A crew member of an Army Black Hawk helicopter mans a machine gun as the aircraft flies over Baghdad on Monday. (Liu Jin / Agence France-Presse)
Posted on 08/17/2005 4:08:26 PM PDT by Gucho
Aug 17, 2005
OTTAWA (AFP) - The Canadian government has opened an investigation into the use of agents Orange and Purple in the 1960s at a military base in Gagetown in eastern Canada, officials told AFP.
The tests of the highly toxic defoilants were apparently conducted at the request of the US military, which used Agent Orange to flush out communist Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam war.
"The government has named an official to take charge of the investigation into the events that occurred in Gagetown," said Jae Malana, a military spokseman.
Ottawa hopes to determine if any people may have been affected by the lethal herbicides, he said.
Investigators will meet with active and retired members of the Canadian military and retired civilian employees who were present during the tests, officials said in a statement.
In 1966 and 1967, various defoliants were used to clear forests in New Brunswick. The thick vegetation in the province reminded US military experts of the dense jungles in Vietnam and thus seemed a good place to test the agents.
They were also sprayed over 0.03 percent of the military base in Gagetown as part of a top secret operation that was not exposed until the 1980s.
Last year, Ottawa admitted that its soldiers, civilian contractors and local residents may have been exposed to the agents and as a result may have suffered health problems.
The herbicides can cause leukemia and diabetes and other major health problems, including congenital malformations and miscarriage.
US military team tried to alert FBI about attack in 2000
UPDATED: 08:52, August 18, 2005
A US military intelligence team had tried to alert the FBI in 2000 about the existence of an American-based terrorist cell that included the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, but its efforts had been blocked by US military lawyers, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The newspaper quoted Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a veteran Army intelligence officer, as saying that the small, highly classified intelligence program, known as Able Danger, had identified the terrorist ringleader, Mohamed Atta, and three other future hijackers by name by mid-2000, and tried to arrange a meeting that summer with FBI agents to share its information.
But according to Shaffer, US military lawyers forced members of Able Danger to cancel three scheduled meetings with the FBI at the last minute because they feared controversy if Able Danger was portrayed as a military operation that had violated the privacy of civilians who were legally in the United States.
The information that Able Danger tried to pass on to the FBI might have led to Atta and the other terrorists while the Sept. 11 attacks were still being planned, Shaffer said.
Shaffer also told the newspaper that he was not involved in the details of the procedures used in Able Danger to gather information from terrorist databases, nor was he aware of which databases had supplied the information that might have led to the name of Atta or other terrorists so long before the Sept. 11 attacks.
But he said he did know that Able Danger had made use of publicly available information from government immigration agencies, Internet sites and paid search engines like LexisNexis.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.people.com.cn/200508/18/eng20050818_203177.html
BAGHDAD, Aug 17 (KUNA) -- Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Jabr said Wednesday that four people were caught in the vicinity of the three major bombs that were detonated in Baghdad and killed close to 75 people while injuring 95.
Among the dead were 20 women and five members of the Iraqi police while the injured included dozens of women and 11 policemen.
The four suspects had remote controls that could have been used in detonating the bombs.
"The suspects are still being questioned," the minister said in a news statement.
A committee has been formed to investigate the circumstances of the entry of small cars to the Nahda bus station, where one of the attacks took place.
Iraqi Presidential Spokesman, Kamram Qaradaghi, had condemned the attacks and so did a spokesman for the Iraqi government, Laith Kubba.
For his part, newly-appointed British Ambassador to Iraq, William Patey, deplored the attacks in a talks show Wednesday.
"I don't think what is required is more troops, more coalition troops. This is going to take a sustained effort; I think we have seen a short term increase in terrorist activity. We think the trend over last few months has been relatively stable, we see a consistent level of attacks, with some days worse than others," he said about the escalation of violence.
BAGHDAD, Aug 17 (KUNA) -- A member of the Iraqi Sunni Muslim Scholars Group was assassinated by unidentified assailants northeast of the capital, the group announced in a statement on Wednesday.
"Unidentified gunmen shot dead Sheikh Ali al Shamari soon after he left his house at 07:30 AM (local time) Wednesday," said the statement, noting that Al Shamari is the Imam (preacher) of the Janabi mosque in Khan Bani Saad area northeast of Baghdad.
"This Cowardly attack is part of a series of assassination attempts by hired quarters against members of the group and its firm stances", read the statement circulated here today.
Meanwhile, the group called on the Iraqi government to set free Sheikh Shiet Bashar of Talafar, noting that the 80-years-old man was arrested by Iraqi police last July as he led a delegation representing clans of the city to meet officials in the Baghdad government for talks on the situation in Talafar.
By Ali Khalil in Baghdad
August 17, 2005
IRAQI President Jalal Talabani, a vocal opponent of capital punishment, has refused to sign the first death warrants issued since the ousting of former dictator Saddam Hussein more than two years ago.
"Talabani delegated Vice-President Adel Abdel Mehdi to sign a decree... which approves the execution of three convicts," his office said.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari had announced that Mr Talabani has signed the death warrants for three al-Qaeda linked men convicted of kidnapping and killing policemen and raping women.
The executions are due to take place in the next few days in Kut, 175 km south of Baghdad, Mr Jaafari said, although how they will be killed is not known.
During Saddam's regime common criminals used to be hanged, while disloyal soldiers faced a firing squad.
Mr Talabani said in May that he would not sign a death sentence against Saddam, whose trial on charges of crimes against humanity during his iron-fisted rule over Iraq, is expected to come up within the next two months.
Three members of the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sunna were sentenced to death in May, a verdict later approved by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq.
Kurd Bayan Ahmad al-Jaf, a 30-year-old taxi driver, as well as two Sunni Arabs, Uday Dawud al-Dulaimi, a 25-year-old builder, and Taher Jassem Abbas, a 44-year-old butcher, were condemned to death after being convicted of killing and kidnapping policemen and raping Iraqi women.
They were the first death sentences to be announced by Mr Jaafari's government since capital punishment was suspended by US authorities following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The announcement could also set a precedent for sentencing during the high-profile trials of former regime figures, including Saddam, who is in US custody awaiting trial.
Sources close to the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try the former dictator said last week his trial could begin within the next couple of months.
The court filed the first charges against Saddam in late July over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.
Human rights group Amnesty International condemned the latest death sentences, saying it was concerned that dozens of death sentences had been handed out in recent weeks.
Moscow (AFP) - Aug 16, 2005
Veteran Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov broke the record Tuesday for the longest total time in space - and still has two months left before returning to Earth.
Krikalyov, who has been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since April 15, passed the record previously held by fellow-Russian Sergei Avdeyev, who spent a career total of 747 days, 14 hours, 14 minutes and 11 seconds in space, a spokeswoman for Russian ground control told AFP.
The record was passed at 10:42 a.m. in Moscow (0642 GMT) and with the mission due to continue into October, Krikalyov, 46, will be able to reinforce his achievement.
Krikalyov was aboard the Mir space station in December 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, earning him the unofficial title of "the last citizen of the USSR." At the end of his 151-day mission, he returned not to the Soviet Union, but to Russia.
He was also the first Russian to fly on the US space shuttle and a member of the first ISS crew.
'Sierra, do you know how much you encourage us and make our hearts glad? Bless the men and women of every country who work to make the world a better place.
IRBIL, Aug 18 (KUNA) -- An official of the Iraqi Turkmen Eli party was killed at the hands of unknown gunmen in Kirkuk, north of here, on Thursday, police sources said.
Unidentified gunmen ambushed the convoy of the official earlier today unleashed fire instantly killing the deputy commander of the Turkment Eli party, member of the Turmen Front in Iraq, a police source said.
Meanwhile, an officer in the Iraqi army escaped an assassination attempt today when an explosive device went off on the road linking Dagoug and Dozkhormato, south of Kirkuk city.
Iraqi police and Multinational forces launched a search operation in the city of Kirkuk following intelligence tips suggesting the presence of terrorists in the area, police sources said.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 (KUNA) -- Pakistan has arrested an alleged senior Taliban figure in northwestern Pakistani Frontier province (NWFP), bordering Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.
Ustad Mohammed Yasir, 55, and his close associate were arrested last week from a town near Nowshera, an intelligence official told KUNA. Official said that Yasir had been working as spokesman for ousted Taliban militias for several months, adding that he was associated with renowned Afghan Jihadi leader Abdurrab Rasool Sayyafs Ittehad-e-Islami group, but joined the Taliban after Sayyaf announced support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao in an interview with a news channel confirmed the arrest saying, "he was wanted in Pakistan." "He (Yasir) has been arrested and interrogation has started. Whatever he confesses to will be followed up legally," said the Minister. Pakistan, former supporter of Taliban regime, joined the US-led war late in 2001 and since then has arrested dozens of Taliban rebels.
From correspondents in Sochi, Russia
August 19, 2005
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has called for an international conference on Iraq by the end of the year and a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, saying they were considered "occupying forces" by many Iraqis.
"We consider that holding an international conference this year would give a new impulse to the normalisation of the situation" in Iraq, Mr Putin said overnight following talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II. The Russian leader called last April during a visit to Egypt for an international conference on the Middle East.
That proposal was warmly welcomed by the Palestinian leadership but got no traction as the White House and Israel immediately poured cold water on it.
Mr Putin also called then on the United States to start talking about a schedule for pulling its troops out of Iraq, an appeal he repeated today in his meeting with King Abdullah but one that has so far been ignored by Washington.
"We deem it necessary to work out a schedule for the staged withdrawal of foreign troops" in Iraq, Mr Putin said.
"Many Iraqis perceive these forces as occupying forces, and this is a reality that should be taken into account," the Russian leader said.
Mr Putin praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for implementing a decision to remove Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip.
"Prime Minister Sharon is demonstrating personal courage and consistency in implementing the decision taken," he said.
Mr Putin said he and King Abdullah had discussed the struggle to counter terrorism and stressed that the phenomenon should not be linked with any one religion.
"It is inadmissible to allow for any identification of the great global religion of Islam with terrorism," the Russian president said, adding: "I want to note that 16 million Muslims in Russia are not immigrants. This is their homeland and they are part of the Islamic world."
King Abdullah said Moscow had an important role to play in efforts to stabilise the Middle East.
"We look to Russia as a co-sponsor of the peace process and as a member of the Middle East quartet to work alongside the US and the EU to provide leadership in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," Abdullah said.
Brig. Gen. Mark E. O’Neill, left, the assistant division commander for support for the 3rd Infantry Division, shakes hands with Staff Sgt. Khevin G. Smith, a heavy-wheel vehicle operator with the 104th Transportation Company, 87th Corps Support Battalion, Division Support Brigade, 3rd Inf. Div., after awarding him the Purple Heart Aug. 11. Smith, a Dallas native, received the award for injuries sustained during an during an ambush on his convoy April 20.Sgt. 1st Class Peter Chadwick
Truck driver receives Purple Heart
August 16, 2005 A truck driver with 3rd Infantry Division was awarded the Military Order of the Purple Heart Aug. 11 in a ceremony at the Division Support Brigade Ministry Center.
Staff Sgt. Khevin G. Smith, a heavy-wheel vehicle operator with the 104th Transportation Company, 87th Corps Support Battalion, DSB, was awarded the medal by Brig. Gen. Mark E. O’Neill, the assistant division commander for support for the 3rd Inf. Div.
Smith received the medal for wounds received in action April 20 when his convoy was ambushed on its way to Camp Liberty. Smith’s Heavy Equipment Transporter was struck by a vehicle-borne explosive device.
Smith managed to evacuate his truck commander, Spc. Morris Smith, who was sitting in the passenger seat. The two of them were picked up by Sgt. Eric L. Martin, who had pulled his HET next to them as they exited their damaged truck.
“The actions of Martin and the escorts from the 3rd Battalion, 117th Field Artillery Regiment, Alabama Army National Guard are the reason we’re here, said Smith, whose unit deployed from Fort Benning, Ga.”
(Editor’s Note: article submitted by Sgt. 1st Class Peter Chadwick, Division Support Brigade public affairs.)
I bet you are proud of your son.
What a guy!
Yes, I am Cindy. Thank you!!
Wonderful news TexKat. May God bless Khevin and all our troops.
Congratulations !!! Another proud day !
Be sure to give your son our sincere thanks for defending our freedom!
Will do Coop, thanks.
Thanks Gucho.
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