslim Hamid told AFP.
Earlier the insurgents had stopped a taxi on the same road and killed an Afghan soldier, wounding four passengers in a shootout.
The rebels "took control of the road for several hours", Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammad Khan said.
Hamid said the rebels had left by the time Afghan security forces arrived.
Violence has spiralled in recent weeks after a winter lull in fighting, with repeated attacks on Afghan security forces and the US-led coalition troops who toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
The latest attacks came after a suicide bomb attack Wednesday killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 50 in a Kandahar mosque.