New constitution may not halt Iraq’s fragmentation

Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder… New constitution may not halt Iraq’s fragmentation

Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A week after a historic referendum on a new constitution, Iraq looks much like it did before the vote: Kurdish militias patrol the north, warring Shiite Muslim militias wrestle for control of the south and in the center, an insurgency supported by an angry Sunni Muslim Arab minority battles U.S. forces, the Iraqi government and the Shiites.

No one expected an overnight transformation. But it remains uncertain whether the new constitution and Wednesday’s brief appearance of Saddam Hussein in a courtroom cage can halt or even slow the violence and sectarian divisions that have steadily gained momentum since the U.S.-led invasion 31 months ago.

“Today marks another momentous step toward the building of a new Iraq,” U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement at the start of Saddam’s trial. “Like the constitutional referendum we have just witnessed, the trials-at the Iraq Special Tribunal will help pave the path to a democratic and independent Iraq, based on the rule of law.”

Khalilzad’s optimism may prove to be well-founded, but the perennially sunny comments by U.S. leaders on past events, such as the capture of Saddam, the transfer of sovereignty and January’s National Assembly elections, have been premature at best.

Pentagon program costing taxpayers millions in inflated prices

Lauren Markoe and Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon paid $20 apiece for plastic ice cube trays that once cost it 85 cents. It paid a supplier more than $81 apiece for coffeemakers that it bought for years for just $29 from the manufacturer.

That’s because instead of getting competitive bids or buying directly from manufacturers like it used to, the Pentagon is using middlemen who set their own prices. It’s the equivalent of shopping for weekly groceries at a convenience store.

And it’s costing taxpayers 20 percent more than the old system, a Knight Ridder investigation found.

The higher prices are the result of a Defense Department purchasing program called prime vendor, which favors a handful of firms. Run by the Defense Logistics Agency, the program is based on a military procurement strategy to speed delivery of supplies such as bananas and bolts to troops in the field.

Military bases still have the option of getting competitive bids, but the Pentagon has encouraged them to use the prime vendor system. At the DLA’s main purchasing center in Philadelphia, prime vendor sales increased from $2.3 billion in 2002 to $7.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

After pummeling Mexico, Hurricane Wilma barrels toward Florida

Martin Merzer, Susana Hayward, Jennifer Babson and Cara Buckley, Knight Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI – Leaving devastation and at least 20 deaths in its wake, Hurricane Wilma roared away from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday and accelerated toward South Florida with 105 mph winds.

Tourists fleeing the resort city of Cancun described a tropical playground devastated by high winds and high water.

“Cancun is all under water. It reaches for 4 miles, 20 feet high. It’s like driving through an ocean,” said Anthony Stiles, 31, from Virginia Beach, Va.

“There is nothing in Cancun. There is no electricity, there is no water, there is no food, people are starving. And we had no news about what was going on. Officials wouldn’t tell us anything,” said Lisa Half, who was driving with Stiles and two other friends to safety in a taxi when they ran into 6 feet of water 50 miles west of Cancun.

They managed to push their floating taxi up the ramp of a car carrier.

Amid still-pouring rain, others waited to cross the flooded Highway 180 back to Cancun, to bring food and find out how their families were. There are no telephones, Internet or any functioning communication. Entire malls were destroyed.

Republicans, Democrats confounded by Miers’ nomination

James Kuhnhenn, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON – Harriet Miers’ embattled Supreme Court nomination has both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate in a bind.

Their supporters on the left and the right both oppose her, and she’s having trouble convincing lawmakers that she’s qualified to sit on the nation’s highest court.

For Republicans, a vote for or against Miers is a choice between loyalty to the president and loyalty to their conservative base. It means trusting that Bush selected a true conservative when he chose Miers, a Texas ally who’s now his White House counsel but has no record of championing conservative causes.

To Democrats, Miers initially appeared to be the type of non-ideological nominee they wanted to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But after meetings with senators and reports that she’s an evangelical Christian who once expressed support for a constitutional amendment to ban most abortions, some Democrats are having second thoughts.

New revelations about Miers’ views or her work as a lawyer or White House aide could further complicate her conformation. A land deal in which Miers’ family netted more than $100,000 for a small plot of land in Texas, first reported by Knight Ridder on Sunday, is another issue that the Senate Judiciary Committee will have to examine before her confirmation hearings begin in two weeks.