US convoy attacked as top-level EU delegation pays ”historic visit”
Armed fighters on Thursday ambushed a convoy carrying U.S. supplies near Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, police Sgt. Shakir Ibrahim said, according to The AP. A number of trucks and sports utility vehicles were destroyed and there were an unspecified number of casualties, Ibrahim conveyed.
Meanwhile, A top-level European Union delegation has arrived in Baghdad, expressing hope for the EU's new partnership with Iraq.
"In Europe the war divided us, but now we are unified to help Iraq," said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, following talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Thursday.
Iraqi children examine trucks destroyed in an insurgent's ambush near Khaldiyah, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Baghdad, Friday, June 10, 2005. Insurgents on Thursday ambushed the convoy carrying U.S. supplies destroying several trucks and SUVs, there were an unspecified number of casualties. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
"Yes, the Iraq war did divide Europe but there is a new spirit and we have put the past behind us to work for this new future of Iraq," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country is due to take over the presidency in July.
EU external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and foreign policy chief Javier Solana were also part of what was described as "an historic visit" ahead of an international conference on Iraqi reconstruction later this month.
"I think it is a very deeply significant event because this is the beginning of a new political relationship that would grow into a real partnership," said Ferrero-Waldner, according to AFP.
John Scott Redd Vice Admiral, United States Navy (Retired)
Bush taps former Navy admiral for counterterror post
Redd selected to lead center charged with analyzing data on terror threats
By Deb Riechmann The Associated Press
Originally published June 10, 2005, 10:47 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- President Bush today selected a retired vice admiral of the Navy, who recently held an operations post in Iraq, to direct the nation's new counterterrorism center charged with pooling and analyzing information about terrorist threats.
Retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd is Bush's choice to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, White House spokesman Scott McClellan announced.
Redd formerly was executive director of the Silberman-Robb presidential commission on intelligence.
If confirmed by the Senate, Redd, 60, would replace John O. Brennan, the center's interim chief, who said last month that he would step down after a replacement was announced.
"He is someone who understands the nature of the enemy that we face in the war on terrorism," McClellan said.
The center, which Bush was visiting this morning, was created as part of the wide-ranging overhaul of the nation's spy community, spurred by what critics called the government's failure to collect, understand and share critical information before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Redd served 36 years in the U.S. Navy, commanding eight organizations at sea from a destroyer to a fleet. He founded and commanded the Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Middle East in 1995 and has held top policy posts at the Pentagon. Since retiring in 1998, he has served as chief executive officer of a high-tech education company and deputy administrator and chief operating officer of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
The president also named members of an oversight board being created to make sure the government's counterterror investigations and arrests do not trample privacy rights and civil liberties.
Bush picked Texas lawyer Carol Dinkins, who was deputy attorney general under former President Reagan, to chair the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and Alan Charles Raul, an administration official in the former Bush and Clinton administrations, to be vice chairman.
The other members chosen by Bush are: Lanny Davis, once a crisis manager in the Clinton White House; former Solicitor General Ted Olson; and General Electric Co. executive Francis X. Taylor, a former head of diplomatic security and counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department.
On the Net:
Executive order creating the National Counterterrorism Center:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040827-5.html