Tuscaloosa tornado survivors pick through rubble

 

The tornado that tore through Tuscaloosa on Wednesday was a capricious beast.

It flattened some neighbourhoods entirely but spared others, razed dozens of houses on a street while leaving a couple standing and, in some homes, destroyed every room save that in which a family took shelter.
As the city dug out from the wreckage on Friday, those fortunate enough to survive with their lives and their houses largely intact described a different kind of heartbreak from those forced to rebuild.
"It's almost a survivor's guilt," said Donny Selman, 33, who cowered under a mattress in a hallway with his pregnant wife while the tornado tossed trees into almost every house on the block but his.
"I feel blessed and grateful, but the loss of life was great. It's almost like, why us? Why were we spared?"
Unimaginable devastation Chris Rhodes, a 22-year-old student at the University of Alabama, took shelter with three friends in his bathroom as the twister ravaged the neighbourhood.

Across the street, three fellow students were killed when a tree fell on their house.

"I still don't know what to think," he said, pausing as he and his father cleared downed trees from the street with a chainsaw.
"I still haven't slept too well. I've been playing through the circumstances, the 'what ifs'."
The twister cut through Tuscaloosa like a lawnmower with a mile-long blade, grinding the city beneath into a twisted pile of metal, roof shingles and timber.
It snapped tree branches and poured-concrete utility poles with ease, uprooted century-old trees, and turned over cars like matchbox toys.
The tornado tore down house walls, offering gawkers, emergency workers and news crews an embarrassingly intimate glimpse into people's once-private material lives - bedrooms and bathrooms revealed to the outside, a student's library of theology texts strewn about a car park, a collection of 12in (30cm) record albums saved for decades only to lie warping under the hot Alabama sun.
In a flattened block of apartments, rain-sodden smoke detectors howled as if warning of a danger that had already passed.
While survivors collected what belongings they could salvage and praised God for sparing them worse, the search and rescue effort continued unabated.
Finding the dead Tuscaloosa is under virtual police rule. Movement in the disaster zone is strictly limited to prevent looting, although almost none has been reported, and to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. The mayor imposed a curfew of 2000 local time (0100 GMT) for Friday night.
The city's death toll stood on Friday at 42 dead and more than 900 injured, with both numbers expected to rise.
"We are bringing in the cadaver dogs today," said Heather McCollum, assistant to the mayor of Tuscaloosa.
Almost two days after the storm, a woman with cerebral palsy was found left behind in the wreckage of a block of flats and carried out, in apparent health, by volunteers.

A group of teenagers from a church, who had been patrolling a storm-damaged neighbourhood offering food and water to survivors, heard dogs barking in an abandoned house. They freed half a dozen pit bulls, promising to turn the hungry but playful dogs over to an animal shelter.
Chris Nicholson, a 23-year-old engineer, hid with his fiance in the bathroom at the centre of their small flat.
The tornado roared overhead and sucked all the water from the toilet as the couple huddled together and prayed.
"I can't really describe it. It wasn't a shriek, just a constant rumble, like an aeroplane engine," Mr Nicholson said.
Their apartment was largely undamaged. But three people in the two-storey block of flats remained missing on Friday, and a twisted metal structure, which appeared to either be a crane or a light tower, had crushed their upstairs neighbours' flat.We were one of the luckiest," he said.

Brandee Marion, a 24-year-old graduate student in psychology, hunkered down in an unsealed concrete shelter in the back garden with her brother and Spiffy, a 12-year-old African grey parrot, as the tornado neared.

The nerve-wracked bird began making beeping noises - imitating the burglar alarm on their house, Ms Marion said.
As the tornado passed overhead, she and her brother had to hold the birdcage tight to keep Spiffy from being sucked away.
"It was a bit of humour," she said of the bird's distress cry. "Inappropriate humour, maybe."
The temperature topped 24C under bright, sunny skies on Friday, and Alabamans who were able offered aid and comfort to their neighbours the best way they knew how - through their churches, with barbecued meat.
"It's too bad it takes this to get people to come together," said Dan Williams, of Harvest Church, which fed 700 people on Thursday.
On Friday, residents said they were disoriented walking and driving through neighbourhoods in which they had lived for decades. The storm had flattened all the landmarks - the dentist's office, the auto parts store, the boy scout club house - leaving behind uniform piles of debris.
"It looks like the bombers have come through," said John Duckworth, 78

 

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Colombian 1985 Supreme Court raid commander sentenced

 

A Colombian general has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in a military raid during a hostage crisis at the Supreme Court in 1985.

General Jesus Armando Arias Cabrales was a military commander when left-wing rebels took a number of judges hostage.
In the operation to retake the building, all of the rebels and eleven of the judges were killed, and eleven people disappeared.
General Arias was found guilty of their forced disappearance.
He was also banned from public office for 20 years.
General Arias was the commander of the military in the capital, Bogota, when rebels from the left-wing M-19 movement took control of the city's palace of justice.
Bloody battle
Dozens of rebels took the building on 6 November 1985 with the stated aim of putting the then- President Belisario Betancur on trial.
The government refused to negotiate, and sent in the military.
The rebels took those inside the building hostage and killed Chief Justice Alfonso Reyes Echandia.
In the 27-hour battle to retake the palace which followed, more than 100 people were killed, including 11 of the 24 supreme court justices, and all of the rebels.
Eleven people survived the siege. Most of them were workers in the building's cafeteria.
Video footage showed them being taken by the military from the burning building.
Prosecutors said they were taken to a nearby building and interrogated, on suspicion of having collaborated with the rebels.
They were never seen alive again.
General Arias is the second member of the armed forces to be sentenced in connection with the storming of the Palace of Justice.
Last year, Col Alfonso Plazas Vegas was sentenced to 30 years in prison, also for the forced disappearances.

 

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Prince William and Kate Middleton have kissed twice on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding service in Westminster Abbey.

They were cheered by 500,000 well-wishers who gathered outside the palace, as RAF planes flew past in honour of the new royal couple.
In the evening the pair returned to the Palace for a dinner and dance, expected to continue into the early hours.
The couple will now be known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Police estimate a million people lined the procession route from the abbey to the palace following the wedding.
Prince William later drove his new bride back to Clarence House, following a buffet reception at Buckingham Palace, at the wheel of his father's classic blue Aston Martin, before returning to the palace in the evening.
The vehicle was decked in ribbons and balloons with "Just Wed" on the number plate.
he church service, watched by 1,900 guests, ran smoothly but the prince did struggle to place the wedding ring on the duchess's finger.
Following a long tradition, the ring has been fashioned from Welsh gold given to Prince William by the Queen.
After the couple said their vows - in which the bride did not promise to obey her husband - the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, declared: "I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."
They spent a private moment together with their families, as they signed the marriage register.
Prince William has been given the title of the Duke of Cambridge by the Queen, and Miss Middleton has become Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge on their marriage.
The duchess, who managed to keep her wedding dress a secret, wore an ivory and lace gown by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen. The prince wore the red tunic of an Irish Guards colonel - his most senior honorary appointment.

Among the guests at Westminster Abbey were singer-songwriter Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, and former England football captain David Beckham and his wife Victoria.

Actor Rowan Atkinson, a close friend of Prince Charles, Prince Harry's friend Chelsy Davy and film director Guy Ritchie were also there.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha, Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and former British PM Sir John Major were among the politicians present.
For those lining the route, large speakers broadcast the wedding service, and hundreds of millions of people were estimated to watch the proceedings worldwide on television.

• According to a lip-reading expert, Prince William told his bride she looked "beautiful" as she joined him at the altar and joked to his father-in-law Michael: "We're supposed to have just a small family affair"
• The fly-past at Buckingham Palace involved Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft from the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
• Out of the 1,900 guests at the Abbey, 1,000 were friends and family, who were given some of the best seats in the house. The others included overseas royals, politicians, military personnel and representatives of various faiths and charities
• After the service, the newly-weds travelled in an open-topped carriage for the 15-minute journey from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace, past London landmarks, including the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Horse Guards Parade
• More than 1,000 military personnel and musicians lined the procession route
• Thousands of street parties were held around the UK, and big screens were put up in many towns and cities. The BBC has been bringing viewers and listeners comprehensive coverage across TV, radio and online, in the UK and around the world
• 5,000 police officers were on duty, with more than 900 along the wedding route
• Police made 55 arrests in and outside the security zone and questioned masked protesters in central London.
• About two square miles of central London were closed to traffic.
• A yellow RAF Sea King rescue helicopter flew over The Mall as the couple drove to Clarence House. It was a surprise for the groom, a search and rescue helicopter pilot.

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Japan launches massive search for tsunami bodies

Japan launches massive search for tsunami bodies

SHICHIGAHAMAMACHI, Japan –  Soldiers prodded marshy ground with slender poles and cleared mounds of rubble by hand Monday as 25,000 troops mounted Japan's largest search yet for the bodies of nearly 12,000 people missing in last month's earthquake and tsunami.

The operation was the third intensive military search since the March 11 disaster, which splintered buildings, flattened towns and killed up to 26,000 people along Japan's northeastern coast. With waters receding, officials hope the team, which also includes police, coast guard and U.S. troops, will make significant progress during the two-day operation.

In the town of Shichigahamamachi, a line of about two dozen Japanese soldiers walked in unison across soggy earth and muddy pools, plunging their poles about 2 feet (60 centimeters) into the muck to ensure that they don't miss any bodies buried below.

The search focused on a marsh drained in recent weeks by members of the army's 22nd infantry regiment using special pump trucks.

Several dozen other soldiers cleared mountains of rubble by hand from a waterfront neighborhood filled with gutted and teetering houses. Four people in the neighborhood were missing, said 67-year-old Sannojo Watanabe.

"That was my house right there," he said, pointing to a foundation with nothing atop it.

He surveyed the neighborhood: "There's nothing left here."

In all, 370 troops from the regiment were searching for a dozen people still missing from Shichigahamamachi. The regiment had been searching the area with a far smaller contingent, but tripled the number of troops it was using for the two-day intense search, said Col. Akira Kun itomo, the regimental commander.

The search is far more difficult than that for earthquake victims, who would mostly be buried in the rubble, said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the regiment. The tsunami could have left the victims anywhere, or even pulled them out to sea.

"We just don't know where the bodies are," he said.

Bodies found so many weeks after the disaster are likely to be unrecognizable, black and swollen, Ose said.

"We wouldn't even know if they would be male or female," he said.

A total of 24,800 soldiers — backed by 90 helicopters and planes — were sent to comb through the rubble for buried remains, while 50 boats and 100 navy divers searched the waters up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast to find those swept out to sea.

"It's been more than a month since the massive earthquake and tsunami, but we still have lots of people still missing," Defense Ministry spokesman Norikazu Muratani said. "We want to recover them and return them to their families."

More than 14,300 people have been confirmed dead and nearly 11,900 remain missing. The military's first intense sweep for bodies uncovered 339, while its second turned up 99 more, Muratani said. Numbers for Monday's search were not immediately available.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, bodies turned up along the Indonesian coast for several months afterward as people cleared debris in reconstruction efforts. However, 37,000 of the 164,000 people who died in Indonesia simply disappeared, their bodies presumably washed out to sea.

Last week, two undersea robots provided by the nonprofit International Rescue Systems Institute conducted five-day searches in waters off Japan's northeastern coast near three tsunami-hit towns.

The robots found cars, homes and other wreckage in the sea, but no bodies, said Mika Murata, an official with the institute.

The Japanese government has come under criticism for its response to the quake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster, with some members of the country's opposition urging Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign.

Members of Kan's ruling party won only three of 10 elections held over the weekend, mostly for local government posts.

The losses came two weeks after Kan's party lost nearly 70 seats in an election for prefectural assemblies.

On Monday, Kan stressed to a sometimes hostile parliament that his government was doing everything it could to gain control of the radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which has prompted the government to evacuate residents from a 20-kilometer (12-mile) area around the crippled reactors.

"The nuclear accident is still ongoing," he said. "The top priority right now is to stabilize it."

___

Associated Press writer Shino Yuasa contributed to this report.

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Strike on Qaddafi Compound Badly Damages Buildings

TRIPOLI –  NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Muammar Qaddafi's seat of power early Monday, destroying a multi-story library and office and badly damaging a reception hall for visiting dignitaries.

Qaddafi's whereabouts at the time of the attack on his sprawling Bab al-Azizya compound were unclear. A security official at the scene said four people were lightly hurt.

Monday's strike came after Qaddafi's forces unleashed a barrage of shells and rockets at the besieged rebel city of Misrata, in an especially bloody weekend that left at least 32 dead and dozens wounded.

The battle for Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two months, has become the focal point of Libya's armed rebellion against Qaddafi since fighting elsewhere is deadlocked.

Video of Misrata civilians being killed and wounded by Qaddafi's heavy weapons, including Grad rockets and tank shells, have spurred calls for more forceful international intervention to stop the bloodshed in the rebel-held city.

A Libyan man walks past the remnants of a shell fired by pro-Gadhafi forces during the siege of the rebel town of Ajdabiya, Libya Sunday, April 24, 2011. Rebel fighters drove Moammar Gadhafi's forces to the edge of the besieged western city of Misrata on Sunday, taking control of the main hospital where government troops had been holed up, a resident said.

In Washington on Sunday, three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee said that more should be done to drive Qaddafi out of power, including targeting his inner circle with air strikes. Qaddafi "needs to wake up every day wondering, 'Will this be my last?"' Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican on the committee, told CNN's "State of the Union."

Early in the campaign of airstrikes against Qaddafi, a cruise missile blasted an administration building in Bab al-Azizya last month, knocking down half the three-story building. The compound was also targeted in a U.S. bombing in April 1986, after Washington held Libya responsible for a blast at a Berlin disco that killed two U.S. servicemen.

At least two missiles struck Bab al-Azizya early Monday, and the booms could be heard miles (kilometers) away.

A multi-story building that guards said served as Qaddafi's library and office was turned into a pile of twisted metal and broken concrete slabs. Dozens of Qaddafi supporters climbed atop the ruins, raising Libya's green flag and chanting in support of their leader.

A second building, where Qaddafi received visiting dignitaries, suffered blast damage. The main door was blown open, glass shards were scattered across the ground and picture frames were knocked down.

Just two weeks ago, Qaddafi had received an African Union delegation led by South African President Jacob Zuma in the ceremonial building, which was furnished with sofas and chandeliers. The delegation had called for an immediate cease-fire and dialogue between the rebels and the government.

NATO's mandate from the U.N. is to try to protect civilians in Libya, split into a rebel-run east and a western area that remains largely under Qaddafi's control. While the coalition's airstrikes have delivered heavy blows to Qaddafi's army, they have not halted attacks on Misrata, a city of 300,000 people besieged by Qaddafi loyalists for two months.

Still, in recent days, the rebels' drive to push Qaddafi's men out of the city center gained momentum.

Late last week, they forced government snipers out of high-rise buildings. On Sunday, rebels took control of the main hospital, the last position of Libyan troops in the center of Misrata, said a city resident, who only gave his first name, Abdel Salam, for fear of reprisals. Throughout the day, government forces fired more than 70 rockets at the city, he said.

"Now Qaddafi's troops are on the outskirts of Misrata, using rocket launchers," Abdel Salam said.

A Misrata rebel, 37-year-old Lutfi, said there had been 300-400 Qaddafi fighters in the main hospital and in the surrounding area that were trying to melt into the local population.

"They are trying to run way," Lutfi said of the soldiers, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "They are pretending to be civilians. They are putting on sportswear."

Ali Misbah, a captured Libyan soldier who had been wounded in the leg, was held under guard in a tent in the parking lot of the Al Hikmeh Hospital, one of the city's smaller medical centers.

Misbah, 25, said morale was low among Qaddafi's troops. "Recently, our spirit has collapsed and the forces that were in front of us escaped and left us alone," he said.

Misbah said he and his fellow soldiers were told that they were fighting against al-Qaida militants, not ordinary Libyans who took up arms against Qaddafi.

"They misled us," Misbah said of the government.

A senior Libyan government official has said the military is withdrawing from the fighting in Misrata, ostensibly to give a chance to tribal chiefs in the area to negotiate with the rebels. The official, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim, said the tribal chiefs were ready to send armed supporters to fight the rebels unless they lay down their weapons.

Kaim also claimed that the army has been holding its fire since Friday.

Asked about the continued shelling on Misrata, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the army was responding to attacks by rebels. He insisted that most of Misrata was still under government control.

Rebels on Sunday dismissed government claims that tribes in the area were siding with Qaddafi and that troops were redeploying voluntarily.

"It's not a withdrawal. It's a defeat that they want to turn into propaganda," said Dr. Abdel-Basit Abu Mzirig, head of the Misrata medical committee. "They were besieging the city and then they had to leave."

In addition to the casualties, thousands of people, many of them foreign workers, have been stranded in Misrata. Hundreds of migrants, along with wounded Libyans, have been evacuated in aid vessels through the port in recent days.

One of those wounded, Misrata resident Osama al-Shahmi, said Qaddafi's forces have been attacking the city with rockets. "They have no mercy. They are pounding the city hard," said al-Shahmi after being rescued from Misrata.

"Everyone in Misrata is convinced that the dictator must go," said al-Shahmi, 36, a construction company administrator who was wounded by shrapnel. His right leg wrapped in bandages, al-Shahmi flashed a victory sign as he was put into a waiting ambulance upon arrival in Benghazi.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI offered an Easter prayer for Libya. He told a crowd of more than 100,000 Easter pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that he hopes "diplomacy and dialogue replace arms" in Libya and that humanitarian aid will get through to those in need.

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Iraq Fears Unrest Amid Talk of U.S. Troops Extending Stay

Iraq Fears Unrest Amid Talk of U.S. Troops Extending Stay

WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials have been in negotiations about keeping some 10,000 American troops in Iraq beyond the scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. forces at year's end, according to officials familiar with the talks.

But the discussions face political obstacles in both countries, and have faltered in recent weeks because of Iraqi worries that a continued U.S. military presence could fuel sectarian tension and lead to protests similar to those sweeping other Arab countries, U.S. officials say.

A separate drawdown deadline is looming in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama wants to see a substantial U.S. troop reduction starting in July. Some U.S. commanders have cautioned against making reductions too quickly.

Underlining Obama administration concerns that U.S. forces have been stretched too thin, the White House has put strict constraints on American military involvement in Libya. On Thursday, the U.S. said it was sending armed drones to support operations in Libya, but the administration has stood firm against sending any ground troops.

In Iraq, top U.S. military officials believe that leaving a sizeable force beyond this year could bolster Iraqi stability and serve as a check on Iran, the major American nemesis in the region, officials said. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Israel have echoed the concern that if the U.S. pulls out completely, Iran could extend its influence.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Baghdad Thursday, urging Iraqi leaders to step up discussions soon if they want U.S. forces to stay beyond the end of 2011.

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At Least 75 Killed in Deadliest Day of Syrian Uprising

At Least 75 Killed in Deadliest Day of Syrian Uprising

BEIRUT -- Syrian security forces fired bullets and tear gas Friday at tens of thousands of protesters across the country, killing at least 75 people in the bloodiest day of the monthlong uprising and signaling that the authoritarian regime was prepared to turn more ruthless to put down the revolt against President Bashar Assad.

Among the dead were a 70-year-old man and two boys ages 7 and 10, Amnesty International said. In the southern town of Izraa, a man ran carrying the body of a young boy, whose hair was matted with blood from a gaping wound on his head, as another child wept and shouted, "My brother!" Footage of the scene was posted on the protest movement's main Facebook pace.

In other towns, protesters scattered for cover from sniper bullets, then dragged corpses through the streets. Mobile phone images showed the bodies lined up on the floor inside buildings.

The rallies, most marching out from mosques after Friday's noon Muslim prayers, erupted in towns and cities stretching along the breadth of the country, including in at least two suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

The death toll was likely to rise, raising fears that there will be an explosion of violence Saturday as relatives bury their dead in funerals that in the past have turned into new protests. Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, said another 20 people were missing.

Friday's toll was double that of the previous deadliest day of the uprising, on April 8, when 37 were killed around the country. The heavier crackdown came after Assad warned a week ago that any further unrest would be considered "sabotage" after he made the gesture of lifting long-hated emergency laws, a step he ratified on Thursday.

It was a clear sign that regime was prepared to escalate an already bloody response, with nearly 300 already dead in more than five weeks. Previously, Assad has mixed the crackdown with gestures of reform in a failed attempt to deflate the protests.

The bloodshed so far has only served to invigorate protesters whose demands have snowballed from modest reforms to the downfall of the 40-year Assad family dynasty. Each Friday, growing numbers of people in multiple cities have taken to the streets despite the near certainty that they would come under swift attack from security forces and shadowy pro-government gunmen known as "shabiha."

"Bullets started flying over our heads like heavy rain," said one witness in Izraa, where police opened fire on protesters marching in front of the mayor's office. The town is located in southern Daraa province where the uprising kicked off in mid-March.

In Washington, President Barack Obama condemned the latest use of force by Syria against anti-government demonstrators and said the regime's "outrageous" use of violence against the protesters must "end now."

In a statement, Obama said Syria's moves to repeal a decades-old emergency law and allow peaceful demonstrations were not serious in light of Friday's events.

He called on Assad to change course and obey the will of his people by giving them what they seek -- freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and the ability to choose their leaders.

Tens of thousands marched Friday in the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Hajar Aswad, the central cities of Hama and Homs, Latakia and Banias on the coast, the northern cities of Raqqa and Idlib, the northeastern Kurdish region, and in Daraa, witnesses said.

It was certainly one of the most robust gatherings to date, but it was difficult to gauge whether turnout was larger than heavy demonstrations a week ago. Because the protests were so quickly and violently dispersed Friday, it appeared that many gatherings were broken up before the masses hit the streets.

Amnesty International put the day's death toll at 75, mirroring reports from witnesses to The Associated Press.

Friday's witness accounts could not be independently confirmed because Syria has expelled journalists and restricted access to trouble spots. Witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

As it has stepped up its response, Assad's regime has seemed little affected by mounting international concern over the violence.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. calls on the Syrian government "to cease and desist from the use of violence against peaceful protesters" and to "follow through on its promises and take action toward the kind of concrete reform that they've promised."

In the U.K., Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the "unacceptable killing of demonstrators by the Syrian security forces."

"I call on the Syrian security forces to exercise restraint instead of repression, and on the Syrian authorities to respect the Syrian people's right to peaceful protest," Hague said.

The protest movement has been the gravest challenge against the autocratic regime led by Assad, who inherited power from his father 11 years ago in one of the most rigidly controlled countries in the Middle East.

The uprising in Syria takes its inspiration from the popular revolts that toppled the leaders in Egypt and Tunisia. But Syria is a highly unpredictable country, in part because of its sizable minority population, the loyalty of the country's military and the regime's web of allegiances to powerful forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran.

Serious, prolonged unrest in Syria would almost inevitably hurt Hezbollah and weaken Iran's influence in the region. But it is not at all clear what would come next if a power vacuum emerges in Syria.

The country has multiple sectarian divisions, largely kept in check under Assad's heavy hand and his regime's secular ideology. Most significantly, the majority of the population is Sunni Muslim, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism.

Assad has exploited fears of sectarian warfare -- so apparent in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon -- by blaming the unrest on a "foreign conspiracy" and armed thugs trying to sow sectarian strife.

On Friday, the state-run news agency SANA said masked gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on the guards of a government office in Izraa, killing eight bystanders. SANA also said two members of the security forces were killed "by armed criminal groups," one in the Muadamiya district of Damascus, the other in the Baba Amr district of Homs.

There was no way to independently confirm the account.

Besides the government crackdown, Assad has been trying to defuse the protests by offering a series of concessions, granting citizenship to thousands among Syria's long-ostracized Kurdish minority, firing local officials, releasing detainees and forming a new government. The recent lifting of emergency laws -- which gave authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest -- had been a top demand.

But many protesters said the concessions have come too late -- and that Assad does not even deserve the credit, because the protest movement is forcing his hand.

The true strength of the protest movement is still murky because the uprising is so loosely organized. To be sure, the protests have expanded in numbers and to more parts of the country.

But there are no organized, credible opposition leaders who can rally followers on the ground or be considered as a possible successor. No political parties other than the Baath Party are allowed in Syria, and almost all opposition figures have been either jailed or exiled.

Still, many young activists are not deterred by the uncertain future.

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Car Bomb Kills Nine in Baghdad

Car Bomb Kills Nine in Baghdad

BAGHDAD -- Suicide bombers detonated two explosives-packed cars Monday outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, killing at least nine people and wounding 23, officials said.

The blasts marked the start of a violent day in the Iraqi capital, where a another bombing and a jewelry heist left two more dead and 13 wounded.

The twin suicide car bombs rattled windows across Baghdad shortly after 8 a.m. The cars blew up just outside a security checkpoint on a heavily traveled road leading into the Green Zone from Baghdad's international airport.

Pieces of charred flesh were still scattered at the scene hours later as a tow truck hauled away a wrecked Iraqi Humvee and other bombed-out cars.

Baghdad military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the bombers appeared to be targeting the motorcades of two senior government officials -- one from the military, the other from the Cabinet -- who were headed to work. He declined to elaborate.

The explosion set ablaze some of the cars that were waiting to be cleared into the Green Zone, which houses Iraq's parliament and ministry offices, as well as several foreign embassies.

Two police officers and an official at al-Yarmouk hospital said nine people, including five Iraqi soldiers, were killed and 23 people were wounded in the attack. Al-Moussawi put the number of dead at six, with 14 wounded, but added that "this is not a final death toll."

Conflicting casualty numbers are common in the immediate aftermath of attacks.

A few miles away, two more roadside bombs exploded a few minutes later in what appeared to be an unrelated strike. Police said nine passers-by were wounded in the attack outside a restaurant in Jadriyah, a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood.

Violence has ebbed across Iraq since the worst days of sectarian fighting just a few years ago that brought the country to the brink of civil war. But deadly bombings and shootings still occur on a near daily basis as insurgents seek to highlight Iraq's continued instability as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by the end of the year.

By midmorning, attackers hit another frequent target in the capital: jewelry stores.

Officials said two carloads of robbers stormed two jewelry shops in Baghdad's eastern al-Amin area, sparking a shootout with police. A shop owner and a customer were killed, and police also shot dead one of the robbers before the attackers fled with a bag of gold and gems.

Four passers-by also were wounded, according to police and an official at al-Kindi hospital.

Authorities believe insurgent groups increasingly are turning to robberies and other crimes to fund terrorist activity.

Government workers also are commonly attacked, and an Iraqi Central Bank adviser escaped an assassination attempt Monday morning when his convoy hit a roadside bomb on an eastern Baghdad highway. The adviser was not hurt, but two of his guards were wounded, police and hospital officials said.

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Taliban Militant Kills 2 at Afghan Defense Ministry

Taliban Militant Kills 2 at Afghan Defense Ministry

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Taliban militant opened fire inside the Afghan Defense Ministry on Monday, killing two Afghan soldiers in the latest daring attack inside a government or military installation.

The Taliban said one of their agents who was also an army officer planned the attack to coincide with a visit of the French defense minister. French officials said the minister, Gerard Longuet, was not in the ministry at the time.

Despite the Taliban claim, Afghan military officials said it was not immediately clear whether the assailant -- who was wearing a vest rigged with explosives -- was an enlisted soldier or an insurgent disguised in a military uniform. The vest did not explode.

The assaults over the past four days -- first inside a police headquarters, then a base shared with American troops and now the heart of the Afghan military establishment -- signal the start of the Taliban's spring offensive after a relative lull over the frigid Afghan winter.

Afghanistan's war usually follows an annual cycle, with fighting increasing in the spring and summer as insurgents pour over the mountainous border from Pakistan. But the recent security breaches suggests that the Taliban are getting better at striking at the core of the Afghan security forces.

The ferocity of the Taliban's spring offensive will help determine whether the surge of more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops that President Barack Obama announced in December 2009 succeeded in arresting the insurgency.

The string of attacks since Friday shows that while the insurgents have suffered setbacks in their southern strongholds, they still have a slate of militants willing to take on deadly missions.

The assaults also demonstrate the geographical reach of the insurgency beyond the south. The most recent attacks were in Kabul and eastern Laghman province, while a deadly attack against the United Nations earlier this month happened in the previously peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

On Monday morning, a man dressed in an army uniform opened fire at the door of the Defense Ministry compound's main office building. He shot and killed one soldier at the entrance, then killed another as he bounded toward the stairs that lead to the offices of the minister and other high-ranking officials, ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.

Another seven soldiers -- including two officers -- were wounded in a shootout before the attacker was killed with a shot to the head.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the attacker was an army officer who had been in the service for at least three years and was stationed at the Defense Ministry. He said he worked in concert with two accomplices. Azimi said there was only one attacker.

The Afghan Defense Ministry is well guarded, with at least three checkpoints stopping vehicles and people before they reach the main entrance. Soldiers are required to show identification to enter and visitors must be confirmed by the people they're meeting.

The attack came two days after an Afghan soldier working as a Taliban sleeper agent turned on his colleagues, killing five NATO service members, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter. A day earlier, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up inside the Kandahar police headquarters complex, killing the top law enforcement officer in the restive southern province.

Insurgents have long disguised themselves in the uniforms of Afghan security forces to launch attacks. But increasingly over the past year, enlisted soldiers and police have turned on their NATO and Afghan colleagues -- sometimes because arguments have inflamed tensions or because of an alliance or sympathy with the Taliban.

The Afghans are ramping up recruitment of soldiers and policemen so they can take the lead in securing their nation by the end of 2014. They have added more than 70,000 police and soldiers last year in an effort to reach 305,000 troopers by the end of this year.

These recruits are supposed to be vetted by past employers or at least village elders. Even with those policies in place, there's often a dearth of information about those who enlist.

Azimi said that the military has tightened vetting of recruits and will continue to do so.

"Such incidents will make us focus more, and of course it will cause some changes to the procedures," he told The Associated Press.

International military advisers are working with Afghan forces to train soldiers to spot possible infiltrators.

"The insider threat is real. The expansion of the Afghan army requires that more emphasis be placed on the screening and vetting of new personnel as well as the spotting and assessing of those already in the ranks," said Lt. Col. David Simons, a spokesman for the NATO training mission.

Monday's attack also signified sophisticated Taliban intelligence gathering. Azimi confirmed that the French defense minister had been scheduled to meet with his Afghan counterpart Monday afternoon, though the information had not been publicly released for security reasons.

That meeting occurred on time and without incident inside the very building the gunman had forced his way into earlier in the day, Azimi said. Longuet also met with President Hamid Karzai later Monday, the president's office said in a statement.

Longuet arrived Sunday and had been meeting with French troops in the east. Some 3,850 French troops are deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission.

French defense officials wouldn't comment on the attack except to say Longuet wasn't there at the time. "We don't comment on Taliban declarations," French military spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.

"We are always very vigilant with the measures of precaution taken" for travels in Afghanistan, he said.

France assures its Afghan partners of its "determination to remain committed at their sides in the fight against the plague of terrorism," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in an online briefing Monday.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned NATO foreign ministers against bringing their own forces home too soon. The United States is worried that pressure will grow within the alliance to match U.S. withdrawals planned for July and answer rising discontent with the war in Europe.

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Robot Detects High Radiation in Japanese Nuclear Plant

Robot Detects High Radiation in Japanese Nuclear Plant

TOKYO –  Readings Monday from a robot that entered two crippled buildings at Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month displayed a harsh environment still too radioactive for workers to enter.

Nuclear officials said the radiation readings for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant do not alter plans for stabilizing the complex by year's end under a "road map" released by the plant operator Sunday.

Workers have not gone inside the two reactor buildings since the first days after the plant's cooling systems were wrecked by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Hydrogen explosions in both buildings in the first few days destroyed their roofs and littered them with radioactive debris.

A U.S.-made robot that looks like a drafting lamp on treads haltingly entered the two buildings Sunday and took readings for temperature, pressure and radioactivity. More data must be collected and radioactivity must be further reduced before workers are allowed inside, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

"It's a harsh environment for humans to work inside," Nishiyama said.

It is still possible, he said, to achieve plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s goal of achieving a cold shutdown of the plant within six to nine months as laid out in a timetable the company announced Sunday.

"I do believe we must be creative to come up with ways to achieve our goals," Nishiyama said. "I still think the plan ... is as appropriate as we can get at the moment."

TEPCO official Takeshi Makigami said the robots must pave the way for workers to be able to re-enter the building.

"What robots can do is limited, so eventually, people must enter the buildings," Makigami said.

The robot was set to investigate Unit 2 later Monday.

As work continues inside the plant to reduce radiation levels and stem leaks into the sea, the Defense Ministry said it would send about 2,500 soldiers to join the hundreds of police, outfitted with protective suits, who are searching for bodies in tsunami debris around the plant.

Around 1,000 bodies are thought to be buried in the muddy piles of broken houses, cars and fishing boats. As of Sunday, searchers had located 66 bodies and recovered 63, police said.

The combined earthquake and tsunami have left more than 27,000 people dead or missing.

The robots being used inside the plant, called Packbots, are made by Bedford, Massachussetts company iRobot. Traveling on miniature tank-like treads, the devices opened closed doors and explored the insides of the reactor buildings, coming back with radioactivity readings of up to 49 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 1 and up to 57 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 3.

The legal limit for nuclear workers was more than doubled since the crisis began to 250 millisieverts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends an evacuation after an incident releases 10 millisieverts of radiation, and workers in the U.S. nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting.

The robots, along with remote controlled miniature helicopters, have enabled TEPCO to photograph and take measurements of conditions in and around the plant while minimizing the workers' exposure to radiation and other hazards.

TEPCO's plan for ending the crisis, drawn up at the government's order, is meant to be a first step toward letting some of the tens of thousands of residents evacuated from the area around the company's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant return to their homes.

It drew a lackluster response Monday, though, as polls showed diminishing public support for the government's handling of the country's recent disasters.

Those forced to flee due to radiation leaks from the plant are frustrated that their exile will not end soon. And officials acknowledge that unforeseen complications, or even another natural disaster, could set that timetable back even further.

"Well, this year is lost," said Kenji Matsueda, 49, who is living in an evacuation center in Fukushima after being forced from his home 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the plant. "I have no idea what I will do. Nine months is a long time. And it could be longer. I don't think they really know."

Pressure has been building on the government and TEPCO to resolve Japan's worst-ever nuclear power accident, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan is facing calls for his resignation.

"You should be bowing your head in apology. You clearly have no leadership at all," Masashi Waki, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, shouted during an intense grilling of Kan and members of his Cabinet in parliament Monday.

"I am sincerely apologizing for what has happened," Kan said, stressing that the government was doing all it could to handle unprecedented disasters.

TEPCO's president, Masataka Shimizu, looked visibly ill at ease as lawmakers heckled and taunted him.

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World's Most Powerful Rocket Ready in 2012, SpaceX Says

World's Most Powerful Rocket Ready in 2012, SpaceX Says

The era of the Space Shuttle is ending. And SpaceX plans to take over.

Elon Musk, the millionaire founder of private space company Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX for short) said the long planned Falcon Heavy vehicle would be ready for liftoff at the end of 2012. The rocket, which he called the most powerful in the world, would be capable of taking men to the International Space Station, dropping vehicles and astronauts on the moon -- and maybe even cruising to Mars and back.

"This is a rocket of truly huge scale," Musk said at a press conference unveiling the rocket. "With Falcon Heavy, we'll be able to put well over 100,000 pounds into orbit," he said, and possibly as much as 120,000 pounds.

"That's more than a fully loaded Boeing 737 -- with passengers and fuel" and even luggage, Musk said.

The Falcon Heavy consists of a standard Falcon 9 rocket with two additional Falcon 9 first-stage rockets acting as liquid strap-on boosters. The upgraded Merlin engines that power the rocket will generate 3.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff -- the equivalent of 15 Boeing 747s, he said.

NASA's mission patches range from sleek and futuristic to florid, whimsical, beautiful, and downright homey. They serve as emblems of each unique adventure -- personalized tokens of the human drive to confront and understand the unknown. See the full gallery at Life.com.

It is intended primarily to carry satellites and other such payloads into space, though it will meet NASA's requirements for carrying humans as well.

"It can launch people if need be, and do so safely," he said.

NASA spokesman Michael J. Braukus was cautiously optimistic that the ship would help U.S. interests in space, though he declined to comment on whether Falcon Heavy would be useful for human transport.

But for cargo transport, it will clearly have a role: Musk said this version of the spacecraft would have twice the capability of the space shuttle.

The Falcon Heavy will also dramatically surpass the Delta IV Heavy's 25-ton capacity and the yet-to-be-built Atlas 5 Heavy's 32 tons. It will be assembled at California's Vanderburg Air Force Base, but Musk said it would be able to take off from Cape Canaveral as well.

Musk also claimed the Falcon Heavy would cost a third per flight than the Delta IV rocket, and sets a new world record for the cost per pound to orbit of around $1,000. A launch is estimated at $80 million, the company said, while an Atlas 5 costs as much as $100 million more.

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Gates to discuss Arab upheaval with Saudi king

Gates to discuss Arab upheaval with Saudi king

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in the Saudi capital 

Wednesday for talks with King Abdullah on coping with the political upheaval sweeping the Arab world, blunting Iranian efforts to exploit the unrest, and upgrading the kingdom's defenses against Iranian missiles.

In a sign of the depth of the Obama administration's concern about the political earthquake that has shaken the region, including the island of Bahrain off Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf coast, this was Gates' third trip to the area in the past month. He has echoed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's cautioning of authoritarian Arab governments on the risks of moving too slowly in response to peaceful protests for political freedom.

U.S. relations with the Saudi ruling family have been strained for months, dating to the uprising in Egypt and President Barack Obama's call for long-time U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak to give up his presidency. Saudi leaders saw this as the U.S. abandoning a reliable friend with close military and diplomatic ties stretching over decades — not unlike the U.S.-Saudi alliance, which has the added dimension of American dependence on Saudi oil.

Gates has acknowledged tensions in the relationship with the Saudis but insists it remains a strong partnership.

"'It's a great exaggeration to say this relationship's ruptured," Gates said last month on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We have a very strong military-to-military relationship. As you know, the Saudis just made one of the largest purchases of American weapons in their history."

He was referring to a $60 billion deal announced last fall to sell the Saudis 84 new F-15 fighter jets and 190 helicopters, as well as upgrade 70 of their existing F-15s. The deal also includes a wide array of missiles, bombs and other equipment — mostly with a perceived Iranian threat in mind. Iran, with its Shiite Muslim theocracy in charge, has long been a bitter rival of the Saudis, whose rulers and majority population are Sunni Muslim.

Limited protests in Saudi Arabia reportedly have been confined mainly to Shiites in the eastern oil-producing provinces.

A senior defense official traveling with Gates from Washington said the kingdom's internal political situation was unlikely to be broached in Gates' talks with Abdullah. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss Gates' thinking in advance of his closed-door meeting with the king.

The official said Gates would assure Abdullah that the $60 billion arms deal is progressing on schedule, while also urging the king to buy an upgraded version of its U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles. Gates also planned to pitch a more sophisticated U.S. defense system called the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles of longer range. The United Arab Emirates already has agreed to purchase that system, the official said. It is part of a broader U.S. plan to improve Gulf Arab states' defenses against Iranian missile threats.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Gates' flight to Riyadh that "Iran will be a major focus" of Gates' talks with Abdullah — not just its missile development, but also its nuclear weapons ambitions and concerns that Iran is seeking to exploit political upheaval in the Arab world.

Strains in the U.S.-Saudi relationship deepened with the crisis in Bahrain, where a Sunni family dynasty rules a Shiite-majority population. The Saudis dread a further empowering of Shiites, following the 2003 U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime and the rise to power there of a Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

"Saudis believe their concerns in Bahrain — containing Iran, protecting Gulf monarchies and sending a clear message to their own Shiite population — are best addressed by a hardline policy of suppressing the protests," Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in an analysis Monday.

On March 14 — two days after Gates visited Bahrain's rulers — the Saudis sent more than 1,000 troops into Bahrain, at that government's request, for security assistance. Ottaway concluded from Washington's muted response that it has chosen to implicitly back the Saudis.

"Washington has seemingly accepted that for the time being the Saudis have won the battle for influence in Bahrain and concluded that mending relations with Saudi Arabia should take precedence right now," she wrote.

 

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Japanese Nuclear Plant Starts Pumping Millions of Gallons of Radioactive Water Into Pacific

Japanese Nuclear Plant Starts Pumping Millions of Gallons of Radioactive Water Into Pacific

TOKYO -- Workers were pumping more than 3 million gallons of contaminated water from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear power complex into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, freeing storage space for even more highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to stabilize the plant's reactors.

The government has also asked Russia for a ship that is used to dispose of liquid nuclear waste as it tries to decontaminate the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, whose cooling systems were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The plant also plans to bring in a floating storage facility.

But these other storage options have been slow to materialize, so the pumping began late Monday. It was expected to take about two days to get most of the less-radioactive water out.

"It was inevitable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference Tuesday. "The measure was to prevent highly radioactive water from spreading. But we are dumping radioactive water, and we feel very sorry about this."

Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area.

But the stress of announcing more bad news appears to wearing on officials with the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Co. One official teared up and his voice began shaking as he gave details at a news conference near the plant.

The crisis has unfolded as Japan deals with the aftermath of twin natural disasters that devastated much of its northeastern coast. Up to 25,000 people are believed to have died and tens of thousands lost their homes.

Since the disaster, water with different levels of radioactivity has been pooling throughout the plant. People who live within 12 miles (20 kilometers) have been evacuated and have not been allowed to return.

The pooling water has damaged systems and the radiation hazard has prevented workers from getting close enough to power up cooling systems needed to stabilize dangerously vulnerable fuel rods.

On Saturday, they discovered a leak where radioactive water was pouring into the ocean.

Radiation exceeding the legal limit has been measured in seawater over the past few weeks, though calculating the exact contamination has vexed TEPCO. Japan's nuclear safety agency ordered the utility last week to reanalyze samples; new results released Monday showed unchanged or lower levels of radiation than previously reported.

The less-radioactive water that officials are purposely dumping into the sea is up to 500 times the legal limit for radiation.

"We think releasing water with low levels of radiation is preferable to allowing water with high levels of radiation to be released into the environment," said Junichi Matsumoto, a TEPCO official.

The need to make room for the highly radioactive water became more urgent when TEPCO discovered the extent to which it was leaking into the ocean, Matsumoto said.

Workers need to get rid of the highly radioactive water, but first they need somewhere safe to put it. Much of the less-radioactive water being dumped into the sea is from the tsunami and had accumulated in a nuclear waste storage building.

The building is not meant to hold water, but it's also not leaking, so engineers decided to empty it so they can pump in the more-radioactive water. The rest of the water going into the sea is coming from a trench beneath two of the plant's six reactors.

Also Monday, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Novikov, told reporters that Japan had requested Russia send it a vessel used to dispose of liquid nuclear waste from decommissioned submarines.

Novikov said Moscow was awaiting the answers to some questions before granting the request.

More water keeps pooling because TEPCO has been forced to rely on makeshift methods of bringing down temperatures and pressure by pumping water into the reactors and allowing it to gush out wherever it can. It is a messy process, but it is preventing a full meltdown of the fuel rods that would release even more radioactivity into the environment.

"We must keep putting water into the reactors to cool to prevent further fuel damage, even though we know that there is a side effect, which is the leakage," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear Safety and Industrial Agency. "We want to get rid of the stagnant water and decontaminate the place so that we can return to our primary task to restore the sustainable cooling capacity as quickly as possible."

Engineers have been using unusual methods to try to stop the more highly radioactive water from leaking into the sea.

An attempt to seal a crack in a maintenance pit discovered Saturday with concrete failed, and clogging it with a special polymer mixed with sawdust and shredded newspapers didn't work, either.

They dumped milky white bath salts into the system around the pit Monday to try to figure out the source of the leak, but it never splashed out into the ocean.

In the meantime, workers plan to install screens made of polyester fabric to try to stop some of the contamination in the ocean from spreading.

Although the government eventually authorized the dumping of the less-radioactive water, Edano said officials were growing concerned about the sheer volume of radioactive materials spilling into the Pacific and would be investigating its effects. It is not clear how much water has leaked in addition to what is being dumped purposely.

Experts said Monday that at this point, they don't expect the discharges to pose widespread danger to sea animals or people who might eat them.

"It's a very large ocean" with considerable powers of dilution, noted William Burnett of Florida State University.

Very close to the nuclear plant -- less than half a mile (800 meters) or so -- sea creatures might be in danger of problems like genetic mutations if the dumping goes on a long time, he said. But there shouldn't be any serious hazard farther away "unless this escalates into something much, much larger than it has so far," he said.

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Holder Blames Congress for Forcing Hand on Military Commissions for 9/11 Detainees

Holder Blames Congress for Forcing Hand on Military Commissions for 9/11 Detainees

Congress tied the Obama administration's hands in trying the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and his accomplices, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday, announcing that he was left without a choice and has referred the cases to the Defense Department for trial. 

In stark language, Holder lambasted Congress for imposing restrictions blocking any detainees from being tried in the U.S., saying that the "unwise and unwarranted restrictions" undermine the U.S. in counter-intelligence and counter-terror efforts.

Expressing his disappointment in no uncertain terms, the attorney general said that as a native New Yorker, he knows as well as anyone the federal court's capacity to try the suspects. He added that he's intimately familiar with the cases, much moreso than congressional members -- or the public -- who opposed allowing the cases to be held in the United States.

"Do I know better than them? Yes. I respect their ability to disagree but they should respect that this is an executive branch function, a unique executive branch function," Holder said in a press conference.

As a result, Holder said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006, after being captured in Pakistan in 2003, and four alleged Sept. 11 co-conspirators will face prosecution by a military commission in Guantanamo.  "Prosecutors from both the Departments of Defense and Justice have been working together since the beginning of this matter, and I have full faith and confidence in the military commission system to appropriately handle this case as it proceeds," Holder said.

The other terror suspects are Walid Muhammed Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi. The five detainees are accused of killing 2,976 people -- all named in an 81-page indictment dismissed and unsealed Monday by a federal judge.

"Because a timely prosecution in federal court does not appear feasible, the attorney general intends to refer this matter to the Department of Defense to proceed in military commissions," reads the order to dismiss signed by U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy.

The decision to return the detainees to a military commission is a reversal from Holder, who announced in November 2009 that he would move the trials to a civilian court in the United States. Supporters said it sent the right message to the rest of the world that U.S. courts were the fairest and best venue for trials. 

At the time, President Obama said it was Holder's decision. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday's decision again remained with Holder. 

"The president's primary concern here is that the perpetrators ... of that terrible attack on the American people be brought to justice as swiftly as possible and as fairly as possible," Carney said before Holder's remarks. 

After Holder's original announcement, attempts to place the suspects in a New York City courtroom were met with fierce resistance from area residents who said they didn't want to deal with another possible terror threat in downtown Manhattan that the case would bring. A potential plan to house the suspects in a prison in Thomson, Ill., also faced considerable scrutiny. 

During the lame-duck session last December, Congress acted to prevent the federal trials by attached to a defense authorization bill provisions that prohibited detainees from being brought to trial in the United States. 

Family members of the victims said they were pleased with Holder's decision despite his reasoning. 

"I am frankly shocked by the attorney general's comments," said David Beamer, the father of Todd Beamer, who is credited with preventing United Flight 93 from hitting its target. The plane instead crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa.

"I guess one of my reactions is is I'm thankful there are three branches of government because the last thing I want to see is KSM returning to New York City for a civilian trial," Beamer said.  

Debra Burlingame, head of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, said the group is "relieved" Obama "abandoned his plan" to bring the conspirators to U.S. soil. 

"We are grateful to the president for reversing his decision, conveyed to the families just last month, to go forward with civilian trials and seek repeal of congressional legislation that stripped funding for that effort," said Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which was forced into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

"We have great confidence in the military commissions legal framework, which is fair, lawful, effective and consistent with our tradition and values as a nation," she said. 

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said that the military commissions are the appropriate place for the trials.

"This means with certainty that the trial will not be in New York. While not unexpected, this is the final nail in the coffin of that wrong-headed idea," Schumer said. 

But ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, which vehemently opposes military courts, said the Obama administration's decision "is completely wrong."

"There is a reason this system is condemned: it is rife with constitutional and procedural problems and undermines the fundamental American values that have made us a model throughout the world for centuries. Attorney General Holder's previous decision to try the 9/11 defendants in federal court was absolutely the right call but this flip flop on the part of the Obama administration is devastating for the rule of law and greatly undermines America's standing abroad," Romero said.

J.D. Gordon, a former Defense Department spokesman for secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, said trusting the civilian jury with some of the most dangerous terror suspects "is really a flawed mistake." Gordon noted that Mohammed and the other co-conspirators were already going through the military commission process before the Obama administration halted the case. 

"I think they ran into the buzz saw of reality where the American public didn't see it in their best interest to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian trial where he could theoretically be acquitted there and also where he'd have a chance to have his rhetoric used against us," Gordon said. 

With the case now returning to the military commission, the process will start all over again. After the administration announced in 2009 it planned to move the trials to federal court, the military withdrew its charges without prejudice -- an action that effectively allowed it to preserve its legal position so that if the cases returned to the commissions in the future, the men could be charged again. 

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Holder should try to have more faith in the military commission process. 

"The United States has a long history of successfully utilizing military tribunals dating back to the American Revolution, and it's why Congress set up the military commission process. Instead of taking this opportunity to blame Congress for preventing the 9/11 terrorists from having civilian trials, the administration should assure Americans that it will keep all terrorists off U.S. soil and utilize the military commission process in Guantanamo Bay to its full extent," Grassley said.

As the Justice Department prepared to announce its reversal, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday also decided to pass on a case that would have further determined the legal rights of the detainees kept at Guantanamo Bay.

The justices turned away a petition asking them to establish the standards of evidence lower court judges should use to determine if the detainees can remain locked up while waiting for their cases to be heard.

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NATO Asks U.S. Military to Extend Libya Mission As Qaddafi Holds On

NATO Asks U.S. Military to Extend Libya Mission As Qaddafi Holds On

NATO has asked the U.S. military to continue flying airstrike missions over Libya through Monday, extending the previously announced timeline for U.S. participation in that mission by two days, NATO and Pentagon officials tell Fox News. 

During testimony on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen announced the U.S. would hand off all strike missions to partner nations by the end of Saturday.

Two weeks after mostly U.S. missiles and bombs opened an international air assault on Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi, America's naval and air forces were expected to withdraw from combat missions in the country, although its defiant leader still remains in power.

Before NATO's request, U.S. aircraft would have ceased to fly Libyan strike missions beginning Sunday, although NATO's on-scene commander can request them in the days ahead -- but they may have to be approved in Washington.

While the Libya mission remains incomplete, the U.S. is still fulfilling a pledge to shift the combat burden to other NATO allies, Britain and France.

According to Reuters, a rebel "crisis team" is being assembled in Benghazi to run parts of the country the movement controls. The former interior minister will reportedly serve as the armed forces chief of staff of the group. They have called for a NATO-led air assault on Qaddafi forces, despite a Friday NATO airstrike which rebels say killed 13 of their own.

A top Libyan rebel official said the opposition to longtime leader Qaddafi seeks to install a parliamentary democracy in the country.

Libyan rebels skirmished with government forces around the strategic oil town of Brega on Sunday, making incremental gains backed by international air strikes in the see-saw desert battle for the country.

"There have been skirmishes in Brega," confirmed Rabia al-Ahwat, 48, a rebel fighter, who was also a 30-year-veteran of the Libyan army. He said there were heavy airstrikes overnight as well against government forces.

There were also reports by Arab news channels of continued heavy shelling of Misrata, the lone rebel outpost in western Libya, where Qaddafi's forces still largely hold sway.

Medical officials said Saturday that government forces killed 37 civilians over the past two days in an unrelenting campaign of shelling and sniper fire and an attack that burned down the city's main stocks of flour and sugar.

A Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded from Misrata is expected to dock in Benghazi on Sunday as well, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

The boat, which is carrying medical supplies, is expected to pick up around 60 wounded people and 21 accompanying persons that are currently being treated in various hospitals in Benghazi as well as 30 Turks and 40 people from Greece, Ukraine, Britain, Uzbekistan, Germany and Finland.

Qaddafi is still standing, with a few uncertain signs that his inner circle could crack. The Obama administration is hoping that if Qaddafi's government doesn't implode soon, a relentless campaign of airstrikes on his tanks, air defenses and most trusted army units will at least weaken his ability to survive a renewed uprising by a disjointed opposition. The rebels initially rattled Qaddafi but in recent days have given up most of their gains.

The bottom line, according to Mullen: "He's still killing his people."

On Saturday, U.S. combat aircraft flew 24 strike missions in Libya, the Pentagon said.

Some in Congress, including Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, have criticized the decision to withdraw U.S. combat aircraft from the regular cycle of NATO strikes.

Also withdrawing from the combat mission on Sunday will be the initial workhorses of the military campaign: U.S. Navy destroyers and submarines that launched Tomahawk cruise missiles from their positions in the Mediterranean Sea. No Tomahawks were fired Saturday, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. planes and naval vessels will be on standby in case NATO commanders decide their forces cannot handle the mission on their own. Combat air missions will continue to be flown by Britain, France and other NATO member countries.

A larger group of participating air forces will patrol over Libya to ensure that Qaddafi's air force stays grounded. U.S. planes will support them with refueling aircraft and electronic jammers.

The Navy began the operation March 19 with 11 ships in the Mediterranean. As of Friday, nine remained: the submarines USS Florida and USS Scranton; destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry; amphibious warships USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce; the command ship USS Mount Whitney; and two supply ships, USNS Robert E. Peary and USNS Kanawha.

The subs and the destroyers are armed with Tomahawks. Marine Harrier attack planes launch from aboard the Kearsarge, and the Mount Whitney had served as a floating command post for the American admiral who was the on-scene commander until NATO took control Thursday.

The Mount Whitney remains assigned to the mission but the new operational commander, Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, is working ashore at his NATO headquarters in Naples, Italy. The U.S. Navy is likely to peel more ships away from the mission in coming days, including some of those with Tomahawks.

The international military mission has been limited from the start, with the stated objective of protecting Libyan civilians from attack. But until this weekend's U.S. stand down, Air Force and Marine attack planes have chased down Libyan tanks and other targets on a daily basis.

Marine Lt. Col. Shawn R. Hermley, a Harrier pilot who estimates he has flown about a dozen combat missions over Libya, said in an interview Friday that he's not personally bothered that he'll no longer be dropping 500-pound guided bombs on Qaddafi's tanks, armored personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery. He said his Harrier detachment has made a difference, while taking care not to risk civilian casualties.

"If we were to walk away today, I'd be very proud of that and realize that we've made a significant impact to protect the people of Libya," he said by telephone from aboard the Kearsarge.

Still to be decided is whether the White House will up the ante and provide arms to the rebels. That step, say some congressional supporters of the Libya mission, is crucial to ensuring that the strategic goal of ousting Qaddafi is achieved before he kills still more opponents.

"We are concerned that regional support will waver if Western forces are perceived as presiding over a military deadlock," McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, wrote Friday in the Wall Street Journal. "We cannot allow Qaddafi to consolidate his grip over part of the country and settle in for the long haul."

They called for a "more robust and coherent package of aid" to the rebels, who are armed mainly with light weapons. Mullen estimated in congressional testimony on Thursday that as few as 1,000 among the rebels are former members of Qaddafi's military.

The rest are simply "guys with guns," said James Dubik, a retired Army three-star general who says they need American or NATO advisers and trainers to be effective.

"They need help," Dubik wrote in an assessment for the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank.

On the political front, the U.S. and its allies are hoping that the defection to Britain on Wednesday by Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is a sign of things to come.

"We believe that Moussa Koussa's departure is yet another sign of fracturing within the regime, and we would urge others within the regime to follow his example," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday. "We've been very explicit in saying that we believe they should read the writing on the wall that they should step down."

In a further indication that Qaddafi's resilience may be eroding, his government is trying to hold talks with the U.S., Britain and France in hopes of ending the air campaign, said Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister who has served as a Qaddafi envoy during the crisis.

 

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