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Since 1999, journalists and historians have uncovered many declassified American military documents showing that the military had adopted a policy of shooting refugees approaching its lines — and American pilots were often directed to strafe refugee columns — all to guard against infiltrators.

And in what would be a scandalous turn to the investigation, The Times of London reported Sunday night that Afghan investigators also determined that American forces not only killed the women but had also “dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath” and then “washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened.”

Israeli analysts charge that other examples of “lawfare’’ are condemnations by human rights groups and the UN of Israeli actions against Palestinian militants, especially last winter’s military operation in Gaza that left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including many civilians, and caused widespread destruction.

The North Vietnamese negotiator of cease-fire talks for Vietnam shared the 1973 prize with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, but Tho said it was not possible for him to accept it while the cease-fire was not being honored. Kissinger accepted the prize and donated its monetary award to fund scholarships.

Aid in the clean-up has also come from the Gates and Ford foundations, the United Nations, and the Czech Republic. But the United States bears the ultimate responsibility. Its recent annual appropriations of $3 million for Agent Orange projects in Vietnam will have to increase as the Vietnamese demonstrate they can use the aid effectively. Just cleaning up the Danang air base will require $17 million. Congress must increase the US commitment to do justice to this continuing environmental and health disaster.

More than a third of the land in six central Vietnamese provinces remains contaminated with land mines and unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War, according to a study released on Friday. In addition to mapping the unexploded ordnance, a project by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense cleared 3,345 acres of land. The Defense Ministry estimates that 16.3 million acres remain to be cleared. Vietnam says that more than 42,000 people have been killed by leftover explosives since the war ended in 1975.

Abu Zubaida's revelations triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms. The interrogations led directly to the arrest of Jose Padilla, the man Abu Zubaida identified as heading an effort to explode a radiological "dirty bomb" in an American city. Padilla was held in a naval brig for 3 1/2 years on the allegation but was never charged in any such plot. Every other lead ultimately dissolved into smoke and shadow, according to high-ranking former U.S. officials with access to classified reports.

Last October, when the Miami court handed down the conviction, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey applauded the ruling and said: “This is the first case in the United States to charge an individual with criminal torture. I hope this case will serve as a model to future prosecutions of this type.”

When asked why that elderly woman was killed, a squad commander was quoted as saying: “What’s great about Gaza — you see a person on a path, he doesn’t have to be armed, you can simply shoot him. In our case it was an old woman on whom I did not see any weapon when I looked. The order was to take down the person, this woman, the minute you see her. There are always warnings, there is always the saying, ‘Maybe he’s a terrorist.’ What I felt was, there was a lot of thirst for blood.”

“We had advance intelligence that there were bombs inside the house,” Captain Y. said. “We looked inside from the doorway and saw things that made us suspicious. I didn’t want to risk the lives of my men. We ordered the house destroyed.”