Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday September 24 2006 - (813)

Sunday September 24 2006 edition
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U.S. Intelligence Analysts: Iraq War Is Hurting U.S. Terror Fight 2006-09-24 00:34:42 The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded. A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda. It concludes that, rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document. "It's a very candid assessment," one intelligence official said Saturday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the March 2003 invasion. "It's stating the obvious." Read The Full Story Mental Disorders Plague Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans 2006-09-24 00:33:48 More than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Health Administration report symptoms of stress or other mental disorders - a tenfold increase in the last 18 months, according to an agency study. The dramatic jump in cases - coming as more troops face multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan - has triggered concern among some veterans groups that the agency may not be able to meet the demand. They say veterans have had to deal with long waits for doctor appointments, staffing shortages and lack of equipment at medical centers run by the Veterans Affairs Department. Contributing to the higher levels of stress are the long and often repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, troops also face unpredictable daily attacks and roadside bombings as they battle the stubborn insurgency. Veterans and Defense Department officials said the increase in soldiers complaining of stress or mental disorder symptoms also may suggest that efforts to reduce the stigma of such problems are working and that commanders and medical personnel are more adept at recognizing symptoms. Read The Full Story 3 Children Found Dead In Fetus Theft Case 2006-09-24 00:32:08 Three young children were found dead Saturday, hours after a woman was charged with killing their pregnant mother and her fetus in a grisly attack in which her womb was cut open, said authorities. The two boys, ages 7 and 2, and their 1-year-old sister were found in an apartment in the East St. Louis, Illiniois,  public housing complex where their mother lived, said Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler. The children were last seen on Monday with family friend Tiffany Hall, 24, now charged with first-degree murder in the death of their mother. Hall is also charged with intentional homicide of an unborn child, said St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida. Koehler declined to say whether Hall was suspected in the children's deaths. Autopsies would be performed on Sunday, he said. Read The Full Story Blair Wades In To Russian Oil Crisis 2006-09-24 00:30:28 British Prime Minister Tony Blair has made clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin his deep concern over threats to strip Shell of its license to operate the $20 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project off the east coast of Russia. It has also emerged that Gazprom, the giant Russian state-controlled energy group, is in negotiations to buy into the neighboring Sakhalin-1 project, led by Exxon of the U.S. Russian authorities have warned that Exxon, too, may face revocation of its license on this project, due to cost increases. The development could spark a serious deterioration in relations between Washington and the Kremlin. Last week Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources suspended environmental permits allowing Shell and its partners - Mitsui and Mitsubishi of Japan - to operate the project, which is 80 per cent complete, and which has already secured contracts for a large proportion of the gas it is expected to produce. (Editor: As reported at that time here at Free Internet Press. The article can be found in the archives.) Sakhalin-2 has reserves totalling 4.5 billion barrels. Downing Street, along with the British Foreign Office and the Department of Trade and Industry, have made it clear they are not satisfied with the Russian government's explanation for the suspension. Read The Full Story Editorial: A Bad Bargain 2006-09-23 19:56:32 Intellpuke: The following editorial ran in Friday's New York Times. In it, the Times editor argues that the so-called "compromise" by U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, John McCain and John Warner, all Republicans, was no compromise at all for the Bush Administration and explains why it was a bad bargain. The N.Y. Times editorial follows: Here is a way to measure how seriously President Bush was willing to compromise on the military tribunals bill: Less than an hour after an agreement was announced yesterday with three leading Republican senators, the White House was already laying a path to wiggle out of its one real concession. About the only thing that Senators John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham had to show for their defiance was Mr. Bush's agreement to drop his insistence on allowing prosecutors of suspected terrorists to introduce classified evidence kept secret from the defendant. The White House agreed to abide by the rules of courts-martial, which bar secret evidence. (Although the administration's supporters continually claim this means giving classified information to terrorists, the rules actually provide for reviewing, editing and summarizing classified material. Evidence that cannot be safely declassified cannot be introduced.) This is a critical point. As Senator Graham keeps noting, the United States would never stand for any other country's convicting an American citizen with undisclosed, secret evidence. So it seemed like a significant concession - until Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, briefed reporters yesterday evening. He said that while the White House wants to honor this deal, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, still wants to permit secret evidence and should certainly have his say. To accept this spin requires believing that Hunter, who railroaded Bush's original bill through his committee, is going to take any action not blessed by the White House. Read The Full Story Editorial: Winning Friends With Sticks 2006-09-23 19:55:29 Intellpuke: The following editorial appeared in today's Arab News, an English-language newspaper based in Saudi Arabia. It deals with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's comment that former U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" if Pakistan did not back the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Mr. Armitage has denied making any such threat. I posted this editorial because I found it interesting and to provide Free Internet Press readers an opportunity to see how this episode is being commented on by at least one Arab newspaper. The Arab News editorial follows: The revelation by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf that in the days after the 9/11 depravity, a senior U.S.  official threatened that if Pakistan did not cooperate in the invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban it would be "bombed back into the Stone Age" is astonishing evidence of the thoughtless and thuggish outlook that has governed the Bush administration. True, at the joint press conference with Musharraf Friday, the world has by now realized that the man's words are to be taken with a healthy degree of skepticism. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, America was the beneficiary of a worldwide tidal wave of sympathy and support. The enormity of the crime meant that every right-thinking person, regardless of race or religion, was prepared at that moment to do whatever it took to track down the perpetrators. Pakistanis were no exception. So, for the former U.S. deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, to have issued this appalling threat to a longtime friend and ally was deeply repugnant and offensive. Read The Full Story Palestinian P.M.: I Will Not Head Government That Recognizes Israel 2006-09-23 19:53:08 Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Friday he will not head a government that recognizes Israel, striking a potential blow to efforts to set up a more moderate ruling coalition. Haniyeh spoke after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas indicated that a planned national unity government between Hamas and his Fatah movement would recognize the Jewish state. An Abbas aide said Hamas would not be expected to issue a statement of recognition, but would be asked to recognize agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, including the PLO's mutual recognition agreement with Israel, reached in 1993. Abbas heads the PLO, in addition to Fatah. It is not clear whether Hamas would accept such an arrangement, with implied recognition of Israel, or whether Hamas was backing out of a coalition agreement reached earlier this month. Read The Full Story National I.D. Program To Cost States $11 Billion 2006-09-23 13:00:52 The cost to consumers for helping to secure America became clearer yesterday as a coalition of state groups tallied the bill for implementing the Real I.D. Act and federal officials divulged the price that some of its workers must pay for new smart cards. In a report released by the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, state motor vehicle officials estimated it would cost more than $11 billion over five years to implement the technology required by the Real I.D. Act. Under the law, states must start to re-enroll about 250 million holders of U.S. driver's licenses after May 2008. The states must train workers to verify copies of original birth certificates, Social Security cards, marriage certificates and various identification documents. "The days of going to the DMV and getting your license on the same day are probably over," said David Quam, director of federal relations for the National Governors Association. "You'll have to take all your documents as if you were applying for the first time. What this comes down to is that more people will be in DMV offices spending more time to get an I.D." Read The Full Story Democracy Put To Test By Thai Coup 2006-09-23 12:59:10 Inside the teeming Khlong Toei slum in the shadow of this city's modern skyscrapers, 60-year-old street vendor Chalaem Tiensiri is still proudly displaying campaign stickers from deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's party on the walls of her shack. Asked about the bloodless military coup this past week that abruptly ousted Thaksin from power, she looked down at her empty hands and quietly cried. Echoing the feelings of many on the warren-like streets of Khlong Toei, Chalaem said the poor in Thailand were largely ignored before Thaksin was elected in a landslide in 2001. A billionaire tycoon who became the hero of the underclass, Thaksin ushered in universal health care that allowed Chalaem's cancer-stricken daughter to receive chemotherapy for less than $1 per treatment. His war on drugs, she said, drove the methamphetamine dealers from the neighborhood's tough streets. Local leaders from Thaksin's party provided free milk for her young grandson and brought the struggling widow gifts of rice several times a year. "I don't care what they say about Thaksin, he was the first one who ever cared about us," she said, kneeling next to her ill daughter who rested languidly on a cot. "He gave me a chance to keep my daughter alive. He gave us food when we were in need. Now that he's been chased out, the poor have lost their closest friend." Chalaem's lingering respect for Thaksin - still widely shared among the urban poor and rural farmers across the country's north and northeast - underscores the core problems confronting Thailand and a host of other emerging nations as they try, and sometimes fail, to cultivate healthy democracies. Read The Full Story	Analysis: Anger At U.S. Policies More Strident At The U.N. 2006-09-24 00:34:17 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad grabbed headlines last week by blasting U.S. policies from the dais of the U.N. General Assembly. But while their words were harsh, in many ways they merely expressed in bolder terms what a number of other world leaders and foreign diplomats believe. Anti-Americanism never really left the United Nations, but this year's gathering of world leaders demonstrated an unusually strident disrespect for the United States. The United States is perceived as weakened by a draining war in Iraq, while many of its adversaries feel emboldened with newfound oil wealth. Resentment of American power has also been exacerbated by the United States' close association with Israel during the recent war in Lebanon and even the administration's campaign for greater democracy throughout the Middle East. A theme running through a number of the speeches delivered here is that democracy cannot be imposed through force. "Our peoples have a keen interest in the achievement of a larger measure of democracy, human rights and political reform," said Ahmed Aboul Gheit, foreign minister of Egypt, which receives more than $2 billion in annual aid from the United States. "However, we now see that some seek to impose these concepts by military force. They proceed from the assumption that their principles, values and culture are superior and thus worthy of being imposed on others." Read The Full Story 5 More E. Coli Cases Blamed On Spinach 2006-09-24 00:33:12 The outbreak of E. coli linked to fresh spinach was blamed for another five cases of illness Saturday, raising the number of people sickened to 171, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The number of states affected held steady at 25. So far, 92 people have been hospitalized, including a Wisconsin woman who died. Two other deaths have been reported in suspected cases - a child in Idaho and an elderly woman in Maryland - but those cases are still being investigated. For more than a week, the Food and Drug Administration has recommended people not eat fresh, raw spinach. State and federal investigators since have traced the contaminated spinach back to three counties in California's Salinas Valley, and already farm inspections there are turning up possible problems. Read The Full Story Spy Chiefs To Probe Claim That Bin Laden Is Dead 2006-09-24 00:31:40 Intrigue Saturday night surrounded a leaked French intelligence report that Osama bin Laden had died of typhoid. The news spread rapidly around the globe, prompting a flurry of investigations by officials in Paris, Washington, London and Islamabad. The report surfaced in a regional French newspaper which had obtained the leaked report claiming Saudi Arabian sources were "convinced" the terror chief had been killed in August. It prompted a flurry of official statements. After a remarkable day of rumor and counter-rumor, it appears the answer is that no one really knows. French President Jacques Chirac told reporters bin Laden's death "... has not been confirmed in any way whatsoever." While a U.S. intelligence official said: "It's quite possible there was some talk of this, but in terms of being able to confirm this, that I can't do." Read The Full Story 7 Dead As Storms, Tornadoes Hit U.S. Midwest 2006-09-23 19:56:52 High winds, heavy rain and tornadoes pounded parts of the Midwest and the South, leaving seven people dead and stranding others in trees and shelters while forecasters warned Saturday of more stormy weather to come. Officials were trying to "find and rescue anyone else we might have missed throughout the night," Tamara Roberts of the Sharp County, Arkansas, Sheriff's Office told KATV-TV in Little Rock. Stormy weather buffeted the region Friday. Areas in northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri received more than 10 inches of rain in 24 hours, said David Blanchard, a National Weather Service forecaster in Paducah, Kentucky. More storms and possibly tornadoes were forecast for Saturday. Read The Full Story Corps Of Engineers Faked Budget Entries 2006-09-23 19:56:10 The Army Corps of Engineers improperly created fake entries in government ledgers to maintain control over hundreds of millions of dollars in spending for the reconstruction of Iraq, according to a federal audit released Friday. Corps officials listed $362 million in potential contracts for a nonexistent contractor labeled "Dummy Vendor" in a government database, an accounting trick to preserve funds due to expire at the end of this fiscal year, according to the audit report. "They took this money and parked it to use later," said one senior U.S. official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to elaborate on the audit. "It's improper. It's wrong. This is not the way you do government business." Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda-Linked Group Post Video of 2 G.I.s Being Killed 2006-09-23 19:53:47 An al-Qaeda-linked group posted a Web video Saturday purporting to show the bodies of two American soldiers being dragged behind a truck, then set on fire in apparent retaliation for the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by U.S. troops from the same unit. The Mujahedeen Shura Council - an umbrella organization of insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq - posted another video in June showing the soldiers' mutilated bodies, and claiming it killed them. It was not clear whether the video posted Saturday was a continuation of that footage, or why it was released. The footage also appeared the same day previously released video was posted again, showing the man purported to be the new leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq execute a Turkish hostage. Read The Full Story Panel: U.S. Medical Drug System Is Broken 2006-09-23 13:01:16 The federal system for approving and regulating drugs is in serious disrepair, and a host of dramatic changes are needed to fix the problem, a blue-ribbon panel of government advisers concluded yesterday in a long-awaited report. The analysis by the Institute of Medicine shined an unsparing spotlight on the erosion of public confidence in the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that holds sway over a quarter of the U.S. economy. The report, requested by the FDA itself, found that Congress, agency officials and the pharmaceutical industry share responsibility for the problems - and bear the burden for implementing solutions. The report represents a watershed moment after two years of controversy over the safety of such widely used drugs as pain relievers and antidepressants. The Institute of Medicine is part of the National Academies, chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific and health policy issues. Its recommendations traditionally carry great weight. The 15 experts drawn from academic and professional organizations were unanimous in endorsing the recommendations, which called for several major policy changes. Several of these have long been urged by drug safety advocates but have been resisted by the industry, Congress and the FDA itself. A number of them would require congressional approval. Read The Full Story At Least 32 Killed - Half Were Women - In Baghdad Explosion 2006-09-23 13:00:22 A bomb blew up a kerosene tanker truck in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, said police. Another 38 people were wounded by the 10 a.m. blast in the sprawling Shiite slum. People frantically carried survivors from the narrow muddy street to ambulances, and hauled away bodies in blankets. The bomb was hidden in a barrel near the tanker truck, where scores of people were waiting to buy fuel, said police Col. Saad Abdul-Sada. There were more people on hand than usual as families sought to stock up on fuel for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, he said. Seventeen women were among the dead, said Abdul-Sada, adding that casualties are expected to rise. Read The Full Story Chirac Downplays French Report Of Bin Laden Death 2006-09-23 11:38:47 President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in no way whatsoever confirmed." Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press. The regional newspaper l'Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the al-Qaeda terror network had died. The DGSE transmitted the document, dated Sept. 21, to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper reported. "This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said Saturday when asked about the document. "I have no comment." Read The Full Story
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