Pat Tillman, the man who “who walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks“, was not killed by enemy fire as first reported.
“Suddenly the sound of a mine explosion was heard somewhere between the two groups and the Americans in one group started firing,” the official said, citing an account given to him by an Afghan fighter who was part of that group, not Tillman’s.
“Nobody knew what it was — a mine, a remote-controlled bomb — or what was going on, or if enemy forces were firing. The situation was very confusing,” the official said.
“As the result of this firing, that American was killed and three Afghan soldiers were injured. It was a misunderstanding and afterwards they realized that it was a mine that had exploded and there were no enemy forces.”
U.S. military officials in Kabul had no immediate comment.
ISRAELI MOVERS IN SUB BASE SECURITY SCARE FREED
The two Israeli men in a moving van who tried to get past security officials at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base without proper identification last Friday will soon be released, the MadCowMorningNews has learned, if they haven’t been already.
The arrest of the two Israelis, Tamir David Sasson, 24, and Daniel Henry Levy, 23, prompted a security scare that shut down the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia, home port for 10 of the nation’s 18 submarines armed with nuclear missiles.
Moreover it marked the second time in two weeks that Israelis in moving vans have been apprehended under suspicious circumstances near U.S. nuclear facilities.
The other reported incident also occurred near a U.S. Navy nuclear facility, this time in Mars Hill, NC., which the local Sheriff explained is “the nation’s sole provider of fuel for the Navy’s nuclear subs.”
If authorities discerned a pattern, they weren’t saying.
FULL STORY AT:
The MadCowMorningNews
www.madcowprod.com
No-Bid Government Contracts Up Slightly
Waxman’s report, prepared by the Government Reform Committee’s Democratic staff, drew on data from the Federal Procurement Data System, which is part of the General Services Administration. It discussed federal contracts in general, without focusing on work in Iraq or naming specific companies.
Federal procurement law requires full and open competition for contracts, but allows various exceptions. These include situations in which the case is unusually urgent; disclosing an agency’s needs could jeopardize national security; only one source can provide the necessary work or goods; or the public is better served if there is not full competition.
The report said the Bush administration has also increased the use of a form of contracts called “single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity” that commits the government to a single contractor for an undefined range of goods or services. Some $5.9 billion worth of these contracts were issued in 2003, compared with $4.2 billion in 2000, the report said.
On the Net:
House Government Reform Committee: http://reform.house.gov/
Noncompetitive Contracts Soar under Bush Administration
– The Report (pdf) | Rep. Waxman’s Statement (pdf)
Brahimi “completely taken aback” by choice of Allawi
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, asked by Washington to help set up an interim government to take over from U.S. rule next month, seemed to have been completely taken aback by the way the 23-member Governing Council announced its choice of Allawi.
The U.S. administration was also caught on the hop by the speed of the announcement. But as a long-time exile in the pay of the CIA, Allawi was always a strong candidate in Washington and U.S. officials were clearly involved in steering the choice.
Ordinary Iraqis know little of a man who spent more than 30 years abroad, first as a medical student in Britain supporting Saddam Hussein (news – web sites)’s Baath party and later as a wealthy exile who founded the Iraqi National Accord with funds from the CIA.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The momentum for a vote by the Iraqi Governing Council on the newly designated prime minister came about in the last 24 hours after it became clear that Iyad Allawi enjoyed a “strong groundswell” of support, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said.
Officials also feared his name would be leaked to the news media — that the council might learn the selection “from CNN,” said the official, who was intricately familiar with the process.
Why would the council be surprised by the selection? I’m not.
Allawi, born in 1945, is a neurologist and businessman. In 1990 he formed the Iraqi National Accord, backed by the CIA and British intelligence. The INA provided some of the now widely discredited intelligence on Saddam’s weapons that formed President Bush (news – web sites)’s prime justification for invading.
When Ashcroft speaks, agencies listen?
DENVER – The FBI (news – web sites)’s regional office in Denver has received at least a dozen calls about the pictures of seven suspected al-Qaida terrorists shown during a news conference, an agency spokeswoman said.
Calls about possible sightings are taken seriously and all leads are followed up, FBI spokeswoman Monique Kelso said Thursday. She added, though, that the FBI has no reason to believe any of the seven suspects are in Colorado or traveling through.
But a manager of a Denny’s restaurant in Avon isn’t convinced. Manager Samuel Mac said it took five hours for a seemingly uninterested FBI agent in Denver to return his message when he called to say he thought two of the suspects ate at his restaurant Wednesday.
Wasn’t it supposed to be Homeland Security, not the FBI, who didn’t take Ashcroft’s memorandum seriously?