srael Raids Site in Lebanon: Premier, U.N. Chief Condemn Attack as Violation of Truce

  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/nyregion/19judge.html

 

Pataki Appoints Fifth Republican to Highest Court

 

By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: August 19, 2006

ALBANY, Aug. 18

 

...

 

...Former Mayor David N. Dinkins said in an interview that he was "extremely, extremely disappointed" that Judge Smith had not been reappointed. "To think that in this state, with the enormous minority population that we have, that of those seven jurists there's not one of color - I'm saddened,'' he said in an interview....

 

...In addition to leaving the Court of Appeals without a black judge, the governor has left the lower Appellate Division overwhelmingly white. William C. Thompson, a retired appellate division justice who is a black Democrat, wrote in The New York Law Journal last year, "Under the guise of merit selection, Mr. Pataki has effectively eliminated African-American and Hispanic judges from the appointive judiciary....''

 

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/19/AR2006081900217.html

 

The Washington Post

Israel Raids Site in Lebanon

Premier, U.N. Chief Condemn Attack as Violation of Truce

By Edward Cody

Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 20, 2006; Page A01

 

BEIRUT, Aug. 19 -- Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley early Saturday, setting off a fierce gun battle. Lebanon called the attack a "flagrant violation" of a fragile six-day-old cease-fire and threatened to halt troop deployments in protest.

 

Hezbollah, which battled the Israeli military for 33 days until the truce took hold Monday, said its fighters encountered the Israeli commandos in a field near the town of Boudai, about 20 miles from the Syrian border.

 

The Israeli military, confirming the raid, said its commandos carried out the operation to interdict shipments of weapons and munitions to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. The military said one Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.

 

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters in Beirut that the attack was a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. cease-fire and that he planned to lodge a complaint with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

 

Later Saturday, Annan said that he agreed the raid violated the cease-fire agreement and that he was "deeply concerned."

 

Hezbollah issued no immediate reaction. But many Lebanese worried that the militant Shiite Muslim movement would retaliate, risking a chain of cease-fire violations that could rekindle the devastating war that drove nearly a fourth of Lebanon's inhabitants from their homes and inflicted an estimated $3.6 billion in damage to bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

 

In accepting the cease-fire, the Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, warned that his militia reserved the right to attack Israelis as long as they remain on Lebanese soil. At the same time, the Israeli military declared that it reserved the right to respond to attacks and prevent weapons shipments to Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern border hills until an international force was in place.

 

In practice, however, Hezbollah has held its fire even though an unknown number of Israeli troops remain in observation posts scattered across the rocky Lebanese hills just north of the border. Until Saturday, Israel also had refrained from attacks of any size on Hezbollah fighters in the border area or on other Hezbollah installations farther north. The restraint by both sides had led to optimism in Beirut that the truce would hold and that rebuilding could begin -- optimism that suddenly came under doubt.

 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said the raid was not a violation of the cease-fire because it was in response to a violation by Hezbollah. "If the other side violates the cease-fire, then we are entitled to act," Regev said.

 

"Had the Lebanese forces, augmented by international troops, been on the border crossing points with Syria the way they should have been, then our attack would have been superfluous," he added. "Hopefully, those international troops will be there soon and then there will be no need for these kinds of actions. In the interim, we cannot have an open border with arms coming from Syria to rearm Hezbollah. The violation of the cease-fire is the arms transfer from Syria to Lebanon."

 

The Lebanese military, which stood aside during the war, has begun deploying along the border with Syria in northern and eastern Lebanon, in addition to its deployment over the last three days in villages along the southern border with Israel. But the frontier with Syria remains far from secured, officials acknowledged, and Israel is unlikely to relax its vigilance against Hezbollah arms deliveries.

 

The Lebanese defense minister, Elias Murr, said Lebanon would stop moving troops into the southern part of the country if the United Nations did not intervene, the Associated Press reported.

 

"We have put the matter forward in a serious manner and the U.N. delegation was understanding of the seriousness of the situation," Murr said. "We are awaiting an answer."

 

Israeli officials have said they are counting on the arrival of an international peacekeeping force to guarantee that the arms shipments stop. About 50 French military engineers arrived in southern Lebanon as a vanguard of the European and other soldiers who, under the U.N. resolution, will be assigned to reinforce the 2,000-member United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

 

But France and other European nations have expressed reluctance to commit troops to the operation until its U.N. mandate is clearly laid out. France, which was expected to provide several thousand troops, has limited its new contribution to 200. As a result, negotiations on assembling, transporting and tasking the additional peacekeepers could drag out in the days ahead, increasing the risk of cease-fire violations.

 

Boudai, which lies in the foothills of the Mount Lebanon chain about 10 miles northwest of Baalbek, has long been known as a Hezbollah stronghold. Local officials speculated that a senior Hezbollah leader, Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, may have been the commandos' target. Other Lebanese suggested that the raid may have been an attempt to recover two Israeli soldiers whose seizure by Hezbollah commandos on July 12 precipitated the war.

 

The Israeli military, however, specified that preventing the transport of weapons was its objective. "The goals were achieved in full," it added in a statement.

 

Lebanese residents and security officials reported that Israeli planes were heard in the Bekaa Valley through the night, prompting fears of a raid. When they landed around 5 a.m., the Israeli special troops drove toward Boudai in two vehicles transported into Lebanon by helicopters, they said. When challenged, the Israelis identified themselves as Lebanese army troops, but the ploy failed and Hezbollah fighters opened fire, they added.

 

Hezbollah fighters found bloody bandages and syringes on the ground after the battle, leading them to conclude that the Israelis suffered casualties, according to Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, a Hezbollah ally. Hezbollah's al-Manar television reported a number of Israeli casualties but did not say whether they were killed or wounded.

 

Lebanese security officials told the Reuters news agency that three Hezbollah fighters were killed, but Hezbollah did not confirm the toll.

 

Correspondent Doug Struck in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

 

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http://www.counterpunch.org/

 

Virginia Tilley
Inside 1701: What the UN Ceasefire Resolution Actually Says

 

...To summarize, Resolution 1701 reflects a legal coup for Israel and the United States. On its face, it seems even-handed, providing for an Israeli withdrawal, pacification of Hizbullah, restoration of Lebanese sovereignty, and conditions that allow for Lebanon's reconstruction. It actually provides Israel with ultimate leverage over its own withdrawal, contingent on disarming Hizbullah.

 

Most seriously, regarding the UN itself, the Resolution fails to condemn Israel for violating international law in its onslaught on Lebanon. It also fails to establish any basis for a serious peace process. It represents a twisted, tricky document, representing machinations of the United States in service to the neocon alliance with Israel to "remake" the Middle East. Its provisions to disarm Hizbullah are politically unworkable and beyond the SC's capacity. Its provisions for Israeli withdrawal are contingent on that disarmament.

 

Regarding its relevance to a real peace in Lebanon, within days or weeks of this writing Resolution 1701 may be a discredited artefact of history. But its design remains significant: inability of the SC to act in a principled fashion to impose international order. In that light, it tells us far more about the internal debility of the UN than it does about any future for the Israeli-Lebanese conflict.

 

================================================================

 

The New York Times

 

INTERNATIONAL / MIDDLE EAST | August 17, 2006
Bombs Aimed at G.I.'s in Iraq Are Increasing

By MICHAEL R. GORDON, MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER

The insurgency has strengthened despite the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
according to statistics from the U.S. military in Baghdad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17military.html?ex=1156651200&en=9bd02433de32d18b&ei=5070&emc=eta1

 

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 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_us/recruiters_sex

Associated Press

Military recruiters cited for misconduct

By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer Sun Aug 20, 3:11 AM ET

More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the
past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on
recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to
entrance exams.

A six-month Associated Press investigation found that more than 80 military
recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential
enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all
regions of the country.

"This should never be allowed to happen," said one 18-year-old victim. "The
recruiter had all the power. He had the uniform. He had my future. I trusted
him."

At least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and
12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other
inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records
obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests. That's
significantly more than the handful of cases disclosed in the past decade.

The AP also found:

_The Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722
recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.

_Across all services, one out of 200 frontline recruiters - the ones who deal
directly with young people - was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.

_Some cases of improper behavior involved romantic relationships, and sometimes
those relationships were initiated by the women.

_Most recruiters found guilty of sexual misconduct are disciplined
administratively, facing a reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay; military and
civilian prosecutions are rare.

_The increase in sexual misconduct incidents is consistent with overall
recruiter wrongdoing, which has increased from just over 400 cases in 2004 to

630 cases in 2005, according to a General Accounting Office report released this
week.

The Pentagon has committed more than $1.5 billion to recruiting efforts this
year. Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke insisted that each of
the services takes the issue of sexual misconduct by recruiters "very seriously
and has processes in place to identify and deal with those members who act
inappropriately."

In the Army, 53 recruiters were charged with misconduct last year. Recruiting
spokesman S. Douglas Smith said the Army has put much energy into training its
staff to avoid these problems.

"To have 53 allegations in a year, while it is 53 more than we would want, is
not indicative of the entire command of 8,000 recruiters," he said. "We take
this very seriously and we take appropriate action as necessary to discipline
these people."

___

The Associated Press generally does not name victims in sexual assault cases.
For this story, the AP interviewed victims in their homes and perpetrators in
jail, read police and court accounts of assaults and in one case portions of a
victim's journal.

A pattern emerged. The sexual misconduct almost always takes place in recruiting
stations, recruiters apartments or government vehicles. The victims are
typically between 16 and 18 years old, and they usually are thinking about
enlisting. They usually meet the recruiters at their high schools, but sometimes
at malls or recruiting offices.

"We had been drinking, yes. And we went to the recruiting station at about
midnight," begins one girl's story.

Tall and slim, her long hair sweeping down her back, this 18-year-old from
Ukiah, Calif., hides her face in her hands as she describes the night when
Marine Corps recruiter Sgt. Brian Fukushima climbed into her sleeping bag on the
floor of the station and took off her pants. Two other recruiters were having
sex with two of her friends in the same room.
 
"I don't like to talk about it. I don't like to think about it," she says, her
voice muffled and breaking. "He got into my sleeping bag, unbuttoned my pants,
and he started, well ..."
 
Her voice trails off, and she is quiet for a moment. "I had a freak-out session
and just passed out. When I woke up I was sick and ashamed. My clothes were all
over the floor."
 
Fukushima was convicted of misconduct in a military court after other young
women reported similar assaults. He left the service with a less than honorable
discharge last fall.
 
His military attorney, Capt. James Weirick, said Fukushima is "sorry that he let
his family down and the Marine Corps down. It was a lapse in judgment."
 
Shedrick Hamilton uses the same phrase to describe his own actions that landed
him in Oneida Correctional Facility in upstate New York for 15 months for having
sex with a 16-year-old high school student he met while working as a Marine
Corps recruiter.
 
Hamilton said the victim had dropped her pants in his office as a prank a few
weeks earlier, and that on this day she reached over and caressed his groin
while he was driving her to a recruiting event.
 
"I pulled over and asked her to climb into the back seat," he said. "I should
have pushed her away. I was the adult in the situation. I should have put my
foot down, called her parents."
 
As a result, he was convicted of third-degree rape, and left the service with an
other-than-honorable discharge. He wipes the collar of his prison jumpsuit
across his cheek, smearing tears that won't stop.

"I literally kick myself ... every day. It hurts. It hurts a lot. As much as I
pray, as much as I work on it in counseling, I still can't repair the pain that
I caused a girl, her family, my family, my kids. It's very hard to deal with,"
he says, dropping his head. "It's very, very hard to deal with."
 
In Gainesville, Fla., a 20-year-old woman told this story: Walking into an Army
recruiting station last summer, she was greeted by Sgt. George Kirkman, a
6-foot-4, 220-pound soldier. Kirkman is 41.
 
He was friendly and encouraging, but told her she might be a bit too heavy. He
asked if she wanted to go to the gym with him. She agreed, and he drove her to

his apartment complex.
 
There, he walked her to his apartment, pulled out a laptop, and suggested she
take a basic recruiting aptitude test. Afterward, Kirkman said he needed to
measure her. Twice. He said she had to take her pants off. And he attacked her.
 
Kirkman, who did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, pleaded no
contest to sexual battery in January and is on probation and a registered sexual
offender. He's still in the military, working now as a clerk in the
Jacksonville, Fla., Army recruiting office.
 
Not all of the victims are young women. Former Navy recruiter Joseph Sampy, 27,
of Jeanerette, La., is serving a 12-year sentence for molesting three male
recruits.
 
"He did something wrong, something terrible to people who were the most
vulnerable," State District Judge Lori Landry said before handing down the
sentence in July, 2005. "He took advantage of his authority."
One of Sampy's victims is suing him and the Navy for $1.25 million. The trial is
scheduled for next spring.
___
 
Sometimes these incidents are indisputable, forcible rapes.
 
"He did whatever he pleased," said one victim who was 17 at the time. "...
People in uniform used to make me feel safe. Now they make me feel nervous."
 
Other sexual misconduct is more nuanced. Recruiters insist the victims were
interested in them, and sometimes the victims agree. Sometimes they even dated.
 
"I was persuaded into doing something that I didn't necessarily want to do, but
I did it willingly," said Kelly Chase, now a Marine Corps combat photographer,
whose testimony helped convict a recruiter of sexual misconduct last year.
 
Former Navy recruiter Paul Sistrunk, a plant supervisor in Conehatta, Miss., who
had an affair with a potential recruit in 1995, says their relationship was
entirely consensual.
 
She was 18, an adult; he was 26 and married.
 
"Things happen, you know?" says Sistrunk, who opted for an other-than-honorable
discharge rather than face court-martial. "Morally, what I did was wrong, but
legally, I don't think so."
 
A nine-year veteran of the Navy, Sistrunk lost his pension and health benefits.
His victim, who discovered during a medical exam at boot camp that she had
contracted herpes, unsuccessfully tried to sue the federal government.
 
"In my case," said Sistrunk, "I was flirted with, and flirting, well, that's
something I hadn't seen a lot of until I became a recruiter. I had no power over
her. I really didn't."
 
Kimberly Lonsway, an expert in sexual assault and workplace discrimination in
San Luis Obispo, Calif., said "even if there isn't overt violence, the reality
is that these recruiters really do hold the keys to the future for these women,
and a 17-year-old girl often has a very different understanding of the situation
than a 23-year-old recruiter."
 
"There's a power dynamic here that's obviously very sensitive," agreed Elaine
Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a group that studies
military policy.
 
"Let's face it, these guys are handsome in their uniform, they're mature, they
give a lot of attention to these girls, and as recruiters they do a lot of the
same things that guys do when they want to appeal to girls. There's a very fine
line there, and it can be very hard to maintain a professional approach."
 
Weirick, the Marine Corps defense attorney who has represented several
recruiters on rape and sexual misconduct charges, said it's a problem that will
probably never entirely go away.
 
"It's difficult because of the nature of nature," he said. "It's hard to put it
in another way, you know? It's usually a consensual relationship or dating type
of thing."
 
When asked if victims feel this way, he said, "It's really a victimless crime
other than the institution of the Marine Corps. It's institutional integrity
we're protecting, by not allowing this to happen."
 
Anita Sanchez, director of communications at the Miles Foundation, a national
advocacy group for victims of violence in the military, bristles at the idea
that the enlistees, even if they flirt or ask to date recruiters, are willingly

having sex with them.
 
"You have a recruiter who can enable you to join the service or not join the
service. That has life-changing implications for you as a high school student or
college student," she said. "If she does not do this her life will be seriously
impacted. Instead of getting training and an education, she might end up a
dishwasher."

Ethan Walker, who spent eight years in the Marine Corps including a stint as a
recruiter from 1998 to 2000, said he was warned.
 
"They told us at recruiter school that girls, 15, 16, are going to come up to
you, they're going to flirt with you, they're going to do everything in their
power to get you in bed. But if you do it you're breaking the law," he said.
 
Even so, he said he was initially taken aback when he set up a table at a high
school and had girls telling him he looked sexy and handing him their telephone
numbers.
 
"All that is, you have to remind yourself, is that there's jail bait, a quick
way to get in trouble, a quick way to dishonor the service," he said.
 
All of the recruiters the AP spoke with, including Walker, said they were
routinely alone in their offices and cars with girls. Walker said he heard about
sleepovers at other recruiting stations, and there was no rule against it. There
didn't need to be a rule, he said. The lines were clear: Recruiters do not sleep
with enlistees.
 
"Any recruiter that would try to claim that, 'Oh, it's consensual,' they are
lying, they are lying through their teeth," he said. "The recruiter has all the
power in these situations."
 
___
 
Although the Uniform Code of Military Justice bars recruiters from having sex
with potential recruits, it also states that age 16 is the legal age of consent.
This means that if a recruiter is caught having sex with a 16-year-old, and he
can prove it was consensual, he will likely only face an administrative
reprimand.

But not under new rules set by the Indiana Army National Guard.
 
There, a much stricter policy, apparently the first of its kind in the country,
was instituted last year after seven victims came forward to charge National
Guard recruiter Sgt. Eric Vetesy with rape and assault.
 
"We didn't just sit on our hands and say, 'Well, these things happen, they're
wrong, and we'll try to prevent it.' That's a bunch of bull," said Lt. Col. Ivan
Denton, commander of the Indiana Guard's recruiting battalion.
 
Now, the 164 Army National Guard recruiters in Indiana follow a "No One Alone"
policy. Male recruiters cannot be alone in offices, cars, or anywhere else with
a female enlistee. If they are, they risk immediate disciplinary action.
Recruiters also face discipline if they hear of another recruiter's misconduct
and don't report it.
 
At their first meeting, National Guard applicants, their parents and school
officials are given wallet-sized "Guard Cards" advising them of the rules. It
includes a telephone number to call if they experience anything unsafe or
improper.
 
Denton said the policy does more than protect enlistees.
 
"It's protecting our recruiters as well," he said.
 
The result?
 
"We've had a lot fewer problems," said Denton. "It's almost like we're changing
the culture in our recruiting."

 

=========================================

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_us/peace_mom_1

 

Associated Press

 

Sheehan protests Karl Rove at fundraiser

 

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 19, 10:47 PM ET

 

AUSTIN - Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters ambushed a reception before President Bush's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday.

 

One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner.

 

Rove was speaking to the Associated Republicans of Texas, and ticket prices started at $200. He was not in the Renaissance Hotel lobby during the reception.

 

"I want him arrested. He planned the war that killed my son," Sheehan told officers guarding the door. Sheehan's oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004.

 

Police then ordered the group to leave, but some protesters had paid for rooms for the night. Those protesters went upstairs, including Sheehan.

 

Earlier, wearing shorts and T-shirts while guests of the lobby reception walked past in sequined dresses and expensive suits, anti-war demonstrators carried American flags and signs, including one that read "Check your conscience." A few protesters unfurled a large banner from a sixth-floor hotel balcony that read "Rove v. Truth: No Contest. Pink slip Rove."

 

Those at the reception sipped their drinks and largely ignored the protesters before they started chanting. One man looked at the group and said, "Go Bush!"

 

Earlier Saturday, the group of more than 70 gathered at the hotel entrance, carrying a large banner that read, "Rove: Guilty of crimes against humanity." Former U.S. Diplomat Ann Wright, who resigned in 2003 in protest over the war, yelled through a bullhorn, "Karl Rove, you are a criminal!"

 

After about 30 minutes, Austin police made them move onto grass at the edge of the property about a block away. Dozens remained later Saturday, holding signs as cars drove by, honking their horns.

 

Sheehan and the group left their campsite in Crawford near Bush's ranch, where they have held vigil the past two weeks, and drove about 100 miles south to Austin.

 

The war protest will continue until early September, although Bush's ranch 10-day ranch vacation ended last weekend. Sheehan's 26-day protest last August drew more than 10,000 people to her campsite in ditches off the rural road leading to the ranch, but she recently bought land near downtown for the group to camp on.

 

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