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soldiers may face prosecution for abuse 5 Palestinians killed in Israeli
offensive in Gaza Key suspect in Pervez assassination plot arrested
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Pak hails peace pledge
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More soldiers may face prosecution for abuse Washington, May 20 Although new allegations fanned the flames of international outrage, the two Generals in charge of the US-led occupation of Iraq told a congressional panel yesterday that there was no “pattern” of abuse of prisoners. General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US in Iraq, both took responsibility for the abuses when they appeared before the Senate Armed Forces Committee. “We have already initiated courts-martial in seven cases, and there may very well be more prosecutions,” Sanchez said. “We may find that the evidence produced in these investigations ... leads to more courts-martial.” He added that the army might go back to some of the cases that had already been handled. The hearing came just after a military judge in Baghdad sentenced Jeremy Sivits to a maximum one-year jail term for his role in the humiliation of inmates at Abu Ghraib. Sivits, (24), was the first of the seven to face a hearing. He admitted conspiracy to maltreat detainees, maltreatment of detainees and dereliction of duty. Sivits was also demoted from specialist to private and given a bad conduct discharge. The Pentagon has informed a Senate committee that it has located another disc of pictures of abuses of Iraqi prisoners, Senator John Warner said. “I’ve just been informed that the Department of Defence has informed the committee that another disc of pictures has been located and I’ll soon advise the committee on the conditions and time in which they can be viewed,” Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. Three other CD-ROMs have surfaced with digital photographs and video clips of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. A letter sent to Warner from the Pentagon late Tuesday said that Pentagon officials received a disc with 24 photographs depicting “apparent abusive acts by US forces.” Assistant Secretary of Defence Powell Moore wrote in the letter, which was released by Warner to members of the media yesterday, that the disc had been sent to the Criminal Investigation Command in Baghdad for forensic computer evaluation. “Thirteen photographs appear to be images already seen on international television media,” the letter said. “The other 11 images have not been identified in previous investigations,” the letter continued, adding that it was not clear whether the images were genuine or fakes.
— AFP
We will probe Abu Ghraib
fiasco: Bush Baghdad, May 20 Mr Bush told the Baghdad daily Azzaman that the torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners “does not reflect the behaviour of the USA and the American people.” The Iraqi people and the world will see that we complete full investigations so that the entire world can... know the truth about how these actions were committed, whether there were decisions and orders, who made them and how they were issued, he was quoted in the Arabic language daily.
— AP |
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5 Palestinians killed in Israeli
offensive in Gaza Gaza, May 20 Israeli media reported a helicopter fired on armed Palestinians after they approached Israeli soldiers, killing three of the Palestinians and wounding two others. Palestinian doctors were quoted as saying two other Palestinians were killed by grenades fired from an Israeli tank. Israeli sources said soldiers had destroyed a multi-level house in the Gaza Strip belonging to the former leader of the extremist group Islamic Jihad. Yesterday, the Israeli forces continued an offensive started on Tuesday on the Rafah refugee camp in which more than 33 persons, including some children, were believed to have been killed.
— DPA |
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Key suspect in Pervez assassination plot arrested Karachi, May 20 Kamran Atif, 28, was captured during a fierce gun battle as the police raided a home in central Karachi where he was hiding. A woman passerby was killed in crossfire. “It’s a big catch,” an official from the police Crimes Investigation Department told AFP, requesting anonymity. An accomplice escaped during the raid. Atif is alleged to have been in charge of pressing the detonator to blow up a remote-controlled car bomb parked on a highway as Musharraf’s motorcade passed by from Karachi airport in April, 2002. The detonator failed to work and the plot was aborted. Four other militants were tried and convicted last year over the botched and sentenced to life prison terms.
— AFP |
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Terror suspect had lunch with Bin Laden Perth, May 20 A taped conversation between Jack Roche — who has pleaded innocent to plotting to blow up the Embassy — and a journalist from The Australian newspaper, was played in Perth District Court. Roche, 50, faces a maximum 25-year sentence if convicted. “Yeah a very nice man ... I would rather meet him than George Bush I can tell you,” he told the reporter. “He is a very nice man, but I only met him for a short time ... just outside Kandahar.” Roche told the reporter he sat down to start eating, “and I looked across and I said ‘whoah — that’s like the bloke on the telly.” Prosecutors say Roche was in Afghanistan to undergo explosives training with al-Qaida.
— AP |
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Sonia to be guardian angel: Pak media Islamabad, May 20 Lauding Ms Gandhi’s decision, ‘The News’ said in its editorial today that she would remain the “guardian angel” to prevent incoming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government from being “grounded” because of “a long history of in-house politics” in the Congress. ‘The Observer’ wrote “True that history has placed her in an enviable position politically, but like great people in history Ms Gandhi has sacrificed her ego and ambition at the altar of the national interests... her decision will, in fact, deflate the BJP’s plans to vitiate the political atmosphere in the country.” “Her decision will remain unprecedented in political history for a long time. It demonstrated a high level of statesmanship and set impossible political traditions for South Asia,” ‘The News’ said. Noting that many factors were at work (in her decision to decline the post of the Prime Minister), ‘Dawn’ wrote, “But certainly the overriding consideration appears to have been to ensure a smooth term in the office for her party”... It takes a rare kind of statesmanship and political acumen to give a party’s interests precedence over the mesmerising attractions of power”. ‘The Observer’ said by declining to become Prime Minister, she had demonstrated “far-sightedness, maturity and leadership.”
— UNI |
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IIFA weekend kicks off in Lion City
Singapore, May 20 IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, who had flown in along with his actress-wife Jaya Bachchan, announced the details of the weekend, which also includes world premiere of Indian movies and a celebrity football match among others. Tamil movie
Aayitha Ezhuthu, directed by Mani Ratnam of Roja and Anjali fame, is being premiered along with its Hindi version
Yuva at the weekend. Mussafir, Dil Mange Moore,
Rakht, Lakshya, Tango Charlie and Sarhad Paar are the other movies are being showcased at the weekend, he said. The IIFA forum, to be addressed by Singapore Arts and Information Minister Lee Boon Yang, would discuss on “Globalisation of Indian Cinema”, with celebrities, including Shekhar Kapur, Karan Johar and Shravan Shroff, expected to be the part of the discussion, Wizcraft International Entertainment Private Ltd director Sabbas Jospeh said. The Singapore IIFA weekend will conclude with the IIFA awards ceremony, which will witness performances by Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Preity Zinta, Ishaa Koppikar and Shahid Kapoor among others.
— PTI |
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