Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday November 10 2006 - (813)

Friday November 10 2006 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Marines Get The News From Iraqi Host: Rumsfeld's Out. 'Who's Rumsfeld?' 2006-11-10 00:26:38 Hashim al-Menti smiled wanly at the marine sergeant beside him on his couch. The sergeant had appeared in the darkness on Wednesday night, knocking on the door of Mr. Menti’s home. When Menti answered, a squad of infantrymen swiftly moved in, making him an involuntary host. Since then marines had been on his roof with rifles, watching roads where insurgents often planted bombs. Menti had passed the time watching television. Now he had news. He spoke in broken English. “Rumsfeld is gone,” he told the sergeant, Michael A. McKinnon. “Democracy,” he added, and made a thumbs-up sign. “Good.” Read The Full Story California Train Derailment Leaves 1 Dead, Several Injured, Fuel Spill Starts Fire 2006-11-10 00:25:18 A maintenance train loaded with thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and other flammable liquids derailed in the mountains east of Sacramento on Thursday, killing one person, injuring several others and sparking a fire in the heavily forested area. ''This is a huge spill,'' said Tina Rose, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. ''That is a lot of hazardous materials.'' Authorities confirmed that one person was killed but did not provide any details. Eight others had minor injuries, while another was missing. ''We don't know if that person is trapped,'' said Rose. ''All we know is that person is unaccounted for.'' Read The Full Story Britain's MI5: 30 Terror Plots Being Planned In U.K. 2006-11-10 00:24:21 British intelligence agency MI5 has identified 30 major terrorist plots being planned in Britain and is targeting more than 1,600 individuals actively engaged in promoting attacks here and abroad, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of the agency, warned Friday. The 30 plots are the most serious of many more planned by some 200 British-based "networks" involved in terrorism, she said in a speech seen by the Guardian. In a gloomy assessment of the home-grown terrorist threat, MI5 says most of those involved are British-born, and most are connected with al-Qaeda. Dame Eliza is known for her sober assessments about the extent of the terrorist threat and has distanced herself in the past from ministers' more dramatic speeches on the subject, so her public intervention will be taken seriously. However, skeptics will question why MI5 and the police have not acted to arrest or charge those said to pose such a direct threat to Britain's security. Security sources argue that the alleged plotters are still being tracked because there is either insufficient evidence to apprehend and charge them or because their plans have not reached the stage when they pose an imminent threat to the public. Read The Full Story Relief Expressed In World Reaction To U.S. Elections 2006-11-10 00:23:01 For Europe and much of the rest of the world, U.S. voters' repudiation of the Bush administration in midterm elections Tuesday and the dismissal of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday confirmed the widespread view that President Bush and his policies have done more to tarnish America's image abroad and strain its global relations than any other U.S. president in recent history. The Socialist Group in the European Parliament, the legislative body's second-largest voting bloc, called the election results "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world". The seismic political shift in the United States was greeted in many places less with jubilation than with a sense of relief that Americans had at long last come to their senses. "It took a while for the Americans to realize who they had elected and the damage he had caused in the world," said Philippe Bas, 56, whose newsstand near a Paris subway stop was stacked with newspapers from across Europe carrying analyses of the election. Read The Full Story Journalist Ed Bradley Dies At 65 2006-11-09 12:47:23 Ed Bradley, the veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent and one of the pioneering black journalists of his generation, died today of leukemia at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He was 65. Bradley, who had won 19 Emmy awards, covered an incredible array of stories after joining the CBS newsmagazine in 1981, from brain cancer to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church to the high school shootings at Columbine. He also reported a number of award-winning documentaries, covered political conventions and filled in on the "CBS Evening News" and other programs. Bradley remained active on "60 Minutes," but he had been ill for some time and underwent heart surgery about a year ago. Read The Full Story 11 Million Bottles Of Acetaminophen Recalled 2006-11-09 12:45:09 A major manufacturer of acetaminophen sold by Wal-Mart, CVS, Safeway and more than 100 other retailers recalled 11 million bottles of the widely used pain-relieving pills Thursday after discovering some were contaminated with metal fragments. There were no immediate reports of injuries or illness. The recall affects bottles containing various amounts of 500-milligram caplets made by the Perrigo Co. The contaminated pills included metal fragments ranging in size from "microdots" to portions of wire one-third of an inch long, the Food and Drug Administration said. Perrigo discovered the metal bits during quality-control checks after realizing the equipment it uses to make pills was wearing down prematurely, the FDA said. Read The Full Story Chinese Farmers Hold Officials, Investors Hostage 2006-11-09 12:43:52 Hundreds of enraged farmers in southern China surrounded a granary and for nearly 24 hours held hostage dozens of officials and investors gathered inside, villagers said Thursday, in the latest sign of rural unrest in the region. The officials and investors had gathered to mark the opening of the granary, which farmers said had been built on seized land for which they received inadequate compensation. Riot police, who arrived Wednesday evening and stood by through the night, forced their way into the granary and allowed the hostages to leave early Thursday afternoon, said villagers. The incident, in Guangdong province's Sanzhou village, was the latest in a two-year string of rural unrest in China, often brought on by farmers' discontent over local officials' seizure of fields and resale of the land for development. The issue is particularly acute in Guangdong, where swift urban growth has put increasing pressure on farmland in the Pearl River Delta just north of Hong Kong. Read The Full Story U.S. Envoy Seeks To Reassure Wary Iraqis 2006-11-09 00:09:30 The U.S. ambassador in Baghdad sought to reassure Iraqis on Wednesday that major Democratic gains in Tuesday's elections did not herald an immediate or dramatic change in U.S. policy, saying President Bush "is the architect of U.S. foreign policy" and committed to success in Iraq. In a speech to Iraqi journalists and a few government officials, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad explained that there would be a change in the balance of power in the U.S. Congress but that "Americans understand that Iraq is important" and "have made great sacrifices" for the country and its people. While continued violence "sometimes causes some, understandably, to wonder whether Iraqis can succeed," he said, "it is clear that Americans want Iraq to succeed" and would continue supporting efforts to bring peace and security to the country. Khalilzad said Bush "is committed to working with both houses of the American Congress to get support needed for the mission in Iraq to succeed". Yet many Iraqis expressed concern that a political sea change in Washington could leave them and their country in even worse shape than it is today, while others said they hoped the Democrats would be more forceful in demanding that Iraq's government curb militias and improve security. Read The Full Story Hamas Says Death Of 18 Civilians Will Be Avenged 2006-11-09 00:08:30 The leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas called on his fighters Wednesday to "activate resistance" hours after an Israeli artillery strike killed 18 civilians, mostly women and children, from a single family in Gaza. Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, Syria, promised retaliation after a wave of artillery shells landed before dawn on a residential street in Beit Hanoun, Gaza. Several homes were hit, all belonging to one family. The attack sparked international condemnation and came a day after the Israeli military ended a six-day operation in Beit Hanoun that claimed more than 50 lives. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military in the past five months. "Our condemnation will not be in words but in deeds," said Meshaal. "All Palestinian groups are urged to activate resistance." Read The Full Story	Social Security Data A Major Source In Terrorism Probes 2006-11-10 00:26:08 Sohaib Bin Lateef left Pakistan for the United States more than 25 years ago and fulfilled his dreams with a suburban home, a family and a string of gas stations and convenience stores in St. Louis. But along the way, he says, he took some bad advice and obtained a Social Security number under a false name. Now Bin Lateef, 47, faces deportation and stands to lose everything, even though he insists he has no ties to terrorists. The Justice Department lists his case as terrorism-related. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Social Security Administration's vast databases of personal information have become a resource for federal investigators, who have asked the agency to check tens of thousands of records for number misuse and identity fraud - potential precursors to terrorist activity. Bin Lateef is one of hundreds of people convicted as a result. The Social Security Administration is "literally the Fort Knox of identity information in the United States," said James Huse, the agency's inspector general from 1998 to 2004. "That's a pretty impressive investigative tool that no other agency possesses." Read The Full Story Mariners Report New Volcanic Island In South Pacific 2006-11-10 00:24:48 A new volcanic island has risen from the South Pacific near Tonga, according to reports from two vessels that passed the area. The crew of the Maiken, a yacht that left the northern Tongan islands group of Vava'u in August, reported on their Web log on August 12 that they saw streaks of light, porous pumice stone floating in the water - then "sailed into a vast, many-miles-wide belt of densely packed pumice." They posted photos of huge "pumice rafts" that they encountered after passing Tonga's Late island while sailing toward Fiji. "We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meters into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back," wrote a crewman identified only as Haken. Read The Full Story Bolton May Not Return As U.N. Envoy 2006-11-10 00:23:36 Key lawmakers said Thursday they would block the nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, all but killing chances for him to remain in the post past December. For nearly 20 months, President Bush has tried, unsuccessfully, to get Bolton confirmed in a job he has held since August 2005. Bolton then received a recess appointment after not getting enough support in the Senate. Sen. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., (Delaware), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and its presumed chairman when the Democrats take control of the Senate in January, said Thursday that Bolton's nomination is "going nowhere". "I see no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again in the Foreign Relations Committee because, regardless of what happens there, he is unlikely to be considered by the full Senate," Biden said in a statement. Read The Full Story Breaking News: Allen Concedes In Virginia, Burns In Montana; Democrats Have Senate Majority 2006-11-09 12:47:57 Sen. George Allen on Thursday conceded the Virginia race to Democrat Jim Webb, declining to push for a recount in a tight Senate race that was the last to be decided. “I respect their decision,” Allen said of Virginia voters during a speech to supporters. “I called to congratulate Jim Webb and his team.” In a rout once considered almost inconceivable, Democrats won control of the Senate and thus both Houses of Congress after 12 years of near-domination by the Republican Party. In Montana, the other Senate race that had not been decided on election night, Republican Sen. Conrad Burns earlier Thursday conceded to Democrat Jon Tester. Read The Full Story Opinion: Meet The 'New Bush' 2006-11-09 12:46:11 Intellpuke: The following opinion column was written by Dan Froomkin for the washingtonpost.com website. In the column, Mr. Froomkin discusses the "new Bush" emerging as a result of Tuesday's Democratic Party election wins. His column begins here: What a difference this election has made. It was, in some ways, a whole new President Bush who appeared before the assembled press corps for a post-election news conference Wednesday afternoon. Meet the New Bush: Owning up to all sorts of unpleasant realities; Speaking well of Democrats; Vowing to act in a bipartisan fashion while acknowledging voter skepticism on that point and pledging to overcome it with deeds; Self-deprecating, rather than bullying. And - oh yes - jettisoning Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the quintessential symbol of his administration's obstinate refusal to acknowledge that the current strategy in Iraq is failing. So is this New Bush to be taken at his word? Read The Full Story Egyptian President Mubarak: Don't Hang Hussein 2006-11-09 12:44:26 Egypt's president came out strongly against hanging Saddam Hussein, saying in remarks published Thursday that it could make Iraqexplode into more violence. But Iraq's prime minister said the execution could take place by the end of the year. The statement from President Hosni Mubarak of Eygpt broke an uneasy silence among Arab leaders over Sunday's verdict by an Iraqi court, which convicted Saddam for the killings of some 150 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against him in 1982. Mubarak, a regional heavyweight and a top U.S. ally, appeared to speak for many in the region who are uneasy about seeing a former Arab president tried and sentenced - no matter how much they disliked Saddam's regime. Analysts suggested Arab leaders are worried about the precedent an execution would set, and said Arab publics often identify with their leaders. "Carrying out this verdict will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq," Mubarak was quoted as saying by state-run Egyptian newspapers. Hanging Saddam "will transform (Iraq) into blood pools and lead to a deepening of the sectarian and ethnic conflicts." Read The Full Story Analysis: New Direction May Be A Challenge For Bush 2006-11-09 00:10:07 Tuesday's electoral earthquake triggered an equally seismic reaction in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, one that signaled more clearly than ever that a politically humbled President Bush now agrees with a resurgent Democratic Party on the need for a change of course in Iraq. What was not clear was whether the two sides are genuinely prepared to work together to produce one. In the wake of an election that swept Republicans from power in the House and left them on the brink of surrendering their Senate majority as well, both parties have greater incentives to reach accommodation than at any time since Bush was elected in 2000. Iraq will provide the critical test of whether either can overcome the ingrained habits and bad blood of six years of partisan warfare that have often left the Capitol in gridlock. The president took the most dramatic step Wednesday in acknowledging how much the landscape has changed. At a midday news conference he announced that he had accepted the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has come to symbolize the administration's apparent unwillingness to change a policy that has failed to bring order to Iraq and that has lost popular support at home. Bush said it is time for "a fresh perspective" on the war. Read The Full Story Robert Gates, A Cautious Player From A Past Bush Team 2006-11-09 00:09:01 In choosing Robert M. Gates as his next defense secretary, President Bush reached back to an earlier era in Republican foreign policy, one marked more by caution and pragmatism than that of the neoconservatives who have shaped the Bush administration’s war in Iraq and confrontations with Iran and North Korea. Soft-spoken but tough-minded, Gates, 63, is in many ways the antithesis of Donald H. Rumsfeld, the brash leader he would replace. He has been privately critical of the administration’s failure to execute its military and political plans for Iraq, and he has spent the last six months quietly debating new approaches to the war, as a member of the Iraq Study Group run by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton. Gates last served in Washington 13 years ago, and Bush made clear on Wednesday that he regarded his nominee as someone who would bring new perspective to the final two years of his tenure. Read The Full Story 41 Troops Killed At Pakistani Base In Suicide Bombing 2006-11-09 00:07:51 A suicide bomber detonated explosives on a field filled with army recruits doing exercises in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday morning, killing at least 41 soldiers and wounding dozens in one of the worst such attacks in Pakistan's recent history. Officials immediately blamed the bombing on al-Qaeda and local Islamic extremists. They said it appeared to be an act of reprisal for a government missile attack Oct. 30 that killed 82 people at an Islamic school in the nearby Bajaur tribal region. Officials suspected that the school was being used as a training camp for guerrillas. "It seems that this was linked to the action by our forces against militants in Bajaur last week. Al-Qaeda and its followers in this region are getting desperate because of our actions," Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said from Islamabad, the capital. "I am afraid this is a beginning of a new phase of terrorism in Pakistan. The terrorists are now pitched directly against our security forces." 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