Posted on 06/02/2003 9:41:27 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Thanks nully!!!
Howlin, Blixy's time has come or will he linger like Clinton.
Erin Rush of Leesburg, Va., an instructor for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, demonstrates to members of the media how to put on an emergency gas mask at the Pentagon Monday, June 2, 2003. The Pentagon has handed out 25,000 emergency gas masks to prepare Pentagon workers for possible chemical or biological terror attacks. That completes about one-third of the effort started in late February, when they began training an average of several hundred people a day in use of the 'emergency escape hoods.' On Monday, they gave masks to a few dozen members of the press corps who work daily in the Defense Department headquarters.
Pentagon reporters assigned gas masks
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Reporters who cover the Pentagon were assigned gas masks as a security precaution in case the US military's main headquarters comes under chemical attack.
The masks, which resembled plastic hoods fitted with visors and rubber mouthpieces, filters out nerve agents, allowing people to breath for about 65 minutes, said Colonel Mandy Lopez.
Jeannie Ohm of MSNBC, center, in red, and other members of the media uses practice masks during a demonstration on proper use of gas masks, Monday, June 2, 2003 at the Pentagon. The Pentagon handed out 25,000 emergency gas masks to prepare Pentagon workers for possible chemical or biological terror attacks. That completes about one-third of the effort started in late February, when they began training an average of several hundred people a day in use of the 'emergency escape hoods. On Monday, they gavemasks to a few dozen members of the press corps who work daily in the Defense Department headquarters. Afterward everyone was given a sealed 'real' mask of their own.
G8 Summit to Fizzle Out Without 'G1'
EVIAN, France (Reuters) - A summit of the Group of Eight main industrial powers limps to an anticlimactic close on Tuesday in the absence of President Bush, on a peacemaking trip to the Middle East.
The other seven leaders from Germany, Japan, Russia, France, Britain, Italy and Canada will wrap up the annual G8 gathering with an upbeat statement on prospects for a world economic recovery, to be delivered by French President Jacques Chirac.
If, for some strange reason, you are inclined to do a computer search of the phrase "facts on the ground," you will come up with countless hits -- the vast majority of them relating to the Israeli-Palestinian situation. For years, the Israelis wanted to change the facts their way and the Palestinians, their way. Now, to the surprise of many and the horror of some, George Bush has done a Sinatra -- he changed the facts his way.
The president now stands on the brink of what may, surprisingly, be a real chance to make peace in the Middle East. Already the totally unexpected has happened: Ariel Sharon, the hard-liner and architect of Israel's settlement policy, has changed his tune. He has called the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by its right name -- an "occupation" -- and said it cannot last forever.
Tony Blair yesterday made the final public breach with Clare Short when he branded his erstwhile cabinet colleague a liar for claiming that he made a "secret agreement" with George Bush as long ago as last September to wage war on Iraq.
As opposition politicians and dissident Labour MPs piled the pressure on the government, the prime minister discarded his usual references to "Clare" to say that allegations by "Clare Short" were "completely and totally untrue."
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department mistreated some of the hundreds of foreigners detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a report released Monday by the department's own inspector general.
Glenn A. Fine's 198-page report found that some of the 762 mostly Middle Eastern men held on immigration violations faced a "pattern of physical and verbal abuse" and were held for excessive periods without being informed of the charges they faced.
CIA to reveal war intelligence
A U.S. official said Monday the CIA will provide Congress with the weapons intelligence that formed the basis of Secretary of State Colin Powell's pre-war presentation to the United Nations.(CIA report due shortly)
But chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said in a final report on Monday there was no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S.-led invasion.
U.S. official: Congress to get CIA's Iraqi WMD report
That same source also was the basis for the National Intelligence Estimate, the CIA's overall classified report on Iraq's WMD program.
The official said the CIA will cooperate fully with a request by Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and provide "detailed" information on the intelligence that led to the agency's "assessment" of Iraq's weapons program.
Iraq WMD questions remain: U.N.
But the inspectors also made "little progress" in clearing up remaining questions concerning possible WMD programs, according to the latest report from UNMOVIC.
According to the report, released Monday, "The long list of proscribed items unaccounted for and as such resulting in unresolved disarmament issues was neither shortened by the inspections, nor by Iraqi declarations and documentation."
Bush officials said Chirac had some ideas to offer on the Middle East.
Bush to Chirac: Time to move on
Bush held a 25-minute meeting with Chirac discussing the whole of the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, before departing for Egypt to seek support from Arab leaders for the U.S.-backed "road map" designed to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
After talks in Egypt, Bush is to travel to a landmark summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority PM Mahoud Abbas.
President Bush, making his first hands-on attempt to broker peace in the Middle East, today will press Arab leaders to accept Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as the rightful Palestinian leader and urge them to do more to stem terrorism.
The move is a high-stakes gambit to replace Yasser Arafat as the Palestinian peace negotiator. Mr. Bush says that Mr. Arafat has miserably failed in that role.
CIA says al Qaeda ready to use nukes
By Bill Gertz - THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Al Qaeda terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes, according to a new CIA report.
"Al Qaeda's goal is the use of [chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass casualties," the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month.
DARWIN, Australia (CP) - Counterterrorism experts were gathering in the northern Australian city of Darwin for a three-day forum Tuesday on how to manage a terrorist attack, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
Experts from countries including the United States, China, Canada, Russia, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore were taking part in the forum, covened for the first time under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. Australia was co-hosting the conference with Singapore. Australia's recently appointed ambassador for counterterrorism, Nick Warner, joined an official from Singapore to head the panel.
N. Korea Blames South for Naval Skirmish
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea on Tuesday accused South Korean navy ships of violating their disputed western sea border repeatedly in recent days, and hours later a South Korean navy speedboat fired warning shots at a Northern fishing boat.
South Korea said the fishing boat sailed about 200 yards into its waters and the South's navy fired eight machine-gun rounds. There were no reports of injuries.
IBRAHIM KHALIL BORDER CROSSING, Iraq - The line stretches for more than two miles: hundreds of Turkish trucks massed at the Iraqi border, a traffic jam that illustrates both the promise of trade and the possible pitfalls.
Shipments to northern Iraq are increasing, but the majority of the trucks still carry food aid purchased with Iraqi oil money as the country recovers from war and chaos.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier was shot and killed while on patrol in central Iraq early Tuesday, a military spokesman said.
The shooting took place near the town of Balad, 55 miles north of the capital, said Maj. William Thurmond, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's V Corps.
Thurmond said he had no further details on the incident and that the soldier's name was being withheld pending notification of the family.
U.S. Choppers the Peace From Above Iraq
ABOVE BAGHDAD, Iraq - The half-dozen Apache and Black Hawk helicopters clattered above this sprawling capital, hovering over intersections and crisscrossing paths as they banked over palm-lined avenues and the winding Tigris River.
Lt. Col. James Schrote, a Black Hawk pilot from the newly arrived 1st Armored Division, pointed down at cars jumping over curbs and medians to avoid a huge traffic jam at a downtown intersection, and radioed details to troops on the ground.
The suspect, Yosif Salih Fahd Ala'Yeeri, was also believed to be one of al Qaeda's leaders in Saudi Arabia.
The statement said he was killed near the city of Turba in an exchange of fire with Saudi security forces. Two security members were killed, and a man who was with Ala'Yeeri was wounded.
The statement was issued Sunday but published in the Saudi daily papers Monday.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Forces of two regional Afghan army commanders, both loyal to President Hamid Karzai, clashed in southern Afghanistan, leaving three soldiers dead and wounding two others, a senior official said Tuesday.
The fighting between the soldiers of commanders Abdul Raziq and Gud Fahida erupted Monday near a U.S. base at Spinboldak, about 75 miles southwest of the southern city of Kandahar, district chief Fazaluddin Agha told The Associated Press.
One of the Afghan soldier's killed, Sakhi Dad, was also a part-time translator for the U.S. army, Agha said.
Agha said the fighting had stopped. He had no details on what caused the clash.
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