Iraq death toll



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INTELLIGENCE BEGUILE

Report says Pentagon manipulated intel


WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials undercut the intelligence community in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq by insisting in briefings to the White House that there was a clear relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Defense Department's inspector general said Friday.
Acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the office headed by former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith took "inappropriate" actions in advancing conclusions on al-Qaida connections not backed up by the nation's intelligence agencies.
Gimble said that while the actions of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy "were not illegal or unauthorized," they "did not provide the most accurate analysis of intelligence to senior decision makers" at a time when the White House was moving toward war with Iraq.
"I can't think of a more devastating commentary," said Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich.
He cited Gimble's findings that Feith's office was, despite doubts expressed by the intelligence community, pushing conclusions that Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague five months before the attack, and that there were "multiple areas of cooperation" between Iraq and al-Qaida, including shared pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
"That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to go to war," Levin said in an interview Thursday. He said the Pentagon's work, "which was wrong, which was distorted, which was inappropriate ... is something which is highly disturbing."
Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Friday the report "clearly shows that Doug Feith and others in that office exercised extremely poor judgment for which our nation, and our service members in particular, are paying a terrible price."
Republicans on the panel disagreed. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said the "probing questions" raised by Feith's policy group improved the intelligence process.
"I'm trying to figure out why we are here," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (news, bio, voting record), R-Ga., saying the office was doing its job of analyzing intelligence that had been gathered by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
Gimble responded that at issue was that the information supplied by Feith's office in briefings to the National Security Council and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney was "provided without caveats" that there were varying opinions on its reliability.
Gimble's report said Feith's office had made assertions "that were inconsistent with the consensus of the intelligence community."
At the White House, spokesman Dana Perino said President Bush has revamped the U.S. spy community to try avoiding a repeat of flawed intelligence affecting policy decisions by creating a director of national intelligence and making other changes.
"I think what he has said is that he took responsibility, and that the intel was wrong, and that we had to take measures to revamp the intel community to make sure that it never happened again," Perino told reporters.
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman denied that the office was producing its own intelligence products, saying they were challenging what was coming in from intelligence-gathering professionals, "looking at it with a critical eye."
Some Democrats also have contended that Feith misled Congress about the basis of the administration's assertions on the threat posed by Iraq, but the Pentagon investigation did not support that.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Levin said the IG report is "very damning" and shows a Pentagon policy shop trying to shape intelligence to prove a link between al-Qaida and Saddam.
Levin in September 2005 had asked the inspector general to determine whether Feith's office's activities were appropriate, and if not, what remedies should be pursued.
The 2004 report from the Sept. 11 commission found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror organization before the U.S. invasion.
Asked to comment on the IG's findings, Feith said in a telephone interview that he had not seen the report but was pleased to hear that it concluded his office's activities were neither illegal nor unauthorized. He took strong issue, however, with the finding that some activities had been "inappropriate."
"The policy office has been smeared for years by allegations that its pre-Iraq-war work was somehow 'unlawful' or 'unauthorized' and that some information it gave to congressional committees was deceptive or misleading," said Feith, who left his Pentagon post in August 2005.
Feith called "bizarre" the inspector general's conclusion that some intelligence activities by the Office of Special Plans, which was created while Feith served as the undersecretary of defense for policy — the top policy position under then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld — were inappropriate but not unauthorized.


YUCK

For women, nothing's like the smell of men's sweat


WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters Life!) - For women, apparently there's nothing like the smell of a man's sweat.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley said women who sniffed a chemical found in male sweat experienced elevated levels of an important hormone, along with higher sexual arousal, faster heart rate and other effects.
They said the study, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, represents the first direct evidence that people secrete a scent that influences the hormones of the opposite sex.
The study focused on androstadienone, considered a male chemical signal. Previous research had established that a whiff of it affected women's mood, sexual and physiological arousal and brain activation. Its impact on hormones was less clear.
A derivative of testosterone, it is found in male sweat as well as in saliva and semen. It smells somewhat musky.
"It really tells us that a lot of things can be triggered by smelling sweat," Claire Wyart, who led the study, said in an interview on Wednesday.
The researchers measured levels of the hormone cortisol in the saliva of 48 female undergraduates at Berkeley, average age of about 21, after the women took 20 sniffs from a jar of androstadienone. Cortisol is secreted by the body to help maintain proper arousal and sense of well-being, respond to stress and other functions.
Cortisol levels in the women who smelled androstadienone shot up within roughly 15 minutes and stayed elevated for up to an hour. Consistent with previous research, the women also reported improved mood, higher sexual arousal, and had increased blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.
YEAST

For comparison's sake, women also smelled baking yeast, which did not trigger the same effects.


This was the first time that smelling a specific chemical secreted by people was shown to affect hormonal levels, the researchers said. The women had no skin contact with androstadienone.
The researchers used only heterosexual women in the study out of concern that homosexual women may respond differently to this male chemical.
Wyart said while this marked the first time a specific component of male sweat was demonstrated to influence women's hormones, other components of sweat may do similar things.
The study did not determine whether the increase in cortisol levels triggered mood or arousal changes or whether those changes themselves caused the cortisol elevation.
The researchers also said their findings suggest a better way to stimulate cortisol levels in patients who need it, such as those with Addison's disease. Instead of giving cortisol in pill form, which has side effects such as peptic ulcers, osteoporosis, weight gain and mood disorders, smelling a chemical like androstadienone could be used to affect cortisol levels, they suggested.


DEATH TOLL INCREASE

Four Marines killed; U.S. toll now 3,114


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. Marines were killed in fighting in Anbar province, the military said Thursday. The Marines, who were assigned to Multi-National Force — West, died Wednesday from wounds sustained due to enemy action in two separate incidents in the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, according to a statement. The deaths raised to at least 3,114 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, said U.S. officials were investigating a previously undisclosed Jan. 31 incident involving a civilian helicopter. A military official in Washington said the helicopter either crashed or was forced to land by gunfire. The passengers and crew were rescued by another U.S. helicopter, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
If confirmed, it would be the sixth helicopter to crash or be forced down in Iraq since Jan. 20, prompting the U.S. military to review flight operations. The most recent crash occurred Wednesday when a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight went down northwest of Baghdad, killing seven people.
Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, told a group of government officials in Washington on Thursday that the military did not believe the Sea Knight was shot down. An Iraqi air force officer said, however, that it was shot down with a missile. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni group claimed responsibility.
Iraqi forces Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of dollars to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the U.S. military said. The raid was the latest in a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, coming a day after the chief U.S. military spokesman said a security sweep to stop the rampant attacks in the capital was under way.
In Washington, a military official said it was the highest-level arrest so far and provided an example of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's assertion that nobody and no place will be exempt from the crackdown.
Maj. Gen. Abdullah Khamis, the Iraq army commander for eastern Baghdad, said the arrest of the Health Ministry official was not part of the security operation, which he said would be different from two previous attempts that failed to pacify the capital.
"The elements of the new plan will be completely different in all aspects from the previous plans," he said. "It will be comprehensive ... it will enjoy political support."
West of Baghdad, a U.S. airstrike killed 13 insurgents in a raid on two safe houses where intelligence showed foreign fighters were assembled near Amiriyah, the military said. Five militants were detained and a weapons cache was found in an initial raid on a target near the safe houses.
Police and hospital officials in the area offered a conflicting account, saying the airstrike hit the village of Zaidan south of Abu Ghraib and flattened four houses, killing 45 people, including women, children and old people.
An Associated Press photo showed the body of a boy in the back of a pickup truck at the nearby Fallujah hospital and people there said he was a victim of the Zaydan airstrike. Other photos showed several wounded children being treated in the hospital.
Amiriyah is in volatile Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad where hundreds of U.S. troops have been killed.
At least 43 other people were killed or found dead in Iraq. Car bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad and south of the capital.
The military statement did not identify the official detained Thursday, but a ministry spokesman said earlier that U.S. and Iraqi forces had seized deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr supporter, from his office in northern Baghdad.
A large white boot print was left on the bullet-pocked office door, which apparently had been kicked in by the troops, and shattered glass and overturned computers and phones were scattered on the floor.
The Shiite Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, who also has been linked to al-Sadr, and several other members of the movement denounced the raid.
"This is a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," he said. "They should have a court order to carry out a raid like this."
The detainee was implicated in the deaths of several ministry officials, including the director-general in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.
He reportedly orchestrated several kickback schemes related to inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars allegedly funneled to the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to al-Sadr, according to the statement.
The official also was suspected of providing large-scale employment of militia members who used Health Ministry facilities and services for "sectarian kidnapping and murder," the military said.
Joint U.S.-Iraqi forces stormed the Health Ministry compound early Thursday, causing its employees to flee, spokesman Qassim Yahya said.
One of al-Zamili's bodyguards said he heard gunshots, then the Americans asked him to step aside and approached the deputy health minister, who introduced himself by name and title. A U.S. soldier told al-Zamili he was on a list of wanted names and handcuffed him before leading him away, the bodyguard said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
In the deadliest attack Thursday, a parked car bomb exploded at a meat market in the predominantly Shiite town of Aziziyah, 56 miles south of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 45, police said.
Another parked car bomb tore through a minibus in the mainly Shiite Amin neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad, killing seven passengers and wounding 10, police said. The blast blew out the windows of at least one car parked nearby and left piles of rubble and ashes that were being cleared away by street sweepers as the burned out frame of the bus stood nearby.
Baghdad's streets have been tense as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armor rushed through streets and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.
New coils of barbed-wire and blast barriers marked checkpoints that caused traffic bottlenecks. U.S. Apache helicopters flew over parts of the city where they hadn't been seen before. Gunfire still rang out and some residents said they doubted life would get better.
"Nothing will work; it's too late," said Hashem al-Moussawi, a resident of the Sadr City Shiite enclave who was badly wounded in a bombing in December.
The chief U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, said Wednesday the Baghdad security operation would be implemented gradually. It is the third attempt by al-Maliki and his U.S. backers to pacify Baghdad since the Shiite leader came to office in May. The operation, which will involve about 90,000 Iraqi and American troops, was seen by many as a last chance to curb Iraq's sectarian war.


JOURNALISM & POLITICS

`Frontline' finds news media under siege


NEW YORK - The timing could hardly be better. "News War" is a "Frontline" probe into the modern Fourth Estate, embattled from many directions. And, by chance, it coincides with the imminent conclusion to a Washington free-for-all that has ensnared the news media: the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
He is charged with lying to investigators about his conversations with journalists such as Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who spent 85 days in jail in a futile effort to avoid revealing such conversations.
The first hour of the four-part series does a splendid job of untangling the snarl of events that began in early 2003 with the Bush administration's successful drive to win support from the public, and the media, for invading Iraq.
Airing Tuesday on PBS at 9 p.m. EST (check local listings), "Secrets, Sources & Spin" lays out how the government peddled its point of view to major media outlets by planting confidential tips that supported administration claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Such tips sparked stories which the government then cited as bolstering its claim.
Few in the media broke this information loop at the time, nor managed to uncover what became obvious only after the invasion: There were no WMDs.
"The way that the press was sold and spun ... and just fooled by the White House in the run-up to the war represents more than just a missed story," media analyst Jay Rosen says in the film. "How can one say that we have a watchdog press after a performance like that?"
But this represents just one battle for "News War," in which investigative journalist Lowell Bergman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter whose expose for CBS' "60 Minutes" was dramatized in the film "The Insider," finds the news media locked in a protracted conflict with the White House and much of government. It's a conflict that reaches back four decades to the Nixon administration, which famously warred with the news media before being undone by The Washington Post's exposure of the Watergate scandal.
On Feb. 20, "Secrets, Sources & Spin" continues with an inquiry into how much the press can reveal about secret government programs in the war on terror without jeopardizing national security.
It also looks at the pressures on reporters who protect a confidential source under far less threatening circumstances. San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada were ruled in contempt of court for refusing to reveal the source of leaked grand jury transcripts in a steroid distribution case — even though their reporting on how sports stars have taken performance-enhancing drugs won awards, added an asterisk to the career of home run king Barry Bonds and was hailed by President Bush.
"The bottom line is: What should the news media be allowed to do? What privileges should it have?" said Bergman in a phone interview earlier this week. "Is a conversation with a reporter similar to your conversation with your doctor or your spouse," where confidentiality is legally protected and widely supported?
Summing up his series, Bergman said, "We're looking at the issues of confidential sources, national security reporting, and the changing economic model for the news industry."
When the former two issues emerged decades ago, he added, "the major media were primarily news magazines, metropolitan newspapers and the three TV networks. And they were on the rise from an economic point of view."
Today, the media landscape is shifting rapidly, and no one knows what it will eventually look like. With new technologies and a "democratization" of reporting shaking things up — and raising uncertainties about the business model of traditional media — just how bold will those mainstream media be in pursuing their longtime role as the public's surrogate?
Bergman is currently a professor of investigative journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Speaking from California, he was about to board a plane for Boston, where he would finish a series that's been in the works for two years, but whose subject matter is still changing under his feet.
On Feb. 27, "What's Happening to the News" looks ahead to the future awaiting the news media. America's major network news divisions and daily newspapers face mounting pressure for profits from corporate owners as well as growing challenges from new technologies, notably the Internet, which is transforming the very definition of news.
Finally, on March 27, "Stories From a Small Planet" looks at media around the globe to reveal the international forces that influence journalism and politics in the United States. This segment focuses on Al-Jazeera TV and how it has changed the face of Arab media, while gaining influence around the world.
Supplementing the "News War" series will be a robust Web site with additional interviews and other resources that "would have ended up in cardboard boxes" in a past media age, as Bergman noted.
The media world today is under siege by government, the marketplace and even members of the audience the media claim to serve.
According to Bergman, the overarching question "News War" raises is, "What do you expect out of your news media?" But another follows right on its heels: In the emerging new world, can those expectations be met?

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