Warrant Officer Philip Floyd told the court: "He was very conscientious. He had a sense of frustration in that the procedures we had to conduct in the inquiries were hindered by forces outside of our control." He did not explain what he meant by that phrase but the Royal Military Police had to investigate every incident where British troops had opened fire and civilians had been wounded or killed.

Captain Masters seemed to think he had disappointed others, the warrant officer said. When a soldier was found drunk on duty he took personal charge of the inquiry.

"He took it very personally and worried that it would lead to disciplinary action. He became more and more indecisive but I never picked up anything from members of the section that was disparaging."

In the officers' mess the day before he died he was withdrawn. "He said he had been having a difficult time and that he had some personal circumstances but didn't elaborate," Warrant Officer Floyd said.

The inquest continues.

The group is now running website hosted by a firm that previously worked for the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Questions about ties between Vets for Freedom and the Republican party were first raised by the group PR Watch and citizen journalists at PR Watch's website SourceWatch.

TRANSCRIPT

John Stauber, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and co-editor of the publication PR Watch. He has co-authored several books including "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq."

AMY GOODMAN: John Stauber joins us now from Madison, Wisconsin. John is Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and co-editor of the publication PR Watch. He's co-authored several books, including Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq. We welcome you to Democracy Now!

JOHN STAUBER: Thanks, Amy, it's great to be on.

AMY GOODMAN: John, can you talk about this group, Vets for Freedom, and what it means, what their connection to the press is?

JOHN STAUBER: Well, Vets for Freedom is a very interesting organization. I call it a Republican front group. It might be more accurate to call it a Republican-financed, pro-war group geared toward helping the Republicans keep control of Congress and the Senate this November. It portrays itself as a nonpartisan organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are very concerned about the way the media has distorted the image of the war here in the United States and who want to set that record straight. Its founders have been vigorously attacking Democrat John Murtha for his position advocating withdrawal from Iraq. And as the Buffalo News reported just this Sunday, Terry Gross [sic], who was a spokesman for President Bush until last year and is now a P.R. operative and who managed the 2000 Florida debacle for the Republicans, managed their media in the Florida recount --

AMY GOODMAN: Taylor Gross?

JOHN STAUBER: Did I say -- Taylor Gross, correct. He approached the Buffalo News way back in April, trying to place a couple of the founders of this Vets for Freedom organization as embedded reporters for the Buffalo News. Those two Vets for Freedom members were, and are, Wade Zirkle and David Bellavia. They're now in Iraq, reporting on the Vets for Freedom blog. Apparently at least one of them will soon be back in the United States. So I think what we've got here is a pro-war organization.

Its financing is very mysterious. I suspect that, like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, with which it shares a consulting firm, the Donatelli Group, if we knew who was really funding this organization, it would probably be well-heeled people within the Republican Party. I think it's also very possible that this is part of the bigger propaganda campaign that has received hundreds of millions of dollars of public money over the last few years, money that's gone to organizations like the Lincoln Group and other P.R. firms to sell the war.

AMY GOODMAN: We invited on Vets for Freedom to the program, but the group's vice chairman, Owen West, said that no one could join us today. I want to play a clip of the group's founder, Wade Zirkle, speaking on the Hugh Hewitt Show, explaining why he formed the group. Zirkle is a former Marine lieutenant, who served two deployments in Iraq.

WADE ZIRKLE: You know, when I came home, I was injured. And I came home, and, you know, I was watching on TV and on the radio, listening to politicians do their grandstanding spiel, and I realized that, you know, what is being reported to the American people is not what I know from firsthand experience what's going on in Iraq. And I felt like no one was speaking for us.

AMY GOODMAN: John Stauber, your response?

JOHN STAUBER: Well, this is part of the line that this organization has, that we have to stay the course, we have to support the Bush administration's global war on terror, we have to push forward, that we owe it to the veterans who've died and who've suffered so much, and that the only patriotic course is one of total support for the Bush administration's global war on terror.

I think there was a really important part of the puzzle regarding Veterans for Freedom and what their role is in this election year provided by the New York Times last week, when last Wednesday, in a front-page article, the New York Times reported that the Republican strategy for winning in November is going to be to strongly embrace exactly this pro-war position of Vets for Freedom. And Vets for Freedom is represented by a very sophisticated Republican public relations firm that Taylor Gross founded, called the Herald Group. I think what they understand is that getting vets out as advocates for staying the course, as critics and attackers of anyone who says we should withdraw troops from Iraq, is going to be a very powerful card to play.

AMY GOODMAN: The Vets for Freedom website now features dispatches from Iraq written by these former soldiers who were in Iraq as embedded reporters. The top story on their blog is headlined "Positive Development from Down South." It was written by Vets for Freedom's executive director, Wade Zirkle. Last week the group's vice chair, David Bellavia, wrote about being embedded with the Iraqi military in Ramadi. He describes the experience like this: "Seeing these men in action is amazing. The people of Ramadi trust them. They give them bread and tea. Kids are playing soccer and riding donkeys in the street." This description of Ramadi stands in stark contrast to the other reports coming out of Ramadi, which Iraqis fear will be the site of the next Fallujah. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that thousands of families are reportedly trapped in the city and facing a mounting humanitarian crisis. Food and medical supplies are running low." John, your response to these reports?

JOHN STAUBER: I think these so-called "news reports" coming from David Bellavia, one of the Vets for Freedom founders, is exactly what this organization is all about. When Bush's former spokesperson, Taylor Gross, pitched the Buffalo News and the New York Post and other papers to have Zirkle and Bellavia of Vets for Freedom reporting for them as embedded journalists, I believe this was an effort to be able to portray these pro-war Republican advocates as journalists. And again, they state clearly on their website, which is maintained by the Donatelli Group, the same organization that provided similar services to the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, they maintain on their website that they are all about changing the media coverage of the war in Iraq to make it pro-war, pro-mission coverage, now, we see, even to the point of trying to portray themselves as embedded journalists.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you know of any news organization who has taken their reports?

JOHN STAUBER: Well, I think it's interesting that there was no real reporting about Veterans for Freedom until we at Center for Media and Democracy began looking at them this month. And then the Buffalo News came forward and broke this big story on Sunday, about how the former Bush spokesperson, Taylor Gross, was pitching them back in April to make these guys embedded reporters for the Buffalo News. As far as we know, according to Taylor Gross in the Buffalo News article, no paper used them as embedded journalists. That's a good sign.

But it's interesting to note that when Taylor Gross was pitching these guys, he didn't say to these papers, "Hey, I'm Taylor Gross. I was a spokesperson for President Bush until last year." He simply said, "I've got some brave vets, and they can provide nonpartisan, unbiased coverage for you on the cheap from Iraq. Would you like them as embedded reporters?" So I think that was really an effort -- remember, this was back in April -- again to be able to have these Vets for Freedom, pro-war advocates say, "Not only are we combat veterans." And these are guys, many of whom were very wounded in combat. There's no questioning their valor or personal passion or commitment, but I think this effort to embed them and get them reporting for papers like the New York Post and the Buffalo News was actually an effort to provide them a veneer of journalism. And it's all fallen apart, because the Buffalo News has revealed it.

What I think is extremely disturbing is that except for this report right now on Democracy Now!, no other national news media has picked this up. There's been no legs to the Buffalo News story, no wire services have picked it up. And yet, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the New York Times, have all run op-eds from these guys, without any reporting on who they actually are.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it's interesting. This is what we call engaging in trickle-up journalism. Maybe viewers, listeners now, people who are reading the transcripts, will call their news organizations to ask for more coverage of this. John, I also wanted to ask you about video news releases, a follow-up. Your organization, Center for Media and Democracy, revealed in April that at least 77 TV stations around the country have been caught airing corporate-sponsored propaganda disguised as news. The report accuses of TV stations of actively disguising the content to make it appear to be their own reporting, even though the spots were actually paid for by companies like General Motors, Panasonic and Pfizer. What's been the response to the study since you put it out and we broadcast it?

JOHN STAUBER: The response has been extremely heartening, because the Federal Communications Commission, based on our fake TV news report, has launched a formal investigation of these 36 stations that we caught red-handed airing corporate propaganda disguised as news stories. What the result of that investigation will be, of course, we don't know. But that was a tremendous development. And now, we're urging people to contact the FCC and to demand that the FCC enforce regulations on the books that require the -- [inaudible]

AMY GOODMAN: John Stauber, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy. Looks like we just lost that satellite feed, but we do want to thank Public Television in Madison, Wisconsin, WHA-TV, Channel 21, for hosting John today. John is co-editor of the publication, PR Watch, and has written a number of books, including Weapons of Mass Deception.

Click Here to listen to the show.

The Iranian leader´s agenda includes a conference at the AU session, several meetings with African presidents, and bilateral negotiations, IRNA News Agency informed.

On this first trip to Africa as president, Ahmadineyad will be accompanied by the foreign minister, the vice president of executive affairs, and the head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization.

Romania has around 890 troops in Iraq.

The withdrawal has been prompted by concerns over Romanian troops' safety and a growing trend by European states to bring home their soldiers, Tariceanu said.

Among Washington's European allies, Spain has withdrawn troops and Italy is on the move. Japan is also pulling out.

Two Romanian servicemen have been killed in Iraq since their deployment in 2001.

Atanasiu said the ending of the mission would save Romania 90 million U.S. dollars.

In addition to operations in Iraq, Romania has sent more than 700 troops to Afghanistan. Four soldiers have lost their lives there since 2003.

"There is increasing international tension over Iran's nuclear programme and backing of groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah," the committee said in its annual report.

"There is a possibility of an increased threat to UK interests from Iranian state-sponsored terrorism should the diplomatic situation deteriorate."

Ministers have previously claimed that sophisticated roadside bombs used in a series of deadly attacks on British troops in Iraq have been supplied through Iran, although they have not blamed the regime directly.

The committee - which is made up of senior MPs and peers - took evidence from the heads of MI6, MI5, GCHQ and the defence intelligence staff in drawing up its report.

It said that Britain continued to face a "serious and sustained threat" from international terrorism - most significantly from al Qaida and associated networks.

Other security threats included the activities of dissident groups in Northern Ireland - which continued to pose a threat in the province and on the British mainland - and the international spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Asked about the perceived threat from Iran, Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "I don't want to give a piecemeal response to the ISC report. I think it's better we respond in terms of the government as a whole."

He said the cabinet this morning, at its regular weekly meeting, "reviewed the whole counter-terrorism strategy and approach but, in terms of the particular aspects of the ISC report, I think it's better we give our collective response".

That would probably be in about six months' time, added the spokesman.

He went on: "The terrorism threat remains very active and very real. Our commitment is that, if there is a specific threat the public need to know about, then we will tell them."

The report also revealed that MI5, the security service, was expanding so rapidly in order to meet the threat of terrorism in the UK that it had outgrown its London headquarters building.

Thames House at Westminster is expected to have exhausted its capacity by October. The committee said another building had been found to provide additional accommodation - but its identity was censored out on security grounds.

MI5 staff numbers are now expected to grow by over 50% over the next three years, with over half its resources now devoted to counter-terrorism.

The committee welcomed the expansion but warned that the risks involved in taking on large numbers of inexperienced staff would have to be carefully managed.

"This growth carries a series of risks that the service will need to manage over the next few years, including the need to maintain standards in operational capability and service to customers in spite of the increased proportion of new and inexperienced staff," it said.

It said that the expansion had been accompanied by an acceleration of MI5's regionalisation programme in the wake of the July 7 bombings, with the opening of a number of regional stations around the country.

The committee said that with the overall budget for the intelligence agencies due to rise to more than £1.5bn, it was essential to have proper financial controls in place.

"The significant additional funding made available since 9/11 has generally been accepted as essential for building capacity across the intelligence community to counter threats from international terrorism and to provide an enhanced standard of coverage and assurance," it said.

"Given that this represents an unprecedented level of new funding for the agencies, it is important, the committees view, that mechanisms are in place and functioning to ensure that money is well spent, appropriately controlled and monitored, and serves as a driver for increased efficiency."

Mr Maliki unveiled his national reconciliation plan earlier in the day, inviting insurgents to lay down their arms.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP and close associate of Iraq's President, Jalal Talabani, confirmed that Mr Maliki had set up an email account but did not have details about how many electronic messages had been sent to the Prime Minister.

An Iraqi presidential security adviser, Wafiq al-Samaraie, said the response to Mr Maliki so far had not been overwhelming, with just two messages arriving.

The Iraqi Government did not give out the address after the broadcast to prevent those outside the country from flooding it with junk email. Nevertheless, more traditional methods of contact and diplomacy were showing results yesterday.

Insurgent and government officials said 11 Sunni insurgent groups had offered to halt attacks on the US-led military if the Iraqi Government and the US President, George Bush, set a two-year timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country.

The demand is part of a broader offer from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala.

Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said yesterday that the bombing of the world's most revered Shiite shrines in February was the work of a seven-man cell of al-Qaeda in Iraq that included two Iraqis, four Saudis, and a Tunisian man who has been captured.

Mr Rubaie identified the leader of the al-Qaeda cell as Haitham Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, a Sunni Arab Iraqi born in Samarra.

He remains at large, and officials have distributed his wanted poster to checkpoints and border crossings.

The captured Tunisian told officials that "the sole reason behind his action was to drive a wedge between the Shia and Sunnis and to ignite and trigger a sectarian war in this country", Mr Rubaie said.

Meanwhile, Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, has ordered his country's secret services to find and kill those who kidnapped and killed four Russian embassy employees in Iraq.

In Moscow, meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin ordered the special services to hunt down and "destroy" the killers of four Russian Embassy workers in Iraq, the Kremlin said.

A top security official also said Iraqi forces captured a key al-Qaida suspect wanted in the bombing of a Shiite shrine, but the mastermind of the attack that brought the country to the brink of civil war was still at large.

Iraqi government officials involved with the contacts with insurgents told The Associated Press that several militant groups sent delegates from their regions and tribes to speak on their behalf.

One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of demands for secrecy in the talks, said the insurgents have so far rejected face-to-face talks, saying they fear being targeted by Shiite militias, Iraqi security forces and the Americans.

The official said the insurgents have demanded a two-year "timetable for withdrawal" in return for joining Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's bid for national reconciliation.

The insurgents also said a condition for any future direct talks would be the presence of observers from the Arab League, Saudi Arabia and Iraq's influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars.

Al-Maliki said any amnesty offered under his 24-point reconciliation plan that was unveiled Sunday would not include militants who killed American forces or Iraqis.

"Any amnesty for insurgents will exclude fighters who killed Iraqis or soldiers of the multinational forces because these troops came to Iraq according to international agreements and they are contributing in making the political process successful," he said.

"Those who commit such crimes will stand trial because the aim of killing Iraqis or foreign soldiers is to frustrate democracy and the political process," al-Maliki said.

Al-Maliki has not provided more specifics about the amnesty plan because it's such a sensitive issue in the United States. While he said insurgents who had killed U.S. forces or Iraqis would be excluded, he did not clarify how such a determination would be made because virtually all insurgents who would be affected are still at large.

He also has sought a pardon for detained Iraqis who have not been convicted of killings or terrorist acts.

Al-Maliki also said no timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops would be imposed until Iraqi forces are ready to take over security. "The timing depends on the capabilities of these (Iraqi) forces," he said.

His speech came as the government struggled to contain rampant ethnic and sectarian violence.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad discussed Iraq with Saudi King Abdullah and other top officials Tuesday in Jeddah, the U.S. Embassy said. Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, has good relations and some influence among Iraq's Sunni Arabs, which make up the core of the insurgency.

Key Iraqi lawmakers have said that seven insurgent groups - not including al-Qaida or Islamic terror groups but mostly made up of former members or backers of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime - had offered the government a conditional truce.

But one of those purported groups, the Mohammed Army, denied such contacts had been made.

"We heard from the media that Mohammed Army brigades in Abu Ghraib, Fallujah and Ramadi were among those negotiated with the Iraqi government ... and that did not happen," according to a statement dated Monday and e-mailed to journalists in Fallujah.

The Mohammed Army is made up of former members of Saddam's Baath Party, members of his elite Republican Guards and former military commanders. It, too, has focused attacks on the U.S. military and played a role in the November 2004 battle for Fallujah.

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said a Tunisian identified as Yousri Fakher Mohammed Ali - and also known as Abu Qudama - was captured after being seriously wounded in a clash with security forces north of Baghdad a few days ago in which 15 other foreign fighters were killed.

Al-Rubaie said Abu Qudama was part of a gang that carried out the Feb. 22 attack on the Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The suspect entered Iraq in November 2003 and joined al-Qaida in June 2004, al-Rubaie said.

He also identified the fugitive ringleader in the operation as an Iraqi named Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, an al-Qaida operative. He said the gang, which included two other Iraqis, four Saudis and Abu Qudama, planted bombs in the 1,200-year-old Askariya mosque that exploded and obliterated its glistening golden dome.

A spasm of sectarian killing and revenge attacks on Sunni and Shiite mosques after the bombing took Iraq to the brink of civil war. Since then, at least 3,382 civilians were killed, more than 20,000 families were displaced, and dozens of Sunni and Shiite mosques were damaged or destroyed.

While acknowledging al-Badri was still at large, al-Rubaie did not say if other members of the gang had been captured.

Al-Rubaie said Abu Qudama was involved in the shooting death of an Al-Arabiya TV correspondent and two of her colleagues after the shrine bombing. Abu Qudama was captured in Udaim, a village about 70 miles north of Baghdad, he said.

"Abu Qudama confessed that he killed hundreds of Iraqis," al-Rubaie said, without giving details.

The statement from the Kremlin press service said Putin "has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals" responsible for the deaths of the Russians, who were abducted in early June.

It did not specify what special forces might be involved. Agents of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Security Service - the main successor to the Soviet KGB - could be considered special forces.

Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev later said that special forces would do everything possible to ensure that the killers "do not escape from responsibility," the Interfax news agency reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov declined to say whether any Russian special forces were in Iraq, but noted that there are "people responsible for security at the embassy" in Baghdad. Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analysts, told The Associated Press, "We don't have real special forces in Iraq."

Among the sporadic violence Wednesday in Iraq, according to police:

- A suicide car bomber blew up himself near a Sunni mosque in a market south of the northeastern city of Baqouba, killing one person and wounding 12.

- A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. convoy exploded in western Baghdad, killing an Iraqi civilian and wounding another.

- Gunmen killed Riyadh Abdul-Majid Zuaini, the customs director for central Baghdad, and his driver in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah.

- Clashes between gunmen and police also broke out in the northern city of Mosul, leaving a policeman wounded. One militant was arrested.