Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday November 23 2006 - (813)

Thursday November 23 2006 edition
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Report Finds Homeland Security Dept. Lax On Contracting Procedures 2006-11-22 00:36:24 Private consultants hired by the Department of Homeland Security have found widespread problems with its contracting operation, including nearly three dozen contract files that could not be located. Files that could be found often lacked basic documentation required under federal rules, such as evidence that the department negotiated the best prices for taxpayers, according to a copy of the consultants' report obtained by the Washington Post. "The inability to locate files and inconsistent file organization puts the government at risk in ensuring the contractor is fulfilling its contractual obligations and the government is meeting its contract administration responsibilities," the consultants wrote in their report. Read The Full Story Did The CIA Kill Bobby Kennedy? 2006-11-22 00:35:13 Intellpuke: In 1968, Robert Kennedy seemed likely to follow his brother, John, into the White House. Then, on June 6, he was assassinated - apparently by a lone gunman. But investigative journalist Shane O'Sullivan says he has evidence implicating three CIA agents in the murder. I have no idea if Mr. Sullivan is on the right track or not, but his article, which makes for an interesting read, follows: At first, it seems an open-and-shut case. On June 5 1968, Robert Kennedy wins the California Democratic primary and is set to challenge Richard Nixon for the White House. After midnight, he finishes his victory speech at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles and is shaking hands with kitchen staff in a crowded pantry when 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan steps down from a tray-stacker with a "sick, villainous smile" on his face and starts firing at Kennedy with an eight-shot revolver. As Kennedy lies dying on the pantry floor, Sirhan is arrested as the lone assassin. He carries the motive in his shirt-pocket (a clipping about Kennedy's plans to sell bombers to Israel) and notebooks at his house seem to incriminate him. But the autopsy report suggests Sirhan could not have fired the shots that killed Kennedy. Witnesses place Sirhan's gun several feet in front of Kennedy, but the fatal bullet is fired from one inch behind. And more bullet-holes are found in the pantry than Sirhan's gun can hold, suggesting a second gunman is involved. Sirhan's notebooks show a bizarre series of "automatic writing" - "RFK must die RFK must be killed - Robert F Kennedy must be assassinated before 5 June 68" - and even under hypnosis, he has never been able to remember shooting Kennedy. He recalls "being led into a dark place by a girl who wanted coffee", then being choked by an angry mob. Defense psychiatrists conclude he was in a trance at the time of the shooting and leading psychiatrists suggest he may have be a hypnotically programmed assassin. Read The Full Story Janet Reno Critical Of Terror Strategy, Urges Courts To Act On Detentions 2006-11-22 00:33:45 Former attorney general Janet Reno has taken the unusual step of openly criticizing the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy - joining seven other former Justice Department officials in warning that the indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects could become commonplace unless the courts intervene. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case of alleged enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the former prosecutors assert that criminal courts are well equipped to prosecute terrorism suspects while guaranteeing the constitutional rights of defendants arrested on U.S. soil. Reno, reached at her Florida home Tuesday, said she would let the brief "speak for itself. I've been following this, and it reflects my concerns about the detention and treatment of people who have been determined to be enemy combatants in a manner that is not clear how it is being done." Read The Full Story Pupils Evacuated After Warning At Tennessee Nuclear Plant 2006-11-22 00:32:29 In the first nuclear-related evacuation since the Three Mile Island accident of 1979, a Tennessee school district sent all 1,800 pupils home on Tuesday morning because operators at a nearby nuclear reactor believed they might have had a leak of radioactive cooling water inside the plant. The operators, at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, decided around 6:15 a.m. that instruments indicated a possible leak and declared an “unusual event,” the lowest of four categories of plant problems. They canceled the notification at 7:35 a.m., but by then the children were boarding buses to go home. The school district is in Meigs County, about halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Read The Full Story	Assassination Triggers Fresh Crisis In Lebanon 2006-11-22 00:35:53 Lebanon lurched closer to a fresh round of sectarian bloodletting Tuesday with the assassination of its industry minister, Pierre Gemayel, a member of the country's most powerful Christian family and a leading opponent of Syrian influence. The killing shook Lebanon's beleaguered government and sent tremors across the Middle East, further complicating attempts to find a regional solution to the Iraq war. The Bush administration, under pressure to negotiate with Syria and Iran, Tuesday hinted at the responsibility of both countries' governments, accusing them of trying destabilize Lebanon. Speaking at an air force base in Hawaii, the U.S. president, George Bush, called for a full investigation and pledged U.S. support for Lebanon's government leaders and their efforts "to defend their democracy against attempts by Syria, Iran and allies, to foment instability and violence in that important country". Read The Full Story Former Russian Spy Got Warning On Day He Was Poisoned 2006-11-22 00:34:24 Mario Scaramella, the Italian who had lunch in London with a former Russian spy on the day the man was poisoned, said Tuesday that he showed the Russian e-mails during the meal that warned their lives might be in danger. At a news conference in Rome, Scaramella said that at a sushi restaurant Nov. 1, he showed Alexander Litvinenko messages "regarding their security" and referring to a "well-organized plot". "I said, 'Alex, I received an alarm in the last few days from a source that you introduced to me,' " said Scaramella, a security expert. By his account, both of them discounted the threats, and Litvinenko said: " 'It's unbelievable. Don't worry about that'." Read The Full Story Iraqi Parliament Speaker Escapes Car Bombing 2006-11-22 00:33:03 A car bomb exploded inside the heavily protected Green Zone on Tuesday in an apparent attempt to kill Iraq's  controversial speaker of parliament. About 2 p.m., a small bomb exploded in one of the armored cars in Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's motorcade as it approached the convention center where parliament meets, said Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq. Mashhadani was not in the car, and the driver survived, said Garver. Bomb-sniffing dogs then detected explosives in another vehicle, Garver said. Bomb specialists detonated that car, which set off a series of blasts that caused a fire but injured no one and caused no major damage to nearby structures. Read The Full Story
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