Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday October 8 2006 - (813)

Sunday October 8 2006 edition
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U.S. Casualties In Iraq Highest In Almost 2 Years 2006-10-07 23:18:24 The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American G.I.s fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war. Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The sharp increase in American wounded - with nearly 300 more in the first week of October - is a grim measure of the degree to which the U.S. military has been thrust into the lead of the effort to stave off full-scale civil war in Iraq, say military officials and experts. Beyond Baghdad, Marines battling Sunni insurgents in Iraq's western province of Anbar last month also suffered their highest number of wounded in action since late 2004. Read The Full Story Shots Fired Along Tense Korean Border 2006-10-07 16:38:27 Tensions mounted over North Korea's threat to test its first atomic bomb, with shots ringing out Saturday along the border with South Korea and Japan warning of harsh sanctions if Pyongyang goes nuclear. With a possible test expected as early as Sunday, the U.N. Security Council issued a stern statement Friday urging the country to abandon its nuclear ambitions and warning of unspecified consequences if the isolated, communist regime doesn't comply. Jittery nations have warned a test would unravel regional security and possibly trigger an arms race. A midday incursion Saturday by North Korean troops into the southern side of the no-man's-land separating North and South Korea only stoked the unease. South Korean soldiers rattled off 40 warning shots at the five communist troops who crossed the center line of the Demilitarized Zone, the inter-Korean buffer. Read The Full Story Editorial: Five Years On 2006-10-07 16:36:05 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in today's edition of the Arab News, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The editorial's author argues, with some valid reasons, that the Bush Administration should have finished the job of eliminating al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and that of rebuilding the beleaguered nation. The editorial follows: On the night of Oct. 7, 2001, as the cruise missiles and the laser-guided bombs from the first wave of Stealth bombers struck home on their initial Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan, the world held its breath. Was Washington's devastating revenge for the enormity of the 9/11 crimes going to be the hoped-for knockout blow for international terror? Five years on to the day, we know it was not. Rather this devastating onslaught, which quickly drove the unsophisticated Taliban from power, marked the start of a grim catalog of American errors, which has left the world even more vulnerable to al-Qaeda's killers. If George W. Bush had not chosen to settle his father's unfinished business with Saddam Hussein and plunged his soldiers into the military mire and the Iraqi people into the nightmare bloodbath that is now post-invasion Iraq, the current position of Afghanistan might have been very different. Washington could have maintained its focus on Afghanistan and deployed sufficient ground forces and intelligence resources to defeat the fleeing Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies in detail. After the ground-breaking Loya Jirga, which paved the way for the election of the Karzai coalition government, the United States could have led the way with other major donors, such as the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia], in pouring aid into the country and overseeing both the repair of damaged roads and installations and the creation of a swathe of new infrastructure to bring power, sanitation, education, medical care and public amenity to every region of this woefully poor country. Read The Full Story Battlestar Galactica Reviews America In Iraq 2006-10-07 11:36:35   Battlestar Galactica's third season premeired last  night on the SciFi channel.   For those who didn't watch it or TiVo it, it will be rerun through the week on the SciFi Channel and USA Network.    Last season, they touched on a few current political topics, such as rigging elections and bad politics.    This season's premeir was an interesting view of terrorism and America's involvement in Iraq.  Neither one was named specifically, but it became very clear through the episode.   What if a society already decimated by war was invaded by a superior military force?  What if that military force loomed over them, even though they were promising peace?  Read The Full Story GAO: Thousands Wrongly On U.S. Terror List 2006-10-07 00:53:2! 4 Thousands of people have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a U.S. government report said Friday. More than 30,000 airline passengers have asked just one agency - the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) - to have their names cleared from the lists, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Hundreds of millions of people each year are screened against the lists by Customs and Border Protection, the State Department and state and local law enforcement agencies. The lists include names of people suspected of terrorism or of possibly having links to terrorist activity. Read The Full Story Inquest Told ITN Reporter Was Shot By U.S. Soldiers 2006-10-07 00:52:34 British ITN reporter Terry Lloyd was shot in the head by American troops as he was being driven to the hospital, the inquest into his death was told Friday. An account by an Iraqi witness claimed Lloyd was still alive after the original attack on his car but was killed by U.S. troops as he was driven from the scene. The unnamed driver's account, which was read out by the deputy assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, Andrew Walker, at the inquest in Oxford, gave new details of the last moments of Mr. Lloyd's life. It also came to light that British forces witnessed the events of March 22, 2003, in which Lloyd and his interpreter, Hussein Osman, died and his French cameraman, Fred Nerac, went missing near Basra in southern Iraq. Read The Full Story	14 Killed By Suicide Bomber In Iraq City Bush Said Was Safe 2006-10-07 23:18:02 A suicide car bomb slammed into an Iraqi army checkpoint Saturday and killed at least 14 people in Tall Afar, a northern city that President Bush has previously hailed as a symbol of security and normalcy in Iraq.  The fiery explosion, which occurred at 10 a.m. in the city's Salam neighborhood, also wounded at least 11 people, mainly civilians in cars that had been stopped at the checkpoint, said authorities. "There were screams and shouts of people calling for help," said Hameed Buhriz, 43, a taxi driver who was wounded and knocked unconscious by the attack. "I felt like I was being crushed against the door of my car. After that, I do not recall what happened." The assault - which occurred as two construction workers were killed by gunmen west of the city - followed another suicide bombing in Tall Afar last month that killed at least 21 people and wounded 18. Taken together, the attacks seemed to undercut the president's assertion in March that residents of Tall Afar "can count on a basic level of safety and security, they can live together peacefully". Read The Full Story Experts Warn Of Accidental Nuclear War 2006-10-07 16:38:00 A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned Thursday. Russian military officers might misconstrue a submarine-launched conventional D5 intercontinental ballistic missile and conclude that Russia is under nuclear attack, said Ted Postol, a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pavel Podvig, a physicist and weapons specialist at Stanford. "Any launch of a long-range nonnuclear armed sea or land ballistic missile will cause an automated alert of the Russian early warning system," Postol told reporters. The triggering of an alert wouldn't necessarily precipitate a retaliatory hail of Russian nuclear missiles, Postol said. Nevertheless, he said, "there can be no doubt that such an alert will greatly increase the chances of a nuclear accident involving strategic nuclear forces." Read The Full Story Russian Reporter, An Outspoken Putin Critic, Shot Dead 2006-10-07 16:34:58 Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, said police. "According to initial information, she was killed by two shots when leaving the lift. Neighbors found her body," a police source told Reuters. Police found a pistol and four rounds in the lift. Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, won international fame and numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government, particularly in the violent southern province of Chechnya. "The first thing that comes to mind is that Anna was killed for her professional activities. We don't see any other motive for this terrible crime," said Vitaly Yaroshevsky, a deputy editor of the newspaper where Politkovskaya worked. Read The Full Story Staffer Cites Earlier Role In Foley Matter By Hastert 2006-10-07 00:56:02 House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff confronted then-Rep. Mark Foley about his inappropriate social contact with male pages well before the speaker said aides in his office took any action, a current congressional staff member with personal knowledge of Foley and his behavior with pages said Friday. The staff member said Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, met with the Florida Republican at the Capitol to discuss complaints about Foley's behavior toward pages. The alleged meeting occurred long before Hastert says aides in his office dispatched Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Illinois) and the clerk of the House in November 2005 to confront Foley about troubling e-mails he had sent to a Louisiana boy. The staff member's account buttresses the position of Foley's onetime chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who said earlier this week that he had appealed to Palmer in 2003 or earlier to intervene, after Fordham's own efforts to stop Foley's behavior had failed. Fordham said Foley and Palmer, one of the most powerful figures in the House of Representatives, met within days to discuss the allegations. Read The Full Story Google Willing To Spend $1.6 Billion To Acquire You Tube 2006-10-07 00:53:01 YouTube, the popular video-sharing Website that has yet to celebrate its first anniversary or its first profit, is quickly becoming the must-have prize for media and technology giants. Google is in discussions to acquire YouTube for $1.6 billion, people involved in the talks said Friday. While the talks are in the early stages, and may fall apart, the size of Google's offer may push YouTube closer to a deal. Other companies have also expressed interest and could swoop in with a higher offer. Microsoft, Yahoo, Viacom and the News Corporation, among others, have all visited YouTube's headquarters in San Mateo, California, in recent months to inquire about buying the company. Read The Full Story Investigators Believe Botulism Case Linked To Carrot Juice 2006-10-07 00:52:09 Investigators believe botulism toxin from bottled carrot juice paralyzed a woman, the fourth person thought to be poisoned by bacteria in the drink. The unidentified woman is unresponsive and has been hospitalized since mid-September, said Jylmarie Kintz, epidemiologist for the Hillsborough County Health Department. Three people in Georgia experienced respiratory failure and remain hospitalized on ventilators since drinking the bottled carrot juice a month ago, according to federal officials. Read The Full Story
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