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WORLD
U.S. officials work with Iraqi counterparts
The top U.S. military and civilian officials in Iraq said Tuesday, Oct. 24 that they’d obtained agreement from the Iraqi government to set a timetable to tackle some of the country’s most intractable problems.
Army Gen. George Casey (the commander of American forces in Iraq) and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad didn’t provide any details of their discussions with Iraqi officials or hard deadlines. Casey estimated that Iraqi troops would be able to assume security responsibilities in 18 months, but that wasn’t new: He’d made a similar prediction in a television interview in August. The news conference came amid growing pressure in the United States for the Bush administration to rethink its Iraq policies. Polls show that Iraq is the top concern for voters two weeks before the congressional elections, and even Republican candidates are critical of American policies there. President Bush has stressed that he remains flexible in responding to events in Iraq. He had a teleconference last Saturday with Casey, Khalilzad, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow acknowledged that Bush had stopped using the phrase “stay the course” because it left the impression that the administration wasn’t adjusting its strategy. Against that backdrop, Casey and Khalilzad’s appearance together was widely anticipated. The two last made a joint appearance in June to announce the death of al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
The news as of Oct. 24 was hardly of similar import. In Washington, Republicans generally ignored the comments, while Democrats denounced them as more of the same. Bush made no effort to draw attention to the remarks while campaigning for Republican candidates in Florida, and Cheney didn’t mention them in an interview with conservative commentator Sean Hannity.
As if to emphasize how difficult things are in Iraq, the electricity failed briefly during the news conference – a reminder that most of Iraq receives no more than six hours of electricity a day.
NATIONAL
White House denies endorsed water boarding
Vice President Dick Cheney wasn’t referring to the controversial interrogation method of “water boarding” when he called dunking terror suspects in water “a very important tool” for obtaining information on al-Qaida, the White House insisted Friday.
White House spokesman Tony Snow, however, was unable to clarify what Cheney did mean in a Tuesday radio interview in which the vice president said that dunking detainees in water was “a no brainer” if it saved American lives.
“I will ask him,” Snow said.
“This country doesn’t torture,” asserted President Bush, while not commenting directly on Cheney’s remarks. CIA officers or contractors have subjected a small number of suspected terrorists to water boarding, so it would appear that the president meant that his administration doesn’t consider water boarding a form of torture.
Human rights groups charged that Cheney’s comments amounted to an endorsement of torture, which is barred by a new Army field manual on interrogation and by a new law that Bush signed last month. In water boarding, a subject is strapped down and his head is held under water or his mouth and nose are smothered by a cloth soaked in water to induce a sensation of drowning.
The technique was used in the Spanish Inquisition during the Middle Ages and by the Japanese against American prisoners of war during World War II. In the radio interview with WDAY of Fargo, N.D., the interviewer said many Americans had called to say that they thought “dunking a terrorist in water” was acceptable if it saved lives.
Cheney responded: “I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high-value detainees like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, that’s been a very important tool that we’ve had to be able to secure the nation.”
LOCAL / BSU
Criminals strike multiple businesses this month
As of Thursday, seven armed robberies had occurred in Canyon County in 10 days. The robbers have targeted three convenience stores, two hotels, a video store and a money-lending outlet. Although law-enforcement officials said it’s common for crimes such as robbery and shoplifting to become more frequent as the holiday season approaches, Capt. Chris Allgood of the Caldwell Police Department said the recent spree appears unusual.
“It does seem like it’s a little early for holiday season trends,” Allgood said. The three robberies in Caldwell seem like distinct and unrelated incidents, according to police, because the number of robbers and weapons vary in each case.
Three of the four robberies in Nampa, however, seem to have a common thread, Lt. Brad Daniels said. “There’s been three in the last few days, and they all appear to be done by the same person; that’s quite atypical for this area,” Daniels said.While police agencies investigate the robberies, authorities stressed that public information is crucial to solve cases like these.
“Public knowledge it always huge — there’s very few cases where public knowledge is not important to an investigation,” Daniels said.
Lt. Alan Seevers said people often do not call the police because they feel their information is too limited or unimportant. But after working for 19 years with Caldwell Police, Seevers said any piece of information may potentially help.
“If you have a gut feeling that something’s wrong,” he said, “call the police.”
Courtesy of Idaho Press Tribune
What the ?
OK gramps, hand over your mon – wham! Ouch!
Two men in Vasteras, Sweden, tried to rob a 70 year-old man on the street. They soon found out that he used to be a boxer when he beat them senseless.
MCT Campus Wire Services
