National Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

WASHINGTON


LAWMAKERS CONCERNED ABOUT REPORT OF CIA MOVING IRAQ PRISONERS


Leading senators expressed concern yesterday about a report that the CIA has secretly moved as many as a dozen unidentified prisoners out of Iraq in the past six months, a possible violation of international treaties.


Senator McCain said interrogations can help extract crucial information from detainees on plans for attacks against Americans. But international law, including the Geneva Conventions, must be followed, he said.


“These conventions and these rules are in place for a reason, because you get on a slippery slope and you don’t know where to get off,” Mr. McCain, a Republican of Arizona, told ABC’s “This Week.” “The thing that separates us from the enemy is our respect for human rights,” he said. Senator Biden, a Democrat of Delaware, called for new leadership at the Justice Department.


The detainees were removed without notification to the International Red Cross, congressional oversight committees, the Defense Department, or CIA investigators, the Washington Post said in yesterday’s editions, citing unidentified government officials. The Justice Department drafted a memo dated March 19, 2004, authorizing the CIA to take prisoners out of Iraq for interrogation, according to the report.


Iraqis can be taken out of the country for a “brief but not indefinite period,” and that “illegal aliens” can be removed permanently under “local immigration law,” the newspaper quoted the memo as saying.


– Associated Press


PENTAGON TO INVESTIGATE CLAIM OF UNFAIR HALLIBURTON DEALS


The Army has agreed to a Pentagon investigation into claims by a top contracting official that a Halliburton subsidiary unfairly won no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars for work in Iraq and the Balkans, according to Army documents obtained yesterday. The complaint alleges the award of contracts to KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, without competition to restore Iraq’s oil industry and to supply and feed U.S. troops in the Balkans puts at risk “the integrity of the federal contracting program as it relates to a major defense contractor.”


It also asks protection from retaliation for the whistle-blower, Bunnantine Greenhouse, chief contracting officer of the Army Corps of Engineers.


The Iraq contract with Halliburton has been a focus of the presidential campaign because of Vice President Cheney’s past ties to the company. Mr. Cheney was chief executive officer of Halliburton and continues to receive deferred compensation from the company.


In a letter to Ms. Greenhouse’s lawyer, an Army attorney said the matter is being referred to the Defense Department’s inspector general for “review and action, as appropriate.” It also said the Corps had been ordered to “suspend any adverse personnel action” against Ms. Greenhouse “until a sufficient record is available to address the specific matters” in her complaint.


– Associated Press


WEST


AIR AMBULANCE PLANE CRASHES IN MOUNTAINS NEAR SAN DIEGO


SAN DIEGO – Rescuers hiked though rugged terrain near the Mexican border yesterday to reach the remote site where a private jet went down after taking off from San Diego, killing all five people aboard.


The Learjet was being used as an air ambulance when it crashed carrying two pilots, two paramedics, and a nurse on a flight bound for Albuquerque, N.M.


The plane went down around 12:30 a.m. yesterday in a mountainous region about two miles east of a small San Diego airstrip, said Larry Levy, CEO and medical director of Albuquerque-based Med Flight Air Ambulance, which owned the aircraft. It was the company’s first crash since starting operations in 1979.


The crash’s cause had not been determined. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating, Mr. Levy said.


– Associated Press


MIDWEST


SIX CHILDREN DIE IN TOLEDO APARTMENT FIRE


TOLEDO, Ohio – Fire raced through a Toledo apartment building yesterday afternoon, killing six children and critically injuring another, authorities said.


The six children died at area hospitals and another child was in critical condition late yesterday, said Fire Chief Michael Bell. The victims were six girls and one boy, ages 6 months to 7 years old. Toledo firefighters arrived about a minute after receiving an emergency call, but met heavy flames on a staircase as they fought to reach the children, Chief Bell said. They contained the fire quickly after pulling the children out, he said.


No adults were injured.


– Associated Press

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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