Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday January 11 2007 - (813)

Thursday January 11 2007 edition
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Soldiers Doubt Influx Of U.S. Troops Will Benefit Iraqi Army 2007-01-11 01:03:36 It was supposed to be a reconciliation meeting, a get-together to introduce the Sunni Muslim mayor and police chief of this city north of Baghdad to the mostly Shiite Muslim Iraqi soldiers who'd been assigned to protect their town. But as the mayor and police chief approached the entrance to the Iraqi army base here last month, Iraqi troops seized their bodyguards and tossed them to the ground. Then the soldiers put their boots on the bodyguards' backs, a literal reminder that the Sunni officials were under the boot of the Shiite military. For the Americans assigned to train Iraqi troops here, the incident was another in a long string of problems that's persuaded many of them that it will be years before Iraq's army can stand on its own. On Wednesday night, President Bush announced that he's sending thousands more American soldiers to Iraq as part of a new plan to overcome the country's widening sectarian violence. But many of the U.S. soldiers who already are struggling to prepare Iraqi troops in Diyala province say that more Americans won't solve Iraq's problems. Read The Full Story Violence Claims 99 Iraqis, 3 U.S. Troops 2007-01-11 01:02:41 Suicide bombers, roadside explosions and mortar rounds killed at least 99 Iraqis and wounded 26 across the country Wednesday. The U.S. military said three American troops had been killed in Al Anbar province Tuesday. In downtown Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops continued to search for suspected guerrillas in the largely Sunni Arab Haifa Street neighborhood, making 15 arrests in the second day of an offensive, Iraqi officials said. The assault was launched Monday on fighters who had taken control of the three-mile stretch near the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government complex and the U.S. Embassy. A Ministry of Defense official said raids and searches had concluded Wednesday afternoon. Iraqi troops found four bodies in rubble, apparent casualties of Tuesday's fighting in which at least 51 suspected militants were reported killed. Read The Full Story Venezuela's Chavez Would Abolish Presidential Term Limits 2007-01-11 01:02:00 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, sworn in to another six-year term on Wednesday, said he would seek a constitutional amendment that could extend his tenure as he hastens his country's transformation into what he calls "21st-century socialism." In a three-hour discourse in the National Assembly that received widespread news coverage across Latin America, Chavez promised that "we are going to radicalize this process of ours, we are going to deepen this revolution". Invoking the mantra once issued by his mentor and ally, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Chavez said the choice for Venezuela is clear: "Fatherland, socialism or death." The ceremony was full of symbolism. Chavez wore the tricolored presidential sash on his left side, switching it from his right, a nod to his leftist leanings. And he frequently alluded to Simon Bolivar, the 19th-century independence hero he reveres, God and Jesus Christ, whom Chavez called "the greatest socialist of the people". Read The Full Story Analysis: Bush Inviting A Battle On Capitol Hill 2007-01-11 01:01:04 By stepping up the American military presence in Iraq, President Bush is not only inviting an epic clash with the Democrats who run Capitol Hill. He is ignoring the results of the November elections, rejecting the central thrust of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and flouting the advice of some of his own generals, as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki. In so doing, Bush is taking a calculated gamble that no matter how much hue and cry his new strategy may provoke, in the end the American people will give him more time to turn around the war in Iraq and Congress will not have the political nerve to thwart him by cutting off money for the war. The plan, outlined by the president in stark, simple tones in a 20-minute speech from the White House library, is vintage George Bush - in the eyes of admirers, resolute and principled; in the eyes of critics, bull-headed, even delusional, about the prospects for success in Iraq. It is the latest evidence that the president is convinced that he is right and that history will vindicate him, even if that vindication comes long after he is gone from the Oval Office. Read The Full Story Full Text Of President Bush's Speech 2007-01-10 21:26:58 Following is the full text of President Bush's address to a joint session of Congress and the nation. BUSH: Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans, in the normal course of events, presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the union. Tonight, no such report is needed; it has already been delivered by the American people. We have seen it in the courage of passengers who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground. Passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help me welcome his wife Lisa Beamer here tonight? (APPLAUSE) We have seen the state of our union in the endurance of rescuers working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own. My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of union, and it is strong. (APPLAUSE) Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. (APPLAUSE) Read The Full Story Cisco Sues Apple Over Use Of iPhone Name 2007-01-10 21:13:20 Cisco Systems sued Apple Inc. in federal court Wednesday, saying the computer maker's new iPhone violates its trademark. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, came just a day after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPhone in dramatic fashion at a trade show in San Francisco. Even while Jobs was trumpeting the product during his keynote address to Apple faithful, the matter of the product's naming had not been resolved behind the scenes between two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. San Jose, California-based Cisco, the world's largest network-equipment maker, has owned the trademark on the name "iPhone" since 2000, when it acquired InfoGear Technology Corp., which originally registered the name. Read The Full Story U.S. House Approves Minimum Wage Boost To $7.25 An Hour 2007-01-10 21:12:48 The House Wednesday approved Democratic-written legislation that would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, the first such hike in 10 years. In one of the Democrats' first victories since taking control of Congress last week, House members voted 315 to 116 to raise the federal wage floor by $2.10 over two years. The bill calls for the current $5.15 minimum wage to move to $5.85 an hour 60 days after President Bush signs it into law, to $6.55 an hour a year later and to $7.25 an hour a year later. The hike "is simply a matter of doing what's right, what's just and what's fair," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Maryland) said before the vote was taken, adding he regretted the full increase could not be implemented immediately. Read The Full Story Prime Time For Comet Watching 2007-01-10 16:03:47 If you can get yourself someplace that has a clear view of sunset Wednesday evening, take the opportunity: You're likely to see the brightest comet in a generationas it's reaching its peak. Yes, Comet McNaught is now brighter than Hale-Bopp, Kohoutek or Hyakutake - earlier comets that sparked high hopes but didn't quite meet their high expectations. In fact, according to the ICQ Comet Information Website,McNaught is almost as bright as Jupiter in the night sky. It's been 31 years since a comet was that bright. McNaught is due to round the sun on Friday, and could well brighten even more as it comes around the other side. When that happens, observers in the southern hemisphere could be treated to a comet so bright it'll be visible during daylight. But for northern observers, the next day or so could be as good as it gets. "For observers in the northern Hemisphere, tonight is probably the best time to see it: Go outside this evening and face the sunset." SpaceWeather.com advises. "A clear view of the western horizon is essential, because the comet hangs very low. As the twilight fades to black, it should become visible to the naked eye. Observers say it's a fantastic sight through binoculars." Read The Full Story Former U.S. Interior Department Official Target Of Abramoff Investigation 2007-01-10 16:03:04 The Interior Department's former No. 2 official has been told by federal investigators that he is a target in the Jack Abramoff corruption probe. J. Steven Griles, former deputy interior secretary during President Bush's first term, was notified by letter and told of possible charges at a meeting last week with Justice Department prosecutors, people familiar with the probe said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the inquiry continues. Griles told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 that Abramoff had no special access to him. Griles' attorney, Barry Hartman, has said that committee's report last September found no evidence that Griles acted improperly. Hartman did not immediately return phone calls for comment Wednesday. Read The Full Story With Iraq Speech, Bush Breaks With His Generals 2007-01-10 03:45:39 When President Bush goes before the American people Wednesday night to outline his new strategy for Iraq, he will be doing something he has avoided since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003: ordering his top military brass to take action they initially resisted and advised against. Bush talks frequently of his disdain for micromanaging the war effort and for second-guessing his commanders. "It's important to trust the judgment of the military when they're making military plans," he told the Washington Post in an interview last month. "I'm a strict adherer to the command structure." Over the past two months, as the security situation in Iraq has deteriorated and U.S. public support for the war has dropped, Bush has pushed back against his top military advisers and the commanders in Iraq: He has fashioned a plan to add up to 20,000 troops to the 132,000 U.S. service members already on the ground. As Bush plans it, the military will soon be "surging" in Iraq two months after an election that many Democrats interpreted as a mandate to begin withdrawing troops. Pentagon insiders say members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have long opposed the increase in troops and are only grudgingly going along with the plan because they have been promised that the military escalation will be matched by renewed political and economic efforts in Iraq. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the outgoing head of Central Command, said less than two months ago that adding U.S. troops was not the answer for Iraq. Read The Full Story Climate Experts Worry As 2006 Is Hottest Year On Record In U.S. 2007-01-10 03:44:52 Last year was the warmest in the continental United States in the past 112 years - capping a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record" that was driven in part by the burning of fossil fuels, the government reported Tuesday. According to the government's National Climatic Data Center, the record-breaking warmth - which caused daffodils and cherry trees to bloom throughout the East on New Year's Day - was the result of both unusual regional weather patterns and the long-term effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. "People should be concerned about what we are doing to the climate," said Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Burning of fossil fuels is causing an increase in greenhouse gases, and there's a broad scientific consensus that is producing climate change." The center said there are indications that the rate at which global temperatures are rising is speeding up. Read The Full Story Chinese Police Kill 18, Capture 17 In Raid On Terrorist Training Camp 2007-01-10 03:44:13 China revealed the depth of its fear of Islamic-linked violence Tuesday when police disclosed that they had killed 18 terrorists and captured another 17 after a fierce battle at a secret training camp in a remote northwestern region. It is the first time that China had announced the discovery of such a camp in its territory. Officials said that they had uncovered links between the activists and international terrorist groups, hinting at connections to al-Qaeda. The clash in the Pamir mountains on Friday was one of the deadliest for years in the restive Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, where 8.5 million Muslims make up most of the population. One policeman was killed and a second wounded. Police said that the camp, in Akto county, was run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). It is listed as a terrorist group by the U.S., at China's insistence, despite concerns among Beijing-based diplomats over lack of evidence. Read The Full Story U.S. Aircraft Launch 2nd Wave Of Somalia Attacks 2007-01-10 03:43:01 Helicopter gunships resumed attacks Tuesday against suspected terrorist holdouts in southern Somalia following U.S. airstrikes in the area Monday, said Somali officials. The attacks against suspected al-Qaeda members believed to be hiding in Somalia marked the first overt American military intervention in the Horn of Africa nation since the U.S. withdrew its troops from a peacekeeping operation in 1994 after the deaths of 18 American servicemen. A Pentagon spokesman would only confirm today that U.S. forces were involved in an attack Monday after receiving "credible intelligence". State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to comment on details about the strikes, but defended the U.S. interest for intervening in Somalia's conflict. Read The Full Story	Commentary: Nuclear Power Not Clean, Green Or Safe 2007-01-11 01:03:15 Intellpuke: The following column is written by Sherwood Ross, a Miami, Florida-based journalist. In his column -  written for truthout.org and posted on that website Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007 - Mr. Ross writes that few statements are as misleading as those recently made by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on nuclear power. His column follows: In all the annals of spin, few statements are as misleading as Vice President Cheney's that the nuclear industry operates "efficiently, safely, and with no discharge of greenhouse gases or emissions," or President Bush's claim that America's 103 nuclear plants operate "without producing a single pound of air pollution or greenhouse gases." Even as it refuses to concede global warming is really happening, the White House touts nuclear power as the answer, as if it were an arm of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry's trade group. NEI's advertisements declare, "Kids today are part of the most energy-intensive generation in history. They demand lots of electricity. And they deserve clean air." In reality, not only are vast amounts of fossil fuels burned to mine and refine the uranium for nuclear power reactors, polluting the atmosphere, but those plants are allowed "to emit hundreds of curies of radioactive gases and other radioactive elements into the environment every year," Dr. Helen Caldicott, the antinuclear authority, points out in her book "Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer" (The New Press). What's more, the thousands of tons of solid radioactive waste accumulating in the cooling pools next to those plants contain "extremely toxic elements that will inevitably pollute the environment and human food chains, a legacy that will lead to epidemics of cancer, leukemia, and genetic disease in populations living near nuclear power plants or radioactive waste facilities for many generations to come," she writes. Countless Americans are already dead or dying as a result of those nuclear plants, and that story is not being effectively told. Read The Full Story Somalia Awash In Anger at Ethiopia, U.S., Interim Leaders 2007-01-11 01:02:20 A messy, low-level battle for control of the battered streets of Mogadishu continued Wednesday, as a fighter shot a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of Ethiopian trucks passing through the combustible Somali capital. The situation is so confused and the city so fractured and armed that the attacks, recounted by witnesses, could have come from any number of groups frustrated with the presence of Ethiopian troops, who last month swept a popular Islamic movement from power on behalf of the weak, U.S.-backed transitional government that is now struggling to assert control. Former fighters loyal to the ousted Islamic Courts movement are hiding in the city's byzantine tin-patch neighborhoods. Sub-clans and sub-sub-clans are angry with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who they say is favoring his own people as he doles out power and who has announced intentions to forcibly disarm an insecure city fortified with guns. Many Somalis are enraged over the U.S. airstrike in the southern tip of the country early Monday, which was aimed at suspects in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania who are thought to be among the ousted Islamic leaders on the run along the marshy coast near the Kenyan border. Read The Full Story NASA Schedules Flight To Upgrade Hubble 2007-01-11 01:01:34 The Hubble Space Telescope has a new, resonant date with destiny. NASA has set Sept. 11, 2008, as the target date for launching a mission intended to revitalize the telescope and keep it spaceworthy into the next decade, according to a planning document made public by nasawatch.com, an independent Web site. Three years ago, Sean O'Keefe, then the NASA administrator, decided to forgo Hubble telescope maintenance in the wake of the shuttle Columbia disaster, prompting a nationwide debate about the risks of shuttle flights and the value of the telescope. Michael D. Griffin, the current NASA administrator, reversed O'Keefe's decision. In a series of spacewalks, astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis will replace vital gyroscopes and batteries and install a new camera and a new spectrograph, extending the telescope's capabilities into new realms of the electromagnetic spectrum, Dr. Griffin announced in October. Read The Full Story Democrats To Fight Troop Expansion 2007-01-11 01:00:44 The new Democratic leaders of Congress on Wednesday accused President Bush of ignoring strong American sentiment against the war in Iraw and said they would build a bipartisan campaign against his proposed military expansion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, said House Democrats intended to turn the precise words from  Bush’s speech into a symbolic resolution, compelling Republicans to support or reject the idea of sending more troops to Iraq. The Senate was developing a similar nonbinding resolution to be considered as early as next week. “The president’s response to the challenge of Iraq is to send more American soldiers into the crossfire of a civil war,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin, of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, responding for his party immediately after Bush spoke. “The escalation of this war is not the change the American people called for in the last election.” Read The Full Story Bush Makes Final Throw Of The Dice To Pacify Iraq 2007-01-10 21:13:36 George Bush made what amounted to a last throw of the dice in Iraq Wednesday evening when he ordered 21,500 more U.S. troops to be deployed, despite widespread skepticism about their chances of stabilizing the increasingly turbulent country. Only months after he declared that the U.S. was winning, the president, in a 20-minute televised address from the White House, set out what he described as "a new strategy". He admitted that his administration had made serious mistakes in the course of the four-year-old conflict. "Our past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principal reasons," he said. "There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighbourhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents, and there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have." He added: "Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does. They also report that this plan can work." Read The Full Story Part Of Missing Indonesian Jetliner Found By Fisherman 2007-01-10 21:13:03 A fisherman has discovered a piece of a jetliner missing for more than 10 days in northwest Indonesia, a military official for the country told CNN Thursday. The discovery of part of the Boeing 737 was made in the Java Sea about 3 a.m. (8 p.m. Wednesday GMT), said First Adm. Edy Suyanto, head of the Indonesian military base at Makassar. Authorities were able to confirm it was part of the Adam Air flight, said Suyanto. The part was found in the water about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Parepare, north of Makassar in Sulawesi province, and about 300 meters (984 feet) from the beach, said Suyanto. Although the part was found in the water, he said authorities still do not know whether the airliner crashed into the Java Sea or in the mountainous terrain of western Sulawesi province. Read The Full Story Insurgents Battle Somali Forces In Mogadishu 2007-01-10 16:04:01 Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, exploded in violence this morning after insurgents attacked a government barracks overnight and soldiers responded by sealing off large swaths of the city and searching house to house for weapons. The raids immediately sparked resistance. Squads of Ethiopian soldiers and troops loyal to the transitional government poured into the streets, where they battled outraged residents and a handful of masked insurgents. From dawn through early afternoon, the pop of gunfire and the boom of explosives echoed across Mogadishu, Somalia’s reliably chaotic capital. Read The Full Story Italian Movie Producer Carlo Ponti Dies At 94 2007-01-10 16:03:36 Italian producer Carlo Ponti, who discovered a teenage Sophia Loren, launched her film career and later married her despite threats of bigamy charges and excommunication, has died in Geneva. He was 94. Ponti died Tuesday night at a Geneva hospital, his family said Wednesday. He had been hospitalized about 10 days earlier for pulmonary complications, it said. He produced more than 100 films, including "Doctor Zhivago," "The Firemen's Ball," and "The Great Day," which were nominated for Oscars. Other major films included "Blow-Up," "The Cassandra Crossing," "Zabriskie Point" and "The Squeeze." In 1956, "La Strada," which he co-produced, won the Academy Award for best foreign film, as did "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow", which starred Ms. Loren, in 1964. Read The Full Story South Dakota U.S. Sen. Johnson's Health Improves 2007-01-10 16:02:42 U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson's condition has been upgraded from critical to fair, four weeks after he was hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage, his office said Tuesday. The South Dakota Democrat, who was taken to the hospital Dec. 13 and underwent emergency surgery, remains in intensive care. "The senator continues to make progress," said spokeswoman Julianne Fisher. "The next step would be rehabilitation, and we hope that would happen within the week." Read The Full Story Bush Lifts Oil Drilling Ban In Bristol Bay, World's Most Productive Salmon Fishery 2007-01-10 03:45:17 President Bush on Tuesday lifted the drilling ban for Alaska's Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development. Alaska officials as well as some local communities had asked for the ban to be lifted, but environmentalists and some fishermen have warned against drilling in the bay, which is the gateway for the largest wild salmon runs in the world as well as a major source for crab and cod. "Bristol Bay is one the most important fisheries in America and in the world," said Sierra Club director Carl Pope in a statement. "It's incredibly reckless to risk such an outstanding natural resource just to satisfy Big Oil." Read The Full Story NOAA Affirms Human Influence On Climate 2007-01-10 03:44:36 President Bush has said it. A lot of government scientists have said it. But, until Tuesday, it appeared that no news release on annual climate trends out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Bush White House had said unequivocally that a buildup of greenhouse gases was helping warm the climate. The statement came in a release that said 2006 was the warmest year for the 48 contiguous states since regular temperature records began in 1895. It surpassed the previous champion, 1998, a year heated up by a powerful episode of the periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean by El Nino. Last year, another El Nino developed, but this time a long-term warming trend from human activities was said to be involved as well. "A contributing factor to the unusually warm temperatures throughout 2006 also is the long-term warming trend, which has been linked to increases in greenhouse gases," the release said, emphasizing that the relative contributions of El Nino and the human influence were not known. Read The Full Story Venezuelan Plan Gives Investors The Jitters 2007-01-10 03:43:42 Verizon Communications had been looking to lighten its exposure to Latin America for some time when it struck a deal in April to sell investments in three properties in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Now, it probably wishes it had disconnected its Latin lines even sooner. The company could possibly lose up to several hundred million dollars, thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who threatened to nationalize the country's main telephone and electricity companies. Investors reacted with alarm here and in markets in the United States and throughout Latin America on Tuesday as they measured the impact of the plan by Chavez to nationalize crucial areas of the economy. Memories of past nationalizations during another turbulent era, in places like Cuba and Chile, helped drive down the Caracas stock exchange's main index by almost 19 percent. Read The Full Story Bush Drops Plans To Renominate Three Judges 2007-01-10 03:42:00 In an apparent effort to lower the temperature in the fierce battle over federal judges - and in a concession to political reality - President Bush said Tuesday that he was dropping plans to nominate three of his choices for the federal appeals courts who have been vigorously opposed by Senate Democrats. The White House announced that the three candidates, all conservatives, had themselves asked for their names to be withdrawn, but the announcement was widely taken to mean that the president had decided that renominating them would be a needlessly provocative act, one that would anger Democrats without sufficient political payoff from conservatives for sticking by the nominees. Days after the November election that gave the Democrats control of Congress, Bush pledged to renominate the three. His words prompted denunciations from Democrats that he had not taken any lessons from the election and that he was not, as he had claimed, prepared to engage them in a bipartisan way. Read The Full Story
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