Commandos

WASHINGTON -- The United States worked for four months to help Turkey arrest Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish rebel leader, U.S. officials said yesterday.U.S. diplomatic pressure backed by intelligence gathering helped to put Ocalan in flight from a haven in Syria, to persuade nation after nation to refuse him sanctuary and to drive him into an increasingly desperate search for a city of refuge, the officials said."We as a government tried to figure out where he was, where he was going and how we might bring him to justice," a senior administration official said.

WASHINGTON -- Within minutes of receiving word that an Air Force pilot was down in Yugoslavia, an elite air commando team took off from its base in Brindisi, Italy, to rescue the flier from deep inside enemy territory.The F-117 Nighthawk fighter went down at 2: 50 p.m. EST, 50 to 70 miles northwest of Belgrade, according to a military officer knowledgeable with the rescue operation and who spoke only on condition of anonymity.A commando team launched "nearly immediately" from their base at Brindisi, guided to the crash site by a pair of E-3 AWACs surveillance aircraft, the officer said.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Most of my greenish friends are shocked and outraged at the Navy's intentions to use Bloodsworth Island, a 6,000-acre marshy archipelago in the Chesapeake Bay south of Hooper Straits, to train SEAL teams.The greens, including both a small number who know Bloodsworth well and a much larger number who have never seen it and would be distinctly unhappy if marooned there in mosquito season, are pulling out all the weapons they can find to block the plan. These range from old political IOUs to great blue herons, from '60s-style anti-militarism to baby peregrine falcons.

WASHINGTON -- Thirty years after they were written off as dead, Vietnamese commandos who once worked for the U.S. Army are being abandoned again by a Pentagon that has refused to pay compensation approved by President Clinton, a lawyer for the commandos says.Six months ago, Clinton signed a law providing $20 million in compensation to the commandos, who were hired by the CIA and Defense Department for secret missions in the early days of the Vietnam War.But the Defense Department is balking at making payments.

The Memorial Day weekend kicks off with an interesting documentary on AMC detailing how a bunch of Hollywood stars spent World War II."JAG" (8 p.m.-9 p.m. and 9 p.m.-10 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Two chances (both repeats from January) to get in step with the adventures of the fine folks of the military's Judge Advocate General's office: First, the gang has to track down a super-patriot who's stolen the Declaration of Independence (man, what would that fetch on the autograph market?); second, Harm (David James Elliott)

If watching burly men die really horrible deaths for two hours is your idea of fun, boy, are you going to love "The Rock." This is one testosterone-fueled movie.It's also overly long and relentless in its noise and carnage, and as a result, its interesting characters are too-often eclipsed.The film was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson, whose action-heavy credits include a couple of "Beverly Hills Cop" movies, "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder" and "Crimson Tide."Nicolas Cage stars as a chemical-weapons expert for the FBI, the elaborately named Stanley Goodspeed.

WASHINGTON -- Newly declassified government documents prove that the United States, after sending hundreds of Vietnamese commandos into North Vietnam during the 1960s, deliberately declared them dead, lied to their wives and then buried their story under a shroud of secrecy.Nearly 200 of those secret agents survived capture, torture and prison and are alive in the United States. They are asking the government for back pay -- $2,000 a year, without interest, for their prison time -- and help in getting 88 fellow commandos out of Vietnam.

To Sedgwick Tourison, his book about a secret army of commandos in the Vietnam War is an attempt "to correct a grievous wrong 32 years ago.""It's a story we've covered up for so long. It had to be told," said the 54-year-old Crofton author, who was an interrogator during the war and later an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It's not easy, but it's all documented."Mr. Tourison's book, "Secret Army, Secret War," hit regional book stores this month. The 389-page book, published by the Naval Institute Press, is an exhaustive account of the Central Intelligence Agency's attempt to train South Vietnamese commandos to infiltrate North Vietnam.

Dozens of French navy commandos storm a Greenpeace ship in the South Pacific to thwart an attempt to land protesters on an island where France plans to resume nuclear tests. The crew of Rainbow Warrior II, taken into custody, then freed 10 hours later, was attempting to call attention to French plans to set off eight nuclear test blasts. Page 3A

"Secret Army, Secret War: Washington's Tragic Spy Operation in North Vietnam," by Sedgwick Tourison. Illustrated. 320 pages. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. $29.95Sedgwick Tourison, a former top analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has written an exhaustively researched account of a Vietnam War intelligence failure that was ineffective, sustained and brutal in its consequences."Secret Army, Secret War," is the story behind Washington's unsuccessful effort to use small teams of covert Vietnamese commandos to wage guerrilla warfare in North Vietnam.

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself ** ( 2 STARS) $23.4 million $23.4 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:53 What it's about: A hard-drinking, cynical nightclub singer (Taraji P. Henson) must care for her 16-year-old niece and two younger nephews after they are dumped on her doorstep. Our take: Strong performances and stirring music more than compensate for Perry's hokey storytelling. 9 *** ( 3 STARS) $10.7 million $15.1 million 10 days Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:19 What it's about: A group of nine living raggedy dolls debate how to survive in a world where malevolent machines have eliminated all other life.

The Final Destination * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $12.3 million $47.5 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 1:22 What it's about: Once again, attractive young people try to cheat death. Silly them. Our take: The filmmakers waste little plot or character development on dispatching them with 3-D gore. Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $11.6 million $91.8 million 3 weeks Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above)

The Final Destination * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $27 million $27 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 1:22 What it's about: Once again, attractive young people try to cheat death. Silly them. Our take: The filmmakers waste little plot or character development on dispatching them with 3-D gore. Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $19.3 million $73 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above)

Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $38 million $38 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above) bedevil the German army, and a French Jew seeks justice for the Nazi slaughter of her family. Our take: It's so hollow and protracted that it transforms mayhem into monotony. District 9 ** ( 2 STARS) $18.2 million $72.8 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 1:52 What it's about: A government agent comes to the aid of an alien race (above)

MUMBAI, India - Security forces assaulted a Jewish center in Mumbai where Muslim militants were believed holed up with possible hostages today, with black-clad commandos dropping from an Indian helicopter as sharpshooters opened fire on the five-story building. The attack came as Indian commandos scoured two luxury hotels room-by-room for survivors and holed-up militants, more than a day after a chain of attacks across India's financial center by suspected Muslim militants left at least 119 people dead.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - More extremist attacks shook Pakistan yesterday on the heels of a devastating bomb attack on the capital's best-known hotel. Gunmen took the Afghan consul-general hostage after killing his driver, and suicide bombers killed nine police officers at a checkpoint in the valley of Swat, northwest of the capital. The bombing Saturday of the deluxe Marriott Hotel, in which at least 53 people died and more than 260 were wounded, was still shrouded in mystery. A little-known terrorist group called Fadayeen Islam - "Islamic Commandos" - took responsibility in a tape given to a Dubai-based television news channel, claiming that there had been 250 U.S. Marines and NATO officials at the hotel.

NAJAF, IRAQ -- The local audience knew what to expect when Iraqi commandos took the stage at the stadium here yesterday with frogs and a rabbit in hand, preparing to celebrate with a bloody flourish the handover of local authority from U.S. to Iraqi troops. The Americans were in for a surprise. As U.S. commanders and guests looked on, the burly commandos in dark green T-shirts began taking bites out of the frogs. One man knelt, placed the rabbit belly-up on his lap, and proceeded to cut it open with his military knife.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israeli commandos dropped deep into Lebanon yesterday, clashing with Hezbollah fighters in a raid that left one Israeli soldier dead and put the first serious strain on the cease-fire that started six days ago. Israel and Lebanon swiftly accused each other of breaking the U.N. Security Council resolution that established the conditions for ending more than a month of cross-border bombing and rocket attacks that left hundreds of people...

Beirut, Lebanon -- Witnesses said the Dar Al Hikma hospital in Baalbek was empty but for guards and Hezbollah fighters, when the Israeli Apache helicopters struck at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday. What followed was a withering close-quarters fight between the guerrillas and Israeli commandos in the heart of the Bekaa Valley, 60 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. It marked the deepest penetration by Israeli forces into Lebanon in the 22-day war. The choreographed way the several dozen helicopters and fighters coursed up and down the Bekaa Valley suggested more than one agenda, witnesses said.

BAGHDAD -- Gunmen in the uniforms of Iraq's Shiite-dominated police commandos set up a checkpoint north of the capital and kidnapped 10 employees of the main Sunni religious foundation yesterday, the latest attack in a growing sectarian war. Iraqi officials said about 10 employees of the Sunni endowment were heading home in a minibus to the Taji area when they were stopped by men wearing black uniforms and equipped with sport-utility vehicles apparently from...