Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday December 11 2006 - (813)

Monday December 11 2006 edition
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Taliban And Allies Tighten Grip In North Pakistan 2006-12-11 03:57:19 Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with al-Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state. The militants, the officials say, are openly flouting the terms of the September accord in North Waziristan, under which they agreed to end cross-border help for the Taliban insurgency that revived in Afghanistan with new force this year. The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters, who not only challenge government authority in the area, but are even wresting control from local tribes and spreading their influence to neighboring areas, according to several American and NATO officials and Pakistani and Afghan intelligence officials. Read The Full Story Inquiry Sought Over Military Officers Appearing In Evangelical Video 2006-12-11 03:53:31 A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization. In the video, much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military. "I found a wonderful opportunity as a director on the joint staff, as I meet the people that come into my directorate," Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton, Jr., says in the video. "And I tell them right up front who Jack Catton is, and I start with the fact that I'm an old-fashioned American, and my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country. I share my faith because it describes who I am." Read The Full Story Darfur Civilians Burned Alive After Gunmen Attack Aid Truck 2006-12-11 03:51:12 Gunmen on horseback attacked a truck carrying medicine and aid in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region and killed around 30 civilians, some of whom were burned alive, the United Nations said Sunday. The African Union had earlier put the death toll at 22 and said 10 others were wounded on Saturday when gunmen attacked the vehicle near Sirba, 30 miles north of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state and close to the Sudan-Chad border. "The gunmen were riding on horseback. The exact number of civilian casualties is not yet established but it is estimated that around 30 people were killed," said Radhia Achouri, a U.N. spokeswoman in Sudan. "Some people were shot, others were burned to death," she said. The vehicle was carrying medicine and relief items and transporting people, she added. Read The Full Story Hundreds Of Thousands Protest In Lebanon 2006-12-11 03:49:44 Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah members and their allies flooded central Beirut on Sunday demanding changes in the government's makeup as soldiers strung more barbed wire around the offices of the Western-backed premier. Buoyed by the big turnout after a week of street protests, the pro-Syria opposition gave Prime Minister Fuad Saniora an ultimatum of a ''few days'' to accept its demand to form a national unity government with a big role for Hezbollah or face an escalating campaign to oust him. Saniora, who has been holed up in his fortified office downtown, rejected the demand and urged his foes to resume negotiations. The opposition should ''return to the constitutional institutions to discuss differences and reach real solutions,'' he said in a written statement. Read The Full Story Kirk Douglas Calls On Youth To Stand Up And Be Counted 2006-12-11 03:47:44 The cleft chin may be familiar to some. But others may have difficulty placing the ageing Hollywood star. "You may know me," he writes in an open letter published last Saturday. "If you don't ... Google me. I was a movie star and I'm Michael Douglas's dad, Catherine Zeta-Jones's father-in-law, and the grandparent of their two children. Today I celebrate my 90th birthday." But Kirk Douglas has loftier things on his mind than summoning up the wind to blow out 90 candles. The man who led the slaves to revolt as "Spartacus", the man who embodied the suffering of Van Gogh's art in "Lust For Life" is turning his attention to the fate of the planet. "Let's face it," he writes to "America's young people", "THE WORLD IS IN A MESS and you are inheriting it. Read The Full Story Iraq President Says ISG Report's Recommendations 'Dangerous' 2006-12-10 17:33:59 Iraqi President Jalal Talabani today harshly criticized the Iraq Study Group report, saying it contained "dangerous" recommendations that would "undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and the constitution". Talabani was particularly critical of the 96-page report's recommendations for more centralized control of Iraq's oil wealth, embedding thousands of U.S. troops with Iraq's security forces to advise and speed up their training and legislation to allow thousands of people from Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party to return to their jobs, according to news reports. "I think that the report is unjust and unfair and contains some dangerous articles which reduce the sovereignty of Iraq and its constitution, and it is against the long struggle of the Iraqi people against dictatorship," said Talabani,  according to a Washington Post translation of a statement provided by his office. Talabani made his comments in a meeting with reporters. Read The Full Story Bangladesh's Mohammad Yunus Awarded Nobel Peace Prize 2006-12-10 17:32:17 Economist Muhammad Yunus accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday for his breakthrough program to lift the poor through tiny loans, saying he hoped the award would inspire "bold initiatives" to eradicate a problem at the root of terrorism. Yunus, a 66-year-old Bangladeshi, shared the award with his Grameen Bank, which for more than two decades has helped impoverished people start businesses by providing small, usually unsecured loans known as microcredit. "We must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time," Yunus told hundreds of guests at City Hall in Oslo, Norway. "I believe putting resources into improving the lives of poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns." Read The Full Story U.S. , Foreign Regulators Consider Tightening Controls On Deadly Polonium-210 2006-12-10 01:20:47 Nuclear regulators in Washington, D.C., and abroad are studying whether to tighten security on polonium 210 in case terrorists seek the deadly material for so-called dirty bombs that spew radioactivity, officials and diplomats said in recent interviews. The evaluation is based on longstanding fears about the possible terrorist threat as well as the polonium 210 poisoning that on Nov. 23 killed a former Russian spy living in exile in Britain and stirred public unease. British authorities traced the risk of radioactive contamination to a dozen sites around London and commercial jets carrying more than 33,000 people. The poisoning was an apparent first that caught the authorities by surprise. Groups considering tighter controls include the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, which sets global standards for radiation safety. "There are no sirens wailing," said a senior European diplomat familiar with the agency's polonium 210 reassessment. "But there's a sense that we need to rethink how it is categorized," and thus controlled. Read The Full Story 5 Years Of Drought Leave Australia's Outback Parched, Towns On Verge Of Ruin 2006-12-10 01:19:10 Drought has plunged one of Australia's most famous outback towns to the brink of social and economic collapse. Bourke - heralded as the "Real Gateway to the Outback" - faces oblivion. Five years of drought has left Bourke facing its worst crisis. Little wonder Australians are calling this prolonged barren spell the "Big Dry". The earth in this isolated corner of New South Wales, 500 miles northwest of Sydney, crunches underfoot. Every step stirs a tiny swirl of fine dust. The land is slowly dying of thirst. Some farms are the size of a small country, yet still they can't produce enough grazing for their livestock. Farmer Ben Mannix is determined to stay until the drought passes, but life is a struggle. "You fight it," he said. "You work through and you pick up your pieces and on you go because breaking down or giving up isn't going to achieve anything." The ground is cracked. Without decent rain, it has been at the mercy of temperatures that have exceeded 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). Read The Full Story Saddam's Nephew Escapes From Prison 2006-12-10 01:16:57 A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence in a northern Iraqi prison escaped Saturday in what authorities believe might have been an inside job. Ayman Sabawi, the son of Hussein's half-brother, was detained last year during a raid in Tikrit, Hussein's hometown. He later was convicted of possessing illegal weapons and manufacturing explosives for Sunni insurgents. Police said Sabawi managed to leave Badoosh Prison, about 45 miles west of the northern city of Mosul, Saturday afternoon, got into a waiting car and fled. Authorities are investigating whether night-shift prison guards helped him escape, said police. Read The Full Story Secret American Talks With Insurgents Broke Down 2006-12-10 01:14:46 Secret talks in which senior American officials came face-to-face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed. The meetings, hosted by Iyad Allawi, Iraq's former prime minister, brought insurgent commanders and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, together for the first time. After months of delicate negotiations Allawi, a former Ba'athist and a secular Shi'ite, persuaded three rebel leaders to travel to his villa in Amman, the Jordanian capital, to see Khalilzad in January. Read The Full Story	Outbreaks Reveal Holes In U.S. Food Safety Net 2006-12-11 03:54:07 First it was spinach. Then tomatoes. Now possibly green onions. Over the past three months, fresh produce has been the culprit in one episode of food-borne illness after another, the latest an E. coli outbreak that appears to be linked to green onions served at Taco Bell restaurants in the Northeast. More than 60 people have been sickened in that outbreak. The patchwork of federal and state regulations that is supposed to ensure food safety has become less effective as the nation's produce supply has grown increasingly industrial. Three months after the spinach scare, there is no agreement on what should be done to reduce health risks from the nation's fruits and vegetables even as each episode of illness has heightened a sense of urgency. The number of produce-related outbreaks of food-borne illness has increased from about 40 in 1999 to 86 in 2004, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Americans are now more likely to get sick from eating contaminated produce than from any other food item, said the center. Read The Full Story Commentary: America Understands The Notion Of Cultural Difference 2006-12-11 03:52:37 Intellpuke: The following commentary is written by Gary Younge, a correspondent in the U.S. for the Guardian newspaper based in Manchester, England. In his column, filed from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mr. Younge maintains that, while the U.S. is not free of Islamaphobes, it is not a monolithic, culturally static state like Tony Blair's Britain. Mr. Younge's column follows: A few weeks ago, Washington-based radio host Jerry Klein announced his own very radical plan to assuage public fears of terrorism. All Muslims, he suggested, should be branded with a crescent-shaped tattoo or be forced to wear a red armband. The phones rang off the hook. The first caller said Klein was "off his rocker". The next thought he was a genius. "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country," the caller said. "They are here to kill us." And so it went on, with Klein being praised or pilloried, until he finally confessed that the whole thing was a hoax to see how deep the rivers of American Islamophobia ran. "I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his listeners. "It's beyond disgusting." When it comes to popular prejudice and state repression, the Muslim experience in the U.S. does not seem to have differed much from the rest of the western world since September 11. Klein was pushing at an open door. A Gallup poll this summer showed that 39% of Americans supported requiring Muslims in the U.S., including American citizens, to carry special identification. In 2005 the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) recorded a 30% increase in the number of complaints received about Islamophobic treatment. Read The Full Story U.S. Is Googling For Iran Intelligence 2006-12-11 03:50:25 When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft. Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way - by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nucler", three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations. Policymakers and intelligence officials have always struggled when it comes to deciding how and when to disclose secret information, such as names of Iranians with suspected ties to nuclear weapons. In some internal debates, policymakers win out and intelligence is made public to further political or diplomatic goals. In other cases, such as this one, the intelligence community successfully argues that protecting information outweighs the desires of some to share it with the world. Read The Full Story Hundreds Of Thousands Protest In Lebanon 2006-12-11 03:49:34 Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah members and their allies flooded central Beirut on Sunday demanding changes in the government's makeup as soldiers strung more barbed wire around the offices of the Western-backed premier. Buoyed by the big turnout after a week of street protests, the pro-Syria opposition gave Prime Minister Fuad Saniora an ultimatum of a ''few days'' to accept its demand to form a national unity government with a big role for Hezbollah or face an escalating campaign to oust him. Saniora, who has been holed up in his fortified office downtown, rejected the demand and urged his foes to resume negotiations. The opposition should ''return to the constitutional institutions to discuss differences and reach real solutions,'' he said in a written statement. Read The Full Story Harvesting Cash: How The Milk Industry Crushed Innovator 2006-12-10 17:35:07 In the summer of 2003, shoppers in Southern California began getting a break on the price of milk. A maverick dairyman named Hein Hettinga started bottling his own milk and selling it for as much as 20 cents a gallon less than the competition, exercising his right to work outside the rigid system that has controlled U.S. milk production for almost 70 years. Soon the effects were rippling through the state, helping to hold down retail prices at supermarkets and warehouse stores. That was when a coalition of giant milk companies and dairies, along with their congressional allies, decided to crush Hettinga's initiative. For three years, the milk lobby spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions and made deals with lawmakers, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid  (D-Nevada). Last March, Congress passed a law reshaping the Western milk market and essentially ending Hettinga's experiment - all without a single congressional hearing. Read The Full Story Lebanon's Shiites Forge Identity 2006-12-10 17:33:02 As morning clouds hovered overhead Saturday, Fadil Ayyash wiped eyes that were bleary from just two hours of sleep over two days in the city-within-a-city that Hezbollah's protests in downtown Beirut have become. The mood in his tent, set alongside a site for luxury apartments, was playful. The first order of business was stoking a water pipe. Under two yellow Hezbollah flags, with a hint of mischief, he and his friends unveiled their makeshift fireplace, charred cinderblocks stacked on a sidewalk still warm from a campfire the night before. But they spoke bluntly - of frustration and protest, of politics and power - the vocabulary of a moment the young Shiite Muslim men feel they are defining. "How is this democracy?" Ayyash asked, pointing to the colonnaded government headquarters known as the Serail, standing like a citadel atop a hill. "The majority is here," he said, waving his hand across rows of protesters' tents. His friends nodded, sprawled in brown plastic chairs. Read The Full Story Prices Of Black Market Weapons Surge In Iraq Chaos 2006-12-10 01:21:34 The Kurdish security contractor placed the black plastic box on the table. Inside was a new Glock 19, one of the 9-millimeter pistols that the United States issued by the tens of thousands to the Iraqi Army and police. This pistol was no longer in the custody of the Iraqi Army or police. It had been stolen or sold, and it found its way to an open-air grocery stand that does a lively black-market business in police and infantry arms. The contractor bought it there. He displayed other purchases, including a short-barreled Kalashnikov assault rifle with a collapsible stock that makes it easy to conceal under a coat or fire from a car. "I bought this for $450 last year," he said of the rifle. "Now it costs $650. The prices keep going up." The market for this American-issued pistol and the ubiquitous assault rifle illustrated how fear, mismanagement and malfeasance are shaping the small-arms market in Iraq. Read The Full Story Religion For A Captive Audience, Paid For With Tax Money 2006-12-10 01:20:02 Life was different in Unit E at the state prison outside Newton, Iowa. The toilets and sinks - white porcelain ones, like at home - were in a separate bathroom with partitions for privacy. In many Iowa prisons, metal toilet-and-sink combinations squat beside the bunks, to be used without privacy, a few feet from cellmates. The cells in Unit E had real wooden doors and doorknobs, with locks. More books and computers were available, and inmates were kept busy with classes, chores, music practice and discussions. There were occasional movies and events with live bands and real-world food, like pizza or sandwiches from Subway. Best of all, there were opportunities to see loved ones in an environment quieter and more intimate than the typical visiting days. The only way an inmate could qualify for this kinder mutation of prison life was to enter an intensely religious rehabilitation program and satisfy the evangelical Christians running it that he was making acceptable spiritual progress. The program - which grew from a project started in 1997 at a Texas prison with the support of George W. Bush, who was governor at the time - says on its Web site that it seeks "to 'cure' prisoners by identifying sin as the root of their problems" and showing inmates "how God can heal them permanently, if they turn from their sinful past". Read The Full Story Top Air Force Lawyer Had Been Disbarred In 1984 2006-12-10 01:17:28 A top Air Force lawyer who served at the White House and in a senior position in Iraq turns out to have been practicing law for 23 years without a license. Col. Michael D. Murphy was most recently commander of the Air Force Legal Operations Agency at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.. He was the general counsel for the White House Military Office from December 2001 to January 2003, and from August 2003 to January 2005. In between those tours, he was the legal adviser to the reconstruction effort in Iraq, said an Air Force spokesman. Read The Full Story Discovery Launches On 12-Day Mission To ISS 2006-12-10 01:16:21 Night became day at 8:47 Saturday evening as the shuttle Discovery muscled its way off of the launching pad with a staccato roar on a mission to rewire the International Space Station. With a blinding streak of yellow flame that left a mark on the retina and a lump in the throat, the shuttle and its crew of seven astronauts lifted off in the program's first nightime launching in more than four years. It was the second launching attempt for the Discovery. Weather concerns forced mission managers to scrub on Thursday, and the space agency decided to forgo an attempt on Friday, when the weather predictions were even worse. The rules include restrictions on wind speed, cloud cover and other factors, both at the Kennedy Space Center here and at emergency landing sites in Spain and France; the concerns early Saturday were largely focused on high crosswinds at the Kennedy landing strip, but the winds died and the weather continued to improve as the evening progressed, and the mission management team ultimately gave approval for launching. Read The Full Story
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