Levin: Senate will keep paying for Iraq

WASHINGTON – The Senate will not stop paying for the Iraq war or relent from insisting that President Bush keep pressing the Baghdad government for a negotiated end to the violence, a top Democrat said Sunday.Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Service Committee chairman, took issue with an effort by Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut off money for the war next year as a way to end U.S. involvement.

“We’re not going to vote to cut funding, period,” Levin said. “But what we should do, and we’re going to do, is continue to press this president to put some pressure on the Iraqi leaders to reach a political settlement.”

Bush has asked Congress for more than $100 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. The House and Senate have approved the money, but their bills seek to wind down the war by including timelines for troops to come home — something Bush will not accept.

The Senate bill would require a U.S. troop exit to begin within 120 days, with a completion goal of March 31, 2008. The House bill would order all combat troops out by Sept. 1, 2008.

Democratic leaders have not negotiated a final version to send the president. Bush has made clear he will veto it, which will start the process all over.

“We’re going to fund the troops. We always have,” Levin said. He added, “We’re very strong in supporting the troops, but we’re also strong on putting pressure on the Iraqi leaders to live up to their own commitments without that political settlement on their part, there is no military solution.”

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said “there have not been sufficient efforts at discussions” between lawmakers and White House. “We cannot leave the troops unfunded in the field. That just can’t be done. And Congress is not in a position to micromanage the war. But we do not have any good alternative. Right now, you can’t see the end of the tunnel, let alone a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Specter said he was not prepared “to withdraw funding at this time. But my patience, like many others, is growing very thin.”

Reid, D-Nev., said last week that if Bush rejects the Democrats’ legislation, he would join with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the party’s most liberal members who has long called to end the war by denying funding for it. Reid’s latest proposal would give the president one year to get troops out, ending funding for combat operations after March 31, 2008.

“We can keep the benchmarks part of the bill without saying that the troops must begin to come back within four months,” Levin said. “If that doesn’t work and the president vetoes because of that, and he will, then that part of it is removed, because we’re going to fund the troops.

“And what we will leave will be benchmarks, for instance, which would require the president to certify to the American people if the Iraqis are meeting the benchmarks for political settlement, which they, the Iraqi leaders, have set for themselves,” he said.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said it is unacceptable to set a goal and timetable for withdrawing the troops. He said lawmakers who support that are basing it on a false notion that the Iraqis are not listening to the United States.

“I was over there about a month ago. We saw the reaction of the Iraqis. They are cooperating with us. So that’s old news that they’re not cooperating. That’s one of the reasons this new surge strategy is working,” he said.

Kyl said withholding money from troops with the aim of sending a message to Iraqis that they must do better would be self-defeating.

“You’re also sending a message to our troops and to our enemies, who know that all they have to do is wait the conflict out. This is not the way to try to micromanage a war from the U.S. Senate,” he said.

Levin and Kyl were interviewed on “This Week” on ABC and Specter appeared on “Late Edition” on CNN.

al-Sadr calls for attacks on U.S. troops

By Saad Abdul Kadir, Associated Press

BAGHDAD – The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged the Iraqi army and police to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate on pushing American forces out of the country, according to a statement issued Sunday.

The statement, stamped with al-Sadr’s official seal, was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday — a day before a large demonstration there, called for by al-Sadr, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

“You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don’t walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy,” the statement said. Its authenticity could not be verified.

In the statement, al-Sadr — who commands an enormous following among Iraq‘s majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government — also encouraged his followers to attack only American forces, not fellow Iraqis.

“God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them — not against the sons of Iraq,” the statement said, in an apparent reference to clashes between al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fighters and Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. “You have to protect and build Iraq.”

The U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of four American soldiers, killed a day earlier in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. The province has seen a spike in attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces since the start of a plan two months ago to pacify the capital. Officials believe militants have streamed out of Baghdad to invigorate the insurgency in areas just outside the city.

Separately, a pickup truck loaded with artillery shells exploded Sunday near a hospital south of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people. The blast left a crater 10 yards wide, the Iraqi military said.

Three mortars sailed into houses in eastern Baghdad, sending six people to the hospital with breathing difficulties from a possible chemical agent, police said.

Doctors said the victims’ faces turned yellow and they were unable to open their eyes. One hospital official said the chemical was chlorine, and that the victims were expected to recover.

Chlorine has been used in at least nine attacks in Iraq since January, mostly in bombings by al-Qaida in Iraq.

The bombing in Mahmoudiyah involved a pickup truck parked next to the city General Hospital, an Iraqi army officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter. Other reports said the explosion was a rocket attack.

At least 26 people were wounded, he said.

Hours later, five burned and mutilated bodies remained scattered at the scene. Most of the dead were technicians who worked at auto repair shops nearby, officials said.

The hospital was slightly damaged by flying debris and shrapnel, but shops and residential buildings bore more damage. Many of those wounded were in their homes at the time of the blast.

Mahmoudiyah is 20 miles south of Baghdad.

Also Sunday, Iran‘s state news agency reported that a spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry confirmed that Iran refused to allow Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s plane to fly through Iranian airspace. But the spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said the dispute was only a technical issue.

“For all flights there is a need for authorization, for which formalities must have been done in advance,” he was quoted as saying.

Members of the delegation traveling with al-Maliki told The Associated Press early Sunday that the plane was diverted to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where al-Maliki stayed in the airport for more than three hours while his government aircraft was refueled and a new flight plan was filed.

U.S. forces also captured a senior al-Qaida leader and two others in a raid Sunday morning in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The al-Qaida figure was identified as “the gatekeeper to the al-Qaida emir of Baghdad” and was linked to several car bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, the military said in a statement, without naming the captive.

Thousands of Iraqis streamed toward the Shiite holy city of Najaf for a demonstration Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Witnesses said thousands of residents of Baghdad’s largest Shiite slum, Sadr City, boarded buses and minivans Sunday for Najaf.

On Sunday, Iraqi flags flew from most houses and shops in Sadr City — as requested earlier in a statement from al-Sadr’s office. Drivers and motorcyclists affixed them to their vehicles. Police escorted convoys of pickup trucks overflowing with young boys waving Iraqi flags, en route to Najaf.

An Iraqi flag was hoisted over a military base in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, as Iraqi troops took control of the facility Sunday from British forces. The Shat al-Arab base is the second base transfered to Iraqi control in Basra over the past month.

The Iraqi military ordered a 24-hour vehicle ban in Baghdad on Monday for the anniversary, state television reported Sunday. Al-Iraqiya TV said Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, disclosed the vehicle ban, which includes motorcycles.

Such bans have been put in place before in an attempt to prevent vehicle bombings.

Pelosi defends visit to Mideast

By Christina Bellantoni
The Washington Times
April 7, 2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday defended her whirlwind Middle East peace mission in the face of wide criticism about her choice of words — and fashion — during the trip.
    
The California Democrat, who touted her visit abroad as fostering diplomacy and following the Iraq Study Group’s recommendation, said yesterday she is spreading “President Bush’s message” of anti-terrorism.
    
The Bush administration and others all week accused her of overstepping her bounds and making critical gaffes as she, five other Democrats and one Republican met with heads of state in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian territories. The lawmakers’ goal was to stimulate a regional solution for a peaceful end to the Iraq war.
    
The speaker’s visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, over Mr. Bush’s objections, drew the most ire. It prompted the Wall Street Journal editorial board to wonder whether Mrs. Pelosi was trying to embarrass the president.
    
Mr. Bush called the trip counterproductive and Vice President Dick Cheney said he was “disappointed” in Mrs. Pelosi, calling her actions in Damascus a signal that the U.S. is rewarding Mr. Assad for his “bad behavior.”
    
But the speaker told the Associated Press yesterday she thinks the visit proved U.S. leaders are united against terrorism.
    
“Our message was President Bush’s message,” she told AP. “The funny thing is, I think we may have even had a more powerful impact with our message because of the attention that was called to our trip.
    
“It became clear to President Assad that even though we have our differences in the United States, there is no division between the president and the Congress and the Democrats on the message we wanted him to receive.”
    
Mrs. Pelosi also attracted negative headlines for telling Mr. Assad that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sent a message with her that he was “ready to engage” in peace talks, a claim Mr. Olmert quickly refuted.
    
The Washington Post editorial board called the trip “foolish” and an “attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president.”
    
A Pelosi staffer on the speaker’s Web blog denounced The Post editorial as “poisonous,” and refuted the opinion point by point. The staffer noted that five Republican members who visited the region on a separate trip this week elicited no White House commentary.
    
As for the message from Mr. Olmert, Mrs. Pelosi said yesterday there was “absolutely no confusion.”

“The message that we carried from Prime Minister Olmert was the exact message that he gave us,” she said on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” “He is a man of peace, and he expressed to us that we should express to the president of Syria his interest in going to the negotiating table — but not until Syria took steps to stop its support for Hamas and Hezbollah. And that is exactly the message that we conveyed.”
    
Mr. Cheney held nothing back Thursday when appearing on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, saying he wished she had not gone to Syria.
    
“I think it is, in fact, bad behavior on her part,” he said.

“Fortunately I think the various parties involved recognize she doesn’t speak for the United States in those circumstances.”
    
Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, called the trip “embarrassing.”
    
“Speaking on matters of foreign policy with one voice is critical for the country,” he said. “That’s why we have highly trained diplomats and other such professionals in the federal government. Whether you agree with a particular administration or not, playing high-profile politics with matters of state is reckless and dangerous for the country.”
    
USA Today said the speaker “crossed a line” by meeting with Mr. Assad. A guest columnist in the Wall Street Journal suggested she may have violated a law forbidding Americans from talking to foreign governments without U.S. authority if they are trying to “influence that government’s behavior on any ‘disputes or controversies with the United States.’ “
    
Conservative group Move America Forward used the Pelosi-Bush dust-up over Syria in a fundraising e-mail, saying the money would help it “respond to this despicable conduct by Ms. Pelosi and others in the anti-war movement.”
    
Even her choice of dress — a head scarf in a Syrian mosque and pastel pantsuits — drew scorn from conservative bloggers this week.
    
Also on the trip were Reps. Tom Lantos and Henry A. Waxman, both California Democrats, Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia Democrat, Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat, and Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat and the only Muslim member of Congress.
    
Rep. David L. Hobson of Ohio, the lone Republican on the delegation, defended Mrs. Pelosi as helping the administration, according to the Dayton Daily News.
    
“We reinforced the administration’s positions and at the same time we were trying to understand and maybe getting some voice to some things people wanted to say that maybe they were not comfortable saying to the administration,” he told the newspaper.
    
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Mrs. Pelosi’s group got a “warm welcome” from Middle East press, and quoted several reports, including one Jordanian newspaper saying the Syria visit is a “step in the right direction.”
    
Also yesterday, staffers for Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer revealed the Maryland Democrat had spent the past week on his own congressional delegation of six Democrats and four Republicans to Sudan, Egypt, Greece and Germany.

Freed Britons say `confessions’ coerced

By TARIQ PANJA, Associated Press

ROYAL MARINE BASE CHIVENOR, England – British sailors and marines freed by Iran said Friday they were blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells and tricked into fearing execution while being coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.

They said there was no doubt the 15 crew members were in

Iraq‘s territorial waters when they were seized by heavily armed boats of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. They also said their jailers had singled out the only woman among the captives for use in propaganda.

Iran, which has been celebrating the incident as a victory, quickly rejected the charges, dismissing a news conference held by six of the freed personnel as “propaganda” and “a show.” Iranian state TV accused British leaders of “dictating” the crew’s statements.

Appearing a day after being flown home to reunions with their families, the eight sailors and seven marines reported undergoing constant psychological pressure and being threatened with seven years in prison if they did not say they intruded into Iranian waters.

They said their captors also lined them up against a wall one night to the ominous sound of weapons cocking behind their heads.

“At some points I did have fears that we would not survive,” Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, 20, the youngest sailor among the captives, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Speaking at the news conference with five colleagues, the boat team’s commander, Royal Navy Lt. Felix Carman, said the prisoners were harshly interrogated during 13 days in custody and slept in stone cells on piles of blankets.

“All of us were kept in isolation. We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options: If we admitted that we’d strayed, we’d be on a plane to (Britain) pretty soon. If we didn’t, we faced up to seven years in prison,” he said.

Carman, who was one of the captives who appeared in Iranian videos seeming to admit being in Iran’s waters, disavowed his earlier comment.

“Let me make this clear — irrespective of what was said in the past — when we were detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard we were inside internationally recognized Iraqi territorial waters,” he said.

Royal Marine Joe Tindell said he came to believe one of his colleagues had been executed on the second day of their ordeal.

The 21-year-old said the crew had believed they were being taken to the British Embassy in Tehran to be released, but were instead dumped in a holding facility.

“We had a blindfold and plastic cuffs, hands behind our backs, heads against the wall. … There were weapons cocking,” Tindell told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. “Someone said, I quote: ‘Lads, lads, I think we’re going to get executed.’ … Someone was sick and as far as I was concerned he had just had his throat cut.”

Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air said the crew, operating in two inflatable boats in the Persian Gulf on March 23 checking vessels for smuggled goods, was confronted by two Revolutionary Guard boats.

“They rammed our boats and trained their heavy machine guns, RPGs and weapons on us. Another six boats were closing in on us,” Air said.

He said the team quickly decided that a gunbattle would risk a major escalation of tensions with Iran and that they were too lightly armed to resist anyway.

“From the outset it was very apparent that fighting back was simply not an option,” Air said. “Had we chosen to do so, then many of us would not be standing here today. Of that I have no doubts.”

While much of Britain rallied behind the returning crew, some critics complained about the prisoners appearing in videos in which they appeared to admit entering Iranian waters and offered regrets.

Military commanders have stood behind the crew. They didn’t break rules by complying with the Iranian demands, the head of the Royal Navy, Adm. Jonathon Band, told the BBC. “I think, in the end, they were a credit to us,” he said.

The most visible of the seized sailors during their captivity was Leading Seaman Faye Turney, a 26-year-old mother of a young girl and the first crew member to be interviewed on Iranian television. Turney did not attend the news conference.

Air said Turney was singled out by the Iranians, who put her in solitary confinement and told her all the men had been released. “She was under the impression for about four days that she was the only one there,” he told reporters.

In an interview with AP, Air said there were a “few incidents when our safety was at risk,” citing occasions when the sailors were held separately, making them more vulnerable.

He said the crew faced a difficult task when complying with their captors’ requests for them to admit publicly they were in Iranian territory — a fact they knew to be untrue. “We were very careful about what we said and what we didn’t say,” he told AP.

In a clip shown on Iranian television, for instance, Air — pointing to a map — said that “we were seized apparently at this point here on their maps and on the GPS they’ve shown us, which is inside Iranian territorial waters.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s office refused to comment on the crew’s description of their treatment in Iran, but the White House said the reports of ill-treatment were disappointing.

“If what they described is accurate, then that would not seem to be appropriate behavior and action,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. “It’s unfortunate that the Iranians ever detained the sailors to begin with.”

Iran’s state television showed parts of the news conference, but with no sound. Without revealing their specific comments, a newscaster said the Britons “retreated from their confessions,” while an unidentified analyst charged their statements were “dictated” by British officials.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, also criticized the British statements, the TV report said. “Propaganda actions and shows can’t cover up actions by the British military men and their repeated violation in illegal entry into Iran’s territorial waters,” he said.

Earlier, during Friday sermons at mosques around Iran, government clerics touted the end of the standoff with Britain as a victory for Iran.

Some told worshippers the British government apologized for the crews’ entry into Iranian waters. The British government says it never apologized, and even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acknowledged before the crew’s release that Britain stuck to its stance that the crew was seized in Iraqi waters.

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Associated Press writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran and Jennifer Quinn, David Stringer and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report

Britons: Iran bound, threatened captives

By TARIQ PANJA, Associated Press

ROYAL MARINE BASE CHIVENOR, England – British sailors and marines held for nearly two weeks in Iran were blindfolded, bound and threatened with prison if they did not say they had strayed into Iranian waters, a Royal Navy lieutenant who was among the capitives said Friday.

Lt. Felix Carman, safely home with his 14 colleagues, said the crew faced harsh interrogation by their Iranian captors and slept in stone cells on piles of blankets. Unable to see and kept isolated, they heard weapons cocking.

“We were blindfolded, our hands were bound and we were forced up against a wall. Throughout our ordeal we faced constant psychological pressure,” Carman said. “All of us were kept in isolation. We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options. If we admitted that we’d strayed, we’d be on a plane to (Britain) pretty soon. If we didn’t, we faced up to seven years in prison.”

Within hours of the news conference, Iranian state television said the British military had “dictated” to its sailors what to say.

Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air said the crew of 15, which was out on a routine operation on March 23, was confronted by members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

“They rammed our boats, and trained their heavy machine guns, RPGs, and weapons on us. Another six boats were closing in on us,” Air said. “We realized that had we resisted there would have been a major fight, one we could not have won, with consequences that would have major strategic impacts. We made a conscious decision not to engage the Iranians.”

Iran insists the British strayed into its territory; the sailors and the British government deny the accusation and maintain they were in Iraqi waters.

Britain’s top naval officer said boarding operations would be suspended while a review is conducted.

“Coalition operations continue under U.K. command,” said Adm. Jonathon Band, head of the Royal Navy. “Currently, our (operations) have been suspended while we do that review.”

The most visible of the seized sailors and marines was Leading Seaman Faye Turney, a 26-year-old mother of one. Her letters home received widespread publicity in Britain, particularly one in which she requested the British government withdraw from Iraq.

Air said she was singled out for propaganda purposes, held in solitary confinement and told the others had gone home.

“Being an Islamic country, Faye was subjected to different rules than we were. She was separated as soon as she arrived, and was told that her colleagues had been flown home,” Air said. “She coped admirably and has maintained a lot of dignity.”

While much of the country rallied behind the crew’s return, others criticized them for offering apologies where none was required — namely for appearing in videos in which they admitted and offered regrets for entering Iranian waters.

The servicemen said they had tried to be vague about whether they had strayed into Iranian waters in statements they made during captivity.

“We were very careful about what we said and what we didn’t say,” Air told The Associated Press. He said the Iranian captors were humane, but said there were a “few incidents when our safety was at risk.”

It’s not possible to know everything the sailors and marines said to their captors but at least some statements avoided saying definitely they were in Iran’s waters.

For example, in one of the letters made public from Turney, she said she had “apparently gone into Iranian waters.” In a video clip from Iranian TV, Air said “we were seized apparently at this point here on their maps and on the GPS they’ve shown us, which is inside Iranian territorial waters.”

Carman had been pictured on Iranian television saying he “understood” why Iran was angry the crew had strayed into their waters. At Friday’s news conference, he said the crew was nearly two nautical miles from Iran’s territory — and that they had never apologized.

“Let me make this clear — irrespective of what was said in the past — when we were detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard we were inside internationally recognized Iraqi territorial waters,” he said. “At no time did we actually say were sorry for straying into Iranian waters.”

In its news report on the sailors, Iranian state TV accusing Britain of dictating statements to the crew, saying “the British sailors only read from pages dictated to them.”

Air and Carmen were among six of the crew members who chose to speak publicly Friday.

Band told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the crew had “acted with considerable dignity and a lot of courage.”

“They appear to have played it by the rules, they don’t appear to have put themselves into danger, others into danger, they don’t appear to have given anything away,” he said. “I think, in the end, they were a credit to us.”

Britain insisted the crew was on a routine operation when seized — but Sky News reported Thursday that Air said in an interview days before his capture that his crew was gathering intelligence on Iran during their patrols. Sky said it held the interview because it thought it could hamper the crew’s release.

Defense ministry officials denied the sailors and marines had an intelligence role, but said they routinely spoke to commanders of vessels using the Persian Gulf and Shatt Al-Arab waterway to determine who was using shipping routes.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday that the Britons would be released — a breakthrough in a crisis that had raised oil prices and escalated fears of military conflict in the volatile region. The move suggested Iran’s hard-line leadership had decided it had shown its strength but did not want to push the standoff too far.

But Iran did not get the main thing it sought — a public apology for entering Iranian waters. Britain insists it never offered a deal, instead relying on quiet and sometimes silent diplomacy.

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Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini contributed to this report from Tehran, Iran.

Iran Says Brit Sailors, Marines, Released

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the release of 15 captive British soldiers and sailors Wednesday in what he called an Easter gift to the British people.
Prime Minister

Tony Blair, who said the Britons had been released, added that he bore “no ill will” toward the Iranian people.

As of 9 p.m. local time in Tehran, however, the Britons had not arrived at the British Embassy.

Alex Pinfield, first secretary of embassy in Tehran, said it’s not clear when they will be handed over or where they are going to spend the night. He indicated the British “are still discussing the Iranian case with the Iranian foreign ministry.”

Iranian state television showed the 14 men and one woman meeting with Ahmadinejad outside the presidential palace. They were seized while on patrol in the northern Persian gulf on March 23, would leave

Iran on Thursday.

Ahmadinejad’s surprise announcement came at a news conference shortly after he pinned a medal on the chest of the Iranian coast guard commander who intercepted the sailors and marines.

“On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet (Muhammad) … and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people — with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial — forgave those 15,” he said, referring to the Muslim prophet’s birthday on March 30 and the Easter holiday.

“This pardon is a gift to the British people,” he said.

The release ends a 13-day standoff between London and Tehran that was sparked when the crew was seized as it searched for smugglers off the Iraqi coast. Britain denied Iranian claims the crew had entered Iranian waters.

“I’m glad that our 15 service personnel have been released and I know their release will come as a relief not just to them but to their families,” Blair said outside his No. 10 Downing St. office. “Throughout, we have taken a measured approach, firm but calm, not negotiating but not confronting, either.”

Blair added, “To the Iranian people, I would simply say this: We bear you no ill will.”

President Bush, who had condemned the seizure of the Britons and referred to them as “hostages,” also welcomed it, said his national security spokesman, Gordon Johndroe.

Blair thanked British allies in Europe, the

U.N. Security Council and in the Middle East for their help in securing the freedom of the Royal Navy personnel. Syria‘s information and foreign ministers said Damascus had played a key role in resolving the standoff.“Syria exercised a sort of quiet diplomacy to solve this problem and encourage dialogue between the two parties,” Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said.

After Ahmadinejad’s news conference, state television showed him meeting with the British crew, who were dressed in business suits, outside the presidential palace. He shook hands and chatted with them through a translator, and a caption to the video said the meeting was taking place as part of the “process of release.”

“We appreciate it. Your people have been really kind to us, and we appreciate it very much,” one of the crew could be heard telling Ahmadinejad in English.

Another said: “We are grateful for your forgiveness.”

Ahmadinejad responded in Farsi, “You are welcome.”

Among the crew at the palace was sailor Faye Turney, the sole woman among the captives, wearing a blue jacket and floral-patterned blue and white headscarf.

Iranian TV said the British captives had watched Ahmadinejad’s news conference live and were ecstatic when a translator told them what the president had said.

British Defense Secretary Des Browne said the sailors and marines had acted with dignity during their captivity.

“It is vital that we get them back home quickly and safely so they can be reunited with their families and loved ones — that is our priority now,” he said.

Recent days saw talk of direct negotiations between Britain and Iran, and a decrease in tensions that had risen after Iran broadcast videos in which Turney and the others “confessed” to violating Iranian territorial waters, and Britain expressed outrage.

Ahmadinejad said the British government had sent a letter to the Iranian Foreign Ministry pledging that entering Iranian waters “will not happen again.”

The British Foreign Office responded: “We haven’t gone into detail of what was in the note. But we have said all along we made our position clear (about being in Iraqi waters).”

The crew would be handed over to British diplomats in Tehran and that it would then be up to the Foreign Office to decide how they would return home, said an Iranian official in London who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

They will leave Tehran early Thursday and arrive at Heathrow around 11 a.m. (8 a.m. EDT), said Robin Air, father of Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air. Families will be reunited with the crew later in the day at a military base, he said.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement came after Iran’s state media reported that an Iranian envoy would be allowed to meet five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in northern Iraq. Another Iranian diplomat, separately seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen in Iraq, was released and returned Tuesday to Tehran.

Ahmadinejad said Iran will never accept trespassing in its territorial waters.

“On behalf of the great Iranian people, I want to thank the Iranian coast guard who courageously defended and captured those who violated their territorial waters,” he said in awarding a medal to the coast guard commander.

“We are sorry that British troops remain in Iraq and their sailors are being arrested in Iran,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad asked Blair not to “punish” the crew for confessing that they had been in Iranian waters when they were seized by Iranian coast guard. Iran broadcast video of some of the crew giving confessions, angering Britain.

He also criticized Britain for deploying Turney in the Gulf, pointing out that she is a woman with a child.

“How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don’t they respect family values in the West?” he asked of the British government.

Iran has denied it seized the Britons to force the release of Iranians held in Iraq, and Britain has steadfastly insisted it would not negotiate for the sailors’ freedom.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said earlier Wednesday that an Iranian envoy would be allowed to meet with the five detained Iranians in Iraq but gave no further details.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said, however, that American authorities were still considering the request. The spokesman, Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell, said an international Red Cross team, including one Iranian, had visited the prisoners but he did not say when.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press that the case of the five Iranians detained in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish self-governing region in northern Iraq, had no connection with the British captives.

Zebari, a Kurd, said his government had been relaying Iranian requests for a meeting with the five detainees, but could not confirm the request had been approved.

In a commentary, IRNA said the movement on the Iranian prisoner issue was due in part to “the new American political and military appointments in Iraq.”

The agency was referring to Gen. David Petraeus, who took command of U.S. forces in February, and Ryan Crocker, who began work as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq in March.

U.S. troops detained the five Iranians on Jan. 11, accusing them of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard network that was supplying money and weapons to insurgents in Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush had approved the strategy of raiding Iranian targets in Iraq as part of efforts to confront Tehran.

Iraqi Kurds, like the country’s Shiites, maintain close ties with Shiite-dominated Iran, despite their warm relationship with the U.S. — and have been upset over the arrests.

Iran denounced the raid and insisted that the five were diplomats who were engaged exclusively in consular work. The Iraqi government said they were arrested at an office that was supposed to become an Iranian consulate.

The British newspaper The Independent reported this week that the Irbil raid had escalated tensions between the U.S. and Iran and may have set the stage for the seizure of the British crew.

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Associated Press writers Raphael G. Satter in London contributed to this report.

Bush: Democrats ‘irresponsible’ on Iraq

By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -  President Bush denounced “irresponsible” Democrats on Tuesday for going on spring break without approving money for the Iraq war with no strings. He condemned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria, too, accusing her of encouraging a terrorism sponsor.

With Congress out of town, Bush tried to take the upper hand over Democrats who are making increasing forays into foreign policy as his term dwindles and his approval ratings remain low.

Democrats, buoyed by recent Republican defections from Bush on Iraq, shot back that they are the ones pursuing effective solutions overseas in response to a national desire for change from his approach.

“We are not going to allow the president to continue a failed policy in Iraq. We represent the American people’s vision on this failed war,” Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said at a ceremony for a new Nevada National Guard armory near Las Vegas. “We have said time and time again the troops will have everything they need.”

Speaking a day before he heads out of town for six days for events in the West and an Easter break at his ranch, the president said Democrats are failing their responsibility to the troops and the nation’s security by leaving for their own recess after passing bills to fund the war that contain timelines for American withdrawal.

Given his promised veto of anything containing a deadline — and the likelihood that his veto would be sustained on Capitol Hill — Bush said Democrats are merely engaging in games that “undercut the troops.”

“Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than in providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq,” Bush said. “In a time of war, it’s irresponsible for the Democrat leadership — Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds.”

Nearly two months ago, Bush asked for more than $100 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Congress has approved the money, but the Senate added a provision also calling for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008. The House version demands a September 2008 withdrawal.

These bills still must be reconciled before legislation can be sent to the president.

“They need to come off their vacation, get a bill to my desk, and if it’s got strings and mandates and withdrawals and pork I’ll veto it,” the president said. “And then we can get down to the business of getting this thing done.”

Not so fast, Democrats responded.

“Americans want compromise, not a cowboy-style showdown,” said House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C.

Fresh from a briefing by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the president sought to put pressure on Democrats by detailing ways that delaying the money could harm troops and their families.

After the current $70 billion war appropriation runs out in mid-April, Bush said, the military would have to consider cutting back on equipment, repairs and training for National Guard and reserve forces. After mid-May, he said, more steps would be considered, such as delaying or curtailing the training of some active duty forces.

Despite Bush’s warnings, dire consequences can be avoided even after the money starts to run out. It has become routine in recent years for Pentagon accountants to move money around in the department’s half-trillion-dollar budget to make sure operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are not disrupted. The money is repaid, usually with minimal disruption, when the president signs a new war spending bill.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Bush and Congress have about three months to resolve their standoff before Iraq operations would actually be affected.

Democrats told Bush to stop blaming them for being the ones to keep money from soldiers, and to start negotiating.

“If President Bush vetoes funding for the troops, he will be the one who is blocking funding for the troops. Nobody else,” said presidential candidate John Edwards.

On another topic, the president took issue with a two-day stay in Syria by Pelosi that began Tuesday.

As the speaker donned a head scarf and mingled with Syrians at a mosque and a market in Damascus’ Old City, preparing for meetings Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Bush said she was sending dangerous signals. State-run newspapers in Syria published news of the visit on their front pages, with one daily publishing a photograph of Pelosi next to the headline: “Welcome Dialogue.”

Bush said meetings with many high-level Americans have done nothing to persuade Assad to control violent elements of the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, to halt efforts to destabilize Lebanon or to stop allowing “foreign fighters” from flowing over Syria’s border into Iraq.

“Photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they’re part of the mainstream of the international community when, in fact, they’re a state sponsor of terror,” he said.

When she visited Lebanon on Monday, Pelosi noted that Republican lawmakers had met Assad on Sunday without comment from the Bush administration.

“I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go,” she said. “And I think it’s an excellent idea for us to go as well.”

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended that the U.S. begin direct and extensive talks with Syria and Iran over Iraq. The Bush administration has long rejected that idea, but recently agreed to allow U.S. representatives to talk with Syrian officials at an international conference in Baghdad.

Pelosi’s office said her trip was appropriate.

“The Iraq Study Group recommended a diplomatic effort that should include ‘every country that has an interest in avoiding a chaotic Iraq,’” said deputy press secretary Drew Hamill. “This effort should certainly include Syria.”

On other matters, Bush:

-Said his administration “had a right to remove” eight U.S. attorneys. Bush added a note of concern about damage to the prosecutors’ reputations: “I’m sorry it’s come to this,” he said.

-Refused to say whether he believes homosexuality is immoral, a characterization made recently by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I will not be rendering judgment about individual orientation,” he said.

-Rejected any “quid pro quo” to win the release of 15 British sailors captured by Iran, such as exchanging five Iranians arrested by the U.S. military in Iraq in January. At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said there was no link “as far as we know” between the captured Britons and the release Tuesday of an Iranian diplomat missing for two months in Iraq.

Baghdad curfew eased as surge scores successes

By Sharon Behn
The Washington Times
April 4, 2007

BAGHDAD — American and Iraqi soldiers yesterday killed six terrorists and captured another 41 insurgents and death-squad suspects in operations in Baghdad and outside Fallujah, military officials said.
    
The raids were part of the ongoing enormous effort by U.S. and Iraqi security forces to break the backs of the various armed groups warring in Iraq. The Iraqi government cited the success of that operation yesterday in announcing that the nightly curfew will be pushed back by two hours.
    
In Baghdad, a U.S. Stryker battalion and an Iraqi battalion fanned out in east Mansour, an area of the city where Shi’ite death squads have been forcing Sunni families out of their homes and replacing them with followers of Muqtada al-Sadr’s radical militia.
    
Directed by Iraqi and American intelligence sources, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team raided houses overnight, capturing nine members of what they said was a known death-squad cell.
    
“We think they are responsible for the deaths of 22 Sunnis in this area, as well as [rocket-propelled grenade] and small-arms attacks,” said an intelligence officer involved in the operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
    
In separate operations, coalition forces killed six al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists and captured 13 other “facilitators” yesterday morning south of Fallujah and in al Qaim, on the border with Syria, the U.S. military said.
    
The men arrested in Baghdad were swiftly flex-cuffed, blindfolded and hauled off to one of the city’s detention centers, where they sat with their backs against a wall waiting to be screened by U.S. medical personnel.
    
One man came in whimpering and limping on the arms of two American soldiers, his arm and leg bandaged after trying to escape the raid by jumping over several walls. Altogether, 28 detainees were brought into the holding center from raids across Baghdad.
    
The raids were part of the stepped-up U.S. security presence in Baghdad, but the significance is hard to judge. Although the military actions yesterday interrupted one death squad, the intelligence officer said, the long-term impact could be determined only by “going back to the neighbors and asking them if they feel safer now.”
    
Iraqis say several neighborhoods have improved since the security plan went into operation almost eight weeks ago, an appraisal reflected in pushing back the start of the nightly curfew to 10 p.m.
    
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, said the decision was made “because the security situation has improved and people needed more time to go shopping.” 

However, residents of other neighborhoods say they are seeing a return to sectarian executions.

A father of two girls said he was moving out of his area after he and his family listened from their house as a teenage neighbor pleaded in the street for a Shi’ite death squad to spare his father’s life. They killed him anyway.
    
“The Shi’ite militia are making trouble,” said Hassan, who asked that his full name not be used. “They are idiots, stupid.” After almost four years of war and a week of finding corpses outside his door, Hassan said, he has to move.
    
American forces, such as the Stryker brigades operating across the capital and in Diyala province, are working 12- to 14-hour days to clear both Sunni and Shi’ite neighborhoods block by block and house by house.
    
They also are trying to work side by side with the Iraqi army and police in order for them to establish trust among the local population. Many Iraqis feel the Iraqi forces are corrupt and part of the death squads.
    
“I myself never trust any Iraqi police and army,” said a young woman called Jenan, whose pregnant sister was killed in a terrorist bombing.
    
Staff Sgt. Brian Long, 31, a fire support specialist for Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment with the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said it was still “too early to tell if the surge is working.”
    
He thinks progress has been made. “Even coming to an agreement to not kill each other is a step in a positive direction; it has happened in some neighborhoods,” he said. 

Layla, a Kurdish woman who lives in Baghdad, said shops were beginning to reopen on the shell-pocked main street of her neighborhood, which once bustled with juice stands, coffee shops, hamburger restaurants and small kitchenware stores.
    
“They attacked [the Zayoona neighborhood] several times in the last three or four months, but now people feel safe enough to open their stores,” she said.
    
It is “not exactly” safe to go to the market, she said. “You don’t know who is going to kill you, or kidnap you.”
    
While most Iraqis are withholding judgment on the security surge, a cross-section of women and men said the U.S. military was the only thing preventing complete chaos.
    
“If they retreat and leave everything to the Iraqis, at that time the civil war in Iraq will start,” Hassan said. 
    

McCain and Graham Speak of Hope, Support to Troops and Allies

Pelosi, Murtha talk is defeatist; cedes Iraq to terrorists….

By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
April 2, 2007

I listened with interest to the Baghdad news conference held by Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and other members of the Congressional Delegation (CODEL) that met with commanders, and visited security checkpoints as well as the shopping bazaar in Baghdad this weekend.

Senator McCain, despite his reputation as a maverick, sounded measured, careful and courteous with a media crowd that was clearly doubtful if not openly hostile to his message: that Americans lacked a “full picture” of the progress being made in Iraq.

McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful from Arizona, said that in the first time among his many trips into Baghdad he was driven on the road into the city in a vehicle. In every previous visit, he said, security along the road was so tenuous that he was always flown to the Green Zone by helicopter.

McCain clearly acknowledged that difficulties are still ahead in Iraq, but he criticized the media for not giving Americans enough information about the recent drop in execution-style sectarian killings, the establishment of security posts throughout the city and Sunni tribal efforts against al-Qaida in the western Anbar province.

“These and other indicators are reason for cautious, very cautious optimism about the effects of the new strategy,” said McCain, who was leading a Republican congressional delegation to Iraq that included Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Senator Graham, from South Carolina, spoke eloquently about the need for hope, support to our Iraqi allies, and support for the military plan established by General Petraeus.

Graham said setting a deadline would be a “huge mistake” and Bush would be right to use his veto because the security plan — to which Bush has pledged 30,000 extra American troops — was working.

Graham said the language being used on Capitol Hill by many of his Democratic colleagues was “defeatist” and left our Iraqi allies “in the hands of the car bombers.”

The CODEL, which also included Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., toured the vast Shorja market, which was been hit by several recent bombings, including one in February that killed 137 people.

All said the market was active with sellers and shoppers and several members of the CODEL bought rugs and other items from Iraqi vendors.

Speaker of the House Pelosi could not be reached for comment because she is on her way to Syria.
*******
Senator McCain “Heckled” By CNN “Reporter”

By Nancy Streets
National Ledger
Apr 1, 2007

Michael Ware is an Australian journalist reporting for CNN as an international correspondent based in Baghdad.  Though many no longer consider Ware a reporter, but an activist.  Has CNN plummeted even deeper into the anti-war camp by placing the reporter turned activist on air to give reports of his version of the war in Iraq?  Apparently Ware still has an attitude about Senator McCain’s earlier comments that the situation is getting better in Iraq.

Now it appears that he has stepped up his assault and there is a report that Ware has now turned to heckling.  Matt Drudge is reporting that that during a live press conference in Bagdad, Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bagdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”

McCain lauds Baghdad security operation

By Kim Gamel, Associated Press

BAGHDAD – After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a “full picture” of the progress being made.

McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful, acknowledged a difficult task lies ahead in Iraq, but criticized the media for not giving Americans enough information about the recent drop in execution-style sectarian killings, the establishment of security posts throughout the city and Sunni tribal efforts against al-Qaida in the western Anbar province.

“These and other indicators are reason for cautious, very cautious optimism about the effects of the new strategy,” said McCain, who was leading a Republican congressional delegation to Iraq that included Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Members of the delegation spoke at a Green Zone news conference after they rode from Baghdad’s airport in armored vehicles and under heavy guard to visit the city’s largest market. They said the trips were proof that security was improving in the capital. Prominent visitors normally make the trip from the airport to the city center by helicopter.

The congressmen, who wore body armor during their hourlong shopping excursion, said they were impressed with the resilience and warmth of the Iraqi people, some of whom would not take money for their souvenirs. They were accompanied by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

While the capital has seen a recent dip in violence as extra U.S. and Iraqi troops have flooded the streets, an Iraqi military spokesman said that militants fleeing the crackdown have made areas outside the capital “breeding grounds for violence,” spreading deadly bombings and sectarian attacks to areas once relatively untouched.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the spokesman, promised the recent attacks would not derail the neighborhood sweeps that began in Baghdad on Feb. 14. “The terrorist elements are backed into a corner and we are going to continue to carry out these operations,” he said.

More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence since March 25, most in a series of high-profile suicide bombings. Among them were at least 152 people killed in a suicide truck bombing in Tal Afar — the deadliest single strike since the war began four years ago. Shiites, including police, went on a revenge shooting rampage afterward, killing at least 45 Sunni men.

In the latest Iraqi violence, a bomb hit a popular market in Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad on Sunday, killing three people and wounding four. It was the second attack in the city in as many days. Two Iraqis seeking work were killed in a car bombing on Saturday.

A suicide car bomber in a truck targeted an Iraqi army building in the northern city of Mosul, killing two civilians and wounding 22 people, including 15 soldiers, police spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri said.

Two top Sunni officials — lawmaker Omar Abdul-Sattar and Omar al-Jubouri, an aide to Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi — escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb struck their convoy as it passed through one of Baghdad’s most restive neighborhoods — the latest in a series of attacks by suspected Sunni insurgents against fellow Sunnis who have joined the political process.

Militants at an illegal checkpoint abducted 11 Shiite construction workers near Khalis, north of Baghdad in volatile Diyala province. Three women in the group were later freed. Shiite militias, Sunni insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling for weeks in the province.

Separately, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said two suicide vests were found unexploded Saturday in the Green Zone, less than a week after a rocket attack killed two Americans in the vast central Baghdad district where the U.S. and British embassies and key offices of the Iraqi government are located.

With U.S. voters increasingly impatient with the conduct of the war and the American death toll nearing 3,250, Democrats in the House and Senate have pushed through funding bills with timetables for withdrawing U.S. forces. The measures need to be reconciled before they are sent to President Bush, who has promised a veto.

Graham said setting a deadline would be a “huge mistake” and Bush would be right to use his veto because the security plan — to which Bush has pledged 30,000 extra American troops — was working.

“We paid a heavy price, the Iraqis and the United States, for letting things get out of control, for not having enough people on the ground early on. But what we’re doing today is different,” said Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “If you set a deadline now, it will undercut everything positive that’s going on.”

McCain, R-Ariz., was combative during the news conference, refusing to respond to a question about whether the U.S. had plans to attack Iran. He also replied testily to a question about remarks he had made in the United States last week that it was safe to walk some Baghdad streets.”Things are better and there are encouraging signs. I’ve been here … many times over the years. Never have I been able to drive from the airport, never have I been able go out into the city as I was today,” he said.

“I’m not saying ‘mission accomplished,’ ‘last throes,’ ‘dead-enders’ or any of that. It’s long and it’s hard and it’s very, very difficult,” he said. “I believe that the signs are encouraging, but please don’t interpret one comment of mine in any way to indicate that this isn’t a long, difficult struggle that we’re in with lots more car bombings, lots more of the terrorist acts that have taken place.”

The delegation, which also included Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., toured the vast Shorja market, which was been hit by several recent bombings, including one in February that killed 137 people.

Also Sunday, 20 bullet-riddled bodies were found, most in Baghdad, apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads that are believed to be run by Shiite militias. The number was low compared to the average of 50 bodies per day that were turning up before the security crackdown.