Subject: Cashmore expected to plead guilty to reduced charge; testify against four others

From: "Eliseo Holman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:27:48 +0200

Despite U.S. pledges of cooperation and new ideas on missile defense, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were warned by President Vladimir Putin to back off on missile defense plans for the former Soviet sphere."We may decide someday to put missile defense systems on the moon, but before we get to that we may lose a chance for agreement because of you implementing your own plans," he told Rice and Gates in Russian, according to an Associated Press translation.In combative comments that took the U.S. side aback during a photo session, Putin criticized Bush's pet project and threatened to pull out of a Cold War-era treaty that limits intermediate-range missiles.Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in a mortar attack launched "in the vicinity of Baghdad" on Wednesday, the U.S. military said Saturday. The deaths put the total number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war at 3,827.The attack comes a day after a security official in Iraq's Salaheddin province said that a U.S. military operation Thursday night killed 20 civilians, most of them women and children. Full storyU.S. military planners quietly have stepped up a review of alternatives in case the Turkish government restricts U.S. access to Turkish airspace or cuts off access to the air base at Incirlik, Turkey, CNN has learned.The Pentagon plans to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland, linked to a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic. The Pentagon says the system will provide some protection in Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran, but Russia believes the system is a step toward undermining the deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.Russian President Vladimir Putin says any treaty must be "universal in nature."Rice said the ideas that she and Gates presented are "conceptual at this point" and would be handed to experts to consider further.MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- President Bush's top two Cabinet officials, expecting a polite photo op, were ambushed by a Russian leader who fears Eastern Europe may be turned into a U.S. staging point for a new Cold War.