Iraq Notebook
39 prisoners have died in custody

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The report released yesterday by the Army's inspector general gives a more precise and higher estimate of the scale of the abuse.

The report also gives new details about the alleged abuses, including evidence that troops conspired to make Iraqi prisoners jump off a bridge, that one interrogator hit a prisoner in the head during questioning and that a sergeant told subordinates to "rough up" detainees.

Still, the Army report concludes there were no systemic problems that caused or contributed to the abuses. All of the wrongdoing was committed by soldiers who violated Army rules and regulations, at times aided by commanders who either encouraged abuses or looked the other way, said Inspector General Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek.

Senate Democrats, pointing to deficiencies in training and inconsistencies in doctrine outlined in the Army report, immediately challenged that finding.

"It is difficult to believe there were not systemic problems with our detention and interrogation operations," Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said at a hastily called hearing.

Australia faulted; Howard gets boost

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's decision to invade Iraq was based on thin, equivocal and uncertain intelligence about that country's weapons of mass destruction, a report on Australia's prewar intelligence gathering found yesterday.

But the report by a former Australian diplomat and spy master, Philip Flood, cleared Prime Minister John Howard's government of allegations that it doctored intelligence assessments to boost its case for joining the U.S.-led invasion.

In his 185-page report, Flood lamented "the thinness of the intelligence on which analysts were expected to make difficult calls" about Iraq's weapons. The findings were similar to reports issued in both the United States and Britain.

That ruling is a major boost for Howard ahead of elections expected in September or October.
 
He sent 2,000 troops to back the U.S. and British military in the invasion and still has nearly 900 military personnel in the region.

20 detained in scheme to recruit teens to fight

KUWAIT CITY — Security forces have detained about 20 Islamic fundamentalists for recruiting Kuwaiti teenagers to fight the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq, a pro-government newspaper reported yesterday.

Quoting anonymous "security sources," the Al-Anba newspaper said the detainees were arrested Wednesday and that they included foreigners. Some detainees had fought in Afghanistan.

The report could not be independently confirmed. Calls to Interior Ministry officials were not answered yesterday.

Reports in the news and postings on Islamic Web sites have said many Kuwaiti extremists have gone to Iraq to fight against U.S.-led troops. The government has not confirmed such reports.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have accused some neighbors of Iraq of failing to prevent fighters from crossing their borders to join the insurgency that has bedeviled Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003.