9/11 hijacking information moved slowly
WASHINGTON, June 17 (UPI) -- The military knew less about the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings than earlier thought and could not have engaged the plane that hit the Pentagon.
"The military did not have 14 minutes to respond to American 77 (the flight that eventually crashed into the pentagon carrying 64 passengers), as testimony last year suggested," the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks' 17th Staff statement says. "It had at most one or two minutes to respond to the unidentified plane approaching Washington, and the fighters were in the wrong place to be able to help."
The 17th staff statement goes on to detail several communications breakdowns on Sept. 11, which kept information from flowing smoothly between the Federal Aviation Administration, North American Aerospace Defense Command, the military and the White House, and precluded any military engagement of the hijacked planes.
By the time the military learned that United flight 93 had been hijacked, it had already crashed in Pennsylvania, the statement says.
Massive car bombing kills 30 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, June 17 (UPI) -- A massive car bomb killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 others in central Baghdad Thursday, two weeks ahead of the handover of power to Iraqis.
The blast, which was seen as an attempt to undermine the Iraqi interim government put in place earlier this month, cut through a crowd of Iraqis gathered outside an Army recruiting center.
Security sources said they believe the booby-trapped white four-wheel-drive vehicle was driven by a suicide bomber.
Witnesses said bloodied bodies and human limbs mixed with twisted metal littered the scene at the edge of al Muthanna airport, which is being used as a base for U.S. troops.
No U.S. casualties were reported, but medics at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital said they received at least 17 bodies and dozens of wounded.
They said the casualty toll is expected to rise in the coming hours as many suffered grave injuries.
U.S. forces and Iraqi police rushed to the scene of the explosion, which was cordoned off to facilitate rescue operations.
It was the second massive bombing attack to target the Army recruiting center since February when a blast killed 48 people, mostly Iraqis trying to enlist in the new army.
Belgian court finds Dutroux guilty
BRUSSELS, June 17 (UPI) -- A Belgian court has found convicted pedophile Marc Dutroux guilty of abducting and raping six girls and killing two of them.
Belgium's "trial of the century" has gripped the country since 1995, when the girls were abducted by Dutroux and imprisoned in an underground cell.
The jury found the unemployed electrician guilty of murdering 17-year-old An Marchal and 19-year Eefje Lambrecks, along with former accomplice Bernard Weinstein.
After a three-month trial in Arlon, the jury also found the accused guilty of kidnapping two 8-year-old girls -- Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo -- who died while Dutroux was in prison. Two other abducted girls were rescued in August 1996.
Dutroux, 47, arguably the most hated man in Belgium, could be sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes, which include leading a kidnap gang. Several of Dutroux's accomplices have been convicted of helping to abduct the girls.
Four drowned in Texas water garden
FORT 'WORTH, Texas, June 17 (UPI) -- A Chicago man, two of his children and a third child drowned at Texas water attraction despite efforts to rescue them from a swirling pool.
The victims were attending the National Baptist Congress at the Fort Worth Convention Center near the Water Gardens, a popular 30-year-old tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
The children had gone to the water display to play because the swimming pool at their hotel was closed for maintenance, Gerald M. Dew, pastor of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago said. At least three of the victims attended his church.
Myron Dukes, 35, Lauren Dukes, 8, and Christopher Dukes, 13, drowned, the pastor said. The fourth victim, an 11-year-old Chicago girl, was not immediately identified.
Dew said one of the children slipped into a deep pool and it started a chain reaction of rescue attempts. Several by-standers and emergency workers attempted to pull the victims from the pool which has a recirculating pump at the bottom.
Small signs at the warden gardens warn against wading or swimming, officials said.
