hU.S. soldier accused in Iraq war 'fragging'

hU.S. soldier accusedin Iraq war 'fragging'
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait -- A U.S. soldier could face the death penalty after an Army probe recommended Tuesday he be court-martialed in the Iraq war's first case of alleged "fragging," slang for the murder of superior officers. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, above, of Troy, N.Y., had a "personal vendetta" against one of two higher-ranked officers who died in an explosion June 7 on a U.S. base near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, military investigator Col. Patrick Reinert said at the end of a two-day hearing in Kuwait. Reinert said he found "reasonable cause" to believe that Martinez, 37, planted and detonated an anti-personnel mine in the window of a room used by Capt. Philip Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34 of Milford, Pa., in a former palace of Saddam Hussein's. Three hand grenades were also allegedly used in the attack that killed the officers. Reinert recommended that Martinez face a court-martial hearing.
Oil company executiveswill face Senate questions
WASHINGTON -- Top executives of three major oil companies will be asked by senators next week why some of their industry's estimated $96 billion in record profits this year shouldn't be used to help people having trouble paying their energy bills. Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp.; Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips Inc.; and John Hofmeister, president of the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, will be among the industry executives to be questioned at a Senate hearing, according to congressional and industry officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a final list of witnesses has yet to be completed. The three companies together earned more than $22 billion during the July-September quarter this year, when crude oil prices soared briefly to $70 a barrel and motorists were paying well over $3 gallon at the pump after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast.
Researchers point outdesign flaw in levees
NEW ORLEANS -- The engineers who designed the flood walls that collapsed during Hurricane Katrina did not fully consider the porousness of the Louisiana soil or make other calculations that would have pointed to the need for stronger levees with deeper pilings and wider bases, researchers say. At least one key scenario was ignored in the design, say the researchers, who are scheduled to report their findings at a congressional hearing today: the possibility that canal water might seep into the dirt on the dry side of the levees, thereby weakening the embankment holding up the flood walls. "I'd call it a design omission," said Robert Bea, a University of California at Berkeley civil engineering professor who took part in the study for the National Science Foundation. The research team found other problems in the city's flood-control system, including evidence of poor maintenance and confusion over jurisdiction. Bea also questioned the margin for error engineers used in their designs, saying the standards -- which call for structures to be 30 percent stronger than the force they are meant to stop -- date to the first half of the 1900s, when most levees were built to protect farmland, not major cities.
Al-Qaida operativeescapes in Afghanistan
FORT BLISS, Texas -- A man once considered a top Al-Qaida operative escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan and cannot testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him, a defense lawyer involved in a prison abuse case said Tuesday. Omar al-Farouq was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in the summer of 2002 and turned him over to the United States. A Pentagon official in Washington confirmed Tuesday evening that al-Farouq escaped from a U.S. detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, on July 10. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. An Army lawyer for Sgt. Alan J. Driver, a reservist accused of abusing Bagram detainees, asked Tuesday where al-Farouq was and what the Army had done to find him in time for Driver's court proceedings. Capt. John B. Parker, a prosecutor, said al-Farouq and three others escaped from the Bagram detention center and have not been found. "If we find him ... we will make him available," Parker said.