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Did U.S. choppers kill enemies or innocents?
BAGHDAD – This much is agreed upon: at least six Iraqis died overnight Saturday when American attack helicopters pounded a cluster of homes in a dusty, nondescript neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Baghdad.
But the story of why those homes were targeted and who was killed depends on the storyteller.
The U.S. military said the dead were insurgents and the homes in the Husseiniyah district probably served as weapons depots; troops observed seven or more secondary explosions after the air assault. By the military’s tally, six fighters were killed and five wounded.
Iraqi residents told a different version: the dead came from two Shiite Muslim families who lived in an area controlled by the powerful Mahdi Army militia. The bodies pulled from the rubble, locals say, were ordinary parents killed with their children in the middle of the night. Locals counted 11 corpses _ two men, two women, and seven children. Another 10 were injured. Some Iraqi authorities put the death toll as high as 18.
In Iraq, where new bombings occur before authorities can even investigate the previous day’s violence, the truth about Husseiniyah might never come to light. Roadblocks erected around the neighborhood prevented reporters from reaching the scene.
“Lies, lies, lies,” sputtered Salam al-Rubaiye, 35, a computer technician who lives in Husseiniyah and works in Sadr City. “The Americans always try to change the truth, especially when it concerns the Sadrists,” the collective name for followers of the Mahdi Army commander, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Rubaiye visited the scene of the air strike twice Saturday. He first showed up early in the morning when, he said, volunteers were still digging the corpses of women and children from the rubble. Later, he brought a camera and snapped 14 photos.
They showed several piles of cinderblock where homes once stood. The interior of a severely damaged home showed only the detritus of family life: a potted plant, a wall hanging, a refrigerator, an electrical generator. “For Sale” was written in Arabic on the only surviving wall of one home.
Rubaiye also e-mailed two short cell-phone video clips that showed at least seven bodies swathed in blankets, some with grayish feet sticking out at the ends. Two of the bundles were tiny, as if they shrouded young children.
Residents said they’d finished retrieving the dead by 8 a.m., and that two young girls were still missing.
“I took out with my own hands the bodies of two young children, two men, two adult women and four little girls,” said Bassem al-Musawi, 30, who lives in the neighborhood. “I don’t know why the Americans bombed these homes. I know one was the house of Abu Mustafa. He’s a very poor man with only one boy and the rest of his family are girls. And he didn’t even have a rifle.”
National
Bush bans the CIA from using torture
WASHINGTON – President Bush signed an executive order Friday barring the CIA from using torture, acts of violence and degrading treatment in the interrogation and detention of terrorism suspects, but human rights experts questioned its scope.
The order “interprets the meaning and application” to the CIA program of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which set international standards for the treatment of detainees. The CIA program was created to obtain information from “captured al-Qaida terrorists who have information on attack plans or the whereabouts of the group’s senior leaders,” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in a written statement.
While Bush’s order broadly outlines what the CIA can and cannot do to prisoners, and sets standards for what the agency must provide in terms of food and shelter for detainees, it says nothing about specific controversial interrogation techniques.
Some experts in human rights law said Bush’s order contains “loopholes” that would allow the CIA to continue using aggressive interrogation techniques that others would consider torture.
“Let’s not forget that the administration’s theory of executive authority is very broad. They reserve the right to interpret laws in ways no one agrees with in emergency situations,” said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit activist group.
The Bush administration received heavy criticism globally over CIA interrogators using “water-boarding,” which simulates drowning, and for allowing the CIA to operate secret prisons in Europe.
Bush’s order prohibits “acts of violence serious enough to be considered comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel and inhuman treatment.” It also prohibits “willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual in a manner so serious that any reasonable person . . . would deem the acts beyond the bounds of human decency,” according to Snow’s statement.
In addition, the order forbids the degradation or humiliation of a prisoner’s religious beliefs, practices or personal objects
A senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity declined to say what specific procedures were permitted or prohibited under the order.
“I think the president has made it clear from the beginning of the debate here that it is really impossible for us . . . to publicize to the enemy what practices may be on the table, what practices may be off the table, that that will only enable al-Qaida to train against those that are on or off,” he said.
Courtesy MCT Campus
Local/BSU
Treasure Valley Air quality continues to decline
NAMPA – Experts warn that pollutants and irritants in the air will once again rise to high levels by this Friday, if not sooner.
According to Michael DuBois, airshed coordinator with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the recent brief respite from moderate and high levels of pollutants in the air was caused by breezes blowing through the valley and helped because smoke from nearby wildfires did not make its way into the area. Sunday’s air may also have been clearer because people tend to drive less on the weekends, DuBois said.
Moderate amounts of pollutants were in evidence Monday, particularly ozone. DuBois said residents may have a break from high ozone levels in the middle of the week, because forecasters predict increased cloud cover. Light from the sun is instrumental in the irritant’s formation, so cloudy days may help keep levels down.
DuBois warned that if wildfires keep burning, and the sun shines like forecasters predict it will, pollution could reach unhealthy levels later in the week.
“The rest of the week doesn’t look so great,” DuBois said.
DuBois said ozone is also formed when residents fill their vehicles with gas and mow their lawns, so he requests that people delay these activities until the cooler, late-evening hours, when the sun won’t be able to form as much ozone.
The valley air is also being polluted by tiny bits of particulate matter – smaller than 2.5 microns in size. DuBois said these minuscule particles travel deep into people’s lungs and get lodged there.
They’re produced primarily through vehicle emissions and smoke from fires, DuBois said. According to the DEQ, there were low to moderate levels of these particles in the air Monday.
According to DuBois, both pollutants can cause serious respiratory problems, especially in children and the elderly as well as in people with allergies or respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Some people are more susceptible to ozone, while others are hit harder by the microscopic particulate matter, DuBois said.
To limit the amount of these dangerous particles that enter the air supply, DuBois recommends that people drive as little as possible and don’t burn anything.
According to DuBois, the DEQ’s main concern for the remainder of the summer is that people be careful with fire.
“Most of our pollution episodes are going to come from smoke,” he said.
A burn ban was in effect Monday due to moderately poor air quality readings, and DuBois said such bans will likely be frequent throughout the summer. He also mentioned he’d noticed a downward trend in air quality this year.
“I don’t like what I’m seeing this summer, as far as the number of days we’re having alerts,” DuBois said, adding that area pollution levels were coming perilously close to federally mandated maximums. If levels exceed those federal limits, authorities will be forced to implement controls to bring pollution levels down.
“That’s going to effect everyone,” he said.
Courtesy Idaho Press-Tribune
What the ?
What I really meant was.
A 44-year-old woman missed her daughter’s graduation from a Milwaukee high school because she had been locked up for disorderly conduct. She had been told that the girl would not be allowed to wear blue jeans to the ceremony, so she threatened to blow up the school.
She claims that school officials misunderstood what she said.
No wonder she looked so incredibly familiar
A naked woman, driving a U-Haul van through Culpepper, Va., at a high rate of speed, smashed into an SUV, then careened through some patio furniture and smashed into the house next door.
Police said they did not know why she was naked, but noted that they had gone to her home some weeks earlier to interview her on another matter, and she came to the door in the nude.
