F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause

Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case. The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.

(Also, one of the Marines accused in connection with the Haditha massacre is refusing to enter a plea until his trial begins. –g)

4 U.S. soldiers, 62 Iraqis Killed

At least 62 Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. Four U.S. soldiers were killed and four more were wounded in separate events as well. Also, the chief of police in Basra warned of the worsening security situation in the city; most of those attacks go unpublished.

Air Force to triple number of airmen in Iraq

More airmen will be doing soldier-type jobs in Iraq, and those that already are can expect to be deployed longer and more often than most in the Air Force. The Air Force next year will triple the number of airmen working under and helping the Army and the Marine Corps as part of its own “surge” in troops to Iraq, an Air Force commander said earlier this month.

The boost comes as the service continues to try and draw down the number of airmen in the ranks and many commands are struggling with smaller staffs.

Turkey ‘bombs PKK Iraq targets’

Turkish military helicopters have bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, Iraqi officials have said. Several empty villages and an abandoned police post were hit without causing casualties, the officials said. The strikes came as Ankara said four Turkish soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish rebels in Sirnak province.

Back in the US

Dutch accused of complicity in torture in Afghanistan

Dutch forces in Afghanistan have been accused of exposing their detainees to torture and flouting international obligations. Amnesty International says troops from NATO’s ISAF mission in the country are handing over detainees to Afghan authorities, despite consistent reports that these are using methods such as whipping and beatings against inmates. Amnesty is now calling on all governments involved in the ISAF mission to stop handing over detainees to Afghans until these shortcomings have been resolved.

But the government in The Hague has rejected this appeal. Out of seventy people captured by Dutch forces so far, it says ten are currently in detention and it insists that it does have full access to them.

Israel won’t be included in new genocide probes

The newly formed Genocide Prevention Task Force indicated Tuesday night that it will not be examining whether Israel has committed genocide in the West Bank and Gaza despite earlier statements that it would be addressing the subject.

Though one of the co-chairs, former US Defense Secretary William Cohen, originally said that the situation in the West Bank and Gaza would be considered, the task force later clarified that such an inquiry would be beyond the scope of the panel. “Its task is not to determine which situations, past or present, including the West Bank and Gaza, constitute genocide, but to develop policy recommendations that enable the United States to prevent future genocides from occurring,” Cohen, along with co-chair Madeleine Albright, said in a statement issued Tuesday night.

Bush Gives Clearances for N.S.A. Inquiry

Just four days after Michael B. Mukasey was sworn in as attorney general, Justice Department officials said Tuesday that President Bush had reversed course and approved long-denied security clearances for the Justice Department’s ethics office to investigate the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program. The department’s inspector general has been investigating the department’s involvement with the N.S.A. program for about a year, but the move suggested both that Mr. Mukasey wanted to remedy what many in Congress saw as an improper decision by the president to block the clearances and that the White House chose to back him.

(In other spy news, an ex-FBI agent working for the CIA was found to have obtained American citizenship fraudulently, and found to have improperly searched an FBI database for information about her relatives’ possible ties to Hezbollah. –g)

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