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Pentagon: Gitmo interrogation techniques lawful
05/20/04 08:00 PM, EDT
In response to criticism from its own military attorneys, the Pentagon insisted Thursday that interrogation techniques used on al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are "fully consistent with international law."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/20/gitmo.interrogation/index.html

Coalition: Iraqi 'foreign fighter sanctuary' attacked
Witnesses say wedding guests were killed
05/20/04 11:16 AM, EDT
The U.S. attack on an Iraqi desert village that witnesses said killed dozens of wedding guests was "no accident," but a targeted strike on a safe house for fighters attempting to enter the country from Syria, a U.S. general said Thursday.

ttp://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/20/iraq.attack/index.html

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Early database project yielded 120,000 suspects
05/20/04 09:54 AM, EDT
Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists -- sparking some investigations and arrests.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/20/terror.database.ap/index.html
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Presenter: Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld Thursday, May 20, 2004

Stakeout After Classified Senate Operations and Intelligence Committee Brief

http://www.defenselink.mil//transcripts/2004/tr20040520-secdef0787.html
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Insurgent Route Was Struck, Not Wedding Party, U.S. Maintains
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2004 – Insurgents using a smuggling route for foreign fighters and weaponry entering Iraq were the targets of a May 19 strike near the Iraq-Syrian border, a senior military spokesman said at a Baghdad news conference today.

Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Multinational Force Iraq, was asked about reports that the strike killed dozens of Iraqis at a wedding party.

Foreign fighters and weapons smugglers seeking to enter Iraq, Kimmitt said, frequent the area that was attacked. Available military intelligence, he pointed out, "was sufficient for us to believe to conduct that operation."

"We believe that we operated within the rules of engagement," noted Kimmitt, who was accompanied at the briefing by Dan Senor, chief spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The attack, Kimmitt said, targeted about 35 men and some women gathered near four-wheel-drive vehicles far from any town. Afterward, he said, U.S. ground forces found weapons, Iraqi and Syrian money, and a satellite radio.

U.S. authorities, the general said, "are satisfied at this point that the intelligence that led us there was validated by what we found on the ground -- and it was not that there was a wedding party going on."

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Army Dedicates New Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility
American Forces Press Service

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., May 20, 2004 -- The U.S. Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program dedicated its newest capability and first fixed facility to treat recovered chemical weapons during a ceremony at the Edgewood Area here May 5.

The Col. Garland M. White Munitions Assessment and Processing System Facility will be used to treat stable chemical and acidic smoke munitions recovered at APG during environmental cleanup. Officials said the facility provides the Army and the community with an environmentally friendly alternative to open detonation for most recovered munitions.
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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. William D. Chaney, 59, of Schaumburg, Ill., died May 18, in Landstuhl, Germany due to a non-combat related injury. Initial reports indicate that Chaney was medically evacuated from Iraq to Germany for surgery due to a sudden medical condition. He died from complications after surgery. Chaney was assigned to the Army National Guard, Company B, 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment, Chicago, Ill.

The incident is under investigation.