Nation & World News
Iraqi mob mutilates and kills 2 soldiers
Officials are unsure of the
causes of death because the
soldiers were shot but also
had slashed throats
By Christine Spolar
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
BAGHDAD — Two American sol
diers were shot and mutilated Sunday
by assailants who attacked their vehi
cle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul
in another day of insurgent violence
against coalition forces, according to
U.S. military sources.
The men were traveling in a white
four-wheel-drive car when a brick or
stone was thrown at the vehicle, caus
ing it to stop, military sources said. A
crowd of armed assailants quickly
overwhelmed the car.
Soldiers from a nearby compound
tried to rescue the men, military offi
cials said, but before they could get
there, a mob killed the two soldiers,
leaving their bodies lying in the street.
There were conflicting reports
whether the men were shot or
slashed to death. Military spokesmen
in Baghdad refused to discuss the at
tack in detail.
The 101st Airborne Division, the
soldiers' unit, released a statement
Sunday night that said the men were
shot to death and "that there was no
official report of anything to do with
stabbings or throat slashings."
Another military official Sunday
night, however, acknowledged than
an internal report found that soldiers
were shot and slashed. The report
had not determined how they died,
he said, and the slashings may have
happened in the mayhem after the
men died.
"Their bodies were mutilated," said
the official.
In Washington, the bloodletting in
the streets of Mosul provided political
fodder for Sunday talk shows as De
mocratic leaders challenged the Bush
administration's handling of the war
in Iraq and the escalating insurgency
against the U.S-led coalition.
The incident, reported widely on
satellite news broadcasts and Western
and Arab Web news sites, underscored
the vulnerability of the heavily armed
American troops as they operate in ur
ban areas of Iraq.
"The slashing of throats of Ameri
cans by the enemy shows how inhu
man, how brutal, how dangerous the
enemy is that we're facing," Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, a presidential can
didate, said on CNN's "Late Edition."
rEhe Connecticut Democrat said the
Bush administration's lack of prepara
tion was to blame for "the chaos that's
there now." Such attacks should make
the administration "redouble our
commitment to do whatever's neces
sary to defeat the enemy," he added.
Joseph Biden, the senior Democ
rat on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said on "Fox News Sun
day" that more troops were needed
in Iraq now to put down an escalat
ing insurgency.
"I understand it's incredibly difficult
for the president to go to the American
people and say we're going to put
more troops in near term," Biden said.
“ .. (But) there is not enough force or
the right type of force there at this mo
ment to quell the insurgency."
Coalition forces recently launched
two high-profile operations, using
AC-130 gunships, F-16 fighter jets and
satellite-guided bombs against rebel
targets in and around Baghdad to
stanch the flow of attacks.
Guerrillas responded this week
with suicide bombings on two police
stations, a first-time missile strike on
a civilian caigo plane leaving Baghdad
International Airport, and attacks on
the Oil Ministry and two Baghdad ho
tels with rocket-propelled grenades
that were hidden in donkey carts.
In addition to the Mosul attack, an
other American soldier was killed
Sunday and two others wounded in a
roadside bomb attack in Baqouba, 35
miles northeast of Baghdad, the mili
tary said. The military also reported
that three American civilian contrac
tors were wounded in an explosion in
the northern oil center of Kirkuk.
In another development, an Iraqi
police colonel from Mosul was fatal
ly shot Saturday evening while head
ing to a mosque. The death of Col.
Abdul-Slam Qanbar, in charge of the
police force in Mosul and in protect
ing oil installations in the north, was
described by the coalition as part of
the insurgency campaign against U.S.
backed security forces.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a military
spokesman, has continued to charac
terize such insurgent attacks, includ
ing the attack Sunday in Mosul, as
militarily insignificant. Kimmitt
would not discuss specifics about the
soldiers' deaths Sunday and rebuffed
all questions about the circumstances.
"We're not going to be ghoulish
about this," he said.
Still, witness accounts at the scene
were at odds with official military re
ports. CNN, which broadcast video of
the two slain men lying in the street
covered with a sheet, reported that
witnesses at the scene said the men's
throats had been slit.
The Associated Press and Reuters
news agencies reported from Mosul
that the military said the men were
shot to death but witnesses said their
throats were slashed.
The Associated Press later dropped
the reference to the slashings. In later
reports, the AP cited witnesses' ac
counts that "Iraqi teenagers dragged
two bloodied U S. soldiers from a
wrecked vehicle and pummeled them
with concrete blocks."
Also Sunday, the Iraqi Governing
Council named the country's am
bassador to the United States. She is
Rend Rahim Francke, an Iraqi native
and veteran Washington lobbyist.
Francke led the Iraq Foundation, a
Washington-based pro-democracy
group, and has spent most of her life
outside of Iraq.
The appointment will establish
dose diplomatic ties between Wash
ington and Baghdad for the first time
since they were cut in 1990 when
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in
vaded Kuwait.
(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
Democrats trade rhetoric before debate
Presidential candidates have
begun airing TV ads that
criticize foreign policy
as well as each other
By Rick Pearson
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — In a prel
ude to a potentially contentious de
bate among Democratic presidential
contenders, Dick Gephardt accused ri
val Howard Dean on Sunday of gov
erning Vermont "without compas
sion" by resorting to cuts in services
for the poor and disabled to try to bal
ance his state's budget.
But Dean countered that
"Gephardt has delivered empty rhet
oric" during his 26 years as a Missouri
congressman in Washington while,
"as a governor, I worked hard to make
the tough choices to deliver results."
The ratcheted-up rhetoric between
the two men came on the eve of the
latest in a series of debates sponsored
by the Democratic National Commit
tee — but the first forum held in Iowa,
which holds its first-in-the-nation
presidential caucuses Jan. 19.
With the likely absence of Sens. John
Kerry of Massachusetts and John Ed
wards of North Carolina because of a
Democrat-led filibuster in the Senate
over a Republican-backed Medicare
package, much of the debate is expected
to center on the give and take between
Gephardt and Dean, who are leading
the pack in the most recent Iowa poll.
The other senator in the race, Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., is not campaign
ing in Iowa and will not take part in
Monda/s debate. Retired Gen. Wesley
Clark, who also is focusing on New
Hampshire, will participate
Gephardt's remarks before an audi
ence at Coe College were his sharpest
to date attacking Dean. Ihey came af
ter a week of unchallenged television
ads by the former Vermont governor
that criticized Gephardt's support for
the war in Iraq and $87 billion for
military operations and reconstruc
tion in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gephardt buttressed his speech by
joining the television war in Iowa on
Sunday with a new ad that takes on
Dean for previously supporting the
Iraq appropriation and saying that he
did not intend to make the funding
measure a campaign issue.
"Leadership is about making tough
decisions and sticking with them,"
Gephardt says in the ad.
Delivering a speech billed as "The
Democratic way to balance the budg
et," Gephardt lashed out at President
Bush's economic policies in the first
half of his address before turning his
fire on Dean's efforts to cut social serv
ices to balance Vermont's budget.
"Time after time, when faced with
budget shortfalls, Gov. Dean's first
and only instinct was to cut — cut
education, cut prescription drug cov
erage, cut Medicaid funding, cut aid
to the elderly, blind and disabled,"
Gephardt said.
"Gov. Dean wears his bravado as a
budget cutter like a badge of honor,"
he said. "There is no place for gover
nance without compassion. You can
be proficient without empathy, but hu
man lives deserve something more."
Afterward, Gephardt told re
porters that Dean should have con
sidered higher taxes on Vermont's
wealthier citizens, made cuts in oth
er state programs and looked at such
actions as raising the minimum
wage to spur economic growth. He
said such considerations were the
basis of the 1993 federal budget
crafted by the Democrats.
But Dean quickly fired back at
Gephardt, releasing a statement saying
he was proud of what he did as Ver
mont governor from 1991 until last
year, expanding social services and
leaving the state with a surplus,
though he did not address specific
program cuts that Gephardt discussed.
Instead, Dean said a "fundamental
difference" was beginning to surface
between him and Gephardt. Dean
portrayed himself as an outsider com
pared with his Democratic opponents
in Congress who quietly supported
the Bush administration.
"My opponents stood behind the
president instead of standing up
and asking tough questions," Dean
said. "Then, when faced with the
toughest decision of his career,
whether to send the country to war
in Iraq, Dick Gephardt took the easy
way out at the expense of our coun
try and our party."
Gephardt's critique of Dean was
not the only addition to the Iowa
television airwaves over the week
end. The Republican National Com
mittee launched a TV commercial
defending the president, contending
that Bush was being unfairly at
tacked by the Democratic candidates
for attacking terrorism.
Democrats, who have spent
months running ads challenging
Bush's foreign and domestic policies,
assailed the airing of the ad on be
half of a president who faces no pri
mary opposition.
"A 30-second television advertise
ment will not undo 30 months of
failed foreign policy," Dean said.
The debate Monday is the fifth fo
rum sponsored by the Democratic
National Committee. Held in Des
Moines, the debate will be televised
live at 3 p.m. CSTon MSNBC.
(cj 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
1 1 66 South A Springfield • 726-6969
EXOTIC ~ EROTIC (Almost)
TOYS • GAMES • VIDEOS • DVDs • LINGERIE
i
We serve freshly roasted
organic beans, loose
leaf organic tea, excellent
pastries and more,
all in a relaxed, family
oriented environment.
New Location Open
next to Baja Fresh
in the Coburg Rd. Pavilion
-COMPON
Any 16o*.
drink for
roiessional UlStIIlCtlO.il ± ro^ram http://uodistinctions.uoregon.edu