Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday December 31 2006 - (813)

Sunday December 31 2006 edition
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Family Clues May Lead To Iraq's Missing Oil Billions 2006-12-31 02:04:49 Intellpuke: Saddam Hussein is dead and now the hunt for his illicit fortune is intensifying. Officials from the FBI and the U.S. Treasury are focusing their investigation on $4.4 billion in illegal oil profits, according to the following report by Jason Burke, reporting for The Observer. Mr. Burke's article follows: American and Iraqi government investigators tracing hundreds of millions of dollars missing from Saddam Hussein's illicit fortune are hoping to question members of the former dictator's close family. Officials from the FBI, the American Treasury and the State Department particularly want to find £2.2 billion ($4.4 billion) in illegal profits that Saddam's regime is alleged to have earned from 2000-2003 from an oil-for-trade pact signed with Syria that was outside the official United Nations administered oil-for-food program, according to official documents released to a U.S. congressional sub-committee. State Department and Treasury officials claim that Syria has failed to account properly for more than $500 million  in Iraqi oil profits. The cash, deposited in Syria's central bank, was paid to Syrian "businessmen" after Saddam's fall, say sources. Syrian officials deny the allegations, saying that visits by American officials to Damascus in the autumn of 2003 failed to uncover any evidence of the missing cash apart from $300 million that has already been frozen. Read The Full Story China Chokes On A Coal-Fired Boom 2006-12-31 02:03:30 A great coal rush is under way across China on a scale not seen anywhere since the 19th century. Its consequences have been detected half a world away in toxic clouds so big that they can seen from space, drifting across the Pacific to California laden with microscopic particles of chemicals that cause cancer and diseases of the heart and lung. Nonetheless, the Chinese plan to build no fewer than 500 new coal-fired power stations, adding to some 2,000, most of them unmodernized, that spew smoke, carbon dioxide and sulphur diocide into the atmosphere. It is the political fallout of that decision that is likely to challenge the foundations on which Britain and other developed nations have built their climate change policy - even as there are signs that ordinary Chinese citizens are at last rebelling against lives spent in poisonous conditions. Read The Full Story Hundreds Die In Indonesian Ferry Disaster 2006-12-31 02:02:23 Survivors of an Indonesian ferry disaster told Saturday night how they had fought each other for life jackets as the vessel broke apart and sank, drowning up to 500 passengers. The Senopati ran into trouble off Mandalika island, about 300 kilometers northeast of the capital, Jakarta, amid heavy storms. Huge waves crashed over the bows as the ship was travelling across the Java Sea from Borneo to the port of Semarang, central Java. In the last radio contact, the captain said that the ferry was damaged and capsizing. "We all just prayed as waves got higher," said Cholid, a passenger who survived by clinging to wooden planks, but lost his daughter. "The ship broke up after turning upside down." Read The Full Story Arab Critics See Saddam's Death As Vengence Over Justice, Failure of Bush Policies In Region 2006-12-30 17:37:53 As daylight broke over the Arab world and news of Saddam Hussein's hanging spread over the airwaves and the Internet, the execution proved just as profound for what it did not change as for what it did. Hezbollah's protesters in Beirut woke up on Saturday morning ready for another day of protests aimed at bringing down the United States-backed government of Fouad Siniora. In Damascus, Syria, President Bashar al-Assad  continued to exert influence in Lebanon in defiance of the United States, even as he gave indications that he was willing to discuss peace with Israel. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stuck to his goal of developing nuclear power, having just recently denounced the "unjust relations" that "require the cooperation of different religions to remedy them," in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI. Throughout the Arab world, opposition movements are still on the run, many pro-democracy activists are either imprisoned or have simply given up and the very targets of the American campaign to transform the Middle East, like Hezbollah, Iran and Syria, are more emboldened than ever. Almost four years after United States troops entered Iraq with a broader foreign policy goal of ushering in a "new" Middle East, one built on democracy and rule of law, the execution of Hussein on one of the holiest days in Islam marked the unceremonious demise of that strategy, said many Arab analysts. Read The Full Story 1 Dead, At Least 12 In Hospitals As Tornadoes Move Across Texas 2006-12-30 05:39:36 Tornadoes sweeping across Texas Friday killed one person, sent at least a dozen people to the hospital and caused widespread damage in rural counties around Waco, said officials. One person was killed when a tornado struck a home in Limestone County, said Sheriff Dennis Wilson. He did not have any details about the victim, or whether others were injured. "We're just trying to button down and do an assessment," he said. More than a dozen people were admitted to Limestone Medical Center in Groesbeck with injuries ranging from minor to trauma-type wounds, said hospital spokeswoman Sherald Wood. Read The Full Story Australia Drying Up - Fast! 2006-12-30 05:39:00 Satellites have been used to map all of Australia's fresh water for the first time, and the picture is bleak. In just three years, the continent has suffered a net loss of 46 cubic kilometers of fresh water - enough to fill Sydney Harbor more than 90 times. Initial results of an extraordinary international satellite project provide yet another indication that Australia is drying out. Based on current consumption patterns of about 1.5 billion liters a day, the water lost could have quenched Sydney's thirst for more than 80 years. The discovery has been made using two U.S. and German satellites designed to map all the world's water stocks - a task never before possible. Read The Full Story Saddam Hussein Executed Before Dawn 2006-12-30 02:22:51 Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was hanged in the predawn hours of Saturday for crimes against humanity in the mass murder of Shiite men and boys in the 1980s, sent to the gallows by a government backed by the United States and led by Shiite Muslims who had been oppressed during his rule, Iraqi and American officials said. In the early morning, Hussein, 69, was escorted from his U.S. military prison cell at Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, and handed over to Iraqi officials. He was executed on the day Sunni Muslims, of which Hussein was one, begin celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Earlier, on Thursday, he had met with his two maternal half brothers in his prison cell and handed them personal messages, according to Iraqi officials. On Friday, his attorneys said, U.S. military officials asked that they take his personal belongings. Read The Full Story Arab Newspapers: Executing Saddam Hussein A Mistake 2006-12-30 02:22:15 Intellpuke: Editorials and commentaries in a number of Middel East newspapers warned against executing former Iraq president Saddam Hussein. Many of these comments were printed before pre-dawn Saddam's execution on Saturday. The following compilation of editorial comments was assembled and translated by BBC Monitoring, a service of BBC News: Comment In Pan Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi:  He will go to the gallows with his head held high because he built a strong, united and non-sectarian Iraq. We urge honourable people such as [President Jalal] Talabani and [Prime Minister Nouri] Maliki and all those who practised all sorts of deceits against the people of Iraq to apologise and face the national courts of Iraq on charges of participating and legalising the killing of 665,000 and wounding five-fold this number. We also call for their prosecution for igniting the fire of civil war, sectarianism and ethnic cleansing. Hassan Sharbal In Pan Arab Al-Hayat: Executing Saddam is worse than the crimes he committed against his opponents... It is impossible to defend Saddam and to find reasons to be lenient with him. His crimes against his citizens were outrageous. He was a cruel and harsh dictator. He deserves to be punished. His fate as a person is not important. We hoped that he would be prosecuted in an Iraq with democracy and the rule of law. Editorial In Pan Arab Al-Guds Al-Arabi: U.S. officials are making a new mistake more dangerous than any in the past. They think executing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will lead to calm in Iraq, but the exact opposite is likely to happen. The US Administration may gain more by keeping Saddam alive behind bars and using him as a bargaining card... to negotiate with the Baath party for the sake of calm. Read The Full Story Iraq Expels 2 Iranians Detained By U.S. Forces 2006-12-30 02:20:27 Two senior Iranian operatives who were detained by U.S. forces in Iraq and were strongly suspected of planning attacks against American military forces and Iraqi targets were expelled to IranFriday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The decision to free the men was made by the Iraqi government and has angered U.S. military officials who say the operatives were seeking to foment instability here. "These are really serious people," said one U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They were the target of a very focused raid based on intelligence, and it would be hard for one to believe that their activities weren't endorsed by the Iranian government. It's a situation that is obviously troubling." Read The Full Story Ship Carrying 850 People Sinks In Storm Off Java 2006-12-30 02:19:44 A ship carrying around 850 passengers sank in a storm off Central Java, an Indonesian commander said Saturday, adding that he feared many people had died. Navy Commander Col. Yan Simamora said the "Senopati" went down at around midnight Friday while en route from Sumarang on Central Java to the port of Kumai on Central Kalimantan province. Rescue workers had found only nine survivors. Read The Full Story	Now, You Have To Believe That A Man Can Fly - At 187 MPH - Without A Plane! 2006-12-31 02:04:05 For those who are bored with hang-gliding or find skydiving just too dull, a Swiss airline captain has devised the ultimate aerial thrill: flying like a bird. Thanks to high technology and nerve, Yves Rossy has come closer than anyone to realizing the ancient dream of soaring free, flitting through the sky, guided only by the body. As well as a crash helpet he wears a small pair of wings and four tiny jet engines. As he skims the Alps at up to 187 m.p.h. (300 km/h), the only thing that the former fighter pilot has come up against so far is the Swiss law. "They were totally confused," said the birdman, whose flying suit gives him a passing resemblance to Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story". "The authorities said that I was an unregistered aircraft and to fly, you need a license. I told them, 'No. To fly, you need wings'." Read The Full Story Hundreds Of U.S. Drivers Rescued In Massive Winter Storm 2006-12-31 02:03:01 A winter storm stretching nearly from Canada to Mexico rolled out of the Rockies on Saturday, sparing Denver, Colorado, another round of heavy snow but trapping drivers farther east in 10-foot drifts. Denver had expected a foot or more of additional snow through Sunday, but the storm trudged northeast from New Mexico into the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. Parts of eastern Colorado still expected up to 2 feet, along with high winds. "It's still a very powerful storm," said meteorologist Jim Kalina of the National Weather Service. Winds exceeding 50 mph produced whiteout conditions. National Guard troops in tracked vehicles crawled through the blizzard to rescue hundreds of motorists who became stranded in the region's second blizzard during the busy holiday travel season. Read The Full Story FIP 2006 Year In Review 2006-12-30 18:19:19   As we come to the close of another year, lets take a moment to look over the biggest stories of the year.  There have been stories on war, elections, war, Presidential bashing, war, sex scandals in Washington, among others.  Here are our top 20 stories for 2006.   #1 Stephen Colbert White House Correspondents Dinner Speech .    I'm not terribly surprised that it was so popular, he is funny.  Well, Mr. Bush may not have felt quite the same way, but hey.   #2 Bill Gates For - You'd Better Sit Down For This - President .    Most likely this was a hoax.  It's easier to be one of the richest people on the planet, than to run the largest superpower on the planet.   #3 U.S. Terrorism Watch List Now Has 325,000 Names .   It's little things like this that make all of us nervous.  Is my name on the list?  My girlfriend, kids, parents, or neighbors?  When will the black vans come pulling up, and what if they get the wrong house?  Unfortunately, this wasn't the only story like it. Read The Full Story Guantanamo Military Review Panels Add To Kafkaesque Quality Of Detainees' Lives 2006-12-30 17:37:30 At one end of a converted trailer in the American military detention center here (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba), a graying Pakistani businessman sat shackled before a review board of uniformed officers, pleading for his freedom. The prisoner had seen only a brief summary of what officials said was a thick dossier of intelligence linking him to al-Qaeda. He had not seen his own legal papers since they were taken away in an unrelated investigation. He has lawyers working on his behalf in Washington, London and Pakistan, but here his only assistance came from an Army lieutenant colonel, who stumbled as he read the prisoner's handwritten statement. As the hearing concluded, the detainee, who cannot be identified publicly under military rules, had one question. He is a citizen of Pakistan, he noted. He was arrested on a business trip to Thailand. On what authority or charges was he even being held? "That question," a Marine colonel presiding over the panel answered, "is outside the limits of what this board is permitted to consider." Read The Full Story UPDATE: At Least 500 Missing After Ferry Sinks Of Indonesia 2006-12-30 05:39:21 More than 500 people are missing after an Indonesian ferry capsized off the coast of Central Java. Efforts to find survivors are being hampered by strong winds and high waves. The ferry, which was travelling between the port of Kumai in Central Kalimantan province and Semarang in Central Java, sank at around midnight (0400 Australian Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday) in the Java Sea, near Mandalika island off the Java coast. Slamet Bustam, an official at the Semarang port, said waves of up to five meters had crashed over the ferry's deck around midnight. He said the ferry had been carrying 850 people. Read The Full Story Nuclear Power Economics Do Not Add Up 2006-12-30 05:38:33 Nuclear power will do nothing to protect the Australian economy and environment from climate change, says the Australian Labor party's treasury spokesman Wayne Swan. Prime Minister John Howard Friday released the final report of the government's Uranium Mining Processing and Nuclear Energy Task Force, saying nuclear energy could help stem the rise in electricity prices as the nation attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Swan, however, says the economics of nuclear energy do not add up. "The Howard government's fixation on nuclear energy is a massive distraction from the main game of protecting our economy and environment from the dangerous effects of climate change," he said in a statement Saturday. Read The Full Story Saddam Hussein's Record Of Infamy Ends 2006-12-30 02:22:33 Over more than two decades of authoritarian rule, Saddam Hussein led his nation toward modernity and then to ruin by invading two neighboring countries, attacking his own citizens with chemical munitions and brutally repressing all who opposed him. He defied United Nations weapons inspectors, presided over the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, pitted his Sunni Muslim Arab minority against the country's majority Shiites and demanded the cultish celebration of his own image. It was a record of infamy that ended today with his execution by hanging for crimes against humanity - a punishment carried out by Iraq's U.S.-backed, Shiite-led government after a lengthy trial. Read The Full Story Apple Admits Wrongdoing But Rallies Around Steve Jobs 2006-12-30 02:20:48 Apple Computer disclosed Friday that it had falsified approval of 7.5 million stock options for its chief executive and innovative co-founder, Steve Jobs, raising new questions about the role he may have played in a scandal that has swirled around the dynamic technology company for months. Apple said in a pair of overdue earnings filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had recorded a fictitious meeting at which Jobs' options were ratified and that he may have recommended the dates for some of the stock options issued to company employees. The company repeated Friday that Jobs did not benefit from the options. Apple's board, which includes former vice president Al Gore, gave Jobs its full support. "The board of directors is confident that the Company has corrected the problems that led to the restatement, and it has complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team," said the statement by Gore and Jerome York, who heads Apple's audit and finance committee. Read The Full Story FCC Approves AT&T Takeover Of BellSouth 2006-12-30 02:20:01 The Federal Communications Commission yesterday overcame a seven-month deadlock and approved AT&T's $85 billion purchase of  BellSouth, creating a new corporate giant that will stand astride the telecommunications industry like none other in the generation since the old AT&T empire was broken up in 1984. The acquisition, which closed yesterday, reunites large parts of AT&T's former domain by folding BellSouth's nine-state territory into AT&T's existing operations spanning the Midwest, Southwest and West Coast. It gives AT&T complete control of Cingular Wireless, the country's largest mobile-telephone provider, at a time when wireless is the newest frontier for reaching the Internet. Cingular is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth. Unequaled in capital and geographic reach, the new AT&T could be a tough adversary for cable companies by offering television service over the Internet, possibly lowering rates for customers in its service area. Several conditions imposed on the acquisition to protect consumers could encourage the availability of affordable broadband. Read The Full Story Saddam Hussein Executed 2006-12-30 01:24:11 Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday, US -backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra and Arabic satellite channel Arabiya said. ‘I believe so, yes. He has been executed. It has been officially announced that he has been executed,’ Abbawi said, speaking by telephone to BBC News 24. The former Iraqi president ousted in April 2003 by a U.S.-led invasion was convicted in November of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shia villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982. Read The Full Story
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