BAUAW NEWSLETTER-MONDAY, NOV.28, 2004

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

On Inauguration Day, our voice must be louder than the governmental
pomp and circumstance that will welcome Bush to four more years
of murder and mayhem. The voice of all those opposed to the war
must drown out the lies force fed to us by the corporate-controlled
media.

The people of San Francisco voted to Bring the Troops Home Now.
With this mandate we demand that the military cease and desist
its recruitment at high schools, college campuses and in our
poor neighborhoods. Our children need a good education, jobs,
housing and healthcare not war.

Parents are encouraged to sign the ³Right to Nondisclosure of
Student Directory Information Form² (See sample--item 1A below)
available at their child¹s high school. This allows parents to prohibit
the military from contacting their child and allows the school to
withhold all contact information they have for your child from
the military.

Students and parents should demand that School administrators
send these forms out to all families with children in the San Francisco
Unified School District.

We demand all military recruitment offices in San Francisco be closed
immediately.

We encourage others across the State of California and the country
to sponsor similar antiwar initiatives in their own towns and cities.

For more information about how to put an antiwar initiative on the ballot
go to: www.bringourtroopshomenow.org

The American people will fill the streets again, and again,
and again until all our troops are brought home!

The bigger the turn out the louder our voice will be!

SAY NO TO FOUR MORE YEARS OF WAR!

MAKE YOUR PROTEST VISIBLE! BRING SIGNS AND NOISE MAKERS.
PUT SIGNS IN YOUR WINDOWS AND ON YOUR CARS!
SPREAD THE WORD!

ALL OUT JAN. 20TH! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
SAN FRANCISCO CIVIC CENTER, 5:00 P.M.

BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR

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San Francisco's Prop N calling on the US Gov to
Bring Our Troops Home from Iraq won by over 63%.
To find out how you can pass a similar proposition in
your town go to:

www.bringourtroopshomenow.org

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Website address correction for film:

www.wmdthefilm.com

Bay Area United Against War Presents
a film screening of:

"WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception"

Meet film director Danny Schechter "The News Dissector."
Danny will be available for a question and answer period
right after the movie.

Saturday, Dec. 11th, 2004
(Check the newspaper for showtime and ticket price.)
Embarcadero Center Cinema
One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 267-4893

" 'WMD' paints a meticulous and damning portrait of the media's
coverage of the Iraq war. In sobering detail, Danny Schechter
shows us how the TV networks now prefer the role of
cheerleader, to that of objective journalist," says Mike
Nisholson of austinnforkerry.org.

"Schechter tackles his subject like a cross between Errol Morris
and a Dashiell Hammet detective, following close on the tail of
big media reporters as they in turn track the march toward war,
embed themselves in the military industrial complex and then
get out when the fighting gets tough and leave the cleanup work
to stringers, " writes Shandon Fowler of film's Hamptons
International Film Festival appearance, Oct. 20-24.

To learn more about the film visit:
www.wmdthefilm.com
www.bauaw.org

(Distributed by Cinema Libre Studio, www.cinemalibrestudio.com)

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1A) ³Right to Nondisclosure of Student Directory Information Form²

1B) "We are living a disaster."
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com - link of the
week at MichaelMoore.com **
November 29, 2004

2) BOSTON NEWS:
Come support MIT alumna arrested for discussing the
First-Amendment with MIT police

3) Columbia vows swift action on anti-Israel professors
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent
NEW YORK
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 13:05 26/11/2004
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/506594.html

4) High Court Appears Hesitant to Endorse Medical Marijuana
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP)
Filed at 12:15 p.m. ET
November 29, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Medical-Marijuana.html?hp
&ex=1101790800&en=a65b4f1c9aadc8b1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

5) Shadow of Vietnam Falls Over Iraq River Raids
TROOPS
By JOHN F. BURNS
CHARD DUWAISH, Iraq
November 29, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/international/middleeast/29search.html?ore
f=login

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1A) ³Right to Nondisclosure of Student Directory Information Form²

The following is a copy of the Los Alamos High School ³Right to
Nondisclosure of Student Directory Information Form.² Your child¹s
school should have a similar form:

Notification to Parents and Students of Requirement to Disclose
Student Directory Information.


Under the general provisions in Title IX of the recently authorized
federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 (NCLB P.L.
No. 107-110), Local education agencies (LEAs) receiving funds under
this act shall provide armed forces recruiters the same access to
secondary students and student directory information as they provide to
postsecondary institutions or to prospective employers. Student
directory information at Los Alamos High School includes student
names, addresses, and telephone listings.

Also under federal legislation, a high school student who is over
18 or the parent of a student may request that this information not
be released. In essence, parents and students may opt out of the
requirement that Los Alamos High School provide this information
to military recruiters, postsecondary institutions, and/or prospective
employers.

In order to opt out of providing information, the parent must submit
a letter stating their right to nondisclosure to the Los Alamos High
School registrar OR complete and return the Right to Nondisclosure
of Student Directory Information Form.


Los Alamos High School
Right to Nondisclosure of Student Directory Information Form

Los Alamos High School, under federal legislation, is required to
provide access to the names, addresses, and telephone numbers
of students upon request from military recruiters, colleges, and
prospective employers. Under federal legislation, you may opt out
of this requirement by completing this form and submitting it to
the registrar.

___DO NOT DISCLOSE my/my student¹s directory and information
to any entity without my written consent.

___DO NOT DISCLOSE my/my students directory information to

___US military

___Colleges and other educational institutions

___Prospective employers

STUDENT NAME ________________________________________

STUDENT Signature____________________________________(___over 18)

PARENT Signature_____________________________________

DATE received by registrar___________Registrar initials__________

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1B) "We are living a disaster."
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com - link of the
week at MichaelMoore.com **
November 29, 2004

The cold winter winds sweep over Baghdad and the refugee camps strewn
about the city. Date palms sway as dust blows down the clogged streets
where people huddle in their cars while waiting in petrol lines several
miles long.

The cost of fuel now in the black market is 10 times what it normally
is, and people either pay it or wait for 8 hours in a gas line, with no
guarantee that the station of their choice won't run dry before they get
a chance to fill their tank.

Traffic jams form often when military patrols rumble down the
street...cars stacked up behind them, nobody daring to venture too close
to the heavy machine guns wielded by soldiers with their faces covered
by goggles and masks. Already today 2 soldiers were killed and three
wounded by a roadside bomb in the northwest section of the capital.
Also, up near Kut in eastern Iraq, another soldier was killed and two
wounded in a "vehicle accident."

The fuel crisis is driving the cost of everything up-vegetables, fruit,
meat, you name it.

"We are living a disaster," says Abu Abdulla, an unemployed engineer at
a kebob stand today near the so-called green zone, "The price for
benzene is 10 times now what it was on the black market, but there are
10 times less jobs and who is making 10 times as much money?"

Another man drinking chai nearby immediately starts talking about the
resistance. "They think destroying Fallujah will stop the resistance? We
already see the resistance spreading everywhere now," he says, his
cigarette waving about in the air, "Even if they bomb every city in
Iraq, the resistance will continue to spread."

While Iraq appears to be conveniently slipping off the radar of the
mainstream media, the failed occupation continues to grind on towards an
end which nobody here can see.

Everywhere I go the signs of a society in decline abound. Even at a
clinic where I had to go in order to obtain an HIV test to extend my
visa, there is a telling event.

A doctor walks in and asks the nurse who is taking my blood what she
does with the used needles. "We sterilize them after use then they are
incinerated," she replies. He waves his hand back and forth while
telling her, "No more. We are now instructed by the Ministry of
Environment there are no facilities for this, so we are to sterilize
them and reuse them."

We finish and walk outside, passing the Kalashnikov wielding guards
(which are in front of nearly every building in Baghdad), fight our way
through some traffic then try to find some black market petrol. We run
out during our futile seeking-there are even less black marketers as the
shortage grows more severe by the day.

Abut Talat explains in frustration how his son drove his car too much
last night as he pulls his plastic jug and siphon tube from the trunk.
We nervously watch cars pass while waiting to grab a couple of liters
from someone...hoping for a fuel handout rather than a kidnapping.

Finally amidst this desperate fuel shortage a generous couple pulls over
and give us some of the precious liquid and we're off to get scalped at
the black market.

Driving over a bridge near the so-called green zone I spot a building
with missile holes in it-a gutted reminder, one of many, of the invasion
nearly 2 years ago. The same propaganda banner for the US-backed
al-Iraqia TV network hangs in the usual place-right where an old
propaganda banner for Saddam Hussein once hung.

It hasn't changed since I first photographed it last year. "The can't
work on that building," says Abu Talat, "Because they are afraid the
workers will be resistance spies, because from the top of that building
you can see everything in the green zone."

Apache helicopters rumble low over the city, their "whumping" blades
leaving wakes of car alarms through the streets.

Back at my hotel I indulge my daily ritual of asking the owner if I have
hot water yet. The cold showers are getting old now that the temperature
has dropped and it remains chilly.

This morning I was awakened by the usual 7am gun battles nearby. They
usually coincide with the morning mortar ritual of blasts hitting the
so-called green zone.

Now as I type this evening, a huge explosion rattles my walls. A gun
battle with heavy automatic weapons kicks off down the street, and the
usual wailing sirens of ambulances and Iraqi Police begin blaring across
the city-streaming in this direction.

©2004 Dahr Jamail.
All images and text are protected by United States and international
copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches on the
web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link
to the DahrJamailIraq.com website. Any other use of images and
text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another
website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr
Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward Dahr's dispatches via email.

More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

You are subscribed to the Dahr Jamail's email Iraq Dispatches
because you requested a subscription at some point.

You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/ to subscribe
or unsubscribe to the email list.

Or, you can unsubscribe by sending an email to
iraq_dispatches-request@dahrjamailiraq.com and write unsubscribe in the
subject
or the body of the email.

Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) BOSTON NEWS:
Come support MIT alumna arrested for discussing the
First-Amendment with MIT police


Tuesday at Middlesex County Courthouse
(Cambridge)
Nov. 30, 2004 at 9:00 am
40 Thorndike Street
(tall building with flashing red lights)

MIT police arrested Aimee Smith (PhD 02) on August 27 for
discussing the First-Ammendment with them. The arresting officer,
Joseph D'Amelio, had already arrested Aimee Smith before for
handing out leaflets on the sidewalk of Memorial Drive before
Commencement on June 4, 2004. MIT has since dropped the charges
pertaining to the first arrest.

On August 27, Aimee reminded three MIT police officers standing
in front of the MIT Student Center about our First-Ammendment
rights to freedom of speech. During this exchange, officer D'Amelio,
taunted Aimee about arresting her once before and added "I should
arrest you again." After Aimee shared her opinion about police
who abuse their power by threatening arbitrary arrest, officer
D'Amelio lost his temper and grabbed Aimee by the collar, choking
her and breaking her necklace in the process. Aimee was charged
with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. Aimee's trial
will be this Tuesday, Nov 30.

In response to a complaint against officer D'Amelio, who has now shown a
pattern of targetting Aimee and abusing his power, MIT
called in the Pinkerton Corporation to perform an "independent"
investigation. The Pinkerton corporation has a rich history in
violently suppressing labor struggles and in spying on and
subverting legally protected political activity. Pinkerton
boasts that it can provide private corporations intelligence on
"activist groups."

The fact that MIT hired such a corporation is especially
troubling in view of Aimee's legally protected political activism
in Cambridge. In fact, the MIT and Pinkerton duo attempted to
intimidate a supporter of Aimee Smith. Richard Hugus, a cape cod
resident concerned about the emerging pattern of police misconduct
at MIT, wrote to President Vest saying "that Pinkerton is not a
credible or impartial investigator in a case of police
misconduct." Three days later, Mr. Hugus received a phone call
from David Tornello, a Pinkerton agent. Mr. Tornello, speaking
into Mr. Hugus' answering machine, said he was calling because
he had received a letter from "President Charles Vest" that
Mr. Hugus had written.

The two arbitrary arrests of Aimee Smith combined with the
hiring of the Pinkerton corporation to "investigate" complaints
of police abuse, clearly show that MIT does not tolerate
the free exchange of ideas and will resort to strong-arm
tactics to remove dissident voices from its campus.

Please show your support and pack the courthouse on Tuesday Nov. 30.

Also write to President Vest and demand that MIT drop the charges
for this second false arrest of Aimee Smith. Also ask him:

~ Is it MIT policy to arrest someone for discussing First
Amendment rights with MIT police officers?

~ Is it MIT policy to allow MIT police to arrest someone because
they don't like what they're saying or because they have a personal
dislike for them?

~ How long will the MIT administration continue to allow female
members of its community to be threatened, bullied, harassed,
and physically assaulted by a predominantly male campus police
force?

~ Why did MIT hire a private security corporation with a history
of subverting protected political activity to perform an
investigation of a complaint of MIT police misconduct.

~ Why doesn't MIT have a publically accountable oversight board
to investigate police misconduct.

Contact info

President Charles Vest
e-mail: cmvest@mit.edu
phone: (617) 253-0148
address: 77 Mass Ave, Rm. 3-208
Cambridge MA, 02139
FAX: (617) 253-0036
[Goes to the Vice President's office across the hall. Label
with "Please deliver immediately to president Charles Vest"
and it should get to him.

President's House on Memorial Drive contact info:
FAX: (617) 253-3100

Provost Robert Brown
e-mail: rab@mit.edu
phone: (617) 253-4500
address: 77 Mass Ave, Rm. 3-208
Cambridge MA, 02139
FAX: (617) 253-8812

Chancellor Phillip Clay
e-mail: plclay@mit.edu
phone: (617) 253-6164
address: 77 Mass Ave, Rm 10-200
Cambridge MA, 02139
FAX: (617) 258-6261

Special assistant to the president
Kirk Kolenbrander
e-mail: kdk@mit.edu
phone: (617)-253-3365
address: 77 Mass Ave, Rm 10-205
Cambridge MA, 02139
FAX: (617) 258-6261

Staff mailing list
Staff@onepalestine.org
http://mail.onepalestine.org/mailman/listinfo/staff_onepalestine.org

Announce mailing list
Announce@onepalestine.org
http://mail.onepalestine.org/mailman/listinfo/announce_onepalestine.org
v

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3) Columbia vows swift action on anti-Israel professors
By Shlomo Shamir , Haaretz Correspondent
NEW YORK
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 13:05 26/11/2004
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/506594.html

NEW YORK - Columbia University president Lee Bollinger plans "specific
steps" soon in response to allegations that professors and lecturers at
the Ivy League university made vitriolic and malicious comments
against Israel in classes.

Bollinger made the pledge in a Wednesday phone call to Anti-Defamation
League national director Abraham Foxman. Bollinger didn't detail the
character of the steps, but emphasized "the matter will be handled
immediately."

New York's Columbia University was recently embarrassed by reports
that Middle Eastern professors are exploiting their academic standing
to express extreme political views on Israel, using slanderous and
defamatory statements.

The allegations against the professors, including their names and
photographs, were published at the beginning of the week in an
investigative report by mass-circulation newspaper the New York
Daily News.

Jewish sources in New York reported Thursday that major Jewish
donors to the university were considering severing ties with the
prestigious institution in response to the "corrupt behavior" by
academic staff. In particular, the sources mentioned Jewish
graduates of the university active in alumni organizations.

They said that Bollinger had recently received irate requests
from alumni protesting the behavior and explaining they expected
an appropriate response from the university to what they called
"malicious comments" against Israel.

The university president recently proposed the establishment of
a special chair for Israeli Studies, with the view of separating it
from Middle East Studies. The proposal was interpreted by the
Jewish community as an appeasement gesture after the wave of
protest against the professors' behavior.

Foxman told Haaretz on Thursday that he his meeting with
Bollinger had left him with the impression that "he is aware
of the problem and understands its seriousness."

Foxman called the Columbia events "particularly grave as the
institution is located in New York, which has a large Jewish
population, and Jewish students are exposed to insults from
professors."

Foxman emphasized that "if Columbia handles the problem
decisively, it will be a strong message to other U.S. campuses
where similar phenomena occur."

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4) High Court Appears Hesitant to Endorse Medical Marijuana
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP)
Filed at 12:15 p.m. ET
November 29, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Medical-Marijuana.html?hp
&ex=1101790800&en=a65b4f1c9aadc8b1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court appeared hesitant
Monday to endorse medical marijuana for patients who have
a doctor's recommendation.

Justices are considering whether sick people in 11 states with
medical marijuana laws can get around a federal ban on pot.

Paul Clement, the Bush administration's top court lawyer, noted
that California allows people with chronic physical and mental
health problems to smoke pot and said that potentially many
people are subjecting themselves to health dangers.

``Smoked marijuana really doesn't have any future in
medicine,'' he said.

Justice Stephen Breyer said supporters of marijuana for the
ill should take their fight to federal drug regulators -- before
coming to the Supreme Court, and several justices repeatedly
referred to America's drug addiction problems.

Dozens of people, some with blankets, camped outside the
high court to hear justices debate the issue. Groups such as
the Drug Free America Foundation fear a government loss will
undermine campaigns against addictive drugs.

The high court heard arguments in the case of Angel Raich,
who tried dozens of prescription medicines to ease the pain
of a brain tumor and other illnesses before she turned to pot.

Supporters of Raich and another ill woman who filed a lawsuit
after her California home was raided by federal agents argue
that people with the AIDS virus, cancer and other diseases
should be able to grow and use marijuana.

Their attorney, Randy Barnett of Boston, told justices that his
clients are law-abiding citizens who need marijuana to survive.
Marijuana may have some side effects, he said, but seriously
sick people are willing to take the chance.

Besides California, nine other states allow people to use
marijuana if their doctors agree: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii,
Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Arizona also has a law permitting marijuana prescriptions,
but no active program.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had
ruled against the government in a divided opinion that found
federal prosecution of medical marijuana users is unconstitutional
if the marijuana is not sold, transported across state lines or used
for non-medicinal purposes.

Lawyers for Raich and Diane Monson contend the government
has no justification for pursuing ill small-scale users. Raich, an
Oakland, Calif., mother of two teenagers, has scoliosis, a brain
tumor, chronic nausea and other illnesses. Monson, a 47-year-
old accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has degenerative
spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants in her backyard.

The Bush administration argues that Congress has found no
accepted medical use of marijuana and needs to be able to
eradicate drug trafficking and its social harms.

The Supreme Court ruled three years ago that the government
could prosecute distributors of medical marijuana despite their
claim that the activity was protected by ``medical necessity.''

Dozens of groups have weighed in on the latest case, which
deals with users and is much more sweeping.

Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, conservative states that
do not have medical marijuana laws, sided with the marijuana
users on grounds that the federal government was trying to
butt into state business of providing ``for the health, safety,
welfare and morals of their citizens.''

Some Republican members of Congress, meanwhile, urged the
court to consider that more than 20,000 people die each year
because of drug abuse. A ruling against the government, they
said, would help drug traffickers avoid arrest, increase the
marijuana supply and send a message that illegal drugs are
good.

California's 1996 medical marijuana law allows people to grow,
smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's
recommendation.

Medical marijuana was an issue in the November elections.
Montana voters easily approved a law that shields patients,
their doctors and caregivers from arrest and prosecution for
medical marijuana. But Oregon rejected a measure that would
have dramatically expanded its existing medical marijuana
program.

The case is Ashcroft v. Raich, 03-1454.

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press

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5) Shadow of Vietnam Falls Over Iraq River Raids
TROOPS
By JOHN F. BURNS
CHARD DUWAISH, Iraq
November 29, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/international/middleeast/29search.html?ore
f=login

CHARD DUWAISH, Iraq, Nov. 28 - As marines aboard fast patrol
boats roared up the Euphrates on a dawn raid on Sunday, images
pressed in of another American war where troops moved up wide
rivers on camouflaged boats, with machine-gunners nervously
scanning riverbanks for the hidden enemy.

That war is rarely mentioned among the American troops in Iraq,
many of whom were not yet born when the last American combat
units withdrew from Vietnam more than 30 years ago. A war that
America did not win is considered a bad talisman among those
men and women, who privately admit to fears that this war could
be lost.

But as an orange moon sank below the bulrushes on Sunday
morning, thoughts of Vietnam were hard to avoid.

Marines waded ashore through soft silted mud that caused some
to sink to their waists, M-16 rifles held skyward as others on solid
land held out their rifle barrels as lifelines.

Ashore, sodden and with boots squelching mud, the troops
began a five-hour tramp through dense palm groves and across
paddies crisscrossed by deep irrigation canals.

There were snatches of dialogue from "Apocalypse Now," and
a black joke from one marine about the landscape resembling
"a Vietnam theme park."

But behind the joshing lay something more serious: the sense
expressed by many of the Americans as they scoured the area
that in this war, too, the insurgents might have advantages that
could make them a match for highly trained troops, technological
gadgetry and multibillion-dollar war budgets.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted the river raid as
part of a weeklong offensive billed as a sequel to the battle for
Falluja, less than 20 miles upriver from the village where the
marines landed Sunday.

The 40-foot river craft they used are called Surcs, for Small Unit
Riverine Craft, a high-tech update on the Swift boats used in
Vietnam. The craft were flown into Iraq aboard giant C-5 transport
aircraft and were first deployed with five-man crews during the
battle for Falluja this month, patrolling the stretch of the Euphrates
that runs along the city's western edge to prevent attempts by
insurgents to escape that way after American troops had thrown
a cordon around the city.

Those patrols were judged a success by American commanders.
Now they are eager to exploit the potential the patrol boats give
them for mounting fast, unexpected attacks along the Tigris and
the Euphrates. The rivers run through many of the cities and
towns that are rebel strongholds, and the long stretches of
verdant riverbank provide ideal hiding places for insurgents
and their weapons caches.

The raid, backed by air cover from attack helicopters and
pilotless drones, gave the Americans a chance to exploit another
new dimension of their strategy for winning the war: twinning
American combat units with newly trained Iraqi troops.

After failures earlier this year, when many Iraqi units deserted
or refused to fight, the American command wrote a new
blueprint for training tens of thousands of Iraqi fighters and
used Falluja as the first, critical testing ground. Considered
a qualified success there, the best Iraqi units have been an
integral part of every major raid in the follow-up offensive
here.

In many raids, they have heavily outnumbered American
troops, as they did in the operation on Sunday, which included
40 marines and 80 members of a special Iraqi commando
unit assigned to the country's powerful Interior Ministry.

As much as they wanted to test their new river boats, American
commanders wanted to see how the commandos - many drawn
from elite units of Saddam Hussein's special forces - would
respond to an arduous and potentially risky mission.

This day, long before the three-mile sweep through the palm
groves and citrus orchards and paddies was ended, the mood
among the marines had soured as the Iraqis adopted a mostly
dilatory attitude toward the tedious business of spreading out
in long lines and moving methodically across the terrain, poking
haystacks, running metal detectors over piles of palm fronds,
peering into thick clusters of bulrushes, and digging in places
of freshly turned earth.

"They've just about given up," said Lt. Jerman Duarte, 34, of
Houston, his voice edged with exasperation.

Lieutenant Duarte, a native of Guatemala, led the raid in his
capacity as commander of a reconnaissance and surveillance
platoon that has honed its skills in many of the marines' toughest
raids and stakeouts during their five months in Iraq. Among his
men, he is known as "El Guapo," the handsome one, for his fine
features and his bristling mustache. But his sense of urgency
and do-it-by-the-book briskness appeared lost on the Iraqi
fighters, who used their rest breaks in the morning sunshine
to trade quips about the Americans, not all of them friendly.

As in so much else about the American venture in Iraq, cultural
differences played their part. At one point, Lieutenant Duarte
bridled when some of the Iraqis resisted his repeated urging
that they spread out along the line, preferring to cluster together,
ineffectively, at one end. A Marine sergeant told him that the
Iraqis were officers and did not feel that they should be asked
to work side by side with common soldiers.

One of the Iraqi officers, asked if he spoke English, replied
snappily, "English no good. Arabic good. Iraq good." The
message seemed clear.

Although recruits in the new Iraqi units undergo strict vetting,
American officers say rebel sympathizers have infiltrated some
of the new units - some of the soldiers have been caught tipping
off rebel groups. If there were sympathies for Hussein loyalists
among these raiders, though, the area chosen for the sweep
would likely have stirred them. One American officer described
the stretch of the Euphrates that runs southeast from Falluja as
"Saddam's Hamptons" for the clusters of luxurious villas set along
the riverbank, mostly built by favored stalwarts of Mr. Hussein.
The territory controlled by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit,
across the southernmost reaches of Iraq's Sunni heartland, served
as an arsenal for Mr. Hussein, with dozens of weapons research
facilities, munitions factories, and vast weapons storage sites,
including the one at Al Qaqaa, which made headlines last month
when the Americans discovered that more than 350 tons of high
explosives were missing.

Recent American sweeps in the area have uncovered some of
the largest weapons caches found in post-Hussein Iraq. And
the raid here on Sunday, about five miles from Al Qaqaa, followed
a tip that more large caches might be found there.

But either the tipoff was flawed or the raid missed the target.
Altogether, Lieutenant Duarte's men discovered only an old
shotgun and three Kalashnikov rifles, two of them in plastic bags
that were clumsily buried in a paddy field. They also found two
sets of identity documents belonging to a high-ranking member
of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party. After a marine stumbled across
a yellow plastic bag lying in an irrigation panel with what he
identified as a severed human head and intestines, Lieutenant
Duarte radioed to headquarters and was told to leave it for
investigation by the Iraqi police.

In the end, the day's main yield came not from the raid, but
from the brutal chance that comes with every foray into the
Iraqi hinterland. On the road back to the Marine base at Camp
Kalsu, 40 miles from the raiding site, the unit's convoy of
armored trucks and Humvees was attacked near the town
of Latifiya with a huge roadside bomb.

Unlike a similar device that killed two marines in a nearby
incident later in the day, the bomb caused no injuries or
damage. But two Humvees broke away from the convoy
and pursued two fleeing men with Kalashnikovs into a house
about a mile back from the highway, shooting one dead and
capturing the other. The men were said to have been found
with a cellphone that could have been used to set off the
bomb.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times