Tuesday, November 23, 2004
November 24, 2004
U.S. Expanding Iraqi Offensive in Violent AreaBy JAMES GLANZ and EDWARD WONG
AGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 23 - Thousands of American, British and Iraqi troops began a new offensive sweep on Tuesday across a region south of Baghdad known as the triangle of death. The area earned its fearsome reputation as a haven for thieves, killers, crime families and terrorists, as well as insurgents who fled Falluja before the fighting started there.
The operation began with 11 simultaneous early-morning raids in Jabella, west of the Euphrates River and about 40 miles south of Baghdad, said Col. Ron Johnson, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is leading the effort.
The new push can be seen as the opening of a third front - after the invasion of Falluja and more limited operations in the north around Mosul - by American-led forces against the insurgency. Officials said it would involve 2,000 to 3,000 American marines, soldiers and sailors, more than 1,000 members of Iraqi security forces and 850 members of the Black Watch, a British infantry battalion.
The so-called triangle of death, just north of the ruins of Babylon in Babil Province, is now best known for gruesome mass killings, insurgent hideouts, and ruthless attacks on Iraqi Army bases and police stations. But with the rousting of hundreds or possibly thousands of dedicated insurgents from Falluja before the American invasion and capture of the city last week, the role played by this area as a transit and resupply district for insurgents has become even more troublesome, Colonel Johnson said.
"We know that some of them headed in our direction before the Falluja battle," he said, citing intelligence reports. "We're going to try to isolate them. Then we're going to bounce all over. We're not going to hit just one area. We're going to hit a multiplicity of targets so that they have no safe haven that they can go to."
Military officials in the province said nearly 250 insurgents had been captured there in the past three weeks, including 32 on Tuesday in the Jabella raids.
The area is a curious mixture of impoverished villages and opulent residential compounds, many of them along the Euphrates, artifacts of a Sunni-dominated area that was favored under Saddam Hussein.
A recent drive through a central street in Mahmudiya with a police captain found a barricaded and largely abandoned police station whose facade was severely damaged from a bomb attack in which several Iraqi police officers died. The drive passed through a close-packed, grimy market of soda stands, groceries and repair shops where the squad car received only hard stares.
The police captain, who had been in place for several months, said he had never gotten out of his car or even talked to anyone on the street because it was too dangerous. He estimated there had been little police presence on the streets for about a year.
Capt. David Nevers, a spokesman for the Marine unit, said that because the area was rural and dotted with villages and towns, operations would be different from the urban combat of Falluja and Mosul. The new operation will focus on what Captain Nevers described as "precision raids," carried out with varying combinations of the American, British and Iraqi forces. The first operation, in Jabella, was led by an Iraqi commando team that was backed up by marines, officers said.
As recently as mid-October, the unit conducted a major sweep of the same area, but horrific crimes there have continued, typified by the kidnappings, beheadings and shootings of local security officers, sometimes as many as 10 at a time.
Asked how the American-led forces would proceed differently this time, Captain Nevers said that with the recent addition of the Black Watch and Iraqi forces, they would be able to "squeeze the insurgents into a tighter box."
"We're not naïve enough to think there are not avenues of escape," Captain Nevers said, "but the cordon is tighter than it's ever been."
Although the offensive, called Operation Plymouth Rock, partly in deference to Thanksgiving, is largely military in nature, Colonel Johnson has emphasized the sway of local crime families in the area. He said that both raids and undercover operations would focus on decimating those families.
"There is a lot of crime lords and bosses and mini-bosses and guys who intimidate the neighborhood," Colonel Johnson said.
He said that understanding the crime families, whether they sell weaponry or just control some piece of local turf, was critical to stopping the insurgency in the area.
As the operations began in the south, fighting continued to fade in Falluja. But new casualty figures released by the Pentagon showed that 868 American troops had been wounded since the Falluja offensive began on Nov. 8, and 9,326 since the American-led invasion of Iraq last year. The military said last week that at least 51 Americans had been killed and 425 wounded in Falluja.
In Mosul, Tuesday was a rare day when no bodies of people killed by insurgents were found, said Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, commander of the First Battalion, 24th Infantry. In the previous five-day period in Mosul, at least 28 bodies had been discovered - some beheaded, some shot execution-style in the head, some burned or otherwise mutilated.
The American military said its patrols had discovered a hoard of insurgent weapons about 30 miles south of Mosul on Monday, including 15,000 antiaircraft rounds, 4,600 hand grenades, 144 grenade launchers and 25 surface-to-air missiles. It ranked as one of the largest weapons caches ever uncovered in northern Iraq.
In Baghdad, the top aide to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who led an intense anti-American insurgency in the spring, said Tuesday that the interim Iraqi government was violating a peace agreement by continuing to arrest senior officials in his organization.
The aide, Ali Smesim, said at a news conference that two powerful Shiite political parties, the Dawa Islamic Party and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, were pushing for the arrests. Both parties have prominent positions in the interim government and were favored by the Americans before and after the invasion of March 2003.
Yet, even as Mr. Smesim was complaining about the arrests, all the major Shiite parties, including Mr. Sadr's group, were busy negotiating to form a powerful coalition to present a unified slate of candidates for the national elections, which are planned for Jan. 30.
Mr. Smesim's remarks came after Iraqi police arrested a senior Sadr official, Sheik Hashem Abu Reghif, last Friday in the holy city of Najaf. The government said it had acted after several Iraqis filed a court complaint accusing the sheik of detaining and torturing them.
Mr. Smesim said 160 people from the Sadr organization were still in prison, despite a peace agreement reached in October under which they were to be released.
Mr. Sadr has been one of the biggest thorns in the side of the Americans, igniting uprisings across the south and in Baghdad in April and August and delivering fiery sermons denouncing the American presence.
The American military routed Mr. Sadr's militia in Najaf this summer. In October, Mr. Sadr agreed to try to disarm his militia of thousands, the Mahdi Army, after weeks of American airstrikes in Sadr City, a sprawling area of 2.2 million people in northeastern Baghdad that is Mr. Sadr's strongest base of support.
Sabah Kadhum, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the government would continue to arrest clerics if they incite violence. The arrests of the Sadr officials have nothing to do with political rivalries, he said.
"The government has no political stand in all of this," he said. "It's not a political matter. It's more about incitement. The government is arresting clerics who incite people."
Also on Tuesday, a spokesman for Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the Iraqi president and a Sunni, said that Mr. Yawar had formed a political party to run in the elections, the Iraqis' Party, and that it included the current ministers of defense and industry.
The clash between Mr. Sadr and the two major Shiite establishment parties comes as the most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is trying to bring all the Shiite political groups together to present a unified slate of candidates for the elections.
Shiites make up at least 60 percent of the population in Iraq but were subjugated for centuries by the Sunni Arabs, a historical trend that Ayatollah Sistani is determined to change.
When asked whether Mr. Sadr would join a Shiite coalition, Mr. Smesim said, "We're asking the Sadr followers to stay calm so a Shiite war will not erupt," Mr. Smesim added.
Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting from Mosul, Iraq, for this article.
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La. Becomes Latest Political Battleground
Tue Nov 23, 2:20 PM ET
By ADAM NOSSITER, Associated Press Writer
ABBEVILLE, La. - The swamps, bayous and rice fields of Louisiana's Cajun country have emerged as the site of the nation's latest political battleground.
Two congressional districts in southern Louisiana will decide runoff elections next month, giving the Republicans an opportunity to extend their Election Day winning streak. For the Democrats, the races represent a chance to blunt the GOP's momentum.
"There will be a Sunday's worth of news if either party sweeps the two elections," Louisiana State University political scientist Wayne Parent said. "If the Republicans sweep, I think it will certainly add credence to the notion that 2004 was a Bush-Republican year. If the Democrats sweep, it will take a little of the shine off."
The December runoff, held long after the rest of the nation is done with politics, is a Louisiana specialty. The state's open primary system leaves elections unresolved if no candidate can muster over 50 percent in the general election.
Republicans finished on top in both primaries, but the electoral demographics change dramatically in the Dec. 4 runoff. No major polls have been conducted.
Both races are for open seats — one that has always been in Democratic hands, and another that is Republican-held.
In one of the matchups, Republican Billy Tauzin III is running for the seat being vacated by his father. He is opposed by Charles Melancon, a former legislator who went on to become a lobbyist for the region's sugar industry.
Tauzin has come under harsh criticism for his youth and inexperience, with detractors saying the 30-year-old BellSouth lobbyist is running on nothing more than his old man's name. One anti-Tauzin ad shows "little Billy" as a boy trying to dress himself in a man's suit.
Tauzin knocked out a strong Republican primary challenge, in part by casting his ultraconservative opponent, state Sen. Craig Romero, as a defender of sodomy. Romero, furious that the party backed "the boy," as he called him, said some of the district's voters thought they were supporting the old man, not the son.
Still, with no record to run on, name recognition is probably Tauzin's biggest asset in a district his father held for nearly a quarter-century.
Republican Charles Boustany Jr., a former heart surgeon who has strong national backing, and Democratic state Sen. Willie Mount are on the ballot in the other race. Mount is a traditional Louisiana Democrat, a conservative who, post-Nov. 2, talks about "values" as much as she can.
The two districts stretch across a colorful span of southern Louisiana, from the oil industry center of Lake Charles near the Texas line, through the Cajun capital of Lafayette, to the marshy lands below New Orleans. Oil, shrimp and Cajun fiddling are big; the region voted heavily for President Bush (news - web sites), yet isn't averse to electing Democrats to other offices.
The key to both parties' success may very well hinge on places like this old Cajun town in the heart of the rice belt, with its 100-year-old red brick Catholic church, central square named for Mary Magdalene, and well-known oyster houses.
For years, Abbeville has been like other towns in Cajun country: They were Democratic safe places.
But Boustany dominated here on Nov. 2, even though Mount's family roots are here and the local governing body, the police jury, has a Democratic majority.
Police Juror E.J. Broussard, a Democrat, turned out this week to see Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco endorse her old friend Mount in downtown Abbeville. But Broussard is going with Boustany, an ex-surgeon who speaks of performing 6,000 heart operation.
"He sent chills up and down my spine when he started talking about his patients, and what he's giving up to run. There's other things he could be doing," Broussard said.
Republicans are banking on the personal appeal of Boustany — and the help of star endorsements. Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) came down to campaign for him in September, and other such visits could be coming. The grandson of a Lebanese immigrant who made good with a department store in Lafayette, Boustany preaches standard GOP fare about individuals controlling their own destiny in health care and other matters.
Mount preaches more down-home traits — in particular, values.
"This election is about who is going to stand close to our values in Louisiana," she told a crowd here.
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Suspect Says Hunters Shot at Him First
43 minutes ago
By ROBERT IMRIE, Associated Press Writer
HAYWARD, Wis. - A man suspected in the killings of six hunters told investigators he began firing after a shot was fired at him and some of the victims called him racially derogatory names, according to documents filed Tuesday.
AP Photo
AFP
Slideshow: Five Killed in Wis. Hunting Dispute
Hunters' Trespassing Dispute Leads to 5 Deaths(AP Video)
A judge set bail at $2.5 million for Chai Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., who is suspected in the killings Sunday of six deer hunters and the wounding of two others.
Bail was set after investigators filed documents arguing there was probable cause to hold Vang in the shootings. No charges had been filed.
Vang, a Hmong immigrant from Laos, was arrested Sunday about four hours after the shootings as he emerged from the woods with his empty SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifle.
Sawyer County Sheriff Jim Meier said a dispute over Vang's use of a tree stand — a raised platform used by hunters — on private property preceded the gunfire.
Vang told investigators he didn't realize he was on private property when he climbed the tree stand, according to the probable-cause statement released Tuesday. The county has thousands of acres of public hunting land, some of it "virtually around" the private property where the shooting occurred, Meier has said.
A hunter approached and told Vang he was on private property, and Vang started to leave as other hunters approached, the statement said. Vang said the hunters surrounded him and some called him racial slurs.
Vang said he started walking away but looked back to see the first hunter point his rifle at him and then fire a shot that hit the ground 30 to 40 feet behind him, the statement said.
Vang told investigators that's when he started firing at the group, according to the statement.
Five people died at the scene and a sixth died Monday in a hospital. Two others were wounded. The dead were identified as the landowner, Robert Crotteau, 42; his son Joey, 20; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; Jessica Willers, 27; and Denny Drew, 55, who died Monday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield. Willers' father, Terry Willers, remained hospitalized Tuesday in fair condition, while the other wounded hunter was released.
Officials said the victims were part of a group of 14 or 15 who made their opening-weekend trip to the 400-acre property an annual tradition.
"This was his first time out with that group. He was delighted to be invited," said Karen Roidt, mother of victim Mark Roidt.
According to an account Meier gave Monday, two or three hunters spotted a man in a hunting platform on Crotteau's land, then radioed back to the rest of the party at a nearby cabin and were told no one should be there. Meier did not indicate who the account came from.
One of the men asked the intruder to leave, while Crotteau and the others in the cabin hopped on their all-terrain vehicles and headed to the scene, according to the account.
"The suspect got down from the deer stand, walked 40 yards, fiddled with his rifle. He took the scope off his rifle, he turned and he opened fire on the group," Meier said.
He was "chasing after them and killing them," Deputy Tim Zeigle said. "He hunted them down."
Authorities have said there was only one firearm among the eight hunters and it was unclear whether anyone returned fire.
Some Hmong leaders questioned whether racial differences may have figured in the shootings.
There have been previous clashes between Southeast Asian and white hunters in the region. Locals in the Birchwood area, about 120 miles northeast of the Twin Cities, have complained that the Hmong do not understand the concept of private property and hunt wherever they see fit.
Sang Vang said his brother has lived in the United States for more than 20 years and is a U.S. Army veteran.
Vang's arrest made some Hmong citizens in his hometown fearful of a backlash. Hmong leaders in St. Paul condemned the shootings Tuesday and offered condolences to victims' families.
"What happened in Wisconsin is in no way representative of the Hmong people and what they stand for," said Cha Vang, who said he was representing "the greater law-abiding Hmong community." He is no relation to Chai Vang.
About 24,000 Hmong live in St. Paul, the highest concentration of any U.S. city.
Minneapolis police said they arrested Chai Vang on Christmas Eve 2001 after he waved a gun and threatened to kill his wife. No charge was filed because she didn't cooperate with authorities, spokesman Ron Reier said. St. Paul police said there had been two domestic violence calls to his home in the past year, but both were resolved without incident.
___
Associated Press writer Gregg Aamot in St. Paul, Minn., contributed to this report.
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Dan Rather Stepping DownNEW YORK, Nov. 23, 2004Dan Rather announced Tuesday that he will step down as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News in March, 24 years after his first broadcast in that position. Rather will continue to work full-time at CBS News as a correspondent for both editions of 60 Minutes, as well as on other assignments for the news division. His last broadcast as anchor will be March 9, the 24th anniversary of when he assumed the position from Walter Cronkite. CBS made no mention of a potential successor. Rather, 73, has come under fire for his 60 Minutes report on President Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. The report relied on documents that cast Mr. Bush's service in a negative light. Critics charged that the documents were forgeries, and CBS News was unable to vouch for their authenticity. An independent panel is now investigating the matter. Rather spoke of his decision to step down to more than 100 staffers in the CBS newsroom on Tuesday afternoon. In brief remarks, the newsman said that he had considered retiring since the late 1990s. He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack prompted him to put aside such thoughts. He portrayed his decision to leave the anchor chair as a "mutual decision" made last summer. The veteran newsman also said the decision was not influenced by the National Guard story. He said the purpose of announcing his decision now - prior to the release of a report on the story by an outside panel - was to separate the two events. He acknowledged, in a vintage Ratherism, that the controversial story had become a "hippopotamus in the bathtub." Rather has worked at CBS News for more than 40 years and made his name as a reporter covering the Nixon White House. His nearly quarter-century at the helm of the CBS Evening News is the longest at the helm of any U.S. network evening broadcast. "Dan’s dedication to his craft and his remarkable skills as a reporter are legendary," said CBS News President Andrew Heyward. "He has symbolized the CBS Evening News for nearly a quarter century." Rather's announcement comes eight days before his NBC rival, Tom Brokaw, steps down as Nightly News anchor and is replaced by Brian Williams. The triumvirate of Rather, Brokaw and ABC's Peter Jennings has ruled network news for more than two decades. Rather dominated ratings after taking over for Cronkite during the 1980s, but he was eclipsed first by Jennings and then by Brokaw. His evening news broadcast generally runs a distant third in the ratings each week. His hard news style was mixed with a folksy Texan style that led him to rattle off homespun phrases on Election Night. But odd incidents dogged him: In 1987 he walked off the set, leaving CBS with dead air, to protest a decision to let a tennis match delay the news. Rather began his career in journalism in 1950 as an Associated Press reporter in Huntsville, Texas. Rather joined CBS News in 1962 as chief of its Southwest bureau in Dallas. In 1963, he was appointed chief of the Southern bureau in New Orleans. During that time, he reported on racial conflicts in the South and the crusade of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the death of President Kennedy. He took the anchor chair in 1981, and has reported on every major news story since then. In February 2003, Rather secured the most sought-after interview in the world: an exclusive one-on-one with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, the first the Iraqi leader has conducted with an American journalist since 1991. Rather also reported from Kabul on the United States’ effort to oust the Taliban and from Jerusalem and the West Bank during the largest Israeli military action in two decades. He gained special notice for his live anchoring of CBS News’ coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks and his around-the-clock reporting in the days that followed. In the weeks after 9/11, Rather filed reports from Ground Zero and on the attacks’ aftermath in New York and the nation for the prime time news magazine 48 Hours. Rather issued this statement on his departure from the anchor chair: "I have been lucky and blessed over these years to have what is, to me, the best job in the world and to have it at CBS News. Along the way, I've had the honor of working with some of the most talented, dedicated professionals in the world, and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue doing so in the years ahead." ©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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November 23, 2004
Union and Pacers to Fight SuspensionsBy LIZ ROBBINS
he repercussions from the basketball brawl last week in Auburn Hills, Mich., were felt on three fronts yesterday.
In New York, the chief executive of the National Basketball Association's players union, Billy Hunter, said he intended to appeal the length of the league's suspensions of the Indiana Pacers' Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson. He also said the union would request arbitration for an independent review of the commissioner's unilateral power of suspension.
In Michigan, the Auburn Hills police reported that nine people claimed they were assaulted by players during Friday's brawl in the game between the Detroit Pistons and the Pacers at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Oakland County prosecutor said that charges were not likely to be filed for two to three weeks and that they would be no higher than misdemeanors, except possibly for a felony charge against the person who threw a chair into the crowd.
The prosecutor, David C. Gorcyca, identified the man who threw a cup filled with liquid at Artest, which spurred Artest to rush into the stands after him, as John Green, 39, of West Bloomfield Township, Mich. Gorcyca said that Green was a former neighbor of his and also said, according to The Associated Press, that footage showed that when Artest was in the stands, Green grabbed him from behind and punched him. Green, a season-ticket holder, has been barred from the Palace.
Green told reporters, however, that he did not throw the cup, The Associated Press reported.
And in Indiana, as the Pacers reeled from the loss of their top three players, management said it stood behind all of them and hoped to find a legal way to have them return sooner than allowed, under the terms of their suspensions.
"It is hard to speculate, but right now we're behind Ronnie 100 percent, and we will look at everything we possibly can to get him back in uniform as quick as possible," Larry Bird, the Pacers' president, said of Artest.
Hunter, in a telephone interview last night, said that the union appeal would be filed in 24 to 48 hours. Hunter said that Commissioner David Stern, who handed down the stiffest collective penalties in league history Sunday, overreacted, especially by suspending Artest for the rest of the season.
Jackson was suspended for 30 games and O'Neal for 25 games for fighting with fans in a melee that erupted after an on-court tussle following a hard foul by Artest on the Pistons' Ben Wallace. For shoving Artest, Wallace was suspended for six games.
"The players feel like they're being scapegoats," Hunter said. "No question that what Ron did was reprehensible. I agree with David. But had he suspended Artest until the All-Star break and required him to get anger-management counseling, then made a determination at the All-Star break, that would have been 35 games, which I think is more than ample."
Before Artest's 73-game suspension, Latrell Sprewell, then with the Golden State Warriors, served the longest non-drug-related suspension in league history, 68 games, for choking his coach, P. J. Carlesimo, after a practice. The Warriors originally had terminated Sprewell's contract for the remaining two seasons.
Sprewell went to arbitration with Stern. The arbitrator reduced the suspension to 68 games, the remainder of that season. Sprewell was able to go to arbitration only because the choking incident occurred in practice and not on the court.
According to Article XXXI, section 8 of the collective bargaining agreement, a player can appeal a suspension. Stern then must conduct a hearing, but for an on-court incident, the ultimate authority rests with the commissioner without the possibility of arbitration.
Stern said Sunday that what Artest did was unforgivable.
But Hunter strenuously objected to Stern's sweeping powers in the current bargaining agreement .
"I contend that he does not have unfettered, unreviewable authority, that he is subject to review by an arbitrator," Hunter said.
Hunter said that he would most likely pursue an independent review of the brawl, with the aim of reassessing Stern's rulings, by going to United States District Court.
The precedent favors the league, however. In 1997, when the players union tried to block the playoff suspensions of Knicks players arising from a fight with the Miami Heat, Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that Stern had the ultimate authority.
In an interview with People magazine published yesterday, Artest said: "I just wish the situation hadn't turned out the way it turned out. I hope some of the Detroit fans I was interacting with before the game could come to my defense.''
The Pacers, already short-handed because of injuries, are allowed to pursue temporary avenues to add players to the roster, but they are restricted to signing free agents at a minimum salary. O'Neal, the Pacers' All-Star forward, issued a statement yesterday through his agent, Arn Tellem, pointing to an issue of self-defense, saying: "I apologize for the events of last Friday. Like everyone, as I watched from the court, I was distressed and shocked to see the situation spiral out of control. When a number of belligerent fans began to charge onto the court, and it was clear that there was no security in place, I feared for my own safety and for the safety of my teammates. I regret what happened last Friday, and I promise to work as hard as I can to help restore respect for N.B.A. basketball."
But Gorcyca, the Oakland County prosecutor, said in at a news conference yesterday that Artest was not acting in self-defense. "Even if someone throws a cup," Gorcyca said, that does not justify Artest's actions. "He can claim self-defense, but again, that video will speak for itself."
The chief of police for Auburn Hills, Dorren Olko, asked for assistance in identifying the person who threw a chair, sending out a news release describing him as an "African-American male who appears to be in his late 20's to early 30's."
Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting from Auburn Hills, Mich., for this article, and Dick Cassin from Indianapolis.
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Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004
DEADLY DAY AT SCHOOLMansion High student killed, at least 2 other hurtBy BARBARA LAKER, CATHERINE LUCEY & MENSAH M. DEANTONE-FACED teen-age boys stared at a thick pool of blood on the Colona Street sidewalk in the darkening shadow of Strawberry Mansion High School.
A half block away, a girl’s black shoe with a bow, a gray school bag and a hairbrush lay abandoned on concrete as nearby school papers drifted in the breeze.
It was 4 p.m. yester day, a little less than an hour since school was dismissed as police marked about 18 bullet casings on 31st street outside the school. Under the loud drone of news helicopters, students and parents stood behind yellow police tape, seemingly numb that one 16-year- old student was dead, and at least two others — possibly three — were injured in a shooting minutes after school let out.
“We live here. This is the ‘hood,” said a 16-year- old student, Kevin, who wouldn’t reveal his last name, as he gazed toward the blood drenched sidewalk. “This doesn’t surprise me. It just makes me want to get out of here."
Jalil Speaks, a 10th-grader who turned 16 last month, was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital within 30 minutes of the shooting . He’d been struck in the left side of his back and right knee.
One girl was hit in the arm; another was wounded in her left leg. Both girls, who were not identified, are 16-year-old sophomores.
Another apparent victim, possibly a student, was being treated at Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital for bullet wounds.
One student said she’d hear d people talking that there may be a shooting after school yesterday, but figured maybe it was just talk. “Nobody really paid much attention,” she said.
Melissa Thomas, Jalil’s aunt, said she didn’t know what sparked the shooting , but said Jalil had been involved in an altercation with some peers a couple of weeks ago.
Other sources said the shooting may have been over money.
But Thomas, 24, said she couldn’t under stand why anyone would kill Jalil.
“He’s nice. He’s quiet. He goes to chur ch Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. He basically stays to himself,” she said. “It’s surprising .”
Shortly after school was dismissed at 3:04 p.m. yesterday, an argument broke out at 32nd Street and Ridge Avenue . It’s unclear where Jalil was at the time.
The crowd then drifted to 31st Street near Susquehanna Avenue, said Police Inspector William Colarulo.
As the argument escalated, shots were fired from a green Pontiac with tinted windows. It has not been determined how many people were in the car, but it’s possible that more than one gun was used.
Students said they heard shots, then tires screeching . Screaming kids scattered. They didn’t know where to go. Last night, police were still searching for the car.
After being shot, Jalil apparently stumbled to Colona Street where he crumpled to the sidewalk near front steps to a wornlooking rowhome with faded green paint.
“I saw (Jalil) after the shooting . Everybody was telling him to stay awake,” said Kevin, who saw blood seeping from Jalil’s chest. “Someone else told him to get up.”
Ameer a Sullivan, an 11th-grader, said when she heard gunshots, she saw a girl fall to the ground. She ran back inside the school. She saw one of the girls who had been shot with blood oozing through her black shirt.
“She was breathing real heavy. She had a big patch of blood on her shirt. She was crying. She could barely breathe,” Ameer a said.
“It’s really scary. It’s made me not want to come to school tomorrow,” she said. “Bullets got no name on them.”
Students who knew Jalil said he wasn’t the kind known to attract trouble.
“He was real sweet. He was the kind of kid who was a big brother, or a little brother. You’d never think he’d get into something like this,” said Shante Johnson, 17. “You wouldn’t find him wanting to fight someone .”
One Strawberry Mansion staffer who asked that his name not be used, said Jalil was “a regular kid, a mediocre student. Even if he was the worst student, people would have been affected because nobody deserves to be shot down in the street.”
He said he spoke to Jalil within an hour before his death. “He didn’t seem any different than any other day,” he said. “Be safe. That’s what I tell all the kids. That is what I told him.”
Minutes after the shooting, some parents rushed to the school to try to find their children. “It’s terrible what’s going on, but this is the way it is,” said a father who didn’t want to give his name but has a 10th grade son.
“One kid is dead and another is going to jail. This is only the beginning, not the end,” he said. “We live in the ‘hood. This is what goes on every day. This is just life here.”
Phila delphia School District CEO Paul Vallas went to the scene and said that before yesterday, the atmosphere at Strawberry Mansion was “relatively quiet.”
Charles Sumter, instructional director for the school’s 9th grade Success Academy, feared the shootings would undermine the school’s recent progress.
“The last five years at Strawberry Mansion have been great. We could not have imagined anything like this,” said Sumter, an 18-year veteran of Strawberry Mansion.
Last school year, Strawberry Mansion was on the state’s “persistently dangerous schools” list, but was removed from the list this year due to improved conditions.
Mike Lodise, president of the Philadelphia School District police officers union, said Strawberry Mansion, which had a fullscale student riot in November, 1997, has been peaceful lately.
“It’s impossible to do anything once they leave the schools,” he said.
“There are just too many guns on the street,” Vallas said. “The challenge we face is not the students’ safety in school, but on their way home .”
Vallas went to Temple University Hospital last night and spoke with the two girls who had been shot. Both were in good condition, he said.
Today there will be a beefed up school police presence at the school, officials said. There are regularly seven school police officers for 875 students.
Community groups will also be present, including Men United for a Better Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Anti-Drug, Anti-Violence Network, Town Watch and Mother s In Charge.
Last night, after most neighbors had gone inside for the night, a young girl with braids jumped rope just yards from the police tape.
Jalil’s family, who live on Taney Street near Montgomery Avenue, said they didn’t want to talk to the Daily News.
But on the corner of Taney Street, his friends started to build a memorial. Against a graffiti scarred wall with the letters RI without a P, a line of 18 white candles were lit on the concrete. Two cops stood nearby to make sure no trouble broke out.
There was none . Just silent despair. Teen-a gers brought teddy bears. One girl wrote RIP on Sponge Bob Square Pants and Patrick before placing them on the ground.
Under a drizzle , teen-age boys sat close to each other on the ground against the wall across the street. Others huddled near the candles.
Tears rolled down their faces. They couldn’t speak. The rain became steady. Still they stood. One girl placed her hands around her friend’s neck and rocked back and forth, over and over. It was a way to find comfort when there was none.
Staff writer Regina Medina contributed to this report
© 2004 Philadelphia Daily News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.http://www.philly.com
November 21, 2004FRANK RICH
Bono's New Casualty: 'Private Ryan'
s American soldiers were dying in Falluja, some Americans back home spent Veteran's Day mocking the very ideal our armed forces are fighting for freedom. Ludicrous as it sounds, 66 ABC affiliates revolted against their own network and refused to broadcast "Saving Private Ryan." The reason: fear. Not fear of terrorism or fear of low ratings but fear that their own government would punish them for exercising freedom of speech.
If the Federal Communications Commission could slap NBC after Bono used an expletive to celebrate winning a Golden Globe, then not even Steven Spielberg's celebration of World War II heroism could be immune from censorship. The American Family Association, which mobilized the mob against "Ryan," was in full blaster-fax and e-mail rage. Its scrupulous investigation had found that the movie's soldiers not only invoked the Bono word 21 times but also, perhaps even more indecently, re-enacted "graphic violence" in the battle scenes. How dare those servicemen impose their filthy mouths and spilled innards on decent American families! In our new politically correct American culture, war is always heck.
The stations that refused to show the movie were not just in Baton Rouge and Biloxi but in cities like Boston, Detroit, Cleveland and Baltimore. For some reason, a number of them replaced "Ryan" with the 1986 movie "Hoosiers," the heartwarming tale of high school basketball players who claw their way to the championship in 1950's Indiana. But even Indiana and jocks have no immunity from the indecency cops in 2004. Less than 48 hours after "Hoosiers" supplanted the censored "Ryan," the Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Tyler Palko used the Bono word in a live interview with NBC Sports's Tom Hammond after his team's upset of Notre Dame. Unless the F.C.C. wants to open a legal Pandora's box, it now has no choice but to apply the same principles to a victorious football player's spontaneous expletive that it did to a victorious rock star's.
For anyone who doubts that we are entering a new era, let's flash back just a few years. "Saving Private Ryan," with its "CSI"-style disembowelments and expletives undeleted, was nationally broadcast by ABC on Veteran's Day in both 2001 and 2002 without incident, and despite the protests of family-values groups. What has changed between then and now? A government with the zeal to control both information and culture has received what it calls a mandate. Media owners who once might have thought that complaints by the American Family Association about a movie like "Saving Private Ryan" would go nowhere are keenly aware that the administration wants to reward its base. Merely the threat that the F.C.C. might punish a TV station or a network is all that's needed to push them onto the slippery slope of self-censorship before anyone in Washington even bothers to act. This is McCarthyism, "moral values" style.
What makes the "Ryan" case both chilling and a harbinger of what's to come is that it isn't about Janet Jackson and sex but about the presentation of war at a time when we are fighting one. That some of the companies whose stations refused to broadcast "Saving Private Ryan" also own major American newspapers in cities as various as Providence and Atlanta leaves you wondering what other kind of self-censorship will be practiced next. If these media outlets are afraid to show a graphic Hollywood treatment of a 60-year-old war starring the beloved Tom Hanks because the feds might fine them, toy with their licenses or deny them permission to expand their empires, might they defensively soften their news divisions' efforts to present the graphic truth of an ongoing war? The pressure groups that are exercised by Bono and "Saving Private Ryan" are often the same ones who are campaigning to derail any news organization that's not towing the administration line in lockstep with Fox.
Even without being threatened, American news media at first sanitized the current war, whether through carelessness or jingoism, proving too credulous about everything from weapons of mass destruction to "Saving Private Lynch" to "Mission Accomplished." During the early weeks of the invasion, carnage of any kind was kept off TV screens, as if war could be cost-free. Once the press did get its act together and exercised skepticism, it came under siege. News organizations that report facts challenging the administration's version of events risk being called traitors. As with "Saving Private Ryan," the aim of the news censors is to bleach out any ugliness or violence. But because the war in Iraq, unlike World War II, is increasingly unpopular and doesn't have an assured triumphant ending, it must also be scrubbed of any bad news that might undermine its support among the administration's base. Thus the censors argue that Abu Ghraib, and now a marine's shooting of a wounded Iraqi prisoner in a Falluja mosque, are vastly "overplayed" by the so-called elite media.
President Bush tried to turn the campaign, in part, into a referendum on Hollywood's lack of a "heart and soul." Now that he's won, administration apparatchiks have declared his victory a repudiation not just of Hollywood's dream factory but of the news industry's reality factory. "The biggest loser was the mainstream media," wrote Peggy Noonan in an online analysis for The Wall Street Journal after Election Day. She predicted that institutions like the networks, The New York Times and, presumably, the print edition of her own newspaper (editorial page excepted) were on their way to being rendered extinct by "the blogosphere and AM radio and the Internet" in other words, by opinion writers like herself.
In this diet of "news" championed by the right, there's no need for actual reporters who gather facts firsthand by leaving their laptops and broadcast booths behind and risking their lives to bear witness to what is actually happening on the ground in places like Falluja and Baghdad. The facts of current events can become as ideologically fungible as the scientific evidence supporting evolution. Whatever comforting version of events supports your politics is the "news."
The reductio ad absurdum of such a restricted news diet is Jim Bunning, the newly re-elected senator from Kentucky. During the campaign he drew a blank when asked to react to the then widely circulated story of an Army Reserve unit in Iraq, including one soldier from his own state, that refused to follow orders to carry out what it deemed a suicide fuel-delivery mission. "I don't read the paper" is how he explained his cluelessness. "I haven't done that for the last six weeks. I watch Fox News to get my information." That's his right as a private citizen, though even Fox had some coverage of that story. But as a senator, he has the power to affect decisions on the conduct of the war and to demand an accounting of the circumstances under which one of his own constituents was driven to revolt against his officers. Instead Mr. Bunning was missing in action.
He is, however, a role model of the compliant citizen the Bush administration wants, both in officialdom and out. In a memorable passage in Ron Suskind's pre-election article on the president in The New York Times Magazine, a senior White House adviser tells Mr. Suskind that there's no longer any need for the "reality-based community" epitomized by journalists. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," the adviser says. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." A test run of this approach dates at least as far back as May 2003, a week after the president declared the end of major combat operations. When a reporter told Donald Rumsfeld in a Pentagon press briefing that "journalists in Iraq report that a sense of public order is still lacking," the secretary of defense ridiculed journalists for showing only "slices of truth." The reconstruction effort, couldn't anyone see, was right on track.
The creation of this alternative reality has been perfected into an art form in Falluja. Almost everything the administration has said about this battle is at odds with the known facts. "There are over 3,000 Iraqi soldiers who are leading the activities," said the now outgoing deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, as the operation began and those Iraqi troops were paraded before the cameras. But as Edward Wong of The Times later reported, the Iraqis actually turned up in battle only after the hard work was done, their uniforms "spotless from not having done a lick of fighting." Meanwhile, another group of crack Iraqi trainees fled their posts in Mosul, allowing the insurgents, and possibly our current No. .1 evildoer, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to wreak havoc there while Americans were chasing their ghosts in Falluja.
Casualties are also now being whipped into an empire's idea of reality. "We don't do body counts," said Tommy Franks as we fought in Afghanistan in 2002 an edict upheld in a press briefing in Iraq as recently as Nov. 9 by the American commander Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz. But only five days later, as the "reality-based" news spread that many of the insurgents had melted away before we got to them, that policy was sacrificed to the cause of manufacturing some good news to drive out the bad. Suddenly there was a body count of 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents in Falluja, even though reporters on the scene found, as The Times reported, "little evidence of dead insurgents in the streets and warrens where some of the most intense combat took place." By possibly inflating both body counts and the fighting prowess of the local army against guerrillas, the Bush administration is constructing a "Mission Accomplished II" that depends on a quiescent press (as well as on a public memory so short that it won't notice the similarity between the Falluja narrative and Tet).
As the crunch comes, we'll learn whether media companies will continue to test such Iraq war stories against "reality-based" reportage, or whether they'll kowtow to an emboldened administration, spurred on by its self-proclaimed mandate and its hard-right auxiliary groups, that can reward or punish them at will. For now the most dominant Falluja image has been that of the "Marlboro Man" the Los Angeles Times photo of the brave American marine James Blake Miller, his face bloodied and soiled by combat, his expression resolute. It is, as Mr. Rumsfeld might say, a slice of truth. But other slices like the airlifting of hundreds of American troops to Germany to be treated for the traumatic fallout of Falluja's graphic violence are, like "Saving Private Ryan" on Veteran's Day, missing from too many Americans' screens.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top
Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004
IN MY OPINIONFans, athletes both losers in pointless battleLINDA ROBERTSONlrobertson@herald.com
Another episode in the most bitter rivalry in sports played out Friday night in Auburn Hills, Mich. Again, there were no winners. Only losers. Athletes 0, Fans 0.
Ron Artest, provoked by a spectator who threw a cup of beer at him, stomped into the stands, fists swinging, and a basketball game turned into a brawl. Even after incessant replays, TV footage of the crazed punching still evokes cringes of revulsion. And a shameful but undeniable feeling that each side was getting exactly what it deserved.
By the time the welts from Malice at the Palace started to subside, Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, the Indiana Pacers were decimated, the NBA was humiliated and athletes and fans were more contemptuous of each other than ever.
Discourse on this latest example of polarization in America should no longer center on whether the punishment of Artest is fair, because it is. He has a self-destructive history of being unable to control his anger. He had the same options we all have to prevent anarchy when confronted by jerks -- call a security guard or a police officer. Or, most deflating to the pathetic slob, completely ignore him.
The fans who were aggressors in the melee should not get off as lightly as the Pacers' Stephen Jackson, who also climbed into the stands and pummeled people even though he had not been harassed.
But there's no point in playing the blame game. The vicious cycle of alienation between sports stars and the fans responsible for their very existence has gotten so blurred it's hard to tell what the relationship is. Co-dependency, most likely.
Athletes, as entertainers, say they want to please their audience, yet they often avoid fans at all costs. Tiger Woods can't tolerate the sound of a camera shutter, Barry Bonds can't be bothered to sign autographs, Bryan Cox flips off spectators.
UGLY PLAYERS, FANS
Fans, as loyal customers, say they love their heroes, yet they heckle them mean-spiritedly, rant about them on Yell (also known as Talk) Radio and pulverize them on the Internet. A lot of NBA fans took a lot of glee in the U.S. Olympic basketball team's struggles in Athens.
Then the players strike back. Texas pitcher Frank Francisco hurled a chair into the stands and bloodied a woman's nose.
Then the fans strike back. They throw batteries, bottles and cellphones or run onto the field and attack a first-base coach.
Money is cited as the wedge. Athletes become so wealthy at such a young age they cannot relate to the working-stiff public. Unlike the days when the New York Yankees used to ride the subway to games, today's Yankees are insulated from the world in their 16-bathroom mansions and private planes.
Fans, while paying rising ticket costs, are disgusted by the salaries, excess and Latrell Sprewell whining that he needs another $7 million a year because he has a family to feed.
Our sports stadiums and arenas have become simmering cauldrons of displaced aggression.
Yet there was no evidence of that resentment over the weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was a love-in. NASCAR drivers and fans are devoted to each other. At least for now.
The drivers walked through the garages and, polite as can be, paused to give autographs, shake hands, kiss babies. Fans are allowed to buy pit-stop passes and hang out within tobacco-spitting distance of the drivers. Lots of beer drinking, but no beer throwing.
LOVE-IN
After the Nextel Cup Ford 400 concluded, fans swarmed onto the track to ogle the cars and chat with the drivers.
''This is the Everyman sport, and the drivers and fans appreciate each other,'' said Jerry Gow, a Mark Martin fan. ``I quit watching baseball when Alex Rodriguez signed that $252 million contract.''
NASCAR has worked hard to cultivate the image of down-home accessibility and cater to its NASCAR Nation base in the Red states, where, as any voter would tell you, values still count for something. Also, the racial tension of other sports hasn't saturated NASCAR because its athletes and fans are almost all white.
As NASCAR becomes more popular and the reality sets in that drivers are less blue collar and more blue blood, will a wall go up between heroes and hero-worshippers? Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan Glenda Rager lamented how it has become tough to get an autograph from Little E. She left happy to have an autograph from Earnhardt's cook.
She made friends -- even with Jeff Gordon fans, who gave her Band-Aids for her blisters. The mood at the Speedway was so much more pleasant than it is at Pittsburgh Steelers games, where ''somebody pees on your head and somebody else curses in your ear,'' said Rager, who is from Johnstown, Pa.
How long until NASCAR catches NBA-itis? For now, drivers are beholden to their sponsors, who don't want fans to switch from, say, Miller Lite to Coors Light because they're offended by the behavior of Rusty Wallace.
NBA players sign long-term deals and are beholden to no one. But they better be careful. Someday there might be no fans left in the stands.
© 2004 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miami.com
today's papersTrickin' KievBy Eric UmanskyPosted Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004, at 12:47 AM PT
The Los Angeles Times and New York Times lead with the democracy showdown in Ukraine, where the official results say Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won—but there's widespread evidence the count was cooked. Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who led a U.S. delegation to check out the vote, described a "concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse." A range of independent (and apparently trustworthy) exit polls suggest the real winner is the reformer and pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. Tens of thousands of protestors have taken to the streets of Kiev demanding a recount.
The Washington Post leads with a big omnibus budget bill being been held up while lawmakers repeal a provision that would have allowed some lawmakers to check out people's tax returns. A surprise cut from the bill: money for researching new nukes. USA Today leads with a new medical journal study, in JAMA, concluding that a cholesterol-lowering drug pulled from the market, Baycol, did indeed have a higher risk than other such drugs, which are basically safe. The report also found that Baycol's maker, Bayer, knew of problems but, yes, hid the data. In a point USAT buries but other papers flag, an accompanying JAMA editorial calls for a board independent of the FDA to look at drugs already on the market and not to rely on drugmakers to report problems.
In response to the protestors in the capital, the Ukrainian government channeled Orwell: "We want to assure everyone that in the event of any threat to constitutional order and the security of our citizens, we are prepared to put an end quickly and firmly to any lawlessness." Prime Minister Yanukovych said he has been asked to crack down "by many Ukrainian mothers to prevent street disorders where their children may get hurt." Russian President Putin is buddies with Yanukovych and called to congratulate him on his faux-success—before the vote count had finished, notes a Post editorial. "The battle had been hard-fought," Putin cooed, "but open and honest, and his victory was convincing."
The Post says the tax-return snooping provision—which seems to have been shepherded by one Rep. Ernest Istook Jr., R-Okla., though he's now denying it—is just the latest example of the kinds of things that get stuffed in when, as is common nowadays, bills are drawn up secretly and then members are forced to vote on them in a rush without the ability to amend them. The Boston Globe recently did a good series on the decreasing democracy in Congress.
The NYT fronts word that Iraqi security forces aren't near ready to do their assigned job of protecting polling places on Election Day. U.S. commanders say there are 145,000 trained security forces—a bit more than half of what they say is needed—and even those forces have been less than reliable. Meanwhile, Iraqi ethnic and exile parties said their militiamen would be happy to pull guard duty.
Another piece inside the Times mentions that the recently fired police chief of Mosul has been "arrested" by Kurdish militia on suspicion of working with guerrillas; he was reportedly found holding $600,000 in cash.
The LAT fronts word from an embed report saying Marines have launched what they describe as the "major post-Fallujah campaign." About 5,000 U.S. and British troops, with about 1,000 Iraqis are moving against insurgents in the Babil province, just south of Baghdad. The action has apparently started small scale, with a raid on about a dozen homes. What the LAT doesn't say: Back in October, the military also launched a sweeping counter-insurgency operation, also in Babil.
Everybody mentions that a top Sunni cleric was assassinated in Mosul; the group he's associated with has called for an elections boycott. The LAT mentions that Marines shot a bus nearing a checkpoint in Ramadi, killing three civilians. It's not clear what happened. Another four Iraqi national guardsmen were found executed in Mosul, making a two-day total of 13. There are another 11 still-unidentified bodies.
Two GIs also died, one from previous wounds and one who was killed by a sniper on the road from Baghdad's airport. Two GIs were wounded in Fallujah, where the NYT says "fighting continued to dwindle." The Times says some aid convoys have arrived in the city but haven't found any civilians to help. The paper adds that a bomb was discovered onboard an Iraqi domestic flight.
The NYT fronts women's reports of being near-groped by airport screeners as a result of new security guidelines adopted after Chechen women blew up two Russian planes last summer. "In dozens of interviews," says the Times, "women across the country say they were humiliated by the searches." Most of the women did "not make formal complaints, most saying that they assumed it would be futile to do so." So, how did the Times find dozens of women who had objected to the treatment? Just randomly? Perhaps led to them by an advocacy group or lawyers? Wouldn't clearing that up would give a hint about the extent of the complaints?
The LAT's "Outdoors" section reports on Marlboro's 2004 Adventure Team, in which the generous patrons at Philip Morris took foreign youth (of age, thank you!) on a real world cowboy adventure through Utah's wilds. Reporter Charles Duhigg, who wanted to ask the organizers how they felt about public land being used for smoking junkets, didn't exactly get a press pass and had a bit of trouble joining the fun. After trying to enter ranch land where the team was, Duhigg was met by the owner, a cowboy, who yelled, "Get the hell off my land!" and walked away:
Then the cowboy stops and spits toward the interlopers. The off-duty cop hooks a thumb in his belt and smiles. "Welcome to Marlboro Country," he says.*
Correction, Nov. 24: The article misattributed a quote. It was a ranch security guard, and not the ranch's owner, who said, "Welcome to Marlboro Country." (Return to the corrected sentence.)Eric Umansky writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@hotmail.com.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110055/
The Los Angeles Times and New York Times lead with the democracy showdown in Ukraine, where the official results say Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won—but there's widespread evidence the count was cooked. Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who led a U.S. delegation to check out the vote, described a "concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse." A range of independent (and apparently trustworthy) exit polls suggest the real winner is the reformer and pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. Tens of thousands of protestors have taken to the streets of Kiev demanding a recount.
The Washington Post leads with a big omnibus budget bill being been held up while lawmakers repeal a provision that would have allowed some lawmakers to check out people's tax returns. A surprise cut from the bill: money for researching new nukes. USA Today leads with a new medical journal study, in JAMA, concluding that a cholesterol-lowering drug pulled from the market, Baycol, did indeed have a higher risk than other such drugs, which are basically safe. The report also found that Baycol's maker, Bayer, knew of problems but, yes, hid the data. In a point USAT buries but other papers flag, an accompanying JAMA editorial calls for a board independent of the FDA to look at drugs already on the market and not to rely on drugmakers to report problems.
In response to the protestors in the capital, the Ukrainian government channeled Orwell: "We want to assure everyone that in the event of any threat to constitutional order and the security of our citizens, we are prepared to put an end quickly and firmly to any lawlessness." Prime Minister Yanukovych said he has been asked to crack down "by many Ukrainian mothers to prevent street disorders where their children may get hurt." Russian President Putin is buddies with Yanukovych and called to congratulate him on his faux-success—before the vote count had finished, notes a Post editorial. "The battle had been hard-fought," Putin cooed, "but open and honest, and his victory was convincing."
The Post says the tax-return snooping provision—which seems to have been shepherded by one Rep. Ernest Istook Jr., R-Okla., though he's now denying it—is just the latest example of the kinds of things that get stuffed in when, as is common nowadays, bills are drawn up secretly and then members are forced to vote on them in a rush without the ability to amend them. The Boston Globe recently did a good series on the decreasing democracy in Congress.
The NYT fronts word that Iraqi security forces aren't near ready to do their assigned job of protecting polling places on Election Day. U.S. commanders say there are 145,000 trained security forces—a bit more than half of what they say is needed—and even those forces have been less than reliable. Meanwhile, Iraqi ethnic and exile parties said their militiamen would be happy to pull guard duty.
Another piece inside the Times mentions that the recently fired police chief of Mosul has been "arrested" by Kurdish militia on suspicion of working with guerrillas; he was reportedly found holding $600,000 in cash.
The LAT fronts word from an embed report saying Marines have launched what they describe as the "major post-Fallujah campaign." About 5,000 U.S. and British troops, with about 1,000 Iraqis are moving against insurgents in the Babil province, just south of Baghdad. The action has apparently started small scale, with a raid on about a dozen homes. What the LAT doesn't say: Back in October, the military also launched a sweeping counter-insurgency operation, also in Babil.
Everybody mentions that a top Sunni cleric was assassinated in Mosul; the group he's associated with has called for an elections boycott. The LAT mentions that Marines shot a bus nearing a checkpoint in Ramadi, killing three civilians. It's not clear what happened. Another four Iraqi national guardsmen were found executed in Mosul, making a two-day total of 13. There are another 11 still-unidentified bodies.
Two GIs also died, one from previous wounds and one who was killed by a sniper on the road from Baghdad's airport. Two GIs were wounded in Fallujah, where the NYT says "fighting continued to dwindle." The Times says some aid convoys have arrived in the city but haven't found any civilians to help. The paper adds that a bomb was discovered onboard an Iraqi domestic flight.
The NYT fronts women's reports of being near-groped by airport screeners as a result of new security guidelines adopted after Chechen women blew up two Russian planes last summer. "In dozens of interviews," says the Times, "women across the country say they were humiliated by the searches." Most of the women did "not make formal complaints, most saying that they assumed it would be futile to do so." So, how did the Times find dozens of women who had objected to the treatment? Just randomly? Perhaps led to them by an advocacy group or lawyers? Wouldn't clearing that up would give a hint about the extent of the complaints?
The LAT's "Outdoors" section reports on Marlboro's 2004 Adventure Team, in which the generous patrons at Philip Morris took foreign youth (of age, thank you!) on a real world cowboy adventure through Utah's wilds. Reporter Charles Duhigg, who wanted to ask the organizers how they felt about public land being used for smoking junkets, didn't exactly get a press pass and had a bit of trouble joining the fun. After trying to enter ranch land where the team was, Duhigg was met by the owner, a cowboy, who yelled, "Get the hell off my land!" and walked away:
Then the cowboy stops and spits toward the interlopers. The off-duty cop hooks a thumb in his belt and smiles. "Welcome to Marlboro Country," he says.*
Correction, Nov. 24: The article misattributed a quote. It was a ranch security guard, and not the ranch's owner, who said, "Welcome to Marlboro Country." (Return to the corrected sentence.)Eric Umansky writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@hotmail.com.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110055/
News Home - Help
Mass Offensive Launched South of Baghdad
2 hours, 8 minutes ago
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched raids and arrested suspected insurgents Tuesday in a new offensive aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
AP Photo
Reuters
Slideshow: Iraq
Latest headlines:
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Egypt's Mubarak arrives for talks with Spanish PM AFP - 13 minutes ago
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Arab States Not Ready to Forgive Iraq Debt AP - 33 minutes ago
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U.S., Iraqis Sweep Through 'Triangle of Death' Reuters - 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
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In other violence, masked gunmen assassinated a Sunni cleric north of Baghdad — the second such killing in as many days — and insurgents hit a U.S. convoy with a roadside bomb near the central Iraq (news - web sites) city of Samarra, prompting the Americans to open fire, killing an Iraqi, hospital officials said.
The new offensive was the third large-scale military assault this month aimed at suppressing Iraq's persistent insurgency ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30.
The region of dusty, small towns south of the capital has become known as the "triangle of death" for the frequent attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms on U.S. and Iraqi forces there and for frequent ambushes on travellers.
The military said violence has surged in the area in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to divert attention away from the U.S. assault on Fallujah.
The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella, 50 miles south of Baghdad, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement. U.S. and Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches and vehicle checkpoints.
In the past three weeks, Iraqi troops and Marines have detained nearly 250 insurgents, the statement said.
They have been aided by British forces from the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, who were brought to the area from southern Basra to aid U.S. forces in closing off militant escape routes between Baghdad, Babil province to the south and Anbar province to the west.
The massive Fallujah invasion — involving some 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops — has left the former guerrilla stronghold mostly in U.S. hands, though fighting with pockets of gunmen has been going on for days, the military has said. More than 50 U.S. servicemembers were killed and more than 400 wounded in the operation.
Earlier this month, the northern city of Mosul witnessed a mass insurgent uprising in apparent support of Fallujah's guerrillas. Some 2,400 U.S. troops were sent in to retake control over western parts of the city.
The slain Sunni cleric, Sheik Ghalib Ali al-Zuhairi, was shot as he left a mosque in the town of Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, said police Col. Raisan Hussein.
Al-Zuhairi was a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential group that has called for a boycott of nationwide elections.
A day earlier, gunmen assassinated another prominent Sunni cleric in the northern city of Mosul — Sheik Faidh Mohamed Amin al-Faidhi, who was the brother of the group's spokesman. It as unclear whether the two attacks were related.
Meanwhile, a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the government of violating terms of the August agreement that ended an uprising by al-Sadr's followers in Najaf.
Ali Smeisim, al-Sadr's top political adviser, made no explicit threats as he leveled his allegations at a Baghdad news conference. But his remarks raised the possibility of a new confrontation between the government and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which rose up against the Americans and their Iraqi allies in April and August.
Smeisim said the government has broken a promise in the August agreement not to arrest members of al-Sadr's movement and to release most of them from detention.
"The government, however, started pursuing them and their numbers in prisons have doubled," Smeisim said. "Iraqi police arrested 160 al-Sadr loyalists in Najaf four days ago."
Smeisim also accused the government of conspiring with two major Shiite parties, Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to marginalize al-Sadr's movement and prevent its clerics from speaking in mosques.
Trouble from al-Sadr's armed followers would further complicate the security situation ahead of the January vote.
The United States is eager for the election go ahead as planned, hoping that an elected government widely accepted by the Iraqi people will take the steam out of the insurgency still raging in Sunni areas of central, western and northern Iraq as well as the capital.
But a boycott by Sunni Arabs — who make up an estimated 20 percent of the nearly 26 million population — could deprive the new government of legitimacy. The majority Shiites, believed to form 60 percent of the population, strongly support elections.
Still, Iraq's interim prime minister expressed confidence Monday that the election will succeed. Ayad Allawi said he believed that only "a very small minority" would abstain during the election.
As the election approaches, U.S. commanders in Iraq probably will expand their troops by several thousand. Army units slated to depart are also being held back until after the election. There are now about 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
In Egypt, where 20 nations have gathered for an international conference on Iraq, members have committed themselves to supporting the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government and its war against insurgents.
The gathering, which included many who had opposed the war, represented hard-won acknowledgment of the need for international cooperation to deal with its consequences.
In other developments:
_ In northern Kirkuk, an ethnic Kurdish contractor who worked with U.S. forces was kidnapped from his home by gunmen, police said.
_ A gunbattle between police and rebels south of Baghdad in the central Iraqi town of Mahaweel left one fighter dead, police said.
_ The U.S. Embassy said a Monday that bomb was discovered on a commercial flight inside Iraq. No further details were released and the statement did not say whether the affected flight had arrived or was preparing to depart. Aircraft flying into and out of Baghdad have been fired on frequently by insurgents.
_ The first independent aid convoy to enter Fallujah had to turn back before delivering any assistance because of security concerns, the Red Cross said Tuesday.
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