In a victory for the Bush administration, U.S. Dist. Judge James Robertson ruled that civilian courts should let the military process play out as Congress intended - a decision that could clear the way for military commissions to begin prosecuting other terrorism suspects.

Had the trial been delayed, as requested by former bin Laden chauffeur Salim Hamdan, it would have been a sign that the entire terror-trial process might crumble under the weight of judicial scrutiny.

Hamdan argued that he should be given a chance to challenge the legality of the military trials, based on last month's Supreme Court ruling that said Guantanamo Bay prisoners can oppose their detentions in federal civilian courts. If judges hold that to be the case, every detainee at the U.S. naval base in Cuba could use court challenges to delay his trial for months or years.

But Robertson refused to step in to stop the Hamdan trial, which is scheduled for Monday.

At Guantanamo Bay, military prosecutors said the ruling gave them more confidence that the trials would go forward against 80 detainees, including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others charged in the attacks.

Documents allege electrical miscues

WASHINGTON - Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

During just one six-month period - August 2006 through January 2007 - at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged U.S. military facilities in Iraq, including the military's largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show.

Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007.

And while the Pentagon has previously reported that 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq, many more have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to the documents.

The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for U.S. troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a "systemic problem" with electrical work.

Heather Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, said KBR had found no evidence of a link between its work and the electrocutions.

More charges of civilian deaths

KABUL, Afghanistan - American Special Forces troops and Afghan commandos killed two influential tribal leaders and a number of their followers in western Afghanistan in a joint airborne operation on Wednesday night amid more accusations about civilian casualties, military officials said Thursday.

NATO and the Afghan Ministry of Defense declared that the tribal leaders were high-priority Taliban targets and that the operation against them was successful. There was no evidence of civilian casualties, a statement from the NATO press office in Kabul said.

But villagers gave a different account, saying houses had been bombed and civilians had been killed and wounded as they fled. Local officials confirmed the bombardment and damage to houses but did not say whether civilians had been killed or wounded.

Kuwait names Iraqi ambassador

BAGHDAD - Kuwait on Thursday named its first ambassador to Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in a major step toward healing the two countries' painful past and boosting regional ties with Baghdad's postwar government.

Kuwait's official news agency quoted the country's foreign minister as saying retired Lt. Gen. Ali al-Momen, a former military chief of staff, will take the ambassador post. His appointment will be issued in a decree by the emir, it said.

The country closed its embassy in Iraq in 1990, after Saddam Hussein invaded his tiny, oil-rich neighbor. The attack spurred the 1991 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam's forces.

The two neighbors had no relations until more than a dozen years later, when another American invasion toppled Saddam. They resumed ties after 2003, and an Iraqi Embassy reopened in Kuwait, led by a charge d'affaires.

Originally published by From Our Press Services .

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