contributions

By Andrew Woodcock
The new head of MI6 tried to persuade weapons inspectors in Iraq to harden up a report on their hunt for weapons of mass destruction, it was claimed yesterday.
John Scarlett suggested that the Iraq Survey Group report should include claims about Saddam Hussein’s supposed arsenals - which had already been proven unreliable, an unnamed member of the ISG was quoted as saying in The Mail on Sunday.
Mr Scarlett - who takes up his role as head of the secret intelligence (…)

Two French men released from Guantanamo Bay said they had been physically and sexually abused in the notorious American prison, their lawyers told a leading French paper.
Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali said they were badly treated at the camp the same way Iraqi detainees were treated at Abu Ghraib prison in southern Baghdad, the lawyers were quoted by Liberation as saying on Monday, August 2.
The two lawyers, named by the French daily as Jacques Derbray and William Boudon, said naked (…)

By Larry Margasak
Nearly one-third of the National Guard and Reserve troops returning from war with illnesses or injuries are forced to wait more than four months to learn whether they’ll be compensated under the military’s disability system.
That’s only one problem in a compensation system that can be as unforgiving as the battlefield. Fewer than one in 10 applicants receives the long-term disability payments they request.
The Army knows the troops are unhappy. But military officials (…)

Secretary of State Colin Powell has spoken to a grand jury probing whether Bush aides leaked the name of a CIA agent to retaliate against her husband, an Iraq war critic, the State Department said Sunday.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Powell spoke to the grand jury on July 16 about the case of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose name surfaced in a piece written by columnist Robert Novak after her husband raised questions in public about the intelligence used to justify the (…)

BY STEPHEN J. HEDGES
President Bush announced Monday that he would ask Congress to establish a national intelligence director and new counterterrorism center but said the new intelligence chief should have less sweeping authority than was recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.
"I don’t think the person ought to be a member of my Cabinet," Bush told reporters outside the White House. "I will hire the person and I can fire the person, which is what any president would like. I’ll tell you, (…)

by NEDRA PICKLER
John Kerry is talking more openly about his personal connection to God and guns as he kicks off the general election campaign asking for support from conservative-leaning independent voters.
As his post-convention bus tour rolls through blue collar and Republican-leaning districts, the Democratic presidential nominee has repeatedly described how he began a lifetime of hunting and fishing as a young boy. And lately he’s been speaking in more detail about a faith that he (…)

A classified Justice Department investigation determined that a whistle-blower’s allegations of security lapses in the FBI’s translator program were at least partly responsible for her firing, the bureau director told senators.
The department’s inspector general, Glenn Fine, did not conclude that the FBI had retaliated against the translator, Sibel Edmonds, when she was fired in April 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller wrote on July 21 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. His letter was (…)

Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards Release Detailed Campaign Book on Coast-To-Coast Bus Tour
Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards are releasing a book-length blueprint for their White House campaign, including plans to fight terrorism and improve homeland security as officials warn of an attack against major financial institutions.
Kerry arranged a stop at the Grand Rapids Fire Department on Monday to discuss the book, which will be available on his campaign Web site and distributed (…)

By Deb Riechmann
President Bush on Monday endorsed the creation of a national intelligence director and a counterterrorism center his first steps to revamp the U.S. intelligence-gathering system to help prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
’’The work of security in this vast nation is not done,’’ Bush said, standing in the Rose Garden with the administration’s top national security officials.
In asking Congress to create the center and a national director who would (…)

Military authorities in Denmark have launched an investigation into claims that an army intelligence officer working in Iraq mistreated prisoners.
A statement by the military command said the officer, who has not been named, could face charges of torture.
Reports say he is accused of refusing to let prisoners have water and forcing them to stay in stressful positions.
Denmark supported the US-led invasion of Iraq and has about 500 troops in the country.
The Danish military’s (…)