NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 14, 2004 - 9
.Iraqi administration leaders target of violence
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide
car-bomber killed a dozen people yes-
terday near a U.S. garrison in Baghdad
and gunmen assassinated a senior Edu-
cation Ministry official in a day that
also included a rocket attack on the
Green Zone housing the U.S. adminis-
tration and ambushes around the capi-
tal. A U.S. helicopter crashed, but the
crew survived.
Two other top Iraqi officials narrowly
escaped death in what appears to be a
campaign to target key figures in the
new Iraqi administration as it prepares to
take power June 30. Al-Jazeera televi-
sion reported that a professor of geogra-
phy at Baghdad University was shot and
killed yesterday as he walked along a
street nearthe campus.
The upsurge in violence in the capi-
tal occurred as fighting broke out yes-
terday around the Taji air base on the
northern edge of the city. An American
soldier was killed and two others were
wounded during an ambush north of
Taji, the command said. One assailant
was also killed.
TASERS
Continued from Page 2
after the shock.
"At 26 watts, that's no longer an
option available to anybody," he
said. "Their pain threshold is basi-
cally irrelevant."
Although the stun guns have
become increasingly popular in
recent months, with 4,500 law-
enforcement agencies now using or
testing them, some have expressed
concern over their safety. In the
past month, police agencies in
Georgia's Macon and Forsythe
counties have suspended the use of
Tasers following several deaths
involving the devices.
A U.S. Army OH-58 helicopter
crashed near Taji later yesterday, but the
two-member crew survived "in good
condition," the U.S. command said. The
cause of the crash and whether it was
related to the fighting was unclear, but
the U.S. command said there was no
indication the aircraft was shot down.
After sundown, U.S. troops attacked
insurgents trying to plant a roadside
bomb near the same location as the
morning ambush, killing one person,
wounding two others and destroying
four vehicles, U.S. authorities said.
Also in Baghdad, at least six peo-
ple, including three Shiite militiaman,
died in overnight clashes with U.S.
troops in the capital's Sadr City
neighborhood, Sheik Hassan al-
Edhari, an aide to radical cleric Muq-
tada al-Sadr, said yesterday.
The suicide attack near the U.S.
Army's Camp Cuervo in eastern Bagh-
dad was the 15th car-bombing in Iraq
since the start of the month, U.S. offi-
cials said. The 12 dead included four
policemen, officials said, but there
were no American casualties.
Thirteen Iraqis were injured in the
blast, which occurred about 9:15 a.m.
after police flagged down a vehicle
traveling on the wrong side of the road.
The driver detonated the explosives as
police approached.
Kamal al-Jarah, 63, the Education
Ministry official in charge of contacts
with foreign governments and the
United Nations, was fatally shot early
yesterday outside his home in the
city's Ghazaliya district, a predomi-
nantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood
where support for Saddam Hussein
had been strong.
Al-Jarah's death occurred one day
after Iraq's deputy foreign minister,
Bassam Salih Kubba, was mortally
wounded in another Sunni neighbor-
hood while driving to work. The For-
eign Ministry blamed Saddam loyalists
for the killing.
The violence in the capital, nearly two
weeks before the formal end of the U.S.-
led occupation, stunned the interim gov-
ernment, which had hoped to gain
"These assasinations are an attempt to stop the
march of Iraq toward complete sovereignty."
- Hakim al-Hasni
Industry Minister of Iraq
public support as the legitimate repre- ment figures who are well protected,
sentatives of the Iraqi nation. the insurgents appear to be targeting
"These assassinations are an attempt middle and upper level officials who
to stop the march of Iraq toward com- lack adequate security.
plete sovereignty," Industry Minister In Washington, Secretary of State
Hakim al-Hasni told Al-Arabiya televi- Colin Powell said U.S. forces would do
sion. "They are not a resistance because everything they can to "try to defeat
they are resisting their own people. They these murderers." However, Powell told
are killing the highly qualified people. "FOX News Sunday" that "it's hard to
What kind of a resistance is this?" protect an entire goverment."
During a visit yesterday to a new Underscoring those difficulties, a
crossing point along the Iranian border, rocket exploded yesterday in the
interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Green Zone, causing minor damage
his Cabinet was "discussing serious and to the Republican Palace where
drastic measures once sovereignty is U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer
transferred to take against terrorists and maintains his offices. No casualties
those trying to undermine the progress were reported, but U.S. Apache
of Iraq." He did not elaborate. attack helicopters roamed the skies
Rather than going after top govern- overhead looking for the assailants.
I
Several state chapters of the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union have
called for tighter regulations on the
use of Tasers, and the national organ-
ization officially opposes any police
use of nonlethal weapons except as a
substitute for lethal force. Represen-
tatives from the campus ACLU chap-
ter declined to comment on the
phone.
Baird dismissed such concerns.
"It was a little bit of a knee-jerk
reaction and an overreaction," he
said, noting that no death has ever
been attributed directly to a Taser.
Baird said most fatalities that
occur after the use of a Taser are
attributed to either heart problems
or drug overdoses.
The Taser, he said, could not be
blamed for deaths resulting from
such problems.
Since it incapacitates suspects
without raising their heart rates,
Baird said the device has likely
saved lives by making a physical
struggle - which can cause a heart
attack in some cases - unnecessary.
Baird said the Taser has been used
in the field by AAPD officers "six
or seven times" so far, with only 15
devices currently in rotation.
The officers who have used them,
he said, have been pleased with the
results.
"It's been very effective at con-
trolling the person, and yet we
haven't hurt anybody," Baird said.
II
t
A'.STHMNA
I RESEARCH)
,\ STUDY'/
Doctors in the area are conducting
a research study to test the safety
and effectiveness of an investigational
medication in the treatment of asthma.
You may be eligible for the study if:
" You are at least 18 years old
" You are generally healthy with the diagnosis of
persistent asthma
" You can manage your asthma symptoms safely
with regular use of albuterol only
[ You have not been a smoker within the past year
" Study-related assessments, albuterol inhalers,
and investigational medication at no charge.
" Compensation: up to $520 for completion of 10
visits over 7 months.
If you are interested, call ClinSite at
734-930-3700 (Ann Arbor area)
or 1-888-254-6748 (toll-free)
www.clinsite.com
528 South State St. 1218 South University Ave.
(734) 769.2555 (734) 998.0200
STUDENT TRAVEL f&oBEYOND "