U.S. Weapons, Given to Iraqis, Move to Turkey
From the New York Times
Excerpt: Weapons that were originally given to Iraqi security forces by the American military have been recovered over the past year by the authorities in Turkey after being used in violent crimes in that country, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

The discovery that serial numbers on pistols and other weapons recovered in Turkey matched those distributed to Iraqi police units has prompted growing concern by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that controls on weapons being provided to Iraqis are inadequate. It was also a factor in the decision to dispatch the department’s inspector general to Iraq next week to investigate the problem, the officials said.
More

Labels: iraq, pentagon

Witnesses In Army Trial Killed In Crash
From the Army Times
Excerpt: "A Honolulu TV station reports that some of the 10 Hawaii-based soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last week had been scheduled to testify against their former platoon sergeant.
The charges involve the alleged murder of an Iraqi detainee.
The KITV report does not name any of the soldiers or say how many were to be involved in the case against Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales of San Antonio. A preliminary hearing of the case is set for October in Hawaii." More

Labels: iraq

Ex-Army Corps official pleads guilty to rigging New Orleans bid -
From: The Los Angeles Times
Excerpt: "A former employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pleaded guilty Thursday to rigging a bid on repairs to levees in the New Orleans area, part of a broader Justice Department investigation into procurement fraud in levee reconstruction.

The case marks the first criminal charges against an Army Corps official involved in New Orleans levees since Hurricane Katrina, a department spokeswoman said. It is likely to stoke fears that fraud has plagued the construction both before and since the hurricane that devastated the city.

The Justice Department said Raul Miranda of Houston supplied confidential bidding documents to an unidentified sand and gravel subcontractor and agreed to accept about $299,000 from the company." More

Govt. Apologizes for Wrongful Detainment
From: Forbes
Excerpt: "SEATTLE - The Justice Department has apologized and paid $250,000 to an Iraqi refugee wrongly detained in 2003 when he stepped off an Amtrak train in Montana to stretch his legs, according to a settlement agreement released Thursday.

Abdul Habeeb, 41, of Kent, a Seattle suburb, spent eight days in custody before officials realized their mistake. They dropped deportation proceedings against him the following month, but Habeeb sued in 2005, seeking an apology and financial compensation.

'You are an Iraqi who was admitted into the United States as a refugee,' Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan in Seattle wrote in a June 13 letter to Habeeb. 'You did nothing wrong. The United States of America regrets the mistake.'

'Apologies are issued by the federal government when we're wrong,' Sullivan said Thursday. 'Maybe we don't do it as often as we should, but in this case we were wrong, and I felt good about signing the letter.'" More

New Bush Policies Limit Reach of Child Insurance Plan
From the Washington Post
Excerpt: The Bush administration, engaged in a battle with Congress over whether a popular children's health insurance program should be expanded, has announced new policies that will make it harder for states to insure all but the lowest-income children.

New administrative hurdles, which state health officials were told about late last week, are aimed at preventing parents with private insurance for their children from availing of the government-subsidized State Children's Health Insurance Program. But Democrats and children's advocates said that the announcement will jeopardize coverage for children whose parents work at jobs that do not provide employer-paid insurance.

Under the new policy, a state seeking to enroll a child whose family earns more than 250 percent of the poverty level -- or $51,625 for a family of four -- must first ensure that the child is uninsured for at least one year. The state must also demonstrate that at least 95 percent of children from families making less than 200 percent of the poverty level have been enrolled in the children's health insurance program or Medicaid -- a sign-up rate that no state has yet managed

Labels: bush, health

Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing
From the Washington Post
Excerpt: The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

The author of the report from the Government Accountability Office says U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.

More

Labels: iraq, military

News Corp. pledged $2.5 mln to Dow Jones Watchdog's Group
From Reuters
Excerpt: Dow Jones & Co said on Thursday it did not know that one of the people named to protect its editorial independence after it becomes part of News Corp (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) runs a foundation that received a donation pledge of $2.5 million (1.2 million pounds) from News Corp.

Rupert Murdoch's global media conglomerate selected Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Nicholas Negroponte to be part of the five-member special committee that will oversee the editorial independence of Dow Jones's news operations including the Wall Street Journal.

Creation of the committee and agreement on who would be on it was part of News Corp's $5.6 billion deal to buy Dow Jones.

Asked if the donation compromised Negroponte's independence as a member of a group designed to safeguard Dow Jones' editorial integrity, Dow Jones spokeswoman Linda Dunbar said: "We are confident of the capability of the individuals to make independent decisions.

More

Labels: media

Latin American hired guns shrug off Iraq War risks for payday
From the Miami Herald
Excerpt: LIMA -- Tired of subsisting by selling cigarettes on the street, Gregorio Calixto jumped at the chance last fall to earn $1,000 a month working for a U.S.-based security company in Iraq. ...

...The Latin Americans typically served in the military back home -- many fought leftist guerrillas in places like El Salvador and Colombia -- and were taught by U.S. instructors, making it easier for them to use U.S. weapons and work under American security procedures.

But after leaving their armed forces, these soldiers found themselves in low-paying jobs. So they agreed to risk injury or death in Iraq for $1,000 to $1,500 a month -- $5 to $7 an hour -- a good wage for them, but far below the $10,000 to $15,000 monthly pay for American contract employees.

Peruvians guard the outer perimeter of a U.S. installation in Basra. Chileans protect the governmental Green Zone in Baghdad. Hondurans have provided security within the terminal at Baghdad International Airport. Salvadorans once protected the Green Zone in Baghdad, but they and some Ecuadoreans reportedly have left the jobs after media in their home countries labeled them ``mercenaries.''
More

Labels: contractors, iraq

Arrested Demonstrators Awarded $1 Million
From NBC-4 Washington, D. C.
Excerpt: In September 2002, 100 people who marched on D.C. to protest the war in Iraq and World Bank policies. They were arrested. They later sued, claiming their arrests were unlawful.

A judge agreed.

On Wednesday, the judge awarded them monetary damages and threw out their arrests.

The demonstrators claimed police trapped them along Connecticut Avenue, then arrested them.

Since the incident, the D.C. Council has enacted legislation clarifying that it is legal to parade on the street without a permit.

Senate Panel OKs FDA Regulation Of Tobacco
From: CBS News
Excerpt: "A Senate committee Wednesday embraced legislation that would for the first time allow federal regulation of cigarettes.

The bill, approved 13-8 by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, would require the Food and Drug Administration to restrict tobacco advertising, regulate warning labels and remove hazardous ingredients.

The agency also would be given the authority to set standards for products that tobacco companies advertise as 'reduced risk' products.

'There are close to 70 known cancer-causing agents in tobacco products, Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes. 'Today no one has the authority to tell a tobacco company to take any of them out.' " More