Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday October 26 2006 - (813)

Thursday October 26 2006 edition
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World Leaders Warned To Tackle Climate Change Or Face Deep Recession 2006-10-25 22:47:25 Climate change could tilt the world's economy into the worst global recession in recent history, a report will warn next week. Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist with the World Bank, will warn that governments need to tackle the problem head-on by cutting emissions or face economic ruin. The findings, due to be released this coming  Monday, will turn economic argument about global warming on its head by insisting that fighting global warming will save industrial nations money. The U.S. refused to join the Kyoto protocol, the international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, because George Bush said it would harm the economy. The contents of the Stern review into the economics of climate change - commissioned by the British Treasury - have been kept secret since the nature of the work was revealed to the world's environment ministers in Mexico this month. But Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser, Wednesday gave the Guardian a preview of its main findings. Read The Full Story Analysis: Bush Proposal Of Benchmarks For Iraq Sounds Familiar 2006-10-25 22:46:22 The text of President Bush's news conference Wednesday ran to nearly 10,000 words, but what may have been more significant were the things he did not say. The president talked repeatedly about "benchmarks" for progress in Iraq, using that word 13 times. But he did not discuss the consequences of the Iraqi government missing those targets. Such a question, he said, was "hypothetical". That response left unclear how the benchmarks would be different from previous times when the United States has set out intentions, only to back down. For example, the original war plan envisioned the U.S. troop presence in Iraq being cut to 30,000 by the fall of 2003. Last year, some top U.S. commanders thought they would be able to significantly cut the U.S. troop level in Iraq this year - a hope now officially abandoned. More recently, the U.S. military all but withdrew from Baghdad, only to have to have to reenter the capital as security evaporated from its streets and Iraqi forces proved unable to restore calm by themselves. Read The Full Story CIA Tried To Silence European Union On Rendition Torture Flights 2006-10-25 22:43:36 The CIA tried to persuade Germany to silence European Union protests about the human rights record of one of America's key allies in its clandestine torture flights program, the Guardian revealed today. According to a secret intelligence report, the CIA offered to let Germany have access to one of its citizens, an al-Qaeda suspect being held in a Moroccan cell. But the U.S. secret agents demanded that in return, Berlin should cooperate and "avert pressure from E.U." over human rights abuses in the north African country. The report describes Morocco as a "valuable partner in the fight against terrorism". The classified documents prepared for the German parliament last February make clear that Berlin did eventually get to see the detained suspect, who was arrested in Morocco in 2002 as an alleged organizer of the September 11 strikes. Read The Full Story Chrysler Losses Reflect Declining Fortunes Of U.S. Car Industry 2006-10-25 22:40:46 Chrysler, America's third-largest car company, is to start a savage cost-cutting programme and shift towards more fuel-efficient models to halt mounting losses that hit €1.16bn (£780 million) in the third quarter. Chrysler's losses, prompted by a 26% fall in sales and a price war, dragged down operating earnings at parent group DaimlerChrysler to €892 million compared with €1.84 billion in the same quarter a year ago, it was confirmed Wednesday. Daimler, which owns 15% of Airbus parent EADS, said delays to Airbus's A380 superjumbo would shave €200 million off earnings this year, but reaffirmed its forecast of €5 billion for the full year thanks to renewed vigor at Mercedes, its trucks division and financial services. EADS delivered €247 million profits to the cars group. Read The Full Story Bush: U.S. Is Winning Iraq War 2006-10-25 19:52:10 President Bush said Wednesday he shares the American public's dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq, but he warned against succumbing to "disillusionment" about the U.S. purpose there, asserted that "absolutely, we're winning," and expressed confidence in both Iraq's prime minister and his own defense secretary. In a White House news conference, Bush also said he was sure his fellow Republicans would retain control of Congress in midterm elections on Nov. 7 because voters would base their decisions on national security and the economy. While some pundits are treating Republican losses as a foregone conclusion, Bush said, he sees a different picture on the campaign trail. "You know, we've got some people dancing in the end zone here in Washington, D.C., measuring their drapes," he said. "But the American people are going to decide, and they're going to decide this race based upon who best to protect the American people and who best to keep the taxes low." Read The Full Story Online Facial Recognition vs Vampire JWSmythe 2006-10-25 11:25:00 "Facial recognition software has been touted as one of the technologies that will change our future, particularly in law enforcement. How close are we to being recognized by a computer anywhere we go, as portrayed in movies like Minority Report? According to the industry's recent Public Relations releases, these products are closer than we think. The reality though, is that current products work only when utilizing a small comparative sample, and any attempts for an individual to disguise themselves typically throw off the results. To see how far this technology needs to go before becoming mainstream, one site utilized Government-tested face recognition software, available freely through MyHeritage.com, to compare hundreds of famous people, animals, and cartoons to a database of 2,000 celebrities. Some of the results showed promise for the technology, but most were just funny — for example, who would mistake Barbara Streisand for Shrek, or Lance Bass of N'Sync for a Teletubby?" Read The Full Story	Editorial: Money Down The Drain In Iraq 2006-10-25 22:46:46 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 edition of the New York Times. In the Times editorial writer looks not only at the squandering of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in Iraq, but the consequences to the U.S. of the Bush Administration's failure to make good on promises to rebuild the war-torn country. The N.Y. Times editorial follows: When the full encyclopedia of Bush administration misfeasance in Iraq is compiled, it will have to include a lengthy section on the contracting fiascos that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars in the name of rebuilding the country. It isn't only money that was lost. Washington's disgraceful failure to deliver on its promises to restore electricity, water and oil distribution, and to rebuild education and health facilities, turned millions of once sympathetic Iraqis against the American presence. Their discovery that the world's richest, most technologically advanced country could not restore basic services to minimal prewar levels left an impression of American weakness and, worse, of indifference to the well-being of ordinary Iraqis. That further poisoned a situation already soured by White House intelligence breakdowns, military misjudgments and political blunders. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Iraq War Has Made The World More Dangerous 2006-10-25 22:44:24 Intellpuke: The following commentary by Timothy Garton Ash appears in the Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 edition of the Guardian newspaper. In it, Mr. Ash argues that the intervention in Iraq that was intended to make the world safer for democracy has, in fact, made it more dangerous for all democracies. Mr. Ash's column follows: "They died in vain." Four words that are unbearable for the mother of a dead soldier and shaming for the politicians who sent them to their deaths. So our leaders say "they did not die in vain". But who now believes them? Contemplating the scale of the American-British failure in Iraq, I have been struggling to see if there are any future circumstances, any lines of long-term strategic action, which would one day enable us honestly and credibly to say to the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq: "Your son did not die in vain." At the moment, that seems nearly impossible. Yes, our troops removed a very nasty tyranny, to widespread initial rejoicing among the people of Iraq. For some Iraqis - especially Kurds and Shia - some things about their lives have got better. People who were in prison or in exile are now at home. Millions of Iraqis turned out to vote for political parties of their choice, despite intimidation. They have incomparably more free media than before and less reason to fear repression from the central state. A few have prospered. In places, the occupying powers have done major reconstruction work. But that's about all one can say on the plus side; the minus list is so much longer. Read The Full Story Germany Outraged By Photos Of Soldiers Posing With Skull In Afghanistan 2006-10-25 22:41:20 Photographs of German soldiers posing with a human skull in Afghanistan triggered outrage in Germany Wednsday and cast a shadow over government plans to raise its military profile worldwide. The Bild newspaper printed a close-up of an unidentified soldier smiling and holding up a skull. Under the headline "German soldiers desecrate the dead", other photos showed the skull balanced on a jeep and a soldier holding the skull next to his exposed penis. Germany's top-selling newspaper said the shots were taken three years ago and showed German peacekeepers near the Afghan capital, Kabul. Read The Full Story Iraq Prime Minister Maliki Lambastes U.S. On Timelines 2006-10-25 19:52:45 Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out at the United States on Wednesday, saying his popularly elected government would not bend to U.S.-imposed benchmarks and timelines and criticizing a U.S.-Iraqi military operation in a Shiite slum in Baghdad that left at least five people dead and 20 wounded. Maliki's comments came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the prime minister had agreed to timelines for accomplishing several critical goals, including developing plans to deal with militias, amend the constitution and equitably distribute Iraq's oil revenue. "I affirm that this government represents the will of the people, and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it," Maliki said at a nationally televised news conference Wednesday. "The Americans have the right to review their policies, but we do not believe in a timetable." Read The Full Story Chrysler, GM Report Third-Quarter Loses 2006-10-25 19:51:31 General Motors Corp. and the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG reported losses Wednesday as automakers try to steer through a harsh period of high costs and sharp competition in the U.S. market. GM, the world's largest automaker, reported a loss of $115 million in the third quarter, an improvement from the third quarter of 2005, when the company lost $1.7 billion. While GM shows signs of recovery, its U.S. rivals are suffering. Chrysler reported a $1.48 billion third-quarter operating loss, dragging down the performance of German parent DaimlerChrysler. The Chrysler division had a profit of $393 million in the third quarter last year. Read The Full Story
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