Iraq

Rice: Woodward 'not right' about war decision

WASHINGTON - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice forcefully disputed on Sunday an assertion that President Bush decided in early January 2003 to invade Iraq, three months before official accounts say the decision was made.

The statement, in Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's new book about the runup to war, is "simply not, not right," Rice said.

Rice did not deny the private conversation between her and Bush just after New Year's Day in which Woodward said the decision was made, but she said the writer had misinterpreted what was said.

She said Woodward also misread another comment attributed to her, that since Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew of the "go" decision and Secretary of State Colin Powell did not, perhaps Bush should tell Powell.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's new defense minister announced a Kurd, a Sunni Muslim and a Shiite as his top generals Sunday, giving the country's main communities representation in the military's senior levels.

Ali Allawi, a Shiite civilian named by U.S. officials two weeks ago, said the all-volunteer army should have 35,000 troops by September. He emphasized it would be a "defensive" force and called on Iraqis to cooperate with the military to ease dependence on American-led forces.

Gen. Babakir Zebari was named top general and Allawi's senior military adviser. Zebari commanded Kurdish forces in northern Iraq for decades and fought alongside coalition troops during the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

The chief of staff will be Gen. Amer al-Hashimi, a Sunni and former major general in the Iraqi infantry until he retired in 1997.

Lt. Gen. Daham al-Assal, a Shiite, was named deputy chief of staff. He had the rank of major general in the previous military.

TOKYO - Three Japanese hostages freed last week in Iraq were reunited with their families in Japan Sunday in a low-profile homecoming.

Aid workers Noriaki Imai, 18, and Nahoko Takato, 34, arrived in Tokyo with photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, after a stop in the United Arab Emirates for medical checks. They were released Thursday.

They were immediately whisked to an undisclosed location to meet loved ones, away from the crush of reporters, television cameras and onlookers that had gathered to greet them.

The former hostages canceled a scheduled news conference. Lawyers for their families said in a statement that doctors in Dubai had diagnosed the three as having posttraumatic stress disorder.

POPE PLEADS FOR "HUMANITY': Pope John Paul II appealed Sunday for the release of hostages in Iraq. "I invite the kidnappers to have feelings of humanity," the pope said in his weekly appearance from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square. Fifteen foreigners, including two Americans, are missing in a spate of abductions.

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