U.S. Navy Corpsman Shamir Jinah pauses with U.S. Marines while on patrol on March 31, 2009 in the abandoned town of Now Zad in Helmand province Afghanistan. Marines from Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment have been fighting Taliban insurgents, who's frontline position is just over a mile away from their base. Military commanders say the civilian population fled during heaving fighting between British troops and Taliban fighters several years ago, leaving a ghost town, now a battleground between the U.S. Marines and Taliban.
Leading Newspaper Headlines ~ No dominant news story crosses all headlines today: insurgency in Iraq, Obama in Europe, stimulus package update, and lower crime rates.
Early Bird Reports ~ US outreach to Iran to include counter narcotics cooperation wrt the opium trail from Afghanistan. http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20090401aaindex.html
Marine Corps News ~ How the ban on sleeve tattoos helps Marines in the long run. A US marine has gone on trial accused of killing an unarmed captive in Iraq, in a case sparked by his own alleged confession during a lie-detector test.
'10 dead' in Afghanistan attack - A suicide attack on a provincial council building in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 10 people, the interior ministry says.
Leading Newspaper Headlines ~ The New York Times leads with word that militants in Iraq have been rejoining the insurgency in areas that have been relatively free of violence lately. If the insurgency does resurface, it would no doubt be smaller, and many believe there's little danger the country will see the level of violence that was all too common just a few years ago, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be dangerous.
The Washington Post leads with word that lawyers in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded earlier this year that a pending bill to give Washington, D.C., a vote in the House of Representatives for the first time is unconstitutional.
USA Today leads with a look at some of the first projects funded by the stimulus package and notes that the federal money appears to be creating jobs, as intended.
The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with a look at the challenges awaiting President Obama as he arrived in London yesterday for a series of meetings in the run-up to Thursday's Group of 20 summit. Obama plans to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao today.
The Los Angeles Times leads with new figures that show crime has decreased in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California this year, contradicting many crime experts who had predicted the economic downturn would lead to an increase in crime. Many other large American cities, including New York and Houston, have also experienced declines in serious crimes this year.
The NYT doesn't have any definitive evidence that the insurgency is regrouping, but it brings together several troubling developments that suggest the danger that could be in store for Iraqi citizens at a time when the United States is in the process of decreasing its presence in the country. In the past few weeks there has been a spate of attacks and assassination attempts that have mostly targeted Iraqis. But the paper points out that these troubling signs also coincide with the emergence of a new weapon in Iraq, a 5-pound grenade that has the ability to penetrate the latest heavily armored vehicle. Military officers say that while the threat is real, the number of jihadi militants has been brought down to fewer than 2,000 from around 3,800. "In most places there isn't an insurgency in Iraq anymore," said an American military intelligence officer. "What we have now is a terrorism problem, and there is going to be a terrorism problem in Iraq for a long time." But others aren't so sure, and leaders of the Awakening movement, mostly former Sunni insurgents who switched sides, say they have seen an increase in jihadi activity in their areas. http://www.slate.com/id/2215121/
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US 'lie detector' marine on trial
The charges relate to events in Falluja in 2004
A US marine has gone on trial accused of killing an unarmed captive in Iraq, in a case sparked by his own alleged confession during a lie-detector test.
The court-martial in California heard that when Sgt Ryan Weemer applied for a Secret Service job, he said he had killed someone in Iraq in 2004.
That led to a criminal investigation and he was recalled to active duty to face military prosecution.
He denies the charge and his defence argues the case cannot be proved.
At the court-martial, being held at Camp Pendleton marine base near San Diego, his lawyer told the jury there was no evidence a crime had ever been committed.
He said prosecutors could not prove their case because they had no body, no forensic evidence and no relatives complaining of a lost loved one.
Recorded testimony
But prosecutors have at least one recording of Sgt Weemer saying he shot a man.
He is charged with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty stemming from a fierce fire-fight in Falluja in 2004.
Sgt Weemer left the Marine Corps two years later and applied for a job in the Secret Service.
During a polygraph test as part of the application, he was asked about the most serious crime he had ever committed.
"We went into this house, there happened to be four or five guys in the house," he said on the recording, which was played at the trial.
"We ended up shooting them, we had to."
The US military had ordered all civilians out of Falluja ahead of an assault - Operation Phantom Fury - aimed at recapturing the city from insurgents.
Sgt Weemer said in the interview that the unarmed Iraqis were killed because the marines did not have time to take the men to jail.
His squadron leader, Jose Nazario, has already been tried and was found not guilty.
A third marine, who is also charged with murder, faces trial in a few weeks.
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11:39 GMT, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 12:39 UK
'10 dead' in Afghanistan attack
A suicide attack on a provincial council building in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 10 people, the interior ministry says.
It said that at least three attackers also died in the attack in Kandahar, the main city in the south.
An eyewitness said the attackers wore Afghan army uniforms and their assault started with a car bomb.
The attack comes a day after officials said Afghan and US troops had killed 30 militants in Uruzgan province.
Reports that a similar number of insurgents were killed on Wednesday in the neighbouring province of Helmand proved incorrect.
Bomb blast
The interior ministry spokesman said that three men, wearing suicide bomb vests and armed with assault rifles, opened fire indiscriminately inside the provincial council compound after the car bomb destroyed the council's gates.
The spokesman told the BBC's Mark Dummett in Kabul that the police were able to respond to the attack within three minutes. He described this as an "outstanding success".
They quickly gunned down two of the attackers, he said, but the third man detonated his bomb before they were able to shoot him as well.
At least one guard was killed, as were civilians. A number of people were also injured.
The United Nations said that the battle was so massive, it damaged the windows of one its buildings 400 metres away.
Afghanistan has seen rising levels of violence in recent months, with Taleban attacks increasing as militants battle for control of parts of the countryside.
Vowing to make Afghanistan a foreign policy priority, US President Barack Obama is sending 21,000 additional American troops to bolster 38,000 already in the country.
In all, there are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most of them serving under Nato's command.
The Taleban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until being removed from power in the US-led invasion of late 2001.
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