Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday October 31 2006 - (813)

Tuesday October 31 2006 edition
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Split Loyalities Of Baghdad Police Could Delay Handover Of Control For Years 2006-10-31 00:32:10 The signs of the militias are everywhere at the Sholeh police station. Posters celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls. The police chief sometimes remarks that Shiite militias should wipe out all Sunnis. Visitors to this violent neighborhood in the Iraqi capital whisper that nearly all the police officers have split loyalties. And then one rainy night this month, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton,  Jr., a 20-year-old budding journalist, said his unit. At the time, Stanton and other members of the unit had been trailing a group of Sholeh police escorting known Mahdi Army members. "How can we expect ordinary Iraqis to trust the police when we don't even trust them not to kill our own men?" asked Capt. Alexander Shaw, head of the police transition team of the 372nd Military Police Battalion, a Washington-based unit charged with overseeing training of all Iraqi police in western Baghdad. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure we're ever going to have police here that are free of the militia influence." Read The Full Story U.S. Drops Bid Over Royalties From Chevron 2006-10-31 00:31:02 The U.S. Interior Department has dropped claims that the Cheveron Corporation systematically underpaid the government for natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, a decision that could allow energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties. The agency had ordered Chevron to pay $6 million in additional royalties but could have sought tens of millions more had it prevailed. The decision also sets a precedent that could make it easier for oil and gas companies to lower the value of what they pump each year from federal property and thus their payments to the government. Interior officials said on Friday that they had no choice but to drop their order to Chevron because a department appeals board had ruled against auditors in a separate case. But state governments and private landowners have challenged the company over essentially the same practices and reached settlements in which the company has paid $70 million in additional royalties. Read The Full Story Bush And Blair: Two Leaders Searching For A Way Out Of Iraq, And Finding None 2006-10-31 00:29:40 Their faces alone said everything. At his press conference on Wednesday, in the sumptuous setting of the White House East Room, George Bush was grim, bemused and aged. In the House of Commons 3,000 miles away, Tony Blair stood rooted to the same political spot he has occupied for more than three years. Two leaders, mesmerised and transfixed by the enormity of the crisis they face, searching for an exit and finding none. In the bleak recent history of Iraq, this last week may have been the most despairing for them, when the converging disasters set in motion by their misconceived invasion of March 2003 became impossible to deny and the gap between their aspirations for Iraq and the reality on the ground there became a chasm. Events have now acquired a terrible momentum of their own. This month alone the insurgency has claimed more than 1,000 lives, to add to the tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives already lost. Another 1.3 million Iraqis are now refugees. The American and British armies are stretched to breaking point. The cost of the war, for America alone, now tops $300 billion (£158 billion). The moral authority of both countries has been grievously damaged. Never in modern history has the solution to one problem resulted in the creation of so many larger problems, especially since the initial "problem", Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, turned out to be non-existent. Read The Full Story Fears Over Huge Growth In Iraq Unregulated Private Armies 2006-10-31 00:27:06 A huge increase in the number of unregulated private military and security companies operating in Iraq and Afghanistan is driving concern about the lack of regulation and constraints on their activities. There are three British private security guards to every British soldier in Iraq, the charity War on Want said Monday. At least 181 private military and security companies are operating in the country, employing almost 21,000 British private security guards, nearly half of the total number - an estimated 48,000. Foreign contracts by British private security firms are now worth about £1 billion (about $1.9 billion) a year, according to the companies. Read The Full Story Biggest competitor to Vista kept in check by Microsoft 2006-10-30 12:35:22 Ordinarily this headline would no longer come as any surprise, after all everyone is pretty much used to Microsoft keeping the competition at bay using whatever methods it can. However, this is no ordinary headline because what IO left out is the name of that competitor: Windows XP. Read The Full Story Blair: We Must Pay Now To Avoid Climate Disaster Later 2006-10-30 12:15:55 Tony Blair today said that the world was facing "nothing more serious, more urgent, or more demanding of leadership" than climate change and that Britons must be prepared to pay now to avoid future disaster. Speaking at the launch of Sir Nicholas Stern's review on tackling global warming, the prime minister said there was "overwhelming scientific evidence" that climate change was taking place and that the consequences of failing to act would be "disastrous". "This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime. Unless we act now ... these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible," he said. "There is nothing more serious, more urgent, more demanding of leadership - here, of course, but most importantly in the global community." Read The Full Story A Crooked Alliance In The War On Terror? 2006-10-30 12:14:14 An FBI report obtained by NBC News suggests that the ruling family of the remote and mountainous Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan oversaw a vast international criminal network that stretched all the way to a series of shell companies in the United States. Still, it was Kyrgyz then-President Askar Akaev's alliance with the U.S. government, and his role in the war on terror, that may raise the most disturbing questions. Akaev, who was deposed in a revolution last year, agreed to let the Pentagon open an air base in his country for operations in Afghanistan. After that agreement, the U.S. military steered more than $100 million in sub-contracts to the Akaev family's fuel monopoly, according to U.S. contractors who oversaw the payments and transactions. That windfall to the Akaev family businesses equaled about 5 percent of Kyrgyzstan's annual gross national product, according to the contractors. Read The Full Story 80 Killed In Pakistani Raid On Purported Militant School 2006-10-30 12:12:51 Pakistani troops backed by missile-firing helicopters on Monday struck a religious school purportedly being used as an al-Qaeda training center, killing 80 people in what appeared to be the country's deadliest-ever attack against suspected militants. The country's top Islamic political leader said American planes were used in the pre-dawn strike against the school - known as a madrassa - and called for nationwide protests Tuesday, claiming all those killed were innocent students and teachers. Both Pakistani and the U.S. military officials denied any American involvement in the attack in northwestern Pakistan, less than two miles from the Afghan border. An al-Qaeda-linked militant who apparently was a primary target of the strike had left the building a half hour beforehand, said a Pakistani official. Read The Full Story Peeping Toms Utilize High-Tech Gadgetry 2006-10-30 11:36:14 The stereotypical Peeping Tom has evolved, investigators say, from predators drilling holes in walls or lurking outside windows with binoculars, to infrared cameras hidden in the tip of a shoe. That evolution was demonstrated in December, when 28-year-old Edward Wainwright was arrested in Omaha after police say he videotaped an undressed 16-year-old girl in a tanning booth. Read The Full Story	Commentary: Halliburton Motto - Its Cost Plus, Baby! 2006-10-31 00:31:36 Intellpuke: This commentary is written by Evelyn Pringle and was posted Monday, Oct. 30, 2006, on the TruthOut website. Ms. Pringle is a columnist for YubaNet.com and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America. Her column follows: Halliburton's contracts for work in Iraq are what's known as cost plus contracts, meaning that after all the costs for labor, materials and other expenses are added together, the company makes its profit based on a percentage of that total. It certainly does not take a financial genius to figure out that under the terms of such a contract, a company has every motive in the world to increase the costs of every project to increase profits. Since the minute Dick Cheney authorized the no-bid contracts for Halliburton, the granddaddy of war profiteering has been ripping off American tax payers left, right, and center through the use of these cost plus contracts, and another clear-cut profiteering scheme was recently revealed in testimony at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing. On September 18, 2006, Julie McBride, a former Halliburton employee with the company's Morale, Welfare & Recreation Department (MWR) in Iraq, testified that "the mantra at Halliburton camps goes, 'It's cost plus, baby'." Read The Full Story Britain To Push For Global Climate Agreement By 2008 2006-10-31 00:30:14 The U.K. is to use the warnings of irreversible climate change and the biggest economic slump since the 1930s, outlined in Monday's Stern review, to press for a new global deal to curb carbon emissions. The government is urgently pushing ahead on the issue because the existing Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012, and there is no binding agreement to extend it. Downing Street is seeking the outline of a package with the G8 industrial nations and five leading developing countries by next year, or 2008 at the latest. Tony Blair will lobby the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to put the need for international cooperation on climate change at the heart of Germany's G8 presidency when it begins in January. Read The Full Story Roman Soldiers March On The M6, Most Haunted Road In Britain 2006-10-31 00:28:50 For the first time since ghost-hunting became an organized science, Britain's spooks and apparitions have made a motorway their favorite road to haunt. After years of weird goings-on in lonely lanes or moorland crossings, the M6 has recorded more alleged sightings and spine-tingling feelings than any other route in the country. Roman soldiers, a distraught woman hitchhiker and a phantom lorry going the wrong way have all appeared on the six busy lanes - or out of their users' imaginations. "We assumed Britain's spookiest road would turn out to be a dark lane near an ancient battlefield," said Tony Simmons, sightings coordinator for the survey. "But, when you think about it, these findings make sense. The M6 is one of Britain's longest roads and it travels through many counties - and therefore an immense amount of history." The eerie encounters have been recorded by a hospital consultant, lorry (van) drivers and the hauntings expert Paul Devereux, who used a Geiger counter to test radiation levels at sites of repeated reports. Spooks, or conditions which lead 45% of all drivers to think they have seen them, occur throughout the route's 230 miles from Carlisle to Rugby. Read The Full Story CDC Probing Salmonella Outbreak In 18 States, Investigating Link To Produce 2006-10-30 20:19:39 A salmonella outbreak potentially linked to produce has sickened at least 172 people in 18 states, health officials said Monday. Health officials think the bacteria may have spread through some form of produce; the list of suspects includes lettuce and tomatoes. But the illnesses have not been tied to any specific product, chain, restaurants or supermarkets. Read The Full Story U.S. Military Monitors Soldiers Blogs, Web Sites 2006-10-30 12:16:23 >From the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan to here at home, soldiers blogging about military life are under the watchful eye of some of their own. A Virginia-based operation, the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell, monitors official and unofficial blogs and other Web sites for anything that may compromise security. The team scans for official documents, personal contact information and pictures of weapons or entrances to camps. In some cases, that information can be detrimental, said Lt. Col. Stephen Warnock, team leader and battalion commander of a Manassas-based Virginia National Guard unit working on the operation. Read The Full Story As Blast Kills 33 In Sadr City, U.S. October Death Toll In Iraq Tops 100 2006-10-30 12:15:03 The American death toll for October climbed past 100, a grim milestone reached as a top White House envoy turned up unexpectedly in Baghdad on Monday to smooth over a rough patch in U.S.-Iraqi ties. At least 80 people were killed across Iraq, 33 in a Sadr City bombing targeting workers. A member of the 89th Military Police Brigade was killed in east Baghdad Monday, and a Marine died in fighting in insurgent infested Anbar province the day before, raising to 101 the number of U.S. service members killed in a bloody October, the fourth deadliest month of the war. At least 2,814 American forces have died since the war began. Upon arriving on an unannounced visit, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley went straight into meetings with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his security chief, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, telling them he "wanted to reinforce some of the things you have heard from our president". Read The Full Story Goodyear To Cut 1,100 Jobs, Close Plant In Tyler, Texas 2006-10-30 12:13:31 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said on Monday that it plans to close a plant in Tyler, Texas, three weeks after workers at the plant and 15 others went on strike in part because of the tire maker's plan to shut down the factory. The move will eliminate about 1,100 jobs and is part of Goodyear's strategy to end some of its private label tire business. The plant, which opened in 1962, has produced approximately 25,000 passenger and light truck tires per day. Read The Full Story Milan Court Orders Berlusconi Tried On Corruption Charges 2006-10-30 12:12:04 A Milan court on Monday ordered former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a British lawyer to stand trial on charges of corruption. Berlusconi is accused of ordering the payment in 1997 of at least $600,000 to David Mills in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony in two trials against Berlusconi. Both men deny the allegations. Milan Judge Fabio Paparella issued the ruling after refusing a defense motion to remove him from the case. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday October 30 2006 - (813)

Monday October 30 2006 edition
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2 Dead As Wild Wind Storms Hit U.S. East Coast 2006-10-29 22:43:42 Thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity Sunday from Maryland to Maine as a storm system blasted the region with winds gusting to more than 50 mph, knocking over trees and a construction crane. The storm was blamed for at least two deaths. Gusts of 70 mph were possible Sunday in northern New York state, said the National Weather Service. A falling tree killed a motorcyclist in Massachusetts, said police. In New Hampshire, one man was missing after falling off a cruise ship on Lake Winnipesaukee during the storm late Saturday, and one man drowned when his kayak overturned on a rain-swollen river, said state officials. Read The Full Story U.S. Is Said To Fail In Tracking Arms For Iraqis 2006-10-29 22:42:26 The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded. The report was undertaken at the request of Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and who recently expressed an assessment far darker than the Bush administration's on the situation in Iraq. Read The Full Story Of 104 People On Board, Only 6 Survive Nigerian Airliner Crash 2006-10-29 22:41:10 A Nigerian airliner with 104 people aboard slammed into the ground moments after takeoff Sunday, the third deadly crash of a passenger plane in less than a year in this West African country. Six people survived. Among those killed was the man regarded as the spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims, and thousands of people gathered at a regional airport to receive his body. The Boeing 737 crashed one minute after taking off from the Abuja airport, said Sam Adurogboye, an Aviation Ministry spokesman. President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an immediate investigation into the cause of the crash, said his spokeswoman, Remi Oyo. Read The Full Story Mexican Riot Police Retake Central Oaxaca 2006-10-29 22:39:47 Federal police backed by armored vehicles and water cannons tore down barricades and stormed embattled Oaxaca on Sunday, taking control of the city center which was held by protesters for five months and attempting to restore order. A human rights worker said a 15-year-old protester was killed in the offensive launched earlier in the day. But authorities did not immediately confirm his death. Officers in black helmets entered the city from several sides, reinforced by armored vehicles, trucks mounted with high-pressure water cannons and bulldozers. Helicopters roared overhead. Read The Full Story Iraq: Gunmen Kill 19 At British-Run Police School 2006-10-29 22:38:20 Gunmen killed 17 Iraqi police instructors and two translators Sunday afternoon as they travelled home from work at a British-run police academy training school near Basra in southern Iraq. It was the first incident of its kind in the south of the country and resembled attacks on police in Baghdad. A senior British military source last night described the attack as "a complete change in tactics and not something we have seen down there before". Read The Full Story After The Fighting And Dying For Musa Qala, Afghanistan, Taliban Return As British Depart 2006-10-29 22:35:42 Among the many battles in his life, Nafaz Khan recalls the long fight for Musa Qala as one of special significance. As the former chief of police and militia commander in the northern Helmand town it was there that he fought alongside British troops against the Taliban. "I loved those British soldiers," he said. "They were great fighters and knew each of my men by name. Together we killed many, many Taliban." Soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment, who were withdraw from Musa Qala this month as part of a deal with Afghan tribal elders after more than two months of heavy fighting, remember the experience as one of violence, dirt, heat and lack of water. For Khan, though, it held particular deprivation. Read The Full Story	Funding Is Falling For Research Budgets In Race To Fight Global Warming 2006-10-29 22:43:13 Cheers fit for a revival meeting swept a Denver, Colorado, hotel ballroom as 1,800 entrepreneurs and experts watched a PowerPoint presentation of the most promising technologies for limiting global warming: solar power, wind, ethanol and other farmed fuels, energy-efficient buildings and fuel-sipping cars. "Houston," Charles F. Kutscher, chairman of the Solar 2006 Conference, concluded in a twist on the line from Apollo 13, "we have a solution." Hold the applause. For all the enthusiasm about alternatives to coal and oil, the challenge of limiting emissions of carbon dioxide, which traps heat, will be immense in a world likely to add 2.5 billion people by midcentury, a host of other experts say. Moreover, most of those people will live in countries like China and India, which are just beginning to enjoy an electrified, air-conditioned mobile society. Read The Full Story Report: BP Knew Texas Refinery Was At Risk 2006-10-29 22:41:50 Safety experts for BP PLC warned their bosses of the potential for a "major site incident" 2 years before an explosion at the company's Texas City refinery killed 15 people, according to a broadcast report. CBS' "60 Minutes" also reported Sunday that the Texas City plant manager, Don Parus, told his bosses in the company's London headquarters that most workers at the refinery felt the plant was unsafe. According to CBS, one worker wrote, "This place is set up for a catastrophic failure." Read The Full Story British Government Signs Up Al Gore As Environment Adviser 2006-10-29 22:40:26 Britain is to send the author of Monday's landmark review on global warming to try to win American hearts and minds to the urgent cause of cutting carbon emissions - as it emerged Sunday that the British government has already signed up former U.S. vice-president Al Gore to advise on the environment. Sir Nicholas Stern, who Monday morning publishes an authoritative report on climate change warning that inaction could cause a worldwide recession as damaging as the Depression of the 1930s, will lobby politicians and business people in America at the turn of the year. Read The Full Story Typhoon Cimaron Whips Northern Philippines 2006-10-29 22:38:59 Typhoon Cimaron, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines in eight years, whipped over the north of the country on Monday, shuttering schools and public offices and grounding some domestic flights amid flood warnings. The storm, packing winds of about 175 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 210 kilometers per hour, hit Luzon island, the most populated region and the Philippines' rice bowl, late on Sunday forcing residents of coastal and low-lying areas to seek higher ground. There were no immediate report of casualties, said the National Disaster Coordinating Council. Read The Full Story Israeli Attorney General Says President Should Step Aside 2006-10-29 22:37:27 Israel's attorney general recommended Sunday that President Moshe Katsav recuse himself from official duties pending a decision on whether he will be indicted on charges of rape and sexual assault. In a non-binding opinion filed with Israel's high court, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said the state does not have the authority to remove Katsav from his post but urged him to resign voluntarily if indicted. Under Israeli law, Katsav, 60, is immune from prosecution while in office. His term expires next year. Read The Full Story Gallaudet University Board Revokes Appointment Of New President 2006-10-29 22:34:36 The board of trustees of the U.S.' premier school for the deaf voted Sunday to revoke the appointment of the incoming president, who had been the subject of weeks of protests that at times shut down the campus. The vote at Gallaudet University came after a daylong closed-door meeting that followed protests by students and faculty members, said the board. Jane Fernandes, the former provost, had been selected in May to take office in January. "Although undoubtedly there will be some members of the community who have differing views on the meaning of this decision, we believe that it is a necessity at this point," the board said in a written statement. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php

Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday October 29 2006 - (813)

Sunday October 29 2006 edition
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$7 Trillion: The Price Of Not Acting On Global Warming 2006-10-28 22:54:49 The British face the prospect of a welter of new green taxes to tackle climate change, as the most authoritative report on global warming warns it will cost the world up to £3.68 trillion (about US$7 trillion) unless it is tackled within a decade. The review by Sir Nicholas Stern, commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and to be published Monday, marks a crucial point in the debate by underlining how failure to act would trigger a catastrophic global recession. Unchecked climate change would turn 200 million people into refugees, the largest migration in modern history, as their homes succumbed to drought or flood. Stern also warns that a successor to the Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions should be signed next year, not by 2010/11 as planned. He forecasts that the world needs to spend 1 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) - equivalent to about £184 billion ($365 billion) - dealing with climate change now, or face a bill between five and 20 times higher for damage caused by letting it continue. Unchecked climate change could thus cost as much as £566 ($1,000) for every man, woman and child now on the planet - roughly 6.5 billion people. Read The Full Story Google Defiant Over Censorship In China 2006-10-28 22:53:28 Google is to enter the political arena in earnest this week when it debates freedom of speech, intellectual property rights and how to connect Africa to the Internet at a special United Nations conference. The Silicon Valley giant will attempt to position itself as a force for change that can finance web entrepreneurs in the developing world, champion the rights of consumers against "over-zealous" copy-right laws and use the Web to protect diverse minority cultures and languages. But Google will declare itself unrepentant over the controversial decision to censor its search engine at the behest of Beijing. At the first Internet Governance Forum in Athens, Greece, starting Monday, the firm will insist its presence in China does more good than harm by getting more information to more people. That claim was firmly rejected last night by Amnesty International, which is five months into its joint campaign with The Observer, http://www.irrespresible.info , which calls for an end to online censorship and the persecution of bloggers. Read The Full Story Taliban Plan To Fight Through Winter To Throttle Kabul 2006-10-28 22:52:23 The Taliban are planning a major winter offensive combining their diverse factions in a push on the Afghan capital, Kabul, intelligence analysts and sources among the militia have revealed. The thrust will involve a concerted attempt to take control of surrounding provinces, a bid to cut the key commercial highway linking the capital with the eastern city of Jalalabad, and operations designed to tie down British and other NATO troops in the south. Last week NATO, with a force of 40,000 in the country including around 5,000 from Britain, said it had killed 48 more Taliban in areas thought to have been "cleared". "They have major attacks planned all the way through to the spring and are quite happy for their enemy to know it," a Pakistan-based source close to the militia told The Observer. "There will be no winter pause." The Taliban's fugitive leader, Mullah Omar, Saturday rejected overtures for peace talks from President Hamid Karzai and said it intended to try him in an Islamic court for the "massacre" of Afghan civilians. Read The Full Story How The Bush Family Makes A Killing From George W. Bush Presidency 2006-10-28 00:29:57 Intellpuke: The following column is written by Heather Wokusch and was posted on the Common Dreams Web site on Wednesday, Oct. 25. In it, Ms. Wokusch, the author of "The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now", reveals the financial links of the Bush family and how having George W. Bush as president fattens the family's cash cow. Ms. Wokusch's column follows: Halliburton scored almost $1.2 billion in revenue from contracts related to Iraq in the third quarter of 2006, leading one analyst to comment: "Iraq was better than expected ... Overall, there is nothing really to question or be skeptical about. I think the results are very good." Very good indeed. An estimated 655,000 dead Iraqis, over 3,000 dead coalition troops, billions stolen from Iraq's coffers, a country battered by civil war - but Halliburton turned a profit, so the results are very good. Very good certainly for Vice President Dick Cheney, who resigned from Halliburton in 2000 with a $33.7 million retirement package (not bad for roughly four years of work). In a stunning conflict of interest, Cheney still holds more than 400,000 stock options in the company. Why pursue diplomacy when you can rake in a personal fortune from war? Yet Cheney isn't the only one who has benefited from the Bush administration's destructive policies. The Bush family has done quite nicely too. Just a few examples: Read The Full Story Housing Slump Sends Chill Through Economy 2006-10-28 00:28:12 The cooling housing market sent a chill through the economy in the third quarter, helping to slow growth to its weakest pace in more than three years, the government said Friday. The nation's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, expanded at a sluggish 1.6 percent annual rate in the quarter, down from a moderate 2.6 percent pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported. In the first three months of the year, the economy grew at a sizzling 5.6 percent annual rate. With less than two weeks to go before the midterm congressional elections, the report instantly became campaign ammunition. Democrats emphasized the slowdown while Republicans highlighted signs of economic strength. Financial analysts were split on whether the report reflected an economy poised for a rebound or headed into a prolonged slump. The debate turns on differing forecasts of how the housing market will affect consumer spending. Read The Full Story U.N. Vote Paves Way For Arms Treaty 2006-10-28 00:26:09 An overwhelming United Nations vote paving the way to an arms trade treaty controlling the growing international trade in conventional weapons was welcomed enthusiastically Friday by Britain, human rights groups and aid organizations. The U.N. General Assembly's first committee, responsible for disarmament and international security, voted by 139 votes to one on Thursday in favor of the move. The British government has been at the forefront of those pressing for a treaty with Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya and Finland. The move was opposed only by the U.S., and 24 countries, including Russia and China, abstained. Read The Full Story	Opinion: This Is Baghdad. What Could Be Worse? 2006-10-28 22:54:11 Intellpuke: The following opinion column - which is well worth taking the time to read - is written by Anthony Shadid, a Washington Post foreign correspondent, who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He is the author of "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War" (Picador). His column appears in the this Sunday's edition of the Washington Post. BAGHDAD There was an almost forgettable exchange earlier this month in the Iraqi National Assembly, itself on the fringe of relevance in today's disintegrating Iraq. Lawmakers debated whether legislation should be submitted to a committee to determine if it was compatible with Islam. Ideas were put forth, as well as criticism. Why not a committee to determine whether legislation endorses democratic principles? one asked. In stepped Mahmoud Mashadani, the assembly's speaker, to settle the dispute. "Any law or decision that goes against Islam, we'll put it under the kundara!" he thundered. "God is greatest!" lawmakers shouted back, in a rare moment of agreement between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Kundara means shoe, and the bit of bluster by Mashadani said a lot about Baghdad today. It had been almost a year since I was in the Iraqi capital, where I worked as a reporter in the days of Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and the occupation, guerrilla war and religious resurgence that followed. On my return, it was difficult to grasp how atomized and violent the 1,250-year-old city has become. Even on the worst days, I had always found Baghdad's most redeeming quality to be its resilience, a tenacious refusal among people I met over three years to surrender to the chaos unleashed when the Americans arrived. That resilience is gone, overwhelmed by civil war, anarchy or whatever term could possibly fit. Baghdad now is convulsed by hatred, paralyzed by suspicion; fear has forced many to leave. Carnage its rhythm and despair its mantra, the capital, it seems, no longer embraces life. "A city of ghosts," a friend told me, her tone almost funereal. Read The Full Story Former British Chief Of Defense Says Afghanistan War Is Cuckoo 2006-10-28 22:52:59 Tony Blair's most trusted military commander Saturday branded as "cuckoo" the way Britain's overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan. The remarkable rebuke by General the Lord Guthrie came in an Observer interview, his first since quitting as Chief of Britain's Defense Staff five years ago, in which he made an impassioned plea for more troops, new equipment and more funds for a "very, very" over-committed army. The decision by Guthrie, an experienced Whitehall insider and Blair confidant, to go public is likely to alarm Downing Street and the Ministry of Defense (MoD) more than the recent public criticism by the current army chief Sir Richard Dannatt. "Anyone who thought this was going to be a picnic in Afghanistan - anyone who had read any history, anyone who knew the Afghans, or had seen the terrain, anyone who had thought about the Taliban resurgence, anyone who understood what was going on across the border in Baluchistan and Waziristan [should have known] - to launch the British army in with the numbers there are, while we're still going on in Iraq is cuckoo," said Guthrie. Read The Full Story Behind The Lines In Iraq Civil War 2006-10-28 00:30:35 Intellpuke: This article is well worth the read. Husham is standing on a street corner in his Sunni Baghdad neighborhood when his mobile phone rings. "Yes brother ... Two strangers ... Investigate and take measures," he mumbles. He is wearing a striped T-shirt and sandals, and carries a pistol in his right hand. Around him there are a half dozen fellow vigilantes carrying Kalashnikovs or wearing pistols tucked into their belts, eating their Itfar meals (to break the Ramadan fast) or sipping sweet tea. Suddenly, a white car carrying two men appears at the end of the street. Husham's men clutch their weapons but the car passes uneventfully. A few minutes later, the headlights come into view again. The car has turned and is driving back towards the highway. This time, another car appears from a side street almost hitting the first a few meters from Husham. Read The Full Story Democrats Get Late Donations From Business 2006-10-28 00:29:23 Corporate America is already thinking beyond Election Day, increasing its share of last-minute donations to Democratic candidates and quietly devising strategies for how to work with Democrats if they win control of Congress. The shift in political giving, for the first 18 days of October, has not been this pronounced in the final stages of a campaign since 1994, when Republicans swept control of the House for the first time in four decades. Though Democratic control of either chamber of Congress is far from certain, the prospect of a power shift is leading interest groups to begin rethinking well-established relationships, with business lobbyists going as far as finding potential Democratic allies in the freshman class - even if they are still trying to defeat them on the campaign trail - and preparing to extend an olive branch the morning after the election. Read The Full Story Search For Suspected Arsonist Grows With California Fire 2006-10-28 00:27:25 A wildfire that has consumed thousands of acres west of Palm Springs and has killed four U.S. Forest Service firefighters continued to roar Friday, fed by hot, fast and dry Santa Ana winds, while state and local officials boosted the reward to $500,000 to find the suspected arsonist who ignited the blaze. The Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are investigating the deaths, and on Friday a half-dozen investigators wearing yellow protective suits studied the steep dirt driveway of 15400 Gorgonio View Road. As a fierce wind whipped past the gutted house on a blackened hill above them, an investigator knelt down, then gestured at the canyon wall, from where the flames had come. Five Forest Service firefighters were trying to protect the house from the wildfire Thursday when the inferno suddenly overwhelmed them. Three died at the scene, and a fourth died soon afterward at a hospital. On Friday the fifth remained in grave condition, with more than 95 percent of his body burned. Read The Full Story Figures Reveal Europe Far Short In Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2006-10-28 00:25:35 The European Union, self-styled global champion in the battle against climate change, is falling woefully short of its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and will need to take radical measures to achieve them, new projections have shown. The European commission said that, based on current measures and policies, the emissions of the E.U.'s original 15 members will be just 0.6% below 1990 levels by 2010. The E.U.-15 countries are committed under the Kyoto protocol to an 8% cut on 1990 levels by 2012. The new figures predict that emissions in 2010 will actually be 0.3% higher than they were in 2004. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php

Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday October 28 2006 - (813)

Saturday October 28 2006 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Behind The Lines In Iraq Civil War 2006-10-28 00:30:35 Intellpuke: This article is well worth the read. Husham is standing on a street corner in his Sunni Baghdad neighborhood when his mobile phone rings. "Yes brother ... Two strangers ... Investigate and take measures," he mumbles. He is wearing a striped T-shirt and sandals, and carries a pistol in his right hand. Around him there are a half dozen fellow vigilantes carrying Kalashnikovs or wearing pistols tucked into their belts, eating their Itfar meals (to break the Ramadan fast) or sipping sweet tea. Suddenly, a white car carrying two men appears at the end of the street. Husham's men clutch their weapons but the car passes uneventfully. A few minutes later, the headlights come into view again. The car has turned and is driving back towards the highway. This time, another car appears from a side street almost hitting the first a few meters from Husham. Read The Full Story Democrats Get Late Donations From Business 2006-10-28 00:29:23 Corporate America is already thinking beyond Election Day, increasing its share of last-minute donations to Democratic candidates and quietly devising strategies for how to work with Democrats if they win control of Congress. The shift in political giving, for the first 18 days of October, has not been this pronounced in the final stages of a campaign since 1994, when Republicans swept control of the House for the first time in four decades. Though Democratic control of either chamber of Congress is far from certain, the prospect of a power shift is leading interest groups to begin rethinking well-established relationships, with business lobbyists going as far as finding potential Democratic allies in the freshman class - even if they are still trying to defeat them on the campaign trail - and preparing to extend an olive branch the morning after the election. Read The Full Story Search For Suspected Arsonist Grows With California Fire 2006-10-28 00:27:25 A wildfire that has consumed thousands of acres west of Palm Springs and has killed four U.S. Forest Service firefighters continued to roar Friday, fed by hot, fast and dry Santa Ana winds, while state and local officials boosted the reward to $500,000 to find the suspected arsonist who ignited the blaze. The Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are investigating the deaths, and on Friday a half-dozen investigators wearing yellow protective suits studied the steep dirt driveway of 15400 Gorgonio View Road. As a fierce wind whipped past the gutted house on a blackened hill above them, an investigator knelt down, then gestured at the canyon wall, from where the flames had come. Five Forest Service firefighters were trying to protect the house from the wildfire Thursday when the inferno suddenly overwhelmed them. Three died at the scene, and a fourth died soon afterward at a hospital. On Friday the fifth remained in grave condition, with more than 95 percent of his body burned. Read The Full Story Figures Reveal Europe Far Short In Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2006-10-28 00:25:35 The European Union, self-styled global champion in the battle against climate change, is falling woefully short of its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and will need to take radical measures to achieve them, new projections have shown. The European commission said that, based on current measures and policies, the emissions of the E.U.'s original 15 members will be just 0.6% below 1990 levels by 2010. The E.U.-15 countries are committed under the Kyoto protocol to an 8% cut on 1990 levels by 2012. The new figures predict that emissions in 2010 will actually be 0.3% higher than they were in 2004. Read The Full Story Substance Reported at Bill Clinton's NY Office 2006-10-27 17:09:07 Police and Secret Service agents Friday were investigating a report of a suspicious substance found at former President Bill Clinton's office in uptown Manhattan.  Clinton was not at the office at the time, officials said. Police and emergency services officers were called to the Harlem office building at about 3:45 p.m., said New York Police Sgt. Reginald Watkins. "There is a search to try to recover some sort of foreign substance," he said, adding that Secret Service agents were also at the building. Clinton's spokesman, Jay Carson, said the building at 55 W. 125th St. had not been evacuated. He had no other immediate comment. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said officials were doing a field test on the substance and were asking people to stay in the area to determine exactly how they were exposed to the substance, or if they had been exposed at all.   Read The Full Story Mexican Leaders Condemn Bush For Signing Fence Law 2006-10-27 14:57:14 Relations between the U.S. and Mexico took a turn for the worse Friday after George Bush signed legislation for a 700-mile border fence to counter illegal immigration into the U.S. The move was universally condemned by Mexican leaders. Vicente Fox, the country's president, told reporters that the fence would not stop millions of Mexicans from heading north in search of jobs. "It is an embarrassment for the United States," said Fox. "It is proof, perhaps, that the United States does not see immigration as a subject that corresponds to both countries." The president-elect, Felipe Calderon - who takes over from Fox in December - was even more blunt. "The decision made by Congress and the U.S. government is deplorable," he said. Read The Full Story Dissent Grows Over Bush Refusal To Talk To Axis Of Evil Nations 2006-10-27 14:56:17 Ever since President Bush first proclaimed there to be an "axis of evil" in 2002, pundits, diplomats and politicians have urged him to talk to its members. But in the last few weeks, with Iraq experiencing a further surge in violence, North Korea testing a nuclear device and Iran continuing to defy a United Nations Security Council demand to stop enriching uranium, the cries for dialogue have grown louder. James A. Baker III,  the Republican former secretary of state, said this month that he believed "in talking to your enemies." After North Korea's nuclear test, former President Jimmy Carter said that "the stupidest thing that a government can do that has a real problem with someone is to refuse to talk to them." U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, said last weekend that even at the peak of the cold war, "when there were nuclear missiles pointing at every major U.S. city, there was a direct line between the White House and the Kremlin." The question arises: Is any of this cutting ice with the administration? Read The Full Story DOH! Inspector General Says Halliburton Subsidiary Abused The Rules 2006-10-27 13:29:59 The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday. The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it gave to the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors. By marking all information proprietary - including such normally releasable data as labor rates - the company abused federal regulations, the report says. In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight." Read The Full Story Chevron Reports $5 Billion Third-Quarter Profit 2006-10-27 13:28:59 A $5 billion third-quarter profit from Chevron Corp. lifts the cumulative results of the five major oil companies that reported July through September earnings this week to more than $31.5 billion. The industry benefited from oil prices that averaged more than $70 a barrel, as well as its ability to earn more money from gasoline production and sales. Chevron's profits grew the fastest among its peer group, rising a whopping 40 percent from a year ago. Chevron's results, released Friday, marked the third time in the past year that its quarterly results have hit a new high. The third-quarter earnings were also far above analyst estimates, boosting Chevron shares by 75 cents to $68.25 during midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Read The Full Story Suspect In Custody In Florida Family Killings 2006-10-27 13:27:49 Authorities investigating the slaying of a family of four alongside a Florida highway said Friday that the father was probably involved in drug trafficking and that the suspected killer was in custody. The suspect was among three men and a woman who were arrested Wednesday on drug charges and are "persons of interest" in the killings, Sheriff Ken Mascara said. None have been charged with the slayings, he said. Another man is being sought, he said. The couple and their two young sons were found shot to death Oct. 13 off a desolate stretch of Florida's Turnpike near Port St. Lucie, about 50 miles north of their home in the Palm Beach County city of Greenacres. Read The Full Story Sea Change: Gulf Stream Is Weakening 2006-10-27 00:51:31 Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic. Most alarmingly, the data reveal that a part of the current, which is usually 60 times more powerful than the Amazon river, came to a temporary halt during November 2004. The nightmare scenario of a shutdown in the meridional ocean current which drives the Gulf stream was dramatically portrayed in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". The climate disaster film had Europe and North America plunged into a new ice age practically overnight. Read The Full Story Campaign Tactics Veer Toward Smear 2006-10-27 00:48:45 Campaign Ads Get Surreal Rep. Ron Kind pays fopr sex! Well, that's what the Republican challenger for his Wisconsin congressional seat, Paul R. Nelson, claims in new ads, the ones with "XXX" stamped across Kind's face. It turns out that Kind - along with more than 200 of his fellow hedonists in the House - opposed an unsuccessful effort to stop the National Institutes of Health from pursuing peer-reviewed sex studies. According to Nelson's ads, the Democrat also wants to "let illegal aliens burn the American flag" and "allow convicted child molesters to enter this country". Read The Full Story IRS Told To Go Slow On Katrina Victims Until After Elections 2006-10-27 00:47:27 The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity. The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light. "We are very sensitive to political perceptions," Everson said Wednesday, adding that he regularly discussed with his senior staff members when to take actions and make announcements in light of whether they would annoy a powerful member of Congress or get lost in the flow of news. Read The Full Story	How The Bush Family Makes A Killing From George W. Bush Presidency 2006-10-28 00:29:57 Intellpuke: The following column is written by Heather Wokusch and was posted on the Common Dreams Web site on Wednesday, Oct. 25. In it, Ms. Wokusch, the author of "The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now", reveals the financial links of the Bush family and how having George W. Bush as president fattens the family's cash cow. Ms. Wokusch's column follows: Halliburton scored almost $1.2 billion in revenue from contracts related to Iraq in the third quarter of 2006, leading one analyst to comment: "Iraq was better than expected ... Overall, there is nothing really to question or be skeptical about. I think the results are very good." Very good indeed. An estimated 655,000 dead Iraqis, over 3,000 dead coalition troops, billions stolen from Iraq's coffers, a country battered by civil war - but Halliburton turned a profit, so the results are very good. Very good certainly for Vice President Dick Cheney, who resigned from Halliburton in 2000 with a $33.7 million retirement package (not bad for roughly four years of work). In a stunning conflict of interest, Cheney still holds more than 400,000 stock options in the company. Why pursue diplomacy when you can rake in a personal fortune from war? Yet Cheney isn't the only one who has benefited from the Bush administration's destructive policies. The Bush family has done quite nicely too. Just a few examples: Read The Full Story Housing Slump Sends Chill Through Economy 2006-10-28 00:28:12 The cooling housing market sent a chill through the economy in the third quarter, helping to slow growth to its weakest pace in more than three years, the government said Friday. The nation's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, expanded at a sluggish 1.6 percent annual rate in the quarter, down from a moderate 2.6 percent pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported. In the first three months of the year, the economy grew at a sizzling 5.6 percent annual rate. With less than two weeks to go before the midterm congressional elections, the report instantly became campaign ammunition. Democrats emphasized the slowdown while Republicans highlighted signs of economic strength. Financial analysts were split on whether the report reflected an economy poised for a rebound or headed into a prolonged slump. The debate turns on differing forecasts of how the housing market will affect consumer spending. Read The Full Story U.N. Vote Paves Way For Arms Treaty 2006-10-28 00:26:09 An overwhelming United Nations vote paving the way to an arms trade treaty controlling the growing international trade in conventional weapons was welcomed enthusiastically Friday by Britain, human rights groups and aid organizations. The U.N. General Assembly's first committee, responsible for disarmament and international security, voted by 139 votes to one on Thursday in favor of the move. The British government has been at the forefront of those pressing for a treaty with Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya and Finland. The move was opposed only by the U.S., and 24 countries, including Russia and China, abstained. Read The Full Story Substance Mailed to Clinton Office - Update 2006-10-27 17:53:29 Police and Secret Service agents Friday investigated a report of a suspicious substance found at former President Clinton's office in Manhattan. Clinton was not at the office at the time, officials said. A woman opened an envelope that contained a white powdery substance and called authorities, according to news reports. Police and emergency crews were called to the Harlem office building at about 3:45 p.m., said New York Police Sgt. Reginald Watkins. "There is a search to try to recover some sort of foreign substance," he said, adding that Secret Service agents were also at the building. Read The Full Story Where To Find Reliable Information On Candidates, Issues 2006-10-27 15:49:33 Intellpuke: With the congressional mid-term elections coming up a week from Tuesday, on Nov. 7, this seemed a good opportunity to provide a short-list of Web sites that provide accurate and reasonably unbiased information on candidates, where they stand on the issues, and - at least on incumbents - how they voted on key issues in the U.S. Congress, which includes both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. When you get to these sites, it is worth taking the time to browse them a bit to see what information they have that is of interest to you. After all, it's your vote that's going to count in these elections ... well, assuming those handling and counting the votes in your, respective, districts do so with honesty and integrity, which may be a big assumption. I've spent quite a bit of time visiting these and other Web sites to try to find the best and least biased of them. The sites I've determined that best do this follow: Project Vote Smart: This is one of the best overall sites for finding good, honest information on candidates, where they stand on the issues, and where their campaign money is coming from, among other related information. You can access Project Vote Smart's mainpage here: http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm Read The Full Story Iran Media Says Country Takes New Uranium Enrichment Step 2006-10-27 14:56:48 Iran has started to feed gas into a second cascade of centrifuges, an Iranian news agency reported today, a step that indicates that the country is moving ahead with its uranium enrichment program despite the threat of United Nations sanctions. The report that Iran had injected gas into a second cascade of centrifuges came from ISNA, a government-affiliated news agency that often carries official statements. The agency quoted an official, who was not identified in the report, as saying that the second cascade was installed two weeks ago and inoculations of gas were made last week. The report drew a reaction from President Bush in Washington, who said that if it is true that Iran has doubled its enrichment capacity, the United States must increase its efforts to work with the international community to persuade Iran to halt the program or face isolation. Read The Full Story Truth Revealed Behind Britain-Saudi Arabia Arms Deal 2006-10-27 14:55:31 The British government was scrambling Thursday to recover secret documents containing evidence suggesting corrupt payments were made in Britain's biggest arms deal. The documents, published in full Friday by the Guardian, detail for the first time how the price of Tornado warplanes was inflated by £600 million in the 1985 Al Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia. A telegram with the details from the head of the Ministry of Defense's (MoD) sales unit had been placed in the National Archives. Yesterday it was hastily withdrawn by officials who claimed its release had been "a mistake". Sir Colin Chandler's telegram was sent from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was arranging the sale of 72 Tornados and 30 Hawk warplanes on behalf of the British arms firm BAE. It revealed that their cost had been inflated by nearly a third in a deal with Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan. Read The Full Story U.S. Economic Growth Hits Slowest Pace In 3 Years 2006-10-27 13:29:21 The U.S. economy slowed markedly from July to September, as a slump in the housing market and higher interest rates and energy prices cooled economic growth to its lowest pace in three years. New figures released by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis showed the economy grew 1.6 percent on an annual basis for those three months, compared to 2.5 percent in the three months before that and a rapid 5.6 percent for the first quarter of the year. The Bush administration quickly sought to downplay the slowdown in economic growth. "Everybody expected this. You have a combination of rising energy prices and also rising interest rates, and now you've seen a reverse on both," said White House press secretary Tony Snow, according to the Associated Press. Read The Full Story Former Bush Aide Sentenced In Abramoff Case 2006-10-27 13:28:21 Former Bush administration official David Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Friday for concealing his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Safavian wept as he asked for leniency in his obstruction of justice case, telling a judge that Abramoff manipulated him and drew him into the scandal. Safavian was convicted in June of lying to investigators about his relationship with the lobbyist while Safavian was chief of staff in the General Services Administration. He helped provided Abramoff with details about GSA projects and offered advice on dealing with the agency. Read The Full Story Kirkuk: A City At A Boiling Point 2006-10-27 00:51:54 The tribal chiefs, in traditional robes and chequered headdresses, emerged from the dust stirred up by their convoy of pick-up trucks and walked towards the big white tent, gesturing welcomes to each other as they sat. Accompanied by about 500 clansmen and a gaggle of local journalists, the 35 Sunni sheikhs - from Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Hawija - converged last week on Hindiya, on the scrappy western edges of Kirkuk, to swear their undying opposition to "conspiracies" to partition Iraq and to pledge allegiance to their president, Saddam Hussein. Under banners exalting the man now standing trial in Baghdad for war crimes and genocide, the gathering heard speeches from prominent northern Iraqi sheikhs, Sunni Arab politicians and self-declared leaders of the Ba'ath party calling for the former dictator's release. Read The Full Story 4 Firefighters Killed In California Fire Started By Arsonist 2006-10-27 00:49:33 A wind-whipped wildfire started by an arsonist killed four firefighters Thursday and stranded up to 400 people in an RV park when flames burned to the edge of the only road out, said officials. "Everybody is hunkered down here. They're fighting the fire around us. It's across the street from us," said Charles Van Brunt, a ranger at the station at the entrance to Silent Valley Club, the recreational vehicle park near Palm Springs. The residents were in no immediate danger, he said. Authorities asked people in the RV park to stay put to leave roads clear for firefighters. Hundreds of others in the area were forced from their homes. Fire officials said the blaze was deliberately set around 1 a.m. Fire Chief John Hawkins said the arson "constitutes murder." Read The Full Story Cheney Remarks Fuel Torture Debate 2006-10-27 00:48:13 Vice President Cheney said this week that dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer," prompting complaints from human rights advocates that he was endorsing the use of a controversial technique known as waterboarding on prisoners held by the United States. In an interview Tuesday with Scott Hennen, a conservative radio show host from Fargo, North Dakota, Cheney agreed with Hennen's assertion that "a dunk in water" may yield valuable intelligence from terrorism suspects. He also referred to information gleaned from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the captured architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but stopped short of explicitly saying what techniques were used. "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" asked Hennen. "Well, it's a no-brainer for me," said Cheney, "but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in." Read The Full Story Bush Administration Citizenship Changes Draw Objections 2006-10-27 00:46:22 The Bush administration is considering proposals that would make it tougher for legal immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship. The proposals being drafted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, could nearly double application fees, toughen the required English and history exams, and ask probing questions about an applicant's past, such as "Who is your current wife's ex-husband?" In an interview Thursday, a USCIS spokesman said the contemplated changes are necessary to pay increased administrative costs and to standardize an application that is subjective and varies across the country. But immigration rights advocates say the changes would amount to a second wall, a potential barrier against legal immigration that is as formidable as the newly authorized southern border fence is supposed to be against illegal migrants. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php

Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday October 27 2006 - (813)

Friday October 27 2006 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Kirkuk: A City At A Boiling Point 2006-10-27 00:51:54 The tribal chiefs, in traditional robes and chequered headdresses, emerged from the dust stirred up by their convoy of pick-up trucks and walked towards the big white tent, gesturing welcomes to each other as they sat. Accompanied by about 500 clansmen and a gaggle of local journalists, the 35 Sunni sheikhs - from Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Hawija - converged last week on Hindiya, on the scrappy western edges of Kirkuk, to swear their undying opposition to "conspiracies" to partition Iraq and to pledge allegiance to their president, Saddam Hussein. Under banners exalting the man now standing trial in Baghdad for war crimes and genocide, the gathering heard speeches from prominent northern Iraqi sheikhs, Sunni Arab politicians and self-declared leaders of the Ba'ath party calling for the former dictator's release. Read The Full Story 4 Firefighters Killed In California Fire Started By Arsonist 2006-10-27 00:49:33 A wind-whipped wildfire started by an arsonist killed four firefighters Thursday and stranded up to 400 people in an RV park when flames burned to the edge of the only road out, said officials. "Everybody is hunkered down here. They're fighting the fire around us. It's across the street from us," said Charles Van Brunt, a ranger at the station at the entrance to Silent Valley Club, the recreational vehicle park near Palm Springs. The residents were in no immediate danger, he said. Authorities asked people in the RV park to stay put to leave roads clear for firefighters. Hundreds of others in the area were forced from their homes. Fire officials said the blaze was deliberately set around 1 a.m. Fire Chief John Hawkins said the arson "constitutes murder." Read The Full Story Cheney Remarks Fuel Torture Debate 2006-10-27 00:48:13 Vice President Cheney said this week that dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer," prompting complaints from human rights advocates that he was endorsing the use of a controversial technique known as waterboarding on prisoners held by the United States. In an interview Tuesday with Scott Hennen, a conservative radio show host from Fargo, North Dakota, Cheney agreed with Hennen's assertion that "a dunk in water" may yield valuable intelligence from terrorism suspects. He also referred to information gleaned from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the captured architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but stopped short of explicitly saying what techniques were used. "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" asked Hennen. "Well, it's a no-brainer for me," said Cheney, "but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in." Read The Full Story Bush Administration Citizenship Changes Draw Objections 2006-10-27 00:46:22 The Bush administration is considering proposals that would make it tougher for legal immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship. The proposals being drafted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, could nearly double application fees, toughen the required English and history exams, and ask probing questions about an applicant's past, such as "Who is your current wife's ex-husband?" In an interview Thursday, a USCIS spokesman said the contemplated changes are necessary to pay increased administrative costs and to standardize an application that is subjective and varies across the country. But immigration rights advocates say the changes would amount to a second wall, a potential barrier against legal immigration that is as formidable as the newly authorized southern border fence is supposed to be against illegal migrants. Read The Full Story Rumsfeld Tells Reporters To Backoff On Iraq Timeline 2006-10-26 14:53:09 Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday to "just back off" and "relax" instead of looking for differences between U.S. and Iraqi officials on benchmarks for progress in Iraq toward political and security goals, and he rejected the idea of penalizing any failure to hit the targets. In a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld sparred repeatedly with questioners over reported discord between U.S. officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on a timeline for Iraqi security forces to assume more responsibilities from U.S. troops. Rumsfeld disputed a characterization of Iraqi forces as chronically failing to meet benchmarks, saying this assertion was "flat wrong" and that the Iraqis have "done a darn good job." In response, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Massachusetts), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "Today a secretary of defense, who should have been fired a long time ago, lost even greater touch with reality." Read The Full Story September Home Prices Take Sharpest Plunge In 35 Years 2006-10-26 14:52:04 Housing developers are drastically cutting prices to move a backlog of unsold homes off the market, new statistics from the Commerce Department suggest. The median sale price of a new home in September 2006 was $217,000, 9.7 percent lower than in September 2005, the report said - the steepest year-to-year drop in more than three decades. The lower prices evidently had the desired effect: the number of new homes sold jumped by 5.3 percent in September compared with August, and inventories fell by 2 percent. Even so, the statistics depict a housing market that has slumped considerably from the lofty levels of a year ago. Though better than the month before, the sales volume figure for September was still 14.1 percent lower than in September 2005. Read The Full Story 3 Firefighters Killed, 2 Injured Fighting California Blaze 2006-10-26 14:50:56 Three firefighters were killed and two critically injured today while fighting a wind-whipped, fast-moving fire near Palm Springs., California, said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a televised news conference, the governor said the fire broke out early in the morning in a rugged, brush covered area. He said 700 people had been evacuated from the sparsely populated area. Hundreds of firefighters have been dispatched to battle the blaze, which was being driven by gusting, 18- to 29- mile-per-hour winds. Read The Full Story China Corruption Inquiry Targets Beijing 2006-10-26 14:47:52 A widening Chinese anti-corruption probe has targeted Beijing's party leaders, a sign that President Hu Jintao intends to continue removing officials he considers insufficiently loyal, said people told about the leadership's planning. Some 300 Communist Party investigators have been examining property deals and procurement practices in the capital city since at least late September and have uncovered suspicious dealings that implicate top Chinese leaders, said the people. Among those seen as likely targets of the inquiry are Jia Qinglin, a member of the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee and a former party secretary of Beijing, as well as the current Beijing party secretary, Liu Qi, who is a regular member of the Politburo. If the investigation results in the removal of one or both of the men, it would make the ongoing housecleaning the most sweeping since the shake-up after the 1989 suppression of democracy protests. Read The Full Story Paris Youth Torch 3 Buses 2006-10-26 14:45:56 Youths forced passengers off three buses and set the vehicles on fire overnight in suburban Paris, raising tensions Thursday ahead of the first anniversary of the riots that engulfed France's rundown, heavily immigrant neighborhoods. No injuries were reported, but worried bus drivers refused to enter some suburbs after dark, and the prime minister urged a swift, stern response. The riots in October 2005 raged through housing projects in suburbs nationwide, springing in part from anger over entrenched discrimination against immigrants and their French-born children, many of them Muslims from former French colonies in Africa. Despite an influx of funds and promises, disenchantment still thrives in those communities. Read The Full Story	Sea Change: Gulf Stream Is Weakening 2006-10-27 00:51:31 Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic. Most alarmingly, the data reveal that a part of the current, which is usually 60 times more powerful than the Amazon river, came to a temporary halt during November 2004. The nightmare scenario of a shutdown in the meridional ocean current which drives the Gulf stream was dramatically portrayed in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". The climate disaster film had Europe and North America plunged into a new ice age practically overnight. Read The Full Story Campaign Tactics Veer Toward Smear 2006-10-27 00:48:45 Campaign Ads Get Surreal Rep. Ron Kind pays fopr sex! Well, that's what the Republican challenger for his Wisconsin congressional seat, Paul R. Nelson, claims in new ads, the ones with "XXX" stamped across Kind's face. It turns out that Kind - along with more than 200 of his fellow hedonists in the House - opposed an unsuccessful effort to stop the National Institutes of Health from pursuing peer-reviewed sex studies. According to Nelson's ads, the Democrat also wants to "let illegal aliens burn the American flag" and "allow convicted child molesters to enter this country". Read The Full Story IRS Told To Go Slow On Katrina Victims Until After Elections 2006-10-27 00:47:27 The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity. The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light. "We are very sensitive to political perceptions," Everson said Wednesday, adding that he regularly discussed with his senior staff members when to take actions and make announcements in light of whether they would annoy a powerful member of Congress or get lost in the flow of news. Read The Full Story New Feature - FIP News Aggregator 2006-10-26 22:23:31   Some of you may have noticed the "FIP News Aggregator" link show up on the left-side menu.   This new feature allows you to see what's running on news sites around the world.  Think of it as similar to the service that Google News or Yahoo News run.  Our big difference is that it automatically updates every 10 minutes, and we don't filter, edit, or otherwise censor what is displayed.   We don't have a multi-billion dollar budget (or even a multi-dollar budget) to hire on a staff of people to maintain a news aggregator, to appear dormant for much of the day, so you get the live raw news.   We've only included trustworthy sites.  As always, any errors are from the source, point your finger their way.   If you run across a story which you haven't seen here yet, feel free to hit the "Recommend This Story For FIP!" link on the right side.  You can add it to the submissions queue, so we can poke it, prod! it, and write our own editorial on it, as we're so happy to do around here.   Feel free to put your own comments on the submissions too.  Free speech is for everyone. Read The Full Story Tehran Radio Warns Of Nuclear Impasse 2006-10-26 14:52:35 Russia signaled opposition Thursday to a European-proposed United Nations draft resolution to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, and Tehran's state-run radio warned Europe an impasse was looming. Hours before the Security Council's five permanent members, plus Germany, were to meet for the first time to discuss the European draft, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested passage of the measure would require a fight. He said the resolution, which imposes limited sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease uranium enrichment, was a departure from existing agreements between major powers. Read The Full Story Exxon Reports $10.49 Billion Third-Quarter Profit 2006-10-26 14:51:25 The ExxonMobil Corporation reported today that it earned $10.49 billion in the third quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever posted by a publicly traded American company. The largest on record was also reported by ExxonMobil - $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005. High oil and natural-gas prices and strong demand for energy made the quarter a robust one for the company and for much of the industry. But the search for new supplies is growing more costly as the international oil giants push into ever remoter or more politically unstable territory, leading Royal Dutch/Shell to report a sharp fall in net income today. ExxonMobil's results in the quarter were 26 percent better than in the same period in 2005, and translated into earnings of $1.77 a share, well above the consensus Wall Street forecast of $1.59 a share. Read The Full Story Bush Signs Mexico Border Fence Bill 2006-10-26 14:50:26 President Bush Thursday signed into law a bill that authorizes construction of 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border, a measure he hailed as "an important step in our nation's efforts to secure our border and reform our immigration system." Before signing the Secure Fence Act of 2006 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Bush said the new law would help modernize the 2,000-mile border, but he said more must be done to achieve immigration reform, and he repeated his call for a program that would allow U.S. employers to bring in guest workers and would offer legal status to many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants nationwide. Congress approved the Secure Fence Act last month as majority Republicans sought to show voters they were tough on illegal immigration ahead of midterm elections. The legislation did not include Bush's guest worker and legalization proposals, which were blocked by key House Republicans who insisted on first tightening control of the nation's southern border. Read The Full Story Sprint Nextel Income Down 52 Percent For Third Quarter 2006-10-26 14:46:28 Sprint Nextel Corp. just missed Wall Street estimates Thursday as subscriber numbers showed it has fallen farther behind in the wireless market. The company reported earnings of $247 million, or 8 cents per share, compared with $514 million, or 23 cents per share during the same period a year ago. Sprint said it earned 32 cents per share in the most recent quarter, after excluding 2 cents for special items and 22 cents for merger and acquisition-related amortization cost. That was a penny short of the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Read The Full Story
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