contributions

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - Four soldiers have been charged in the drowning death of an Iraqi forced to jump off a bridge in Samarra, north of Baghdad, according to media reports.
The soldiers, all from Fort Carson, were reportedly part of a patrol that detained two Iraqi men in January and ordered them to jump off a bridge into the Tigris River. One man survived.
Three of the soldiers have been charged with manslaughter and the fourth with assault, according to the Rocky Mountain News, (…)

US officials have said in published newspaper interviews that coalition forces have failed to reduce the level of resistance operations in Iraq.
In an interview with The New York Times on Friday a former US occupation official said US forces in Iraq had failed to reduce the number of "hard-core Saddamists" since the US occupied Iraq last year.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, estimated the number of fighters in Iraq has remained constant at 4000-5000, suggesting that (…)

by Anthea Jonathan
Samarra, Iraq - Hundreds of Saddam Hussein supporters demonstrated peacefully in this restive city north of Baghdad on Friday, denouncing the deposed dictator’s appearance the previous day before an Iraqi judge.
The protestors flooded onto the Sunni Muslim bastion of Samarra, 125km north of the Iraqi capital, brandishing portraits of their fallen leader, a correspondent reported.
Men, women and children shouted: "All Iraq knows that Saddam is the glory of the (…)

The group of Arab and foreign lawyers engaged to defend Saddam Hussein has ignited a furious debate over the legality of the special Iraqi tribunal, and claims the process will inevitably lead to the former dictator’s conviction and execution.
Even before Saddam and 11 former Iraqi officials appeared in court last night to face war crimes charges, Mohammad Rashdan, lead lawyer in the 20-strong defence team, condemned the tribunal as "illegal and unjust".
The Jordanian lawyer’s team, (…)

Three soldiers have been charged with manslaughter in the drowning death of an Iraqi man who was forced to jump off a bridge near Baghdad in January, the military said Friday.
A fourth soldier, who like the other three is from Fort Carson, faces charges for allegedly ordering a second Iraqi to jump. That man survived.
The Army said the drowning happened Jan. 4 in the city of Samarra. It described the victim as a detainee, but no other details were released.
The four are assigned to (…)

by ALAN FRAM
WASHINGTON - Only $366 million has been spent of the $18.4 billion President Bush and Congress provided last fall for rebuilding Iraq, a White House report showed Friday.
Despite the administration’s initial emphasis on speedy reconstruction in Iraq, the amount is less than 2 percent of the rebuilding money lawmakers provided. The data cover expenditures through June 22.
The figure, in the latest quarterly report by the White House budget office, marks the first time the (…)

By ROBIN WRIGHT
Washington — During nearly seven months in captivity, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein never provided any meaningful information about his government, his suspected weapons programs or his alleged links to extremist groups during interrogations by American intelligence officials, U.S. officials in Washington said Thursday.
Eleven other senior Iraqi leaders who, like Saddam, appeared before an Iraqi judge Thursday to face various charges for mass killings and other (…)

by Claire Cozens
Thursday July 1, 2004 - Much of the world’s press has been excluded from Saddam Hussein’s court appearance today following an extraordinary decision by the Iraqi judge hearing the case to allow just one western newspaper to attend. John Burns of the New York Times will be the only journalist from the western print media to witness today’s historic hearing, which is being held in top secret - with even the judge’s identity remaining confidential.
Bizarrely, his copy will (…)

Agency analysts were repeatedly ordered to redo their studies of Al Qaeda ties to Hussein regime, a terrorism expert charges.
By Greg Miller
July 1, 2004 "Los Angeles Times" — WASHINGTON — In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA analysts were ordered repeatedly to redo intelligence assessments concluded that Al Qaeda had no operational ties to Iraq, according to a veteran CIA counter-terrorism official who has written a book that is sharply critical of the decision to go to war with (…)

Thursday, 1 July, 2004 - Lawyers appointed by Saddam Hussein’s family to represent the ousted Iraqi leader say they have been repeatedly denied access to their client. Mohammed Rashdan - one of a 20-strong team taken on by the family - has asked for international protection to enable him to visit his client.
In a BBC interview, he also alleged that he had received death threats from the Iraqi government.
Saddam Hussein is expected to face charges of war crimes and genocide.
He was (…)