Current Events (NEWS)

[Littledragon]

26 Iraqis killed in heavy fighting.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Clashes across Iraq, including a suicide bombing at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, has left more than 26 people dead and more than 90 wounded, according to Iraqi and U.S. military officials.

An Iraqi health ministry official said most of the casualties occurred in Baghdad Sunday on Haifa Street in intense fighting between insurgents and U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. Three other incidents also killed at least four Iraqi police officers.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded at 6:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) at Abu Ghraib prison -- the scene of this year's abuse scandal -- after the driver tried to crash through the front gate, according to a spokesman for detainee operations.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said the driver of the vehicle was the only casualty.

Col. Mohammad of the Abu Ghraib police station told CNN five civilians were injured in the neighborhood as U.S. forces swept the area.

And in Ramadi, about 100 kilometers west of Baghdad, clashes between insurgents and U.S. Marines killed at least three Iraqis and wounded another 26 Sunday, Iraq's Ministry of Health said Sunday.

An independent journalist in the flashpoint city in the so-called Sunni Triangle told CNN battles have flared sporadically throughout the day. The director of the al-Ramadi hospital said his hospital received 10 dead and 40 wounded. The U.S. military said it was checking the reports.

Three Iraqi National Guard troops also died on Sunday, three were wounded and another Iraqi soldier was missing after a car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded as their patrol passed by Sunday morning.

That attack happened at 10 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) on the road to Al Mashru, about 20 miles northeast of Al Hillah City, according a written statement from the Multinational Forces.

Also on Sunday a car bomb targeted a vehicle carrying several police officers in western Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding four others in the vehicle, according to an Iraqi police officer.

Col. Alaa Adeen Bashir, the director of a police station in western Baghdad, and 1st Lt. Maher Mohammed Abbass were killed immediately in the attack, which happened around 7 a.m., the police officer said.

In a separate incident, Maj. Phil Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division said a suicide car bomber detonated near a Green Zone checkpoint early Sunday in central Baghdad, killing the driver but causing no other casualties.

A police patrol commander was killed and two other police officers wounded in a drive-by shooting at 8:30 a.m., also in western Baghdad, according to ministry of interior spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman.

Four Iraqis were also killed early Sunday when two rockets landed on two separate houses in southern Baghdad around 1:30 a.m., according to an Iraqi police officer from the al-Dura station.

The dead included a seven-year-old child, an Iraqi police officer and a member of Iraq's Facility Protection Services, the officer said.

Intense fighting between insurgents and Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. forces, erupted on Haifa Street at about 5:30 a.m. and lasted for two-and-a-half hours, according to witnesses and Iraqi officials.

Four cars have been destroyed and buildings in the area have sustained significant gunfire damage.

Saad al-Amli, a Health Ministry official, said the violence on Haifa Street killed 13 and wounded 50 others.

Residents said most of the casualties happened after a crowd amassed around a burning tank and was fired on by a helicopter.

Two journalists were among the casualties. A Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters news agency was wounded when the U.S. helicopter fired on a crowd that gathered around the burning tank, according to a Reuters spokesperson.

The airstrike killed a producer for Arabic language network Al-Arabiya, according to Nihad Ya'qub, an executive director with the network.

Mazin al-Tumaidi, of Palestinian nationality, was near the U.S. tank as Iraqis chanted around the burning vehicle, Ya'qub said. A U.S. helicopter fired a rocket at the crowd, killing al-Tumaidi, Ya'qub said.

The U.S. military said a car bomb hit a Bradley fighting vehicle which was en route to help a patrol on Haifa Street, slightly wounding four U.S. soldiers.

After the Bradley was evacuated, air support destroyed the vehicle to prevent "looting and harm to the Iraqi people," according to the Coalition Press Information Center.

Witnesses said the U.S. military cordoned off the area and searched homes.

The Green Zone -- where the Iraqi interim government and U.S.-led coalition are based -- was also hit by several rocket or mortar attacks at about 6 a.m.

Heavy, black smoke was rising from the area, and the exchange of heavy gunfire could be heard some distance away.

"It sounds like insanity over here. We're hearing a whole lot of shooting and a whole lot of explosions," a military spokesman for the combined Press Information Center told CNN.

The Green Zone is the target of frequent mortar and rocket attacks by insurgents.

Other developments:

A purported statement by a previously unknown Iraqi group threatened on Sunday that two Italian hostages will be killed unless Italy begins withdrawing its forces from Iraq. (Full story)


On Saturday four Iraqis were killed Saturday in separate incidents and the wife and three children of an Iraqi National Guard officer were kidnapped. (Full story)


A U.S. Army military intelligence soldier was sentenced Saturday after pleading guilty to charges connected to his role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Army Spec. Armin Cruz was the first military intelligence soldier charged in the case. He was sentenced to eight months confinement, demoted in rank and given a bad conduct discharge. (Full story)


Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawar is visiting Italy, the latest stop in his European trip, to meet with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other Italian officials. The Italian government provides one of the larger contingents in the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq: about 2,700 troops.

 

[yudansha]

LD could you combine those posts and not flood the thread?...

... I thought there was an agreement!!


Report: huge explosion in North Korean province
By: CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

SEOUL, South Korea (news - web sites) (AP) - A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea (news - web sites), sending a huge column of smoke into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency reported Sunday.

The South Korean government said it was trying to confirm the report of an explosion at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Yanggang province near the border with China.

The Yonhap news agency carried conflicting reports from unidentified sources, with one in Washington saying the incident could be related to a natural disaster such as a forest fire. It also cited a diplomatic source in Seoul as raising the possibility of an accident or a nuclear test.

Although North Korea is believed to be developing nuclear weapons, international experts would likely have been able to detect the test if one had occurred several days ago.

"We understand that a mushroom-shaped cloud about 3.5-to 4-kilometer (2.2 miles to 2.5 miles) in diameter was monitored during the explosion," the source in Seoul told Yonhap. Yonhap described the source as "reliable."

Thursday was the anniversary of North Korea's founding on Sept. 9, 1948. Leader Kim Jong Il uses the occasion to stage performances and other events to bolster loyalty among the impoverished North Korean population.

Experts have speculated that North Korea might use a major anniversary to conduct a nuclear-related test, but one analyst said an open test, as opposed to one below ground, would be hard in such a small country.

"It's difficult to say, but it won't be easy for North Korea to conduct a nuclear test without resulting in massive losses of its own people," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert in Seoul. "I think there is a more possibility that it is a simple accident, rather than a deliberate nuclear test."

Yonhap's diplomatic source in Seoul said the explosion took place "not far" from a military base that holds ballistic missiles. North Korea, which has a large missile arsenal and more than a million soldiers, is dotted with military installations.

The damage and crater left by the explosion in Kim Hyong Jik county was big enough to be noticed by a satellite, a source in Beijing told Yonhap.

After a National Security Council meeting, South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said the government was trying to confirm the report about the explosion. Asked about the possibility of a nuclear test, he said:

"I believe some foreign media made such reports. However, currently, we believe that it is not related to such reports."

On Saturday, North Korea said recent revelations that South Korea conducted secret nuclear experiments involving uranium and plutonium made the communist state more determined to pursue its own nuclear programs.

The South Korean experiments, conducted in 1982 and 2000, were likely to further complicate the already stalled six-nation talks aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear development. South Korea has said the experiments were purely for research and did not reflect a desire to develop weapons.

On April 22, train wagons at a railway station exploded in the North Korean town of Ryongchon, killing 160 people and injuring an estimated 1,300, according to some estimates. The blast was believed to have been sparked by a train laden with oil and chemicals that hit power lines.

The explosion on Thursday was bigger than the Ryongchon train explosion, which devastated a wide area, Yonhap said.
_________

Iran rejects European demands to abandon its nuclear fuel program
By: ALI AKBAR DAREINI

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Sunday rejected demands by Europe's three major powers to abandon its uranium enrichment program but reasserted its readiness to provide guarantees it will not build a nuclear weapon.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran already has the technology required to develop nuclear fuel and would not reverse the situation. "If the demand is that we don't master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, it's out of the question because we have reached that point," Asefi told a news conference.

"But if Europeans want assurances that we only make peaceful use of nuclear energy, we are ready to give guarantees," he said.

Asefi said the guarantees Iran was prepared to offer will be within the framework of an extension of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

According to a confidential document made available to The Associated Press on Saturday, Britain, France and Germany have agreed to give Iran a November deadline for complying with concerns about its nuclear capability.

Prepared for Monday's start of a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the document proposes a so-called "trigger mechanism," warning of possible "further steps" - which diplomats defined as shorthand for referral of Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council.

The document brings the three European countries closer to the U.S. position on what to do about Iran's nuclear program. Washington insists Tehran is covertly trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Up to now, the three European countries have resisted U.S. attempts to have Iran hauled before the Security Council.

 

[Amos Stevens]

Oprah gives away 276 pontaic G6s

Thanks, Oprah! Talk show gives away 276 Pontiac G6s; GM provided vehicles
MARTY BERNSTEIN | Automotive News
Posted Date: 9/14/04
General Motors gave away $7.7 million worth of Pontiac G6s -- 276 of them -- Monday during the season-opening Oprah Winfrey show. The public relations value for the automaker may be incalculable.

The G6 giveaway introduced a "Wildest Dreams Come True" theme for the 19th season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the top daytime talk program in U.S. syndication since its debut in 1986. The show is seen in 212 U.S. markets and 109 other markets.

Said Mark-Hans Richter, Pontiac's director of marketing: "It's incalculable. The power of this is not in how many minutes of airtime we received. It's the power of Oprah. The buzz and validity is priceless, especially among women. There will be a lot of women talking about the G6 tonight over dinner."

Strategically Pontiac wanted to reach women with news about the new G6. The Oprah show was a good fit, said Richter. "But we had to make it exceptional, something no other car company could replicate, emulate or surpass with her show. I think we just pulled it off."

The process took over one year and was a collaborative effort between Pontiac and the brand's African American advertising agency partner, Vigilante of New York City, which had the contacts with the producers of the show and began the relationship.

Each vehicle, valued at $28,000, is equipped with OnStar and XM Satellite Radio. Audience members will be able to customize their cars through a concierge service set up by Pontiac. The automaker expects local news coverage as each car is delivered.

Said Iceology analyst Wes Brown: "The argument could be made from a coup standpoint this is pretty big." Pontiac will likely get some boost from receiving a de facto endorsement -- at least for the G6 -- from Winfrey, Brown said. And in the days to come television news coverage of the giveaway and comments from nighttime celebrity talk shows will help generate buzz for Pontiac and its newest model.

Brown questioned whether the Winfrey demographic is the audience Pontiac is hoping to win over as it repositions its brand. He said he could envision a promotion with someone like Jon Stewart, host of the Comedy Central cable show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as ultimately a better demographic fit for Pontiac.

Still, said Brown: "They are definatley creating a lot of buzz."

The show opened with Winfrey calling 11 members of the audience to the stage and surprising them with the new car. She then handed out gift boxes to the rest of the audience, saying one of them contained the keys to a 12th free car. At the count of three, the boxes were opened all at once, revealing to shrieks of delight that everyone had won a set of keys.

Winfrey then led the ecstatic crowd outside the studio to a parking lot filled with G6s topped with big red bows. Each member of the audience was instructed to contact a Pontiac representative to personally customize the actual cars they will receive, allowing them to choose the color and features that come with a fully loaded model.

Winfrey also gave away a four-year college scholarship, $10,000 wardrobe and make-over to a young woman who spent her teen years in foster care and homeless shelters. And a family with eight foster children was presented with a new houseful of furniture and electronics plus a $130,000 check to cover their mortgage and home repairs.

Reuterscontributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

More Violence In Iraq!

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Assailants Tuesday launched two deadly assaults at Iraqi police targets -- killing 47 people in a car bombing at a police recruit line in Baghdad and 12 police officers in a drive-by shooting in Baquba.

An Islamist Web site Tuesday posted claims of responsibility for both attacks by a group affiliated with Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Claims of responsibility by the group -- Unification and Jihad -- cannot be confirmed independently by CNN. The group has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and other terrorist attacks in Iraq.

Deadly attacks against police targets have been a constant in the Iraqi insurgency as rebels attempt to intimidate Iraqis and thwart them from joining the fledgling government's security forces, whose growth and power is important to Iraq's future stability.

The Baghdad bombing took place on a crowded road near Haifa Street, a dangerous stretch through central Baghdad dotted with markets, coffee shops and hair salons. The neighborhood has been plagued by fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents, earning a nickname from residents -- "Little Falluja." Falluja is a rebel stronghold city to the west of Baghdad.

Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said a Toyota four-door sedan was used in the attack. Saad Alamili with Iraq's Ministry of Health said 47 were killed and 114 were wounded in the attack.

The carnage along the stretch sparked anger at the United States and Iraq for poor security. Upset crowds sifted through debris and cursed Americans.

One man cursed President Bush. Another cursed Americans, saying "it's an American-Israeli conspiracy."

Video outside the Karkh Police administrative and recruitment center showed smoldering wreckage of seven or eight cars.

The same police station came under mortar attack a couple of hours earlier. Of the four mortars fired toward the building, two landed in the courtyard behind it, one landed near the front gate and a fourth did not explode. No injuries were reported.

In Baquba two hours later, gunmen attacked a police minibus in a drive-by shooting, killing 12 officers and wounding three civilians, Iraqi authorities said.

Rahman said the minibus was filled with 18 police officers. The Health Ministry provided the death toll.

Iraq's charge d'affaires at the United Nations said attacks such as those Tuesday won't keep Iraq from staging a vote for a transitional national assembly in January.

"The terrorists are in a frenzy to delay elections," Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi said. "We will not give in to these intimidations."

Other developments

A group calling itself the Unification Lions Brigades claims to have kidnapped a Jordanian truck driver, according to video of the group shown Tuesday on the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera. The group set a 48-hour deadline for his employer to stop all operations in Iraq "or they will kill the hostage," Al-Jazeera reported.


Sabotage of an oil pipeline caused some high-power lines and wires at the Bayji power station to melt in northern Iraq on Tuesday, said Electricity Minister Aiham al-Sammarai. That forced authorities to shut down the power station temporarily to prevent further damage, al-Sammarai said. As a result, many Iraqis lost electricity all over the country. All electrical power is expected to be restored by Tuesday evening.


A Task Force Olympia soldier died and five others were injured Tuesday when suspected insurgents struck their patrol with small-arms fire on the western side of Mosul. The injured were evacuated to military hospitals in Mosul and Baghdad.


The U.S. military reported Tuesday that two U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded Monday in an attack in Baghdad. A roadside bomb and small-arms fire were used by the assailants. The deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 1,015, including 767 killed in hostile action and 248 killed in nonhostile activities, according to the U.S. military.


Residents of besieged Tal Afar in northern Iraq -- who fled during recent fighting there between U.S. and Iraqi forces and insurgents -- were being allowed to return to the city "in a controlled manner for security purposes," the U.S. military said Tuesday. Dozens of people were killed during the fighting and many buildings were destroyed. The city was reclaimed by U.S. and Iraqi forces Sunday, after the U.S. military said Tal Afar was "a suspected haven for terrorists crossing into Iraq from Syria."


A group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released a video Monday apparently showing the beheading of a Turkish truck driver who was kidnapped last month in Iraq. The video was posted on the Web site of the group Unification and Jihad. Al-Zarqawi has claimed credit for several attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces, including the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 23 civilians August 2003.


Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, former U.S. Marine commander of forces in western Iraq, said Sunday that he had opposed the method and timing of the U.S. response to those attacks. Conway made his comments shortly after relinquishing his command at a ceremony at Marine headquarters outside Falluja. (Full story)

CNN's Diana Muriel, Octavia Nasr, Kevin Flower, Arwa Damon, Mohammad Tawfeek and Abbas Al-Kazani contributed to this report.

 

[Amos Stevens]

Soldier fatally shot after returning from Iraq

Soldier fatally shot after returning from Iraq
2 soldiers held on murder charges
Thursday, September 16, 2004 Posted: 7:40 AM EDT (1140 GMT)



TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- A Fort Riley soldier who recently returned from a second tour of duty in Iraq was killed and another soldier was critically wounded in violence that erupted at a rented home in a rural area 30 miles from the base.

Sgts. Aaron Stanley, 22, of Bismarck, North Dakota, and Eric Colvin, 23, of Papillion, Nebraska, were charged in connection with the murder Monday night of Staff Sgt. Matthew Werner, 30, of Oxnard, California, at a home west of Clay Center.

The two also were charged with attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of Spec. Christopher Hymer, 23, of Nevada, Missouri, who is in critical condition in a Wichita hospital.

Stanley already faces eight unrelated drug charges filed in June. It was Stanley's rented home where the shootings took place, and authorities believe he called police. A rifle and a handgun were found at the scene.

Authorities have not said what triggered the bloodshed.

Werner had returned to Fort Riley about a month ago for surgery on a hand injured during a game of football in Iraq. He was married and had won the Army Achievement Medal for his service.

Fort Riley spokeswoman Sam Robinson said all four soldiers were assigned to the post and were members of the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

Werner deployed to Iraq in June with about 800 soldiers from the same unit, now serving its second tour of duty in Iraq. Robinson said Colvin, Hymer and Stanley were assigned to the unit's rear detachment that remained at Fort Riley. Details about Werner's assignment were not released.

Fort Riley is home to about 10,500 soldiers, of which more than 3,000 are deployed to Iraq.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.

 

[kickingbird]

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/current_issue.html
check out above site for latest news about Mauna Loa in Hawaii

 

[Amos Stevens]

Thanks Kickingbird-that is one thing I had wanted to do while in Hawaii was get over to see the volcano!

 

[Littledragon]

Al-Jazeera: Video shows U.S., UK hostages.

(CNN) -- The Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera broadcast video Saturday that it said showed two Americans and one Briton, seized two days ago from their home-office in central Baghdad.

The three men in the video were shown blindfolded and seated as they addressed the camera. An armed man stood behind them.

The anchor for the network spoke over the tape's audio, saying the Jihad and Unification group threatened to behead the hostages in 48 hours unless female Iraqi prisoners are released from Um Qasr and Abu Ghraib prisons.

Jihad and Unification, which claims loyalty to insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has taken responsibility for beheading U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il, and two Bulgarian hostages.

The group also has set hostages free. In early August, two Turkish truck drivers were released after five days. Al-Jazeera reported that the group freed the hostages after their employer, a Turkish company, pledged not to supply American forces in Iraq.

A statement Thursday from the U.S. Embassy said, "Two American citizens, Jack Hensley and Eugene 'Jack' Armstrong, were kidnapped this morning from their residence in the Mansour district by unknown gunmen along with a British subject."

The British Foreign Office identified the British hostage as Kenneth John Bigley, a civil engineer for Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services, based in the Middle East.

Armstrong's brother, Frank, spoke with CNN by phone Saturday evening from his home in Michigan. Frank Armstrong said he had been given little information about what has happened to his brother.

Armstrong also said the family has had "too much trauma over the last two days" and was not ready to make any other public comments. He said he called the sheriff's department to keep reporters away from his home because the family wanted privacy.

Iraqi neighbors of the three Westerners said Hensley, Armstrong and Bigley were the men in the video, but the U.S. and British embassies have not confirmed that.

Their Baghdad home-office did not have a guard posted, a neighbor said, adding that the abduction appeared to have been carefully planned and that no shots were fired. She said there is usually a guard at the residence.

She said when one of the occupants of the house came out to turn on the electric generator, something he did at the same time every day, the abductors moved in.

An Iraqi police official said 11 kidnappers, dressed in civilian clothing, drove up to the residence in a mini-bus and a sedan about 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Wednesday ET).

Six of the abductors in the minivan entered the offices and seized the Westerners, the police official said.

After the kidnapping, the abductors stole a Nissan parked outside the house.

$25 million bounty
Al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian-born Islamic militant who U.S. officials say has close ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He is also believed to be responsible for several recent insurgent bombings. The United States has offered a $25 million bounty on his capture.

The United States said in June that it believed al-Zarqawi has a base of operation in Falluja, an insurgent stronghold. Over the past few months, U.S. planes have conducted strikes against houses in Falluja where it said intelligence indicated his sympathizers were meeting.

In the latest strike Friday night, warplanes targeted a building in central Falluja, west of Baghdad, where they said al-Zarqawi's followers had gathered. Hospital officials in Falluja said two people were killed and 10 others wounded.

At least 19 killed in Kirkuk
Meanwhile on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated his car in front of the Iraqi national guard headquarters in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 19 and wounding 67 others -- including several guardsmen and recruits, according to Iraqi police.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb missed its apparent target of a U.S. convoy in Baghdad on Saturday morning and hit a private car, which caught fire after the bomb detonated, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesperson.

An unknown number of people were in the car, and the extent of their injuries is also unknown. (Full story)

 

[Littledragon]

Bush 'pleased with the progress' in Iraq.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (CNN) -- In a phone interview with a newspaper, President Bush played down a U.S. intelligence forecast painting a pessimistic picture for the future of Iraq, including the suggestion that civil war could erupt there.

The National Intelligence Estimate was sent to the White House in July with a classified warning predicting that the best case for Iraq was "tenuous stability" and the worst case was civil war, a source confirmed to CNN. (Intelligence report: Iraq prospects bleak)

The 50-page report, completed in July, was commissioned internally within the intelligence community and contained classified and declassified portions.

President Bush talked about the report in an interview published Saturday by The Union Leader of Manchester, New Hampshire.

"The Iraqis are defying the dire predictions of a lot of people by moving toward democracy," Bush told the paper. "It's hard to get to democracy from tyranny. It's hard work. And yet, it's necessary work. But it's necessary work because a democratic Iraq will make the world a freer place and a more peaceful place.

"I'm pleased with the progress," Bush said. "It's hard. Don't get me wrong. It's hard because there are some in Iraq who want to disrupt the election and disrupt the march to democracy, which should speak to their fear of freedom."

The president described the best-case scenario for Iraq as "elections and a free Iraq emerging."

"But I fully understand how hard it is for democracy to grow in a country that has been under a leader that tortured and killed and maimed his people," he said.

On Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told members of the National Guard Association of the United States meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, that Bush knows "the mission in Iraq is in serious trouble."

"That is the truth, as hard as it is to bear," Kerry said. "I believe you deserve a president who isn't going to gild that truth or gild our national security with politics, who is not going to ignore his own intelligence, who isn't going to live in a different world of spin, who will give the American people the truth, not a fantasy world of spin."

Kerry, the junior senator from Massachusetts, said he still believes "it's not too late to turn things around" in Iraq.

Kerry said he would bring in more allies to help train Iraqi forces so that U.S. troops could come home.

Kerry voted for a congressional resolution authorizing Bush to use military force in Iraq but said that if he had been commander in chief, he would have made vastly different decisions with that authority.

"When it comes to Iraq, it's not that I would have done just one thing differently," Kerry said. "I would have done almost everything differently."

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

U.S. hands over 29 detainees to Pakistan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pakistan has taken custody of 29 detainees transferred from the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Six other detainees will be released in Pakistan.

"We don't confirm the names or identities of those released," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Joe Richard said. "I can only confirm that there has been a transfer made."

One of the detainees approved for release was also found not to be an "enemy combatant" by a tribunal set up to review the status of detainees in the war on terror, a Department of Defense news release said.

An "enemy combatant" can be detained indefinitely without charges or legal representation.

After Saturday's release, about 550 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay.

Previously, 129 detainees were transferred for release and 27 others were transferred to the control of other governments, including France, Great Britain, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Sweden.

The decision to transfer or release a detainee is based on many factors, including whether the detainee is of further intelligence value to the United States and whether the person is believed to pose a threat to the United States, if released, the DOD said.

Another high-profile government detainee is expected to be released soon. Yaser Esam Hamdi, a government-declared "enemy combatant" being held in a South Carolina military brig, is expected to be released to Saudi Arabia, Bush administration officials said Wednesday.

The deal would allow Hamdi to fly home to Saudi Arabia as a free man, sources said.

The 24-year-old Hamdi was originally held in Guantanamo Bay. When it was discovered he was born in Louisiana, he was transferred to the United States.

Hamdi has been in U.S. military custody since his arrest on the battlefield in Afghanistan in November 2001 and has been held in solitary confinement since coming to the United States.

Hamdi earlier challenged the Bush administration for confining him, a U.S. citizen, as an enemy combatant. In a July 28 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that U.S. citizens designated by the president as enemy combatants and held under U.S. military custody can appeal their detention and defend themselves in court.

The ruling dampened the Bush administration's aggressive antiterror policies with a measure of constitutional protections for certain terror suspects.

Although the terms of Hamdi's release are still sealed, sources close to the case said Hamdi would fly to Saudi Arabia on a military jet.

Officials said he is expected to relinquish his U.S. citizenship and will not be allowed to return to the United States.

He also will be restricted from traveling to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, and he will be required to tell Saudi officials if he plans to leave that country.

 

[Littledragon]

Louisiana voting on gay marriage.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- Louisiana voters decide Saturday whether to approve a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, one of up to 12 such measures on the ballot around the country this year.

It was expected to pass by an overwhelming margin, though court challenges are likely. The civil rights group Forum for Equality has promised legal action.

"The Forum for Equality membership has already authorized a lawsuit to be filed in the event that this were to pass," said attorney Randy Evans. A first round of court fights was turned away by state courts that said an election cannot be challenged until the vote is taken.

Another possible legal complication: delayed delivery on Saturday of voting machines to precincts in New Orleans, which has a politically strong gay population.

Scott Madere, a spokesman for Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, said drivers for the moving company hired to deliver the machines apparently did not show up for work. The problem was solved by midday.

Julius Green, 58, said he went to his polling place in New Orleans' Bywater neighborhood about 10 a.m. and found no voting machines -- just a crowd.

"I am angry. I'm very angry," Green said. "This is ridiculous. It makes people feel that their vote don't count."

The election problems could lead to challenges of election results. "I'm sure there will be lawsuits filed," McKeithen said.

Louisiana already has a law stating that marriage can be only between a man and woman, but supporters of the amendment want to protect that law in the Constitution. The amendment also would prohibit state officials and courts from recognizing out-of-state marriages and civil unions between homosexuals.

Gay rights advocates say the amendment would deprive unmarried couples -- gay or straight -- of the right to enter into certain contracts and own property together.

Supporters of the ban disagree, including LSU law school professor Katherine Spaht, who helped write the amendment. "It doesn't touch private contracts," she said.

Still, advocates on both sides agreed it will be up to the courts to decide exactly what the amendment does and does not do.

First, however, courts may have to step in and decide if the amendment was legally adopted. In challenges that went to the state Supreme Court, Forum for Equality said the Legislature made several mistakes in putting the measure together, chief among them adding the ban on civil unions into the amendment. Amendments are supposed to have a single purpose, opponents said.

That challenge was turned away when the courts ruled that it was premature and could only be taken up after the vote was taken.

Similar amendments to ban same-sex marriage are on ballots in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah. Petitions in Ohio are still being verified.

 

[Littledragon]

State funeral for white voice of anti-apartheid.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- South Africa on Saturday bid farewell to Beyers Naude, a rare white voice against the apartheid system of racial segregation.

In a state funeral broadcast live on television and radio, speakers black and white praised Naude, an Afrikaner man of the cloth cut from a different material of many fellow churchmen who saw racial hierarchy in South Africa as ordained by God.

Naude died on September 7 at the age of 89.

"The sacrifices he made guaranteed us our peace and reconciliation," South African President Thabo Mbeki told a packed church in Johannesburg. About 1,000 mourners filled the church and a nearby hall and marquee.

Naude had denounced the apartheid system four decades earlier from the pulpit of the same Aasvoelkop Dutch Reformed Church, shocking his white congregation.

Naude was a minister in the church and a member of the Broederbond, a secretive society aimed at keeping the dominance of Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and French settlers.

He turned against his upbringing long before it was fashionable to do so, becoming one of the leading white opponents of apartheid, and was forced to quit the ministry after being asked to choose between his church and his activism.

He long suffered ostracism and harassment at the hands of the apartheid state and his own Afrikaner community.

Before the service, hundreds of people paid their respects as the funeral cortege passed along the road once named after apartheid Prime Minister D.F. Malan but renamed in Naude's honor before his death.

He was affectionately known as Oom Bey (Uncle Bey).

"We wish that the society we leave behind will not have to ask of its members the kind of sacrifices that a Beyers Naude had to make," former South African President Nelson Mandela said in remarks read on his behalf at the funeral.

Mandela was out of the country.

Naude's ashes will be scattered near the church in Johannesburg's poverty-stricken and overwhelmingly black Alexandra township which welcomed Naude after his own congregation rejected him.

 

[kickingbird]

5.4 quake 30 miles NNE of Mammoth Lakes, California Saturday 9/18.
That's a moderate quake folks.

 

[Littledragon]

Embassy confirms 10 kidnappings in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Turkish Embassy in Baghdad said Sunday that 10 employees of a U.S.-Turkish company were kidnapped in Iraq, a day after the wife of a captured American in Iraq pleaded for his life.

Arabic-language television news network Al-Jazeera broadcast video Saturday showing kidnappers who threatened to kill the 10 hostages if their company does not withdraw from Iraq within three days.

The embassy did not release any other information about the hostages or the company.

News of the kidnappings came a day after the wife of Jack Hensley, one of three Westerners kidnapped in Iraq Thursday, begged for their safety.

"Please let them go," Patty Hensley said Saturday from her home near Atlanta, Georgia. "They need to come home."

Americans Hensley and Eugene Armstrong and British citizen Kenneth John Bigley worked on Iraqi reconstruction projects for Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services, a Middle Eastern company.

Al Jazeera reported Saturday that a group calling itself Jihad and Unification is threatening to behead the Westerners in 48 hours unless female Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraq's Um Qasr and Abu Ghraib prisons. (Full story)

Strike on Falluja
A U.S. airstrike Saturday night targeted a fake checkpoint on the northern outskirts of Falluja apparently used to kidnap and kill Iraqi citizens, according to the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC).

The illegal checkpoint was manned by heavily armed "anti-Iraqi forces" believed to have ties to suspected terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, CPIC said.

"Evidence indicates Iraqi citizens have been kidnapped at such checkpoints, taken to outlying areas where they were forced to dig their own graves and then executed," CPIC said.

The statement did not report any casualties as a result of the strike.

An official at Falluja General Hospital told CNN four men were killed in the airstrike.

CPIC said no innocent Iraqi civilians were reported in the area at the time.

Recent airstrikes in the Falluja area have targeted buildings linked to al-Zarqawi supporters, according to CPIC, which repeatedly states its attempt to avoid harming innocent civilians.

In other developments, U.S. and Iraqi forces detained an aide to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr late Saturday after raiding his home in central Baghdad, according to a spokesman for al-Sadr.

The U.S. military said it was checking the report.

It was not clear why the forces raided the home of Sayid Hazem al-Aaraji, imam of the Ahl al-Bayt mosque, but the spokesman said al-Aaraji recently denounced the interim Iraqi government for the country's current security situation and denounced strikes in the city of Samarra.

The U.S. and Iraqi forces also raided the home of another aide to al-Sadr, Sheikh Ra'id al-Kathemi who serves as imam of the Mousa al Kathem mosque, the spokesman said.

Al-Kathemi's whereabouts are unclear. During both raids, the U.S. and Iraqi forces used sound bombs which shattered the windows of nearby homes, the spokesman said.

On Saturday morning, in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber killed 19 people and wounded 67 others -- including several National Guard troops and recruits, Iraqi police and Health Ministry officials said.

The attack targeted the front of the Iraqi National Guard regional headquarters, the officials said.

According to Iraqi officials, the attack vehicle approached the front gate of the headquarters at high speed. National Guard troops fired on the vehicle before it exploded.

Two U.S. soldiers killed
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in the second of two explosions Saturday on a road to the Baghdad airport.

Eleven American servicemen were also wounded by the two car bombs, the U.S. military said.

The first car bomb exploded as a convoy approached the al-Amil Bridge leading to the Baghdad airport Saturday afternoon, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. Three injured soldiers were taken to a hospital, officials said.

About 30 minutes later, two U.S. Army soldiers were killed by a second blast while investigating the first bombing, officials said.

No explosives were found on the road, said Gen. Pete Chiarelli, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division.

Other developments

Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi arrived in London, England, Sunday where he was greeted with a handshake by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. The two leaders are expected to discuss the security situation in Iraq and how violence will affect Iraqi elections scheduled for January.


A U.S. Marine from Lynnwood, Washington, was killed in action Thursday in Anbar province, the Department of Defense said Saturday. Cpl. Steven A. Rintamaki, 21, was assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, California.


Iraq's national carrier, Iraqi Airways, resumed international flights Saturday after 14 years of being grounded by war and sanctions.


The U.S. Marines announced "Operation Hurricane," described as "clearing operations" in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, aimed at disrupting the Dahman terrorist network, which is linked to al-Zarqawi.


In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen opened fire Saturday on a convoy carrying an oil manager, killing five of his bodyguards and wounding four others, according to a hospital official. Witnesses said the assailants, armed with automatic weapons, pulled up in two vehicles alongside the convoy carrying the manager, Mohammed Zeybari.


In Baquba, north of Baghdad, a bomb went off near the technical institute, injuring 11 people, the Iraqi Health Ministry said. Most of the injured were students at the school.


Sheik Kadum Hani, a tribal leader in Albider, and his driver were killed when unknown gunmen opened fire on their car, the commander of the Iraqi national guard in Kirkuk said. The sheik was traveling from his home in Kirkuk north to the town of Dibis. Two of the sheik's family members were wounded in the attack.

CNN's Thaira al-Hilli, Faris Qasira and Bassem Muhy contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

President Bush to visit storm-torn states.

PENSACOLA, Florida (AP) -- President Bush scheduled a visit Sunday to hurricane-stricken Florida and Alabama -- the third such visit for Florida -- as Hurricane Ivan victims faced another day of digging through the debris for their belongings and waiting hours in lines for food and water.

Bush planned a morning flight by Marine One helicopter over areas of Alabama's Gulf Coast and Florida's Panhandle hit hardest when Ivan howled ashore Thursday with 130 mph winds. The hurricane spawned deadly tornadoes and a huge storm surge that gutted homes and businesses, washed out roads and bridges and knocked out power.

Relief centers were open in Florida and Alabama, providing ice, water and meals to tired residents who want to return to their normal lives but instead face days, weeks or months of recovery.

After Ivan roared ashore along the Gulf Coast, it cut a path of destruction across the South and Northeast that left 46 people dead, 16 of them in Florida. Earlier, it was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean.

Hundreds of urban search and rescue workers scoured demolished neighborhoods, some using tracking dogs to look for victims in the rubble and along flooded river banks. In Escambia Bay, where a trucker was killed when a bridge collapsed, the Army Corps of Engineers was asked to use sonar to search for possible additional victims.

Twelve people were still missing Saturday in Escambia County and at least a dozen in Santa Rosa County, but it was unclear whether they were in danger or had simply evacuated without notifying relatives, said Sonya Smith, spokeswoman for the county emergency operations center.

More than a million people were without power across 13 states, including more than 340,000 homes and businesses in Florida, state officials said Saturday.

At a Pensacola shopping center Saturday, people waited in cars or on foot for hours to receive necessities from Florida National Guard troops who, at times, would ask the needy if they wanted more ice or an extra box of ready-to-eat meals.

Kevin McKinly, 37, was in Iowa on leave from the Air Force when he decided to drive 15 hours home to Pensacola to board up ahead of Ivan. Set to head to Korea in two weeks, McKinly waited in line for ice and water at the shopping center.

"It's part of the life; 364 days of the year it's paradise. One day it's not," McKinly said.

"We're all in the same boat. It's frustrating, but it's not just you, it's everybody," added Lowell Weaner, who said a tree fell on his home during the storm.

Tempers flared as some frustrated residents tried to return to neighborhoods along coastal areas that had been evacuated and sealed off.

About 20 residents of the Grande Lagoon Lake subdivision southwest of Pensacola gathered at a roadblock and pleaded for deputies to let them enter to check their homes. Deputies explained that search and rescue teams were still checking flattened houses and officials were worried about the structural soundness of buildings still standing.

Roy Butgereit shouted at deputies that he had the right to protect his property from looters.

"Because of the government we're losing personal property!" he shouted.

Later, Butgereit said he had only packed a small bag of clothes when he was evacuated to Tallahassee.

"I could at least go down there and look for some pants," he said. "They won't even let me go in there and look for my underwear."

There have been 72 reports of looting in Escambia County since Ivan passed, sheriff's officials said. Deputies have arrested 15 suspects.

Todd Livingston, who led a Federal Emergency Management search team Saturday along Perdido Key, said his team combed through residential structures ranging from washed-out single-family homes to high-rise condominiums "that will definitely have to be demolished," he said.

On Saturday, road crews worked furiously to bulldoze debris to the roadside while several major thoroughfares -- including a buckled interstate bridge -- closed to travelers. Other streets remained an obstacle course of broken tree limbs and downed power lines.

Utility workers managed to restore a major generating plant and some 150 miles of transmission lines, but "there is still an unbelievable amount of hot, hard and dangerous work ahead," Gulf Power spokesman John Hutchinson said.

With Ivan the third hurricane to strike the state in a matter of weeks, Panhandle residents joined their neighbors to the south in learning to cope with the aftermath of disaster.

"I think the biggest problem that Florida is going to face is fatigue," FEMA director Michael Brown said Saturday. "When you think about these three hurricanes, the continuing rains and storms, and just the heat, people are going to get worn out."

Some folks juggled picking up what remained of their homes before heading to a relative's or neighbor's to lend a hand. Even those who escaped the storm unscathed fought back frustration as life as they knew it ground to a halt.

Greg and Joanne DeLapp tried to salvage a few from things from their home Saturday near Santa Rosa Sound. The couple could not stay in the house because of the stench of sewage and amount of damage, and opted to stay at a nursing home where Greg DeLapp's mother-in-law lives.

"The old people are sitting in there with no generator. They've got water, (but) their food is rotting," Joanne DeLapp said. "I've never seen anything like this. I did not expect it."

 

[kickingbird]

Post 525 re soldier shot near Fort Riley, Kansas ... that's just down the highway from me. There are sometimes "disturbances" there among the soldiers ... very heavy stress level. Interesting that the guy who shot the others already had drug charges against him and still in the military ... guess we're not fighting drugs anymore.

 

[Amos Stevens]

Re: that soldier getting shot post...sad that he survives Iraq only to be sent home & killed here by one of his own!

 

[Amos Stevens]

Texas man gets unusual probation

Texas man gets unusual probation
Judge: Put special bumper sticker on low horsepower
car
Saturday, September 18, 2004 Posted: 6:27 PM EDT (2227
GMT)





DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A judge slapped a man who played
a role in a fatal road rage crash with two jail
sentences and a string of restrictions meant to
publicly humiliate him after jurors decided only on
probation.

State District Judge Keith Dean ordered Frank Dorsett
to serve two 180-day terms, drive a car with no more
than 130 horsepower, carry a photo of the wreckage,
take daily medication that will make him sick if he
drinks alcohol and put a bumper sticker on his vehicle
asking other motorists to call the probation
department if he's driving recklessly.

A jury in Dorsett's manslaughter, aggravated assault
and hit-and-run trial decided on probation Wednesday.

Dean then added a 180-day jail sentence. The judge
added the other 180-day sentence and restrictions at a
hearing Friday.

In June 2003, Dorsett, and another driver were chasing
each other along Interstate 635, police said. The
driver of the other pickup, Jason T. Scott, lost
control and collided with the vehicle of 16-year-old
Rachel Blasingame, who was killed. Scott is awaiting
trial.

"We feel the terms of his probation will make up for
anything the jury had taken away from us," said
Rachel's father, Guy Blasingame, in Saturday editions
of The Dallas Morning News.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press

 

[Littledragon]

CBS says it can't prove Bush documents' authenticity.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- CBS News said Monday it cannot vouch for the authenticity of documents it broadcast on "60 Minutes" casting doubt on the National Guard service of President Bush during the Vietnam era.

In a written statement, CBS said Bill Burkett, a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, has admitted that he deliberately misled a CBS News producer, "giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."

In the statement, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said his network believed the documents were real but after further reporting cannot establish that they are.

"CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report. We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

Heyward said that an independent review of how the reports were prepared and broadcast will be commissioned by CBS News and the findings of that review will be made public.

Rather: 'We have been misled'
In a separate statement, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who was the principal reporter on the story, said, "Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers.

"That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point where -- if I knew then what I know now -- I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.

"But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.

"Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully."

Questions about documents
In its reporting, CBS News said it had obtained documents written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who died in 1984.

Those documents appear to show that Bush had failed a direct order to take a physical, something that was required for him to do to remain in good standing.

Further, CBS said the documents showed Killian believed he was being pressured to "sugarcoat" the performance of Bush, the son of a then-Texas congressman.

Almost immediately, the authenticity of the documents was questioned.

CBS said it had had experts look at the documents, but other experts said the documents may not have been real and may have been typed on equipment not available in the early 1970s.

Killian's former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, 86, said she never typed the documents, which would have been her responsibility. She told The Dallas Morning News, "These are not real. They're not what I typed, and I would have typed them for him.''

But Knox told the newspaper that the documents did echo Killian's views on Bush. She said he retained memos for a personal "cover his back'' file he kept in a locked drawer of his desk, but she was not sure what happened to them when he died.

The CBS report also included an interview with former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes in which he said he helped get Bush a slot in the Texas National Guard.

In that interview, Barnes described his awarding of a slot to Bush as "preferential treatment."

CBS did not retract that part of its report.

 

[Littledragon]

Hastert's al Qaeda comment draws fire.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top Democrats slapped back Sunday at a remark by House Speaker Dennis Hastert that al Qaeda leaders want Sen. John Kerry to beat President Bush in November.

At a campaign rally Saturday in his Illinois district with Vice President Dick Cheney, Hastert said al Qaeda "would like to influence this election" with an attack similar to the train bombings in Madrid days before the Spanish national election in March.

When a reporter asked Hastert if he thought al Qaeda would operate with more comfort if Kerry were elected, the speaker said, "That's my opinion, yes."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe called Hastert's comments "disgraceful," saying there was "no room for this in our political discourse."

"And I remind you that, you know, we could have done a lot better," McAuliffe said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"The president of the United States, on August 6th of 2001, was told in his briefing that America was going to be attacked by al Qaeda and they may use airplanes," McAuliffe said, referring to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

"He didn't call the FAA. He didn't leave his monthlong vacation. He sat down there."

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, said Hastert "has joined the fear-mongering choir."

"Let me just say this in the simplest possible terms," Edwards said at a rally in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. "When John Kerry is president of the United States, we will find al Qaeda where they are and crush them before they can do damage to the American people."

Hastert, who as speaker heads the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, showed no sign of backing off his comments.

His spokesman, John Feehery, said Sunday that the speaker's comments "were consistent with the speaker's belief that John Kerry would be weak on the war."

"If John Kerry is perceived as being weak on the war, then of course, his election would be perceived as a good thing by the terrorists," Feehery said in a written response to questions about Hastert's remarks.

"The fact that John Kerry can't make up his mind about the war only strengthens that perception."

Neither the Bush campaign nor the White House had any comment on Hastert's remarks, but Bush has accused Kerry of repeatedly changing his position on the war in Iraq.

The comments followed a remark by Cheney earlier this month that Americans might be subjected to another terrorist attack if they were to make "the wrong choice" in November.

Cheney later said that any president must expect more attacks and that his point had been that he felt Bush was better prepared to deal with the threat.

Some Republicans played down Hastert's comments Sunday.

"I doubt that Osama bin Laden is likely to weigh in on our presidential election," said Rep. Chris Cox of California, chairman of the House Policy Committee and fourth-ranking member of the Republican leadership behind Hastert.

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska called the remarks "silly."

"I think most Americans understand that, regardless of who's president, the terrorists are still going to be terrorists, and they're going to still target Americans," said Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees.

"And I don't think terrorists of the world sit around the campfire gauging who's the easier president to deal with."

It was the second time this month that Hastert's comments have provoked a public row.

Billionaire George Soros, a major backer of Democratic causes, asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Hastert after the speaker suggested in a television interview that Soros got money from "drug groups."

Hastert later said he was referring to organizations to which Soros has contributed that favor drug legalization, but he ignored Soros' demand for an apology.

Analysts differ on just how much the Madrid bombings influenced the Spanish election.

Some say they prompted Spaniards to vote out Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a key U.S. ally in the Iraq war. Others say Aznar's insistence on blaming Basque separatists, not Islamist terrorists, tipped the electorate against him.

In any case, Aznar's successor, Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq shortly after taking office.