U.S. asks Britain to shift Iraq troops
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Britain was considering a U.S. request Monday to move 650 troops to more dangerous positions near Baghdad, the Washington Times reported.
The redeployment of British forces would free up the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 24th Marines to take part in a planned attack on Fallujah in a bid to capture or kill terror mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi.
Britain's highly regarded Black Watch regiment would replace the Marines in the mainly Shiite city of Iskandariya, where the United States has a base, and the Sunni flash points of Mahmoudiya and Latifiya.
John Walker, a former chief of defense intelligence, said by committing troops to flash points around Baghdad, Prime Minister Tony Blair risked creating a Vietnam-like spiral of involvement.
British commanders in Basra said, according to the London Sunday Telegraph, moving the Black Watch, the main reserve unit in the British sector, could leave their troops without reinforcement in the event of a new outbreak of fighting in the south.
Report: U.S. troops undersupplied in Iraq
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The former U.S. commander in Iraq issued an urgent plea to the Pentagon last winter for supplies, saying he was "unable to sustain readiness."
In a memo obtained by the Washington Post, Army Lt.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez wrote: "I cannot continue to support sustained combat operations with (supply) rates this low."
Sanchez, who was the senior commander on the ground in Iraq from the summer of 2003 until this summer, said in his letter that Army units in Iraq were "struggling just to maintain ... relatively low readiness rates" on combat systems, such as M-1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, anti-mortar radars and Black Hawk helicopters.
There were 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq at the time.
Senior Army officials said most of Sanchez' concerns have since been addressed, but that they continue to keep a close eye on the problems he identified. The situation is "substantially better" now, said Gary Motsek, deputy director of operations for the Army Materiel Command.
Iraq extends cash-for-guns buyback
BAGHDAD, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government's experiment to pay citizens cash for turning in firearms was so successful, it was extended two more days, the New York Times reported.
The offer was made in Baghdad with hopes Shiite rebel leader Moqtada al Sadr would begin disarming his Mehdi militia.
The Iraqi military said Sadr's militia had turned in about 700 rocket-propelled grenades and about 400 mortar shells, along with hundreds of lighter weapons, and that the Iraqi government had paid about $1.2 million in return.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he was "thrilled" by the progress and ordered the campaign extended until Tuesday, and his aides said they were discussing widening the program to include other cities.
Sadr is thought to have hundreds of loyalists across southern Iraq, in cities like Amara, Basra and Diwaniya. Iraqi officials have long worried that unless those groups also turn in their heavy weapons, they pose a serious threat to the nationwide elections scheduled for January, the newspaper said.
Episcopalians warned over homosexuality
LONDON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Leaders of the world's 70-plus million Anglicans called Monday on U.S. Episcopalian Church officials to apologize for promoting homosexuality.
Known as the Windsor Report, it marks the global denomination's formal response to last year's decision by the hierarchy of the Episcopalian Church, as the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion is known, to consecrate a non-celibate homosexual as bishop.
The heart of the report is a summons for all Anglican leaders to sign a "covenant" that would bar the ordination of homosexuals. If Episcopalian leaders, or any Anglican leaders, fail to sign the covenant or breach that covenant it could lead to the Episcopalian Church being ejected from the worldwide Anglican communion -- the first such split in five centuries.
Outrage by Anglicans from South America, Africa and Asia over last year's consecration of a non-celibate homosexual bishop in New Hampshire resulted in forming a commission which spent months drafting the report, including the call to apologize for, effectively, promoting homosexuality.
The report was unanimously endorsed by all members of the commission, which included numerous leaders from North America and Britain, widely seen as sympathetic to efforts by Episcopalian officials to legitimize homosexual relations.
Court to weigh influence of shackles
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday in a Missouri case to decide whether a murderer's rights are violated if he is shackled before a sentencing jury.
Carman Deck confessed to robbing and killing an elderly couple, James and Zelma Long, at their home in 1996. Deck said he knew the couple had seen him, and shot both in the head after forcing them to lie down on their bed.
He was convicted in Jefferson County of several charges, including two counts of first-degree murder.
Deck was wearing shackles handcuffed to a belly chain in full view of the jury after a judge refused a defense motion to free his hands.
On appeal, Deck's lawyers argued that the trial judge abused his discretion by overruling the motion to free the convicted man's hands, depriving Deck of a broad array of constitutional rights.
The case should be heard this spring.
