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Tue April 22, 2008

Rap-sheet recruits fill a growing need

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Rice, Iraqi official seek Arab support
Iraq's top diplomat made a personal appeal Monday to mostly Sunni Arab neighbors nervous about the influence and intentions of Shiite Iran. His message was blunt: Iraq is no Iranian puppet and Arab states should make good on old promises to help Iraq regain its footing. The session came at the invitation of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, above, who visited Bahrain and Kuwait on Monday.

"When we first started this meeting today we had questions of the ambiguity of the picture in Iraq, the political picture,” said Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheik Hamad bin-Khalifa. "The secretary of state and our brother Hoshyar Zebari gave us very good explanations.”

Gates chides Air Force for clinging to past
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday challenged the Air Force, whose leaders are under fire on several fronts, to contribute more to immediate wartime needs and to promote new thinking. Gates singled out the use of pilotless surveillance planes as an example of how the Air Force and other services must act more aggressively.

"Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth,” Gates said of his prodding. "While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough.”

•WEATHER: Basra, Iraq: High of 98, low of 71, clear; Kabul, Afghanistan: 69, 50, cloudy; Kuwait: 98, 71, clear.

From Wire Services

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By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.

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Data released by a congressional committee show the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines brought in with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

Those numbers represent a fraction of the 180,000 recruits brought in by the active duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007. But they highlight a trend that has raised concerns within the military and on Capitol Hill.

The bulk of the felonies listed for last year's recruits were burglaries, other thefts and drug offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or vehicular homicide convictions. The Army and Marine Corps have been struggling to increase their numbers to meet the combat needs of a military fighting wars on two fronts. As a result, the number of recruits needing waivers for crimes has grown in recent years, as has the number needing medical or aptitude waivers.

"We are growing the Army fast, and there are some waivers; we know that,” said Army Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman. "It hasn't alarmed us yet.”

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