Japan extends air force mission over iraq

Japan's Cabinet OKs 2-Year Extension of Air Force Mission in Iraq After It Expires in July The Associated Press TOKYO - Japan's Cabinet approved a two-year extension of the country's air force mission in Iraq after it expires in July, the foreign minister announced Friday. Tokyo has been airlifting U.N. and coalition personnel and supplies into Baghdad and other Iraqi cities from nearby Kuwait since early last year as part of efforts to support Iraq's reconstruction. The mission had been set to end July 31."A two-year extension is necessary to continue stable airlifting support" because Iraq's reconstruction has not been completed, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said in a statement after Cabinet approved the plan."International society seeks support for Iraq's reconstruction and that (Japan's continuing support) also serves Japan's national interest," Aso said.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet hopes to get parliamentary approval of a bill for the extension by late June.Tokyo has backed the U.S.-led Iraq invasion and provided troops for a non-combat, humanitarian mission in the southern city of Samawah beginning in 2004. Japan withdrew the ground troops in July 2006, and has since expanded its Kuwait-based air operations. The Iraq mission is among Japan's steps to boost its international profile. In October it also approved a one-year extension of its Indian Ocean naval mission supporting the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan.

Iraqi police train in human rights and law

By Maj. Eric Verzola4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division A graduate of the Iraqi Police Sustainment Training program receives his diploma and shakes hands with Brig. Gen. Faris at Forward Operating Base Kalsu, March 24, 2007. U.S. Army courtesy photo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — The Iraqi Police Sustainment Training program on Forward Operating Base Kalsu graduated its second class March 24 as part of Babil and Karbala provinces' journey towards provincial Iraqi control. The Karbala police sent 35 officers and the Babil police sent 15. After 10 days of training in the art and science of police work, the graduates felt excited and honored to serve the people of Iraqi."This was a good group of policemen who were willing to learn and were very excited about getting out there and doing their job," said Lonnie Webb, a native of Homerville, Ga., and member of the Homerville Police Department who assisted with the training."Like all law enforcement officers, training is the keystone to professionalism and training these Iraqi police officers during this program was effective," said Webb.The effectiveness of the Iraqi police is important in a province's journey to provincial Iraqi control, and the officers want their country to be secure."These men understand that doing their duties may call for the ultimate sacrifice of giving their lives for the safety and security of the province, and more importantly, the people of their respective provinces," said Col. Michael Garrett, commander, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division and native of Cleveland, Ohio."The unique part of the training in this program is that when possible, two different provinces train together; they see that although they are from different provinces, they are brothers-in-arms with their fellow Iraqi security forces of this country." "Another unique and important part of their training here was the addition of practical law, rule of law, and human rights as part of the training," said Garrett. "This is very important; it is the link between an arrest and conviction of criminals in these two provinces and everywhere that the rule of law prevails." "These graduates are true sons of Iraq and their respective provinces and the people of Iraq should be proud of their accomplishments during this program," added Garrett. In attendance at the graduation was the deputy police chief of Babil province, Brig. Gen. Faris, who provided remarks to the graduates."I thank Col. Garrett for this course which will help prepare our police to do their jobs more effectively," said Faris. "I am proud of them, their sacrifice and their willingness to serve their province and nation."

Military beefs up internet arsenal

By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is quietly expanding capabilities to attack terrorist computer networks, including websites that glorify insurgent attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, military officials and experts say. The move comes as al-Qaeda and other groups fighting in Iraq and elsewhere have expanded their activities on the Internet and increased the sophistication and volume of their videos and messages. Much of the material is designed to raise money and recruit fighters for Iraq. "You should not let them operate uncontested" on the Internet and elsewhere in cyberspace, said Marine Brig. Gen. John Davis, who heads a military command located at the National Security Agency. The command was established to develop ways to attack computer networks. Davis and other officials declined to say whether the military has actually attacked any networks, which would require presidential authorization. The techniques are highly classified. Pentagon contract documents show the military asks companies to develop a "full spectrum … of computer network attack techniques." Run by the Air Force Research Laboratory, this program aims to spend $40 million over four years, documents show. The growth in offensive capabilities signals a shift in military thinking from just monitoring terrorist websites for intelligence to attacking those sites. "The offensive is increasingly on leaders' minds," said John Arquilla, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School who also works for the Defense Department on cyberwar issues. Some officials say cyberattacks can result in losing critical intelligence. "You always have the built-in tension between the operator who wants to destroy the target and the intelligence officer who wants to use the target to gain more information," said Lani Kass, director of the Air Force's cyberspace task force. "Our opponents do a heck of a lot more than just watch us in cyberspace," Davis said. "They are acting in cyberspace. We need to develop options so that we can … dominate cyberspace." Cyberattacks can take different forms, including eliminating terrorist websites and creating doubts among insurgents about their networks' security, said Arquilla, who favors an offensive approach he calls a "virtual scorched-earth policy." Armed groups in Iraq videotape nearly all of their attacks on U.S. forces to help magnify their impact. "Everything they do in Iraq and Afghanistan is geared toward propaganda," said Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., who's on the House Armed Services Committee. The videos and messages are "getting more and more professional," said Andretta Summerville of iDefense, a private contractor that monitors terrorist activity on the Internet. Some sites find recruits and push "them toward a pipeline that ends in suicide attacks," said Lt. Col. Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for Central Command, which runs the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attacking websites may have limited value, said Ben Venzke of IntelCenter, a contractor that monitors terrorist websites and Internet forums. "The problem is the nature of the Internet itself," he said. "It can always come back up in 10 seconds."

hostage gambit: mullahs decide to play tough

Amir Teheri, New York Post, 27 March Khamenei: Iran's leader signals "no compromise" on nukes. WHEN in doubt, take a few hostages: This axiom of Khomeinist diplomacy was, once again, manifested in the capture of 15 British sailors in the Persian Gulf last Friday. Tehran says the Brits had strayed into Iran's territorial waters. London says they were in Iraqi waters keeping an eye on smugglers in accordance with their U.N. mission. We may never know what actually happened. The area where the sailors were captured is at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, a border estuary that has caused two wars between Iran and Iraq since the 1970s. Iraq claims ownership of the entire estuary, while Iran wants it divided between the two neighbors. It is possible that the sailors thought they were in Iraqi waters while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's Marines believed them to be on the Iranian side. What is certain, however, is that the sailors would not have been captured without Tehran's approval at the highest level. The Brits based in Basra have often strayed into waters that Iran regards as its own; Iranians have also often passed into Iraqi waters. In other words, these are almost daily incidents. The standard procedure is to warn the trespassers and guide them back to their own side of the water. If that procedure was abandoned this time, the reason must be someone's desire to provoke an incident. If trespassing were the cause of the incident, one wonders why the Islamic Republic turns a blind eye to American vessels often straying into its so-called continental-shelf territorial waters. A casual boat ride in the Persian Gulf would offer the visitor countless examples of this on a daily basis. It is possible that the mullahs don't yet wish to provoke a direct clash with the United States, and have used the incident with the Brits as a means of testing the waters. They may also hope that they could force London to press Washington to release the Revolutionary Guard commanders held in Baghdad in exchange for the British hostages. The mullahs' move cannot be fortuitous: The Brits were captured on the eve of a new Security Council resolution, drafted by Britain, to impose harsher sanctions against the Islamic Republic. It also came after months in which the Western powers have been exerting what is known as "proximity pressure" on the Khomeinist regime. A former deputy defense minister of the Islamic Republic, Gen. Ali-Reza Askari (Asgari), was kidnapped or defected and is presumed to be in the United States. Five senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its head of special operations, Gen. Mohammed Jafar Sahraroudi, remain under lock and key after having been arrested by U.S. forces in Baghdad. Tehran is full of rumors about supposed secret contacts established by the Americans with several senior political and military figures with a view toward a regime change. The contacts supposedly include a former prime minister and a former defense minister. Not surprisingly, the "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei appears to have concluded that the best defense is to go on the offensive. In a tough speech last week, Khamenei in effect put the Islamic Republic on a war footing. He endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "no compromise" position on the nuclear issue and threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Ever since it erupted on the scene, the Khomeinist revolution has always accompanied a hardening of its position by seizing hostages. In November 1979, just eight months after seizing power, the Khomeinist regime endorsed the seizure of American diplomats as hostages in Tehran. During the following quarter-century, the Islamic Republic was involved in seizing more than 1,000 hostages from more than 30 countries in Iran or through its Hezbollah agents in Lebanon. These included a French ambassador to Tehran, Guy Georgy, two German bankers and eight American and French journalists - plus dozens of businessmen, priests and tourists from countries as far apart as South Korea and Italy. Right now, in addition to the 15 Brits, the Islamic Republic is holding a German hostage. Western apologists for the Khomeinist regime have already started blaming the United States for having made the mullahs nervous. The argument of the apologists is simple: Don't do anything that makes the mullahs unhappy, or else they will do more mischief. The truth, however, is that making the mullahs nervous may be the only way of persuading them to end their defiance of the United Nations and stop trying to export Khomeinism to neighboring countries. Iranian-born journalist and author Amir Taheri is based in Europe.

Sunni Sheiks join fight versus insurgency

Sunni Sheiks Join Fight Vs. Insurgency By TODD PITMAN Associated Press WriterMarch 25, 2007, 2:39 PM RAMADI, Iraq -- Not long ago it would have been unthinkable: a Sunni sheik allying himself publicly with American forces in a xenophobic city at the epicenter of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.Today, there is no mistaking whose side Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi is on. Outside his walled home, a U.S. tank is on permanent guard beside a clutch of towering date palms and a protective dirt berm.The 36-year-old sheik is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Anbar province. The dramatic shift in alliances may have done more in a few months to ease daily street battles and undercut the insurgency here than American forces have achieved in years with arms.The American commander responsible for Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton, said the newly friendly sheiks, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, have helped cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.In November 2005, American commanders held a breakthrough meeting with top Sunni chiefs in Ramadi, hoping to lure them away from the insurgents' fold. The sheiks responded positively, promising cooperation and men for a police force that was then virtually nonexistent.But in January 2006 a suicide bomber attacked a police recruiting drive, killing 70 people. Insurgents killed at least four sheiks for cooperating with the Americans, and many others fled.The killings left the effort in limbo, until a turning point; insurgents killed a prominent sheik last year and refused to let family members bury the body for four days, enraging Sunni tribesmen, said U.S. Lt. Col. Miciotto Johnson, who heads the 1st Battalion, 77th Armored Regiment and visits al-Rishawi frequently in western Ramadi.Al-Rishawi, whose father and three brothers were killed by al-Qaida assassins, said insurgents were "killing innocent people, anyone suspected of opposing them. They brought us nothing but destruction and we finally said, enough is enough."Al-Rishawi founded the Anbar Salvation Council in September with dozens of Sunni tribes. Many of the new newly friendly leaders are believed to have at least tacitly supported the insurgency in the past, though al-Rishawi said he never did."I was always against these terrorists," al-Rishawi said in an interview inside his American-guarded compound, adjusting a pistol holstered around his waist. "They brainwashed people into thinking Americans were against them. They said foreigners wanted to occupy our land and destroy our mosques. They told us, 'We'll wage a jihad. We'll help you defeat them.'"The difficult part was convincing others it wasn't true, and that "building an alliance with the Americans was the only solution," al-Rishawi said.His movement, also known as the Anbar Awakening, now counts 41 tribes or sub-tribes from Anbar, though al-Rishawi acknowledges that some groups in the province have yet to join. It's unclear how many that is, or much support the movement really has.And there is opposition. In November, a top Sunni leader who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, described al-Rishawi's movement as "thieves and bandits." And for at least a year, U.S. forces have also witnessed sporadic firefights between Sunni militias and insurgents in Ramadi, reflecting the growing split among Sunnis. They used to describe such skirmishes as "red on red" fighting -- battles between enemies. Now they call it "red on green."But violence in some districts of Ramadi previously hit by daily street battles has dwindled to a degree so low that American soldiers can walk on the streets in some areas and hand out soccer balls without provoking a firefight -- apparently a direct result of the sheik's influence.U.S. Lt. Nathan Strickland, also of the 1-77th, said the sheiks were influenced by the realization that Shiite Iran's regional influence was rising, and "the presence of (Sunni) foreign fighters here was disrupting the traditional local tribal structure."Al-Rishawi and other sheiks urged their tribesmen to join the police force, and 4,500 Sunnis heeded the call in Ramadi alone -- a remarkable feat in a city that had almost no police a year ago.Local Sunnis have deeply resented the overwhelmingly Shiite Iraqi army units the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad has deployed here. Sunni tribes have begun to realize that if anybody is going to secure the city, it might as well be the sons of Ramadi, Strickland said.Also pouring through the streets in police trucks fixed with heavy machine-guns are 2,500 Sunni tribesmen who have joined newly created SWAT team-like paramilitary units. Paid by the Interior Ministry with the blessing of U.S. commanders, the so-called Emergency Response Units are clearly loyal to local sheiks. Some wear track suits and face-covering red-checkered headscarves -- looking startlingly like insurgent fighters. Others wear crisp green camouflage uniforms bought by al-Rishawi.The ERU members were screened and sent either on 45-day police training courses in Jordan or seven-day courses at a military base in Ramadi -- part of an effort to capitalize on the Awakening movement and make use of them as quickly as possible."I'd say 20 percent of the credit for the change in Ramadi could be taken by U.S. forces," said Strickland. "The vast majority of the turnaround is due to the sheiks."Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made his first trip to Anbar province this month, meeting al-Rishawi and saying he applauded Sunni tribes and clans that had "risen up and countered terrorism."Still, al-Rishawi complained the Interior Ministry had given police and ERU units "one-tenth" of the resources they needed -- from equipment to guns to food, despite promises to do more. Some of the fighters use automatic weapons they brought from home."If I had the tools, I could wipe al-Qaida from Anbar within five months," al-Rishawi said.Strickland said the government was probably "hesitant to strengthen and supply something that might become a popular Sunni movement."The message has taken longer to spread to eastern Ramadi, but it's getting through there, too, said Maj. Dave Christensen of the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment.The base he works from used to be hit daily by mortar attacks, prompting outgoing barrages targeting launch sites that inadvertently damaged buildings, killed cattle, and alienated locals. The sheik responsible for the neighborhood where the attacks originated began cooperating with Americans a few months ago, prompting insurgents to attack and burn down his house."He fought back, then called and said, 'Hey, I've been helping you, now I could use your help,'" Christensen said.U.S. forces moved into the now relatively quiet area, and Christensen's base has seen only a handful of mortar strikes since.

Several terror leaders captured in last 3 days

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER BAGHDAD: Network leaders captured over last three days BAGHDAD -- Over the past several days, Coalition forces in Basra and Hillah captured Qais Khazali, his brother Laith Khazali, and several other members of the Khazali network, an organization directly connected to the kidnapping and murder in January of five American soldiers in Karbala.Yesterday in Baghdad, Coalition forces captured the individual believed to be the head of the Rusafa car bomb network, the Al Qaeda-Iraq organization responsible for some of the horrific bombings in eastern Baghdad in recent weeks. In yesterday’s operation and in another operation early this morning, Coalition forces also captured three other individuals believed to be key members of the network, a vehicle prepared as a car bomb, and a cache of weapons and explosives.Early this morning in Mosul, Coalition forces captured a former Saddam Fedayeen leader involved in setting up training camps in Syria for Iraqi and foreign fighters.These actions, and others underway, reflect intensified and even-handed efforts to reinforce the rule of law in Iraq. They have also been complemented by recent initiatives to promote dialogue and reconciliation in Iraq.

Iran training shia death squads

The Scotsman RICHARD PYLE IN NEW YORK IRAQI insurgents and death squads are being trained in at least six secret camps in Iran, according to the dissident credited with exposing the country's nuclear ambitions. Alireza Jafarzadeh claimed that Shiite guerrillas are posing as pilgrims or wounded veterans seeking medical treatment to cross the border. On reaching Iran, they are schooled in the camps for up to a month in skills such as sniper techniques, bomb building and firing anti-aircraft missiles before being sent back to Iraq. Mr Jafarzadeh, a dissident who now heads a Washington-based think-tank called Strategic Policy Consulting, claimed the operations have the blessing of top government officials including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president. He said: "The Iranian regime is secretly engaged in the organisation and training of large Iraqi terrorist networks in Iran to heighten insecurity and instability and force the coalition forces to leave Iraq. "We are not talking about some ragtag elements and individuals who go out of their way and happen to provide weapons or assistance to a number of Shia militia groups. "We are talking about a systematic, well-organised, high-level training officially provided by the Iranian regime." Mr Jafarzadeh said the Iranians hoped to "pave the way for establishment of an Islamic republic in Iraq". He claimed to have obtained the information from a network of resistance informants inside Iran. Mr Jafarzadeh has been credited with the first revelation, in May 2003, of Iran's efforts to develop a clandestine nuclear weapons programme. Last September, he disclosed that Tehran had revived secret efforts to enrich uranium with laser technology. At a press conference in New York, Mr Jafarzadeh displayed maps and satellite photos showing some of the purported camps' locations. They included two near the former shah's palace in Tehran, another south of the capital in Jalil Abad, and another, the Bahonar base in Karaj where, he said, techniques of guerrilla warfare, including deception and intelligence-gathering are on the curriculum. Other camps, he said, are in Qom, in Isfahan and in Iraq-Iran border areas near Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam and Khuzestan. Mr Jafarzadeh said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Mr Ahmadinejad, are closely connected to the training programme. He named Abu Ahmad al-Ramisi, the governor of southern Iraq's Muthanna province, and two members of Iraq's national assembly as also being secretly involved. The camps are said to be run by several top commanders of the Qods Force, the most highly trained branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, with some members of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militia also taking part, he said. He said the camps are under the command of Brigadier General Mohammad Shahlaei, a Revolutionary Guards officer. Officials in the United States have taken a wary view of Mr Jafarzadeh's affiliation in the past with the National Council of Resistance of Iran - which wants to overthrow the country's government. Its military arm, the Mujahideen Khalq, or MEK, is considered a terrorist group by the US. Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator, allowed the group to operate camps in Iraq from which it launched attacks inside Iran. Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, a spokesman for Iran's UN mission, last night dismissed the claims. He said Mr Jafarzadeh was an "official representative of MEK, which is a terrorist group, and even on the terrorist list of the US state department". Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, added: "We've expressed our concern regarding Iranian support for Iraqi militants. This meddling only intensifies the conflict in Iraq." Meanwhile, Tariq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi vice-president, renewed calls for talks to be opened with insurgents in an attempt to bring peace. However, he excluded al-Qaeda and said the group was "not very much willing in fact to talk to anybody". • US troops killed five insurgents and destroyed a bomb-making factory north of Baghdad yesterday. • HOLLYWOOD was yesterday accused of waging psychological war on Iran. In comments which appeared to be directed at blockbuster movie 300, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested the film was designed to portray Iranians as "savage". Starring the Scottish actor Gerard Butler, the film depicts a 480BC battle between Greeks and Persians. But many Iranians see 300 as part of a broader campaign to vilify the Islamic republic, which is locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear programme. The Iranian president accused film-makers of trying to tamper with history. Mr Ahmadinejad, pictured left, said: "By psychological war, propaganda and misuse of the organisations they have themselves created, and for which they have written the rules, and over which they have a monopoly, they are trying to prevent our nation's development." Iranian officials, media and bloggers have also criticised the way their ancestors were portrayed in the film, inspired by the tale of 300 Spartans who held out at Thermopylae against a Persian invasion led by Xerxes.

us tightens financial squeeze on iran

U.S. tightens financial squeeze on Iran By Steven R. Weisman International Herald Tribune WASHINGTON: For all of the U.S. efforts to apply economic and political pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, Washington has never used a potentially potent tool in its arsenal — penalties on foreign companies that assist Iran in producing oil and natural gas. That may be about to change. The United States has quietly been warning energy companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Repsol and SKS, as well as the governments of China, India, Pakistan and Malaysia, that sanctions are possible if they pursue energy deals with Iran. As a result, several huge projects planned for Iran could be vulnerable, including one possible $10 billion project planned by Shell and Repsol, the Spanish oil company, and another $20 billion venture by SKS, the Malaysian oil company, to produce natural gas in Iran's Golshan and Ferdows fields. In recent months, the administration has tried to avoid a diplomatic or political flap from its jawboning. But the potential for sanctions is posing a dilemma for the administration by setting up a possible new fight with Europe if it proceeds with them, or a fight with Congress if it does not. One factor behind the warnings, administration officials acknowledge, is that Congress, out of concern about Iran's suspected nuclear arms program and support for terrorism, appears to be moving quickly toward passing a law that would make sanctions mandatory. "What we're trying to do is create multiple points of pressure on Iran in both the private and public sector," said R. Nicholas Burns, U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs. "These companies also need to know that the attitude of Congress on their activities in Iran is hardening." Last month, the U.S. ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre Jr., met with Repsol executives in Madrid to advise them against going forward with a deal to develop Iran's South Pars field, which contains one of the world's biggest natural gas deposits. The ambassador was told that the deal was not yet final, according to American and Repsol officials. "No investment is being made at present," said a Repsol spokesman in Madrid, asking not to be identified by name. "There will not be a decision on this until next year." The messages to oil companies mark the latest episode in a long campaign of pressure that reached a turning point in December, when the administration won approval of a United Nations Security Council resolution designating 10 Iranian companies and a dozen individuals as off limits for international financial dealings. Another resolution designating another 15 individuals and 13 Iranian government and business groups, including a leading Iranian bank, could be approved later this week. The administration, using the Security Council list, wants virtually all of the world's banks and businesses to boycott all these Iranian entities. But in orchestrating all this pressure on Iran, President George W. Bush and his top aides have been careful to avoid any kind of boycott or other threat that might cause oil and gas prices to soar and strangle the economies of the West. Short of a cutoff, the administration clearly wants to make it harder for Iran to tap into its oil and gas reserves to increase exports in the future. Iranian energy output has lagged in recent years, and many experts say the country faces the possibility of not having enough oil to export in as soon as 10 years. Despite the stepped-up American pressure, some Democratic leaders in Congress charge that the administration has not gone far enough. They want Bush to invoke a statute enacted in 1996 that obliges the U.S. government to punish any foreign energy company doing business with Iran, unless the president waives the sanction on national security grounds. "This administration has done nothing to punish Iran," said Representative Tom Lantos, a California Democrat who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The method I don't favor on Iran is to bomb their nuclear facilities. The method I favor is to starve them of resources, which can only be done through sanctions." After the bill passed a decade ago, European governments and companies vehemently objected, charging that it amounted to a brazen case of "extraterritoriality," the term for one nation imposing its laws on foreign companies and sovereign nations. Then-President Bill Clinton, acting in part to avoid a confrontation with Europe and in part to send a conciliatory message to Iran at a time when moderates seemed to be vying for power, waived the sanctions on several European companies, including Total, the leading French oil concern. Recalling that precedent, Lantos said his bill would strip the president of the ability to waive sanctions on Iran on national security grounds. The Bush administration opposes that provision as a weakening of presidential prerogatives. A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she supported Lantos's bill, and Lantos said he was confident he could pass such a bill with a big enough majority to override a presidential veto. The existing sanctions law gives the government the option to choose among several penalties, including denial of government credits to companies that deal with the foreign oil company, denial of export licenses and a ban on U.S. government procurement or imports from these companies. Administration officials say the reason no decisions have been made on whether to invoke or waive such sanctions is that the energy exploration deals by Shell, Repsol, China, Malaysia, China and Pakistan are all still in an "embryonic" stage, and that it is better to head them off by using persuasion. But they also say that the administration does not want to take any action now that would divide the United States from its allies in Europe on Iran, or to provoke China, India and Pakistan, whose support Washington needs for other foreign policy objectives. A senior European envoy involved in discussions over Iran said that Europeans would be unhappy with American sanctions against private oil companies but that they also understood the importance of pressing the Tehran government. "As long as we want to avoid a war with Iran, we have to try sanctions," he said. The energy steps being contemplated are part of a web of pressures, American and European officials say, which could be invoked in coming months. These include plans to sanction Iranian banks beyond the two that have already been sanctioned and barred from obtaining dollars from U.S. banks. The aim, American officials say, is to prevent Iran from obtaining dollars, the world's reserve currency, for use in any purchase of goods or services. Iranian leaders have said that American sanctions are forcing them to sell oil for euros or other currencies, even though oil is traded on the international markets in dollars. In a separate set of actions, U.S. and European officials say that recent stepped-up pressure on European governments has led several to reduce, or to pledge to reduce, their government- backed credit guarantees for deals with Iran. Germany had $6.2 billion in outstanding export credits to Iran as of 2005, according to figures circulating at the United Nations. But recently Germany reported that after cutting back credits by 60 percent, it planned further cutbacks this year. Japan, which had $1.9 billion in credits as of 2005, has also informed the United States that it has granted no medium or long-term credit insurance since last June and had cut short-term credits to $8 million since last May. American officials say they have received similar pledges from Italy and France to cut back export credits.

Baghdad Order of Battle

The Baghdad Order Of Battle as of March 19, 2007. By DJ Elliott, CJ Radin and Bill Roggio www.fourthrail.com The Baghdad Security Plan is now over one month old since its official announcement on February 14. While it is impossible to judge progress over the course of one month in a complex battlespace such as Baghdad, the initial signs are encouraging. Sectarian murders, the fuel for the potential Sunni - Shia civil war, have been dramatically reduced. Before the beginning of the operation, Scores of bodies were found executed daily, now the number is in the single digits. Massive car bomb attacks, which in the past have killed dozens and wounded hundreds, have been reduced. While the number of car bombings have increased, their effectiveness has decreased. Over the past week only one significant suicide car bomb attack occurred inside Baghdad - an assassination attempt on the head of the Baghdad city council. Eight were killed in the explosion. The other attacks have been aimed at security forces and checkpoints, such at the roadside bombing that killed four U.S. troops patroling eastern Baghdad. There have been few changes to the disposition of forces inside Baghdad over the past week. The 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division completed its deployment to Baghdad, and spread its four battalions into the Bayaa, Mansour and Doura districts. General David Petraeus announced an additional Combat Aviation Brigade will deploy to support operations. The deployment of the aviation brigade is being sped up by two months. Again, the U.S. Army still has an additional three combat brigades preparing to move into Iraq, and the deployment of the last brigade will not be complete until June. One or more of these brigades may be deployed in the 'outer belts' of Baghdad - the surrounding regions where al Qaeda in Iraq is staging attacks into the capital. “Although the focus, the priority, clearly is Baghdad, anyone who knows about securing Baghdad knows that you must also secure the Baghdad belts, in other words, the areas that surround Baghdad,” General Petreaus said last week. The Iraqi government and Coalition forces have stepped up the fight against al Qaeda in the restive province of Diyala. After the Baghdad Security Plan was announced, al Qaeda footsoldiers and commanders are believed to have fled Baghdad for Diyala. Up to 2,000 al Qaeda are believed to be operating from the region, and are conducting a commuter insurgency by surging car bombs into the capital. Al Qaeda has stepped up its campaign of intimidation and terror against the mixed Sunni and Shia tribes of Diyala. Multinational Froces Iraq responded by redeploying a battalion of Strykers - about 700 soldiers and 100 of their Stryker combat vehicles from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division - from Baghdad to Baquba. The 5-20 Strykers met immediate resistance, and dozens of al Qaeda were killed, while one U.S. soldier was killed and 11 wounded during the initial day of fighting. Two Stryker combat vehicles were destroyed, one in a sophisticated roadside bomb attack and follow on ambush. In Anbar province, al Qaeda in Iraq carried out one of its most despicable attacks to date. Al Qaeda launched three suicide truck bombers armed with chlorine gas and aimed them at civilian targets. The first chlorine bomber was stopped by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Ramadi. He detonated his bomb, wounding a U.S. soldier and a civilian. The second struck at a neighborhood in Amiriya. Two police were killed and over 100 civilians were treated for Chlorine gas exposure. The third attack was aimed at a neighborhood in Fallujah. "Approximately 250 local civilians suffering from symptoms related to chlorine exposure," according to the Multinational Forces Iraq press release. The attacks were clearly an attempt by al Qaeda to terrorize the local population in Anbar province and decapitate the leadership of the Anbar Salvation Council, a grouping of tribes and former insurgents battling al Qaeda. "The second bomber [in Amiriya] targeted a tribal leader opposed to al Qaeda," Reuters reported, while the Albu Issa tribe in Fallujah is supportive of the Anbar Salvation Front. Last week, General Petreaus and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki visited Ramadi and met with Shiekh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, and promised assistance to his organization.The use of chemical weapons, no matter how crude, is a blatent violation of the Geneva Conventions. Al Qaeda targeted civilian neighborhoods and understood that hundreds of civilians could be killed or maimed in the resultant attack. This is the sixth such chlorine gas attack by al Qaeda since January. This past week also saw an interesting development on the Sadr – Mahdi Army front. Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the radical Mahdi Army militia who is in self exile in Iran, issued a statement that raises questions about the prospects of the U.S. maintaining a peaceful presence inside Sadr City. During last Friday prayers, one of Sadr's clerics read a statement urging the people of Sadr City to oppose the U.S. presence inside the neighborhood. "I trust that you have taken them as your enemies, for the enemies of God are your enemies, inevitably... unity against your enemy and shout 'No, No, America! No, No Israel!, No, No Satan!'" The statement also called for his followers to reject sectarianism. After prayers, a crowd of Sadr's supporters, estimated at "more than a thousand," turned out into the streets, repeating Sadr's mantra of "No, no to America. No, no to Israel. No, no to Satan." Sadr City has an estimated 2,000,000 residents, so the turnout was relatively small. The U.S. has been in serious negotiations with elements of Sadr's Mahdi Army, which has been behind much of sectarian murders in Baghdad and beyond. With Sadr and his senior lieutenants either in Iran or Syria, or going to ground outside of Baghdad, Sadr has lost significant command and control of his militia. The negotiations seriously threaten Sadr's power base in Baghdad and the south. An assassination attempt on Rahim al-Darraji, the mayor of Sadr City, who has welcomed the U.S. presence inside Sadr City, is believed to have been conducted by Sadr's supporters. The events in Sadr city and Muqtada al Sadr's influence bears close watching over the next month, as does the situations in Diyala and Anbar. The Baghdad Security Operation has shown guarded signs of progress the past month largely because the Mahdi Army has gone to ground. If the Mahdi Army emerges as an active foe in Baghdad, the ability to chase down al Qaeda in the provinces will be severely restricted.

Some Baghdad Regions returning to normal

By ROBERT H. REID and STEVEN R. HURST Associated Press Writers BAGHDAD -- Black-clad women shuffle past sidewalk clothing racks in front of shops in a commercial district of central Baghdad. Elsewhere, black flags flutter from lampposts -- marking areas of Shiite control.A two-hour drive by Western journalists through the center of Baghdad this weekend showed parts of the capital are slowly recovering from the trauma of sectarian slaughter that paralyzed this city of 6 million before the start of the security crackdown last month.But gone is the heady religious mixture of many neighborhoods, in which Sunnis, Shiites and some Christians lived side by side.Shiites dominate the eastern side of the Tigris River, which bisects the city, except for the Azamiyah district and a small enclave near the commercial center. Sunnis are concentrated in neighborhoods to the west of the river and districts on the city's southern rim.Concrete barriers block streets leading into Waziriyah, a mostly Sunni enclave on the Shiite eastern side.A police checkpoint marks the northern boundary of Haifa Street -- beyond which Shiites and foreigners venture at risk of losing their lives to Sunni gunmen in high-rise apartment buildings.Blast walls, concrete barriers and police checkpoints enforce a relative peace, separating Sunnis and Shiites until the bitterness can ease after months of massacres and sectarian cleansing. Many of the concrete walls are adorned by neighborhood artists with paintings of daily life, some quite professionally.At the Buratha mosque, a Shiite shrine, huge blast walls ring the grounds. Last April, suicide bombers killed 85 people there. Two months later, another suicide attacker with explosives in his shoes killed a dozen more.It's not difficult to tell which group is in charge. Large posters of bearded Shiite clerics stand in traffic circles of Shiite areas, along with black flags. The absence of those symbols indicates Sunnis are still in control.Within the sectarian bastions, commerce is beginning to rebound, along with other signs of normalcy -- though many shops remain padlocked. Some streets appear relatively lively. Others are all but abandoned.The ruins of a few buildings -- destroyed by Sunni bombers -- punctuate the upscale, Shiite-controlled Karradah district.Convenience has taken a back seat to security. Police have blocked traffic on the main street leading into the Shorja market, where a massive truck bomb killed 137 people last month. Shoppers must abandon their vehicles and go to the markets on foot.Vendors hawk oranges, bananas and vegetables from outdoor stalls around Tayaran Square, a Shiite-controlled area that has been struck frequently by suicide attackers and roadside bombs.At Kahramanah Square in Karradah, workmen were out repainting a concrete barrier, where a suicide driver two days before had killed eight people -- three soldiers and five civilians.Elsewhere in Karradah, shoppers were returning to the main commercial streets, though not in the numbers of a few years ago. Soon after Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed, people flocked to shops to buy new television sets and satellite dishes -- which had been forbidden under the old regime.This time, small generators looked like the hottest items -- evidence of the continued failure to restore adequate power to the capital nearly four years after Saddam's rule ended.

Khaled Sheikh Mohammed confession

KSM's World War: What his confession says about our enemy--and us. In Cairo last year, Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Habib told us that the 9/11 attacks were "great crimes," but that he doubted Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible. It's probably too much to expect that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession that he "was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z" will sway minds like Mr. Habib's. But for the rest of us, the testimony by bin Laden's top operational lieutenant is a jolting re-education in the enemy we face. "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew," he boasted to a U.S. military tribunal on March 10, referring to our colleague Daniel Pearl. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head." One lesson of his testimony is the scope of his terror success, and his even larger ambition. Among the 31 actual events: The February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, chiefly carried out by his nephew Ramzi Yousef; the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, in which 202 were killed and another 200 injured; the killing of two U.S. GIs in Kuwait the same month; the November 2002 hotel bombings in Kenya, in which 13 Israelis and Kenyans died; and the November 2003 attacks in Istanbul against Jewish and British targets, which killed 57 and wounded 700. That's roughly 3,280 murders. But even this pales next to what might have happened had the U.S. not arisen from pre-9/11 complacency and gone on offense. By his own admission, KSM also planned attacks on targets in South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Israel, the Straits of Hormuz and Gibraltar, the Panama Canal, Brussels and London. He made extensive plans to assassinate Pope John Paul II during the pope's visit to Manila in 1995. He attempted to destroy an American oil company in Indonesia "owned," as he put it, "by the Jewish former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger." Among other U.S. targets, there was "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid's failed attempt against American Airlines Flight 63 in December 2001, schemes to assassinate Presidents Clinton and Carter, and a "new wave" of attacks after 9/11 targeting skyscrapers in L.A., Chicago and Seattle, New York's suspension bridges and stock exchange, and nuclear power plants in "several U.S. states." Perhaps most ominously, KSM also admitted to being "directly in charge" of "managing and following up on the Cell for the Production of Biological Weapons, such as anthrax and others, and following up on Dirty Bomb Operations on American Soil." Given such a confession, is it too much to ask the FBI to reconsider its dogmatic view that the 2001 anthrax attacks could only have had a domestic source? No doubt many terror experts will declare that much or all of this is boasting, and perhaps some of it is. We can only hope so. And no doubt the truly credulous will assume it is largely a product of CIA coercion, as if the attacks KSM claims credit for had some other provenance. But we think KSM's world of war makes clear that, if anything, President Bush understated the danger posed by the 14 "high-value" enemy combatants he transferred to Guantanamo last autumn. And it reveals just how terribly mistaken was the view of those who told us, pre-9/11, that terrorism was merely a law enforcement threat like any other. That view permeated the CIA, where Paul Pillar helped run the Counterterrorist Center and wrote that "There is no . . . BinLadentern" akin to the old Communist Comintern. He denounced "overheated rhetoric that has spun out ever more frightening and unusual ways in which terrorism might inflict large numbers of casualties." And he deprecated President Clinton for ordering government agencies to examine the plausibility of a biological attack on New York City after he'd read "The Cobra Event," Richard Preston's 1998 novel on the subject. When the 9/11 Commission concluded that the failure to avert that awful day was above all "a failure of imagination," the Pillar world view is Exhibit A. And we mention it here because now, after five years without a terror attack on U.S. soil, that view is making a comeback in the growing opposition to holding enemy combatants in Guantanamo or to warrantless wiretaps of al Qaeda. As KSM makes clear, bin Laden and his acolytes declared "war" on the U.S. in his fatwa of 1998, a fact the U.S. only figured out on September 11. He professes to regret the death of women and children, but calls such indiscriminate killing "the language of any war" and justified by his religious motivation. "For sure, I'm American enemies," said KSM in his broken English. For sure, too, he is a reminder of the evil that still confronts us in this conflict with radical Islam, and one that we underestimate at our existential peril.

America makes progress in latin america

Hurricane George By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Diplomacy: If there's any question about the success of President Bush's Latin America tour, check out the aftermath: Friends of the U.S. say they're strengthened, while allies of Hugo Chavez are seeing new turmoil. It probably wasn't Bush's intent, but his tour seems to have had the effect of a hurricane. He visited Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, talking trade and immigration, while Venezuela's dictator went to Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Jamaica and Haiti, trying to make Bush's visit all about him. But it didn't work. Bush ignored Chavez and did serious business. Now Argentina's opposition has sprung to life, protesting President Nestor Kirchner's accommodation of Chavez at a Buenos Aires rally. Former President Carlos Menem, who probably still has a 40% base of political support, denounced Chavez as 'the poison of Latin America' and blasted Kirchner for being his pawn. In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva got no fallout for meeting Bush, but the radical faction of his own leftist party drew media criticism for its disruptive anti-U.S. street protests. In Bolivia, politicians from the largest opposition party lashed out at Chavez, demanding that a Cabinet minister explain to the Senate the 'permissiveness' of Chavez's 'intolerable' statements against the Bolivian press. This wasn't just rhetoric; it was political heat. Chavez's ally, President Evo Morales, distanced himself from Chavez by refraining from anti-Bush statements. Back in Venezuela, opposition leaders blasted Chavez for touring the hemisphere while their country remains full of crime. 'Somebody must rule in Venezuela,' said one leader, Antonio Ledesma. Meanwhile, two anti-Bush rallies in front of the U.S. Embassy on Sunday and Monday rapidly fizzled, drawing only a dozen protesters. Chavez cannot draw an anti-Bush rally of any size in Caracas. Chavez is on the defensive too. All of a sudden, he and his ministers are insisting that the anti-Bush junket was only coincidental to Bush's tour. Chavez now denies he insulted Bush, suggesting for the first time that he's under fire for even that. By contrast, Brazil's Lula and President Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay were reportedly ebullient after Bush's visit. The Los Angeles Times reported them as politically strengthened. Brazil got a pact to develop ethanol, and Uruguay got export avenues, substantially boosting their political outlooks. Presidential tours must not be judged by street protests but by results. Bush's tour wasn't just a blessing to friendly countries such as Brazil and Uruguay. It has unexpectedly sent a shot of energy to democratic forces in Chavez's own backyard.

Sadr City Officials Optomistic

By Damien Cave New York Times Thursday, March 8, 2007 BAGHDAD: When Raheem al-Darraji looks at the dusty lots just east of Sadr City where scores of bodies have been dumped since last year, he visualizes a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster and perhaps a merry go-round. "We should have an amusement park," said Darraji, one of two elected mayors in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite neighborhood where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been peacefully clearing homes since March 4. "We want to rehabilitate the area so that families can have fun." In an interview at his office, Darraji said the amusement park was one of several projects that community leaders are pushing U.S. officials to fund in negotiations about how to handle the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that has controlled the neighborhood for years. A concentrated makeover of Sadr City, he said, would support plan's goals in two important ways: by giving young Mahdi militants an alternative to a life of violence and by providing residents with proof of the government's ability to improve their daily lives, diluting support for the militia. Darraji's requests, however, also reflect a broader effort by Iraqi leaders to dart past "clear and hold" to the more lucrative phase of the new security plan known as build. Even as bombs and killings here continue, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al- Maliki has already labeled the plan a success. His Shiite-led government has allotted $10 billion this year for reconstruction throughout the country and with billions more expected from the Americans, Iraqi leaders at all levels are scrambling for control of how the windfall might be spent. Ahmad Chalabi, who has re-emerged as an intermediary between Baghdad residents and the Iraqi and U.S. security forces, now regularly holds meetings with leaders from all over Baghdad as they compete for roles in managing the expected infusion of projects and jobs. At one recent gathering in the Green Zone, representatives from 15 neighborhoods in eastern Baghdad stood one after another to explain why they should be chosen to lead. For U.S. officials, Sadr City's calls for an amusement park and other projects raise a particularly thorny question of trust. In 2004, U.S. troops battled Mahdi militants here for days. More recently, U.S. military officials have accused the militia of using deadlier roadside bombs, possibly linked to Iran, that have killed at least 170 U.S. service members. At the same time, the negotiations over the Mahdi militia along with the arrest or flight of several commanders appear to have led to a temporary truce. U.S. soldiers were welcomed into people's homes this week on streets where they had once been shot at. General David Petraeus, at his first news conference as the top U.S. commander in Iraq, acknowledged Thursday that the Mahdi militia included a mix of both violent extremists and those with more benign motivations. Darraji stressed that Sadr City as a whole "wants to open a new page in its story." He said Mahdi fighters had laid down their weapons to give the government a chance and that the opportunity should not be missed. He emphasized that the prime minister's office was already seizing the moment with an expanded job recruitment drive for neighborhood residents. As proof, Darraji — a chain-smoking tribal sheik partial to tailored suits — opened a door near his office and pointed to a pile of red, green and yellow folders that he said were job applications for every part of the government from the Oil Ministry to the police. "We've collected more than 2,000 applications," he said. "We're classifying them according whether people have college degrees, whether they are men or women." He and other Baghdad government leaders said that the U.S. military would be smart to add hundreds of additional jobs in the neighborhood because it holds at least 1.5 million people, or about a third of the city, and has just begun to revive after decades of neglect. They said the neighborhood deserves to become a model of what might be possible elsewhere. "The plan is not only about security," said Naeem al-Kabbi, Baghdad's deputy mayor in charge of municipal services. "It's about security, services and reconstruction." Darraji said he specifically pressed U.S. officials for money to build playgrounds with tennis courts that would appear every few blocks. He said he pressed the Americans for money to rehabilitate a handful of lakes on the neighborhood's western edge and for more control over the contracts so they could be assigned more quickly. "We need to engage people as soon as possible, get them working, make them busy," he said. "These are quick projects. After these we will move on to medium and larger plans." "The security process," he added, "accelerates the economic possibilities."

Iranian defense official talks to western intelligence

The Mullahs in Teheran can't be too happy about this. Hopefully he is spilling everything he knows about WMD and the terror networks. By Dafna Linzer Washington Post Staff Writer A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official. Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence. Asgari served in the Iranian government until early 2005 under then-President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari's background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran's national security infrastructure, conventional weapons arsenal and ties to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. Iranian officials said he was not involved in the country's nuclear program, and the senior U.S. official said Asgari is not being questioned about it. Former officers with Israel's Mossad spy agency said yesterday that Asgari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted the country's top police chief, Brig. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, as saying that Asgari was probably kidnapped by agents working for Western intelligence agencies. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Asgari was in the United States. Another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Asgari's disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis. A spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council did not return a call for comment. The Israeli government denied any connection to Asgari. "To my knowledge, Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance," said Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry. An Iranian official, who agreed to discuss Asgari on the condition of anonymity, said that Iranian intelligence is unsure of Asgari's whereabouts but that he may have been offered money, probably by Israel, to leave the country. The Iranian official said Asgari was thought to be in Europe. "He has been out of the loop for four or five years now," the official said. Israeli and Turkish newspapers reported yesterday that Asgari disappeared in Istanbul shortly after he arrived there on Feb. 7. Iran sent a delegation to Turkey to investigate his disappearance and requested help from Interpol in locating him. Former Mossad director Danny Yatom, who is now a member of Israel's parliament, said he believes Asgari defected to the West. "He is very high-caliber," Yatom said. "He held a very, very senior position for many long years in Lebanon. He was in effect commander of the Revolutionary Guards" there. Ram Igra, a former Mossad officer, said Asgari spent much of the 1980s and 1990s overseeing Iran's efforts to support, finance, arm and train Hezbollah. The State Department lists the Shiite Lebanese group as a terrorist organization. "He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra told Israeli state radio. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon." The organization, led by Hasan Nasrallah, is believed to have been behind several attacks against U.S., Jewish and Israeli interests worldwide, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans, and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed more than 80 people. Israel fought a bloody, month-long war with Hezbollah last summer in south Lebanon after the group seized two Israeli soldiers. The soldiers have not been returned and their fate is unknown. Other Israeli soldiers have vanished in Lebanon during decades of conflict along the countries' shared border, most notably an Israeli airman named Ron Arad. Yatom said it is possible Asgari "knows quite a lot about Ron Arad." In a January briefing to Congress, then-Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte described Hezbollah as a growing threat to U.S. interests. "As a result of last summer's hostilities, Hezbollah's self-confidence and hostility toward the United States as a supporter of Israel could cause the group to increase its contingency planning against United States interests," Negroponte said. U.S. intelligence officials said they had no evidence that Hezbollah was actively planning attacks but noted that the organization has the capacity to do so if it feels threatened.

USAF jets deploy to okinawa

By David Axe THE WASHINGTON TIMES GINOWAN, Japan - A deployment to Okinawa by the U.S. Air Force's newest fighter jets presages plans to rapidly boost forces in the Pacific region in event of a crisis over North Korean nuclear weapons or a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. On Feb. 17, the first of a dozen F-22 Raptor fighter jets, manufactured by Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, completed a long-planned flight to the U.S. Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa from Langley Air Force Base in southeast Virginia. It was the first overseas deployment for the type since its 2005 entry into service. The Raptors represent a sweeping modernization of U.S. forces in the Pacific, including new coastal warships, ballistic missile defenses, C-17 airlifters and wheeled armored vehicles for ground forces. Over the next five years, the Air Force will permanently station three F-22 squadrons of about 20 jets apiece in the region: two in Alaska and one in Hawaii. Europe, once a bastion of U.S. air power, isn't slated to receive any Raptors. The Air Force picked Kadena for the F-22's first deployment in order to pave the way for the permanent squadrons, said Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver, commander of the visiting jets. "Coming here and operating with our forces in the Pacific gives them a chance to learn about the F-22 and gives us a chance to see how this platform operates in this theater," he said. During their three-month stay, the 20 deployed Raptor pilots will practice dogfighting against Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fighters based in Japan. In recent exercises in Alaska and Nevada, two Virginia-based Raptor squadrons have racked up an impressive record of simulated "kills," defeating hundreds of opposing fighters for every F-22 lost. In addition to being the best dogfighter in the world, the Raptor has capabilities that make it uniquely suited to taking on Pacific threats, pilots said. Its long range and high top speed let it cover the region's vast distances quickly. Its speed also means it can transfer unprecedented kinetic energy to satellite-guided bombs, said F-22 pilot Capt. Phil Colomy. This might help the jet take out buried or fortified targets such as North Korea's many artillery positions. In addition to preparing the region for its own F-22s, the deployment tests Kadena's ability to support deployed forces in addition to its own F-15 fighters, E-3 radar warning planes, helicopters and aerial tankers. "We're the hub of air power for the Pacific," said John Monroe, a base spokesman. "It's not just about the capability of the air power we have here, but how much room we have here and what some of our contingency plans are for staging aircraft here in case anything should happen." The 11,000-acre air base is one of the biggest in the world, with ramp space for hundreds of aircraft beyond those permanently based here. About half that area is occupied by a sprawling ammunition depot. Jet aircraft flying from Kadena could reach the Korean Peninsula or Taiwan in an hour, compared with at least two hours for aircraft flying from the U.S. territory of Guam, the Air Force's other major regional base. "This place is going to be hopping in case a contingency happens," Mr. Monroe said. In addition to Air Force jets, Okinawa hosts Marine ground troops, jets and helicopters and U.S. Army air-defense missiles as well as Japanese forces. Owing to the booming Okinawan population and local opposition to the U.S. military presence, the Marines are relocating to Guam. That is not an option for Air Force fighters who are required to react quickly to any threat, Mr. Monroe said. "If we're in Guam, we're out of the fight." The F-22 deployment has had hitches. On their first attempt to reach Kadena from a stopover in Hawaii on Jan. 10, several jets encountered software problems as they crossed the international date line. For safety reasons, all 12 aircraft turned back to Hawaii, where Lockheed Martin engineers quickly fixed the glitch. Conveniently for the Air Force, the delay meant that a major off-base protest against the F-22s staged by Japanese peace groups occurred a full week before any of the $300 million aircraft had arrived.

China's Spies Very aggressive in US

By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published March 6, 2007 China's intelligence services are among the most aggressive at spying on the United States, followed by Cuban, Russian and Iranian spy agencies, according to the U.S. government's top counterintelligence coordinator. "These services are eating our lunch," Joel F. Brenner, the new head of the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, said in his first interview since being named to the counterspy post in August. Mr. Brenner, a former inspector general at the National Security Agency, told The Washington Times that the U.S. remains the No. 1 target of "virtually every significant espionage service on the face of the Earth." China's intelligence activities have been "very aggressive" at acquiring U.S. advanced technology, often before it is fully developed here. "The technology bleed to China, among others, is a very serious problem," he said, noting that the FBI is improving its efforts to identify and protect sensitive technology. Beijing also succeeded in penetrating, and thus frustrating, U.S. intelligence against China through Katrina Leung, a Los Angeles businesswoman who was a long-time FBI informant secretly loyal to Beijing, Mr. Brenner said. Mr. Brenner's office, known as NCIX, is working on a new presidential strategy for counterintelligence. The goal of the office is to provide strategic direction aimed at bolstering counterintelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA and Pentagon counterspy units. Another key priority is using counterintelligence techniques, such as turning foreign agents or recruiting supporters, against terrorist groups. "Hezbollah or al Qaeda don't do a terrorist operation without doing an intelligence operation first," Mr. Brenner said. "They are very thorough and capable in the way they do their advance surveillance and reconnoitering. We've got to get better at that aspect of supporting counterterrorism, and that is one of our core missions here in this office." Additionally, the NCIX is pressing counterspies to do more to stop computer-based intelligence-gathering, something he called a growing threat. "You can now, from the comfort of your own home or office, exfiltrate information electronically from somebody else's computer around the world without the expense and risk of trying to grow a spy," Mr. Brenner said. "We've got to start addressing that in a big way," he said. "Network vulnerability is a huge issue, and it's an issue in the private as well as a public sector." Mr. Brenner also said he is trying to recruit more-capable people to join counterintelligence services. "You can't leave counterintelligence to the fanatics and paranoiacs," he said. "We really need our best people, and so training and education and supporting national security studies is something we're paying a lot of attention to." He also plans to speed up damage assessments, or lessons learned, after spy cases and to conduct aggressive follow-up to make sure recommended changes are implemented. Currently, the NCIX is conducting a damage assessment of the Leung spy case, examining how Leung secretly spied for China by sexually entrapping two of the FBI's most senior counterspies, FBI agents James J. Smith and Bill Cleveland. The Leung case was a "very serious espionage case," Mr. Brenner said, a view that contrasts with that of FBI officials who have sought to play down the spy case, saying it was mainly about improper sexual relations between the FBI informant and her handlers. Leung, through her lawyers, has denied spying for China. Mr. Brenner said China, however, was in fact running Leung as their agent. "That was an intelligence operation, and it was a very successful intelligence operation," he said. "It was a classic honey trap" -- spy jargon for sexual entrapment. Leung was initially charged in 2003 with spying for China, but the charges were dropped and she eventually pleaded guilty in 2005 to minor charges: making false statements and filing a false tax return. Smith also pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. In addition to China, Cuba's intelligence services continue to pose a major intelligence threat, as do spies from Russia and Iran, Mr. Brenner said, noting that Cuban intelligence remains a "a very professional service." "They were trained by the KGB, and now they're training the Venezuelans," he said. Russia's intelligence service remains "very aggressive" against the United States, and "the Iranians also have a mature and capable service," he said. All "are running significant operations against us." Overall, the problem of stopping foreign spies is daunting, both due to the number of spies and as a result of problems among U.S. agencies charged with stopping them, namely the FBI, domestically, and the CIA, overseas. Mr. Brenner said he is trying to reform counterintelligence as the mission manager within the office of the director of national intelligence. Various counterspy agencies, from the Defense Department to the FBI and CIA, have regarded counterintelligence "as an intramural sport." "We're trying to turn the [counterintelligence] community into a community in reality as well as in name," he said. "Americans are going to wake up one day and realize that the place in the world we have come to take for granted isn't ours by some God-given right. We have to defend it," he said.

beijing accelerates its military spending

By JIM YARDLEY and DAVID LAGUE New York Times BEIJING, March 4 — China announced its biggest increase in defense spending in five years on Sunday, a development that quickly prompted the United States to renew its calls for more transparency from the Chinese military about the scope and intent of its continuing, rapid arms buildup. Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People’s Congress, the Communist Party-controlled national legislature, said China’s military budget would rise this year by 17.8 percent to roughly 350 billion yuan, or just under $45 billion. “We must increase our military budget, as it is important to national security,” Mr. Jiang said at a news conference. “China’s military must modernize. Our overall defenses are weak.” But China’s military modernization efforts, particularly its drive to develop advanced weaponry, have been raising concern from Washington to Tokyo to New Delhi, where officials are worried that the buildup could be as much offensive as defensive. In January, China set off fears of an arms race in space when it successfully tested an antisatellite missile that destroyed one its own aging weather satellites. A month earlier, the People’s Liberation Army began deploying the country’s first state-of-the-art jet fighter, the J-10. These advances reflect China’s intense focus on scientific and technological development, and are the fruits of more than a decade of increased military spending. China’s defense outlays increased an average of about 15 percent a year from 1990 to 2005, according to the Chinese military. This year’s jump is the largest one reported since military spending rose by 19.4 percent in 2002. Military analysts in the United States and Europe say that China’s public military budget actually reflects only a fraction of its overall defense spending, and that the real figure is likely to be two to four times higher. Most defense analysts agree that China’s military focus is to build a force that would prevail in any conflict with Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, and also to be capable of creating a deterrent to American military intervention. On Sunday, John D. Negroponte, the new deputy secretary of state, chose not to focus on the size of the latest budget increase, but instead emphasized that China needed to be less secretive about its military buildup. Mr. Negroponte, who is touring Asia, said military officials from both countries were already holding informational exchanges, and called on China to use these discussions to better explain its military ambitions. “I think the point we would make with respect to military spending and military acquisition of various types would be the point about transparency,” Mr. Negroponte said at a news conference in Beijing. Chinese officials, meanwhile, assailed Mr. Negroponte over a recent weapons deal in which the United States approved the sale of more than $400 million in air and ground missiles to Taiwan. The missiles are considered a defensive measure against the steady buildup of Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan. Chinese officials lobbied Mr. Negroponte to reverse the deal and urged the United States not to send “mistaken signals” to Taiwan. The deputy secretary said any weapons sale to Taiwan “would be for strictly defensive purposes.” Mr. Negroponte, who was appointed last month as the State Department’s second-ranking official, held meetings with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan and two vice foreign ministers, Dai Bingguo and Yang Jiechi. He offered few details about the discussions, but said the topics included North Korea, Iran, trade tensions and regional security issues. Mr. Negroponte emphasized the constructive working relationship between the United States and China. But China’s military budget increase is a reminder of the growing unease in Washington about Beijing’s long-term intentions. Japan and India are also watching China’s military drive and increasing defense spending. In a news conference before Mr. Negroponte’s statements on the budget, Mr. Jiang, the National People’s Congress spokesman, said that China’s intentions were peaceful, and that any fears about its military ambitions were unfounded. He noted that China spent only a fraction of the proposed United States Defense Department’s $481.4 billion budget for the next fiscal year — a figure that does not include spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said China’s new spending would be dedicated to increasing salaries and benefits for soldiers, as well as to overall modernization and technological upgrades. “China is committed to taking a path of peaceful development and it pursues a defensive military posture,” Mr. Jiang said. The modernization efforts are also positioning China as a weapons supplier for other countries. Military analysts say China’s main motive in developing the J-10 is to diminish the technological advantage of Taiwan’s Air Force. But analysts say China also plans to market the fighter plane to countries that cannot afford more expensive fighter planes sold by other countries. China’s technological push comes as the country continues to shrink the world’s biggest standing army. Since 2003, the army’s personnel has been reduced by 200,000 to 2.3 million soldiers, according to government figures. Spending is now focused on better training and equipment for this leaner force.

CIA: Bin Laden in Pakistan establishing new camps

Brian Ross and Z. Byron Wolf, ABC News Report: In the most definitive statement in years, America's top intelligence official said Tuesday Osama bin laden is in Pakistan actively re-establishing al Qaeda training camps. The newly appointed Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell made the assertion about bin Laden and his No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Referring to Pakistan's rugged tribal area, McConnell said "to the best of our knowledge that the senior leadership, No. 1 and No. 2, are there, and they are attempting to re-establish and rebuild and to establish training camps." Until now, U.S. intelligence officials had declined to publicly identify, with such certainty, the location of bin Laden although he has long been suspected of hiding in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. McConnell's testimony came the day after the CIA deputy director, Stephen R. Kappes, flew to Pakistan to confront President Pervez Musharaff with "compelling" evidence that new al Qaeda training camps were being established on Pakistani territory. U.S. officials would not describe the evidence in any detail, but people in the intelligence community have speculated recently that the CIA may have obtained surveillance photos of either bin Laden or Zawahri in Pakistan. McConnell's public testimony was followed by a closed, secret session with senators.