BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Miller 'sorry' for WMD inaccuracies

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Miller 'sorry' for WMD inaccuracies:

"Judith Miller, the US journalist at the heart of the CIA leak probe, has apologised to her readers because her stories about WMD and Iraq turned out to be wrong.

The US journalist, who spent 85 days in prison over the summer before agreeing to give evidence to a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, made the apology during an exclusive interview for BBC Newsnight.

She said: 'I am obviously deeply chagrined that I ever write anything that turns out to be incorrect. I'm deeply sorry that the stories were wrong.'"

ABC15.com: Phoenix and Arizona News, Live Weather, Web Cams and More

ABC15.com: Phoenix and Arizona News, Live Weather, Web Cams and More: "11/30/2005 07:00:35

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top military man, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said American troops in Iraq have a duty to intercede and stop abuse of prisoners by Iraqi security personnel.

When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld contradicted Pace, the general stood firm.

Rumsfeld told the general he believed Pace meant to say the U.S. soldiers had to report the abuse, not stop it.

Pace stuck to his original statement."

E.U. Seeks Details On Secret CIA Jails

E.U. Seeks Details On Secret CIA Jails:

"The European Union cited possible 'violations of international law' by the United States in requesting that the Bush administration clarify media reports and 'allay parliamentary and public concerns' about secret CIA prisons and the transporting of al Qaeda suspects in Europe, according to a letter from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."

CNN.com - Christian party officials killed in Iraq - Nov 29, 2005

CNN.com - Christian party officials killed in Iraq - Nov 29, 2005:

"Gunmen ambushed members of a Christian political party, the Assyrian Democratic movement, in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, killing two of them and wounding two others, a hospital official said."

GM to raise India workforce by 30%- The Times of India

GM to raise India workforce by 30%- The Times of India:

"NEW DELHI: America's loss is turning out to be India's gain. Within days of announcing 30,000 job-cuts in the US, automobile giant General Motors Corp will this week unveil plans to increase its workforce in India by nearly 30%.

The carmaker has decided to add 450 jobs at its existing plant in Halol (Gujarat) as part of plans to expand presence in India - the emerging low-cost automobile hub in the east.

'GM is going on a hiring spree in India, and it's add jobs both on the factory shop-floor as well in the executive cadre. GM will this week start the process to hire 450 additional people for its India venture,' a senior head-hunter told The Times of India."

Telegraph | News | 'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers

Telegraph | News | 'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers:

"'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 27/11/2005)

A 'trophy' video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

WATCH - http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Aegis-PSD.mov

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on 'route Irish', a road that links the airport to Baghdad."

Another Time Reporter Is Asked to Testify in Leak Case - New York Times

Another Time Reporter Is Asked to Testify in Leak Case - New York Times: "November 28, 2005

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - A second reporter for Time magazine has been asked to testify under oath in the C.I.A. leak case, about conversations she had in 2004 with a lawyer for Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, the magazine reported on Sunday.

The reporter, Viveca Novak, who has written about the leak investigation, has been asked to testify by the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, about her conversations with Robert D. Luskin, a lawyer for Mr. Rove, the magazine said.

The request for Ms. Novak's testimony is the first tangible sign in weeks that Mr. Fitzgerald has not completed his inquiry into Mr. Rove's actions and may still be considering charges against him. Mr. Rove has long been under scrutiny in the case but has not been accused of any wrongdoing."

Pension Officers Putting Billions Into Hedge Funds - New York Times

Pension Officers Putting Billions Into Hedge Funds - New York Times:

"In Washington, despite concerns over the health of the nation's pension system, there has been little discussion of pension plans' growing use of nontraditional investments. Even as Congress has been working to shore up the pension system and strengthen the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a provision to relax the pension law for hedge funds has been proposed.

The provision would raise the limit on how much pension money a hedge fund can handle before it is deemed a fiduciary under the pension law, which would require it to be more prudent and careful than is required under securities law and would bar some trades entirely. The provision was added to a broad pension bill in the House shortly before the Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the legislation.

Currently a financial institution becomes a pension fiduciary when more than 25 percent of its assets consist of pension money; the bill would raise that to 50 percent. The House bill would also change the definition of 'plan assets,' so that only corporate pension money would be counted, not pension money from government plans or foreign plans."

Pension Officers Putting Billions Into Hedge Funds - New York Times

Pension Officers Putting Billions Into Hedge Funds - New York Times:

"Those benefits are considered so crucial that they are guaranteed: corporate pension failures are covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal agency, while pension failures by state and local governments are covered by taxpayers. Given that the benefits are paid out on a set schedule, critics wonder whether it makes sense to rely on investments whose returns are hard to predict, managed by private partnerships that disclose little about their operations and charge some of the highest fees on Wall Street.

'It's very inappropriate when the company is offering a pension plan that is guaranteed by the federal government,' said Zvi Bodie, a professor of finance and economics at Boston University who is enthusiastic about hedge funds in other contexts.

Hedge funds make large, sophisticated investments based on the premise that by swimming outside the currents of the markets, often betting against conventional wisdom, they can outperform other investments. Hedge funds became famous in the 1990's, when managers like Michael Steinhardt and George Soros made huge swashbuckling bets that sometimes produced returns of 30 percent or more.

More recently, hedge funds have made headlines when they ran into trouble: Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund whose principals included two Nobel Prize-winning economists, nearly collapsed in 1998; and this summer, Bayou Group, a $450 million hedge fund based in Connecticut, shut down after most of its money disappeared. Its two officers have pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Hedge funds have traditionally been only for wealthy, sophisticated investors so regulators have not monitored them as they have stocks or mutual funds, although they are starting to do so.

The news of splashy gains and scandals may not paint an accurate picture of a business that in many ways has become more conservative as a result of the flood of pension fund money. To attract that money, many hedge fund managers emphasize stability.

Among pension fund managers, however, 'the whole mentality has changed,' said Jane Buchan, chief executive of Pacific Alternative Asset Management, which manages $7.5 billion in funds that invest in hedge funds, primarily for large pension funds. 'They are saying, we need returns and we will be aggressive about getting them. They just don't want any downturns.'

One of the first pensions to start working with hedge funds is also the nation's biggest corporate pension fund, the $90 billion General Motors fund. It started with a small test investment in 1999 and increased it to about $2 billion in 2003, said Jerry Dubrowski, a G.M. spokesman.

The company is using hedge funds, along with other unconventional investments, in hopes of getting something close to stock market returns without the market's volatility, Mr. Dubrowski said. To pay out the $6.5 billion G.M. owes to its retirees each year, the pension fund must produce annual returns of a little more than 7 percent. Otherwise, G.M. will have to dip into the fund's principal. At current interest rates, G.M. cannot get those returns with bond investments, and if it tries to juice returns by betting on the stock market, it will have to cope with market swings."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam trial to resume in Baghdad - Former US attorney may join defense

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam trial to resume in Baghdad: "The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven aides on murder and torture charges is due to resume in Baghdad after a six-week break.

Security has been tightened after two defence lawyers were murdered and others, including witnesses, received death threats.

Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, an outspoken critic of the trial, may join the defence team."

Lawmaker Urges Release of Bombing Document - Yahoo! News

Lawmaker Urges Release of Bombing Document - Yahoo! News: "Fri Nov 25, 2:36 PM ET

LONDON - A lawmaker said Friday he had filed a parliamentary motion urging Prime Minister
Tony Blair to publish a leaked document that allegedly suggests
President Bush wanted to bomb the headquarters of Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera."

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel (11/22/05)

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel (11/22/05): "Nov. 22, 2005

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.


The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President's Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.




The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the 'President's Daily Brief,' a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources."

White House claims 'strong consensus' on Iraq pullout Channelnewsasia.com

Channelnewsasia.com:

"WASHINGTON : The White House has for the first time claimed ownership of an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was 'remarkably similar' to its own.

It also signalled its acceptance of a recent US Senate amendment designed to pave the way for a phased US military withdrawal from the violence-torn country."

Rumsfeld’s Al-Jazeera outburst - Sunday Times - Times Online

Rumsfeld’s Al-Jazeera outburst - Sunday Times - Times Online:

"THE Middle Eastern news network Al-Jazeera was accused by Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, of broadcasting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” reports about the war in Iraq the day before President George W Bush met Tony Blair at the White House and apparently suggested bombing the station’s headquarters.

Rumsfeld denounced the satellite television station at a Pentagon briefing on April 15, 2004 after Al-Jazeera had reported that America’s assault on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja was terrorising civilians. “They are simply lying,” Rumsfeld said.

It was on April 16 that Bush reportedly said during talks with Blair that he wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera’s offices in Doha, Qatar, although it is not known whether he was joking.

A report last week that was said to be based on a transcript of the conversation claimed that Blair had talked the president out of a raid, but Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, has banned newspapers from publishing details under the Official Secrets Act. The White House dismissed the report as “outlandish”."

Shiite Cleric Increases His Power in Iraq - New York Times

Shiite Cleric Increases His Power in Iraq - New York Times:

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 26 - Men loyal to Moktada al-Sadr piled out of their cars at a plantation near Baghdad on a recent morning, bristling with Kalashnikov rifles and eager to exact vengeance on the Sunni Arab fighters who had butchered one of their Shiite militia brothers.

When the smoke cleared after the fight, at least 21 bodies lay scattered among the weeds, making it the deadliest militia battle in months. The black-clad Shiites swaggered away, boasting about the carnage.

Even as that battle raged on Oct. 27, Mr. Sadr's aides in Baghdad were quietly closing a deal that would signal his official debut as a kingmaker in Iraqi politics, placing his handpicked candidates on the same slate - and on equal footing - with the Shiite governing parties in the December parliamentary elections. The country's rulers had come courting him, and he had forced them to meet his terms."

| Iraq abuse 'as bad as Saddam era 'BBC NEWS | Middle East

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq abuse 'as bad as Saddam era':

"Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said that human rights abuses in Iraq today are as bad as those during the rule of Saddam Hussein.

In an interview with the UK's Observer newspaper, Mr Allawi said that Iraqis were being tortured and killed by secret police in secret bunkers.

He said militias operated with impunity inside the interior ministry and had infiltrated the police.

He urged action to stop 'a disease' spreading throughout the government.

The BBC's Chris Xia says Mr Allawi's comments appear to be aimed at setting the agenda for the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

'Contagious'

'People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse,' Mr Allawi told the newspaper.


'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam.

'These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam Hussein, and now we are seeing the same things.'"

UAW opposes Delphi exec bonuses----------------DailyBulletin.com - Business

DailyBulletin.com - Business:

"On the day before Delphi filed for bankruptcy in October, the company said it was boosting the severance packages for 21 top executives. Under the new agreement, executives will be eligible for 18 months of pay if Delphi lays them off. Previously severance packages were capped at 12 months. In exchange, executives signed agreements promising not to work for competitors for the 18-month period.

Delphi also wants the court to approve a separate package that would grant 10 percent of the equity of the reorganized company to 600 executives if Delphi emerges from bankruptcy. That package also would pay out bonuses to executives both during and after bankruptcy.

UAW calculates the value of the stock options is $400 million. The union also says the bonuses would cost $42 million annually during bankruptcy and $89 million once the company emerges from bankruptcy.

'UAW opposes the ... motion because it is grossly excessive and an imprudent use of estate assets,' the union said in the filing."

Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake The Seattle Times: Local News:

The Seattle Times: Local News: Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake:

"In October 2002, Dicks voted loudly and proudly to back President Bush in a future deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq — one of two Washington state Democratic House members to do so. Adam Smith, whose district includes Fort Lewis, was the other.

Dicks thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and wouldn't hesitate to use them against the United States.

After visiting Iraq early in the war, 'Norm told me the Iraqis were going to be throwing petals at American troops,' Murtha said in an interview this week.

Dicks now says it was all a mistake — his vote, the invasion, and the way the United States is waging the war.

While he disagrees with Murtha's conclusion that U.S. troops should be withdrawn within six months, Dicks said, 'He may well be right if this insurgency goes much further.'

'The insurgency has gotten worse and worse,' he said. 'That's where Murtha's rationale is pretty strong — we're talking a lot of casualties with no success in sight. The American people obviously know that this war is a mistake.'

Dicks, a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, says he's particularly angry about the intelligence that supported going to war.

Without the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), he said, he would 'absolutely not' have voted for the war.

The Bush administration has accused some members of Congress of rewriting history by claiming the president misled Americans about the reasons for going to war. Congress, the administration says, saw the same intelligence and agreed Iraq was a threat.

But Dicks says the intelligence was 'doctored.' And he says the White House didn't plan for and deploy enough troops for the growing insurgency.

'A lot of us relied on [former CIA director] George Tenet. We had many meetings with the White House and CIA, and they did not tell us there was a dispute between the CIA, Commerce or the Pentagon on the WMDs,' he said.

He and Murtha tended to give the military, the CIA and the White House the benefit of the doubt, Dicks says. But he now says he and his colleagues should have pressed much harder for answers."

KUTV: Utah Religious Leaders Endorses Anti-Torture Bill

KUTV: Utah Religious Leaders Endorses Anti-Torture Bill:

"SALT LAKE CITY A group of Utah religious leaders has endorsed a U.S. Senate-passed measure that would ban U.S. use of torture.

A statement signed by the 41 religious leaders, representing a number of Christian denominations, the Muslim community and pagan clergy, called on Congress and the president to rule out any use of torture of war prisoners.

The group did not include any representative of the state's predominant denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mormon church spokesman Dale Bills said Wednesday that the church ``condemns inhumane treatment of any person under any circumstances.

``The church has not taken a position on any proposed legislative or administrative actions regarding torture,'' Bills said.

The statement issued by the 41 Utah religious leaders urged their members to press congressional representatives to pass the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill containing anti-torture provisions.

It cited a similar declaration by the National Council of Churches."

Iraqi Court Reaches Deal With Hussein's Lawyers - New York Times

Iraqi Court Reaches Deal With Hussein's Lawyers - New York Times:

"The lawyers imposed the boycott after a group of armed men dragged one of the attorneys who appeared at the court’s opening session last month from his office in east Baghdad and shot him dead, less than 36 hours after the televised trial began. Two weeks ago, the second lawyer was killed in a drive-by shooting in west Baghdad , and a third, injured in that attack, subsequently fled Iraq for sanctuary in Qatar. There have been no arrests in either attack."

Warning on Jazeera bombing report - Yahoo! News

Warning on Jazeera bombing report - Yahoo! News:

"Britain has warned media organizations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S.
President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.

The government's top lawyer warned editors in a note after the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Tuesday that a secret British government memo said British Prime Minister
Tony Blair had talked Bush out of bombing the broadcaster in April last year.

Several British newspapers reported the attorney general's note on Wednesday and repeated the Mirror's allegations, which the White House said were 'so outlandish' they did not merit a response. Blair's office declined to comment.
................

Leo O'Connor, who used to work for Clarke, and civil servant David Keogh were charged last Thursday under Britain's Official Secrets Act with making a "damaging disclosure of a document relating to international relations.
.......................

In 2001, the station's Kabul office was hit by U.S. bombs and in 2003 Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a U.S. strike on its Baghdad office. The United States has denied deliberately targeting the station."

Former DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy - New York Times

Former DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy - New York Times: ": November 22, 2005

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 - Michael Scanlon, a former business partner of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former top aide to Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials.

Mr. Scanlon also agreed to repay $19.6 million to his former Indian tribe lobbying clients.

He acknowledged in a plea agreement that he and Mr. Abramoff, identified in the court papers as 'Lobbyist A,' agreed to make lavish gifts to public officials, including all-expense-paid trips to Europe and the Super Bowl, in exchange for official actions.

Federal law enforcement officials portrayed the plea bargain, under which Mr. Scanlon faces up to five years in prison, as an important development in the larger criminal investigation of Mr. Abramoff, who has been under scrutiny by a grand jury here for more than a year.

The investigation, which initially centered on accusations that Mr. Abramoff had defrauded tribal casinos of tens of millions of dollars in lobbying fees, has created alarm on Capitol Hill, where the lobbyist and his junior partner, Mr. Scanlon, claimed friendships among the Republican leaders of Congress.

Prosecutors have not named any of the public officials who were the targets of Mr. Scanlon's scheme.

But court papers in the case filed Monday and last week singled out one member of Congress - 'Representative No. 1' - as a focus of Mr. Scanlon's illegal lobbying, asserting that the lawmaker accepted gifts, including a 2002 golf trip to Scotland and regular meals at Mr. Abramoff's restaurant, 'in exchange for a series of official acts and influence.'

Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Administration Committee, has acknowledged that he is the lawmaker, while saying there was no quid pro quo with Mr. Abramoff or Mr. Scanlon. Mr. Ney, who was subpoenaed this month by the grand jury investigating Mr. Abramoff, has said he was 'duped' by the lobbyists."

Iraqi Factions Seek Timetable for U.S. Pullout - New York Times

Iraqi Factions Seek Timetable for U.S. Pullout - New York Times: "November 22, 2005

CAIRO, Nov. 21 - For the first time, Iraq's political factions on Monday collectively called for a timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces, in a moment of consensus that comes as the Bush administration battles pressure at home to commit itself to a pullout schedule.

The announcement, made at the conclusion of a reconciliation conference here backed by the Arab League, was a public reaching out by Shiites, who now dominate Iraq's government, to Sunni Arabs on the eve of parliamentary elections that have been put on shaky ground by weeks of sectarian violence.

About 100 Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, many of whom will run in the election on Dec. 15, signed a closing memorandum on Monday that 'demands a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified timetable, dependent on an immediate national program for rebuilding the security forces,' the statement said.

'The Iraqi people are looking forward to the day when foreign forces will leave Iraq, when its armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can enjoy peace and stability and an end to terrorism,' it continued."

CNN.com - Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP - Nov 20, 2005

CNN.com - Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP - Nov 20, 2005:

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the 'philosophical guidance' and 'flexibility' that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.

'There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it,' Wilkerson said on CNN's 'Late Edition.'

'There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office,' he said. 'His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department.'

At another point in the interview, Wilkerson said 'the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action.'

Traveling in Latin America earlier this month, President Bush defended U.S. treatment of prisoners, saying flatly, 'We do not torture.' (Full story)

Cheney has lobbied against a measure in Congress that would outlaw 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment' of prisoners, calling for an exception for the CIA in cases that involve a detainee who may have knowledge of an imminent attack."

Congress reduces its oversight role - The Boston Globe

Congress reduces its oversight role - The Boston Globe: "Congress reduces its oversight role"

WASHINGTON -- Back in the mid-1990s, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, aggressively delving into alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration, logged 140 hours of sworn testimony into whether former president Bill Clinton had used the White House Christmas card list to identify potential Democratic donors.

In the past two years, a House committee has managed to take only 12 hours of sworn testimony about the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Thousands in Mass. to get cheaper oil from Chavez in Venezuela - The Boston Globe

Thousands in Mass. to get cheaper oil - The Boston Globe:
"Delahunt, Chavez help broker deal

A subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to local charities and 45,000 low-income families in Massachusetts next month under a deal arranged by US Representative William D. Delahunt, a local nonprofit energy corporation, and Venezuela's president, White House critic Hugo Chavez.

The approximately $9 million deal will bring nine million gallons of oil to families and three million gallons to institutions that serve the poor, such as homeless shelters, said officials from Citizens Energy Corp., which is signing the contract. Families would pay about $276 for a 200-gallon shipment, a savings of about $184 and enough to last about three weeks.

The contract is to be signed Tuesday by officials from Citizens Energy, based in Boston, and CITGO, a Houston-based subsidiary of Petraleos de Venezuela SA. The contract was arranged after months of talks between Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat active in Latin American affairs, and Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper and fierce critic of the Bush administration.

''We recognized that we had an opportunity,' Delahunt's spokesman, Steve Schwadron, said yesterday.

Chavez showed ''an inclination to do a humanitarian distribution' of oil, and poor families in Massachusetts had a ''desperate need' for relief from high home-heating prices, Schwadron said. He characterized the deal as one between ''a US company and two nonprofits to help them do more of what they already do, with terms that mean the price is good.'"

New study details Iraq insurgency BBC NEWS | World | Middle East |

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | New study details Iraq insurgency: "Up to 3,000 foreign insurgents may be fighting in Iraq, but they remain a small part of the overall rebellion, a US military analyst has suggested.

Algerians, Syrians and Yemenis are most numerous among foreign insurgents, said ex-White House aide Anthony Cordesman.

Mr Cordesman, a veteran analyst, used Saudi and other regional security studies to collate data on insurgents.

The figure is three times as large as unofficial Pentagon estimates, but may total no more than 10% of insurgents.

The Iraqi insurgency remains largely home-grown, Mr Cordesman added, with 90% or more hailing from Iraq."

CNN.com - Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan - Nov 18, 2005

CNN.com - Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan - Nov 18, 2005:

"The top U.S. commander in Iraq has submitted a plan to the Pentagon for withdrawing troops in Iraq, according to a senior defense official.

Gen. George Casey submitted the plan to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It includes numerous options and recommends that brigades -- usually made up of about 2,000 soldiers each -- begin pulling out of Iraq early next year.

The proposal comes as tension grows in both Washington and Baghdad following a call by a senior House Democrat to bring U.S. troops home and the deaths of scores of people by suicide bombers in two Iraqi cities."

The Observer | International | Frontline police of new Iraq are waging secret war of vengeance

The Observer | International | Frontline police of new Iraq are waging secret war of vengeance:

"Frontline police of new Iraq are waging secret war of vengeance"

Sunday November 20, 2005
The Observer


Baghdad's Medical Forensic Institute - the mortuary - is a low, modern building reached via a narrow street. Most days it is filled with families of the dead. They come here for two reasons. One group, animated and noisy in grief, comes to collect its dead. The other, however, returns day after day to poke through the new cargoes of corpses ferried in by ambulance, looking for a face or clothes they might recognise. They are the relatives and friends of the 'disappeared', searching for their men. And when the disappeared are finally found, on the streets or in the city's massive rubbish dumps, or in the river, their bodies bear the all-too-telling signs of a savage beating, often with electrical cables, followed by the inevitable bullet to the head.
...
According to human rights organisations in Baghdad, 'disappearances' - for long a feature of Iraq's dirty war - have reached epidemic proportions in recent months. Human rights workers, international and local, who asked not to be identified in order to protect their researchers in the city and their organisations' access to senior government officials, told The Observer last week that they have hundreds of cases on their books. They described the disappearances as the most pressing human rights issue in a country that is in the midst of a human rights disaster.
...
In retrospect, it would turn out to be a minor abuse in comparison with what would follow. Instead, the roots of the human rights catastrophe that has enveloped the ministry were to be found in the simmering sectarian conflict of tit-for-tat assassinations that had taken hold in Baghdad's vast suburbs. There, the armed militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Badr Brigades, had begun a campaign of revenge attacks against former members of the largely Sunni secret police, the mukhabarat, tactics that would be imported wholesale into the Ministry of the Interior when SCIRI - and the Badrists - took control of it after the elections. By the early months of this year, a militia widely accused by Sunnis of a campaign of assassination had become integrated into the newly emergent Special Police Commandos under the command of the ministry, led by a senior member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Bayan Jabr. The Badr Brigade's campaign would become integrated into one of the Iraqi government's most powerful ministries.
...

'The origins of what is going on now go back to the period from April to May 2003,' said a British security source. Then members of the Badr Brigades returning from exile in Iran began a vendetta against Baathists, largely former members of the mukhabarat. It is a campaign that has widened as it has continued and what is worrying now is the extent to which it is tacitly sanctioned. By the spring and early summer of this year worrying reports were beginning to emerge of secret interrogation facilities where torture and extrajudicial killings were taking place at sites directly controlled by the Ministry of the Interior or associated with police commando units under its command; a list of alleged sites was published by The Observer. Even then, with the accusations of abuse fully in the open, and with the Foreign Office admitting it had privately relayed its concern about the abuses to the Iraqi government, the policy of the US and the UK was to keep up pressure behind the scenes.

British-trained police operating in Basra have tortured at least two civilians to death with electric drills -Independent Online Edition > Middle East

Independent Online Edition > Middle East:

"British-trained police operating in Basra have tortured at least two civilians to death with electric drills, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence, admits that he knows of 'alleged deaths in custody' and other 'serious prisoner abuse' at al-Jamiyat police station, which was reopened by Britain after the war.

Militia-dominated police, who were recruited by Britain, are believed to have tortured at least two men to death in the station. Their bodies were later found with drill holes to their arms, legs and skulls."

Security adviser named as source in CIA scandal - Sunday Times - Times Online

Security adviser named as source in CIA scandal - Sunday Times - Times Online:

"THE mysterious source who gave America’s foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington’s biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation."

Patriot Act extension shelved - The Boston Globe

Patriot Act extension shelved - The Boston Globe: "November 19, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Capping another tough week for President Bush and top Republicans in Congress, a bipartisan backlash yesterday forced congressional leaders to shelve a bill to extend provisions of the USA Patriot Act that expire at the end of the year."

Cities Show All Politics Is Local by Weighing In on Iraq

Cities Show All Politics Is Local by Weighing In on Iraq:

"The Chicago City Council may not have much say in when U.S. troops come home from Iraq. But that does not mean it has nothing to say.

The city is one of 67 around the country that have passed resolutions calling for U.S. withdrawal, in hopes that they can help start a groundswell that will force the hand of the Bush administration and Congress.

Others include Chapel Hill., N.C.; Gary, Ind.; dozens of towns in Vermont; and, perhaps no surprise, such famously liberal municipalities as Berkeley, Calif., and Cambridge, Mass. The resolutions typically call on the U.S. government 'to commence an orderly and rapid withdrawal of United States military personnel from Iraq,' while also shipping nonmilitary aid 'necessary for the security of Iraq's citizens and for the rebuilding of Iraq.'"

U.S. jury holds ex-colonel responsible for torture in El Salvador's civil war | CP

U.S. jury holds ex-colonel responsible for torture in El Salvador's civil war | CP: "U.S. jury holds ex-colonel responsible for torture in El Salvador's civil war

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A jury held a former Salvadoran Army colonel responsible for murder and torture during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s and ordered him to pay $2 million US in damages.
............................

The lawsuit accused Carranza, who has lived in Memphis since 1985, of failing to stop crimes against humanity when he was a top commander of El Salvador's security forces.
...........................

More than 75,000 Salvadorans died during the 12-year civil war as El Salvador's military dictators sought to crush anti-government forces led by labour unions, student groups and land reform advocates.

An amnesty that helped end the fighting prevents criminal charges against accused war criminals in El Salvador. Carranza was sued under U.S. laws giving federal courts jurisdiction over civil claims of human rights abuses abroad.

Trial witnesses for the accusers included Robert White, a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, who described Carranza as 'the man who made things happen' for the military rulers.

White said he observed Salvadoran soldiers in the field, and 'it was clear they looked to colonel Carranza as their chief.'

During the early days of the civil war, Carranza was El Salvador's deputy minister of defence. He later commanded the Treasury Police, which was described in news reports at the time as one of the country's most brutal military units.

Daniel Alvarado, one of the four accusers awarded damages, testified he was kidnapped by government agents in 1983 when he was a college student and tortured into confessing to the murder of a U.S. military adviser.

Carranza worked as a museum security guard after coming to the United States and is now retired."

Furore over ex-marine's account of killing of civilians-----------------Independent Online Edition > Middle East

Independent Online Edition > Middle East: "20 November 2005

For 20 months, former US marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey has claimed in numerous interviews that he and his platoon killed unarmed civilians during the invasion of Iraq.

Last year The Independent on Sunday was one of the first newspapers to publish his story, which has never been challenged by the Marine Corps. But now that Mr Massey's autobiography, Kill, Kill, Kill, has been published in France and is being considered for publication in the US, a reporter who was embedded with the 1,200-man battalion has questioned the veracity of his claims.

Earlier this month Ron Harris wrote a series in his newspaper, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, under headlines that included, 'Is Jimmy Massey Telling the Truth About Iraq?'. The articles seized on minor discrepancies of detail and implied that, because Mr Massey suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, he is less than reliable.

Mr Harris's articles were immediately taken up by the pro-war lobby, triggering diatribes against Mr Massey on the internet. The first piece was circulated to media by Lt Col Richard Long, public affairs officer at Marine Corps headquarters and director of the embedded reporter programme in Iraq.

But when Mr Harris appeared on CNN to accuse Mr Massey of lying, claiming he had witnessed the incidents described by the marine, he in turn was challenged by another journalist. Jeff Schmerker, a reporter for The Mountaineer in North Carolina, said Mr Harris told him that he did not see the events with his own eyes. The St Louis Post-Dispatch man was assigned to a different company in the battalion from Mr Massey's.

The sergeant's main charge is not denied by the reporter or the Marine Corps. 'Yes, marines killed civilians,' said Mr Harris. 'I even reported on the shooting and killing of a British TV crew while I was in Iraq.'"

Scanlon, Abramoff Partner, Charged With Conspiracy ------ Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide: "Scanlon, Abramoff Partner, Charged With Conspiracy (Update2)

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Scanlon, a former associate of indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, was charged by the Justice Department with conspiracy to corrupt a U.S. lawmaker and defraud Scanlon's Indian-tribe clients.

Scanlon, a former aide to U.S. Representative Tom DeLay, will propose a plea agreement at a hearing scheduled for Nov. 21, said his lawyer, Stephen Braga.

Scanlon is accused of conspiring with ``Lobbyist A'' -- identified as Abramoff by a person close to the investigation -- to provide the lawmaker with a ``lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses,'' among other items.

The lawmaker, identified only as ``Representative #1,'' agreed to perform ``official acts,'' such as supporting legislation and placing statements in the Congressional Record and helping an Abramoff client install a cellular network in Congress, according to the charge."

Al-Zarqawi: Bombers didn't target wedding.............AP Wire | 11/18/2005 |

AP Wire | 11/18/2005 | Al-Zarqawi tape threatens Jordan's king: "Al-Zarqawi tape threatens Jordan's king

AMMAN, Jordan - An audiotape purportedly from the head of al-Qaida in Iraq said Friday the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people.

The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the bomber who detonated his explosives in the Radisson SAS hotel on Nov. 9 was targeting a hall where he claimed Israeli and American intelligence officials were meeting.

...

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American intelligence agents, and he insisted al-Qaida in Iraq was not targeting fellow Muslims.

"We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," al-Zarqawi said, addressing Jordanians."

The Dirty War: Torture and mutilation used on Iraqi 'insurgents'-----Independent Online Edition > Middle East

Independent Online Edition > Middle East:

"Behind the daily reports of suicide bombings and attacks on coalition forces is a far more shadowy struggle, one that involves tortured prisoners huddled in dungeons, death-squad victims with their hands tied behind their backs, often mutilated with knives and electric drills, and distraught families searching for relations who have been 'disappeared'.

This hidden struggle surfaced last week when US forces and Iraqi police raided an Interior Ministry bunker only a couple of hundred yards from where we were standing. They found 169 tortured and starving captives, who looked like Holocaust victims. The 'disappeared' prisoners were being held, it is claimed, by the Shia Muslim Badr militia, which controls part of the ministry. Bayan Jabr, the Minister of the Interior, is himself a former Badr commander, but the ministry's involvement does not end there: General Adnan's commandos come under its control. So does the Wolf Brigade, which vies with the commandos for the title of most feared."

Many constituents side with Murtha in opposition to war---KR Washington Bureau | 11/19/2005 |

KR Washington Bureau | 11/19/2005 | Many constituents side with Murtha in opposition to war:

"But mostly people in Murtha's blue-collar, coal-and-steel country district in west Pennsylvania signaled weariness for the war. They endorse the man who has represented them since he became the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress in 1974.

The support suggested that attacks on Murtha in Washington as a coward will gain no traction in his district. His continued political strength in the face of vicious Republican attacks could potentially embolden others to speak out against the war, though it's too early to know for sure.

............................

'I agree with him wholeheartedly,' said Robert Bender, a World War II veteran and retired steel worker who serves as the adjutant of American Legion Post 294. 'We shouldn't have been involved in the first place. Now that they have a Constitution, we should get out.'

The blue-collar Democrats who live and work in the small towns of Murtha's district are culturally conservative. Like him, they're pro-gun and pro-life. And like him, they're proudly patriotic.

Except for a few Pittsburgh Steelers posters, the Legion Hall's dark-paneled walls are a billboard of support for the U.S. military. 'Operation Desert Storm, U.S. military at its finest,' says one poster. '9-11-01. We will never forget,' says another.

'It's a conservative area. But we don't support this particular war,' said Bender. 'Most of the people around here are in accord with him on this,' he added.

In Washington, some Republicans attacked Murtha. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Murtha and his party 'want us to wave the white flag of surrender to the terrorists of the world.' Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, quoted a constituent who 'asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do.' Under fire, she later apologized for the remarks.

Her words didn't sit well in the Legion bar.

'We're proud of him. We don't like it when people attack him,' said Barry Sirko of Johnstown, sipping a beer after his shift washing buses.

'We've lost more than 2000 troops so far. Murtha thinks the Iraqis should be fighting on their own. Murtha's right. It's gone on and on and on. They're all nuts over there and we should get out.'"

Interesting quotes from interesting people during the run-up to the Balkan War of the late 1990's:

"President Clinton is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy." -Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"No goal, no objective, not until we have those things and a compelling case is made, then I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That's why I'm against it." -Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/5/99

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy." -Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy." -Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate George W. Bush

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning...I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area." -Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

"You think Vietnam was bad? Vietnam is nothing next to Kosovo." -Tony Snow, Fox News 3/24/99

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years" -Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today" -Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?" -Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." -Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

"This is President Clinton's war, and when he falls flat on his face, that's his problem." -Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Bombing a sovereign nation for ill-defined reasons with vague objectives undermines the American stature in the world. The international respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly." -Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"You can support the troops but not the president" -Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

Pullout debate takes nasty turn---Chicago Tribune |

Chicago Tribune | Pullout debate takes nasty turn:

"A vote early in the evening Friday to permit accelerated consideration of the resolution passed 211-204, with a few Republicans joining Democrats in opposing the maneuver.

A day earlier, Murtha introduced a resolution calling for the deployment in Iraq to end 'at the earliest practicable date.' He also called for a rapid reaction force to stay in the region and for diplomacy to be accelerated to stabilize the region.

The Republican-sponsored resolution, by contrast, stated only that 'it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.'

Murtha, who received a standing ovation from Democrats when he took his seat in the chamber Friday, said he would vote against the Republican version, putting himself in the position of voting against a policy he had advocated a day earlier.

Other Democrats, many of them eager to respond to declining support for the war, resented being forced to vote for a resolution, the meaning of which could be easily misconstrued in future political advertising.

Murtha 'introduced a bill yesterday that I don't entirely agree with . . . but to take his proposal and trash it, trivialize it, is . . . beneath contempt,' said Rep. Jack Spratt (D-S.C.).

Emotions run high

The debate was loud and disruptive. At one point, Democrats surged toward the Republican side of the chamber, shouting for an Ohio congresswoman to take her words back.

The incident began as Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), who took her seat in September after a special election, was recounting a conversation with a Marine colonel.

'He asked me to send Congress a message--stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message--that cowards cut and run, Marines never do,' Schmidt said.

Murtha is a former Marine who retired from a 37-year career in the corps with the rank of colonel, and Democrats considered her comment an insult.

It was also a violation of House rules, which do not permit members to address each other, only the chair.

'Take her words down, take them down,' Democrats shouted, bringing the proceedings to a halt. After several minutes of frantic negotiation, Schmidt stood up, said she retracted her comment and apologized."

Biden plays 'Hardball' on Iraq, torture and Alito - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com

Biden plays 'Hardball' on Iraq, torture and Alito - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com: "MATTHEWS: That they don't want the American people to see vividly every night on television, for example, or in the newspapers, the real cost of the war.

BIDEN: Chris, I had families ask me to be there in Dover with them. They called me because, I guess because, not through a war, but I've lost a wife, I've lost a child like thousands of people across the country have.

And they've asked me, two families asked me, would I come and greet the body, meet the coffin, show respect with them. Do you know what? the Defense Department initially said no.

I'm on the Dover Air Force base all the time. I went to the commander of the base and said the family has called. They've called you. They want me to be there. I'll be there with the chaplain. There's no press, no anybody. And they said, well, we can't do that, Senator.

Then they had to call through to the Pentagon for me, a 33-year United States Senator, my own base in my own state, with my own constituency. Mother and father and son asking me to greet the body of their slain son. And they tried to stop me from doing that."

Rapid Pullout From Iraq Urged by Key Democrat - New York Times

Rapid Pullout From Iraq Urged by Key Democrat - New York Times: "

Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Vietnam combat veteran who voted for the Iraq war, said that after more than two years of combat, American forces had united a disparate array of insurgents in a seemingly endless cycle of violence that was impeding Iraq's progress toward stability and self-governance. He said the 153,000 American troops in Iraq should be pulled out within six months.
................................

'Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency,' said Mr. Murtha, who visited Iraq in late August. 'We have become a catalyst for the violence.'

If approved by the House and Senate, Mr. Murtha's resolution would force the president to withdraw United States troops 'at the earliest practicable date,' which he said could be six months. Under his plan, the Pentagon would retain a quick-reaction force in the region, as well as marines within a few sailing days.

When asked about Mr. Cheney's remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Murtha replied sarcastically: 'I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.'

In the Vietnam era, Mr. Cheney had five deferments and did not serve in the military."

This isn't the real America - JIMMY CARTER - Los Angeles Times

This isn't the real America - Los Angeles Times: "By Jimmy Carter, JIMMY CARTER was the 39th president of the United States. His newest book is 'Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis,' published this month by Simon & Schuster.

IN RECENT YEARS, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican.

These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.

Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.

At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from the restraints of international organizations and have disavowed long-standing global agreements — including agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of justice.

Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of 'preemptive war,' an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes.

Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top U.S. leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world.

These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of 'You are either with us or against us!' has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.

Another disturbing realization is that, unlike during other times of national crisis, the burden of conflict is now concentrated exclusively on the few heroic men and women sent back repeatedly to fight in the quagmire of Iraq. The rest of our nation has not been asked to make any sacrifice, and every effort has been made to conceal or minimize public awareness of casualties.

Instead of cherishing our role as the great champion of human rights, we now find civil liberties and personal privacy grossly violated under some extreme provisions of the Patriot Act.

Of even greater concern is that the U.S. has repudiated the Geneva accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate 'cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment' on people in U.S. custody.

Instead of reducing America's reliance on nuclear weapons and their further proliferation, we have insisted on our right (and that of others) to retain our arsenals, expand them, and therefore abrogate or derogate almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during the last 50 years. We have now become a prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation. America also has abandoned the prohibition of 'first use' of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear nations, and is contemplating the previously condemned deployment of weapons in space.

Protection of the environment has fallen by the wayside because of government subservience to political pressure from the oil industry and other powerful lobbying groups. The last five years have brought continued lowering of pollution standards at home and almost universal condemnation of our nation's global environmental policies.

Our government has abandoned fiscal responsibility by unprecedented favors to the rich, while neglecting America's working families. Members of Congress have increased their own pay by $30,000 per year since freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour (the lowest among industrialized nations)."

Decoding Mr. Bush's Denials - New York Times

Decoding Mr. Bush's Denials - New York Times:

"Mr. Bush says everyone had the same intelligence he had - Mr. Clinton and his advisers, foreign governments, and members of Congress - and that all of them reached the same conclusions. The only part that is true is that Mr. Bush was working off the same intelligence Mr. Clinton had. But that is scary, not reassuring. The reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons were old, some more than 10 years old. Nothing was fresher than about five years, except reports that later proved to be fanciful.

Foreign intelligence services did not have full access to American intelligence. But some had dissenting opinions that were ignored or not shown to top American officials. Congress had nothing close to the president's access to intelligence. The National Intelligence Estimate presented to Congress a few days before the vote on war was sanitized to remove dissent and make conjecture seem like fact.

It's hard to imagine what Mr. Bush means when he says everyone reached the same conclusion. There was indeed a widespread belief that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. But Mr. Clinton looked at the data and concluded that inspections and pressure were working - a view we now know was accurate. France, Russia and Germany said war was not justified. Even Britain admitted later that there had been no new evidence about Iraq, just new politics.

The administration had little company in saying that Iraq was actively trying to build a nuclear weapon. The evidence for this claim was a dubious report about an attempt in 1999 to buy uranium from Niger, later shown to be false, and the infamous aluminum tubes story. That was dismissed at the time by analysts with real expertise.

The Bush administration was also alone in making the absurd claim that Iraq was in league with Al Qaeda and somehow connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That was based on two false tales. One was the supposed trip to Prague by Mohamed Atta, a report that was disputed before the war and came from an unreliable drunk. The other was that Iraq trained Qaeda members in the use of chemical and biological weapons. Before the war, the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that this was a deliberate fabrication by an informer."

Probe Finds Broadcast Chief Broke Law, Played Politics - Los Angeles Times

Probe Finds Broadcast Chief Broke Law, Played Politics - Los Angeles Times: "By Matea Gold, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting broke federal law and repeatedly violated the organization's rules and code of ethics in his efforts to promote conservatives in the system, an endeavor that included consultation with White House officials, according to the findings of an internal investigation made public Tuesday."

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force: "November 16, 2005; A01

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.

The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate 'to my knowledge,' and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.

Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that 'gave detailed energy policy recommendations' to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force's work; that meeting is not noted in the document.

The task force's activities attracted complaints from environmentalists, who said they were shut out of the task force discussions while corporate interests were present. The meetings were held in secret and the White House refused to release a list of participants. The task force was made up primarily of Cabinet-level officials. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club unsuccessfully sued to obtain the records.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who posed the question about the task force, said he will ask the Justice Department today to investigate. 'The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force,' Lautenberg said."

WSJ.com - Bush's Approval Rating Falls Again, Poll Shows

WSJ.com - Bush's Approval Rating Falls Again, Poll Shows: "President Bush's positive job rating continues to fall, touching another new low for his presidency, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.

Bush's current job approval rating stands at 34%, compared with a positive rating of 88% soon after 9/11, 50% at this time last year, and 40% in August."

Among Insurgents in Iraq, Few Foreigners Are Found

Among Insurgents in Iraq, Few Foreigners Are Found: "November 17, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- Before 8,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers methodically swept through Tall Afar two months ago in the year's largest counterinsurgency offensive, commanders described the northern city as a logistics hub for fighters, including foreigners entering the country from Syria, 65 miles to the west.

'They come across the border and use Tall Afar as a base to launch attacks across northern Iraq,' Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which led the assault, said in a briefing the day before it began.

When the air and ground operation wound down in mid-September, nearly 200 insurgents had been killed and close to 1,000 detained, the military said at the time. But interrogations and other analyses carried out in recent weeks showed that none of those captured was from outside Iraq."

Prosecutors Seek More of DeLay's Records - New York Times

Prosecutors Seek More of DeLay's Records - New York Times: "November 17, 2005

By The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - Texas prosecutors in the criminal case against Representative Tom DeLay issued a subpoena on Wednesday for records of transactions between his national political action committee and a political committee run by his successor as House majority leader, Roy Blunt of Missouri.

The subpoena, issued in Austin, the Texas capital, asked for all records from Mr. DeLay's committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, about its contributions from 2000 to 2002 to Mr. Blunt's committee, Rely on Your Own Beliefs Fund, and to the state Republican Party in Missouri, where Mr. Blunt's son is governor."

American Faces Charge of Graft for Work in Iraq - New York Times

American Faces Charge of Graft for Work in Iraq - New York Times: "November 17, 2005

In what is expected to be the first of a series of criminal charges against officials and contractors overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, an American has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to American occupation authorities and their spouses to obtain construction contracts, according to a complaint unsealed late yesterday."

Chinese build a high-tech army within an army | csmonitor.com

Chinese build a high-tech army within an army | csmonitor.com:

"In a surprisingly short time, China has accomplished two feats. One, it has focused its energy and wealth on creating an army within an army. It has devoted huge amounts of capital to create a small high-tech army within its old 2.2 million-member rifle and shoe-leather force.

The specialty of this modern force, about 15 percent of the PLA, is to conduct lightning attacks on smaller foes, using an all-out missile attack designed to paralyze, and a modern sea and air attack coordinated by high-tech communications. In other words, this new modern force is designed to attack Taiwan."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Q&A: White phosphorus

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Q&A: White phosphorus: "How did the US use it?

The US initially denied reports it had used white phosphorus as a weapon in Falluja in November 2004, saying it had been used only for illumination and laying smokescreens.


WHITE PHOSPHORUS
Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination
Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh
Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons)

However, the Pentagon has now confirmed the substance was used as an 'incendiary weapon' during the assault."

Wired News: Huge Solar Plants Bloom in Desert

Wired News: Huge Solar Plants Bloom in Desert:

"Stirling Energy Systems is planning to build two separate solar farms, one with the capacity to generate 500 megawatts of electricity in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, California, for SoCal Edison, and a 300-megawatt plant in the Imperial Valley, near Calexico, California, for SDG&E. The utilities have signed 20-year deals to buy all the juice the farms can turn out, and have options to expand the plants if they are successful.

'Without question, this will be the largest solar project in the world,' said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for SoCal Edison. 'It will be bigger than all U.S. solar-energy projects combined.'"

Yellowcake to 'Plamegate' | csmonitor.com

Yellowcake to 'Plamegate' | csmonitor.com: "By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – The first time the State Department intelligence analyst saw the documents he thought there was something weird about them.

The ones dealing with a purported uranium deal between Niger and Saddam Hussein's Iraq bore a validation stamp that seemed a bit funky, for one thing. And that companion paper! It outlined some kind of bizarre military campaign against world powers. Iraq and Iran were supposedly in it together - preposterous, given their enmity - and the whole thing was being run out of the Nigerien Embassy in Rome.

'Completely implausible,' the analyst later recounted for investigators.

Because the documents had come from the same source, and were similar in appearance, they were probably all suspect. Maybe now the CIA and the rest of the US intelligence community would believe what the State Department had said for months: These allegations from a foreign intelligence service that Hussein was hunting for 'yellowcake' - a uranium concentrate - in Africa were unlikely to be true.

But the CIA didn't look at the documents. A little over three months later President Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union speech, said 16 fateful words: '... the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.'

This is the story of how those words came to be, and how their effect rippled through the years, ultimately resulting in the criminal indictment of a high administration official, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Culled primarily from US government reports and congressional testimony, it deals with nuclear materials, foreign spies, and a secret trip to the finest refueling stop in Africa. It centers on a peculiar set of documents - provenance as yet unknown - that a presidential inquiry three years later found to be "transparently forged.""

BBC NEWS | Europe | Spain probes 'secret CIA flights'

BBC NEWS | Europe | Spain probes 'secret CIA flights':

"Spain is launching an investigation into claims that CIA planes carrying terror suspects made secret stopovers on Spanish soil.

Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso made the announcement on Spanish television on Tuesday.

He said that if proven, such activities could damage relations between the Spanish and US governments."

IOL: Failed bomber lost three brothers in Iraq

IOL: Failed bomber lost three brothers in Iraq:

"Amman - An Iraqi woman who dramatically confessed on Jordanian television to her role in the deadly multiple bombings on Amman hotels last week had three brothers and a brother-in-law killed by United States forces in Iraq, officials and family sources said on Tuesday.

Jordanian officials said the woman captured Sunday, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, had provided few leads apart from her apparent motivation and that the investigation was now focused on whether the bombers had accomplices in Jordan.
......................

Sajida Rishawi, whose explosives belt failed to detonate, had two other brothers killed by US troops in Iraq, Ammar and Yasser, according to Jordanian officials.

She has told investigators that Ammar and Yasser died in Ramadi, while Samer was killed in the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, the security source said."

Iraq detainees 'found starving'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq detainees 'found starving':

"Iraq's government says it has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 detainees held by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.

The prisoners, many malnourished and some showing signs of torture, were found when US troops took control of an interior ministry building on Sunday."

Clinton tells Gulf Arabs to spread the wealth - Yahoo! News

Clinton tells Gulf Arabs to spread the wealth - Yahoo! News:

"ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Former U.S. President
Bill Clinton criticized Gulf Arab countries on Tuesday for not spreading their huge oil wealth around the Middle East to push education, fight poverty and find alternative energy sources."

Heavy Hand of the Secret Police Impeding Reform in Arab World - New York Times

Heavy Hand of the Secret Police Impeding Reform in Arab World - New York Times:

"In Jordan and across the region, those seeking democratic reform say the central role of each country's secret police force, with its stealthy, octopuslike reach, is one of the biggest impediments. In the decades since World War II, as military leaders and monarchs smothered democratic life, the security agencies have become a law unto themselves.

Last week's terror attacks in Amman accentuate one reason that even some Jordanians who consider themselves reformers justify the secret police's blanket presence - the fear that violence can spill across the border. But others argue that the mukhabarat would be more effective if it narrowed its scope to its original mandate of ensuring security.

'The department has become so big that its ability to concentrate is diluted,' said Labib Kamhawi, a businessman active in human rights. 'The fact that the intelligence is involved in almost everything on the political and economic level, as well as security, might have loosened its grip on security.'

In Jordan, one of the region's most liberal countries, the intelligence agencies vet the appointment of every university professor, ambassador and important editor. The mukhabarat eavesdrops with the help of evidently thousands of Jordanians on its payroll, similar to the informant networks in the Soviet bloc.

The secret police chiefs live above the law. The last head of the Jordanian mukhabarat routinely overruled the smoking ban on Royal Jordanian Airways, lighting up as he pleased. No one dared challenge him.

The State Department's annual human rights report, unusually critical of a staunch ally, particularly one that offers widespread cooperation on terrorism issues, said the lack of accountability within the mukhabarat and the police resulted 'in a climate of impunity' and underscored 'significant restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly and association.' It said the agents 'sometimes abuse detainees physically and verbally' and 'allegedly also use torture.'

Although the Bush administration has cited the need for democratic change in the Middle East as a reason for going to war in Iraq, the threat of instability on Jordan's border may actually be restricting democratic freedoms there."

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Mysterious case of the man who claims to have beaten HIV by taking vitamins

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Mysterious case of the man who claims to have beaten HIV by taking vitamins: "November 14, 2005
The Guardian

A man who claims to be the first in the world whose immune system has been able to beat the HIV virus was facing mounting pressure yesterday to submit to further vital medical tests. Health experts, Aids campaigners and gay rights activists urged Andrew Stimpson to come forward following claims that he has been able to rid his body of the virus after taking little more than vitamins."

Reuters AlertNet - Bodies found in Iraq town after US offensive-doctor

Reuters AlertNet - Bodies found in Iraq town after US offensive-doctor:

"As residents started to trickle back to Qusayba in recent days, doctor Saif al-Ani, who works for the Red Crescent in the Qaim area, told Reuters they had unearthed at least 54 bodies in the rubble, including some women and children."

Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument

Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument:

"President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw the same intelligence the administration did before the war, and that independent commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence.

Neither assertion is wholly accurate."

Al Franken Beats Rush Limbaugh in San Francisco & Portland, Ore. - Press Release | Air America Radio

Press Release | Air America Radio: "Al Franken Beats Rush Limbaugh in San Francisco & Portland, Ore.

NEW YORK – October 27, 2005 – Air America Radio announced today that “The Al Franken Show” beat “The Rush Limbaugh Show” for the first time in San Francisco and Portland, Ore., 2 of the top 25 markets, in the target demo of 25-54, according to Summer 2005 Metro. The two shows air at the same time (9am-12pm) in both markets.

In San Francisco, the #4 Metro, “The Al Franken Show, “ heard on KQKE, came in with a11,400 AQH and a 1.8 Share. “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” heard on KEX, had an 8,500 AQH and a 1.4 Share.

In Portland, OR, the #24 Metro, “The Al Franken Show,” heard on KPOJ, was ranked #4 with an 11,800 AQH and a 5.6 Share. “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” heard on KEX, was ranked #7 and came in with a 10, 400 AQH and a 4.9 Share."

U.S. Army publication confirms United States used incendiary weapon in Falluja

The Raw Story | U.S. Army publication confirms United States used incendiary weapon in Falluja:

"The March edition of Field Artillery magazine, a U.S. Army publication, reveals that the U.S. military did in fact use the incendiary weapon white phosphorous in Fallujah, Iraq, a Daily Kos diarist has found.

'WP [i.e., white phosphorus rounds] proved to be an effective and versatile munition,' the article's author wrote. 'We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out.'

A second publication, Infantry Magazine, also alleges that white phosphorous was used near the Iraqi city of Irbil. Newsroom sources tell RAW STORY that the New York Times held a story they were scheduled to run on the weapon's use Thursday.
Advertisement

A terrifying video about the U.S. use of the weapon in Fallujah is available at Information Clearinghouse."


PDF of original article here:
http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/Previous_Editions/05/mar-apr05/PAGE24-30.pdf

Pelosi and Waxman Request Documents Relating to Abramoff's Request for $9 Million to Arrange Meeting with Bush - Yahoo! News

Pelosi and Waxman Request Documents Relating to Abramoff's Request for $9 Million to Arrange Meeting with Bush - Yahoo! News:

"Nov. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), ranking member on the Government Reform Committee, sent a letter this morning to Harriet Miers, counsel to the President, requesting that she provide Congress with documents relating to lobbyist Jack Abramoff's request for $9 million to arrange a meeting between
President Bush and Omar Bongo, president of Gabon.

Below is the text of the letter:

November 11, 2005

Ms. Harriet Miers

Counsel to the President

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Ms. Miers:

Yesterday's New York Times reported that President Bush met with Gabon's President Omar Bongo in May 2004, ten months after lobbyist Jack Abramoff asked President Bongo for $9 million to arrange such a meeting. Mr. Abramoff's offer and the size of the requested payment raise questions about what role Mr. Abramoff may have played in the scheduling of this meeting between President Bush and President Bongo.

We are writing to request that you provide us with all White House and State Department documents and correspondence regarding the arrangement of the meeting.

According to the Times, a draft agreement between Mr. Abramoff and Gabon dated August 7, 2003, asked for $9 million in lobbying fees to pay for a 'public relations effort related to promoting Gabon and securing a visit for President Bongo with the President of the United States.'(See note 1) The Times reports that this draft agreement came just 10 days after Mr. Abramoff wrote to President Bongo on July 28, 2003, suggesting that 'he had unusual influence to arrange a meeting with President Bush.' In that letter, Mr. Abramoff noted: 'Without advance resources, I have been cautiously working to obtain a visit for the president to Washington to see President Bush.'

White House spokesman Trent Duffy told the Times that arrangements for the visit by the President of Gabon were not unusual and went through 'normal staffing channels.' However, it is impossible for Congress and the public to assess this assertion without access further documentation from the White House.

We therefore request the following documents:

-- All records relating to any contacts or communications between White House staff and Jack Abramoff, the firm Greenberg Traurig, and the firm GrassRoots Interactive regarding a visit by representatives of Gabon.

-- All records relating to any contacts or communications between the State Department and Jack Abramoff, the firm Greenberg Traurig, and the firm GrassRoots Interactive regarding a visit by representatives of Gabon.

-- All records relating to any direct contacts or communications between White House staff and representatives of Gabon.

-- All records relating to any direct contacts or communications between the State Department and representatives of Gabon.

We request that you provide these materials by November 30, 2005.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader

Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member, Government Reform Committee"