In other Iraq-datelined coverage, the massive manhunt in Mahmudiya for three missing GIs suddenly fades from view, catching only a few lines today after having snapped up many column-inches since Saturday. The Times runs a very important story noting a sharp rise in deaths and injuries of civilian contractors working in Iraq in the first quarter of 2007 -- figures it had to glean from insurers and a FOIA request since the Pentagon and the firms themselves won't provide them.
On the Hill, Democrats and the White House grappled with the war funding issues but were unable to achieve a compromise.
'Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), the largest party in the Iraqi parliament, is in the United States on treatment for lung cancer, Robin Wright reports in the Post. “In a reflection of Hakim's stature, President Bush authorized immediate transportation to get Hakim from Iraq to the United States, an administration source said yesterday. Vice President Cheney played a role in arranging for Hakim to see U.S. military doctors in Baghdad, who made the original diagnosis, and for the current medical treatment in Houston, the sources said.” The cleric, “reportedly a heavy smoker, arrived in Houston on Thursday to meet with specialists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center,” Wright writes. Earlier reports maintained that al-Hakim suffered from less deadly ailments such as high blood pressure.
Hakim is one of the most powerful men in Iraq, as leader of the SIIC organization, its Badr militia, and the parliamentary majority. His death or debilitation from the ailment would have major implications for the Iraqi political scene. The party, formerly known as SCIRI (Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq), was a Shi'a Iraqi opposition movement hosted by Iran during the Ba'thist period. One can only wonder if major changes in the SCIRI-now-SIIC organization are related to these developments in the health of the group’s leader. The organization recently adopted a program to "indigenize" its identity as an explicitly Iraqi party, dropping references to “Islamic Revolution” from its title and apparently accepting religious emulation of Ayatollah Sistani of Najaf.
David Cloud writes in the Times that US soldiers have arrested a group of six Iraqis on suspicion of trafficking in EFPs, or explosively formed projectiles, armor-piercing weapons that the US alleges are supplied by Iran. Five US soldiers were announced killed, two in Baghdad and three in Diyala. Bombs in Hilla and Baghdad killed five policemen, and an Iraqi soldier was shot dead in Diwaniya. Two Iraqi ABC News journalists were killed in cold blood. An attack on a joint US-Iraqi base was repelled after an hour-long firefight that left seven attackers dead. 25 bodies were recovered in the capital.
John Ward Anderson writes in the Post that the deaths of the ABC News staff brings the total number of journalists killed to 102, 82 of whom were Iraqis, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The fourth US soldier killed in Saturday’s attack in Mahmudiya was identified, and the search continued for three missing soldiers, believed to be abducted after the attack. 21 bodies were recovered in Diyala Province’s Khalis. The victims had been abducted two days ago. Twelve people were kidnapped at a false checkpoint in the province.
2007 is on pace to become the deadliest year for foreign contractors working in Iraq, John Broder and James Risen write in the Times. 146 contractors were killed in the first three months of the year, by far the highest single-quarter figure since the US invasion. 917 contractors have been killed and 12,000 wounded since 2003. Tight-lipped contracting firms would not provide information to the Times, but using a FOIA request for Labor Department statistics, and information from AIG Group, a principal insurer of foreign workers in Iraq, the reporters piece together the figures. On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers have introduced legislation to require closer recordkeeping and disclosure of contractor casualties. Times reporters also interview current and former contractors who attest to the deteriorating security situation for civilian workers, much of it owing to the increased military activity of the “surge.” “Nearly 300 companies from the United States and around the world supply workers who are a shadow force in Iraq almost as large as the uniformed military. About 126,000 men and women working for contractors serve alongside about 150,000 American troops, the Pentagon has reported,” they write, noting that civilian contractors wages and benefits vary greatly, from very low salaries for Iraqi workers to very high salaries for some westerners, especially private security guards. Worth a full read.
The Post’s Shailagh Murray gives a blow-by-blow account of the scramble at the Capitol as a self-imposed Memorial Day deadline approached for the Iraq appropriations bill. Congressional leaders met with a Bush representative yesterday, and the Democrats offered to drop all domestic spending from the bill, and to change the troop withdrawal date contained in the measure from a fixed deadline to a “goal” that the president could waive, Murray writes. Josh Bolten, White House staff chief acting as Bush’s negotiator rejected the offer and advanced language that would include “benchmarks” for the Iraqi government tied to cuts in reconstruction aid if they go unmet, as well as mandate stricter reporting of progress in Iraq to Congress. Such language was similar to a bill advanced by GOP Sen. Warner on Wednesday, which drew 52 votes. Bolten, White House officials said, was prepared to negotiate over Warner’s measure as a basis of compromise, but Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid said the Warner bill did not go far enough, and oppose tying benchmarks to reconstruction aid. Dems also pressured the White House, using its opposition to two provisions in another defense bill that would have increased military pay and spousal survival benefits. “In the coming days, Democratic negotiators will try to settle on consequences to link to the benchmarks that congressional Republicans will find acceptable. But they conceded that their leverage is slipping away. Reid and Pelosi have vowed to send a new bill to Bush by Friday, when Congress is scheduled to leave town for a 10-day recess. Otherwise, they said, they would keep lawmakers in town until a deal is done,” Murray closes.
Carl Hulse has a brief roundup of Capitol Hill action in the Times.
The White House and the Democrats have been able to make deals on immigration and trade, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes, but it is an open question how far this spirit of compromise will spill over to “the most intractable issue in Washington: the war in Iraq,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the Times. “Some say the trade and immigration deals could actually work against compromise on Iraq. After cutting two big deals, Democrats and Republicans might not be inclined toward another one, for fear that they will look wishy-washy with their respective political bases. On the other hand, one force pushing toward compromise is that neither side can afford to get blamed for holding back money from the troops,” she writes
WALL STREET JOURNAL
No Iraq coverage today.
USA TODAY, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
No weekend edition.
