CAMP LEJEUNE: Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he approves of the Obama administration's release of Bush-era memos on harsh interrogations of terrorist suspects because he expects that the documents inevitably will become public.Gates says he was most concerned with the protection of CIA agents involved in the interrogations, which included harsh techniques that some in the Obama administration are calling torture. Gates says he wants the CIA personnel protected from prosecution.Gates responded Thursday to questions about the Bush-era memos during a trip to Camp Lejeune to talk with Marines heading to Afghanistan.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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