Nation & world briefing
News briefs
Fox News worker
caught smuggling
war souvenirs
WASHINGTON — Some mem
bers of the media are returning from
Iraq with more than just war stories.
Several journalists and a U.S.
serviceman have been caught trying
to slip paintings, gold-plated assault
weapons and other war souvenirs
into the United States. Some of the
booty was pilfered from Iraq’s presi
dential palaces.
Benjamin J. Johnson, an engineer
for Fox News Channel, tried to bring
12 paintings and 40 Iraqi monetary
bonds and other items through
Dulles Airport on April 17, according
to a criminal complaint filed in the
Eastern District of Virginia.
Johnson, 27, of Alexandria, Va.,
initially told Customs officials that
he had only 020 in cigarettes to de
clare but authorities noted that his
hands were shaking and he began to
“sweat profusely.” A search of John
son’s luggage uncovered a large card
board box that contained 12 paint
ings. He first told authorities that
Baghdadis had given him the paint
ings but later admitted that he had
taken some from the palace of Sad
dam’s son Odai. Johnson is charged
"with smuggling and making false
statements.
In a statement, Fox News said
Johnson, who worked for the net
work for six years as a satellite truck
engineer, had been fired.
— Shannon McCaffrey, Knight
Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
U.S. warns France
it will pay for
opposition to war
WASHINGTON — The Bush ad
ministration has warned France that
it will pay a price for having led the
effort to thwart the U.S.-led war in
Iraq, the latest sign that hard feelings
generated in the run-up to the war
won’t dissipate quickly.
The warnings came after a White
House review this week of U.S. pol
icy toward France, and they con
tinue a trend by President George
W. Bush of punishing nations that
cross him, even allies such as
Canada and Germany.
American officials, speaking on
the condition of anonymity, said
Wednesday that no final decisions
had been made and that much
would depend on whether French
President Jacques Chirac proved co
operative in the rebuilding of post
war Iraq.
But in a television interview Tues
day night on “The Charlie Rose
Show” on PBS, Secretary of State
Colin Powell responded simply “yes”
when asked if there were conse
quences for France for opposing the
United States.
“We have to look at all aspects of
our relationship with France in light
of this,” Powell said.
— Warren P. Strobel, Knight
Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
Groups gather evidence
of possible war crimes
WASHINGTON—An international
coalition of lawyers and human-rights
groups is gathering evidence to deter
mine whether American and British
troops committed war crimes in Iraq.
They intend to use the 9-month
old International Criminal Court in
The Hague, Netherlands, to prose
cute government and military lead
ers who may have violated interna
tional humanitarian law, and point
to the dropping of anti-personnel
bombs in civilian areas as an exam
ple of such a breach.
Lawyers with the Center for Con
stitutional Rights and the Center for
Economic and Social Rights in
Turn to Briefs, page 4
f
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