In this issue:

Military Chiefs Say Postwar Plan Lacking

FBI Procedures Faulted in Arrest of Oregon Muslim

Changes in CIA Worry Senators Hagel and Rockefeller

Imposition of Death Penalty Declining

Supreme Court Overturns Ashcroft Deportation Ruling

VA To Undertake Real Research into Gulf War Syndrome

Frist: Senate Chairman Serve the President

From Volume 3, Issue Number 47 of EIR Online, Published Nov. 23, 2004

United States News Digest

Military Chiefs Say Postwar Plan Lacking

The four chiefs of the military services told the House Armed Services Committee on Nov. 17, that the planning for the combat operations for the invasion of Iraq had been adequate, but the U.S. government as a whole failed to plan for the peace.

In response to a question from Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) on the nature of the forces in Iraq, and the tactical and strategic use of this force both during the combat phase and the situation that we are in today, Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee said, "I was the commanding general of the first Marine Expeditionary Force just before we got ready to go to war, so I was very involved in the initial planning. And I can tell you that we focussed on the combat part of that, and we did a good job on that, both the Army and the Marines. If I had to go back and do it again, I would spend more time thinking about phase four: in other words, the stability, security, reconstruction part of that. And of course, the U.S. military only plays a certain portion of that—more the security portion. But the integration of all elements of national power during the so-called phase-four operations, if I had to do it again, I would put much more emphasis in the particular area so that we were better prepared for that."

Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker agreed: "I think the Commandant's hit the nail on the head there." General Schoomaker continued, "As we know, this is a war of ideas, it's a test of wills. It has so many more components to it, and quite frankly this is a job that is bigger than the Defense Department."

Air Force Chief of Staff General John Jumper said, "In order to bring about this full-scope look at the problems that we face after major combat operations, calls for an interagency, deliberative planning process much like the deliberative planning process we have in the military, where formal assignments are made within the interagency to get upfront commitment to what the post major combat operations requirements will be. And this is something, I think, where there's some area to in my opinion, area to make great progress."

Schoomaker said, "The postwar period in Iraq is not going to be won with bullets. It will be won by convincing Iraqis that their best interests lie in working hand in hand with U.S. forces to build a stable economy." He continued, "This ultimately is not going to be won in the kinetic sense, in battle. This is going to be won by the Iraqis investing their own sweat and blood in the solution."

FBI Procedures Faulted in Arrest of Oregon Muslim

Without using the phrase "climate of fear," a seven-member panel of forensics experts cited "human error" for the misidentification of Portland, Ore. attorney Brandon Mayfield as a potential participant in the Madrid train bombings last March, the Washington Post reported Nov. 15. The FBI's cover story of "poor quality of digital images" was completely disproven by the panel's findings. The report was published in the November-December issue of the Journal of Forensic Identification.

Mayfield was arrested and held for two weeks earlier this year, when his fingerprints were "matched" to those taken from a van found at the scene of the bombings. The "mistake" was so obvious that even the Spanish authorities disagreed, but the FBI fingerprint unit, rather than releasing Mayfield, "went into a defensive posture." The report found that an unnamed "supervisor" had made the initial mistake, and that those underneath him hesitated to point out the obvious error. "The examiners should be encouraged to step forward, without fear of reprisal, if they disagree," the report concluded.

Mayfield is now suing the Federal government, and is said to have some "high-powered" legal representation in Wyoming lawyer Gary Spence. In his suit, Mayfield is alleging that the FBI had access to his biographical information before his fingerprints even became an issue! He is also alleging that he was targetted because of his faith. Mayfield is a recent convert to Islam. Just prior to his arrest, he had defended a Portland man accused of aiding the Taliban, on an unrelated matter.

Changes in CIA Worry Senators Hagel and Rockefeller

Questioning the policy adopted by new CIA chief Porter Goss, which is driving the senior and experienced officers at the highest level from the CIA, the senior Senator from Nebraska and a Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chuck Hagel (R-Neb), asked Goss, "Why these people have left, how many more are going to leave, and whether it's a personality conflict or a policy conflict?," according to the New York Times Nov. 16. "If we find ourselves without a senior group of CIA hands, that would certainly not enhance American security and might undermine our security," Hagel added.

Equally concerned is the top Democratic Senator on the Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. Pointing out that he had opposed Goss's confirmation because of the candidate's blatant partisan politics when he was in the U.S. Congress, Rockefeller said that, the "departure of highly respected and competent individuals at such a crucial time is a grave concern." He went on to say, "Goss must take immediate steps to stabilize the situation at the CIA. The CIA workforce must understand where he is taking the agency and why, and he must provide some explanation for this rash of departures among senior officials."

Imposition of Death Penalty Declining

The number of inmates on Death Row decreased for the third year on a row, and there have also been fewer executions and fewer people have been sentenced to death, as well, according to figures released by the Justice Department. The DOJ report, while it indicates much-needed progress, also shows just how far we have yet to go.

There were 65 executions in the U.S. last year, down from 71 in 2002, and the fewest since 1996, when there were 45. (This year, so far, there have been 59.) Also, there were fewer death sentences imposed last year than any year since 1973. The number of inmates on Death Row fell from 3,374, fewer by 188 (about 7%) than last year. The vast majority of those came when Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of all 155 inmates on the state's Death Row in early January 2003. The five biggest offenders, accounting for well over half of all Death Row inmates, are California with 629, Texas with 453, Florida with 364, Pennsylvania with 230, and Ohio with 209.

In the wake of retroactive DNA exonerations, juries seem to be much more hesitant to inflict the death penalty. There has been much work in the recent years by groups such as The Innocence Project, which seeks to apply DNA technology retroactively to convictions. Within the past 12 years, over 150 inmates have had their convictions overturned by such means.

Supreme Court Overturns Ashcroft Deportation Ruling

In what a Washington intelligence source described to EIR as an institutional response against Bush Administration policies, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Haitian immigrant who was deported by the Justice Department in 2002 after pleading guilty to a drunk-driving conviction, which caused serious bodily injury to another person. The man, who will now be permitted to return to the United States, had lived in the U.S. legally for more than 20 years, and his wife and children are American citizens.

Although U.S. immigration law permits deportation of a person convicted of a "crime of violence," Chief Justice William Rehnquist, writing for a unanimous court, said that the Florida DUI statute does not require proof of intention (mens rea) to commit harm, but it can merely involve negligent conduct.

"Drunk driving is a nationwide problem, as evidenced by the efforts of legislatures to prohibit such conduct and impose appropriate penalties," Rehnquist wrote. "But this fact does not warrant our shoehorning it into statutory sections where it does not fit."

The ruling will have implications for many other deportations, including the widespread deportations carried out as a result of Ashcroft's post-9/11 wholesale detentions of Arab and Muslim immigrants, many of whom were deported on technical grounds, or for minor infractions which had nothing to do with terrorism.

VA To Undertake Real Research into Gulf War Syndrome

Thirteen years after veterans of the 1991 Gulf War began reporting unexplained illnesses, the Federal government has abandoned the explanation that the vets were suffering from "stress," as Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi announced on Nov. 12, that the VA would be putting in $15 million of new money into research on Gulf War illnesses. None of the $15 million, he noted, would go towards research on stress-related matters, but rather to actual chemical factors based on the wide variety of exposures that vets experienced during that war. The exposures included low levels of Sarin gas (from an Iraqi bunker blown up by Army engineers just after the end of the fighting); pesticides; pyridostigmine bromide, an anti-nerve gas agent that was given to the troops; fumes from oil-well fires in Kuwait, and experimental drugs administered to the troops, even though they had not been approved by the FDA.

Accompanying Principi's announcement was the release of a report by the Research Advisory Council on Gulf War Veterans Illnesses which, among other things, concludes that the illnesses experienced by Gulf War veterans "are not explained by stress or psychiatric illness." It also states that Gulf War veterans "exhibit evidence of neurological problems, including a significant excess in the rate of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease." Furthermore, "Accumulated research supports a probable link between Gulf War illnesses and neurotoxic exposures encountered in the war."

Whether or not all this will mean that Gulf War veterans will actually get the treatment they need, remains to be seen. Principi acknowledged that many vets still can't get help, but the purpose of the new research program is to "find the answers that have eluded us" and to "assist vets who have undiagnosed symptoms."

Frist: Senate Chairman Serve the President

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) made an appearance on Fox News Sunday on Nov. 14, which received wide coverage in the media, largely because he indicated he would not support Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter's bid to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee. More to the point, however, than Frist's rambling comments about Specter, who is under fire from right-wing evangelicals for his position on abortion, was his declaration that the duty of the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman was to get the President's nominees for judgeships approved. This is the "unitary Presidency" or Presidential dictatorship theory recently advanced by John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, and the neo-cons generally. "I would expect Chairman Specter to ... have a strong predisposition to supporting that nominee sent over by President Bush, a Republican President, to a Republican Judiciary Committee," said Frist.

Subsequently, Specter has been sufficiently terrorized by his fellow Republican Senators, that he has given a guarantee in writing that he will support Presidential nominees.

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