Iraq Notebook
Bush's father opposed invasion, book claims

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In "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty," Peter and Rochelle Schweizer cite as evidence a summer 2002 interview in which the older Bush's sister said her brother had expressed "anguish" about the preparations for war. "But do they have an exit strategy?" the former president is quoted as saying.

"Although he never went public with them," the authors assert, "the president's own father shared many of (the) concerns" of Brent Scowcroft, his national-security adviser and a leading war opponent.

Top Bush aide Jean Becker denied the claims. "From the very first day, President Bush 41 unequivocally supported the president on the war in Iraq," she said, referring to the current president's father. "He had absolutely no reservations of any kind."

4,500-troop brigade heads to Iraq to relieve British unit

LONDON — Thousands of troops will fly out to Iraq this week to relieve British forces serving there, the Ministry of Defense said yesterday.

The 4,500-strong 1st Mechanized Brigade will take over from 20 Armored Brigade in southern Iraq, a spokesman said, adding that the deployment was starting this week and would take about 10 days. Britain has about 8,700 troops stationed in Iraq.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet with President Bush in Washington on April 16 to discuss the situation, government officials said. Britain has been the main supporter of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, but Blair has received strong criticism from Britons for participating in the conflict.

Italian troops to remain, prime minister tells nation

ROME — Italy will not pull its 3,000 troops out of Iraq, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday after at least 12 Italian soldiers were wounded in clashes in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah.

"It is unthinkable to flee the mission we have started. We would leave the country in chaos," Berlusconi said.
 
Nineteen Italians died in a suicide attack in Nasiriyah last November.

Army to test New York Guard unit for exposure to radiation

NEW YORK — Army officials at Fort Dix, N.J., and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd Military Police Company of the New York Army National Guard for depleteduranium contamination.

Army brass acted after learning that four of nine soldiers from the company tested by the New York Daily News showed signs of radiation exposure.

The soldiers, who returned from Iraq late last year, said they and other members of their company have been suffering from unexplained illnesses since last summer, when they were stationed in the Iraqi city of Samawa. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former Army doctor and nuclear-medicine expert who examined and tested the nine men at the newspaper's request, concluded four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded depleted-uranium shells fired by U.S. troops.

Also ...

The United Nations said yesterday it temporarily suspended convoys of Iraqi refugees returning from Iran due to insecurity in southern Iraq. ... Japanese troops will suspend reconstruction work in Iraq's southern Samawa city because of growing security concerns, Kyodo news agency quoted a defense ministry official as saying yesterday. ... Two South Korean aid workers were set free yesterday, a day after being detained by a Shiite group in southern Iraq, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.

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