Labels: Democrats, Iraq, pork, Republicans, Senate

[David] Hicks, a Muslim convert, allegedly attended al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. But he remained on the margins once the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks. He eventually joined al-Qaida fighters hours before the front lines collapsed and was captured as he tried to flee, according to the U.S. military.

The count he pleaded guilty to says he intentionally provided support to a terror organization involved in hostilities against the United States. He denied the charge that he supported for preparation, or in carrying out, an act of terrorism.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, but Davis has said he would seek a sentence of about 20 years. He said the five years Hicks has spent at Guantanamo could be considered in the ultimate sentence.

Labels: UN

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Monday it was interrogating 15 British sailors and marines to determine whether they intentionally entered Iranian waters. Britain denies its personnel had left Iraqi territory when they were captured and detained by Iran.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair ‘s office sought to play down fears that the incident would deepen tensions with Iran, which threatened to charge the 15 with illegally entering its territory.

The seizure of the British service personnel has deepened troubles between Iran and the West, which is concerned about Iran‘s nuclear program and accused the country of interfering with the U.S.-led war in Iraq .

According to Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Mehzi Mostafavi did not say what Iran plans to do with the sailors and marines, but he said they were being interrogated.

He said the British government was accountable for the group‘s actions.

Iran rejected British requests to visit them, warning they could face charges for allegedly entering Iranian waters — charges that Blair‘s office has repeatedly rejected.

Britain‘s Defense Ministry would not disclose details of positioning equipment carried aboard the craft that sailors were using when they were seized, but said it was "categorically certain" they had not strayed into Iranian territory.

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iran seized 15 British sailors and Marines who were conducting "routine boarding operations" in Iraqi waters, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.

"The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters," the ministry said in an e-mailed statement. "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level."

Iran's foreign ministry confirmed seizing the Britons "for investigation and questioning" and said it was because British sailors have illegally entered its own territorial waters "a number of times," Agence France-Presse reported, citing Iranian State television.

VOA - A senior U.S. military officer says insurgents in Iraq used two children to help them pass a coalition checkpoint in Baghdad in recent days, and then detonated a car bomb, killing the children. The officer reported the incident during a news conference at the Pentagon, and VOA's Al Pessin reports.

Major General Michael Barbero says this is the first time he has heard of insurgents using what he called this brutal and ruthless technique.

"We saw a vehicle with two children in the back seat come up to one of our checkpoints, get stopped by our folks, the children in the back seat lowered suspicion, we let it move through," he said. "They parked the vehicle, the adults ran out and detonated with the children in the back."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration Tuesday applauded a Russian ultimatum to Iran that it will not supply fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant until Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment.

A senior Bush administration official confirmed the Russian stance and said it will help ratchet up pressure on Iran to end its push for nuclear weapons.

Iran denies its nuclear program is intended for anything but peaceful purposes. Iran's state-run media said Tuesday that Moscow was an "unreliable partner" in nuclear cooperation, The Associated Press reported.

The senior administration official said the move came because Russia has "rising concerns about Iran having nuclear weapons on their southern flank."

The report of the ultimatum first appeared in Tuesday editions of The New York Times.

Russian and Iranian officials denied there had been any ultimatum issued.

WASHINGTON — Waleed bin Attash, a suspected key al-Qaida operative, confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two U.S. embassies in Africa, according to a Pentagon transcript of a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

More than 200 were killed in the simultaneous attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. And 17 sailors were killed and dozens injured when suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer Cole on Oct. 12, 2000.

"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," bin Attash said when asked what his role was in the attacks. "I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Raymond Lee Oyler, who stands accused of setting the wildfire that killed five firefighters in October, is alleged by a relative to have said he wanted to set a mountain on fire as a diversion to break his family's pit bull out of a nearby pound, it was reported Thursday.

Investigative reports show that the claim was made by Oyler's cousin, Jill Frame, when she spoke to investigators probing the Esperanza fire, which burned 40,000 acres west of Palm Springs, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The dog impounded by animal control officers was one of two Oyler family pit bulls that attacked a woman and her dog in early October, The Times reported.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, and the state teachers' fund would have to unload shares in companies including BNP Paribas of France, Siemens AG of Germany and Eni SpA of Italy.

"Who's funding terrorism? It sure as hell shouldn't be our public employees,'' said Joel Anderson, a Republican assemblyman from El Cajon who introduced the measure. "When you're looking at the war on terrorists, this is one of the best weapons we have -- just defunding them.'' Anderson estimated his legislation would affect $24 billion worth of investments.

[...] Calpers and the California State Teachers' Retirement System control $388 billion in investments. The legislation would affect overseas-based companies, since U.S. businesses are already mostly barred from trading with the countries on the State Department list: Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea and Syria.

WASHINGTON, March 15 — The Senate on Thursday rejected a Democratic resolution to withdraw most American combat troops from Iraq in 2008, but a similar measure advanced in the House, and Democratic leaders vowed to keep challenging President Bush to change course in Iraq.

Go to Complete Coverage » The vote in the Senate was 50 against and 48 in favor, 12 short of what was needed to pass, with just a few defections in each party. It came just hours after the House Appropriations Committee, in another vote largely on party lines, approved an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan that includes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The House will vote on that legislation next Thursday, setting the stage for another confrontation.

[...] The Democratic resolution in the Senate would have redefined the United States mission in Iraq and set a goal of withdrawing American combat troops by March 31, 2008, except for a “limited number” focused on counterterrorism, training and equipping Iraqi forces, and protecting American and allied personnel. The House measure set a withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008.