Politics

Muslims Attack, U.N. Bolts

Muslims Attack; Int'l Groups Bolt Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents blasted a freight train west of Baghdad on Thursday and exploded a bomb near a convoy in a northern city, injuring a U.S. soldier, as international organizations continued their exodus from Iraq. The freight train was carrying military supplies near Fallujah west of Baghdad, when an improvised bomb set four shipping containers ablaze. No casualties were reported, but the attack sparked a frenzy of looting by Iraqis who carried off computers, tents, bottled water and other supplies. A soldier from the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division was slightly wounded early Thursday when a bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in the northern city of Mosul, the military said.

Congress Near $87 Billion Deal for Muslims
WASHINGTON - Despite rising criticism about President Bush's handling of Iraq, Congress is on the verge of approving an $87 billion package for military and reconstruction costs in Iraq and Afghanistan that largely follows the White House's request.

233 Attacks on US in Last Week Alone
BAGHDAD — In a dramatic upsurge in attacks, resistance fighters destroyed an American tank north of Baghdad and wounded seven Ukrainians in the first ambush of multinational troops stationed south of the capital, US and coalition officials said yesterday.

Postwar Deaths Now Exceed Toll of Combat
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. intervention in Iraq has passed a grim milestone: More soldiers have now lost their lives in the occupation than in combat. Since President Bush declared major fighting finished on May 1, 117 soldiers have died, three more than during the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein.

Sick Soldiers Wait for Treatment
FORT KNOX, Ky. -- More than 400 sick and injured soldiers, including some who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, are stuck at Fort Knox, waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment, a score of soldiers said in interviews. The delays appear to have demolished morale -- many said they had lost faith in the Army and would not serve again -- and could jeopardize some soldiers' health, the soldiers said. The Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are in what the Army calls "medical hold," like roughly 600 soldiers under similar circumstances waiting for doctors at Fort Stewart, Ga.

Tokyo Court: Doctor Ordered To Hang In Sarin Cases
Tomomasa Nakagawa, a 41-year-old former physician who advised the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was sentenced in the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday to hang for his role in the deaths of 25 people. Nakagawa, once a key aide to Aum founder Chizuo Matsumoto, 48, known as Shoko Asahara, was found guilty of murder and involvement in the manufacture of deadly sarin nerve gas that was spread in Nagano Prefecture in 1994, killing seven, and in the Tokyo subway system in 1995, killing 12.

Youngest Victim of Sniper Tells of Bullet in Chest
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Iran Brown had been kicked off the school bus for eating candy, so his aunt drove him to Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Md., that Monday morning last fall. Moments after he got out of her car, he fell to the ground, a gunshot wound in his chest. "I put my book bag down and I got shot," he testified matter-of-factly on Wednesday before a jury here. As blood spewed across his shirt, he pulled himself back into his aunt's car and they sped off to a nearby hospital. "I love you," he told her, fighting for breath and growing faint as his blood pressure plummeted, his aunt testified.

Senators Demand CIA Papers
Washington — The Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee demanded Wednesday that CIA Director George Tenet turn over documents concerning prewar intelligence assessments about Iraq by week's end. Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Vice Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who are overseeing an investigation into the accuracy of U.S. intelligence about Iraq and its weapons potential, said some committee requests for data "have gone unanswered since July."

Conviction of Ex-C.I.A. Operative Is Set Aside
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in Texas has thrown out the 1983 conviction there of Edwin P. Wilson, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, for selling tons of explosives to Libya, ruling that prosecutors knowingly used false testimony to undermine his defense.

Posted by Editor at October 30, 2003 10:54 AM