Col. Stewart Navarre, chief of staff for Marine Corps Installations West, announced the charges at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base, where the eight are being held. The troops are members of the Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines Regiment.

The case is separate from the alleged killing by other Marines of 24 Iraqi civilians in the western Iraqi city of Haditha last November. A pair of investigations related to that case are still under way, and no criminal charges have been filed.

Some or all of the troops being held at Camp Pendleton could face the death penalty, though Navarre said "it's far too early to speculate on that right now."

Lt. Gen. John Sattler, the senior commander at Pendleton, will decide whether and how to proceed with preliminary hearings known in the military justice system as Article 32 proceedings. That in turn could lead to courts-martial for some or all of the men.

All eight have hired private attorneys and also have been given military defense lawyers.

The Pentagon began investigating shortly after an Iraqi man identified as Hashim Ibrahim Awad was killed April 26 in Hamdania, west of Baghdad. A charging document provided to The Associated Press by Jane Siegel, an attorney for Marine Pfc. John J. Jodka, alleges that the Iraqi was shot by five of the Marines and that an AK-47 assault rifle were placed in the victim's hands, apparently to make it appear he was an insurgent.

A senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, has said a shovel was also planted at the scene to make it appear the man was trying to plant an explosive device.

Besides Jodka, charged were Marine Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, Marine Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos, Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, Marine Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., Marine Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington, and Marine Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda.

According to the charging document, the troops were staking out an intersection to see whether anyone appeared to place explosives in holes along the road. When no one came, Magincalda, Thomas, Pennington and Bacos went into a nearby home, stole a shovel and an AK-47 and went looking for an insurgent named Saleh Gowad.

When they couldn't find Gowad, they went into a house belonging to Awad and kidnapped him, prosecutors assert. Magincalda, Thomas, Pennington and Bacos forced Awad to the ground and bound his feet, then took him to their hideout and placed him in a hole.

Hutchins, Thomas and Shumate fired M-16 rifles at Awad while Jackson and Jodka fired M-249 automatic weapons, killing him, according to the document.

Bacos then fired the AK-47 into the air to expend some shell casings. Magincalda collected the casings and put them by the body, the paper said. Pennington cleaned prints off the AK-47 and put it in Awad's hands.

Hutchins, the top-ranking Marine, told his men to make false statements and on April 28 submitted "a false written report regarding the factors and circumstances related to Awad's death," according to the document.

The larceny charge relates to the theft of the AK-47 and the shovel.

Siegel, Jodka's lawyer, said the Pentagon's decision to hold a news conference to announce the charges turned the event into a media circus.

"There is nothing more serious that they could be charged with - these could be capital murder charges - so this is literally a life-and- death situation. And I am just stunned that the government would decide to handle a case that is this serious in the way that they have," she said.

Jeremiah Sullivan III, who represents Bacos, said, "These allegations are shocking, but my client is innocent. Believe me, there are two sides to this story."

Separately, the U.S. military in Iraq announced that murder charges were filed against a fourth Army soldier in the shooting deaths May 9 of three civilians who had been detained by U.S. troops. Spc. Juston R. Graber, 20, of the 101st Airborne Division was charged with one count of premeditated murder, one count of attempted premeditated murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and making a false official statement.

On Monday the military announced that three soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division had been charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the May 9 killings. It was not clear why charges against the fourth soldier were not announced until Wednesday.

Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

He added that the report warns about the hazards that the chemical weapons could still pose to coalition troops in Iraq.

"The purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," Santorum read from the document.

"This says weapons have been discovered, more weapons exist and they state that Iraq was not a WMD-free zone, that there are continuing threats from the materials that are or may still be in Iraq," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The weapons are thought to be manufactured before 1991 so they would not be proof of an ongoing WMD program in the 1990s. But they do show that Saddam Hussein was lying when he said all weapons had been destroyed, and it shows that years of on-again, off-again weapons inspections did not uncover these munitions.

Hoekstra said the report, completed in April but only declassified now, shows that "there is still a lot about Iraq that we don't fully understand."

Asked why the Bush administration, if it had known about the information since April or earlier, didn't advertise it, Hoekstra conjectured that the president has been forward-looking and concentrating on the development of a secure government in Iraq.

Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.

"This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."

The official said the findings did raise questions about the years of weapons inspections that had not resulted in locating the fairly sizeable stash of chemical weapons. And he noted that it may say something about Hussein's intent and desire. The report does suggest that some of the weapons were likely put on the black market and may have been used outside Iraq.

He also said that the Defense Department statement shortly after the March 2003 invasion saying that "we had all known weapons facilities secured," has proven itself to be untrue.

"It turned out the whole country was an ammo dump," he said, adding that on more than one occasion, a conventional weapons site has been uncovered and chemical weapons have been discovered mixed within them.

Hoekstra and Santorum lamented that Americans were given the impression after a 16-month search conducted by the Iraq Survey Group that the evidence of continuing research and development of weapons of mass destruction was insignificant. But the National Ground Intelligence Center took up where the ISG left off when it completed its report in November 2004, and in the process of collecting intelligence for the purpose of force protection for soldiers and sailors still on the ground in Iraq, has shown that the weapons inspections were incomplete, they and others have said.

"We know it was there, in place, it just wasn't operative when inspectors got there after the war, but we know what the inspectors found from talking with the scientists in Iraq that it could have been cranked up immediately, and that's what Saddam had planned to do if the sanctions against Iraq had halted and they were certainly headed in that direction," said Fred Barnes, editor of The Weekly Standard and a FOX News contributor.

"It is significant. Perhaps, the administration just, they think they weathered the debate over WMD being found there immediately and don't want to return to it again because things are otherwise going better for them, and then, I think, there's mindless resistance to releasing any classified documents from Iraq," Barnes said.

The release of the declassified materials comes as the Senate debates Democratic proposals to create a timetable for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq. The debate has had the effect of creating disunity among Democrats, a majority of whom shrunk Wednesday from an amendment proposed by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to have troops to be completely withdrawn from Iraq by the middle of next year.

At the same time, congressional Republicans have stayed highly united, rallying around a White House that has seen successes in the last couple weeks, first with the death of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then the completion of the formation of Iraq's Cabinet and then the announcement Tuesday that another key Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, "religious emir" Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, was also killed in a U.S. airstrike.

Santorum pointed out that during Wednesday's debate, several Senate Democrats said that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, a claim, he said, that the declassified document proves is untrue.

"This is an incredibly - in my mind - significant finding. The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, is in fact false," he said.

As a result of this new information, under the aegis of his chairmanship, Hoekstra said he is going to ask for more reporting by the various intelligence agencies about weapons of mass destruction.

"We are working on the declassification of the report. We are going to do a thorough search of what additional reports exist in the intelligence community. And we are going to put additional pressure on the Department of Defense and the folks in Iraq to more fully pursue a complete investigation of what existed in Iraq before the war," Hoekstra said.

More than three years into the war, the Army continues to provide the bulk of U.S. ground forces in Iraq. Army officials have acknowledged the war has made some recruits and their families wary about volunteering.

The Army Reserve, along with the regular Army and Army National Guard, missed its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal, and it currently lags its fiscal 2006 year-to-date goal by 4 percent.

Army Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, the new Army Reserve chief, said he does not expect the Reserve to reach its goal of 36,000 recruits for fiscal 2006, which ends September 30.

"We think we'll come in right around that 96 (percent), 97 percent range," Stultz told reporters.

The Army Reserve is a part-time force of federal troops who can be summoned to active duty by the Pentagon in times of need. The Army National Guard is another part-time force whose soldiers are under the command of state governors for use in emergencies such as natural disasters, but also can be mobilized to active duty by the Pentagon.

The Pentagon has made extensive use of these part-time soldiers in Iraq, although the number deployed has been cut significantly.

Stultz said his recruiting numbers were hurt by regular Army personnel opting to stay on active duty and reservists moving from part-time service to active duty with the Army.

'EXCELLENT SOLDIERS'

Julia Bobick, an Army Recruiting Command spokeswoman, said the decision to raise the maximum enlistment age "is not an act of desperation," but rather the latest prudent step intended to attract qualified recruits.

These older recruits must pass the same physical standards and medical examination as younger ones, the Army said. However, those between 40 and 42 will face additional cardiovascular screening, Bobick said.

"Of course, not everyone is going to be (physically able to serve). But those older recruits who can meet the physical demands of Army service make excellent soldiers because they bring with them a maturity and a skill level that some of our young recruits don't have yet," Bobick said.

The Army has taken numerous steps to help recruiting, including offering various financial incentives, adding recruiters and hiring a new advertising agency. It even relaxed its ban on certain types of tattoos to attract recruits who otherwise would have been disqualified from serving.

The U.S. military moved to an all-volunteer force in 1973, during the tumult of the Vietnam War era. Some analysts have said if the military cannot attract enough recruits, the United States might have to consider reinstating the draft.

The second, more generally worded measure was also intended to scale down the American commitment in Iraq. It declared that it was "the sense of the Senate" that redeployment of United States troops from Iraq begin by the end of this year.

The votes on both measures were preceded by hours of debate that blended high emotion and the courtly courtesy that is a Senate tradition. Emotions ran so high on Wednesday that senators from both sides urged restraint so that the debate would not be "dragged down into political muck," as Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, put it.

But today, the Democratic minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he appreciated the "civil nature" of the debate over all. He thanked Senators John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's ranking Democrat. "Two of the finest the Senate has ever seen," Mr. Reid called them.

In urging defeat of the Kerry-Feingold measure, Mr. Warner said that to set a withdrawal date would tell American troops and the Iraqi people "we're going to possibly pull the rug out from under you." "It would be impossible to imagine a worse time than now" to set a timetable for withdrawal, said Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican majority leader.

But Senator Feingold said it was time to tell the Iraqi people that "we have done what we can do militarily" and let them run their own country.

And Senator Reid said it was wrong to blindly follow President Bush's course in Iraq. To put loyalty to a president above loyalty to one's conscience was not only "unpatriotic and servile but morally treasonable," Mr. Reid said.

But Mr. Reid voted against the Kerry-Feingold amendment, choosing instead the more generally worded measure offered by Senators Levin and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island.

Mr. Levin said the message to the Iraqis embedded in his proposal was, "You must take over your own nation and make it work and make it happen."

That may not be enough for Iraq's Trade Minister Abdul Falah Al-Sudani. Furious that one of his guards was killed, he says it was a criminal act and wants Australia to pay compensation to the dead man's family.

If not, the minister's threatened to review Iraq's trade with Australia.

Brendan Trembath reports.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: For the military unit which guards Australian diplomats in Iraq, this should have been a routine job - escorting an Australian trade delegation from a government building in the Masour district in the West of Baghdad.

(Man speaking in Iraqi in the background)

This man is a bodyguard for Iraq's Trade Minister and says he saw the Australians leave.

VOX POP (translated): The convoy left the ministry. They were visiting the ministry of trade. Our convoy left directly after them. They knew that this convoy was the convoy of the Trade Ministry. The driver was not trying to pass them, but they shot and killed him and wounded three guards and two civilians. Yes, they killed one man and wounded three others.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: In a short statement Australia's Defence Department has expressed deep regret for the injuries and the loss of life.

Brigadier Gus Gilmore.

GUS GILMORE: Yesterday afternoon an Australian security attachment on patrol in Baghdad was involved in the shooting incident. Iraq remains a dangerous place and we all need to remember that explosive attacks are targeted against coalition forces and Iraqi nationals every day.

These attacks can take the form of individuals or vehicles carrying explosive devices. Our servicemen and women deployed on these operations are well equipped and trained to deal with these contingencies.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: But the Australian Government may need to do a lot more to satisfy Iraqi officials.

A Government spokesman says Iraq's Trade Minister Abdul Falah Al-Sudani holds the Australian Government responsible for the shooting of the bodyguard. The minister has demanded an apology and compensation for the dead man's family.

If the official does not get what he wants he has threatened to review trade deals with Australia. Trade has been a sensitive issue for the two countries since accusations were made that Australia's wheat exporter AWB was paying bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime.

It's likely the Australian troops mistook the occupants of the other vehicle for local insurgents, the sort of people responsible for a string of abductions and murders.

Neil James, the Executive Director of the Australia Defence Association, says that sort of confusion is not so unusual in a war zone.

NEIL JAMES: This type of friendly fire incident is reasonably common in wars. I mean, you could actually argue that it's strange in such a crowded and complex urban combat environment as Baghdad that these type of things don't happen more often.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Federal Opposition leader Kim Beazley, a former defence minister, says the shooting is a tragedy.

KIM BEAZLEY: I'm afraid that in a difficult, complex, civil conflict like that, the possibility of what they describe as "blue on blue" or "friendly fire" deaths is always a possibility and it has the most terrible effects, both on the people who, of course and their families, who are killed or injured, and on the people who inadvertently have triggered the situation. And so, there's sadness and grief to go round.

The point is this: we shouldn't be there. We made a mistake going to Iraq in the first place. We should not be there now.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Australian unit responsible is known as the Security Detachment, the same unit with which Private Jake Kovco was serving. His death in Iraq in April is the subject of another Defence Department inquiry.

Neil James from the Defence Association says the Security Detachment has a dangerous job and Australian diplomats depend on it.

NEIL JAMES: It's basically there to help our diplomats do their job in Baghdad, because obviously they can't drive around the city just in normal cars because they'd be kidnapped or murdered or blown up.

MARK COLVIN: Neil James talking to Brendan Trembath.

The U.S. military said four Marines were killed on Tuesday in two attacks in Anbar province, heartland of the Sunni insurgency, and a soldier died on Wednesday in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.

There was confusion surrounding the reported abduction of 80 factory workers north of Baghdad on Wednesday by gunmen who commandeered their buses as they returned home.

An official in the office of the industry minister said police reports were inaccurate and that 30 had been abducted, of whom 25 had been freed. The fate of the other five was unknown.

The Australian defense force confirmed on Thursday that its soldiers had mistakenly opened fire on bodyguards of Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudany in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing one and wounding three people.

"The minister holds the Australian government responsible and demands an apology and payment of compensation. If this does not happen he will reconsider trade agreements between the two countries," his spokesman Muhammed Hanoun told Reuters.

"Iraqi blood is more important than anything else," he said.

APOLOGY

Australia said it was proceeding with wheat shipments to Iraq from a recent sale and had not been informed of Baghdad's threat to reconsider trade.

Australia's ambassador telephoned the trade minister to offer his apology and condolences for the shooting. Australia's defense force said the incident was under investigation.

"The ADF deeply regrets the injuries and loss of life that has occurred. As with all ADF incidents of this nature the matter will be formally and fully investigated," Vice Chief of the Australian Defense Force (ADF), Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie, said in a statement.

The shooting took place outside the trade minister's offices. Police said it appeared the Australians mistook the minister's bodyguards, dressed in civilian clothes and armed with AK-47 rifles, for insurgents and opened fire.

They said the soldiers had been protecting a visiting trade delegation, but Hanoun said they were at the office to arrange a meeting with the Australian ambassador.

He said one bodyguard was killed, two wounded and a civilian passerby hurt in the incident, which he called "provocative."

Iraq imports around 3 million tonnes of wheat a year to help feed its 27 million people.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government has extended an inquiry into allegations the country's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd. paid $222 million in kickbacks to
Saddam Hussein's former government.

AWB was the biggest wheat seller to Iraq under the U.N. "oil-for-food" scheme, selling around $2.2 billion worth of grain.

Stewart Nusbaumer ("Terror to Empire": 07/2003), asked the same question, " can American stop this madness?" And added: "The Bush Administration hawks are lumping together all kinds of reasons and excuses under the rubric of terrorism and exploiting the horror of 9/11 for political and corporate gain - the war against terrorism has become, in fact, a war for empire." Belatedly, Canada is enlisted when American led adventures are under global scrutiny and appears to be falling apart with public calls for "war crimes" and "impeachment". In all probabilities, the arrest of 17 individuals involve important legal issues and the opportunities to prove innocence or guilt but in a court of law. How come the mass media has assumed the role of law and justice? Is that is what the Canadian justice is about? Not so, I believe. But what about those 17 people and their families whose life has been destroyed by the false media created perceptions and biased imagery? The media appears to be spearheading the animosity psyche more for public consumption than the role of a fair agent of information and public awareness.

Gwynne Dyer ("The International Terrorist Conspiracy", 06/2006), London-based prominent journalist, points out: "there is no shadowy but powerful network waging a terrorist war against the West: the whole thing is a fantasy." Europeans are well aware, of Baader-Meinhof Gang (German), Red Brigades (Italy), and Red Army (Japan), but no one calls them Christian or Buddhist terrorists. Why? Simply, because there are Christian or Buddhist, not Muslim. The "War on Terrorism" is a war against Muslims and to control their natural resources under the American Empire, and nothing else. Ethnically conscientious and politically infuriated, the Dutch lady Minister of Immigration (CBC TV Night News documentary: 8-9 June), has a quick solution for the "hijab" - "abaya" - black cover dressed ladies, do as the Romans do or 100,000-150,000 Muslims get out of here." Was that an incentive to the North American politicians to think and act likewise?

Some media outlets have readily available phony Islamic experts or officially subsidized gatekeepers of approved truth to allege that Islam teaches radicalism and the issue of "youth extremism." Nobody knows where such an intellectual nuisance comes from? Islam is a religion of peace and it shares all its values and belief, as do the other branches of the Abrahamic monotheistic faiths such as the Christianity and Judaism. Islamic religious teaching-learning do not include nor envision hatred against other fellow human beings. Indeed, Islam professes deep respect and dignity for the People of the Book. Muslims are an integral part of the Canadian multicultural mosaic. If the societal relationship is weak, it does not mean it is harmful. It should not be misinterpreted in a naïve context to generate alarming images when an individual commits crime; it is not the ethnicity of the individual involved, group or the religion to be blamed.

The timing of the major accusations against the 17 people arrested could be put in a proper context. In one statement, the accused was going to "behead the PM." Another, someone was going to "attack the Parliament" and so on. These are highly charged allegations with serious long and short terms consequences. Often, media strategists manufacture such accusations to maximize the propaganda stunt and create public fear and confusion. Mr. Batasar or other defense lawyers can only offer its true explanation. In reality, such claims are outcome of big political thinking and seem more relevant to the on-going war horrors in Iraq, than the minds of the accused youngsters. Many civilian massacres are daily being reported in Iraq and the blames rests on the American and British military forces. Was the arrest of the 17 youngsters an attempt to distract the public attention from the real-world issues?

Since 9/11, there has been no major terrorist attack in the West. What happened in London in July 2005, is reportedly a homegrown individual extremism, not linked to any global network. Gwynne Dyer offers commonsense insight: "Most people in the West believe the official narrative rather than the evidence of their own eyes. There must be a major terrorist threat; otherwise, the government is wrong or lying, the intelligence are wrong or self-serving, the media are fools or cowards, and the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terrorism."

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), vehemently claimed by the US Administration, were one of the major reasons for warmongering in Iraq. It backfired at the political deception and stupidity forged by the American and British decision makers. Hal Crowther called it "Weapons of Mass Stupidity", (06/2003), and elaborated: when Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken were alive, they never imagined Fox News and Bill O'Reilly to serve as "crash dummies." He goes on to illustrate, how O'Reilly cursed a boy whose father had died in the 9/11 but he refused to support the Iraq war. He cites Fox TV anchorman Neil Cavuto, who celebrated the fall of Baghdad by informing all of us who opposed the war in March; "you were sickening then, you are sickening now." Crowther pinpoints the rationale: "these troubled men are neither bad journalists nor even bad actors portraying journalists- they 're mentally unbalanced individuals whose partisan belligerence is pressing them to the brink of psychosis."

At this juncture, cautious and responsible journalism is missing to support the dictates of law, justice and social harmony. There is no excuse for the mass media to make the end assumptions and sponsor the guilty portrayal of Muslims and Islam when no such evidence exists. If the motives and activities of the suspected 17 terrorists were of criminal nature, let the judge decide about it, not the news media. There is an urgent need for the authorities, the mass media and Muslims to be courageous and active participants to bridge the gaps, cross-over the varied cultural time zones and enter people's real life to enhance understanding and social harmony. The terrorism myth is a political gimmick and a fraudulent policy objective to exploit feelings and mislead the softhearted North American and European pubic against Muslims - a people - a community - a civilization, intimately respectable as are the Christian, Jewish and others.

Mahboob A. Khawaja is an academic who specializes in strategic studies with an interest in comparative civilizations. He is the author of Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at: kmahboob@yahoo.com