WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Following public criticism over its handling of soldiers' remains, the Senate has passed legislation requiring the Department of Defense review its procedures for the autopsies and embalming of military personnel killed in combat.
Stars and Stripes reported on May 9 that Georgian Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson introduced the measure after hearing from the family of Georgia Guardsman Spc. Paul Saylor.
Saylor drowned on August 15 last year when his Humvee fell into a canal in Iraq.
Although Saylor's remains were airlifted from Iraq to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base, embalmed there and subsequently returned home to Bremen, Ga., in three days, his body was so decomposed that the Army declared his body "non-viewable."
Bremen funeral director Bill Hightower, a Saylor family friend, said that the decomposition was so extreme that "I recognized his nose. Just his nose."
Saylor's mother Patti said that when Army officers came to her house "and told me Paul had drowned, I thought to myself, at least I'll get to see him."
Patti was shocked that when Paul's casket arrived, the family learned that the Army had deemed him "non-viewable," saying, "They said he had a head injury. At no time did they mention" the composition of his remains.
After Hightower opened Saylor's casket he said only, "if they embalmed him, they used dishwater. I was disgusted -- angry, and totally disgusted. I was unable to do anything for this family."
Dover AFB Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Cheryl Law said of the more than 2,400 U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 584 have been listed as "non-viewable."
The Chambliss and Isakson amendment was attached to the $106.5 billion supplemental package passed last week by the Senate. It now goes to the House of Representatives, where, if passed, it will be sent to President George W. Bush for signing.
Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, is broadening its recruitment efforts beyond its traditional Oxford-Cambridge nexus.
The Yorkshire Post reported on May 8 that MI6 has begun advertising for recruits in Britain's regional press in an effort to broaden its ranks beyond its archetypal Oxbridge hires.
A MI6 spokesman said, "We are looking to tap into all sorts of expertise from across the United Kingdom. This is the first time SIS has recruited through an open campaign in the 97 years of its history. That is because we want to get the right people to do the right jobs. We are trying to tell Joe Public that he should not be waiting for the tap on his shoulder from the Oxford don. It is more to dismiss the myths because we want to try and say 'do apply.' We are not specifically targeting the Asian community. We want a broad, diverse representation of U.K. plc."
MI6's Web site notes: "Candidates who are bilingual or who come from ethnically diverse backgrounds are welcome for the particular skills and insights they bring." Additional details on applying are on the Web sites www.sis.gov.uk and www.mi6.gov.uk.
In broadening its pool of recruits, MI6 states that it will accept applications ranging from university students to professionals seeking a "career change."
Because of its drug-fuelled insurgency, Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.
On Tuesday the government of President Alvaro Uribe authorized the extradition of Rafael Alberto Daza. A New York court has indicted Daza on charges of laundering drug money.
Rafael Alberto Daza was arrested in June 2005 along with 13 other alleged drug-traffickers and money-launderers during Operation Mallorca.
Operation Mallorca was a series of raids headed by the Bush administration against drug-traffickers in the United States, Colombia, Canada, the Dominican Republic and Curacao.
EFE news agency reported on May 9 that Daza's alleged network transported cocaine from Colombia's Caribbean coast using a fleet of fishing boats and speedboats and laundered the drug profits through personal bank accounts and bogus front companies.
In February the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that Daza could be extradited, and the Uribe administration subsequently denied an appeal by Daza in which he claimed that his right to a defense had been violated.
Since Uribe assumed the presidency in August 2002, more than 400 Colombians and foreigners have been extradited, mainly to the United States, primarily on drug-related charges.
For some time the Bush administration has been discretely attempting to find a country willing to take in Uighurs held in Guantanamo who authorities have determined are no longer a security threat.
On Saturday the Bush administration announced that it had sent five Chinese Uighur Muslims from Guantanamo to Albania for resettlement.
Liu Jianchao, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, strongly denounced the action and said that the United States and Albania should repatriate the five "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist suspects as quickly as possible back to China.
The Bush administration has acknowledged that a total of 22 Uighurs have been incarcerated in Guantanamo, but hesitates to repatriate them to China as Beijing is demanding because it fears they will face persecution and possible torture there.
Xinhua reported on May 9 that Liu told a press conference in Beijing, "The five people accepted by the Albanian side are by no means refugees, but 'Eastern Turkistan' terrorist suspects. I think they should be repatriated to China.
"The acts of the U.S. and Albanian sides are a gross violation of international law and United Nations resolution, and we are strongly opposed to this. We have made strong representations to related sides and urged them to repatriate the five terrorist suspects to China as soon as possible."
