Thread: 10 things more newsworthy than Don Imus

10 things more newsworthy than Don Imus


Via Lucianne: Border Patrol Agents Under Attack

Judge rejects Padilla torture argument

Iraqi police recruits killed by female jihadi who hid a bomb under her abaya. Plus: New dispatch from the ground in Baghdad at Iraq the Model.

Ohio soldier missing in Iraq for 3 years

Where in the world is Ali-Reza Asgari?

In defense of Spc. Mario Lozano of the 69th Infantry Regiment. Lozano speaks to the NYPost.

A challenge to Time magazine's report blaming a soldier's death on lack of Army training. And another. And another. And another.

Democrats fear Fox

A closer look at the Khomeini cheerleader in Texas

Al Qaeda initiation tests in Germany

Border Patrol Agents Under Attack
Violence Against Agents In Yuma, Ariz. Up To 154 In First Six Months Of Fiscal Year
YUMA, Ariz., April 9, 2007

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...2665447.shtml?

(CBS) Along the desert stretch where Arizona and Mexico meet, there's more flying in the air than just dust. There are rocks flying back and forth toward the border agents, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.

It's part of a nightly bombardment of Border Patrol vehicles and agents all along the southwestern border.

Chris Van Wagenen, a senior patrol agent, says "it's mostly going to be smugglers, guides, gangbangers basically. People who make money off of this.

"This" means smuggling people and drugs into the U.S. It's gotten a lot harder to cross the border, and smugglers are reacting to more fences and more agents with more violence.

"They believe, almost like a terrorist, 'we're going to intimidate you and hurt you until you back off,'" Van Wagenen says.

Assaults against agents in the Yuma sector have shot up to 126 in the first six months of this fiscal year. That's approaching the number of assaults all last year.

Agent Ben Vick was lucky he was wearing a helmet when this brick hit his head. "I looked down and though, 'Oh, that's what hit me.' Because before that, I had no idea. It was just such a huge blow," Vick says.

With cameras mounted on Agent Vick's vehicle, CBS News set out to see what happens just after dark. A rock quickly hit the car. "It gives you an idea of what we have to deal with down here. Things being thrown over the fence — heavy things," Vick says.

The Mexican side of the border looks more like a back alley than an international boundary. There's plenty of ammunition for anyone who wants to attack an agent on the other side, and the people who live there say police rarely patrol.

Without more help from Mexico, all agents can do is patrol the border in "war wagons," with windows shielded by steel. The way they see it, as long as there are people desperate to cross into the U.S., there will be smugglers willing to do anything to keep their business.

Judge rejects Padilla torture argument
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 17 minutes ago

MIAMI - A federal judge refused to dismiss terrorism charges against Jose Padilla over claims that the alleged al-Qaida operative was tortured in U.S. military custody, removing one of the last major obstacles to the start of his trial next week.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke stressed in a 12-page order filed late Monday that she was not passing judgment on the torture allegations. Rather, she said the effort to dismiss the case for "outrageous government conduct" was faulty on legal grounds.

Padilla's lawyers claim that during the 3 1/2 years Padilla was held as an "enemy combatant" at a Navy brig he was routinely subjected to harsh treatment and torture.

He claimed that he was forced to stand in painful stress positions, given LSD or some other drug as a "truth serum," subjected to loud noises and noxious odors, and forced to endure sleep deprivation, extreme heat and cold and harsh lights.

The

Pentagon and Justice Department have repeatedly denied those claims. Officials with the brig in Charleston, S.C., said during earlier testimony before Cooke that Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, was not mistreated, though they acknowledged occasional removal of the mattress in his cell and of his copy of the Quran.

Padilla's four lawyers did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking comment Tuesday on the ruling. Prosecutors also did not immediately return a telephone call.

Padilla and his co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, are scheduled for trial starting next Monday.

The three are charged with conspiracy and terrorism material support for allegedly being part of a North American support network for Islamic extremist groups worldwide. Each could face life in prison if convicted.

In her ruling, Cooke said the dismissal motion wasn't backed up by case law and failed on legal grounds because prosecutors aren't using any evidence collected during Padilla's time in the brig.

To rule otherwise would "effectively provide a defendant with amnesty for any uncharged crime so long as the government violated the defendant's due process rights at some prior point," she wrote.

She warned, however, that the issue could return should prosecutors decide to use evidence from Padilla's interrogations.

Cooke had ruled earlier that Padilla was competent to stand trial despite conclusions from defense mental health experts that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his years in military custody.

"The government is breathing a big sigh of relief," said David O. Markus, a prominent Miami defense lawyer not involved in the case. "The last thing it wanted were these allegations aired in open court."

Padilla was initially arrested in 2002 on suspicion of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city, but that charge is not part of the Miami criminal case. Prosecutors claim that Padilla filled out a form in 2000 to join an al-Qaida training camp in

Afghanistan.

Earlier Monday, Cooke agreed to give Padilla's defense lawyers greater power to reject potential jurors in an effort to reduce bias from the intense media coverage.

The defense will get 36 peremptory challenges, more than triple the number suggested by federal prosecutors, and prosecutors will get 30. In any criminal case, both sides are allowed an unlimited number of challenges to jurors for "cause" such as obvious impartiality. Peremptory challenges allow lawyers to remove jurors without giving a reason; normally the defense gets 10 and prosecutors six.

Cooke said she would tell jurors to be prepared for the case to last until Sept. 1.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070410/...terror_charges

Female Suicide Bomber Kills 16 Outside Police Station
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

BAGHDAD — A woman with explosives hidden beneath her black abaya detonated them Tuesday in a crowd of about 200 police recruits northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, police and hospital officials said.

The woman walked into the crowd at the main gate of the Muqdadiyah police station and blew herself up, according to a police officer at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

At least 16 people were killed and 33 wounded in the mostly Sunni Muslim city about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Abdul Salam al-Jibour at Muqdadiyah General Hospital.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi army forces were engaged in fierce fighting with gunmen in two Sunni-dominated neighborhoods of the capital, Fadhil and Sheik Omar, police and witnesses said.

An American helicopter in the battle came under ground fire but was not shot down, a senior U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because U.S. officials were still investigating.

Bomber Targets Recruits Police said six people, including an Iraqi soldier, were killed and 21 wounded. Repeated artillery fire rang out across Baghdad at midday, but the target was unclear.

A parked car bomb exploded at a checkpoint near Baghdad University, killing at least six people and wounding 11, police said. The bomb was packed into a yellow taxi cab near campus, and all of those hurt were civilians, police said.

A Katyusha rocket hit a basketball court at a boys school in eastern Baghdad, killing a 6-year-old boy and wounding 17 others — 15 students and two teachers, police said.

The U.S. military announced the deaths Monday of four U.S. soldiers — three killed by a roadside bomb and a secondary explosion in southeastern Baghdad and another killed in combat in western Anbar province.

The unit with the three dead soldiers had been conducting raids against militants in the area, and had recently captured five suspects, it said.

The fourth soldier was killed during combat operations in Iraq's western Anbar province, another statement said.

At least 3,285 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, on a four-day trip to Japan, said there was no need to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from his country.

"We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can," al-Maliki said. "To demand the departure of the troops is a democratic right and a right we respect. What governs the departure at the end of the day is how confident we are in the handover process."

What counts, he added, are "achievements on the ground."

His comments came a day after tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of two Shiite holy cities, demanding that U.S. forces leave the country. The massive rally, called for by rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Al-Sadr, who remains in seclusion and did not attend, ordered up the march as a show of strength not only to Washington but to Iraq's establishment Shiite ayatollahs as well.

He issued a statement Sunday urging his Mahdi Army militia to redouble efforts to expel U.S. forces and for the police and army to join the struggle against "your archenemy."

While he was in Japan, al-Maliki's office issued a statement saying he would travel to Egypt on April 20 for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.

It would be al-Maliki's first visit to Egypt — the Arab world's most populous nation.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said it captured more than 150 suspected insurgents in a nearly two-week operation north of Baghdad. Rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, automatic machine guns, sniper rifles and anti-tank mines were also seized, it said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,264987,00.html



New dispatch from the ground in Baghdad at Iraq the Model

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/200...l-baghdad.html

[quote]Ohio soldier missing in Iraq for 3 years[/qote]


Ohio soldier missing in Iraq for 3 years
By TERRY KINNEY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 7, 1:26 PM ET

BATAVIA, Ohio - Yellow ribbons across Sgt. Matt Maupin's hometown are constant reminders. Fundraising events in his honor draw overflow crowds. Soldiers back home relay details of the ongoing search for him in Iraq.

These are the signs of support and hope that keep Maupin's parents going three years after he was captured in an insurgent attack on his Army convoy.

Keith Maupin said he took comfort hearing from the father of a military interrogator in Iraq who said detainees are asked if they know anything about his missing son. "He said, 'These guys are not going to give up on Matt. Their mission is to stay focused on finding Matt and get all the information they can out of these detainees,'" Keith Maupin said. "That made me feel good."

The Army won't confirm that detainees are questioned about Maupin. "We don't talk about what we are or aren't doing," Lt. Col. Bob Tallman said. "We don't want to alert the enemy, who may do something to the individual or move him."

Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin was always called Matt by his parents, since his father was named Keith. He was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured April 9, 2004, when his fuel convoy, part of the 724th Transportation Company, was ambushed west of Baghdad.

A week later, the Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victim's head and not the actual shooting.

The Maupins refuse to believe it was their son, and the Army continues to list him as missing/captured, Tallman said.

More than 1,000 people are expected at a banquet fundraiser Monday, the third anniversary of Maupin's capture. Some 700 bikers are expected the following Saturday for a motorcycle ride sponsored by Rolling Thunder, a POW-MIA awareness group. A youth baseball tournament in May drew more entries than it could handle, even though games will be played on several fields.

All are raising money for the Matt Maupin Scholarship Fund, seed money for scholarships given by the high schools attended by Cincinnati-area soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Keith Maupin has lost track of the number of briefings he and his former wife, Carolyn, have received from the Pentagon. They've been persistent and he thinks the Army is doing its best to find his son.

It doesn't hurt that the Maupins have met with President Bush and that White House Budget Director Rob Portman used to represent the Maupins' district in Congress. "When you can get on the phone and call a three-star general, and he can call Iraq to find out what's going on, I don't know how much more they can do for me," Keith Maupin said.

Portman's successor, Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt, said she's been assured that the Army is still aggressively looking for Matt. "There is as much evidence to point toward him being alive as otherwise," she said.

As long as the Maupins keep Matt's name alive, he is alive, they reason.

There's a yellow ribbon on every parking meter in Batavia, a close-knit, county-seat community east of Cincinnati. "We won't let people forget," Clermont County Commissioner Bob Proud said. "Whenever we see yellow ribbons, we think about Matt and all our warriors. It always reminds me of the sacrifice that Matt and all of our troops have made."

Keith Maupin now works full time with the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, which Carolyn founded before their son was captured. Carolyn and Keith Maupin, though divorced, have united in their effort to be a touchstone for families who have lost loved ones in the war. "A lot of people come in here and a lot of people call, and they just want to talk," Keith Maupin said. "That's OK by me; that's what we're here for."

The center has sent thousands of packages of snacks, toiletries, sun block, bug spray, games and other things to soldiers in Iraq, putting photos of Matt Maupin in every box. The center helped troops obtain donated computers to send and receive e-mail.

Keith Maupin finds some solace at the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, where he is surrounded by photos, paintings and posters of his son. "I look at him all the time," he said. "This is about as close as I can get."

___

On the Net: Yellow Ribbon Support Center: http://www.yellowribbonsupportcenter.com



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070407/...issing_soldier

Where in the world is Ali-Reza Asgari?

In early February, Ali-Reza Asgari, a high ranking Iranian General and a “gold mine for Western intelligence,” vanished on a trip to Istanbul.
Or did he?

By Richard Miniter, PJM Washington Editor, Reporting from Istanbul

Sometime on February 7, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guards general named Ali Reza Asgari left Istanbul’s bustling, worn airport and headed towards downtown along roads that worm their way past breached Byzantine stone walls, and Ottoman palaces. It has been subsequently reported that he arrived at a modern hotel overlooking the Bosporus, that dark sliver of water that divides Europe from Asia.

And then he disappeared.

Despite hundreds of newspaper articles and almost as many reports and rumors, when, how and why Asgari vanished is still very much unknown. But Pajamas Media’s exclusive investigation in Istanbul has uncovered some surprising twists in the Asgari mystery.

Ali-Reza Asgari, sometimes spelled Askari, was a major figure in Iran’s government. He is widely known to have been at the center of seemingly every major Iran-backed terrorist operation in the last 30 years. Rare photos of him show a graying man with alert eyes and carefully trimmed beard.


General Ali-Reza Asgari

Given his background, Asgari is a “gold mine for western intelligence,” said an Israeli defense source, who claimed that the Mossad had been following his career since the 1980s.

Asgari prospered in and climbed to the rank of deputy defense minister under the “reform” presidency of Mohammed Khatami. He was present at the creation of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that is second-largest killer of Americans, and was a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon in the 1980s. He may have knowledge of the attacks on the U.S embassy in Beirut and the bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks, which cost some 300 American soldiers’ lives. Later, he became Hezbollah’s direct liaison to Tehran, allegedly bringing to Lebanon money, arms and orders.

Asgari may also know the whereabouts of missing Americans and Israelis, including Ron Arad, an Israeli pilot captured by Hezbollah and reportedly sent to and held in Iran.

After 1997, Asgari joined Khatami’s cabinet as deputy defense minister. In this capacity, he briefly appeared on Iranian television, an American intelligence analyst told Pajamas Media.

Later, Asgari was, according to the London Sunday Times , “pushed aside” when his longtime rival, Ahmadinejad, became president.

But he was not forgotten. After this move, he was, it is believed, given an important post running anti-coalition operations inside Iraq.

Debkafile, the Israeli web site whose accuracy would be impressive if it were the batting average of triple-A ball player, said Asgari was behind one of the most daring attacks ever mounted on U.S. forces— the January 20, 2007 Karbala provincial headquarters raid.

In that raid, men in uniforms with American-style SUVs overwhelmed guards and kidnapped four Americans, who were later killed.

Less than three weeks later, Asgari would be reported missing.

Nearly everything about his disappearance would be and has been disputed. As Pajamas Media learned, even the few agreed-upon facts turn out to be disinformation.

Depending on who you believe, either Asgari disappeared on February 7, or according one of his two wives, on February 9. (Other accounts say he disappeared in December, but these seem hard to credit.)

By some accounts, he was headed to the luxurious Ceylan Inter-Continental Hotel in Istanbul, According to news reports, “two non-Turkish citizens” made a reservation for Asgari at the Ceylan. They paid in advance and in cash. Or did they?

In Istanbul the Ceylan looms up against the skyline, a 400+ room white tower with a commanding view of one of the busiest ship channels in the world. After you pass the uniformed sentries in top hats and cycle through the revolving glass door of the Inter-Continental, you are greeted by a metal detector and a guard, fidgeting from a lack of nicotine. The hotel does not let the staff smoke while on duty, and in Turkey this policy is always a constant source of complaint.

Once past the magnetometer, a large marble-floored lobby beckons. Sunlight spears in through an atrium, half a football field away.

The uniformed front-desk staff do their best to seem politely Edwardian. Their smiles vanish as soon as I start asking about Asgari. They tell me that they are not allowed to speak on the subject; that I must wait for the public relations officer.

I lunch, just off the lobby, in “The English Bar,” complete with green leather couches and brown wainscoting. It takes two-thirds of the length of a post-lunch Montecristo no. 2 before a member of the staff appears. His name is Tamur and he too comes to conquer, but conquer politely.

In a soft voice, he tells me that hotel has no record of Asgari. He is aware of the case but routinely directs all inquiries to the Turkish police. As he tells me he sounds like he is reading from an invisible teleprompter. Tamur says that he wasn’t on duty the day in question (Feb. 7), but, yes, he followed the case in the Turkish press. “It is very mysterious,” he ventures. We agree, at least, on this.

On the way out, I stop at the front desk. I would like to make a reservation for a friend of mine, I say. They become animated. Could I make it in cash for all of his expenses and incidentals?

Cash? No, sir. We only take major credit cards for reservations. Sorry.

But I heard that you sometimes take reservations in cash?

No, you are mistaken. It is not allowed. My computer won’t let me do it.

So Asgari may or may not have come to the hotel, but his Turkish friends certainly did not make a reservation for him in cash.

According to other news accounts, Asgari never went near the Ceylan. Instead he checked into Hotel Ghilan, invariably described as “more modest” or “the economical Hotel Ghilan.”

Google “hotel ghilan” and you get a few dozen stories in various languages that refer to Asgari and describe the hotel as “modest” or “economical.” What you don’t get is an address, an indication of location, or a hotel web page. Hmmmm….

The best way to find a hotel is through another hotel. Camped out at the Istanbul Hilton, I asked the staff to phone the Hotel Ghilan. I enlisted the help Cigdem and Nilay, the two female receptionists on the Executive Floor. I use an innocent ruse, saying that I met a guy on the plane named “Ronald Smith” who said he was staying at the Hotel Ghilan, but add that I can’t find it.

They promise to find it, but can’t. First, they check the hotel’s computer network. Nothing. I ask them to try “118,” the Turkish equivalent of 411. Nothing. I ask them to google it in Turkish. Nothing. Finally, I ask them to call the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, which maintains a complete of every hotel in Istanbul. A long conversation in Turkish follows. No Hotel Ghilan.

Perhaps it is a typo for Hotel Ghilad? Nothing.

The two hotels that were the one solid part of the Asgari tale; the bits agreed on in every published account, have either no record of Asgari or seem not to exist at all. Then, Nilay gets a bright idea. Maybe Ghilan is a mispronunciation of Hotel Divan (pronounced Di-Wan here) of Istanbul.

I walk over to the Divan, which sits across the road from the Ceylan Inter-Continental Hotel near Taksim square. Perhaps Asgari diverted the taxi driver here at the last minute, to throw any pursuers off his trail.

Across a cobble-stoned courtyard crammed with taxis, I slip under the metal and glass awning of the Divan. The guard waves me through the metal detector.

The smoke hits me immediately. Lounging on brown armchairs, Germans and eastern Europeans are waving their cigarette hands as they talk beneath a blue cloud.

At the reception desk, a short slim woman with brass nameplate I can’t read, says they have no record of Asgari. Naturally. He could check in under any name.

Can you make reservations in cash? No. But you can pay in cash as you leave, if you want. The credit card is only a guarantee, she adds.

Did the police visit the hotel as part of their investigation? She seems alarmed by the question, but shakes her head “No.”

Another dead end.

When Asgari’s disappearance become public the Iranians demanded an Interpol investigation. The Lyon, France-based association is a network of police departments that track international fugitives. 186 nations belong to Interpol, including Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States.

I filed an official request for comment with Interpol.

Two days later the international police agency responded with a textbook non-answer:

“Dear Mr Miniter,
If or when police in any of Interpol’s 186 member countries share information with the General Secretariat in Lyon in relation to investigations and fugitives, this information remains under the ownership of that member country. Interpol does not therefore comment on specific cases or individuals except in special circumstances and with approval of the member country concerned. With regard to your request in relation to those individuals, we would advise you to contact the authorities in the countries where you believe there may be an investigation ongoing.”

In other words, ask the Iranians and the Turks, not us. Not very helpful.

With some sleuthing, I discover that the police in charge of the Asgari investigation are in the Beyoglu district. I trudge up the hill, past the Inter-Continental hotel, through the famous Taksim square, which is crisscrossed like Frankenstein’s stitches by tram lines, and make my way down a narrow shopping street to a watch store, where I turn right. A few blocks up, I find a police man with a pup-tent hat and an AK-47. He is waving away a small boy, who is trying to offer him a bag of potato chips.

He points down an alley, choked with small police cars. Ah, the entrance to the police station.

I explain my mission to desk officer, who has me repeat it to another one.

Finally, I am taken to see an inspector in a back office. It a small cramped and cluttered space. Someone has painted over the windows, giving the sunlight that oozes in a cold fluorescent feel. The desks are piled with sheaves of papers. Some woman is crying on a plastic chair in the corner.

In the center, seated behind the desk is a Turkish policeman. He has a trim mustache and clean uniform. He seems to be very much in charge.

As I explain my mission involving what happened to Asgari, he looks me in the eye, with impatience. “What was stolen?”

“Nothing. I am here to ask about…”

In perfect English, he says: “Come back with a translator. I can’t understand you.”

Later, when I get a native Turkish speaker to set up an appointment for me, I am told that the police do not comment on ongoing investigations.

At the Akademi Cafe, Professor Hasan Koni, an expert in security policy and international affairs who runs the American Studies program at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, orders another Bailey’s and milk.

Koni is the man to see in matters like these.

Most of military, intelligence and diplomatic corps have been his students. He ran Turkey’s National Security Academy, where senior military officers and diplomats are trained, from 1996 to 2003. Before that, he was a sought-after instructor at the War Academy, Turkey’s equivalent of West Point.

Through Koni’s sources, he has some more surprises for me—and some ideas about Asgari’s escape route from Iran.

Prof. Koni cited an senior general who he talked to recently about the Asgari affair. “It is a shameful situation,” the general told him, clearly incensed. “For our allies to do this on our soil, without telling us about it before or after.”

But which allies did it?

That is thing, Koni said. The Turkish general still doesn’t know and that is part of what made him angry. Turkey, a key Cold War ally and home of the second-largest armed force in NATO, was not seen as trustworthy enough to tell.

Koni doesn’t know either, but the identity of the secret service that snatched Asgari—assuming that is what happened—is a hotly debated topic inside Turkish military, intelligence and police circles.

There is a sense, said Koni, who did not attribute this remark to any one person, that Asgari was kidnapped; that he did not defect. The primary reason for this belief? Asgari left a wife and children in Iran. “In Islamic countries,” Koni said, “you would be expected to protect your wife and your children. Otherwise, it is not honorable.”

Part of the mystery about Asgari’s disappearance, he said, is fueled by the division of domestic intelligence agencies and the intense and long-lasting rivalry between the police and the army. Compounding the problem: different services report to different masters.

Civil or domestic intelligence, known as the MIT, report ultimately to the prime minister, who can serve as long as five years between parliamentary elections.

The police report to the interior minister, who is appointed by the prime minister.

JTAM, a branch of military intelligence that covers domestic matters, reports to the general staff of the army and ultimately to the president, who serves a 7-year term, and is elected separately from the parliament.

In Turkey the investigation of the Asgari disappearance is being handled by the police, in a manner that the military and intelligence people consider to be bungling, according to Koni.

Is it possible that JTAM, the military intelligence unit, knows something that it is not telling the police or the prime minister?

“Yes, it is possible the prime minister himself does not know,” Koni said, adding that sometimes the army keeps certain secrets for itself.

Still, Koni’s overall assessment is that no one in Turkey knows what happened to Asgari, except for those who did it.

I asked Egemen Bagis, the foreign policy advisor to Turkey’s prime minister as well as his close friend, what he knew about Asgari’s case. It was over a lavish Turkish lunch at restaurant in Ankara, Turkey’s booming capital city. “Nothing besides what is in the papers,” Bagis says.

Isn’t there an ongoing investigation? Haven’t you been briefed?

He acknowledged the investigation, but said that nothing had trickled up to him. Being an top advisor to the prime minister, or even prime minister, doesn’t make you omniscient.

Back to Koni at Istanbul’s Akademi Cafe, which overlooks a small lawn that abuts the water course leading to the Black Sea. Below, bleached-blonde college students chat and read as another city-block long oil tanker glides by.

It seems like the perfect place and time to ask about escape routes.

( continues )

If you were a Western intelligence service, how would you get Asgari out?

Koni gestured to water. “With a good speed boat, you can be in the Greek islands in an hour. There is no one to check your passport. Boats leave Istanbul for those islands as easily as cars move from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

“Or, if you don’t trust the Greeks not to turn over the Iranian, a decent boat can get you to the British naval base on Cyprus in about two days.”

Land and air also present possibilities, he adds. If you can get Asgari in to a car, you could drive him to the U.S. base on Incirlik. From there a NATO aircraft could take him anywhere in the world. Koni pointed out that, by treaty, NATO aircraft may not be searched.

“That scenario,” I said, “seems unlikely. Going overland presents a lot of risks. What if Asgari cries out when the car stops for gas?” Besides, there is straight-line highway from Istanbul, Turkey’s northern coast to the U.S. base on its southwestern coast.

“The drive is about 18 hours or so,” agrees Koni.

“But a car can get from Istanbul to Greece in about 4 hours,” he adds. The risk? The Greeks might seize Asgari and return him to Iran.

“Then,” Koni said, “consider the obvious. Grab Asgari in his hotel room, out the back entrance to a waiting car and drive into the Bebek hills, where the U.S. Consulate, in an historic chateau, peers over the coast like a stronghold.

“Once inside the consulate, the CIA could Asgari him in a NATO helicopter and take him anywhere in the world.”

Koni continues his thoughts on ‘the obvious.’ All of this assumes that it was the U.S. snatched Asgari. The Israelis would either put on chartered boat bound for Tel Aviv, or use a helicopter to bring him to a secluded air strip, where a plane could fly him to Israel in less than two hours. Or they could use the cargo hold of an El Al flight out of Istanbul.

It all seems very James Bondian to me, and really just informed speculation. Like all the other “details,” reported or rumored about the Asgari affair.

I asked Banafsheh Zand Bonazzi, who translates Iranian newspapers and broadcast outlets and puts the results on her site, Iran Press, to scrutinize one of the official sites of the Iranian regime, Baztab. “There is nothing, nothing new,” she said.

After a few reports early on in the affair, Asgari simply vanished from Baztab like he did from Istanbul.

Perhaps the strangest element of the Asgari affair is that neither Iran nor the West mentioned Asgari in connection with the illegal seizure of 15 British sailors and marines. Iran did not ask for him back and he wasn’t proffered by the British either.

Does that mean that Iran knows that Asgari is too valuable to return or does that mean that Iran knows the West doesn’t have him? Is Asgari even still alive? Is he in the hands of an Iranian dissident group, a network of which honeycombs Europe and America, that is essentially auctioning him to the highest bidder?

When I discussed the case with a trusted source inside the American intelligence community, he thought a moment and then said one thing: “How do you even know he went to Istanbul?”

Explore that for a while and you realize you don’t know, for certain, that Asgari ever came here. It could all be misdirection. He could have been snatched in Damascus. He could be dealing olive oil in Syria. Everything about the Asgari case, even the seemingly solid facts, shift and twist and then turn into vapor and fade like a dream when you awake.


http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/04/the_...l_vanishes.php

In defense of Spc. Mario Lozano of the 69th Infantry Regiment

REP. KING RIPS ITALY GI-SLAY TRIAL
By NEIL GRAVES
April 10, 2007

Long Island Congressman Peter King yesterday called Italy's decision to try a Manhattan soldier for murder "disgraceful."

As reported in The Post yesterday, Spc. Mario Lozano of the 69th Infantry Regiment will go on trial in absentia next Tuesday for the "friendly fire" death of Italian secret-service agent Nicola Calipari.

Calipari was in a car that was whisking away an Italian journalist who'd been held captive in Iraq. Lozano told The Post yesterday he fired on the car after it failed to stop at a checkpoint despite vigorous warnings.

"It's disgraceful," said King, a former member of the Fighting 69th. "This guy performed heroically. To get a rap like this is senseless."

The Army has cleared Lozano of wrongdoing.

A National Guard spokesman, stressing the matter was a regular Army issue, said Lozano was "not being left out to dry," and there was a "combination of civilian and military" lawyers on the case.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007...eil_graves.htm

Lozano speaks to the NYPost.

'FRIENDLY FIRE': HOW A SOLDIER SEES THE FACTS
By JOHN BYRNES

April 10, 2007 -- IN yesterday's Post, Spc. Mario Lozano finally spoke of the incident that killed Italian agent Nicola Calipari and wounded journalist Guilinana Sgrena. I can understand, as a friend and as a soldier, why Mario was reluctant to talk publicly about this experience. As soldiers, we don't like to talk about Iraq. I've seen Mario break into tears while discussing the events of that night.

That car stopped meters away. He thought he was done.

A car full of explosives causes carnage and destruction. I saw the effects of one, blown up minutes before I arrived on the scene. Massive damage to a building; giant crater in the ground. Three dead; multiple wounded; gruesome remains scattered everywhere . . .

Later, as we secured that site, a sedan sped toward our position. My machine gunner and I fired warning shots; the driver stood on his brakes. The front sight post of my weapon was on the image of his head as the car screeched to a halt - I could relax my finger and breathe again, shaking and sweating only a little.

Things happen in a war zone. It's hard for those who've never been there to put themselves in a soldier's shoes.

There are serious problems with the account of the incident that Sgrena gives in speeches and in her book "Friendly Fire." The most absurd is her repeated suggestion that she may have been targeted for assassination. Ha! Lozano and his squad could have finished her off at the scene, had they intended.

Instead, two soldiers worked feverishly to try and save Calipari. Other soldiers carried the wounded Sgrena to their Humvee and raced her to the hospital.

After two years of bashing Lozano in the media, Sgrena says that a trial will determine the facts. Was she ever really interested in the facts?

Fact: The driver of her vehicle admitted at the scene that he had not been tracking his speed, but he knew he was driving fast. He had heard other weapons fire, and was rushing to the airport.

Sgrena and her supporters insist the car wasn't speeding. Maybe not by Italian highway standards . . .

Fact: A vehicle that won't stop coming straight at you is scary. Really scary, when car bombs are a regular part of life. Trust me on this one.

Fact: The Italian authorities lack jurisdiction, but they insist on putting Lozano on trial in abstentia - a tactic normally resorted to only by tyrants.

Fact: The incident unfolded in Iraq, where our forces operate under the rules of the Geneva Convention governing occupations. Lozano was following the Rules of Engagement and obeying the lawful orders of his superiors. The Army has found he acted appropriately.

Mario Lozano will not appear in Italian court for this show trial. But he may answer the charges; prestigious civilian attorneys are offering their expertise in demolishing Sgrena's fictions.

Meanwhile the soldiers and the friends of New York's 69th Infantry are standing by him. Those of us who've been there know what he lives with.

It's scary, but it's not a guilty conscience

John Byrnes, a sergeant in New York's 69th Infantry, spent ayear in Iraq. He blogs at johnbyrnes.blogspot.com.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007...ohn_byrnes.htm

A challenge to Time magazine's report blaming a soldier's death on lack of Army training.

http://rayrobison.typepad.com/ray_robison/...ding_to_ma.html

And another.

http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2007/04/it...ure-stupid.html

And another.

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/milbl.../04/05/#008438

And another.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/...killed_in_iraq/

Democrats Fear Fox, Part II

Democrats have once again gone running in fright from Fox News Channel for a political debate -- or more accurately, have run from fear of their anti-war base. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama join John Edwards in refusing to appear on Fox for a debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus:

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) yesterday joined former North Carolina senator John Edwards (D) in deciding to skip a debate scheduled for September that Fox News is co-sponsoring with the Congressional Black Caucus.
Liberal activists, particularly the online group Moveon.org, have called for Democratic presidential candidates not to participate in debates by Fox, which they say is biased against Democrats. Clinton campaign aides said she would participate only in the six events sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee and two other events she had already agreed to. Several candidates, including Edwards, last month withdrew from a debate that Fox was co-hosting with the Nevada Democratic Party and would have taken place in August in Reno.

Aides to Obama, Edwards and Clinton said the candidates will participate in a debate that the Congressional Black Caucus is co-sponsoring with CNN in January in South Carolina.


Hmmm. I wonder why these courageous Democrats only feel free to speak when appearing on CNN. I mean, the Congressional Black Caucus doesn't seem to feel the same fear as the candidates. They had their 2004 debates on Fox, and they survived the ordeal -- twice. Those debates included Edwards on both occasions, and he wound up on the ticket for the Democrats.

Once again, I will ask this question: how can we expect these candidates to face off against America's enemies when they can't bring themselves to face Fox? Do they expect that this demonstration of cravenness to actually impress anyone but the radical defeatists of MoveOn?

Some will suggest that the Republicans boycott CNN in response. That would be a huge mistake. First, the choice of venue for these debates, especially in the primary, is almost meaningless. Second, we don't need both parties to act like shrieking little children at the sight of a mouse. The eventual President represents the entire nation, not just a party -- or in this case, a faction of a party -- and the candidates who model that in the primaries and the general election will have the greatest chance of success. Besides, CNN didn't do anything in this case to earn Republican enmity except be the unfortunate cave in which these courageous Democratic candidates chose to hide.

But hey, it's still early in the campaign. Perhaps by the time the primaries arrive, Democratic presidential candidates might even have the stones to make appearances without MoveOn's permission.



http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/...ves/009643.php