Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday December 28 2006 - (813)

Thursday December 28 2006 edition
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Former President Ford 'Very Strongly' Disagreed With Bush Iraq Strategy 2006-12-28 03:47:45 Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration. In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney - Ford's White House chief of staff - and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief. "Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," said Ford. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do." Read The Full Story Ethiopian Troops Take Key Somali Town Of Jowhar 2006-12-28 03:46:53 Ethiopian forces backing Somalia's interim government took control of the key Somali town of Jowhar on Wednesday and were on the verge of overrunning Balad, a village just 18 miles from the dusty, battered capital, Mogadishu. With Ethiopian troops, tanks and helicopters closing in and military planes buzzing overhead, the situation in Mogadishu appeared confused, with witnesses reporting thousands of Somalis - who have known little besides fighting for the past 15 years - fleeing the capital, and those who remained unsure who might next control the city. Militias loyal to Somalia's Islamic Courts movement, having retreated in recent days from most of the towns they had taken earlier this year, were spotted Wednesday shedding uniforms and fleeing the capital they have controlled since the summer, while other witnesses reported young men signing up with Islamic militias at several mosques around the city. Read The Full Story Sadr Adviser Dies In Najaf Raid 2006-12-28 03:45:33 A top deputy of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was killed Wednesday during a raid by U.S. and Iraqi troops in the southern holy city of Najaf, sparking protests from Sadr's followers and complicating an already tense relationship with the powerful anti-American leader. Hurling rocks and shouting expletives, thousands of angry Sadr loyalists marched through the streets of Najaf after Sahib al-Amiri was shot and killed by a U.S. soldier during an early morning raid. "Agents and stooges!" protesters shouted at Iraqi soldiers and local authorities. U.S. military officials declined to confirm that Amiri was a Sadr aide, saying only that he had provided explosives for use against Iraqi and U.S. forces. Sadr officials said Amiri was an aide and a lawyer who ran an educational organization that helped orphans and impoverished children. They said he had no connections to illegal activity. Read The Full Story Commander Of British Troops In Iraq Says British Government Is Failing Them 2006-12-28 03:44:54 The commander of British troops in southern Iraq Wednesday called for more support for his soldiers and warned that the covenant between the U.K. and its service personnel was "seriously out of kilter". Major General Richard Shirreff warned that generations of underfunding and political neglect had taken its toll, adding it was the duty of the nation to support the armed forces. Defending the army's Christmas Day attack on Basra's Jameat police compound, he said soldiers needed to be valued by those at home. "The nation needs to understand that the quality work done by these courageous men and women out here only happens and can only continue if these people, our soldiers, are properly supported back home in terms of training, infrastructure, barracks, accommodation. Read The Full Story U.S. Government Watchdogs Under Attack From Their Bosses 2006-12-27 14:49:11 The inspectors general entrusted to unearth waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies are increasingly under attack, as top government officials they scrutinize try to erode the watchdogs' independence and authority. During 2006, several inspectors general felt the wrath of government bosses or their supporters in Congress after investigations cited agencies for poor performance, excessive spending or wasted money. For instance: -- The top official of the government's property and supply agency compared its inspector general to a terrorist, hoping to chill audits of General Service Administration regional offices and private businesses. -- Directors of the government's legal aid program discussed firing their inspector general, who investigated how top officials lavishly spent tax dollars for limousine services, ritzy hotels and $14 ''Death by Chocolate'' desserts. -- Administration-friendly Republicans in Congress tried to do away with the special inspector general for Iraq, who repeatedly exposed examples of administration waste that cost billions of dollars. Among the contractors criticized was Halliburton Corp., once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. -- The Pentagon has been making its inspector general use lawyers picked by the defense secretary instead of independently hired attorneys. Read The Full Story Saddam Hussein Letter Urges Iraqis Not To Hate U.S.-Led Forces 2006-12-27 14:48:17 Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis not to hate the U.S.-led forces that invaded Iraq in 2003 in a farewell letter posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after an appeals court upheld the former dictator's death sentence and ordered him to be hanged within one month. One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to the Associated Press in Jordan that the letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 - the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the killings of scores of Shiite Muslims in the city of Dujail in 1982. ''I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,'' said the letter. Read The Full Story Fears For Machu Picchu As Mayor Builds Bridge 2006-12-27 03:24:44 A Peruvian mayor has built a bridge leading to Machu Picchu, Peru's Inca citadel, despite warnings it will wreck the archaeological gem and open a route for drug smugglers. The 80-meter (260-feet) long bridge over the Vilcanota river is due to open this week in defiance of a court order and protests from the government, which fears hordes of backpackers will swamp the site. The United Nations conservation agency UNESCO is due in February to inspect the mountaintop ruins, a world heritage site deep in the Andean jungle, amid concern that there are already too many visitors. Yet Fedia Castro, mayor of Convencion province, said the bridge would end her community's isolation and give tourists a cheaper option than a train which, until now, had a monopoly on transport through the Sacred Valley. "It's almost ready, so they can't stop it," she said. Locals have welcomed the bridge for opening their remote province to commerce and tourism. Instead of a treacherous 15-hour drive over mountain passes farmers can truck coffee and fruit to Cusco in just three hours. Read The Full Story S.E.C. Changes Reporting Rules On Bosses' Pay To Make Them Seem Lower 2006-12-27 03:23:19 The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a move announced late on the last business day before Christmas, reversed a decision it had made in July and adopted a rule that would allow many companies to report significantly lower total compensation for top executives. The change in the way grants of stock options are to be explained to investors is a victory for corporations that had opposed the rule when it was issued in July, and a defeat for institutional investors that had backed the S.E.C.’s original rule. “It was a holiday present to corporate America,” Ann Yerger, the executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, said Tuesday. “It will certainly make the numbers look smaller in 2007 than they would otherwise have looked.” Read The Full Story Former President Gerald R. Ford Dies At 93 2006-12-27 03:22:09 Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., 93, who became the 38th president of the United States as a result of some of the most extraordinary events in U.S. history and sought to restore the nation's confidence in the basic institutions of government, has died. His wife, Betty, reported the death in a statement. "My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage, Calif. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country." The statement, released by the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, did not say where Ford died or give a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January and underwent two heart treatments - including an angioplasty - in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "With his quiet integrity, common sense, and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the Presidency," President Bush said last night in a statement. Ford was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, about 130 miles east of Los Angeles. Read The Full Story	Washington Gets Ready To Gossip As D.C. Sex Blogger Goes To Court 2006-12-28 03:47:10 The Washington Post described Jessica Cutler as "our blog slut". The National Enquirer opined that she was "beautiful, untalented and morally corrupted". Now the blogger who wrote about her attempts to juggle affairs with six men while keeping a job as an aide to a U.S. senator has a new role: as the star defendant in a case that could help define what can and cannot be published in a blog. Writing under the pseudonym Washingtonienne, Cutler described in detail the sexual intricacies of her life on the Hill. The blog, which Cutler claimed was intended to keep her friends up to date on her social life in Washington DC, achieved notoriety, and its author fame and a book contract, after it was brought to a wider public by another blog, Wonkette. Almost immediately, Washingtonienne shut down, but not before millions had read about "X = Married man who pays me for sex", "K = A sugar daddy" and "YZ = The current favorite". But YZ - aka Robert Steinbuch, a legal counsel working for the same senator - objected to the revelations about his private life. Read The Full Story Islamists Seem To Have Suddenly Vanished From Mogadishu 2006-12-28 03:46:28 The Islamist forces who have controlled much of Somalia in recent months suddenly vanished from the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, residents said Wednesday night, just as thousands of rival troops massed 15 miles away. In the past few days, Ethiopian-backed forces, with tacit approval from the United States, have unleashed tanks, helicopter gunships and jet fighters on the Islamists, decimating their military and paving the way for the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia to assert control. Even so, the Islamists, who have been regarded as a regional menace by Ethiopia and the United States, had repeatedly vowed to fight to the death for their religion and their land, making their disappearance that much more unexpected. Read The Full Story U.S. Army Brigade Headed To Kuwait 2006-12-28 03:45:10 A brigade of U.S. Army troops is scheduled to deploy to Kuwait early next month to take over as the U.S. Central Command's theater reserve force, which means more than 3,000 additional U.S. troops will move into the region and could be used to support combat in Iraq, Pentagon officials announced Wednesday. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates approved sending the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division overseas after Gen. John P. Abizaid, who leads Central Command, requested the forces to replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was sent into the western province of Anbar this fall. Abizaid requested a brigade - which is significantly larger than the Marine unit - to allow for greater flexibility in the region. While defense officials have said the move is not part of an orchestrated "surge" of forces into Iraq, should such a surge become part of U.S. strategy for the war, the Army brigade could be used as the leading edge of a troop increase. Read The Full Story British Food Agency Takes On Industry Over Junk Food Labels 2006-12-28 03:44:25 British consumers are to be presented with two rival new year advertising campaigns as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) goes public in its battle with the industry over the labelling of unhealthy foods. The Guardian has learned that the FSA will launch a series of 10-second television ads in January telling shoppers how to follow a red, amber and green traffic light labelling system on the front of food packs, which is designed to tackle Britain's obesity epidemic. The FSA campaign is a direct response to a concerted attempt by leading food manufacturers and retailers, including Kellogg's and Tesco, to derail the system. The industry fears that traffic lights would demonize entire categories of foods and could seriously damage the market for those that are fatty, salty or high in sugar. Read The Full Story Ethiopian Forces Closing In On Somalia Capital 2006-12-27 14:48:51 Ethiopian troops fought their way closer to the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Tuesday, pushing back militias loyal to the Islamic Courts movement that has until now controlled much of the country and has vowed to wage a guerrilla war against Ethiopia lasting "years and years and years." Aid workers said the number of injured had surpassed 800, as thousands of civilians battered by drought, floods and now rockets and mortars continued to flee villages in droves. U.N. officials warned of a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, while fears remained high that Ethiopia's aggressive military campaign could have disastrous consequences not only for Somalia but across the Horn of Africa. "I find it perplexing what the Ethiopians are up to," said David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. "Over the long term, I don't see where this gets them. And one wonders how long they can hang on in this situation, because eventually it's going to turn into a nasty guerrilla war, and I don't think the Ethiopians have the stomach to carry on with that kind of campaign." Read The Full Story Report: China Will Use Huge Foreign Exchange Reserves On Resources 2006-12-27 03:25:06 China will take advantage of its massive foreign exchange reserves to expand its stock of strategic resources such as oil and minerals, state media reported Wednesday, citing a top economic official. Vice Prime Minister Zeng Peiyan told leaders of the national legislature that the government plans to step up exploration for key resources such as oil, gas and coal. It also intends to use the opportunity afforded by the country's more than $1 trillion in foreign reserves to improve strategic resource bases, the state-run newspaper China Business News and other reports said. The reports did not provide details on exactly how the government would use funds backed by the foreign exchange reserves, which cannot directly be used for such purposes because they belong to the central bank. Zeng, who is a top economic planner, decried China's relatively weak resource base compared with its huge population of 1.3 billion people. Read The Full Story U.S. Wants Polar Bears Listed As Threatened Species 2006-12-27 03:24:19 The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world's most recognizable animals out of existence. The administration's proposal - which was described by an Interior Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity - stems from the fact that rising temperatures in the Arctic are shrinking the sea ice that polar bears need for hunting. The official insisted on anonymity because the department will submit the proposal today for publication in the Federal Register, after which it will be subject to public comment for 90 days. Identifying polar bears as threatened with extinction could have an enormous political and practical impact. As the world's largest bear and as an object of children's affection as well as Christmastime Coca-Cola commercials, the polar bear occupies an important place in the American psyche. Because scientists have concluded that carbon dioxide from power-plant and vehicle emissions is helping drive climate change worldwide, putting polar bears on the endangered species list raises the legal question of whether the government would be required to compel U.S. industries to curb their carbon dioxide output. Read The Full Story Commentary: Iraq, Long A Catastrophic Tragedy, Now A Horrific Farce 2006-12-27 03:22:44 Intellpuke: In the following commentary, Roy Hattersley writes that the attack by British forces in Basra on the police force it trained confirms that Iraq is a worse disaster than the Suez crisis in 1956. Mr. Hattersley's column appears at the Guardian Unlimited's website edition for Wednesday, December 27, 2006. The column follows: Iraq - which for years has been an unmitigated tragedy - has turned into Grand Guignol, and, true to the traditions of that genre, horror and farce combine in equal measure. No doubt we should rejoice that al-Jamiat police station in Basra has been destroyed and its prisoners taken to the relative security of a compound in which detainees are hopefully not routinely tortured. But if a sick satire on an obscure television channel included a sketch about British troops attacking a unit of the police that they established and with whom they had been theoretically working for nearly four years, the outcry would not have been limited to complaints about undermining the morale of our troops under fire. We would have been told that the whole idea was too fantastical to sustain the lampoon. Yet that is what really happened on Monday, and although the sound of the exploding bar-mines should presumably be music to the ears of everyone who supports the rule of law, a number of important questions lie unanswered in the rubble of what was, until Christmas morning, the headquarters of the Basra serious crimes unit. A witty military press officer suggested that the name related to what the 400 associated police officers did rather than what they prevented. But he did not make clear how long the British authorities have known that, among their regular activities, they crushed prisoners' hands and feet, electrocuted them and burned them with cigarettes. You will recall that one of the reasons given to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq was the obligation to save the people from that sort of atrocity. It now appears that, at least in al-Jamiat police station, the arrival of what is bravely described as democracy has not made much difference. Read The Full Story In Iraq, December Second Deadliest Month For U.S. Soldiers 2006-12-27 03:21:27 Seven more American service members have been killed in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Tuesday. It is the second deadliest month of the year for troops. With five days left in December, 87 service members have died, according to figures provided by the military and news releases of combat deaths. The deadliest month this year was October, when attacks in Baghdad and the western Iraqi province of Anbar killed 105 U.S. troops. The total number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war announced by the Pentagon is 2,961. Military officials and analysts have attributed the rise in U.S. casualties in recent months to the larger number and greater visibility of American troops in Baghdad, plus the intensity of the Sunni insurgency in Anbar. Read The Full Story
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