Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday October 3 2006 - (813)

Tuesday October 3 2006 edition
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Organizations Pour Record Amounts Of Money Into Campaigns 2006-10-03 00:38:32 As the race for control of Congress turns toward its final sprint to Election Day, independent organizations with ideological or commercial stakes in the outcome are pouring record amounts of money into the closest contests -- in some cases eclipsing the spending of the candidates themselves. In Ohio, Rep. Deborah Pryce, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, was attacked by nearly $1 million in negative commercials this summer. But her Democratic opponent, Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, did not pay for any of them. They were bankrolled instead by trial lawyers, labor unions and the liberal group MoveOn.org. In fact, outside groups appear to have spent more in that period than Pryce and Kilroy combined, a pattern that is being duplicated in some of the most competitive campaigns across the country. Politically active groups on both the left and the right are shelling out dollars faster than in any previous midterm election and focusing them intensely on the races that are up for grabs. Even with five weeks to go in the campaign, the $34 million in "independent expenditures" so far is nearly double the amount spent in the entire 2002 midterm election, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.com. Read The Full Story Tenet Recalled Warning Rice Of Imminent Al-Qaeda Threat 2006-10-03 00:37:36 Former CIA director George Tenet told the 9/11 Commission that he had warned of an imminent threat from al-Qaeda in a July 2001 meeting with Condoleezza Rice, adding that he believed Rice took the warning seriously, according to a transcript of the interview and the recollection of a commissioner who was there. Tenet's statements to the commission in January 2004 confirm the outlines of an event in a new book by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward that has been disputed by some Bush administration officials. But the testimony also is at odds with Woodward's depiction of Tenet and former CIA counterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black as being frustrated that "they were not getting through to Rice" after the July 10, 2001, meeting. Rice angrily rejected those assertions yesterday, saying that it was "incomprehensible" that she would have ignored such explicit intelligence from senior CIA officials and that she received no warning at the meeting of an attack within the United States. Rice acknowledged that the White House was receiving a "steady stream of quite alarmist reports of potential attacks" during that period, but said the targets were assumed to be in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel and Jordan. Read The Full Story Foley Scandal Puts Pressure On Republicans 2006-10-03 00:36:36 Republican strategists said yesterday that public revulsion over the sexually graphic online conversations between Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida) and former House pages could compound the party's problems enough to tip the House to the Democrats in November - and could jeopardize the party's hold on the Senate as well. As House GOP leaders defended their role in handling revelations that forced Foley on Friday to give up his House seat, party strategists said the scandal threatens to depress turnout among Christian conservatives and could hamper efforts to convince undecided and swing voters that Republicans deserve to remain in the majority. There was intense anger among social conservative activists in Washington, D.C. Monday, and some called for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert(R-Illinois) to resign. Republican operatives closely following the battle for the House and Senate said that they are virtually ready to concede nearly a third of the 15 seats the Democrats need to recapture control of the House, and that they will spend the next five weeks trying to shelter other vulnerable incumbents from the fallout of the Foley scandal in hopes of salvaging a slender majority. Read The Full Story Russia, Chinese Oil Grabs Could Put Western Supplies At Risk 2006-10-02 15:41:45 A former government adviser has warned it is "only a matter of time" before BP or Shell faces a bid from a Russian state-owned group such as Gazprom which could threaten western oil supplies. Professor Peter Odell, an energy economist, says ExxonMobil is also vulnerable to a Chinese takeover as the large U.K. and American stock-listed oil groups lose their influence in global markets. "A Chinese bid for Exxon and/or Chevron and/or a Russian bid for Shell and/or BP, backed by funds provided by the wealthy member countries of OPEC seem likely to be only a matter of time. "With the 'majors' gone there will be concern in the main OECD countries for the future security of supplies," he said in an unpublished speech to OPEC ministers in Vienna, Austria, last month. Read The Full Story Cost Of Saving Planet: One Year Of Economic Growth 2006-10-02 15:40:45 The world would have to give up only one year's economic growth over the next four decades to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to stave off the threat of global warming, says a recent report by consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report offers a "green growth plus" strategy, combining energy efficiency, greater use of renewables and carbon capture to cut emissions by 60% by 2050 from the level reached by doing nothing. Nuclear energy, it says, can play a role, but it is not crucial. This scenario, which involves little real sacrifice in terms of economic growth, could be achieved only if embarked upon without delay, the report warns. "If countries adopt a 'business as usual' approach, the result could be a more than doubling of global carbon emissions by 2050," said John Hawksworth, head of macroeconomics at PwC. Read The Full Story U.S. Manufacturing Growth Slows In September 2006-10-02 15:37:48 A pair of indicators offered a mixed picture of the economy Monday as growth slowed among U.S. manufacturers while commercial construction showed surprising resilience. Hurt by weaker auto sales and a slumping housing market, the manufacturing sector expanded in September at the slowest pace in more than a year, said a trade group. A big gain in commercial construction spending, however, was enough to offset a decline in home building in August, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Construction spending edged up 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.20 trillion, the best showing in five months. The dreary manufacturing report had a stronger effect on markets Monday than the rosier construction data: the dollar fell, Treasury bonds rallied, and stocks slipped after nearing all-time highs. Read The Full Story Update: 3 Students Killed, 7 Wounded In Amish School Shooting 2006-10-02 12:18:09 A 32-year-old truck driver walked into an Amish schoolhouse Monday, binding and shooting three girls execution-style before killing himself, police said Monday. Seven others were wounded in the attack, which police said appeared to be a revenge killing for an incident that occurred two decades ago. "It seems as though he wanted to attack young female victims, and this is close to his residence, that's the only reason we can figure that he went to the school," said Comm. Jeffrey Miller, Pennsylvania State Police. "It's a horrendous crime scene," he said. The shooting took place at Wolf Rock School in Paradise, a school run by the Amish community with about 27 students in grades 1 through 8. Read The Full Story FBI To Examine Emails Foley Sent To Pages 2006-10-02 00:34:30 The FBI announced Sunday night that it is looking into whether former representative Mark Foley (R-Florida) broke federal law by sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to teenage House pages. The announcement came hours after House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert asked for a Justice Department investigation into not only Foley's actions but also Congress's handling of the matter once it learned of the contacts. In his letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Hastert (R-Illinois) acknowledged that some of Foley's most sexually explicit instant messages were sent to former House pages in 2003. That was two years before lawmakers say they learned of a more ambiguous 2005 e-mail that led only to a quiet warning to Foley to leave pages alone. Foley, 52, abruptly resigned Friday, and Democrats have since been hammering Hastert and other GOP leaders. They have accused Republicans of covering up the matter and allowing Foley to remain as co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus instead of launching an inquiry and possibly uncovering the raunchier communications. Read The Full Story Court Ruling Fuels Eminent Domain Dispute In Western U.S. 2006-10-02 00:33:40 Libertarians and land developers have found populist fodder in a contentious Supreme Court decision from last year that favors eminent domain over private property. This fall, they are trying to harness anger over the ruling in an effort to pass state initiatives in the West and federal legislation that could unravel a long-standing fabric of state and local land-use regulations. Among other things, the rules control growth, limit sprawl, ensure open space and protect the environment. The property-rights movement, as it is known, has a major new benefactor - Howard Rich, a wealthy libertarian real estate investor from Manhattan. He has spent millions - estimates run as high as $11 million - to support initiatives that will appear on ballots throughout much of the West. The initiatives - and legislation approved Friday in the House - have alarmed many city and state officials, along with environmental organizations, budget watchdog groups and smart-growth advocates. They complain about "bait-and-switch" tactics. "They bait you with eminent domain, but you end up voting to destroy all land-use regulation," said Elaine Clegg, a nonpartisan member of the city council in Boise, Idaho. Read The Full Story At Least 6 Die As Followers Of Hamas, Fatah Clash In Gaza 2006-10-02 00:32:38 The Palestinian security service controlled by Hamas moved forcefully in the Gaza Strip on Sunday to disperse demonstrators loyal to the rival Fatah movement who were demanding months of back pay from a nearly bankrupt government. At least six people were killed, including two teenage boys, and more than 100 were injured in day-long clashes that marked the most severe partisan violence between the two sides in months. The fighting, which erupted in downtown Gaza City and later flared in the West Bank, came after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' effort to form a power-sharing cabinet with Hamas collapsed in recent days. The apparent failure has brought mutual recriminations between the two main Palestinian political movements at a time of stifling economic crisis in the territories stemming from international sanctions against the Hamas-controlled government. Read The Full Story	4th Girl Dies From Shooting In Amish School 2006-10-03 00:38:08 A dairy truck driver, apparently nursing a 20-year-old grudge, walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse here Monday morning and systematically tried to execute the girls there, killing four and wounding seven before killing himself, said the police. The heavily armed gunman first ordered the 15 boys in the room to leave, along with several adults, and demanded that the 11 girls line up facing the blackboard. As the gunman lashed the students' legs together with wire and plastic ties, the teacher dashed from the room and called the police around 10:35 a.m. The gunman, identified as Charles C. Roberts, 32, killed himself as the police stormed the West Nickel Mines Amish School, which is set back in a cornfield on a street of stone houses, barns and silos in Lancaster County, about 50 miles west of Philadelphia. Several of the wounded were in critical condition in area hospitals. Read The Full Story Experts: Border Fence Is Impractical 2006-10-03 00:36:57 Building a fence in an attempt to secure the U.S. border with Mexico is impractical and would simply lead illegal immigrants to cross elsewhere, according to former U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and other experts. The Mexican government agreed in a diplomatic note sent Monday to the U.S. government, warning that the fence would damage relations between the two countries. The Senate voted Friday to build about 700 miles of double-layered fence with access roads, lighting, cameras and sensors, to try to block five heavily used crossing points along the 2,000-mile border. Read The Full Story 2nd Update: Amish School Shooter Left Notes 2006-10-02 15:46:25 A gunman burst into a one-room schoolhouse in a Pennsylvania Amish community this morning, lined at least 10 girls up against a blackboard and shot them, killing at least three before taking his own life, said police. At least seven girls were wounded, and some were in serious condition with gunshots to the head after being shot "execution-style," said police. The shooting in the Nickel Mines farming community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, occurred as state police outside the schoolhouse were trying to make contact with the gunman, identified as Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, a milk tanker truck driver from the area, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller told reporters. He said Roberts apparently went to the school intending to take revenge for something that had happened 20 years earlier and to commit suicide. Miller declined to elaborate on the past incident, saying that an investigation was continuing. Read The Full Story 2 Americans Share Noble Prize For Medicine 2006-10-02 15:41:20 Two Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discovering a way to silence specific genes, a revolutionary finding that scientists are scrambling to harness for fighting illnesses as diverse as cancer, heart disease and AIDS. Andrew Z. Fire, 47, of Stanford University, and Craig C. Mello, 45, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, will share the $1.4 million prize. They were honored remarkably swiftly for work they published together just eight years ago. It revealed a process called RNA interference, which occurs in plants, animals and humans. It's important for regulating gene activity and helping defend against viruses. It is "a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information," said the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which awarded the prize. Read The Full Story Iraqi Parliament Renews State Of Emergency 2006-10-02 15:40:15 Iraq's Parliament extended the country's state of emergency Monday as gunmen snatched 14 employees from computer stores in downtown Baghdad in the second mass kidnapping in as many days. Seven cars pulled up to the shops in front of Baghdad's Technical University, and gunmen wearing military-style uniforms fanned out to surround the buildings, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud. The attackers then forced the employees outside and into sport utility vehicles at gunpoint, he said. On Sunday evening, 24 workers at a food factory in Baghdad were seized by gunmen who shot and wounded two workers who refused to climb into a refrigerated truck with their fellow captives. Read The Full Story Georgia Releases Russian Officers To Mediator 2006-10-02 15:37:19 Georgia handed over four Russian military officers it arrested last week on espionage charges to an international mediator Monday, in a move to defuse tension with Russia that has been escalating since the men's detention five days ago. "The message to Russia is: 'Enough is enough'," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told reporters in the Georgian capital Tblisi on Monday. "We want to have good relations. We want to have dialogue, but we cannot be treated as a second-rate backyard of some kind of emerging empire." Russia continued to escalate its pressure on Georgia. It severed all transportation links with its southern neighbor, including commercial flights and train service, although a deal was in the offing. Officials also cut off all mail between the two countries. It was unclear if confirmation of the officers' release would lead the Russian authorities to scale back their retaliatory measures. Read The Full Story Report: 6 Killed In Shooting At Amish School In Pennsylvania 2006-10-02 11:05:32 The county coroner says at least six people were killed in a shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse, where state police said earlier a gunman killed "a number" of people Monday in Pennsylvania's bucolic Lancaster County. The shooting took place at Wolf Rock School in Paradise, Pennsylvania, a school run by the Amish community with about 27 students in grades 1 through 8. "So far six confirmed dead and the helicopters are pulling into (Lancaster General Hospital) like crazy," Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner said. It was unclear if the shooter was among the six. State police Cpl. Ralph Striebig had said earlier the shooter was among the dead, and a number of people were injured. Read The Full Story Sept. 11 Panel Not Told Of Meeting Warning Of Al-Qaeda Attack 2006-10-02 00:34:02 Members of the Sept. 11 commission said Sunday they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a July 2001 White House meeting at which George J. Tenet, then director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, about an imminent attack by al-Qaeda and failed to persuade her to take action. Details of the meeting on July 10, 2001, two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were first reported last week in a new book by Bob Woodward. The White House disputes his account. The final report from the Sept. 11 commission made no mention of the meeting, nor did it suggest that there had been such an encounter between Tenet and Rice, now secretary of state. Read The Full Story Global Sludge Ends In Tragedy For Ivory Coast 2006-10-02 00:33:10 It was his infant son's cries, gasping and insistent, that first woke Salif Oudrawogol one night last month. The smell hit him moments later, wafting into the family's hut, a noxious mélange reminiscent of rotten eggs, garlic and petroleum. Mr. Oudrawogol went outside to investigate. Beside the family's compound, near his manioc and corn fields, he saw a stinking slick of black sludge. "The smell was so bad we were afraid," said Oudrawogol. "It burned our noses and eyes." Over the next few days, the skin of his 6-month-old son, Salam, bloomed with blisters, which burst into weeping sores all over his body. The whole family suffered headaches, nosebleeds and stomach aches. How that slick, a highly toxic cocktail of petrochemical waste and caustic soda, ended up in Mr. Oudrawogol's backyard in a suburb north of Abidjan is a dark tale of globalization. It came from a Greek-owned tanker flying a Panamanian flag and leased by the London branch of a Swiss trading corporation whose fiscal headquarters are in the Netherlands. Safe disposal in Europe would have cost about $300,000, or even twice that, counting the cost of delays. Because of decisions and actions made not only here in Abidjan, but also in Europe, it was dumped on the doorstep of some of the world's poorest people. Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda Letter Indicates Problems With Zarqawi 2006-10-02 00:32:10 Six months before the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June, a senior al-Qaeda figure warned him in a letter that he risked removal as al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq if he continued to alienate Sunni tribal and religious leaders and rival insurgent groups. The author of the Dec. 11 letter, who said he was writing from al-Qaeda headquarters in the Waziristan region of Pakistan, was a member of Osama bin Laden's high command who signed himself "Atiyah." The military's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which last week released a 15-page English translation of the Arabic document made public in Iraq, said his real identity is "unknown." Counterterrorism officials said they believe he is Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a 37-year-old Libyan who joined bin Laden in Afghanistanas a teenager during the 1980s. He has since gained considerable stature in al-Qaeda as an explosives expert and Islamic scholar. After becoming acquainted with Zarqawi in the western Afghan city of Herat in the late 1990s, he became al-Qaeda's main interlocutor with the fiery Jordanian. Atiyah's name does not appear on any published U.S. government list of known or suspected terrorists, but his biography, as described by counterterrorism officials who agreed to discuss him on the condition that they not be named, offers a rare glimpse into the cadre of loyal senior aides who escaped with bin Laden into the mountainous Afghan-Pakistani border region in the fall of 2001. Read The Full Story
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