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January 13, 2008Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement.

Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions.Item numbers indicate order of appearance only.

IRAQ1. Iraq Passes Bill On Baathists

(Washington Post)....Joshua Partlow and Michael AbramowitzThe Iraqi parliament passed a bill Saturday intended to make it easier for former members of Saddam Hussein'sBaath Party to return to government jobs and collect their pensions, a significant achievement for the dividedlegislature on an issue still regarded with raw emotion by many Iraqis.

2. Iraq Eases Curb On Ex-Officials Of Baath Party(New York Times)....Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Steven Lee Myers...President Bush, traveling in Kuwait and Bahrain on Saturday, praised the vote, calling it “an important step towardreconciliation.”

3. Bush Meets With Petraeus(Washington Post)....Michael AbramowitzCAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait -- President Bush ventured to this sprawling U.S. base near Iraq on Saturday to beginexploring further troop reductions with his top commander and take something of a victory lap over the country'simproved security conditions a year after announcing "the surge."

4. Bush: Iraq Force Reduction Is On Track(Los Angeles Times)....James GerstenzangPresident Bush said Saturday that the United States was on track to bring home at least 20,000 troops from Iraq bysummer, but he emphasized that he was willing to halt the drawdown "in order to make sure we succeed."

5. Bush Lashes Iran, Lauds Iraq Progress(Miami Herald)....Leila Fadel, McClatchy News ServicePresident Bush, after meeting with the top two U.S. officials in Iraq and U.S. troops here Saturday, lauded progressin Iraq and again lashed out at Iran.

6. Hands-On General Is Next No. 2 In Iraq(Washington Post)....Ann Scott Tyson...Austin, who during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 became the first black general to maneuver an Army division incombat, will replace Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who has earned high marks for managing the "surge" of nearly30,000 troops in Iraq.

7. Normalcy Returns To Baghdad, Block By Block(Washington Times)....Richard TomkinsSigns of improved security in Baghdad go beyond the obvious dampening of street battles and bombings: It's in thesmaller transformations taking place in neighborhoods that the seeds of possibility are starting to take root.

8. Military Targets Enemy At The Gates(San Diego Union-Tribune)....Hamza Hendawi, Associated PressAl-Qaeda refuge near capital taken in four-day battle.

VETERANS9. Across America, Deadly Echoes Of Foreign Battles

(New York Times)....Deborah Sontag and Lizette Alvarez...The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in thiscountry, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stressof deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set thestage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction. Three-quarters of these veterans were still in themilitary at the time of the killing.

ARMY10. Army Move Criticized In Abu Ghraib Case

(Long Island Newsday)....Associated PressThe revelation that the Army threw out the conviction of the only officer court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandalrenewed outrage from human rights advocates who complained that not enough military and civilian leaders wereheld accountable for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

AIR FORCE11. F-22 Rises As An Option After F-15 Faults Found

(Fort Worth Star-Telegram)....Dave MontgomeryAccelerating production of Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor is emerging as a possible option as the Air Forcedetermines how to maintain its overall force structure with the grounding of older-model F-15 fighter jets, a top AirForce general said Friday.

12. Sitting At Budget Controls, Official Throttles Program(Fort Worth Star-Telegram)....Bob CoxConsidering Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England's résumé, it's hard to imagine anyone saying that he's actingagainst the interests of the defense industry or the military. But that's what some lobbyists and consultants inWashington have been saying.

MARINE CORPS13. Arrest Warrant Issued In Dead Marine's Case

(Washington Post)....UnattributedAuthorities issued an arrest warrant Saturday for a Marine corporal wanted in the death of a pregnant colleague,whose burnt remains were excavated from a fire pit in his back yard.

14. Marine's Family Says Authorities Slow To Act(San Diego Union-Tribune)....Mike Baker, Associated PressFor months after a pregnant 20-year-old Marine accused a colleague of rape, her family says, she continued to workalongside her alleged attacker and endured harassment at Camp Lejeune. In the weeks after she disappeared, theybelieve, the sheriff's department was slow to act.

AFGHANISTAN15. Afghan Police Struggle To Work A Rough Beat

(New York Times)....C. J. Chivers...In early December, Colonel McAteer, the American commander, augmented the firebase with most of hisbattalion’s Company B — more than two more platoons.

16. Dutch Troops Die In Afghanistan(Washington Post)....UnattributedTwo Dutch soldiers were killed in a clash with militants in Afghanistan, the Netherlands' Defense Ministry said.About 1,650 Dutch are serving in Uruzgan province as part of the NATO effort there. Since their mission began lastyear, 14 Dutch troops have died.

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IRAN17. Iran Urges Agency To Settle Atomic Case

(New York Times)....ReutersIran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the visiting chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency onSaturday that Iran’s nuclear case should be handled by the I.A.E.A. and not the United Nations Security Council,which has imposed two rounds of sanctions on Tehran.

18. Ahmadinejad Losing Grip On Iran’s Guards(London Sunday Telegraph)....Gethin Chamberlain and Kay BioukiHardliners bent on confrontation with the West are presenting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran with aserious challenge to his authority.

19. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard In Secret Iraq Talks With US(London Sunday Times)....Marie ColvinThe head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps slipped into the green zone of Baghdad last month to pressTehran’s hardline position over the terms of the current talks with American officials, it was claimed last week.

MIDEAST20. $20B Saudi Arms Deal

(New York Post)....Associated PressThe Bush administration will notify Congress Monday of its intent to sell $20 billion in weapons, includingprecision-guided bombs, to Saudi Arabia, moving up the announcement to coincide with the president’s arrival inRiyadh.

PAKISTAN21. Scotland Yard Believes Al-Qaeda Assassinated Benazir Bhutto

(London Sunday Times)....Christina LambBritish officials have revealed that evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al-Qaeda militantsbeing responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

EUROPE22. U.S. Aid To Weapons Scientists Off Mark

(Chicago Tribune)....UnattributedA U.S. economic aid program to keep Russian scientists from selling weapons information apparently funneledmuch of the money to scientists who never claimed to have a background in nuclear, chemical or biologicalprograms, a congressional report said Friday.

INTELLIGENCE23. Intelligence Chief Couches Reference To Waterboarding As 'Torture'

(Washington Post)....Associated PressThe nation's intelligence chief says that waterboarding "would be torture" if used against him, or if someone underinterrogation was taking water into his lungs.

BUSINESS24. Repairs Could Snag Blackwater Probe

(Boston Globe)....Lara Jakes Jordan and Matt Apuzzo, Associated PressBlackwater Worldwide repaired and repainted its trucks immediately after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad,making it difficult to determine whether enemy gunfire provoked the attack, according to people familiar with thegovernment's investigation of the incident.

25. Lockheed Helicopter Contract Hits Hurdle(Wall Street Journal)....August Cole

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...According to people familiar with the situation, John Young, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, called for anunusual Saturday meeting with senior Lockheed officials to discuss the company's attempts at building 28 highlymodified helicopters for White House use.

POW/MIA26. Hope Endures For Families Of Missing Troops

(Houston Chronicle)....Alexis GrantIt's been more than 50 years since David Velasco's older brother was reported missing during the Korean War, but hestill harbors hope that Sgt. Frank Velasco's remains will be returned home.

POLL27. Economy Ties Iraq As Top Concern

(Miami Herald)....Alan Fram, Associated PressThe faltering economy has caught up with the Iraq War as people's top worry, a national poll suggests, with the rapidturnabout already showing up on the presidential campaign trail and in maneuvering between President Bush andCongress.

OPINION28. Why Al-Qaeda Is Losing

(Washington Post)....Gary AndersonThe conventional wisdom is that al-Qaeda is making a comeback from its rout in Afghanistan. Many point to itssuccess in killing Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and to its support of Islamic insurgents there as evidence. Not so.Al-Qaeda is waning.

29. A War Report Discredited(Boston Globe)....Jeff Jacoby...Hundreds of news outlets, to say nothing of antiwar activists and lawmakers, publicized the astonishing figure,which was more than 10 times the death toll estimated by other sources. (The Iraqi health ministry, for example, putthe mortality level through June 2006 at 50,000.)

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Washington PostJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 11. Iraq Passes Bill OnBaathistsPlan Would Ease Limits onFormer Hussein FollowersBy Joshua Partlow andMichael Abramowitz,Washington Post ForeignService

The agreement marks thepassage of the first of thelegislative benchmarks, a seriesof goals the U.S. governmenthad once championed butlargely ceased advocatingpublicly after months of delay,frustration and inaction.

President Bush, in Bahrainon an eight-day trip throughthe Middle East, and someIraqi officials described theagreement as an importantboost for the prospects ofreconciliation between thecountry's marginalized SunniMuslim minority and its ShiiteMuslim majority, which nowdominates Iraqi politics.

The legislation seeks toredress the first order issued bythe Coalition ProvisionalAuthority in 2003, thecontroversial decision thatdrove thousands of Baath Partymembers from their jobs andalienated them from Iraq'spolitical process. Thatdecision, along with a move todisband the Iraqi army, iswidely believed to have fueledthe Sunni insurgency thatproved so deadly in thefollowing years.

Bush hailed the agreementas "an important sign that theleaders in that country mustwork together to meet theaspirations of the Iraqi people."

At Camp Arifjan inKuwait, Bush met for the firsttime in four months with Gen.David H. Petraeus andAmbassador Ryan C. Crocker,the top American military andcivilian officials in Iraq. Bushsaid the U.S. military was "ontrack" to achieve its plan ofreducing troop strength in Iraqfrom 20 combat brigades to 15by the middle of the summer,down to about 130,000

soldiers, or roughly the levellast January before heannounced the troop "surge."About 160,000 U.S. troops arecurrently in Iraq.

Bush and Petraeusdiscussed various scenarios inwhich even more troops mightbe pulled out, but bothcautioned that it was too earlyto reach a definitive judgment.Some Pentagon officials areeager to withdraw troops fasterin order to lessen the strain onthe Army, but Bush andPetraeus appeared skeptical ofdrawing down too quickly.

A final decision willprobably come in March, whenPetraeus is scheduled to deliveranother report to Congress onconditions in Iraq. "If he didn'twant to continue thedrawdown, that's fine withme," Bush told reportersafterward. "I said to thegeneral, 'If you want to slowher down, fine; it's up to you.' "

The assessment of Iraq'sprogress probably also will relyheavily on politicaldevelopments such asSaturday's vote in parliament.Although the agreement waswidely praised, some Iraqilegislators saw the bill asmotivated by the same punitivespirit that they felt guided theinitial purge of Hussein'sgovernment after the U.S.-ledinvasion in 2003.

The approval of the"accountability and justicelaw," with barely more thanhalf the legislators present,means the legislation moves tothe country's three-memberPresidential Council for finalratification.

"It's a good step for manyreasons," said Falah HassanShanshal, who leads theparliamentary committeeoverseeing the legislation andis a member of the Shiite partyloyal to influential clericMoqtada al-Sadr. "First, itcondemns all the crimescarried out by the Baath Partyand its bloody regime. And thislaw will allow us to search forand detect every single personwho committed a crime againstIraqis."

Supporters of the measuresay it is intended to ease therestrictions that preventedformer Baathists from holdinggovernment jobs. Shanshalacknowledged that certainpeople joined the Baath Partynot for ideological reasons butout of necessity, and for peoplewho have not committedcrimes, "it is possible for themto return to public life."

When the U.S. militaryoverthrew Hussein in 2003, thefirst order of business for theCoalition Provisional Authoritywas to disband the Baath Partythat Hussein had fashioned intohis personal empire over morethan three decades in power.

CPA Order 1, or the"De-Baathification of IraqiSociety," ordered members ofthe Baath Party's top fourechelons "removed from theirpositions and banned fromfuture employment in thepublic sector." The number ofBaathists purged is in dispute,but Ali al-Lami, spokesman forthe current de-Baathificationcommission, said 150,000people were removed betweenMay and September 2003.

Since early 2004, when thede-Baathification commissionbegan its work overseeing whocould come back, about102,000 former Baathists havereturned to their jobs, Lamisaid. Existing rules prohibitmembers from the top threelevels from government workbut allowed people on thefourth level to return in somecircumstances, he said.

It remains unclear howmany former Baath Partymembers would be eligible toreturn under the newlegislation. Lami estimated that3,500 people from thethird-highest Baathist rank, orShubah members, would beallowed to apply for pensionpayments but would still bekept from their jobs. About13,000 people from the fourthrank, known as Firqa members,would be eligible to return, buthe expected that many wouldnot.

"Most of them are eitherworking outside the country

and they don't want to go backto Iraq, or they're afraidsomebody will take revenge onthem or they got involved withthe militant groups," Lami said."Because for two years, wehave been demanding that theycome to the de-Baathificationcommission, but there was noresponse."

The new measure wouldalso prohibit Baathists whoworked in Hussein's securityservices from returning to jobs,as well as ban their return tosome of the most influentialagencies, such as the InteriorMinistry, Defense Ministry andForeign Ministry, Shanshalsaid.

"There is potential withmost laws in Iraq right now forsectarian abuse, and certainlythat potential would be there aswell, which is why theimplementation is going to beimportant," a U.S. official inBaghdad said this month oncondition of anonymity.

The new measure couldlead to a new purge ofmembers of the current Iraqigovernment, Lami said,including about 7,000 officersin the Interior Ministry. Eveninfluential Iraqi security forceofficials who used to beBaathists could face removal.

"The commander of theBaghdad security plan and hisassistants, according to the newlaw, they should retire," hesaid.

Many Iraqis say theconcept of de-Baathification ishampered by the prevailingassumption that anyone whoachieved a high rank in theparty was by definitioncomplicit in crimes during theHussein era.

"There's no question thatthe original de-Baathificationprogram basically looked at theentire senior leadership of theBaath Party and made acollective judgment. The intentof this law is to roll back partof that but not all of it," saidthe U.S. official, who was notauthorized to speak publicly onthe topic.

"So you know, is itmaking a collective judgment

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about people who were higherup in the Baath Party? Yeah, itis. I still don't think that thatmeans it doesn't representpolitical progress. Because itdoes represent politicalprogress. This is certainly oneof those cases where weshouldn't let the perfect be theenemy of the good," theofficial said.

During the sometimesbitter negotiations over themeasure in recent weeks,strong objections were raisedby parliament members fromSadr's party, who regarded theproposed legislation as offeringtoo many concessions to themurderous formeradministration and by thosesympathetic to Baathists whofelt it did not offer realconcessions to the Sunniminority that was marginalizedafter the war.

During the reading of thelegislation in parliamentSaturday, members of theSunni bloc led by Salehal-Mutlaq walked out,according to an aide to thedeputy speaker of parliament.Some Sunnis wanted norestrictions on former BaathParty members.

But members of the largestSunni coalition in parliamentagreed to the new measure.Adnan al-Dulaimi, the group'sleader, said the legislation wasfair to low-ranking formerBaathists and allowed thehigher-ranking Shubahmembers to receive pensions,"which I consider good andacceptable."

"The current rules, on theother hand, deprived a hugenumber of Iraqi people whodidn't commit any crimes anddidn't commit any action thatviolated the law and theconstitution," he said.

Some Iraqi officialsbelieve the new measureinstitutionalizes a punishmentagainst people who acquiescedto Hussein at a time whenpublicly opposing him couldhave resulted in a deathsentence.

"The problem is that thenew leaders have gone in the

direction of revenge andvengeance, rather than goinginto healing those wounds,"said Izzat Shabender, a Shiitewho is on the de-Baathificationcommittee in parliament."Even if this law is passed, itcannot achieve the goal --which is opening a new chapterwith the Baathists... . It's gotnothing to do withreconciliation. The culture ofreconciliation does not exist inthe heads of the Iraqi leaders."

But with parliament nearlyparalyzed by infighting, anyagreement was somethingmany Iraqis found heartening.As the prominent Shiitepolitician Humam Hamoudisaid, "The most importantthing about this new law is thatit is an Iraqi law."

Abramowitz reported fromCamp Arifjan. Specialcorrespondents Saad al-Izzi,Zaid Sabah and K.I. Ibrahim inBaghdad contributed to thisreport.

New York TimesJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 12. Iraq Eases Curb OnEx-Officials Of BaathPartyBy Richard A. Oppel Jr. andSteven Lee Myers

BAGHDAD — The IraqiParliament passed a bill onSaturday that would allowsome former officials fromSaddam Hussein’s party to fillgovernment positions butwould impose a strict ban onothers. The legislation is thefirst of the major so-calledpolitical benchmark measuresto pass after months ofAmerican pressure forprogress.

The measure, which isexpected to be approved as alaw by the presidential council,was described by its backers asopening the door for thereinstatement of thousands oflow-level Baath Party membersbarred from office after the2003 invasion. Since then, theBush administration has urgedthe Iraqi government to

reintegrate many officials inorder to help mend the deeprifts between Sunni Arabs whoused to control the governmentunder Mr. Hussein and theShiites who now dominatepolitics here.

However, it was unclearon Saturday how far thelegislation would go towardsoothing Sunni Arabs, becauseserious disagreements emergedin the hours after the voteabout how much the law wouldactually do.

While the measure wouldreinstate many formerBaathists, some politicalleaders said it would also forcethousands of other former partymembers out of currentgovernment jobs and intoretirement — especially in thesecurity forces, whereAmerican military officialshave worked hard to increasethe role of Sunnis. Onemember of Iraq’s currentde-Baathification committeesaid the law could even push7,000 active Interior Ministryemployees into retirement.

President Bush, travelingin Kuwait and Bahrain onSaturday, praised the vote,calling it “an important steptoward reconciliation.” And hesaid that to consolidateprogress in the country in thepast year, he was prepared toslow or even halt Americantroop reductions beyond thosealready planned to bring levelsback to what they were beforethe so-called troop surge thatbegan early in 2006. In doingso, he set the stage for renewedpolitical debate over the war,both in Congress and on thepresidential campaign trail.

In Baghdad, SalimAbdullah al-Jibouri, a seniorofficial from the largest SunniArab bloc in Parliament,Tawafiq, said many lawmakersfrom the bloc supported thenew legislation. But onlyslightly more than half of the275 members of Parliamentwere present to vote. AndMohammed al-Diani, amember of the hard-line SunniNational Dialogue Council,said the measure would still

restrict “many scientists,professors, doctors, engineersand other competent men.”

Some Shiite officialspraised the legislation becausethey said strong curbs onformer Baathists would remainin place. “They will not beallowed to get important postsor take part in the politicalprocess,” said Bahaa al-Araji, aleader of the bloc of Shiitelawmakers loyal to the clericMoktada al-Sadr, describingthe more senior former partymembers. “There will be manyrestrictions.”

In many cases, thelegislation would allow forpensions to be paid to formerBaathists who are blockedfrom returning to governmentjobs. Beyond that, it wasunclear how many of theformer officials would be keptout of office or allowed backin.

One Shiite politician, whospoke on condition that hisname not be used, said the newlaw could forcibly retire up to27,000 former Baathists, whowould receive pensions.

Other officials said thelegislation could allow from13,000 to 31,000 formerBaathists back into thegovernment. “The law allows alot of them to come back totheir jobs, but those who wereresponsible in the old regime,the highest ranking ones, theywill be locked out,” saidMahmoud Othman, aprominent Kurdish lawmaker.

He said that under the newlaw, only 3,500 former BaathParty members would beprevented from serving in thegovernment, allowing morethan 30,000 to holdgovernment jobs.

Former members of theFedayeen paramilitary forceand those found by a newde-Baathification committee tohave committed serious crimesagainst the Iraqi people wouldbe barred from governmentjobs and would not receivepensions, he said.

Mr. Othman also said thelaw would abolish the oldde-Baathification committee,

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created by the Iraqi GoverningCouncil before the nation hadestablished a parliament. Underthe new law, he said, Baathistswould be vetted by a differentcommittee created byappointees selected byParliament. Unlike the oldcommittee, the newcommittee’s decisions will besubject to appeal by theMinistry of Justice. Lawmakersloyal to Mr. Sadr, however,said they did not expect thecommittee to change all thatmuch.

“The only thing I amconcerned about is that this hascome late, because now theother side may not be able torespond very positively,” saidMr. Othman, referring to someSunni Arab politicians whoopposed the new law. “Manywere ready to respond one ortwo years ago, but now it willbe more difficult.”

A spokesperson at theUnited States embassy inBaghdad declined to commenton the legislation, saying thatAmerican officials werestudying the bill.

Hours before the vote,after meeting in Kuwait withPresident Bush and Gen. DavidH. Petraeus, Ryan C. Crocker,the American ambassador toIraq, said there were increasingsigns of political reconciliation.

“Reconciliation is morethan national legislation,” hesaid. “It is also what we’reseeing in the provinces andaround the country. There ismore political activity. There ismore cross-sectarian politicalactivity.”

Before traveling toBahrain later on Saturday, Mr.Bush said he would be open toslowing or halting major troopreductions to keep progressgoing in Iraq, particularlynoting the sharp reduction inattacks on American troops andIraqi civilians in recentmonths.

“We cannot take theachievements of 2007 forgranted,” he said. “We must doall we can to ensure that 2008brings even greater progressfor Iraq’s young democracy.”

He said additional troopwithdrawals beyond thoseplanned through this summerwould depend solely onconditions in Iraq, which werebeing reviewed by GeneralPetraeus, the top Americancommander in the country.During an 80-minute meeting,the president instructed thegeneral, who is scheduled toreport to Congress in March orApril on suggested trooplevels, to make norecommendation that wouldjeopardize improvements insecurity.

“My attitude is, if hedidn’t want to continue thedrawdown, that’s fine with mein order to make sure wesucceed, see,” Mr. Bush toldreporters inside a commandcenter that oversees Armyoperations in a regionstretching from Kenya toKazakhstan. “I said to thegeneral, ‘If you want to slowher down, fine.’ It’s up toyou.”

On General Petraeus’srecommendation, Mr. Bush inSeptember approved thewithdrawal of one Armybrigade and one Marineexpeditionary unit inDecember, or roughly 5,700troops, and four more Armybrigades and two Marinebattalions by July, effectivelyreturning the American trooplevel to about 130,000, whereit was before the beginning ofthe so-called troop surge inIraq a year ago.

General Petraeus later saidthat he and his commanders,including Lt. Gen. Raymond T.Odierno, had begun to considera range of scenarios that woulddetermine the timing and paceof any additional withdrawals,creating contingencies for bothimprovements and setbacks tothe current security situation.

Mr. Bush arrived inKuwait on the fourth day of aneight-day trip that began with avisit to Israel and thePalestinian territories. The firstleg focused on his efforts tobroker an Israeli-Palestinianpeace treaty, which he said heexpected to be signed before he

stepped down a year from now.Increasingly, Mr. Bush

seems to be racing against thedwindling months of his term.Speaking to more than 3,000soldiers from the Third Armyat Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, heacknowledged that the war inIraq would remain unfinished.Success, he said, will requirean active American effort “thatoutlasts my presidency.”

But the war’s critics inCongress used the firstanniversary of the troopincrease, announced last Jan.10, to renew their demands fora substantial change instrategy, arguing that themilitary successes had notaccomplished the goals thepresident himself had set.Those included an Iraqitakeover of security byNovember, provincial electionsand passage of legislationintended to show reconciliationamong the main ethnic andreligious sects, like the onepassed on Saturday.

Although some Iraqi andAmerican officials werepraising the parliamentary voteon Saturday as an importantfirst step toward that goal,disagreements over its eventualeffects continued through theday.

Ali Faisal, a seniormember of the currentde-Baathification committeeand an aide to Ahmad Chalabi,an influential Shiite politicianwho had worked againstprevious American efforts toease Baathists back intogovernment, laid out one of themost extreme versions of whatcould happen under the newlegislation. He said it couldforce thousands of employeesin the Ministries of Defenseand Interior, as well as othersecurity institutions, intoretirement, albeit withgovernment pensions.

He said about 3,500former Baath Party memberswho served in the third-highestrung of the party’s hierarchywould be newly eligible forpensions, but would not beallowed to hold governmentjobs. Another 13,000 who

served in the fourth rung wouldbe eligible for governmentpensions or jobs, though notfor security-related jobs, hesaid.

In the early stages of theoccupation, American officialshad favored purging BaathParty members fromgovernment rolls. But theShiite- and Kurdish-dominatedgovernment formed under theauspices of the Americanoccupation administration tooka very hard line onde-Baathification, forcingthousands of professionals andskilled technocrats out ofgovernment.

Moreover, the move fueledSunni mistrust of thegovernment and helped drivethe early stages of the Sunniinsurgency. American officialscame to believe it was crucialto reintegrate many formerBaathists into the government.

While the legislationwould be the first major newlaw sought by the Bushadministration intended to helpreconcile Iraq’s warringfactions, other so-calledbenchmark laws continue to bestalled. Those includemeasures that would allowprovincial elections,contemplate constitutionalchanges sought by Sunnis, andspell out rules governing thedevelopment and distributionof the country’s huge oilreserves.

Richard A. Oppel Jr.reported from Baghdad, andSteven Lee Myers from Kuwaitand Bahrain. Reporting wascontributed by SolomonMoore, Qais Mizher, AbeerMohammed, Karim Hilmi, andAhmad Fadam from Baghdad.

Washington PostJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 203. Bush Meets WithPetraeusIn Kuwait, President Seems toClaim Vindication for 'Surge'By Michael Abramowitz,Washington Post Staff Writer

Bush seemed anxious toavoid another moment similar

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to one in 2003 soon after thefall of Saddam Hussein, whenhe appeared on the USSAbraham Lincoln below agiant sign reading "MissionAccomplished." In a statementto reporters here, Bush spokeof the difficult challengesahead, such as defeating theinsurgent group al-Qaeda inIraq and reaching politicalreconciliation among Iraq'sfeuding sects.

But he also seemed toclaim some vindication for hisdecision to send an additional30,000 soldiers to Iraq last yearto help quell spiraling violence.Bush pursued his policy in theface of questions not only fromDemocrats but also from manyRepublicans and generals at thePentagon.

"A lot of people thoughtthat I was going to recommendpulling out or pulling back,"Bush said. "Quite the contrary;I recommended increasing thenumber of forces so they couldget more in the fight, because Ibelieved all along if people aregiven a chance to live in a freesociety, they'll do the hardwork necessary to live in a freesociety."

"Iraq is now a differentplace from one year ago," Bushsaid after his first face-to-facemeeting in four months withGen. David H. Petraeus andAmbassador Ryan C. Crocker.Bush and Petraeus discussedthe possibility of further troopreductions later this year, butno decisions were made.

Bush then appeared brieflybefore several thousandsoldiers gathered on bleachersin the middle of this largeArmy base in the desert southof Kuwait City. A giant"Hoo-ah!" greeted thecommander in chief as hethanked the troops for theirservice and vowed victory inIraq.

"There is no doubt in mymind that we will succeed,"Bush said, standing near agiant American flag hangingfrom a crane. "There is nodoubt in my mind when historywas written, the final page willsay: 'Victory was achieved by

the United States of Americafor the good of the world.' "

Bush's visit to this Armybase, between state visits withthe leaders of Kuwait andBahrain, is the only stop of hiseight-day trip to the MiddleEast devoted solely to Iraq, thecentral project of hispresidency. Whether Bushsucceeds in creating a stabledemocracy remains inquestion, and debate hasbroken out among militaryexperts over whether thedecline in violence is atemporary lull or a permanentfeature of life in Iraq.

Petraeus reported at theend of last year that the numberof weekly attacks in Iraq haddropped 60 percent since June,to roughly 500 a week by lateDecember. A total of 901 U.S.soldiers died in Iraq in 2007,compared with 822 in 2006,according to Iraq CoalitionCasualty Count, anindependent organization thattracks casualties.

As the Jan. 10 anniversaryof the surge announcementapproached, many Democratsramped up criticism of whatthey see as a lack of progresson the political front. Theyargued that the troop increasehas failed to achieve one of itsprincipal objectives: Iraq'spoliticians, they say, have notused this period of reducedviolence to make necessarypolitical compromises, such asreaching an agreement onlegislation about sharing oilrevenue.

In one sample of thiscritique, House Speaker NancyPelosi (D-Calif.) and SenateMajority Leader Harry M. Reid(D-Nev.) said this week thatpolitical progress remains "outof reach" in Iraq while theBaghdad government "hasdone so little to achievestability and it has been themost lethal year yet forAmerican troops."

Bush seemed to catch abreak Saturday when the Iraqiparliament passed a key pieceof legislation intended to helprestore government jobs topeople who had been in

Hussein's Baath Party. U.S.officials have been pressingIraqi lawmakers to enact such alaw to help heal sectarian rifts.

Asked about the politicalbenchmarks, Bush said Iraqishave "a lot more work to do,"but he suggested the criticismwas overstated, noting that theIraqi parliament is passing lawsand reconciliation is takingplace at a local level.

"They passed a pensionlaw, which, of course, got ahuge yawn in our press," Bushsaid. "We can't reform our ownpension system, like SocialSecurity, but they did."

During his visit, Bush keptup his fierce criticism of Iran,which he has offered at almostevery stop of his trip. "Iran'srole in fomenting violence" inIraq, he said, "has beenexposed. Iranian agents are inour custody, and we arelearning more about how Iranhas supported extremist groupswith training and lethal aid."

In a briefing afterward,Petraeus and Crocker said theyremain uncertain aboutwhether Iran has pulled backsupport for the Shiite militiagroups that U.S. officialsblame for much of the violencein Iraq. Crocker said that he iswilling to meet with his Iraniancounterpart at any point butthat the Iranian envoy was notcommitted to a fourth meetingto discuss security in Iraq.

Petraeus said attacksinvolving roadside explosivedevices linked to Iran appearedto have been on the upswing inthe past 10 days, although healso said attacks using certainother weapons associated withIran had declined.

"What we are seeing iswhat might be characterized asmixed signs or mixedindicators," he said.

Los Angeles TimesJanuary 13, 20084. Bush: Iraq ForceReduction Is On TrackThe president, speaking at aU.S. base in Kuwait, says atleast 20,000 troops will bebrought home by July -- unless

commanders want to slow thedrawdown.By James Gerstenzang, LosAngeles Times Staff Writer

MANAMA, Bahrain—President Bush saidSaturday that the United Stateswas on track to bring home atleast 20,000 troops from Iraqby summer, but he emphasizedthat he was willing to halt thedrawdown "in order to makesure we succeed."

After meeting in Kuwaitwith his top commander inIraq, Army Gen. David H.Petraeus, and the U.S.ambassador to Baghdad, RyanCrocker, the presidentpresented a mixed picture ofthe conditions one year after hecalled for sending additionaltroops to Iraq.

Bush said that extremistmilitias had been disrupted butremained a concern. "Wecannot take the achievementsof 2007 for granted," he said,referring to the reduction inviolence toward the end of2007, after the deadlier monthsat the start of the year.

With a stop at CampArifjan in Kuwait, thepresident was as close to Iraqas he is likely to get on hiseight-day trip through theMiddle East and Persian Gulf,unless he makes a detour to thewar zone. The supply base isabout 100 miles from Iraq.

Speaking to about 3,000U.S. troops who had gatheredin the open on a chillymorning, Bush delivered aseven-minute pep talk, saying,"There is no doubt in my mindthat we will succeed."

He told the cheering troopsthat when the history of theearly 21st century is written,"the final page will say:'Victory was achieved by theUnited States of America forthe good of the world.' "

Administration officialshave spoken for several weeksabout their goal of reducingtroop levels by five brigades byJuly, from a high of 20. Thatwould bring the number ofU.S. troops in Iraq below140,000, from the 158,000 inthe country at the end of

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December. There were about130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq ayear ago when Bushannounced he was sendingmore.

Bush told reporters that,about the reductions, he hadtold Petraeus, "If you want toslow her down, fine; it's up toyou."

Petraeus and AmbassadorCrocker provided the presidentwith an in-person update aheadof their scheduled report toCongress in March onconditions in the country. Bushspeaks frequently with the twoby video over secure lines.

The general later toldreporters that he was seeing"mixed signs" about conditionsin Iraq.

He discussed a currentoperation against Al Qaeda inIraq, an insurgent group thatthe administration says is ledby foreigners, cautioning thatto characterize the offensive asa final push "would bepremature."

Petraeus also raised anewconcerns about what theadministration says is Iran'ssupport of anti-U.S. forces. Hesaid that senior leaders inTehran had told Iraq's topofficials that Iran would stop"the funding, arming, trainingand directing of militiaextremists," but the UnitedStates was waiting to see thatpromise kept.

And Petraeus said thatalthough certain methods ofattacking U.S. troops had beencurtailed, strikes using"explosively formedpenetrators" had gone up in thelast 10 days "by a factor of twoor three."

The United States hasrepeatedly accused Iran ofproviding the armor-piercingbombs, among the deadliestthat U.S. troops face, to theMahdi Army, a Shiite Muslimmilitia.

Crocker said he could not"draw any conclusions that theIranians have made afundamental shift" away fromallegedly supporting extremistgroups in Iraq.

Drawing attention to what

the Bush administration allegesis Iran's role in Iraq is a centralelement of the president'stravels among largely SunniMuslim nations wary ofShiite-led Iran.

Bush later flew to Bahrain,the first visit here by a U.S.president. He is scheduled tovisit United Arab Emirates,Saudi Arabia and Egypt beforereturning to Washington onWednesday.

Bahrain has played animportant role in U.S. policy inthe Persian Gulf, housing theheadquarters of the Navy's 5thFleet. It has long been countedin the camp of reliablemoderate partners in anunstable region. Two yearsago, it signed a free-tradeagreement with Washington.

But last month it wasroiled by a week of clashesbetween Shiite Muslimopposition groups and forces ofthe Sunni-dominatedgovernment. The streetfighting, sparked by the deathof an activist, was some of theworst since a Shiite uprising inthe 1990s.

At a welcoming ceremonyhere, Bush waved a ceremonialsword, grinning sheepishlyalongside King Hamed ibn IsaKhalifa, who appeared moreaccustomed to holding hissword at arm's length. Thepresident, seeking to promotedemocracy in the region, notedthat Bahrain had held twoelections since 2000, and in2006 a woman was elected forthe first time to parliament.

Miami HeraldJanuary 13, 20085. Bush Lashes Iran,Lauds Iraq ProgressPresident Bush -- on apeace-building trip to theMiddle East -- again hit out atIran, accusing the nation offomenting violence in Iraq.By Leila Fadel, McClatchyNews Service

KUWAIT CITY --President Bush, after meetingwith the top two U.S. officialsin Iraq and U.S. troops hereSaturday, lauded progress in

Iraq and again lashed out atIran.

While his Mideast trip isaimed mainly at promotingpeace between Palestinians andIsraelis, the president alsoseems to be drumming upsupport in the region againstIran, blamed by hisadministration for fomentingunrest in Iraq and, at least untilrecently, for dabbling innuclear weapons.

''Iran's role in fomentingviolence has been exposed,''Bush said at Camp Arifjan,Kuwait's biggest U.S. troopbase. "Iranian agents are in ourcustody, and we are learningmore about how Iran hassupported extremist groupswith training and lethal aid.''

Army Gen. DavidPetraeus, the top U.S. generalin Iraq, who briefed thepresident on Iraq along withU.S. Ambassador to Iraq RyanCrocker, also spoke out againstIranian intervention.

''Iran's senior-most leaderspromised Iraq that they wouldstop funding, arming, trainingand directing of militiaextremists and other elementsin Iraq that were creatingsecurity challenges,'' Petraeussaid. ``We are waiting, frankly,to see that carried out.''

Petraeus, who'd saidrecently that attacks withweapons believed to be fromIran were down, raised arenewed worry Saturday. Overthe past 10 days, he said, blastsinvolving explosively formedprojectiles, or EFPs, an armorpiercing roadside bombbelieved to be imported fromIran, have increased sharply.

Bush's appraisal of Iraqwas far more upbeat.

''Iraq is now a differentplace from one year ago,'' hesaid. ``Much hard workremains, but levels of violenceare significantly reduced.

''Hope is returning toBaghdad, and hope is returningto towns and villagesthroughout the country,'' hesaid.

The president singled outfor praise a U.S. program thatpays mostly Sunni volunteers

$300 a month to protect theirneighborhoods and hold alQaeda at bay. The program isknown as Concerned LocalCitizens or Awakening groups.They now number more than80,000 people, mostly armed.

Awakening groups arealso raising concern in theShiite-led government,however, over their potential toturn on it. Instead, Bagdad istrying to absorb Awakeningforces into civil service jobsand the security forces.

Bush said that he has noplans to reduce troops fasterthan the five-brigadewithdrawal planned by July.

That would bring the trooplevel to the pre-surge level of130,000.

Bush offered somecoaxing support to Iraqi leadersSaturday shortly before Iraq'sparliament passed along-awaited, U.S.-backed lawthat lets former Baath Partymembers, who are mostlySunnis, participate in theShiite-dominated government.

''I'm not making excusesfor a government,'' Bush saidof the leadership in Iraq, ``butto go from a tyranny to ademocracy is virtuallyimpossible.

``Have they done enough?No... Our message is veryclear: It's in your interest thatyou pass good law.''

Special CorrespondentSahar Issa contributed to thisreport.

Washington PostJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 46. Hands-On General IsNext No. 2 In IraqAustin Will Take Over DailyOperationsBy Ann Scott Tyson,Washington Post Staff Writer

A physically imposing butmodest man who is littleknown outside Army circles,Austin's hands-on style reflectsa connection with front-linetroops and a breadth of combatleadership that senior officerssay make him ideal for his newjob: running the day-to-day

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operations of the Iraq war.Whereas the top U.S.

commander, Gen. David H.Petraeus, must serve as muchas a diplomat and public faceof the war as a military leader,Austin must master the grittydetails of Iraq's battlefieldgeometry -- constantlyprioritizing the use of dozensof U.S. and Iraqi combat unitsas well as aircraft, unmanneddrones and other militaryforces to carry out the U.S.strategy.

Austin, who during theinvasion of Iraq in 2003became the first black generalto maneuver an Army divisionin combat, will replace Lt.Gen. Raymond T. Odierno,who has earned high marks formanaging the "surge" of nearly30,000 troops in Iraq.

These days at his FortBragg headquarters, Austin isporing over the same dailybriefings Odierno sees, whileworking to make sure his staffis electronically wired tobattlefield commanders and toagencies in Washington, allwith the goal of building "somesustainable momentum" inIraq, he said in a radiointerview last week.

Still, Austin, who hasplayed a central role in runningthe military's combatoperations since 2001, predictsgrueling years of conflict ahead-- in Iraq, Afghanistan orelsewhere. "We're in it for thelong haul. But it's a tough,tough road ahead," he toldWFNC in Fayetteville, N.C.

Austin declined to beinterviewed for this story.

Austin, 54, was a pivotalfigure in the invasion of Iraq.Leading the forwardheadquarters of the 3rdInfantry Division as itspearheaded the march toBaghdad, he gained areputation for showing upunexpectedly in the heat ofbattle. He received a SilverStar for gallantry in combat.

"Lloyd's approach is, 'I ama soldier like everyone else,' "said retired Army Brig. Gen.Bill Weber, a fellow 3rdInfantry Division commander

during the invasion. "His styleis flak vest, Kevlar and a ton ofammunition, and he's a big,strapping guy and can carry it,"Weber said of Austin, whostands 6-foot-4 and was a starhigh school basketball playerin Thomasville, Ga.

Austin also stood out forhis strategic thinking: Whenthe 3rd Infantry metunexpected resistance andessentially ran out of combatforces to carry on the armoredthrust to Baghdad, he wascentral to formulating a newplan that brought in otherbrigades to relieve his troopsand maintain the momentumcritical to the campaign'ssuccess, Weber recalled.

Within months afterBaghdad fell, Austin wasrewarded with command of the10th Mountain Division inAfghanistan, one of a nonstopseries of demandingassignments in recent years.That was followed by a postingfrom September 2005 toOctober 2006 as the chief ofstaff of U.S. CentralCommand, which oversees allU.S. forces in the Middle East,Central Asia and the Horn ofAfrica.

"He's one of the best troopleaders we have," said ArmyMaj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo,who recalls that Austin hatedsitting behind a desk when theyserved together in Afghanistan."He goes everywhere he can.He will be standing on thewalls at Shkin fire base [on thePakistani border] to get a feelfor what goes on there. He willfly to the deepest regions ofKonar province to meet withvillage elders... . He'd neverask his soldiers to do anythinghe wouldn't do."

In his current job ascommander of the Army's 18thAirborne Corps -- whichincludes the 82nd AirborneDivision and other units, with atotal of 35,000 troops -- Austinrecently led troops parachutingfrom aircraft as part ofintensive preparations for theIraq deployment.

"He was the first off theramp," as is traditional for the

senior paratrooper on theaircraft, said Col. Ben Hodges,who jumped with the generalas his chief of staff at theCorps.

Subordinates say thepersonable, soft-spokenGeorgian has high expectationsand a side he refers to as "theevil twin." "When you're reallyscrewing up, the evil twin cancome out," said one Armygeneral who worked forAustin. "So he can be toughbut never unreasonable."

They also praise Austin forhis personal loyalty, saying hetravels long distances to pininsignia at promotions andcalls out of the blue to check inon old comrades. "He cares allthe way down to the bonemarrow," said retired ArmyMaj. Gen. Dorian Anderson, aWest Point classmate whoplayed rugby with Austin andgraduated with him in 1975.

The fifth of six children,Austin does not come from amilitary family but is a distantrelative of the first black manto attend West Point, 2nd Lt.Henry O. Flipper, whograduated in 1877, Andersonsaid. As a black soldier,Anderson said, "we all acceptthat doing 120 percent is notalways a bad thing. He's kindof driven by that."

Austin has served morethan three decades in theArmy, but as an avid fishermanhe sometimes jokes aboutleaving. "His inside joke is, 'Ican't wait to go run a baitshop,' " Weber said.

Washington TimesJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 17. Normalcy Returns ToBaghdad, Block ByBlockBy Richard Tomkins, TheWashington Times

BAGHDAD — Signs ofimproved security in Baghdadgo beyond the obviousdampening of street battles andbombings: It's in the smallertransformations taking place inneighborhoods that the seeds of

possibility are starting to takeroot.

"When we meet and talk,we speak about how we musthold together in the future, andif we don't, the future won't beso good," said Thayia AzizKudam, a neighborhood leaderin the East Rashid area ofsouthern Baghdad.

"Gangs, militias, al Qaeda— all of us, we want them togo away. We don't want them."

East Rashid was bestknown from 2006 until last fallfor sectarian violence and alQaeda's campaign of terror. Ithas long been a mixedcommunity, with SunniMuslims in the majority butwith Shi'ites and Christians aswell.

Today, a trickle ofreturning refugee families —about 400 since the end ofOctober, according to onedistrict leader — is greeted bylarge banners reading"Welcome back" and "We areall one."

The growing sense of hopeand confidence is based on theestablishment of securitycheckpoints by the IraqiNational Police and IraqiSecurity Volunteers — anarmed,neighborhood-watch-typeorganization being establishedacross the capital.

Also helping is thefrequent presence of patrols byU.S. and Iraqi military forces.

The Americans, membersof the 2nd Battalion, 2ndCavalry, Stryker Regiment, arebased in an abandonedChaldean Catholic seminary ata combat operations postdubbed Blackfoot. Theseminarians fled in 2006 afteral Qaeda beheaded a priest andthreatened the rest.

In September and October,the Americans fought fiercebattles in East Rashid, facingsnipers, mortar attacks androadside blasts. A long line ofphotographs on a wall of theStryker headquarters honorsthe young soldiers who died inthe battle.

"When we first got here,there were memorial services

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almost every day," said Sgt.Jim Tripp, who belongs to apsychological-operations unitattached to the Stryker group.

Attacks with improvisedexplosive devices and snipingsstill occur, but far lessfrequently than before, thesoldiers say.

Although Mr. Kudam'sneighborhood is starting toresemble scenes of a normallife, the streets still are desertedin other parts of East Rashid.The problems are worst near60th Street — once a majorshopping area that became thescene of intense fightingbetween Iraqi militias and alQaeda.

Only an occasionalpedestrian is seen hurryingacross the broad avenue, evennow. Neighboring streets arelined with vacant,battle-scarred houses and heapsof rubble and garbage,disturbed only by scavengingdogs.

Farther from 60th Street,however, the streets are fillingwith people, walking morecalmly and shopping atmarkets that sell everythingfrom vegetables to smallelectronics.

"It's quieter now; not muchshooting anymore," said OmarMohammed Salem, a12-year-old whose familymoved to East Rashid afterbeing driven from another areaof southern Baghdad a yearago.

Many of the returningresidents say they would like tosee even more policecheckpoints, which theyconsider key to encouragingmore of their neighbors tocome home and reopen shopsand businesses.

That, in turn, will requireincreased cooperation betweenthe Sunni and Shi'ite factionsin East Rashid. Leaders of thetwo groups meet regularly withlocal and national police andthe Iraqi army to discusssecurity needs and to resolveconflicts.

At one recent securitymeeting, Sunni and Shi'itecommunity leaders took up

seats on opposite sides of aC-shaped table, barely lookingat one another. But after twohours of talks, they were eatingand chatting together.

"We are all one people," aNational Police official toldthem. "All of us are responsibleto God for the blood of theinnocent people."

San Diego Union-TribuneJanuary 13, 20088. Military TargetsEnemy At The GatesAl-Qaeda refuge near capitaltaken in four-day battleBy Hamza Hendawi,Associated Press

ZAMBARANIYAH, Iraq– Barely out of a four-daybattle, the soldiers scannedpalm-dotted farmland from theroof of a small house, kneelingto avoid a sniper's bullet. Apair of Apache gunshipshovered above, and theoccasional thud of artilleryshells shook the ground.

This front line in the U.S.military's fight againstal-Qaeda in Iraq lies just 10miles from the heart of theIraqi capital.

“This is a road we had nottraveled on in nearly a year,”said Lt. Col. Mark Solomon,the area's U.S. commander,standing on a dirt lane a dozenyards from the one-story housetaken over by his 3rd InfantryDivision soldiers. “We aregoing after the enemy, and weare eliminating him.”

Less than a week ago, menfrom Solomon's unit capturedZambaraniyah, a farmingcommunity southeast ofBaghdad, after the four-daybattle that left one of hissoldiers dead and 10 wounded.

Underlining the potency ofal-Qaeda's threat in the area – apatchwork of Sunni and Shiitefarming communities andtowns known as the “triangleof death” – the militaryunleashed some of the Iraqwar's heaviest airstrikesThursday, dropping 40,000pounds of explosives onal-Qaeda targets just to the eastand southeast of

Zambaraniyah.Al-Qaeda has long been

entrenched in the Sunnihinterland south of Baghdad,but its strength there weakenedwhen allied insurgent groupschanged sides in recent monthsto join the Americans in thefight against the terrornetwork.

But al-Qaeda's presencecontinued in safe havens likeZambaraniyah until a100-strong force of U.S.infantrymen along with 60Iraqi army soldiers pushed theterror group out. The troopswere backed by Bradleyfighting vehicles, helicoptergunships, artillery and rarestrafing runs by low-flyingF-16s.

Solomon, 40, a West Pointgraduate, said he believesabout 30 al-Qaeda militantswere killed in the battle butthat at least two or three dozenmore were holding out,expecting reinforcements ofweapons and men to resumethe fight.

“They are off balancenow, like a boxer punched hardin the head,” said PedroMaldonado, a 23-year-oldnative of San Juan, PuertoRico. He peered through hisbinoculars from the roof of thehouse.

“I never thought it couldbe this tough,” Maldonado saidof the recent battle. Some ofthe militants were so close thatthe Americans could see theflash of their rifles firing.

That a major battle againstal-Qaeda should take place soclose to the capital and nearly ayear after the U.S. militarybegan a large-scale offensive tocalm Baghdad and its suburbssuggests that the insurgents areelusive or that they are deeplyentrenched.

U.S. commanders sayal-Qaeda militants have inrecent months fled to the northand northeast of Baghdad toescape stepped-up securityoperations in the capital, whereU.S. commanders say violenceis down more than 50 percent,though devastating attackspersist.

But Solomon saidal-Qaeda's continued presencesouth and southeast ofBaghdad was largelyinconsequential, arguing thattaking on the militants hadalways been planned as thenext step after Baghdadbecame safer.

“It's true thatZambaraniyah is only a fewmiles away from Baghdad, butal-Qaeda there has not beenable to project its influence toBaghdad,” he said.

Just how much work aheadwas evident in Zambaraniyah.

Solomon sternly warned asmall group of reporters thatthe area remained infested withroadside bombs and they mustwalk only on ground thatalready had foot or trackmarks.

“The enemy is a 100 yardsfrom where we stand, andsnipers have taken position inthe houses you see some 200 or300 yards away,” he said.

“I believe they are lookingat us now,” Solomon said aftergoing to the roof. His soldiers,wrapped in heavy jackets andski masks, burned wood in ametal wash basin to fend offthe bitter January cold.

Suddenly, several of thesoldiers spotted what they saidwas a head popping up anddown in a field near the house.Tensions rose, and the soldiersscrambled to firing positions.Three soldiers rushed out ofthe house and into the fields inpursuit.

They found nobody.

New York TimesJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 1War Torn: Part I9. Across America,Deadly Echoes OfForeign BattlesBy Deborah Sontag and LizetteAlvarez

Late one night in thesummer of 2005, MatthewSepi, a 20-year-old Iraqcombat veteran, headed out toa 7-Eleven in the seedy LasVegas neighborhood where he

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had settled after leaving theArmy.

This particular 7-Elevensits in the shadow of theStratosphere casino-hotel in asection of town called theNaked City. By day, the area,littered with malt liquor cans,looks depressed but notmenacing. By night, itbecomes, in the words of alocal homicide detective, “likeFalluja.”

Mr. Sepi did not like toventure outside too late. But,plagued by nightmares aboutan Iraqi civilian killed by hisunit, he often needed alcohol tofall asleep. And so it was thatnight, when, seized by a gutfeeling of lurking danger, heslid a trench coat over hisslight frame — and tucked anassault rifle inside it.

“Matthew knew heshouldn’t be taking his AK-47to the 7-Eleven,” DetectiveLaura Andersen said, “but hewas scared to death in thatneighborhood, he was militarytrained and, in his mind, heneeded the weapon to protecthimself.”

Head bowed, Mr. Sepiscurried down an alley,ignoring shouts abouttrespassing on gang turf. Abattle-weary grenadier whowas still legally under-age, hepaid a stranger to buy him twotall cans of beer, hisself-prescribed treatment forpost-traumatic stress disorder.

As Mr. Sepi started home,two gang members, both largeand both armed, stepped out ofthe darkness. Mr. Sepi said inan interview that he spied thebutt of a gun, heard a boom,saw a flash and “just snapped.”

In the end, one gangmember lay dead, bleedingonto the pavement. The otherwas wounded. And Mr. Sepifled, “breaking contact” withthe enemy, as he laterdescribed it. With his rifleraised, he crept home, loaded180 rounds of ammunition intohis car and drove until policelights flashed behind him.

“Who did I take firefrom?” he asked urgently.Wearing his Army camouflage

pants, the diminutive youngman said he had beenambushed and theninstinctively “engaged thetargets.” He shook. He alsocried.

“I felt very bad for him,”Detective Andersen said.

Nonetheless, Mr. Sepi wasbooked, and a local newspapersoon reported: “Iraq veteranarrested in killing.”

Town by town across thecountry, headlines have beentelling similar stories.Lakewood, Wash.: “FamilyBlames Iraq After Son KillsWife.” Pierre, S.D.: “SoldierCharged With Murder TestifiesAbout Postwar Stress.”Colorado Springs: “Iraq WarVets Suspected in TwoSlayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these arestories of local crimes,gut-wrenching postscripts tothe war for the military men,their victims and theircommunities. Taken together,they paint the patchworkpicture of a quiet phenomenon,tracing a cross-country trail ofdeath and heartbreak.

The New York Timesfound 121 cases in whichveterans of Iraq andAfghanistan committed akilling in this country, or werecharged with one, after theirreturn from war. In many ofthose cases, combat trauma andthe stress of deployment —along with alcohol abuse,family discord and otherattendant problems — appearto have set the stage for atragedy that was partdestruction, partself-destruction.

Three-quarters of theseveterans were still in themilitary at the time of thekilling. More than half thekillings involved guns, and therest were stabbings, beatings,strangulations and bathtubdrownings. Twenty-fiveoffenders faced murder,manslaughter or homicidecharges for fatal car crashesresulting from drunken,reckless or suicidal driving.

About a third of thevictims were spouses,

girlfriends, children or otherrelatives, among them2-year-old Krisiauna CalairaLewis, whose 20-year-oldfather slammed her against awall when he was recuperatingin Texas from a bombing nearFalluja that blew off his footand shook up his brain.

A quarter of the victimswere fellow service members,including Specialist RichardDavis of the Army, who wasstabbed repeatedly and then setablaze, his body hidden in thewoods by fellow soldiers a dayafter they all returned fromIraq.

And the rest wereacquaintances or strangers,among them Noah P. Gamez,21, who was breaking into acar at a Tucson motel when anIraq combat veteran, also 21,caught him, shot him dead andthen killed himself outside SanDiego with one of several gunsfound in his car.

Tracking the KillingsThe Pentagon does not

keep track of such killings,most of which are prosecutednot by the military justicesystem but by civilian courts instate after state. Neither doesthe Justice Department.

To compile and analyze itslist, The Times conducted asearch of local news reports,examined police, court andmilitary records andinterviewed the defendants,their lawyers and families, thevictims’ families and militaryand law enforcement officials.

This reporting most likelyuncovered only the minimumnumber of such cases, giventhat not all killings, especiallyin big cities and on militarybases, are reported publicly orin detail. Also, it was often notpossible to determine thedeployment history of otherservice members arrested onhomicide charges.

The Times used the samemethods to research homicidesinvolving all active-dutymilitary personnel and newveterans for the six yearsbefore and after the presentwartime period began with theinvasion of Afghanistan in

2001.This showed an 89 percent

increase during the presentwartime period, to 349 casesfrom 184, about three-quartersof which involved Iraq andAfghanistan war veterans. Theincrease occurred even thoughthere have been fewer troopsstationed in the United Statesin the last six years and theAmerican homicide rate hasbeen, on average, lower.

The Pentagon was givenThe Times’s roster ofhomicides. It declined tocomment because, aspokesman, Lt. Col. LesMelnyk, said, the Departmentof Defense could not duplicatethe newspaper’s research.Further, Colonel Melnykquestioned the validity ofcomparing prewar and wartimenumbers based on news mediareports, saying that the currentincrease might be explained by“an increase in awareness ofmilitary service by reporterssince 9/11.” He also questionedthe value of “lumping togetherdifferent crimes such asinvoluntary manslaughter withfirst-degree homicide.”

Given that many veteransrebound successfully fromtheir war experiences and someflourish as a result of them,veterans groups have longdeplored the attention paid tothe minority of soldiers whofail to readjust to civilian life.

After World War I, theAmerican Legion passed aresolution asking the press “tosubordinate whatever slightnews value there may be inplaying up the ex-servicemember angle in stories ofcrime or offense against thepeace.” An article in theVeterans of Foreign Warsmagazine in 2006 referred withdisdain to the pervasive“wacko-vet myth,” which,veterans say, makes it difficultfor them to find jobs.

Clearly, committinghomicide is an extrememanifestation of dysfunctionfor returning veterans, many ofwhom struggle in quieter ways,with crumbling marriages,mounting debt, deepening

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alcohol dependence ormore-minor tangles with thelaw.

But these killings providea kind of echo sounding for theprofound depths to which someveterans have fallen, whether atthe bottom of a downwardspiral or in a sudden burst ofviolence.

Thirteen of these veteranstook their own lives after thekillings, and two more werefatally shot by the police.Several more attempted suicideor expressed a death wish, likeJoshua Pol, a former soldierconvicted of vehicularhomicide, who told a judge inMontana in 2006, “To behonest with you, I really wish Ihad died in Iraq.”

In some of the casesinvolving veterans of Iraq andAfghanistan, the fact that thesuspect went to war bears noapparent relationship to thecrime committed or to theprosecution and punishment.But in many of the cases, thedeployment of the servicemember invariably becomes afactor of some sort as the legalsystem, families andcommunities grapple to makesense of the crimes.

This is especially starkwhere a previously upstandingyoung man — there is onewoman among the 121 —appears to have committed arandom act of violence. AndThe Times’s analysis showedthat the overwhelming majorityof these young men, unlikemost civilian homicideoffenders, had no criminalhistory.

“When they’ve been incombat, you have to suspectimmediately that combat hashad some effect, especiallywith people who haven’tshown these tendencies in thepast,” said Robert Jay Lifton, alecturer in psychiatry atHarvard MedicalSchool/Cambridge HealthAlliance who used to run “rapgroups” for Vietnam veteransand fought to earn recognitionfor what became known aspost-traumatic stress disorder,or PTSD.

“Everything ismulticausational, of course,”Dr. Lifton continued. “Butcombat, especially in acounterinsurgency war, is sucha powerful experience that todiscount it would be artificial.”

Few of these 121 warveterans received more than acursory mental healthscreening at the end of theirdeployments, according tointerviews with the veterans,lawyers, relatives andprosecutors. Many displayedsymptoms of combat traumaafter their return, thoseinterviews show, but they werenot evaluated for or received adiagnosis of post-traumaticstress disorder until after theywere arrested for homicides.

What is clear is thatexperiences on the streets ofBaghdad and Falluja shadowedthese men back to places likeLongview, Tex., andEdwardsville, Ill.

“He came back different”is the shared refrain of thedefendants’ family members,who mention irritability,detachment, volatility,sleeplessness, excessivedrinking or drug use, andkeeping a gun at hand.

“You are unleashingcertain things in a human beingwe don’t allow in civic society,and getting it all back in thebox can be difficult for somepeople,” said William C.Gentry, an Army reservist andIraq veteran who works as aprosecutor in San DiegoCounty.

When Archie O’Neil, agunnery sergeant in theMarines, returned from a jobhandling dead bodies in Iraq,he became increasinglyparanoid, jumpy and fearful —moving into his garage, eatingM.R.E.’s, wearing hiscamouflage uniform, drinkingheavily and carrying a gun atall times, even to answer thedoorbell.

“It was like I put oneperson on a ship and sent himover there, and they sent me atotally different person back,”Monique O’Neil, his wife,testified.

A well-respected anddecorated noncommissionedofficer who did not want toendanger his chances foradvancement, Sergeant O’Neildid not seek help for the PTSDthat would later be diagnosedby government psychologists.“The Marine way,” his lawyersaid at a preliminary hearing,“was to suck it up.”

On the eve of his seconddeployment to Iraq in 2004,Sergeant O’Neil fatally shot hismistress, Kimberly O’Neal,after she threatened to kill hisfamily while he was gone.

During a military trial atCamp Pendleton, Calif., aMarine defense lawyer arguedthat “the ravages of war”provided the “trigger” for thekilling. In 2005, a military juryconvicted Sergeant O’Neil ofmurder but declined to imposethe minimum sentence, lifewith the possibility of parole,considering it too harsh. Asecond jury, however,convened only for sentencing,voted the maximum penalty,life without parole. The case ison appeal.

As with Sergeant O’Neil, aconnection between a veteran’scombat service and his crime issometimes declared overtly.Other times, though, the Iraqconnection is a lingeringquestion mark as offenders’relatives struggle to understandhow a strait-laced teenager orfamily man or woundedveteran ended up behind bars— or dead.

That happened in the caseof Stephen Sherwood, whoenlisted in the Army at 34 toobtain medical insurance whenhis wife got pregnant. He maynever have been screened forcombat trauma.

Yet Mr. Sherwood shot hiswife and then himself ninedays after returning from Iraqin the summer of 2005. Severalmonths before, the othersoldiers in his tank unit hadbeen killed by a rocket attackwhile he was on a two-weekleave to celebrate the firstbirthday of his now-orphanedson.

“When he got back to Iraq,

everyone was dead,” his father,Robert Sherwood, said. “Hehad survivor’s guilt.” Then hiswife informed him that shewanted to end their marriage.

After the murder-suicide,Mr. Sherwood’s parents couldnot help but wonder what roleIraq played and whethercounseling might have helpedkeep their son away from thebrink.

“Ah boy, the amount ofheartbreak involved in all ofthis,” said Dr. Jonathan Shay, apsychiatrist for the Departmentof Veterans Affairs in Bostonand the author of two booksthat examine combat traumathrough the lens of classicaltexts.

An Ancient ConnectionThe troubles and exploits

of the returning war veteranrepresent a searing slice ofreality. They have served as arecurring artistic themethroughout history — fromHomer’s “Odyssey” to theWorld War I novel “All Quieton the Western Front,” fromthe post-Vietnam-era movie“The Deer Hunter” to last fall’sfilm “In the Valley of Elah.”

At the heart of these taleslie warriors plagued by thekind of psychic wounds thathave always afflicted somefraction of combat veterans. Inan online course for healthprofessionals, Capt. William P.Nash, the combat/operationalstress control coordinator forthe Marines, reaches back toSophocles’ account of Ajax,who slipped into a depressionafter the Trojan War,slaughtered a flock of sheep ina crazed state and then fell onhis own sword.

The nature of thecounterinsurgency war in Iraq,where there is no traditionalfront line, has amplified thestresses of combat, andmultiple tours of duty — athird of the troops involved inIraq and Afghanistan havedeployed more than once —ratchet up those stresses.

In earlier eras, variouslabels attached to thepsychological injuries of war:soldier’s heart, shell shock,

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Vietnam disorder. Today thefocus is on PTSD, but militaryhealth care officials are seeinga spectrum of psychologicalissues, with an estimated halfof the returning National Guardmembers, 38 percent ofsoldiers and 31 percent ofmarines reporting mentalhealth problems, according to aPentagon task force.

Decades of studies on theproblems of Vietnam veteranshave established links betweencombat trauma and higher ratesof unemployment,homelessness, gun ownership,child abuse, domestic violence,substance abuse — andcriminality. On a less scientificlevel, such links have longbeen known.

“The connection betweenwar and crime is unfortunatelyvery ancient,” said Dr. Shay,the V.A. psychiatrist andauthor. “The first thing thatOdysseus did after he left Troywas to launch a pirate raid onIsmarus. Ending up in troublewith the law has always been afinal common pathway forsome portion ofpsychologically injuredveterans.”

The National VietnamVeterans Readjustment Study,considered the most thoroughanalysis of this population,found that 15 percent of themale veterans still sufferedfrom full-blown post-traumaticstress disorder more than adecade after the war ended.Half of the veterans with activePTSD had been arrested or injail at least once, and 34.2percent more than once. Some11.5 percent of them had beenconvicted of felonies, andveterans are more likely tohave committed violent crimesthan nonveterans, according togovernment studies. In themid-1980s, with so manyVietnam veterans behind barsthat Vietnam Veterans ofAmerica created chapters inprisons, veterans made up afifth of the nation’s inmatepopulation.

As Iraq and Afghanistanveterans get enmeshed in thecriminal justice system, former

advocates for Vietnam veteransare disheartened by what theysee as history repeating itself.

“These guys today, Irecognize the hole in theirsouls,” said Hector Villarreal, acriminal defense lawyer inMission, Tex., who brieflyrepresented a three-time Iraqcombat veteran charged withmanslaughter.

Brockton D. Hunter, acriminal defense lawyer inMinneapolis, told colleagues ina recent lecture at theMinnesota State BarAssociation that society shouldtry harder to prevent veteransfrom self-destructing.

“To truly support ourtroops, we need to apply ourlessons from history andnewfound knowledge aboutPTSD to help the mosttroubled of our returningveterans,” Mr. Hunter said.“To deny the frequentconnection between combattrauma and subsequentcriminal behavior is to denyone of the direct societal costsof war and to discard anothergeneration of troubled heroes.”

‘The Town Was TornUp’

At the Tecumseh StateCorrectional Institution inNebraska, Seth Strasburg, 29,displays an imposing,biker-style presence. He has ashaved head, bushy chin beardand tattoos scrolled around histhick arms and neck, one ofwhich quotes, in Latin, aCrusades-era dictum: “Killthem all. God will know hisown.”

Beneath this fierceexterior, however, Mr.Strasburg, an Iraq combatveteran who pleaded no contestto manslaughter and guncharges in 2006, hides atortured compulsion tounderstand his actions.Growing up in rural Nebraska,he read military history. Nowhe devours books like Lt. Col.Dave Grossman’s “On Killing:The Psychological Cost ofLearning to Kill in War andSociety” and Dr. Shay’s“Odysseus in America:Combat Trauma and the Trials

of Homecoming.”Because Mr. Strasburg is

introspective, he provides awindow into the reverberationsof combat violence within oneveteran’s psyche and fromthere outward. In Arnold, Neb.,population 679, theunintentional killing last yearby Mr. Strasburg of ThomasTiffany Varney V, apre-mortuary science majorknown as Moose, was a deeplyunsettling event.

“To lose one young manpermanently and another toprison, with Iraq mixed up inthe middle of it — the townwas torn up,” said PamelaEggleston, a waitress at Suzy’sPizza and Spirits.

In late 2005, Mr. Strasburgreturned to Arnold for aholiday leave after two years inIraq. Once home, he did noteasily shed the extremevigilance that had becomesecond nature. He traveledaround rural Nebraska with agun and body armor in hisJeep, feeling irritable, out ofsorts and out of place intranquil, “AmericanIdol”-obsessed America.

During his leave, heshrank from questions aboutIraq because he hated thecavalier ones: “So, did you killanybody? What was it like?”

He had, in fact, killedsomebody in Iraq and washaving trouble dealing with it.Like several veteransinterviewed, Mr. Strasburg wasplagued by one death before hecaused another one.

In 2004, SergeantStrasburg’s section wasengaged in a mission tocounter a proliferation ofimprovised explosive devices,or I.E.D.’s, on the road west ofMosul. One night, posted in anold junked bus, he watched theroad for hours until an Iraqiman, armed and out aftercurfew, appeared and circled afield, kicking the dirt as if hewere searching for something.Finally, the man bent down,straining to pick up a largewhite flour sack, which he thendragged toward the road.

“In my mind at the time,

he had this I.E.D. hidden outthere during the day and hewas going to set it in place,”Mr. Strasburg said. “Weradioed it in. They said,‘Whatever, use yourdiscretion.’ So I popped him.”

With others on hisreconnaissance team, Mr.Strasburg helped zip the maninto a body bag, taking a fewminutes to study the face thathe now cannot forget. Whenthey went to search the floursack, they found nothing butgravel.

“I reported the kill to thebattalion,” Mr. Strasburg said.“They said, you know: ‘Goodshot. It’s legal. Whatever.Don’t worry about it.’ Afterthat, it was never mentioned.But, you know, I had someissues with it later.”

Mr. Strasburg’s voicebroke and he turned his head,wiping his eyes. A reporternoted that he was upset.

“I’m trying not to be,” hesaid, then changed his mind. “Imean, how can you not be? Ifyou’re human. What if I hadwaited?”

“Maybe I was too eager,”he added. “Maybe I wanted tobe the first one to get a kill,you know? Maybe, maybe,maybe. And that will never goaway.”

Which bothers him, Mr.Strasburg said, telling himself:“Get over it. You shotsomebody. Everybody elseshot somebody, too.”

Shortly after Mr.Strasburg’s military tour ofduty ended, he returned to Iraqas a private contractor because,he said, he did not know whatelse to do with himself aftereight years in the Army. “Ihave no skill other thancarrying a gun,” he said.

By late 2005, home onleave, he was preparing toreturn once more to Iraq inJanuary.

On New Year’s Eve, Mr.Strasburg, accompanied by hisbrother, consumed vodkacocktails for hours at Jim’s Barand Package in Arnold.Toward evening’s end, heengaged in an intense

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conversation with a Vietnamveteran, after which, he said,he inexplicably holstered hisgun and headed to a party.Outside the party, he drunkenlyapproached a ChevroletSuburban crowded with youngpeople, got upset and thrust hisgun inside the car.

Mr. Strasburg said he didnot remember what provokedhim. According to one account,a young man — not the victim— set him off by calling him apaid killer. Mr. Strasburg,according to the prosecutor,stuck his gun under the youngman’s chin. There was astruggle over the gun. It wentoff. And Mr. Varney, astrapping 21-year-old with apassion for hunting, car racingand baseball, was struck.

Asked if he pulled thetrigger, Mr. Strasburg said, “Idon’t know,” adding that hetook responsibility: “It was mygun and I was drunk. But whatthe hell was I thinking?”

The Suburban drovequickly away. Mr. Strasburgjumped into his Jeep, speedingalong wintry roads until hecrashed into a culvert. Feelingdoomed, he said, he donned hisbulletproof vest and plungedinto the woods, where he fellasleep in the snow as policehelicopters and state troopersclosed in on him.

Mr. Strasburg had neverbeen screened forpost-traumatic stress disorder.Like many soldiers, he did nottake seriously the Army’smental health questionnairesgiven out at his tour’s end.“They were retarded,” he said.“All of us were like, ‘Let’s dothis quickly so we can gohome.’ They asked: ‘Did yousee any dead bodies? Did youtake part in any combatoperations?’ Come on, wewere in Iraq. They didn’t evenask us the really importantquestion, if you killedsomeone.”

After his arrest, apsychologist hired by hisfamily diagnosed combattrauma in Mr. Strasburg,writing in an evaluation thatpost-traumatic stress disorder,

exacerbated by alcohol, servedas a “major factor” in theshooting.

A Judge’s Harsh WordsAt the sentencing hearing

in Broken Bow, Neb., inSeptember 2006, however, thejudge discounted the centralityof the PTSD. He called Mr.Varney “the epitome of aninnocent victim” and Mr.Strasburg “a bully” who“misconstrued comments” and“reacted in a belligerent andhostile manner.” In acourtroom filled with Arnoldtownspeople and Iraq veterans,he sentenced Mr. Strasburg to22 to 36 years in prison.

Mr. Strasburg’s mother,Aneita, believing that theshooting was a product of hiscombat trauma, started anorganization to createawareness about post-traumaticstress disorder.

Her activism, however,deeply offended the victim’sparents, who run the ArnoldFuneral Home.

“I’m sorry, but it feels likea personal affront, like she’strying to excuse our son’sdeath with the war,” BarbVarney said, adding that Mr.Strasburg has “never shownany remorse.”

Thomas Tiffany VarneyIV, the victim’s father,expressed skepticism about Mr.Strasburg’s PTSD and thedisorder in general, saying,“His grandfather, my dad, a lotof people been there, done that,and it didn’t affect them,” Mr.Varney said. “They’re trying tobrush it away, ‘Well, hemurdered someone, it’s justpost-traumatic stress.’”

Mr. Strasburg himself,whose diagnosis wasconfirmed by the Departmentof Veterans Affairs, expresseddiscomfort with hispost-traumatic stress disorderand its connection to his crime.“It’s not a be-all-and-end-allexcuse, and I don’t mean it tobe,” he said.

As Mr. Strasburg prefersto see it, he had adapted hisbehavior to survive in Iraq andthen retained that behavior —vigilant, distrustful, armed —

when he returned home. “Youneed time to decompress,” hesaid. “If the exact samecircumstances had happened ayear later” — thecircumstances of that NewYear’s Eve — “nothing wouldhave happened. It never wouldhave went down.”

Mr. Strasburg also voicedreluctance to being publiclyidentified as a PTSD sufferer,worried that his former militarycolleagues would see him as aweakling. “Nobody wants to bethat guy who says, ‘I gotcounseling this afternoon,Sergeant,’” he said, mimickinga whining voice.

Mr. Strasburg’s formerplatoon leader, Capt. BenjaminD. Tiffner, who was killed inan I.E.D. attack in Baghdad inNovember, wrote a letter toNebraska state authorities. Heprotested the length of thesentence and requested Mr.Strasburg’s transfer “to afacility that would allow him todeal with his combat trauma.”

“Seth has been asked andrequired to do very violentthings in defense of hiscountry,” Captain Tiffnerwrote. “He spent the majorityof 2003 to 2005 in Iraq solvingvery dangerous problems byusing violence and the threat ofviolence as his main tools. Hewas congratulated and givenawards for these actions. Thisbuilds in a person thepropensity to deal with life’sproblems through violence andthe threat of violence.

“I believe this mightexplain in some way why Sethreacted the way that he did thatnight in Nebraska,” the lettercontinued. “I’m not trying toexplain away Seth’s actions,but I think he is a special caseand he needs to be taken careof by our judicial system andour medical system.”

Many Don’t SeekTreatment

Unlike during the VietnamWar, the current military hasmade a concerted effort,through screenings andresearch, to gauge the mentalhealth needs of returningveterans. But gauging and

addressing needs are different,and a Pentagon task force lastyear described the militarymental health system asoverburdened, “woefully”understaffed, inadequatelyfinanced and undermined bythe stigma attached to PTSD.

Although early treatmentmight help veterans retain theirrelationships and avoiddeveloping related problemslike depression, alcoholism andcriminal behavior, many do notseek or get such help. And thisgroup of homicide defendantsseems to be a prime example.

Like Mr. Strasburg, manyof these veterans learned thatthey had post-traumatic stressdisorder only after their arrests.And their mental health issuesoften went unevaluated evenafter the killings if they werepleading not guilty, if they didnot have aggressive lawyersand relatives — or if theykilled themselves first.

Of the 13 combat veteransin The Times database whocommitted murder-suicides,only two, as best as it can bedetermined, had psychologicalproblems diagnosed by themilitary health care systemafter returning from war.

“The real tragedy in theseveterans’ case is that, wherePTSD is a factor, it is highlytreatable,” said Lawrence W.Sherman, director of the JerryLee Center of Criminology atthe University of Pennsylvania.“And when people are exposedto serious trauma and don’t getit treated, it is a serious riskfactor for violence.”

At various times, thequestion of whether themilitary shares some blame forthese killings gets posed. Thisoccurs especially where themilitary knew beforehand of acombat veteran’s psychologicaltroubles, marital problems orhistory of substance abuse.

In some cases, the militarysent service members withpre-existing problems —known histories of mentalillness, drug abuse or domesticabuse — into combat only tofind those problemsexacerbated by the stresses of

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war. In other cases, theyquickly discharged returningveterans with psychological orsubstance abuse problems,after which they committedhomicides.

Perhaps no case has posedthe question of militaryliability more bluntly than thatof Lucas T. Borges, 25, aformer private in the Marineswhose victims are suing theUnited States government,maintaining that the military“had a duty to take reasonablesteps to prevent Borges fromharming others.” Thegovernment is trying to get theclaim dismissed.

Mr. Borges immigratedfrom Brazil at 14 and joinedthe Marines four years later.After spending six months inIraq at the beginning of thewar, he “came back different,like he was out of his mind,”said his mother, Dina Borges,who runs a small cleaningbusiness in Maryland.

Assigned on his return to amaintenance battalion at CampLejeune, N.C., Private Borgesdeveloped a taste for the etherused to start large internalcombustion engines in winter.

Mr. Borges did have ahistory of marijuana use, whichhe disclosed to the Marineswhen he enlisted, said JeffreyWeber, a lawyer whorepresented the victims untilrecently.

But inhaling ether, whichproduces both a dreamy highand impairment, was new tohim, and his sister, Gabriela, a20-year-old GeorgeWashington Universitystudent, believes that hedeveloped the habit to relievethe anxiety that he broughthome from war.

The Marines, aware of Mr.Borges’s past drug use, alsoknew that he had developed anether problem, but they neverremoved him from the jobwhere he had ready access tohis drug of choice, according tothe lawsuit. They never offeredhim drug treatment, either, Mr.Borges’s own lawyer said incourt.

Four months after he

returned from Iraq, militaryofficials moved to dischargePrivate Borges when he wascaught inhaling ether in his car.They impounded the car,which contained severalcanisters of the government’sether, and sent Mr. Borges,who threatened to kill himself,to the mental health ward ofthe base hospital.

“He was finally under thecare of a psychiatrist, but theypulled him from that becausehe was a problem and theywanted to get rid of him,” Mr.Weber said. “They processedhim out, handed him the keysto his car, and his supervisorsaid, ‘If you’re not careful,you’re going to killsomebody.’”

When Mr. Borgesretrieved his 1992 Camaro, hediscovered that the Marineshad left their ether canistersinside — they did not haveanywhere to store them,officials said at trial — andimmediately got high. He thendrove east down the westboundlane of a state highway,slamming headfirst into thevictims’ car, killing19-year-old Jamie MarieLumsden, the daughter of amarine who served in Iraq, andseriously injuring four others.

Convicted ofsecond-degree murder, Mr.Borges was sentenced to 24 to32 years in prison.

Lost in Las VegasThe Army has recently

developed a course called“Battlemind Training,”intended to help soldiers makethe psychological transitionback into civilian society. “Incombat, the enemy is thetarget,” the course materialsays. “Back home, there are noenemies.”

This can be a difficultlesson to learn. Many soldiersand marines find themselves atwar with their spouses, theirchildren, their fellow servicemembers, the world at largeand ultimately themselveswhen they come home.

“Based on my experience,most of these veterans feel justterrible that they’ve caused this

senseless harm,” Dr. Shay said.“Most veterans don’t want tohurt other people.”

Matthew Sepi withdrewinto himself on his return fromIraq.

A Navajo Indian who sawhis hometown of Winslow,Ariz., as a dead end, Mr. Sepijoined the Army at 16, with apermission slip from hismother.

For a teenager withoutmuch life experience, the warin Iraq was mind-bending, andMr. Sepi saw intense action.When his infantry companyarrived in April 2003, it wascharged with tackling resistantRepublican Guard strongholdsnorth of Baghdad.

“The war was supposedlyover, except it wasn’t,” Mr.Sepi said. “I was a groundtroop, with a grenade launcherattached to my M-16. Me andmy buddies were the ones thatassaulted the places. We wentin the buildings and cleared thebuildings. We shot and got shotat.”

After a year of combat,Mr. Sepi returned to FortCarson, Colo., where lifeseemed dull and regimented.The soldiers did not discusstheir war experiences or theirpostwar emotions. Instead,they partied, Mr. Sepi said, andthe drinking got him and othersin trouble. Arrested forunder-age driving under theinfluence, he was ordered tocomplete drug and alcoholeducation and counseling.Shortly after that, he decided toleave the Army.

Feeling lost after hisdischarge “with a few littlemedals,” he ended up movingto Las Vegas, a city that he didnot know, with the friend of afriend. Broke, Mr. Sepi settledin the Naked City, which isnamed for the showgirls whoused to sunbathe topless there.After renting a roach-infestedhole in the wall with an actualhole in the wall, he found jobsdoing roadwork and makingplastic juice bottles in afactory. Alone and lonely, hestarted feeling the effects of hiscombat experiences.

In Las Vegas, Mr. Sepi’salcohol counselor took himunder his wing, recognizingwar-related PTSD in hisextreme jumpiness, adrenalinerushes, nightmares and need todrink himself intounconsciousness.

The counselor directedhim to seek specialized helpfrom a Veterans Affairshospital. Mr. Sepi said hecalled the V.A. and was told toreport in person. But working12-hour shifts at a bottlingplant, he failed to do so.

In July 2005, when Mr.Sepi was arrested, he identifiedhimself as an Iraq veteran. But,Detective Andersen said, “Hedidn’t act like a combatveteran. He acted like a scaredkid.”

Soon afterward, NancyLemcke, Mr. Sepi’s publicdefender, visited him in jail. “Iasked him about PTSD,” Ms.Lemcke said. “And he startstelling me about Iraq and all ofa sudden, his eyes well up withtears, and he cries out: ‘We hadthe wrong house! We had thewrong house!’ And he’spractically hysterical.”

As part of an operation tobreak down the resistance inand around Balad, Mr. Sepiand his unit had been given anightly list of targets forcapture. Camouflaged, theAmerican soldiers creptthrough towns after midnight,working their way down thelists, setting off C-4 plasticexplosives at each address tostun the residents intosubmission.

“This particular night, itwas December 2003, therewas, I’d say, more than 100targets,” Mr. Sepi said. “Eachlittle team had a list. And atthis one house, we blow thegate and find out that there’sthis guy sitting in his car justinside that gate. We move in,and he, like, stumbles out ofhis car, and he’s on fire, andhe’s, like, stumbling around incircles in his front yard. So weall kind of don’t know what todo, and he collapses, and we goinside the house and search itand find out it’s the wrong

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house.”Although Mr. Sepi said

that he felt bad at the time, healso knew that he had donenothing but follow orders andthat the Army had paid theman’s family a settlement. Hedid not imagine that the imageof the flaming, stumbling Iraqicivilian would linger like aspecter in his psyche.

Listening to Mr. Sepirecount the story of a death thathe regretted in Iraq whilegrappling with a death that heregretted in Las Vegas, hislawyer grew determined to gethim help. “It was just soshocking, and his emotionswere so raw, and he was somessed up,” Ms. Lemcke said.

An Unusual Legal DealShe found compassion for

him among the lawenforcement officials handlingthe case. The investigationbacked up Mr. Sepi’s story ofself-defense, although it wasnever determined who firedfirst. It made an impression onthe police that he wasconsiderably outweighed —his 130 pounds against a210-pound man and a197-pound woman. And ithelped Mr. Sepi that hisvictims were drifters, with nofamily members pressing forjustice.

The police said that KevinRatcliff, 36, who was shot andwounded by Mr. Sepi,belonged to the Crips and wasa convicted felon; SharonJackson, 47, who was killed,belonged to NC, the NakedCity gang, and an autopsyfound alcohol, cocaine andmethamphetamines in herblood.

Buoyed by an outpouringof support from Mr. Sepi’sfellow soldiers and veterans’advocates, Ms. Lemckepressed the Department ofVeterans Affairs to findtreatment programs for Mr.Sepi. This allowed an unusualdeal with the local districtattorney’s office: in exchangefor the successful completionof treatment for substanceabuse and PTSD, the chargesagainst Mr. Sepi would be

dropped.After about three months

in jail, Mr. Sepi spent threemonths at a substance abuseprogram in Prescott, Ariz., inlate 2005, where the grayingveterans presented an objectlesson: “I don’t want to be likethat when I’m older,” he saidto himself. In early 2006, hetransferred to a PTSDtreatment center run by theV.A. in Topeka, Kan., wherehe learned how to deal withanger, sadness and guilt, tomanage the symptoms of hisanxiety disorder and, it seems,to vanquish his nightmares.

“For some reason, my baddreams went away,” he said.“It’s pretty cool.”

Free to start life over, Mr.Sepi stepped tentatively intoadulthood. Settling in Phoenix,he enrolled in automotiveschool and got a job as awelder for a commercialbakery. Once in a while, hesaid, a loud noise still starts hisheart racing and he breaks intoa cold sweat, ready for action.But he knows now how to calmhimself, he said, he no longerowns guns, and he is sober andsobered by what he has done.

“That night,” he said, ofthe hot summer night in LasVegas when he was arrestedfor murder, “if I could erase it,I would. Killing is part of war,but back home ...”

Research was contributedby Alain Delaquérière, AmyFinnerty, Teddy Kider, AndrewLehren, Renwick McLean,Jenny Nordberg and MargotWilliams.

Long Island NewsdayJanuary 12, 2008Pg. 1710. Army MoveCriticized In AbuGhraib CaseBy Associated Press

BALTIMORE - Therevelation that the Army threwout the conviction of the onlyofficer court-martialed in theAbu Ghraib scandal renewedoutrage from human rightsadvocates who complained that

not enough military andcivilian leaders were heldaccountable for the abuse ofIraqi prisoners.

Those critics found anunlikely ally in the officerhimself, Lt. Col. Steven L.Jordan, whose conviction on aminor charge of disobeying anorder was dismissed this week,leaving him with only anadministrative reprimand.

Jordan, 51, a reservistfrom Fredericksburg, Va.,doesn't dispute the abuse butmaintains he was never awareof it. He said he believes manyofficers and enlisted soldiersdid not face adequate scrutinyin the investigation that led toconvictions of 11 soldiers,none ranked above staffsergeant.

If rough interrogationtechniques were taught to thesoldiers who abused prisonersat Abu Ghraib, Jordan said,"the question at that point is,who's responsible for that? Is itDonald Rumsfeld? [Lt.] Gen.[Ricardo] Sanchez? ... I don'tknow."

Barring any startling newinformation, the decision byMaj. Gen. Richard Rowe,commander of the MilitaryDistrict of Washington, tothrow out Jordan's convictionbrings an end to the four-yearAbu Ghraib investigation. Andit means no officers or civilianleaders will be held criminallyresponsible for the prisonerabuse that embarrassed theU.S. military and inflamed theMuslim world.

Jordan had been accusedof not supervising the soldiersconvicted in the abuse, whichincluded photographing Iraqiprisoners in painful andsexually humiliating positions.His conviction stemmed fromdisobeying an order not to talkabout the probe. Heacknowledged e-mailing anumber of soldiers about theprobe, though he claims theorder was not made clear tohim until after the e-mailing.

Human rights advocatessaid the decision sent atroubling message. "Althoughthe abuse was systemic and

widespread, the accountabilityfor it has been anything but,"said Hira Shamsi, an attorneywith the National SecurityProject of the American CivilLiberties Union.

Mila Rosenthal, deputyexecutive director for researchand policy for AmnestyInternational USA, said: "Ithink we're emboldeningdictators and despots aroundthe world. We're saying that it'sOK to allow these kinds ofabuses to flourish."

Fort Worth Star-TelegramJanuary 12, 2008Pg. 1C11. F-22 Rises As AnOption After F-15Faults FoundBy Dave Montgomery,Star-Telegram WashingtonBureau

WASHINGTON --Accelerating production ofLockheed Martin's F-22 Raptoris emerging as a possibleoption as the Air Forcedetermines how to maintain itsoverall force structure with thegrounding of older-model F-15fighter jets, a top Air Forcegeneral said Friday.

In an interview with theStar-Telegram, Maj. Gen.Mark "Shack" Shackelford saidAir Force leaders are studyingthe service's combatcapabilities after findingstructural defects in more than40 percent of the service's 441F-15s.

One possible course, hesaid, will be "should we orcould we accelerate the rate atwhich we buy F-22s." Headded, however, that it is "tooearly to speculate" on theultimate decision.

Shackelford, who overseesthe acquisition of fighters andbombers, said the discussionon the F-15 is unrelated to aseparate high-profile push toextend Raptor productionbeyond its scheduledtermination in 2011. But heacknowledged a "potentialfallout effect" resulting fromproblems with older F-15s,

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which the F-22 is being built toreplace.

An internal debate hasraged for months over theDefense Department's plan tocease F-22 production in 2011after a final purchase of 20fighters. Deputy DefenseSecretary Gordon England, aformer Fort Worth aerospaceexecutive, favors that plan, butAir Force Chief of Staff Gen.T. Michael Moseley, a GrandPrairie native, is leading hisservice's push to keep theassembly line open.

Under the current plan theAir Force's F-22 fleet would becapped at 183 aircraft, roughlyhalf the number serviceofficials say is needed tomaintain U.S. air superiority.More than 1,800 Lockheedworkers in Fort Worth buildthe center fuselage, the largestsection, and Boeing workers inSeattle build the tail and rearsection. The fighter isassembled at a LockheedMartin plant in Marietta, Ga.,which also builds the forwardfuselage.

Shackelford restated theAir Force's goal of buying 381Raptors, which he said is theminimum needed to confront aproliferation of advancedsurface-to-air missiles and theemergence of new-generationfighters in Russia and China.

Maj. Gen. Jeff Riemer,program executive officer forthe F-22 who also participatedin the interview, said the AirForce has several costscenarios for extending Raptorproduction.

The current productionrate of 20 a year means thatbuilding 198 more aircraftwould cost about $40 billionand keep the production lineopen until 2019. But boostingproduction to 32 annually, hesaid, would be more efficient,reducing the cost to about $35billion, and production wouldlast until 2016.

The two-star generalsstressed that the Air Forceremains committed to buying1,763 of the F-35 Lightning II,a joint strike fighter also beingmade by a Lockheed-led team,

and said the two aircraft willcomplement each other.

Under the current cap of183 aircraft, Riemer said,suppliers would be forced tobegin shutting downproduction later this year andworkers at the Fort Worth plantwould produce the last centerfuselage in December 2010.

Raptor supporters inCongress have cited the olderaircraft's troubles as anargument for increasingproduction of the new aircraft,widely regarded as the world'smost sophisticated fighter.

The Air Force grounded itsF-15 fleet after an F-15C brokeapart in November on atraining mission southwest ofSt. Louis. Although more than200 have returned to flight, AirForce officials have sincefound defects in at least 162aircraft built from 1978 to1985 by McDonnell Douglas,which later merged withBoeing.

The push to extend F-22production is likely to be partof annual budget deliberationsto shape defense spending forfiscal 2009 and beyond. Fiscal2009 begins in October, but thecongressional debate will beginin early February afterPresident Bush and thePentagon submit theirrecommendations.

"There is a fundamentaldisagreement between the AirForce and the senior policypeople [in the Pentagon] overwhether additional F-22s arerequired," said military analystLoren Thompson, an executiveat the Lexington Institute inArlington, Va. Thompson, whohas close contacts in thePentagon, said the defensebudget may opt to defer adecision.

Congressional supporters,many of whom represent themanufacturers or suppliers, arerallying behind the Air Force.Sixty-eight House membersand 27 senators sent letters toDefense Secretary RobertGates last month urging thatF-22 production be continued.

Boosting F-22 productionis a top priority in Texas,

where Lockheed MartinAeronautics has well-placedpolitical friends. All fourRepublican House memberswho represent Tarrant County,Kay Granger of Fort Worth,Joe Barton of Arlington,Michael Burgess of Lewisvilleand Kenny Marchant ofCoppell, and the state's twoRepublican senators, KayBailey Hutchison and JohnCornyn, all signed the letters toGates.

Republican Gov. RickPerry made the same appeal ina letter to President Bush onDec. 21, saying that more than2,700 people at more than 100companies work on the F-22 inTexas.

Fort Worth Star-TelegramJanuary 12, 2008Pg. 1C12. Sitting At BudgetControls, OfficialThrottles ProgramBy Bob Cox, Star-Telegramstaff writer

Considering DeputyDefense Secretary GordonEngland's résumé, it's hard toimagine anyone saying thathe's acting against the interestsof the defense industry or themilitary. But that's what somelobbyists and consultants inWashington have been saying.

The leaders of two defensethink tanks have chastisedEngland for not allowing theAir Force to buy an additional200 of Lockheed Martin's F-22Raptor fighter jets, at a costmore than $40 billion.

A former top Lockheedand General Dynamicsexecutive in Fort Worth,England served two stints assecretary of the Navy underPresident Bush. Sincebecoming the Pentagon's chiefadministrator in 2005, Englandhas resisted Air Force pleas tobuy more F-22s than the 183now planned.

In separate recent opinionpieces, and Frank Gaffney Jr.of the Center for SecurityPolicy and Loren Thompson ofthe Lexington Institute charge

that England has ignoredexpert analysis and that hisactions could leave the AirForce vulnerable in combatwith enemies possessing moremodern aircraft. Thompsonalso works as a lobbyist forLockheed.

Gaffney, in a WashingtonTimes piece, said England was"waging war" against the F-22.Supersonic and supposedlynearly invisible to radar, theF-22 "is quite simply the bestfighter aircraft in the world"and is needed to defend againstenemies that may obtain newhigh-technology jets beingdeveloped by Russia andChina, Gaffney said.

"Yet, in Gordon England'sPentagon, the Raptor is anendangered species," he wrote.

"What's going on here hasless to do with militaryrequirements than the deputysecretary being irritated at theAir Force, which he feels triedto trick him," Thompson, chiefoperating officer of theLexington Institute, said in aninterview.

Buying more F-22s is thetop priority of Air Forcegenerals, many of whom rosethrough the ranks as fighterpilots. The Air Force insiststhat it needs 381 of the aircraft,which cost about $200 millioneach ($350 million, countingresearch and developmentcosts).

As part of the 2006defense budget process,directed by England, thePentagon and the Air Forceagreed to cap the F-22 programat 183 planes. The last 60 arein production or undercontract.

England has interpretedthe 2006 budget agreement "asa commitment to terminate theline after 60 planes,"Thompson said. "The AirForce interpreted it as a way tokeep the F-22 going beyond[former Defense SecretaryDonald] Rumsfeld's tenure" soit could argue the case with thenext administration.

Thompson, who has closeties to senior Air Force leaders,charged in an article written for

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defense publications thatEngland had been advised inthree separate studies that theAir Force needed more F-22s.

An aide to England saidthe secretary would notcomment on the issue becauseof ongoing Pentagondeliberations on the 2009defense budget.

Lockheed's Fort Worthplant has a stake in theargument. It builds the F-22center fuselage, with about1,800 people working on theprogram.

But finding additionalmoney for the F-22 could meanless money for the F-35Lightning II, the aircraft theFort Worth plant expects tobuild for the next two decadesor more. England has been astaunch proponent of the F-35,which some experts say willincorporate newer technology,be more versatile and cost lessthan half the price of an F-22.

When asked to commenton the F-22 controversy,Lockheed spokesman TomJurkowsky said: "The issue ofkeeping the F-22 line open is amatter between the DefenseDepartment and the Air Force.It's not a issue for LockheedMartin to address.

"With respect to Mr.England, we recognize that hefaces many budgetarychallenges. As he meets thesechallenges, Lockheed Martinhas the fullest faith that he willdo what he considers to be inthe best interests of theDefense Department and thenation."

Thompson and Gaffneyprobably are not speaking forthe Air Force directly, saidWinslow Wheeler, analyst forthe Center for DefenseInformation and a frequentcritic of defense programs.

But Wheeler said AirForce leaders like Chief ofStaff Gen. Michael Moseleywon't be unhappy with theirallies' comments.

The last of the F-22s nowon order will be delivered by2011.

The Pentagon had plannedto spend $550 million in 2009

to pay Lockheed to beginshutting down the F-22production line in Marietta, Ga.Air Force leaders have beenlobbying instead to order partsfor more F-22s.

Now England reportedlyhas directed that the money beused to repair the Air Force'saging F-15 fighters, which theRaptor is designed to replace.

Critics say that's not good."It seems obvious,"

Gaffney wrote, "that themomentous decision ofwhether to terminate the F-22at just 180 aircraft -- one thatcould prove fateful in deterringa future conflict withincreasingly hostile andaggressive adversaries --should be made not by alame-duck presidency but anewly mandated one."

Washington PostJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 1413. Arrest WarrantIssued In Dead Marine'sCase

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. --Authorities issued an arrestwarrant Saturday for a Marinecorporal wanted in the death ofa pregnant colleague, whoseburnt remains were excavatedfrom a fire pit in his back yard.

Onslow County Sheriff EdBrown said investigators alsorecovered the remains of LanceCpl. Maria FrancesLauterbach's unborn child.

A nationwide search isunder way for Marine Cpl.Cesar Armando Laurean, whoauthorities said fledJacksonville after leaving hiswife a note in which headmitted burying Lauterbach'sbody. Laurean said in the notethat Lauterbach had "come tohis residence and cut herthroat," an account authoritiesdiscount, and that he hadnothing to do with her suicide,the sheriff said.

Lauterbach, 20,disappeared in December, justdays after meeting withmilitary prosecutors to talkabout her allegation that

Laurean had raped her.Her remains were found in

a fire pit in the back yard ofLaurean's house, buried underas much as a foot of ashes anddirt, said Charles Garrett, thecounty medical examiner.

Lauterbach, who joinedthe Marine Corps in 2006, andLaurean were personnel clerksin the 2nd Marine LogisticsGroup of the II MarineExpeditionary Force, based atCamp Lejeune. Neither hadbeen sent to Iraq orAfghanistan.

San Diego Union-TribuneJanuary 13, 200814. Marine's FamilySays Authorities SlowTo ActRape case took months tounfoldBy Mike Baker, AssociatedPress

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. –For months after a pregnant20-year-old Marine accused acolleague of rape, her familysays, she continued to workalongside her alleged attackerand endured harassment atCamp Lejeune.

In the weeks after shedisappeared, they believe, thesheriff's department was slowto act.

As authorities recoveredMaria Lauterbach's remainsyesterday from a fire pit wherethey suspect Marine Cpl. CesarArmando Laurean burned andburied her body, her familyasked why authorities didn'ttreat her case with greaterurgency.

Naval investigators saidyesterday that the pair hadbeen separated on the job, arape case was progressing andLaurean was under a protectiveorder to stay away fromLauterbach. Onslow CountySheriff Ed Brown insisted hisdepartment acted as best itcould on the facts available.

Brown said his departmentwas unaware of the protectiveorder.

“As soon as it wentsuspicious, we contacted the

media and asked for help,”Brown said. “The case did notproduce enough evidence,other than she was justmissing.”

Yesterday, her burntremains, and those of her fetus,were excavated from Laurean'sbackyard.

“As well as I could see,the body was much charred,”Brown said. “The fetus was inthe abdominal area of thatadult. ... That is tragic, and it'sdisgusting.”

Authorities have issued anarrest warrant on murdercharges for Laurean, 21, of theLas Vegas area. They say hefled Jacksonville after leavingbehind a note in which headmitted burying her body.

In his note, Laurean wrotethat Lauterbach cut her ownthroat in a suicide, but Browndoesn't believe it andchallenged Laurean to comeforward and defend his claimsof innocence.

Authorities have describeda violent confrontation insideLaurean's home that left bloodspatters on the ceiling and amassive amount of blood onthe wall.

County prosecutor DeweyHudson said Laurean had beenin contact with three attorneys,including Mark Raynor, whodeclined to commentyesterday.

Lauterbach disappearedsometime after Dec. 14, notlong after she met with militaryprosecutors to talk about herApril allegation that Laureanraped her.

Her uncle, Pete Steiner,said Lauterbach – stung by theharassment that eventuallyforced her to move off base –decided to drop the case theweek before she disappeared.

Paul Chiccarelli, thespecial agent in charge ofNaval Criminal InvestigativeService at Camp Lejeune, saidyesterday that Marinecommanders submittedrequests in October to send thecase to the military's version ofa grand jury. A militaryprotective order had beenautomatically issued in May

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and renewed three times.“Anytime there is a sexual

assault allegation involved,that's a standard routine,”Chiccarelli said.

Lauterbach and Laureanserved in the same unit of theII Marine Expeditionary Force,and court documents indicateLauterbach's mother toldauthorities Laurean hadthreatened her daughter'scareer.

New York TimesJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 815. Afghan PoliceStruggle To Work ARough BeatBy C. J. Chivers

NAWA, Afghanistan —Many of the problemsfrustrating Afghanistan’sefforts to secure its dangerouseastern and southern provinceswere evident in the bizarre tourof duty of Shair Mohammad, apolice officer who spent 18months in an isolated swath ofsteppe.

Until December, when acolonel arrived to replace him,Mr. Mohammad, 30, had beenthe acting police chief in theNawa district of GhazniProvince. The job gave himjurisdiction over hundreds ofsquare miles near Pakistan thatthe Taliban had used as asanctuary since being oustedfrom power in 2001.

But his ability to police hisbeat was severelycompromised.

Mr. Mohammad had norank, no money for food andnot enough clothing or gear tooperate in cold weather. Twoof his six trucks were broken.The ammunition the Pentagonprovided him came incardboard boxes thatimmediately crumbled,exposing cartridges to theelements on his storeroom’sdirty floor.

Compounding his woes,the possibility of mutiny wason his mind. It was a naturalworry, he said, because sinceApril none of his men had been

paid.“My commanders always

just give me promises,” hesaid. “They never send themoney.”

In its simplest distillation,the strategy driving thisAmerican-led war isstraightforward. Westerntroops are an interim force toprovide security, spurdevelopment and mentorindigenous security forces untilthe Afghan leadership cangovern alone.

But in the past two years,the insurgency has blossomed,making control of manyprovinces a contest. TheAfghan Army, under Americantutelage, has madeconsiderable progress,American officers say.

The police lag far behind.Lightly equipped, marginallytrained, undermined bycorruption and poor discipline,they remain weak, though theirexpected role is daunting. Theyare not asked merely to policea country that lacks the rule oflaw. They are being used tofight a war.

The American and Afghangovernments say improving thepolice’s capabilities is apriority. American financinghas sharply increased to do so.

“If you look at how theAfghan Army has changed forthe better, and project that kindof change for the Afghanpolice, there is reason to beoptimistic,” said Lt. Col.Timothy J. McAteer, whocommands the SecondBattalion, 508th ParachuteInfantry, the principalAmerican unit working inGhazni Province.

But Mr. Mohammad’stour, undermined bymismanagement from aboveand the poor discipline thatsurrounded him, suggestedhow difficult anytransformation might be. Ashis tour ended inmid-December, he spent hislast evenings crouched by ahissing space heater in amud-walled fort, sipping teaand waiting for his governmentto provide the help the police

needed.Mr. Mohammad himself,

and his sense of commitment,provided reason to be hopeful,American officers said. Tiny,bearded, wild-eyed andbedecked with long strands ofunkempt black hair, he led witha style that was variouslywhimsical, pragmatic, resoluteand cunning.

“He is a true patriot,” saidFirst Lt. Mordechai Sorkin, aplatoon leader who workedalongside him. “He has beenhere almost all alone, trying tomake Afghanistan better.”

In the deadpan lexicon ofinfantry life, several soldiersnicknamed him “CharlesManson,” to whom he bears aslight resemblance. The namewas meant in good humor. Thesoldiers said Mr. Mohammadwas a character of his own: hemanaged a gentle and wrydemeanor, but never declinedto join them on patrols and wascourageous under fire.

In a Taliban ambush inOctober, they noted, one of hisofficers was killed and fourothers wounded. Mr.Mohammad survived and triedto rally his penniless ranks.

He was also steadfast inthe face of intimidation.Another day, the mutilatedbody of an elderly man whohad spoken against the Talibanwas found on the road. Theman had been beheaded.Afghanis, the nationalcurrency, had been stuffed inhis nose.

On patrols with Americansthrough villages that harbor theTaliban, Mr. Mohammadgathered elders and gavespeeches against the insurgentsand such behavior, tellingvillagers that siding with thegovernment was the surestroute away from barbarism to amore secure life.

Resolve was not enough.As his tour ended, Mr.Mohammad said, his owngovernment had failed tomatch his sense of duty.

His district had long beena transit corridor for insurgentsbetween Pakistan andAfghanistan, and had had

almost no governmentpresence. Since 2006 the areahad been covered only by Mr.Mohammad’s detachment andone American platoon, roughly40 soldiers. Many villages inthe district had never beenvisited by either the military orthe police.

In early December,Colonel McAteer, theAmerican commander,augmented the firebase withmost of his battalion’sCompany B — more than twomore platoons. The companycommander, Capt. ChristopherJ. DeMure, moved to Nawawith a detachment of AfghanArmy soldiers and about adozen Afghan police officers,including a colonel to relieveMr. Mohammad.

The officers in Nawa, theonly governmentrepresentatives that had everentered much of Nawa, weresurviving on donations —some might call it extortion —from a local bazaar.

When Captain DeMurearrived, Mr. Mohammad toldhim the government’s logisticssystem was such a failure thathe owed $3,400 to shopkeepersfor goods he hadcommandeered to keep hispolice station fed and supplied.The sum equaled roughly threeyears of his salary.

Lt. Col. Amanuddin, thepolice supervisor who arrivedwith new officers, appeared tobe just as disappointed as Mr.Mohammad. (Like manyAfghans, Colonel Amanuddinhas only one name.) “I need 20good police officers, and coulduse 100,” he said. “Goodpeople — not any hashishsmokers. And I need sleepingbags and mattresses and agenerator for power.”

Without more officers andbetter equipment, he said, itwould be impossible toconduct night patrols withAmerican soldiers.

But there were signs aswell that Mr. Mohammad, forall of his courage and sense ofloyalty, lacked otherfundamental leadership traits.The station Colonel

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Amanuddin was inheriting wasa picture of disorder and filth.

Its front yard was ajunkyard of scrapped vehiclesand broken artillery pieces.Inside was a garbage pit. Thegarbage was not confined tothis hole; it was everywhere.The courtyard was overrun bydogs that fed on it.

At least three unexplodedrockets littered the grounds,and the police had taken tousing a guard tower as a toilet.Human waste covered its floor.

Seeing the depth of theproblems, Captain DeMurecontacted a provincialcoordination center thatsupervises the police. Hehoped to get more gear, wagesfor the officers and moreofficers for the district.

He also organized thepolice into patrols, led byAmericans, to search forTaliban fighters and meetvillagers for introductions.

But on Dec. 6, Mr.Mohammad’s fear of massdesertion came true. Destituteand dispirited, most of theofficers under his commandabandoned their posts atsunrise; it was not the firsttime, he said, that such a thinghad happened.

Nine of ColonelAmanuddin’s officersannounced that they wereleaving, too. Only one newofficer remained: AmirMohammad, a driver with onlyone arm.

The only other officers toagree to work were three ofMr. Mohammad’s relatives —cheerful but largely untrainedmen. At one point, Mr.Mohammad had commandedmore than 15 men.

Captain DeMure urged thenew chief to ask the men tokeep working. It was no use.“None of the officers havebeen paid,” the colonel said.“If we force them, they mightkill us.” Mr. Mohammadnodded knowingly.

Captain DeMure was soonback in contact with Ghazni,asking for police officersagain. The patrols he hadorganized had been

encouraging; many villagershad seemed friendly and saidthey wanted the government tomove into the district.

“There are people herewho welcome the governmentand the change it can bring,”he said. “But we need thepolice down here to help makethat happen.”

A few days later, at thecaptain’s urging, eight moreofficers arrived to work withColonel Amanuddin. Morewere expected soon, he said.

Mr. Mohammad’s tourwas over at last. Earlier, he hadsaid that when he was relievedhe would confront thesupervisors he suspected ofembezzling his officers’ wages.

But even this wish showedhow much work was ahead. Hewould have to travel in anAmerican convoy, he said,because if a police officerrisked driving to the capitalalone, he would almostcertainly be shot.

“This looks like afortress,” he said, gesturing tothe compound where he hadlived for a year and a half.“Really it is an island. TheTaliban is all around.”

Washington PostJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 2116. Dutch Troops Die InAfghanistan

Two Dutch soldiers werekilled in a clash with militantsin Afghanistan, theNetherlands' Defense Ministrysaid. About 1,650 Dutch areserving in Uruzgan province aspart of the NATO effort there.Since their mission began lastyear, 14 Dutch troops havedied.

New York TimesJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 1017. Iran Urges AgencyTo Settle Atomic Case

TEHRAN (Reuters) —Iran’s supreme leader,Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, toldthe visiting chief of theInternational Atomic Energy

Agency on Saturday that Iran’snuclear case should be handledby the I.A.E.A. and not theUnited Nations SecurityCouncil, which has imposedtwo rounds of sanctions onTehran.

“There is no justificationfor Iran’s case to remain at theU.N. Security Council,”Ayatollah Khamenei toldMohamed ElBaradei, theagency’s director, officialIranian news media reported.

Dr. ElBaradei met withAyatollah Khamenei andPresident MahmoudAhmadinejad during a two-dayvisit to Tehran to push formore cooperation in resolvingquestions about Iran’s atomicactivity, which the UnitedStates fears may result in theproduction of nuclear weapons.

The I.A.E.A. has sought toverify Iran’s assertion that itsuranium enrichment programexists solely for civilian energypurposes. It was notimmediately clear what, if any,concrete results were achievedduring Dr. ElBaradei’s first tripto Iran since 2006. He toldreporters on Friday that he waslooking forward to “acceleratedcooperation” from Iran.

Iran said in August that itwould answer questions aboutits nuclear program, but anend-of-year deadline passedwith important issues stillunresolved.

London Sunday TelegraphJanuary 13, 200818. Ahmadinejad LosingGrip On Iran’s GuardsBy Gethin Chamberlain andKay Biouki

Hardliners bent onconfrontation with the West arepresenting President MahmoudAhmadinejad of Iran with aserious challenge to hisauthority.

Government insiders saythe clash in the Strait ofHormuz between Americanwarships and Iranian gunboatslast week exposed a powerstruggle at the heart of theregime in Teheran.

According to sources

within Iran’s ministry offoreign affairs, MrAhmadinejad was kept in thedark about the decision tochallenge the US ships untilafter the confrontation hadended. He is understood tohave been unhappy about theaction, which was ordered byhardline elements in thecountry’s RevolutionaryGuard.

“The president is not thecommander-in-chief in Iranand it seems he was totallyunaware of the incident beingplanned in advance,” onesenior official admitted.

Sources within the Iranianregime have told The SundayTelegraph that the incident isthe latest in a series of clashesbetween the president andhardliners, who are unhappywith what they see asbacksliding by MrAhmadinejad.

Mr Ahmadinejad has beenwidely perceived as being seton a collision course with theWest, particularly over theissue of Iran’s nuclearprogramme. But someobservers suggest that thepresident wants to distancehimself from the country’sproblems in the run up toparliamentary elections inMarch. The Iranian economy isstruggling and consumers faceheating fuel shortages.

The president isunderstood to have beencritical of a recent crackdownon unIslamic dress on thestreets of Teheran, whenso-called morality policepicked on women wearingmake up and knee-high boots.Thousands were warned andsome arrested. In a moresinister development, a youngwoman doctor died in policecustody after she was arrestedfor walking in a park with aman to whom she was notrelated.

Sources within thepresidential office said MrAhmadinejad had complainedabout the crackdown. He isalso reported to have clashedwith army chiefs over theirbelligerent statements about

page 21

Iran’s military capabilities.Mr Ahmadinejad, himself

a former member of theRevolutionary Guard, owesmuch of his political success toits paramilitary offshoot, theBasiji movement. But theBasijis remain loyal to thecountry’s supreme leader,Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ayatollah Khamenei lastweek urged those campaigningduring the forthcomingelections not to smear theirrivals, but that did not stopKayhan, one of Iran’s mainhardline newspapers, fromcriticising the president anddrawing attention to adisagreement between him andthe hardliners who havegathered around the ayatollah.

The growing ascendancyof the hardliners is alsoreflected in the appointment ofseveral of their number aselection monitors.

One of the casualties ofthe new climate of intoleranceis the French actress JulietteBinoche, who has foundherself the focus of demandsfor a clampdown on the issuingof visas to foreigners.

A petition from hardlineMPs noted: “The appearance offoreign actors in jointproductions would result incultural destruction, since theywould turn into role-models forIranian youth.”

Miss Binoche recentlytravelled to Iran to research thecountry before starting filmingof the film Certified Copy,directed by the Iranianfilmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

Additional reporting:Kathryn Hopkins

London Sunday TimesJanuary 13, 200819. Iran’s RevolutionaryGuard In Secret IraqTalks With USBy Marie Colvin

The head of the IranianRevolutionary Guard Corpsslipped into the green zone ofBaghdad last month to pressTehran’s hardline position overthe terms of the current talks

with American officials, it wasclaimed last week.

Iraqi government sourcessay that Major-GeneralMohammed Ali Jafari, 50,travelled secretly from Tehran.Jafari appears to have passedthrough checkpoints on hisway into the fortified enclavethat contains the Americanembassy and Iraqi ministries,even though he is onWashington’s “most wanted”list.

Last year Washingtondeclared the guard a “foreignterrorist organisation” andimposed sanctions on it.

One of the accusations thatled to the designation was thecharge that the Quds Force, abranch of the guard, wassupplying rockets, mortars androadside bombs known asexplosively formed projectiles(EFPs) to Shi’ite militias inIraq.

In recent days there hasbeen a sharp increase in the useof such bombs againstAmerican troops, and lastweekend five Iranianspeedboats were said to haveharassed three American Navyships, radioing a threat to blowthem up.

On his tour of the MiddleEast yesterday PresidentGeorge W Bush put Tehran onnotice over its support for theinsurgency in Iraq. “Iran’s rolein fomenting violence has beenexposed,” he said in Kuwait.

Iran and the United Stateshave held three rounds of talksover security in Iraq. Theyhave made little progress so farbut are considered abreakthrough because they arethe first face-to-face encounterssince 1980.

At the insistence of theAmericans, the talks betweenRyan Crocker, the Americanambassador to Iraq, andHassan Kazemi Qomi, hisIranian counterpart, have beenkept to the issue of security inIraq. But Tehran wants thembroadened to include therelease of Iranian diplomatsbeing held in Baghdad by theAmericans. It is understoodJafari was sent to Baghdad to

ensure that this happened.

New York PostJanuary 12, 200820. $20B Saudi ArmsDeal

WASHINGTON — TheBush administration will notifyCongress Monday of its intentto sell $20 billion in weapons,including precision-guidedbombs, to Saudi Arabia,moving up the announcementto coincide with the president’sarrival in Riyadh.

Last month, the StateDepartment said it would delaythe notification until afterCongress comes back intosession. But despite somelawmakers’ concern about thedeal, the proposed sale will beannounced Monday, a daybefore the House returns towork and more than a weekbefore senators return toWashington, said a seniorofficial.

AP

London Sunday TimesJanuary 13, 200821. Scotland YardBelieves Al-QaedaAssassinated BenazirBhuttoBy Christina Lamb

British officials haverevealed that evidence amassedby Scotland Yard detectivespoints towards Al-Qaedamilitants being responsible forthe assassination of BenazirBhutto.

Five experts in videoevidence and forensic sciencehave been in Pakistan for 10days since President PervezMusharraf took up an offerfrom Gordon Brown for Britishhelp in the investigation of theDecember 27 killing. Lastweek they were joined by threespecialists in explosives.

Bhutto’s murder as she lefta rally she had been addressingin Rawalpindi sparked aninternational outcry. Her bodywas flown home to be buriedwith no postmortemexamination. Companions

insist the cause of death - abullet wound in her neck - wasobvious.

Claims by the governmentthat she had fractured her skullon the sunroof of her car whileescaping the blast from asuicide bomb prompted furyfrom party supporters whoinsisted she had been shotbefore the explosion.

When footage of theincident clearly revealed a manwaving a pistol in the crowd,the government was accused ofa cover-up.

Musharraf was quick toblame the killing on BaitullahMehsud, a tribal leader fromthe Afghan border area ofsouthern Waziristan with linksto Al-Qaeda. The interiorministry released a transcript ofa purported telephoneconversation between Mehsudand a militant cleric in which,though Bhutto’s name was notmentioned, he appeared tocongratulate him on the death,saying: “Fantastic job. Verybrave boys, the ones who killedher.”

The transcript was metwith scepticism. Critics pointedout Mehsud had previouslybeen working with the Pakistanmilitary, receiving hundreds ofthousands of dollars and that ifthe country’s intelligenceservices could tape hisconversations, they should beable to capture him.

Last August Mehsudhumiliated Musharraf when hismen captured more than 250Pakistani soldiers andparamilitary troops, whosurrendered without firing ashot. Mehsud demanded therelease of 30 jailed militantsand the end of Pakistanimilitary operations in his tribalarea as the price for theirfreedom. To show he meantbusiness, he ordered thebeheading of three of hishostages. Musharraf gave in.

“Linking Mehsud toBhutto’s assassination wasdone for strategic reasons andhad nothing to do with theground realities,” said SajjanGohel, an expert on Al-Qaeda.

“Although Mehsud has

page 22

ideological sympathies withthe Taliban, his influence doesnot extend beyond the tribalareas and he certainly does nothave the resources to plan anattack in the centre of thecountry like the assassinationof Bhutto.”

But British and Americanofficials, who have examinedthe transcript, say they believeit is genuine and shareMusharraf’s view that Mehsudis behind most of the suicidebombings in Pakistan.

Asked why Pakistaniforces do not capture Mehsud,one official said: “It’s not soeasy to go into tribal areas.Look what happened to the lastlot of Pakistani soldiers thattried.” According to diplomats,Mehsud had dispatched teamsof suicide bombers round thecountry to follow Bhutto torallies and seize an opportunityto kill her.

The gun fired at Bhuttohas been checked forfingerprints by the ScotlandYard detectives. A governmentminister told The SundayTimes that these have beentraced through identity cards toa man in Swat, an area whereMehsud’s men have beenfighting.

“There was no cover-up,”he insisted. “It was justunfortunate that in all theshock and confusion at thebeginning, people shot theirmouths off talking aboutsunroofs rather than simplysaying it would beinvestigated.”

Scotland Yard has insistedthat its task is not to establishwho killed her but only howshe died.

Even that is notstraightforward. They cannotexamine the body, and thecrime scene and Bhutto’svehicle were both scrubbedwithin hours.

Every day anotherconspiracy theory emerges. Itis now widely believed that thegun had a laser sight,suggesting military complicity,or that a sniper may have beenin a nearby building.

Musharraf met the British

detectives last week for abriefing and later said heexpected them to have reacheda conclusion about how shedied before elections scheduledfor February 18.

Bhutto’s widower, AsifAli Zardari, has rejected theScotland Yard inquiry anddemanded a wider-rangingUnited Nations-ledinvestigation that would alsolook into the bombing ofBhutto’s bus in Karachi inOctober.

“She was a world leader,”he said. “We don’t just want asergeant from Scotland Yarddetermining the angle of fire.She’s dead - that’s the proof.We have the footage, we havethe doctors who were trying torescue her.”

It has never beenestablished who was behind themysterious plane crash thatkilled General Zia, Pakistan’slast military dictator in 1988;who murdered Bhutto’s brotherMurtaza in a Karachi shootoutin 1996; or who killed its firstprime minister Liaquat AliKhan, who was shot dead in1951 yards from where Bhuttodied.

Chicago TribuneJanuary 12, 200822. U.S. Aid ToWeapons Scientists OffMark

A U.S. economic aidprogram to keep Russianscientists from selling weaponsinformation apparentlyfunneled much of the money toscientists who never claimed tohave a background in nuclear,chemical or biologicalprograms, a congressionalreport said Friday.

The GovernmentAccountability Office auditorsalso found that assistance wentto scientists who were tooyoung to have participated inthe Soviet-era weaponsprograms, but instead helpedRussia and Ukraine train newscientists.

Washington Post

January 13, 2008Pg. 623. Intelligence ChiefCouches Reference ToWaterboarding As'Torture'By Associated Press

The nation's intelligencechief says that waterboarding"would be torture" if usedagainst him, or if someoneunder interrogation was takingwater into his lungs.

But Mike McConnelldeclined for legal reasons tosay whether the techniquecategorically should beconsidered torture.

"If it ever is determined tobe torture, there will be a hugepenalty to be paid for anyoneengaging in it," the director ofnational intelligence told theNew Yorker in this week'sissue, released today.

As McConnell describes it,a prisoner is strapped downwith a washcloth over his faceand water dripped into hisnose.

"If I had water draininginto my nose, oh God, I justcan't imagine how painful!Whether it's torture by anybodyelse's definition, for me itwould be torture," McConnelltold the magazine.

A spokesman forMcConnell said theintelligence chief does notdispute the quotes attributed tohim. McConnell wasinterviewed by LawrenceWright, who won a PulitzerPrize in 2007 for "TheLooming Towers," a book onal-Qaeda and the Sept. 11,2001, attacks.

McConnell said the legaltest for torture should be"pretty simple": "Is itexcruciatingly painful to thepoint of forcing someone tosay something because of thepain?"

White House spokesmanTony Fratto refused commentyesterday on waterboardingand McConnell's remarks.

"We don't talk aboutinterrogation techniques. Andwe are not going to respond toevery little thing that shows up

in the press," he said. "Wethink McConnell is doing anincredible job heading up theintelligence community,reforming it and making itincredibly effective in beingable to provide the presidentthe best intelligence on threatsto the nation. We think it'svitally important he and theintelligence community haveall the tools they need."

[A CIA spokesmanyesterday noted McConnell'sacknowledgement in the articlethat the agency's detention andinterrogation program hadsaved lives and providedinformation that could not havebeen obtained through othermeans. "What he is quoted assaying is a very strongendorsement of the value of theCIA's detention andinterrogation program,"spokesman Mark Mansfieldsaid in a statement. "It also isworth noting that DNIMcConnell is quoted as sayingthe United States does nottorture."]

CIA interrogators weregiven permission by the WhiteHouse in 2002 to waterboardthree prisoners deemedresistant to conventionaltechniques. The CIA has notused the technique since 2003;CIA Director Michael V.Hayden prohibited it in 2006.

Last summer, PresidentBush issued an executive orderallowing the CIA to use"enhanced interrogationtechniques" that go beyondwhat is allowed in the 2006Army Field Manual.Waterboarding is among thosetechniques.

Wright disclosed in hisarticle that the government haseavesdropped on his telephoneconversations with at least twosources: a relative of Aymanal-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda'ssecond-ranking leader; and alawyer of several meninterviewed for "The LoomingTowers."

It is unclear under whatauthorities those interceptswere conducted.

"It may be troublesome; itmay not be," McConnell told

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Wright. "You don't know."

Boston GlobeJanuary 13, 200824. Repairs Could SnagBlackwater ProbeEvidence lost from convoyvehicles in Baghdad shootingBy Lara Jakes Jordan and MattApuzzo, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -Blackwater Worldwiderepaired and repainted itstrucks immediately after adeadly September shooting inBaghdad, making it difficult todetermine whether enemygunfire provoked the attack,according to people familiarwith the government'sinvestigation of the incident.

Damage to the vehicles inthe convoy has been held up byBlackwater as proof that itssecurity guards were defendingthemselves against aninsurgent ambush when theyfired into a busy intersection,leaving 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

US military investigatorsinitially found "no enemyactivity involved" and the Iraqigovernment concluded that theshootings were unprovoked.

The repairs essentiallydestroyed evidence that JusticeDepartment investigatorshoped to examine in a criminalcase that has drawn worldwideattention. The Sept. 16shooting has strained USrelations with the Iraqigovernment, which wantsBlackwater expelled from thecountry. It also has become aflash point in the debate overwhether contractors areimmune from legalconsequences for their actionsin a war zone.

Blackwater's four armoredvehicles were repaired orrepainted within days of theshooting and before FBI teamswent to Baghdad to collectevidence, people close to thecase said. The work includedrepairs to a damaged radiatorthat Blackwater says is centralto its defense.

The damage andsubsequent repairs weredescribed by five people

familiar with the case whodiscussed it in separateinterviews over the past month.All spoke on condition ofanonymity because of thesensitivity of the case.

The repair work creates ahurdle for prosecutors as theyconsider building a caseagainst any of the 19 guards inthe Sept. 16 convoy. It alsomakes it harder for Blackwaterto prove its innocence as itfaces a grand jury investigationand multiple lawsuits over theshooting. The company is thetarget, too, of an unrelatedinvestigation into whether itscontractors smuggled weaponsinto Iraq.

Blackwater spokeswomanAnne Tyrrell said any repairs"would have been done at thegovernment's direction."Blackwater's contract with theState Department requires thatthe company maintain itsvehicles and keep them on theroad.

The State Departmentwould not comment onwhether it ordered the repairsto the vehicles involved in theshooting.

Blackwater's chiefexecutive, Erik Prince, haspointed to the damaged trucksto counter accusations that hiscontractors acted improperly.

In interviews last fall, hesaid three of Blackwater'sarmored vehicles were struckby gunfire and that the radiatorfrom one was "shot out anddisabled" during the shootingin Baghdad's Nisoor Square.An early two-page StateDepartment report supportsPrince's statements. The reportnoted the Blackwatercommand vehicle was"disabled during the attack"and had to be towed.

Prince has indicated thathe expects the FBIinvestigation to clear hiscompany. Yet people close tothe case say the vehicles andradiator alone probably will notbe enough to do that becauserepairing the trucks made itdifficult for investigators to saywhether the convoy was firedon - or not.

As for the radiator,investigators have verified thatit was damaged. But it, too,was repaired before the FBIarrived two weeks after theshooting.

No bullets were foundinside the radiator to prove thatit had been shot, as opposed tobeing broken during routineuse. That makes it hard forscientists to say for certainwhat caused the damage orwhen, according to those closeto the case.

The preliminary StateDepartment report noted"superficial damage" to thevehicles; photographs existshowing bullet damage.

People who have seen thephotos said there are no timestamps or other indications ofwhen that damage occurred.

Wall Street JournalJanuary 12, 2008Pg. 325. Lockheed HelicopterContract Hits HurdleBy August Cole

A multibillion-dollarLockheed Martin Corp.contract to build a new fleet ofMarine One helicopters for useby the president is in trouble,despite the company's efforts tokeep the prestigious programon track.

According to peoplefamiliar with the situation,John Young, the Pentagon's topweapons buyer, called for anunusual Saturday meeting withsenior Lockheed officials todiscuss the company's attemptsat building 28 highly modifiedhelicopters for White Houseuse.

The contract, which startedout at an estimated cost of $6.1billion, has been plagued byearly delays and engineeringchallenges, which would resultin the program's runningbillions of dollars over budgetif the Navy continues on itspresent course.

According to a seniorNavy acquisitions official, theNavy commissioned threestudies during the past year toexamine potential alternatives.

Canceling or severely cuttingback the program are amongthe possible options beingconsidered, say people familiarwith the situation. In addition,officials have been looking atthe possibility of asking UnitedTechnologies Corp.'s Sikorskyhelicopter unit to step in with aversion of its S-92 helicopter,which is the successor to thechopper that ferries thepresident on short trips.Versions of the S-92 arecurrently being used to carry ahandful of foreign leaders,including the president ofSouth Korea.

"There probably is noalternative that you couldimagine that's not underconsideration," said a seniorNavy acquisitions official.Winning the plum contract in2005 to build the Marine Onefleet was a coup for Lockheed,which has been seeking inrecent years to expand itsdefense business beyond itstraditional core of buildingfighter jets and missiles.

Lockheed and itsEuropean partner,Finmeccanica SA'sAgustaWestland, defeatedincumbent Sikorsky, which hadbeen the favorite to win.

Lockheed's three-engineUS101 helicopter is larger thanthe twin-engine Sikorskyhelicopter. The biggerLockheed helicopter can carrymore electronics aboard andgives passengers more room.

A Lockheed Martinspokesman said the companycontinues to "look at optionswith the Navy on how toproceed with the program."

In December, the Navyordered the Bethesda, Md.,defense giant to stop work onthe second portion of thecontract, which called forLockheed to build 23 of the 28helicopters, citing budgetissues. Work continues on theinitial batch of five helicopters,which would enter service in2009. The second batch ofhelicopters is slated to be moresophisticated and capable thanthe first five.

"We have now recognized

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based on the first three years ofexecuting the program...that it'sgoing to take more time andmoney" than originallyanticipated to complete thesecond group of helicopters,the acquisitions official said.

Lockheed and the Navyhave been haggling for monthsabout hundreds of designchanges that the Navy hasrequired since the contract wasawarded. Many of the changeshave been technicallychallenging and have resultedin adding performance-robbingweight to the helicopter.Officials acknowledge thatcosts have ballooned, but theysay it's impossible to put anaccurate figure on them untilthe program is restructured.

Houston ChronicleJanuary 13, 2008Pg. 126. Hope Endures ForFamilies Of MissingTroopsRelatives get an update onefforts to find loved onesBy Alexis Grant

It's been more than 50years since David Velasco'solder brother was reportedmissing during the KoreanWar, but he still harbors hopethat Sgt. Frank Velasco'sremains will be returned home.

Velasco and the familymembers of about 60 otherservicemen listed as missing inaction attended a Departmentof Defense-sponsored FamilyUpdate conference in Houstonon Saturday to learn what themilitary is doing to find theirloved ones.

"I've seen so many peoplethat have had their loved onesreturned," said Velasco, wholives in east Houston. "Maybeit's my turn."

The family members, fromacross Texas and severalsurrounding states, representedmissing personnel from WorldWar II, the Korean andVietnam wars and the ColdWar. Although it has beendecades since the mendisappeared, new DNA

technology has given theirrelatives reason to believe theymay still be found.

Velasco said he was 6years old when his brotherdisappeared on Nov. 26, 1950,their mother's birthday. Heremembers watching her trackdown servicemen who returnedfrom the war to ask if they hadany information about Frank.

"She'd always come awaycrying," said Velasco, 62.

Although his mother hassince died, he has made it hisgoal to find out what happenedto his brother, who was about20 when he disappeared.

The others who came tothe conference at theDoubletree Hotel near BushIntercontinental Airport hadsimilar goals. Some hadattended previous conferencesin the Family Update program,which has been running for 13years.

But others, including BillThorne and Anita Stevens ofHouston, were new. Theyprovided DNA samplesthrough a quick mouth swab inhopes of someday identifyingthe remains of their cousin,Army Pfc. Carl Hudson, whoalso disappeared during theKorean War.

Their mother, Iris Thorne,who previously had provided aDNA sample, saidunderstanding the process inidentifying service membersgives her confidence that theDefense Department will becorrect if it ever reports thather nephew's remains havebeen found.

"I'm hoping some day, inmy lifetime, we'll find him,"said Thorne, 82.

The DefensePOW/Missing PersonnelOffice identifies up to 100missing service members everyyear and returns their remainsto their families, said JamesCanik, deputy director of theArmed Forces DNAidentification laboratory. Manyidentifications are based onDNA given by relatives, hesaid after encouragingconference attendees to providesamples.

"Trying to find the correctdonor for DNA is a realchallenge," he said. "But it's asecret to our success."

Since mitochondrial DNA,the type used to identify oldremains, is inherited onlymaternally, family membersrelated to the serviceman'smother, such as his siblings,are the best sources. Samplesfrom the missing person'schildren would not contain hismitochondrial DNA.

About 1,760 servicemenare still missing from theVietnam War, 8,100 from theKorean War, 125 from theCold War and 78,000 fromWW II, the DefensePOW/Missing PersonnelOffice reported. Only oneserviceman is listed as missingfrom the Persian Gulf War.Four are missing from currentconflicts, but another agencyoversees the search for them.

More infoDo you have a family

member who's missing inaction? Here's how to find outthe latest on the case.

Contact the DefensePOW/Missing PersonnelOffice: Visitwww.dtic.mil/dpmo or call703-699-1140.

Donate DNA: Provide amouth swab sample, whichcould help DefenseDepartment specialists identifyyour loved one.

Source: DefensePOW/Missing Personnel Office

Miami HeraldJanuary 13, 200827. Economy Ties IraqAs Top ConcernBy Alan Fram, AssociatedPress

WASHINGTON -- Thefaltering economy has caughtup with the Iraq War aspeople's top worry, a nationalpoll suggests, with the rapidturnabout already showing upon the presidential campaigntrail and in maneuveringbetween President Bush andCongress.

Twenty percent named theeconomy as the foremost

problem in an AssociatedPress-Ipsos poll, virtually tyingthe 21 percent who cited thewar. In October, the last timethe survey posed the questionabout the country's top issue,the war came out on top by a2-1 margin.

About equal proportions ofRepublicans, Democrats andindependents in the new pollsaid the economy was theirmajor worry, suggesting theissue looms as a potent one inboth parties' presidentialcontests.

Candidates from eachparty have started talking abouthow they would bolster theeconomy. The next presidentialcontest is Tuesday'sRepublican primary inMichigan, which had a 7.4percent unemployment rate inNovember that is the nation'sworst.

Even as signs of economicweakness in this country havegrown in recent months, U.S.and Iraqi casualties in Iraqhave been dropping since thesummer. Though many in theUnited States remain againstthe war, growing numbers saythey think President Bush'stroop increase last year hasbeen working, and politicianssay the issue is raised withdecreasing frequency byconstituents.

''The lines are crossingnow,'' said Whit Ayres, aRepublican pollster notworking for a presidentialcandidate. ``As Iraq becomesmore stable and less violent,concern about Iraq isdiminishing. It will still be animportant issue, but theeconomy is filling thevacuum.''

Economic concerns wereparticularly high in the RustBelt region of Michigan,Illinois, Indiana, Ohio andWisconsin, states that areexpected to be pivotal in theNovember election. About onein three there named theeconomy.

Washington PostJanuary 13, 2008

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Pg. B728. Why Al-Qaeda IsLosingBy Gary Anderson

The conventional wisdomis that al-Qaeda is making acomeback from its rout inAfghanistan. Many point to itssuccess in killing BenazirBhutto in Pakistan and to itssupport of Islamic insurgentsthere as evidence. Not so.Al-Qaeda is waning. Its declinehas less to do with our successthan with the institutionallimitations of the al-Qaedaorganization. Simply stated, toknow al-Qaeda closely is not tolove it.

Everyplace whereal-Qaeda has gained somemeasure of control over acivilian population, it hasquickly worn out its welcome.This happened in Kabul and inAnbar province in westernIraq. It may well happen inPakistan as a reaction to thekilling of Bhutto.

No one likes to bebrutalized and dominated byforeigners. The weakness ofal-Qaeda is that everywhere itgoes its people are strangers.This is no way to build aworldwide caliphate.

We may not be loved inIraq and Afghanistan, butcompared with the deliberatelybrutal methods of bin Laden'sassociates we become apalatable alternative. This isparticularly true because, likevisiting grandchildren, we willeventually go home.

Bhutto once responded toa friend who was concernedabout her safety by saying,"Muslims don't kill women."She was only partly right; realMuslims don't do that, butal-Qaeda does. Its membershave killed more Muslimcivilians than have misdirectedcoalition airstrikes in Iraq andAfghanistan combined. Thedifference is that theAmericans and their alliesregret and investigate suchincidents; al-Qaeda plans andcelebrates them.

Why, then, are wesupposedly losing the

information war in the Muslimworld, and why has there notbeen more of an outcry amongMuslims over this slaughter ofinnocents? A big part of thereason is that we spend toomuch time wanting to be likedrather than turning Muslimanger on our enemies.

We preach some valuesthat are viewed as alien andthreatening to the traditionalorder of things. Our popularculture is seen as decadent atbest and downright threateningat worst in traditional cultures.Our message isn't selling. Wecan't change what we are, norwould we want to. No matterhow much the government maydisapprove, the government'sofficial propaganda will beoverwhelmed by the deluge,both positive and negative,from the popular media. Weneed to accept this fact andmove on, rather than wastemore millions on strategiccommunications "charmcampaigns."

What we can do is toexpose our Islamic extremistenemies for what they are. Thepeople of Afghanistan andAnbar found this out the hardway and threw the rascals out.But when al-Qaeda kills scoresof innocents, we report it as astatistic without context. Wemay see weeping relatives andbloodstained bodies from adistance, on video or inphotographs, but they aredepersonalized, and peoplequickly become desensitized toanonymous images. Ironically,Stalin was right: One death is atragedy; millions are a statistic.We need to help Muslimsunderstand how these peoplereally treat other Muslims.

The original Islamicmovement spread its doctrineby a combination of militaryaction and compassion. Charitywas a key tenet. This is largelywhy Hamas and Hezbollahgain a degree of popularsupport in the areas theycontrol. That ingredient ismissing in theal-Qaeda/Taliban approach tothe world. To them, winninghearts and minds means,

"Agree with us or else." That islargely the reason that the U.S.government dropped its early"for us or against us" approach.It has taken us some time, butwe seem to be recovering fromthat approach.

If I were directing the U.S.strategic informationcampaign, I would spend mydollars on collecting photos ofthe Muslim innocents al-Qaedahas killed and putting belowthem quotations from theKoran decrying such practices.These advertisements wouldappear in every newspaper andTV station in the Muslimworld where I could buy printspace or air time.

We may not be losing thewar on terrorism, but we arenot doing all that we can to winit.

Gary Anderson led a studyof al-Qaeda from 2003 to 2005for a Defense Departmentcontractor. He lectures on"The Revolution in MilitaryAffairs" at George WashingtonUniversity.

Boston GlobeJanuary 13, 200829. A War ReportDiscreditedBy Jeff Jacoby, GlobeColumnist

Few medical journals havethe storied reputation of TheLancet, a British publicationfounded in 1823. In the courseof its long history, The Lancethas published work ofexceptional influence, such asJoseph Lister's principles ofantiseptics in 1867 and HowardFlorey's Nobel Prize-winningdiscoveries on penicillin in1940. Today it is one of themost frequently cited medicaljournals in the world.

So naturally there wasgreat interest when the Lancetpublished a study in October2006, three weeks before themidterm US elections,reporting that 655,000 peoplehad died in Iraq as a result ofthe US-led war.

Hundreds of news outlets,to say nothing of antiwaractivists and lawmakers,

publicized the astonishingfigure, which was more than 10times the death toll estimatedby other sources. (The Iraqihealth ministry, for example,put the mortality level throughJune 2006 at 50,000.)

If The Lancet's numberwas accurate, more Iraqis haddied in the two years since theUS invasion than during theeight-year war with Iran.President Bush, asked aboutthe study, dismissed it out ofhand: "I don't consider it acredible report." Tony Blair'sspokesman also brushed it offas "not ... anywhere nearaccurate."

But the media played it up."One in 40 Iraqis killed sinceinvasion," blared a front-pageheadline in the Guardian, aleading British paper.CNN.com's story began: "Warhas wiped out about 655,000Iraqis, or more than 500 peoplea day, since the US-ledinvasion, a new study reports."Few journalists questioned theintegrity of the study or itsauthors, Gilbert Burnham andLes Roberts of Johns HopkinsUniversity's Bloomberg Schoolof Public Health, and Iraqiscientist Riyadh Lafta. NPR'sRichard Harris reported askingBurnham, "Right before theelection you're making thisannouncement. Is thispolitically motivated? And hesaid, no, it's not politicallymotivated."

But the truth, it turns out,is that the report was drenchedwith politics, and itsjaw-dropping conclusionsshould have inspired anythingbut confidence.

In an extensivelyresearched cover story lastweek, National Journal took aclose look under the hood ofthe Lancet/Johns Hopkinsstudy. Reporters Neil Munroand Carl M. Cannon found thatit was marred by grave flaws,such as unsupervised Iraqisurvey teams, and surveysamples that were too small tobe statistically valid.

The study's authorsrefused to release most of theirunderlying data so other

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researchers could double-checkit. The single disk they finally,grudgingly, supplied containedsuspicious evidence of"data-heaping" - that is,fabricated numbers.Researchers failed to gatherbasic demographic data fromthose they interviewed, a keysafeguard against fraud.

"They failed to do any ofthe [routine] things to preventfabrication," Fritz Scheuren,vice president for statistics atthe National Opinion ResearchCenter, told the reporters.

Bad as the study'smethodological defects were,its political taint was worse:

Much of the funding forthe study came from the OpenSociety Institute of leftistbillionaire George Soros, astrident critic of the Iraq warwho, as Munro and Cannonpoint out, "spent $30 milliontrying to defeat Bush in 2004."

Coauthors Burnham andRoberts were avowedopponents of the Iraq war, andsubmitted their report to TheLancet on the condition that itbe published before theelection.

Roberts, a self-described"advocate" committed to"ending the war," even soughtthe Democratic nomination forNew York's 24thCongressional District.

"It was a combination ofIraq and Katrina that just putme over the top," he toldNational Journal.

Lancet editor RichardHorton "also makes no secretof his leftist politics," Munroand Cannon write.

At a September 2006 rally,he publicly denounced "thisaxis of Anglo-Americanimperialism" for causing"millions of people ... to die inpoverty and disease." UnderHorton, The Lancet hasincreasingly been accused ofshoddiness and sensationalism.

In 2005, 30 leading Britishscientists blasted Horton's"desperate headline-seeking"and charged him with running"badly conducted and poorlyrefereed scare stories." Theclaim that the US-led invasion

of Iraq had triggered aslaughter of almost Rwandanproportions was a gross andoutlandish exaggeration; itshould have been greeted withextreme skepticism.

But because it served theinterests of those eager todiscredit the war as a moralcatastrophe, common-sensestandards were ignored. "In ourview, the Hopkins study standsuntil someone knocks it down,"editorialized the BaltimoreSun.

Now someone has,devastatingly. But will thedebunking be trumpeted asloudly and clearly as theoriginal report? Don't holdyour breath.

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