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Concerns over port security may be sky high, but the chief of security for the East Coast's main port operator, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., hardly knew it when he sat before a Senate Commerce panel on Tuesday. More than a dozen senators grilled U.S. government officials, and the chief operator officer of Dubai Ports World, which is on the verge of acquiring P&O and all its world-wide port operations. But no senator had a single question for Robert Scavone, the man who oversees P&O's security for North America -- and will do the same for DP World. Scavone...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say. Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations. Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say...

WMD hunters ambushed in Baghdad By P. Mitchell Prothero Published 4/26/2004 1:32 PM BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 26 (UPI) -- An explosion that killed al least three U.S. personnel in Baghdad was an ambush of a top-secret unit detailed to search for weapons of mass destruction, United Press International has confirmed. The military initially claimed that a detail of U.S. Army soldiers were about to raid a suspected bomb making factory when two were killed after an explosion. Several Iraqis in the area at the time told UPI that the building exploded when the soldiers tried to enter the house. Although...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The commander of the military police company assigned to the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad has said he will testify that the top U.S. general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the prison and witnessed some of the abuse, according to a published report. The Washington Post, in a story first released on its Web site Saturday night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing April 2 that Capt. Donald J. Reese told him that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.The...

The discovery of an Iraqi artillery shell armed with nerve gas has the liberal community and mass media in a panic. The 155mm nerve gas shell was rigged to kill U.S. troops but it failed. U.S. Brig. General Mark Kimmitt confirmed the discovery during a news conference in Baghdad. Yet, the discovery of nerve gas was followed by a second revelation. A second shell, equipped with mustard gas was found two weeks ago. The mustard gas shell identified by the special WMD inspection team in Iraq appears to be one of 550 declared by Saddam to U.N. inspectors during the...

FORMER chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said that a shell containing sarin nerve gas used in an attack in Iraq was most likely a stray weapon possibly from the first Gulf War. Blix said today that the discovery of the nerve agent was not a sign that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction before the war last year. The US-led coalition used that claim to justify the invasion even though UN inspectors failed to make any significant finds before the war. The former Swedish foreign minister said the 155-mm shell used to attack a US military...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq appeared to briefly lose consciousness during a news conference Saturday, bumping his face into a podium microphone. He left the room for a period but returned smiling and answered more questions. There was no immediate explanation for the apparent fainting spell suffered by Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy head of operations in Iraq, who delivers daily briefings to Baghdad-based journalists alongside the top U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor. Kimmitt had left the podium for a few minutes earlier in the press conference, which was broadcast live internationally. He...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq appeared to briefly lose consciousness during a news conference Saturday, bumping his face into a podium microphone. He left the room for a period but returned smiling and answered more questions. There was no immediate explanation for the apparent fainting spell suffered by Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy head of operations in Iraq, who delivers daily briefings to Baghdad-based journalists alongside the top U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor. Kimmitt had left the podium for a few minutes earlier in the press conference, which was broadcast live...

Coalition officials in Iraq today struck down rumors surrounding the capture of would-be, failed bombers connected to the March 2 attacks that killed scores and injured hundreds of Shiia pilgrims in Baghdad and Karbala. Senior coalition spokesman Dan Senor and Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, addressed the rumors at a Baghdad news conference. Kimmitt said the night before the explosions, a car approached a checkpoint in Basra, and several people jumped out and ran away. It was treated as a car bomb and soldiers conducted two controlled explosions to neutralize it,...

Polls indicate Iraqis want the occupation of their country to end, but don't want the coalition to leave, the senior spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority said here today. Dan Senor said the overwhelming majority of Iraqis are grateful for their liberation and are glad that Saddam Hussein's rule is over. They want to rule themselves, he said, but they know the security situation in Iraq requires continued coalition presence. Senor and Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, met with members of the Pentagon press corps traveling with Defense Secretary Donald H....

(Participating were Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations, Combined Joint Task Force 7, and Dan Senor, senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority.) Senor: Good afternoon. I just have a couple of quick announcements, after which General Kimmitt has a brief opening statement, and then we'll be happy to take your questions. Earlier today Ambassador Bremer met with a Turkish business delegation, led by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey. The delegation, which also includes the Turkish ambassador to Iraq, are in Baghdad for the day to look at the foreign investment climate and...

MR. SENOR: Good afternoon. I have a brief statement to make, after which General Kimmitt will make an opening statement, and then we will be happy to take your questions. On January 10th, coalition forces received a tip from an informant regarding Khamis Sirhan al-Mohammed, a former Karbala Ba'ath Party regional commander, and number 54 in Central Command's deck of cards. Based in part on that intelligence, al-Mohammed was captured the following day. Today we can announce that less than a month following receipt of that tip, we've approved a payment of $1 million to the Iraqi informant. Al-Mohammed was...

Iraq's new police force is making noticeable contributions to the security environment in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country, senior U.S. officials told reporters in Baghdad today. "Clearly the presence of Iraqi police on the front lines -- walking the patrols, addressing the problems -- is having an effect" on improving security across Iraq, Dan Senor, senior spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, noted at a Baghdad press briefing. Today, Senor pointed out, more than 60,000 Iraqi police officers are on duty across the country, with about 4,000 police patrolling Baghdad. Senor credits the Baghdad police for a 39 percent...

Terror groups from other countries are going out of their way to use Iraqi citizens in pursuing their objectives, a coalition military official said at a Baghdad news conference today. "They have demonstrated time after time that the foreign terrorists will fight to the last Iraqi to achieve their aims here in Iraq," said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task force 7. The coalition has no indication the foreign fighters are working in concert with or alongside Iraqi anti-coalition elements, Kimmitt said. Former Iraqi regime elements and criminals – as well as foreign terrorist...

Participating were Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations, Coalition Joint Task Force 7, and Dan Senor, senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority.) Senor: Good afternoon. I have a couple of quick comments before General Kimmitt will make his opening statement. I just want to point you all to a State Department poll that has just been released from the Office of Research. I believe it is on their website. If it is not, it will be on our website. In this poll, which was conducted on November -- they were in the field November 19th to...

(Participating was Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Deputy Director for Coalition Operations and Daniel Senor, Senior Adviser, CPA.) MR. SENOR: Good evening. I just have a brief item on Ambassador Bremer's schedule. Then General Kimmitt will make an opening statement and provide a short video presentation, and then we will be happy to take your questions. As far as Ambassador Bremer is concerned, earlier today he traveled down to Basra for a meeting with Prime Minister Blair, in which he briefed Prime Minister Blair on recent CPA activities and an update on the political process and other matters. Prime Minister Blair,...

Coalition personnel are working with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to head off gasoline smuggling, sabotage of the oil industry infrastructure and black-market profiteering. Officials said these continue to be among the greatest problems facing the Iraqi people. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor and Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the operations deputy at Combined Joint Task Force 7, briefed the press in Baghdad today. Senor talked about steps the coalition is making to combat the gas shortage that is plaguing life in Iraq. Senor cited a number of causes to the gasoline shortage, which has made for long gas lines at...