Posted on 11/21/2005 3:39:36 PM PST by Gucho
By Sean Rayment - Defence Correspondent
11/20/2005)
The SAS killed three suicide bombers in Baghdad as part of an undercover, shoot-to-kill operation in Iraq, it can be revealed.
The three terrorists were all killed by SAS snipers armed with specialist rifles. Each terrorist was wearing a suicide vest laden with commercial explosives. It is understood that they were intending to target cafes and restaurants frequented by members of the Iraqi security forces.
A 16-man unit of the SAS, acting on intelligence obtained by an Iraqi agent working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), shot dead the would-be bombers in a combined SAS and American operation in July this year.
Details of the mission codenamed Operation Marlborough have remained secret until now - primarily because it was launched in the same week that a Metropolitan Police firearms unit in London shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, in the mistaken belief that he was a suicide bomber.
It marked one of the most successful counter-insurgency operations undertaken by British forces since the start of the Iraq conflict. It is the first time it has become clear that the SAS is working with American special forces on a permanent basis in Iraq.
The troops were part of Task Force Black, the coalition's special forces unit based in Baghdad. It is composed of a squadron of SAS troopers and members of the Delta Force - the clandestine American army special forces unit - plus other elements of British and American forces. It acts on intelligence gathered by a network of Iraqi spies working for the CIA and MI6.
The unit only undertakes "black", or covert, operations and is one of the few coalition units in Iraq with the specific task of launching attacks against suicide bombers.
Al-Qaida Operative Nabbed Near Mexican Border
Sunday, Nov. 20, 2005 - 3:15 p.m. EST
An al-Qaida operative who was on the FBI's terrorist watch list was recently captured near the Mexican border, housed in a Texas jail and turned over to federal agents, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said on Friday.
"A confirmed al-Qaida terrorist, an Iraqi national, was held in the Brewster County jail," Rep. Culberson told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity. "He was captured in Mexico. This was within the last six weeks. He was turned over to the FBI."
The Texas Republican said he obtained the stunning information about the terrorist's capture "from the sheriffs who were directly involved.
"In fact, one was the sheriff who incarcerated him in the Brewster County jail [and who] confirmed this as well," he explained. The same sheriff also confirmed "that this guy is on the FBI's al-Qaida list," he added.
The al-Qaida operative "had been in Mexico, living just about 60 miles east of El Paso," Rep. Culberson said. "He was captured in a little town called El Porvenir, right across from Fort Hancock."
Rep. Culberson said the detainee had been living in Mexico for up to a year, where the terrorist "was taking careful notes on the movement of people, police officers, wildlife, etc."
The Iraqi national "had apparently aggravated a neighbor in Mexico, who turned him in to Mexican authorities," he explained. Mexican officials then turned him over to the U.S. officials, who temporarily housed him in the Brewster County jail.
Asked why this news hadn't been reported earlier, Culberson told Hannity, "That's a very good question and one that I intend to get to the bottom of in my subcommittee."
Rep. Culberson sits on the appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the FBI and the Department of Justice. "I guarantee that we're going to get to the bottom of this," he pledged.
He said FBI Director Robert Mueller had previously "confirmed" in testimony before his committee "that there are individuals from countries with known al-Qaida connections who are changing their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and obtaining false Hispanic identities, learning to speak Spanish and pretending to be Hispanic immigrants."
"And these are clearly Arab terrorists," Rep. Culberson added, "from countries like Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. They're crossing the border, pretending to be Hispanic immigrants, and then disappearing."
Rep. Culberson said news of al-Qaida's penetration of the U.S.'s southern border has him worried that the next terrorist plot could involve setting off simultaneous truck bombs in major urban centers.
"The day they blow us up," he predicted, "the border will be sealed tighter than the Berlin Wall and you'll have armed United States military forces" enforcing immigration laws.
21 November 2005
MADRID — Police find maps of Spanish trains, the London Underground and Montreal’s rail system on the computer of a man questioned over the Madrid bombings.
The Spanish daily El Pais reported Abdelhak Chergui, a 32-year-old Moroccan who studies telecommunications in Spain, was arrested in May along with his brother Abdelkhalak in connection with the investigation of the bombings in March last year that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500 people.
At the time, police said the two were suspected of helping to finance the attacks and providing weapons to people accused of carrying them out.
Del Olmo released them for lack of evidence, however, after ordering them to surrender their passports.
The investigation continued and an examination of Chergui's computer found detailed information on the Madrid, London and Montreal train systems, El Pais said, quoting a police report submitted to the judge in September.
Police have declined to comment on the report.
El Pais did not say if Spanish police suspected Chergui of any role in the London bombings which killed 56 people in July.
The Madrid attacks were claimed by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
A total of 26 people are in jail in connection with the Madrid bombings, but about 80 more who were questioned and released are still considered suspects.
The first trial of these suspects is expected next year.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
New U.S. 'Matrix' mines in Iraq hit by rights group
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, November 21, 2005
U.S. Army plans to deploy remote-controlled anti-personnel mines in Iraq are being called into question by a New York human rights organizaiton.
Officials said the army would deploy a new mine termed Matrix. They said this would enable an operator with a laptop computer to detonate the mine via a radio signal.
The system was designed to detonate a Claymore mine. The Claymore was said to propel lethal fragments up to 60 meters.
The use of the Matrix has sparked concern by human rights group. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Defense Department has failed to discuss the potential harm the Matrix could pose to innocent civilians.
The army's plans to deploy 125 Matrix systems in Iraq by the Stryker Brigade. Officials said the mines would help protect military bases.
Officials said Matrix would mark the precursor of an advanced mine termed Spider. The Spider would use new munitions rather than Claymore mines.
HRW said U.S. Army tests indicate that the Claymore mines have a far larger lethal area than reported. The group said the actual hazard range of the Claymore could be as much as 300 meters and expressed doubts whether a soldier could identify his target from such a distance.
"A faraway blip on a laptop screen is hardly a surefire method of determining if you are about to kill an enemy combatant or an unsuspecting civilian," said Steve Goose, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division.
The Matrix was also said to have been designed with a "battlefield override" feature that substitutes activation by a victim for detonation by command. Victim-activated Claymore mines were banned by the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, ratified by 152 nations but not the United States.
"The Pentagon needs to give concrete assurances that innocent civilians can't accidentally detonate these new Matrix mines," Goose said. "Otherwise, this system would end up functioning like the old-fashioned anti-personnel mines that more than three-quarters of the world's nations have banned."
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453694.552777778.html
By Bill Gertz - THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 21, 2005
By Charlie Coon - Stars and Stripes European edition
Monday, November 21, 2005
Lt. Col. John “Scott” Eaddy, left, commander of 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, pins Bronze Stars and other medals on soldiers from the battalion’s Company A, during an awards ceremony Friday at the Panzer Casern gymnasium in Böblingen, Germany. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
BÖBLINGEN, Germany — After years of training, it’s good to see what you’ve got.
During their eight-month tour, soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group got shot at, mortared and bombed. They got their share of enemy fighters, too, while operating in Anbar province, and trained up Iraqi troops to defend Baghdad.
On Friday, the soldiers got their medals. About 45 soldiers received the awards during a short ceremony at the Panzer Casern gymnasium as a small contingent of family and friends looked on.
Some got Bronze Stars, while others got Army Commendation Medals or Combat Action Badges.
The tour in Iraq was the company’s first but likely won’t be its last. To go through a tour and succeed at missions was validation that the soldiers’ years of training paid off, according to Maj. Gen. Thomas Csrnko, commander of U.S. Special Operation Command Europe.
“It’s hard to describe how you come out on the other end,” Csrnko said “There’s a level of maturing, a level of growth that’s hard to put into words.”
But some tried.
“One of the best things that Special Forces brings to the table is that we get to interact with the local people,” said Andrew, a captain who commanded Operational Detachment Alpha 012, and by Special Forces custom, declined to give his last name. “It’s a cliché to say we try to win the hearts and minds, but it’s really true.
“You’ve got to earn the trust of the local people so they’ll tell you what you need to know.”
The Special Forces soldiers said they worked closely with Marines and regular Army soldiers. On one occasion in Haditha, ODA 014 was working with a Marine unit. The units were about a mile apart, and both got ambushed but managed to fight their way out.
After taking out the enemy fighters, the ODA pushed into the hide-out of their primary target, an insurgent leader who had bragged that the city was ringed and that there was no chance he could be captured, according to Hugo, a chief warrant officer 2 and the ODA’s assistant commander.
“He was a pretty humble guy when we pulled him out,” Hugo said.
After undertaking operations in Anbar province, the company moved to Baghdad where they trained Iraqi soldiers. Those brigades are now standing alone and holding their ground, the soldiers said.
And when the company pulled out of Iraq in June, the soldiers were happy they didn’t lose a single soldier. But some sounded like they were sorry to leave.
“Once you’re in the game playing, you want to keep playing,” said Oscar, a master sergeant and team sergeant for ODA 011. “You want to see closure but you obviously can’t. It’s going to take a long time.”
Stars and Stripes - Mideast edition
Monday, November 21, 2005
The U.S. military has identified a prisoner they say was a “technology expert, advisor and supplier” to insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq operatives in Baghdad.
Uthman Faruq Muhammad Abd-al-Hamid, known as Abu Ibrahim, was captured on Oct. 31, officials said Sunday. While there was no explanation offered on why the detention was made public Sunday, intelligence agencies sometimes keep prisoner’s identities secret while tracking the prisoners’ associates.
According to U.S. officials, Abu Ibrahim was a computer store owner, programmer and part owner of an engineering firm. He allegedly admitted to supplying trigger devices for makeshift bombs, hand-held radios, cell phones, computers, software and video and editing equipment.
The computers and editing equipment were used, in part, to make false identifications and weapons permits, officials said.
;*)))))
U.S. troops trying to persuade tribal militia to put down its weapons
U.S. Marines watch over a cadre of militia members from the Katab Al Hamsa. The militia members are waiting outside a Marine base in Husaybah while their leader meets with U.S. and Iraqi leaders inside. U.S and Iraqi leaders are urging the militia leader to disarm. (Andrew Tilghman / S&S)
By Andrew Tilghman - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
Monday, November 21, 2005
HUSAYBAH, Iraq — The U.S. Marines keep saying the same thing to a local militia leader known as Abu Ali: Stop carrying your weapons.
Nevertheless, the man, who heads a local paramilitary group, continues to ride around this dusty border town with a cohort of armed men and several pickups laden with heavy artillery.
“We are carrying weapons for our own protection,” Abu Ali, a 39-year-old father of seven and former Army officer under Saddam Hussein, explained to the Marines at a recent meeting.
Disarming the militia, a tribal-based group known as the Katab Al Hamsa, has become a priority for the Marines who swept through this former insurgent stronghold last week and are working to create a long-term presence here to stabilize the region.
“We will not allow a militia to operate in this area. If you are not a part of the Iraqi army or the U.S. Marines, you will not be allowed on the streets with weapons,” Lt. Col. Dale Alford, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, told Abu Ali and others at a recent meeting.
The Marines were pleased that Abu Ali showed up at a meeting of community leaders Sunday unarmed and wearing civilian clothes. But they were disappointed to see he brought an entourage of uniformed soldiers and armed vehicles that parked outside the meeting and waited just beyond the U.S. base’s concrete barriers.
“I’m going to stomp on their livers here in a couple of days if they don’t cut it out,” Alford said after Abu Ali left.
The Marines have heard reports that the militia is threatening, assaulting or even killing local residents from a rival tribe.
Yet the militia has been an U.S. ally in the broader war against insurgents, and the Marines here are treading cautiously as they seek to disarm them.
Here in the far-flung desert towns of the western Euphrates River valley, the larger war against insurgents is entangled with a complex and age-old rivalry between local Sunni tribes.
Abu Ali’s militia is essentially drawn from the Abu Mahals, a local tribe locked in a bitter and bloody feud with their longtime rivals, the prominent Salamani tribe.
The insurgents who controlled the city for the past year aligned themselves with the Salamanis.
The U.S. forces, on the other hand, recently began training and equipping fighters from the Abu Mahal militia. This tribal force of about 100 men fought with the Marines and the Iraqi army units that pushed through the city last week.
The force, dubbed the Desert Protectors, may help patrol the Syrian border in the coming months, but its precise role remains unclear, Marines said.
For now, the Marines are urging Abu Ali and others from his militia not to seek out and raid homes of suspected insurgents. Instead, they want the militia to pass on any information to the Iraqi army commander.
“I want you to tell him what you know about insurgents and he will go get them with the help of the Marines,” Alford said, referring to local Iraqi army leader Col. Hamid. “If you want to help turn in insurgents, that’s a good thing and we’ll sit down with you.”
On Sunday, militia members met with Marines and local Iraqi army leaders to provide information about suspected insurgents.
The militia, estimated at about 400 men, is remarkably well armed and carries new equipment traditionally associated with old Soviet Special Forces units. They have new uniforms, as well as Kalishnikov rifles, PKC guns in their pickups, rocket-propelled grenades, and other weapons that Abu Ali said were “secret.”
The militia was kicked out of the city several months ago by an alliance of their rival tribe and insurgents. The city’s other prominent tribe, the Salamanis, fears that the group will seek revenge in the coming weeks.
Convincing the militia members to set down their weapons before they feel completely secure will be difficult, said Capt. Will Maxcy, who works with the military transition team in the Husaybah area.
“They are going to do whatever they want to do for their own protection,” Maxcy said.
The delicate negotiations with the local militia is just one step in the broader transition from a tribal-based society to one run by a government and founded on the rule of law, said Maj. Ed Rueda, who works with the civil military affairs unit here.
“Once they realize that the monopoly of violence is reserved for the state, they’ll be fine. But for right now, that is completely foreign to them,” Rueda said.
Bump
Anything like the Hatfields and the McCoys?
Tue 22 Nov 2005
MARGARET NEIGHBOUR
IRAQI officials are carrying out DNA tests to see if the leader of the al-Qaeda in Iraq terror group, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was among a group of militants killed in northern Iraq.
Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, who is on a visit to Moscow, said yesterday that samples were taken from several corpses of insurgents killed in a gun battle in Mosul on Sunday.
"American and Iraqi forces are investigating the possibility that Zarqawi's corpse is among the bodies of some terrorists who died in the military operation in Mosul," he said.
The White House has said it was "highly unlikely" that Zarqawi was among the eight dead.
However, Mr Zebari said it was believed that senior militants were present in the house and that some of those inside had blown themselves up.
"I would not be surprised if Zarqawi could be one of those who blew himself up," he said. "We know that when the American and Iraqi forces tried to storm the building the occupants blew themselves up. They believe there must have been some key leaders from the fundamentalists who committed suicide instead of handing themselves in."
Zarqawi's group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, has carried out many bombings in the country and claimed responsibility for the hotel bombings in Jordan this month.
"Unless they get a confirmation from the DNA it will be difficult to say whether it was him or some of his lieutenants," Mr Zebari said.
A US army spokesman played down the significance of the DNA tests. "We routinely employ whatever means required to identify suspected or known terrorists or insurgents," he said.
A Pentagon spokesman added that he had no information suggesting that Zarqawi was among those killed.
Meanwhile, US troops yesterday fired on a minibus, killing at least three civilians, including a child, and wounding three others. The US army said troops opened fire after trying to wave at the vehicle to stop and then firing warning shots in the incident north of Baghdad. Survivors said five people, including two children, died.
"These tragedies only happen because Zarqawi and his thugs are out there driving around with car bombs," said an army spokesman.
• Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, yesterday said that he strongly disagreed with a congressman who has called for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. However, Mr Cheney stopped short of questioning the patriotism of John Murtha, a war veteran, calling him "a good man, a marine, a patriot".
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Please stop by this website and send a message of support to our troops in Iraq by signing this site's Guest Book. (From MNJohnnie)
UPDATED: 1:06 pm EST - November 22, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday he has "absolutely no reason" to believe the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, died in a weekend raid in Mosul. Lt. Gen. John Vines, chief of the Multi-National Corps Iraq, also confirmed that U.S. officials have the ability to determine if al-Zarqawi was there.
"I am told that there is a DNA database of some of his relatives that is able to be compared against some of those who were killed there," Vines told reporters. "If he had been in one of those houses that were part of the objective, we could confirm that."
Eight insurgents and four Iraqi policemen died in the raid by U.S. and Iraqi forces, including three insurgents who blew themselves up to avoid capture, officials said.
The allied forces mounted an assault on a house in the northern city of Mosul that was believed used by members of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Iraq's foreign minister has said that tests were being done to determine if al-Zarqawi was one of those killed.
Vines also staunchly refused to outline a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Despite mounting political pressure in the United States and among some Iraqi leaders, Vines said any recommendations for troop withdrawal that he makes will be based on the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, the ability of the government to sustain them, and the effectiveness of the insurgency.
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 22, 2005 · Last updated 10:20 a.m. PT
By BASSEM MROUE - ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 17 people, and three U.S. soldiers died in two separate attacks, pushing the American death toll in Iraq to 2,100, officials said.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, insurgents fired a mortar at a U.S. ceremony attended by top officials to hand over a presidential palace to Iraqi authorities, sending the U.S. ambassador and top commander scrambling for cover but causing no injuries.
The attackers in Kirkuk lured the patrol to a busy commercial street by shooting a policemen, then struck with the suicide bomb as authorities investigated the shooting, said police Capt. Farhad Talabani. The bombing took place on a road leaving Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader gave the casualty figure of 17 dead and 26 wounded but did not say how many were civilians.
Attacks on the security forces in Kirkuk are common. Insurgents last week in Kirkuk opened fire on a police patrol, killing three officers, while a roadside bomb a few miles away killed two more police officers.
The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division wask killed after a bomb detonated near his vehicle Monday near Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. There are several U.S. Army units assigned to the Marine division.
In addition, two soldiers from Task Force Freedom were killed Saturday by small arms fire while on patrol in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, another statement said.
As of Tuesday, at least 2,100 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,638 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military civilians.
The attack on the ceremony in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, occurred as a U.S. colonel was giving a speech. A mortar whistled as it fell into a field about 300 yards away from the palace, but it failed to explode, according to an AP reporter at the scene.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, briefly went inside the palace, but emerged a few minutes later to continue the ceremony.
"This was an ineffectual attempt to stop the progress that goes on every day in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. command.
Later, Hamad Hamoud Shagtti, the Salahuddin provincial governor, received a symbolic key to the palace and a deputy governor raised the Iraqi flag over the complex. They toured the building, which Saddam ordered built for his mother in 1991 and is considered the largest and most elaborate of the palaces constructed during his rule.
Johnson said the handover of the palace was an important step forward in Iraq's development, something that insurgent attacks have done little to slow down, despite daily violence.
The palace is part of a complex on more than 1,000 acres overlooking the Tigris River. There are 136 buildings on the property, with a combined 1.5 million square feet of administrative and living space, including 18 palaces, the U.S. command said.
The turnover of the complex to the Finance Ministry and the provincial government was "a landmark event highlighting the increased capability of the Iraqi government to administer and govern itself," said a statement by Col. Billy J. Buckner, a spokesman for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq.
Since it was taken over by U.S. troops in 2003, the palace has served as a division headquarters for U.S. forces based in the region.
"Although 28 other coalition operating bases have already been turned over to Iraqi Security Forces control this year, the Tikrit Palace complex is the most significant transition of real estate thus far," the U.S. statement said.
Iraq's anti-corruption commission said Tuesday that members of the former government who are under investigation will not be allowed to run in next month's parliamentary elections.
Judge Radhi al-Radhi issued a statement saying there are some ministers, undersecretaries and directors who are accused of financial and administrative corruption.
"Since there are financial corruption dossiers for these officials at the Iraqi special courts, they are not qualified to take part as candidates in the coming elections," the statement said.
A commission official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said Minister of Public Works Nasreen Berwari, who is the wife of Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, and Hazin al-Shaalan, a former defense minister, are among those banned.
---
Associated Press writer Zaki Mahmoud in Tikrit contributed to this report.
Three US soldiers killed in Iraq
US general calls Iraq wrangling 'disturbing' for troops on ground.
Last Updated 2005-11-22 : 19:05:52
BAGHDAD & WASHINGTON - Three US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Saturday, bringing the overall death toll to 2,100, the US military announced Tuesday.
A soldier serving with the 2nd Marine Division died Monday in a roadside bomb explosion near the western town of Habbaniyah, it said in a statement.
And two soldiers were killed by small arms fire in the northern town of Mosul on Saturday
The latest deaths brings to 2,100 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, a top US general said Tuesday that the increasingly angry political debate over the US military presence in Iraq was "disturbing" but had not undermined troop morale.
Lieutenant General John Vines, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, stuck doggedly by the US administration's opposition to giving a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.
"A precipitous pullout, I believe, would be destabilizing," the second-ranking US officer in Iraq told a Defence Department press briefing from Baghdad.
Iraq has been one of the main causes for President George W. Bush's all-time low standing, and the US involvement in Iraq has become a major dispute between Democrats and Bush's Republicans.
"Of course the debate and the bitterness is disturbing," Vines said.
"But after all, we are a democracy, and that is what democracy is about, is people will have differences of opinion."
When questioned about troop morale, Vines added: "Certainly, soldiers are concerned about whether or not they enjoy the support of not only their elected representatives but the people."
Vines said the feeling among soldiers was "they know that they have their support".
The general would not comment on reports that rival Iraqi factions had agreed at a meeting in Cairo to discuss setting a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces. But he insisted: "We are here at the request of the Iraqi government."
The United States has about 159,000 troops in Iraq for the December 15 election of a permanent national assembly. This will be cut back to 138,000 afterward, the Pentagon has said.
Bush, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other US leaders have all insisted that any withdrawal must be conditional on security in Iraq.
Vines said US military commanders would make recommendations based on "the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, the capability of the government to support those forces in the field, the state of the insurgency and a whole range of conditions."
He said that although Iraqi security forces are currently conducting operations "in a large portion of their area with only limited coalition support, they do require our support at this time.
"That support will be increasingly less over a period of time; however, a precipitous pullout, I believe, would be destabilizing."
Vines would not comment on a proposal by Democratic lawmaker John Murtha calling for an immediate withdrawal.
"I'm not going to get into a timetable. It will be driven by conditions on the ground."
Washington is now embroiled in an acrimonious political debate over the justification used for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and whether troops should be kept there.
While Democrats have accused the White House of misleading the country into the war, Republicans have launched their own attacks on war critics.
Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday said the lawmakers who accused Bush of misleading Americans into war were guilty of "revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety."
By VOA News
22 November 2005
A federal grand jury in Miami has indicted U.S.-born suspect Jose Padilla on terrorism-related charges, saying he conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez announced the 11-count criminal indictment at a news conference Tuesday in Washington. The attorney general said Mr. Padilla was part of a group that operated in the United States and Canada, and that supported terrorists overseas by sending money, physical assets and recruits.
Mr. Padilla has been held as an enemy combatant for more than three years under suspicion of plotting with al-Qaida to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States. Those allegations are not mentioned in the indictment.
In September, a three-judge federal panel ruled that Mr. Padilla could be held without charge as long as U.S. hostilities against al-Qaida continue. Mr. Padilla challenged that ruling.
If convicted on all counts, he could face life in prison.
Alberto Gonzalez announces Padilla indictment.
SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS!!!!!!!!!!!
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