Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday January 31 2007 - (813)

Wednesday January 31 2007 edition
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Scientists Criticize White House Stance On Climate Change Findings 2007-01-31 03:17:13 Under its new Democratic chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman, of California, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform took on the Bush administration’s handling of climate change science Tuesday, and even the Republicans on the panel had little good to say about the administration’s actions. The subject of the hearing was accusations of administration interference with the work of government climate scientists. Almost to a person, Republicans on the panel introduced themselves by proclaiming their agreement that the earth’s climate was warming and that the principal culprit was greenhouse gases generated by people and their machinery. And when witnesses spoke in defense of the administration, it was often to say only that there were still some scientists who doubted that climate view or that the administration’s approach was not unique. Read The Full Story Congress Seeks Consensus On Global Warming 2007-01-31 03:16:36 As 600 scientists meet this week in Paris to finalize the first worldwide assessment in six years of the evidence on global warming, lawmakers on Capitol Hill searched for a political consensus Tuesday on how to address climate change. In a prolonged Senate hearing that one senator compared to "open-mike night," several lawmakers spoke in passionate terms about a need to put a cap on U.S. carbon dioxide emissions before global warming's effects become irreversible, while others sketched out possible policy compromises on the contentious issue. In a separate House hearing, a bipartisan group of lawmakers questioned whether the Bush administration has been suppressing climate science. Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Delaware), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee who has pressed to regulate greenhouse gases for several years, said he did not want his children and grandchildren chastising him for inaction in decades to come. "I don't want them to say, 'What did you do about it? What did you do about it when you had an opportunity? Weren't you in the Senate?' " Carper asked, adding that he hoped to tell them, "I tried to move heaven and Earth to make sure we took a better course." Read The Full Story Miller's Testimony Hurts Libby's Defense 2007-01-31 03:15:29 Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller Tuesday helped the prosecutor who landed her in jail and forced her into the witness chair, providing potentially damaging information about the confidential administration source she tried to shield, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Deliberately and sometimes defensively offering her account in Libby's perjury trial, Miller told the jury that "a very irritated and angry" Libby told her in a confidential conversation on June 23, 2003, that the wife of a prominent critic of the Iraq war worked at the CIA. Libby had told investigators he believed he first learned that information from another journalist nearly three weeks later - the assertion at the core of the charges against him. Miller testified that Libby, then the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, shared this information as they talked alone in his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and that he complained that the CIA and a former ambassador were unfairly trying to blame the White House for using faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. He then mentioned that the wife of the ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, worked at a bureau of the CIA. Read The Full Story Linden Labs Sends "Permit-and-Proceed" Letter To First Life 2007-01-31 01:22:27   Linden Labs, creators of "Second Life" issued the following "Permit and Proceed" letter to "Get A First Life", and parody  of Second Life.    Typically in the business world, companies are very threatened by competition, and offended by anyone who would make fun of their product, company, or staff.  In this case, the good folks at Linden Labs, who apparently have a good sense of humor, issued exactly the opposite.   They've invited the folks at Get A First Life to continue, as well as selling products bearing their parody logo.    This is a refreshing change.  The full text of the letter follows. Read The Full Story British Police Arrest Lord Levy Again In Cash-For-Honors Investigation 2007-01-30 21:51:05 British Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief fundraiser and confidant Lord Levy was arrested for a second time Tuesday on suspicion of perverting the course of justice over his role in the cash-for-honors affair. The dramatic development suggests Lord Levy, who answers directly to the prime minister, is suspected of allegedly lying or withholding evidence from detectives as part of a coverup. Police are known to be following a trail of encrypted emails and electronic trails on computer hard drives as part of their 10-month inquiry. Scotland Yard detectives, who are investigating whether money was donated to the Labor party in exchange for peerages, placed the peer under arrest when he went to a central London police station to answer bail Tuesday. Perverting the course of justice involves attempts to put obstacles in the way of police. It is considered an extremely serious offense by the British courts. The maximum jail penalty is life although in practice no one has ever been jailed for more than 10 years in the last century. Read The Full Story Senators Assert Right To Block Bush's Iraq Plan, Say Bush Not The Only 'Decider' 2007-01-30 15:45:44 The Senate Judiciary Committee began laying the constitutional groundwork Tuesday for an effort to block President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq, or to put new limits on the conduct of the war there. Democrats on the committee were joined by Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who led the panel for the last two years, in asserting that Bush cannot simply ignore Congressional opposition to his plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq. “I would respectfully suggest to the President that he is not the sole decider,” said Specter. “The decider is a joint and shared responsibility.” Read The Full Story Rep. Waxman Seeks Evidence That Bush Administration Sought To Mislead Public On Global Warming 2007-01-30 15:45:16 The Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government's response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming". U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said he and the top Republican on his oversight committee, Rep. Tom Davis, of Virginia, have sought documents from the administration on climate policy, but repeatedly been rebuffed. "The committee isn't trying to obtain state secrets or documents that could affect our immediate national security," said Waxman, opening the hearing. "We are simply seeking answers to whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists." "We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger," said Waxman. Read The Full Story Ashura Holy Day Attacks Leave Dozens Dead In Iraq 2007-01-30 15:44:25 As more than two million Shiite pilgrims converged on Iraq’s shrines to celebrate the holy day of Ashura, three separate attacks in different cities left dozens of worshippers dead in bombings, mortar attacks and ambushes. There were no reports of violence in Iraq’s two holiest cities, Najaf and Karbala, the day after Iraqi security force, aided by American air power and ground troops, defeated hundreds of militants from a renegade Shiite militia that they said was bent on widespread death and destruction on the holy day. Hundreds of suspects were being questioned today about their possible involvement with the group, said officials. Across the country, security forces were on the streets in numbers. Iraqi Army and police checkpoints were augmented by independent checkpoints set up by the Shiite militias that control many key areas. Read The Full Story Commentary: Bush's Conversion On Climate Change Is Illusory 2007-01-30 02:29:28 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by George Monbiot and appears in the Guardian newspaper's edition for Tusday, January 30, 2007. In his commentary, Professor Monbiot writes that President Bush's avowed conversion on climate change is illusory and that he is just drumming up new business for his "chums".  Prof. Monbiot's commentary follows: George Bush proposes to deal with climate change by means of smoke and mirrors. So what's new? Only that it is no longer just a metaphor. After six years of obfuscation and denial, the U.S. now insists that we find ways to block some of the sunlight reaching the earth. This means launching either mirrors or clouds of small particles into the atmosphere. The demand appears in a recent U.S. memo to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It describes "modifying solar radiance" as "important insurance" against the threat of climate change. A more accurate description might be important insurance against the need to cut emissions. Every scheme that could give us a chance of preventing runaway climate change should be considered on its merits. But the proposals for building a global parasol don't have very many. A group of nuclear weapons scientists at the Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California, apparently bored of experimenting with only one kind of mass death, have proposed launching into the atmosphere a million tons of tiny aluminium balloons, filled with hydrogen, every year. One unfortunate side-effect would be to eliminate the ozone layer. Read The Full Story Europe Resists U.S. On Reducing Ties With Iran 2007-01-30 02:28:45 European governments are resisting Bush administration demands that they curtail support for exports to Iran and that they block transactions and freeze assets of some Iranian companies, say officials on both sides. The resistance threatens to open a new rift between Europe and the United States over Iran. Administration officials say a new American drive to reduce exports to Iran and cut off its financial transactions is intended to further isolate Iran commercially amid the first signs that global pressure has hurt Iran’s oil production and its economy. There are also reports of rising political dissent in Iran. In December, Iran’s refusal to give up its nuclear program led the United Nations Security Council to impose economic sanctions. Iran’s rebuff is based on its contention that its nuclear program is civilian in nature, while the United States and other countries believe Iran plans to make weapons. Read The Full Story Main Camera Shutdown 'A Great Loss' For Hubble 2007-01-30 02:27:32 The primary camera on the Hubble Space Telescope has shut down and is likely to be only marginally restored, NASA said Monday, a collapse one astronomer called "a great loss". While other scientific work can still be done by the aging telescope, the unit that failed, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), is the one most scientists depend upon. NASA scientists said that they expect to be able to restore one-third of its observation ability, probably by mid-February. "We're not optimistic at all" about returning it to full function, said Hubble scientist David Leckrone. Read The Full Story	Millions Paid To Iraq Contractors Squandered On Unauthorized Work 2007-01-31 03:16:57 The U.S. government has squandered millions of dollars intended for police training programs in Iraq because of rampant problems overseeing contractors, according to federal reviews released Tuesday. In one case, contractors building a camp for American trainers constructed an Olympic-size swimming pool that hadn't been ordered. In another, human waste reportedly continues to leak from plumbing fixtures at a barracks for Iraqi police recruits, a year after the problem was first identified and despite assurances from the contractor that the problem was being fixed. Together, the reports offer a revealing glimpse at one aspect of the $38 billion American-led reconstruction effort. The police training program has been repeatedly flagged by U.S. officials as particularly crucial to the war effort, given the need for effective Iraqi security forces to take over from the U.S. military. While Tuesday's reports by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction do not address the training itself, they do find major flaws with how both the government and its contractors attempted to build the program's facilities. The flaws, auditors concluded, all had common roots: The government's failure to monitor how contractors were spending taxpayer money. Read The Full Story Ancient Settlement Unearthed Near Stonehenge 2007-01-31 03:15:48 New excavations near the mysterious circle at Stonehenge in southern England have uncovered dozens of homes where hundreds of people lived - at roughly the same time that the giant stone slabs were being erected 4,600 years ago. The finding strongly suggests that the monument and the settlement nearby were a center for ceremonial activities, with Stonehenge probably a burial site, while other nearby circular earthen and timber "henges" were devoted to feasts and festivals. The small homes and personal items found beneath the grounds of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site are the first of their kind from that late Stone Age period in Britain, and they suggest a surprising level of social organization and ceremonial behavior to complement the massive stonework nearby. The excavators said their discoveries, about two miles from Stonehenge itself, together constitute an archaeological treasure. Read The Full Story Sheriff's Wife Among 4 Dead In Shooting 2007-01-31 03:15:03 The wife of a rural Panhandle sheriff, a deputy and two suspects were killed Tuesday evening in shootings outside the sheriff's home in Marianna, Florida. The violence began when Mellie McDaniel, wife of the Jackson County Sheriff, arrived home, said State Attorney Steve Meadows. After pulling into her driveway, the two suspects shot and killed the sheriff's wife, said authorities. A deputy was shot and killed moments later. Deputies and other officers - including the sheriff, John McDaniel - arrived and killed the two suspects in an exchange of gunfire, said Meadows. The names of the deputy and the two suspects were not released. Read The Full Story Europeans Fear U.S. Attack On Iran As Nuclear Impasse Intensifies 2007-01-30 21:51:21 Senior European policy-makers are increasingly worried that the Bush Administration will resort to air strikes against Iran to try to destroy its suspect nuclear program. As transatlantic friction over how to deal with the Iranian impasse intensifies, there are fears in European capitals that the nuclear crisis could come to a head this year because of U.S. frustration with Russian stalling tactics at the United Nations Security Council. "The clock is ticking," said one European official. "Military action has come back on to the table more seriously than before. The language in the U.S. has changed." As the Americans continue their biggest naval build-up in the Gulf since the start of the Iraq war four years ago, a transatlantic rift is opening up on several important aspects of the Iran dispute. The Bush administration will shortly publish a dossier of charges of alleged Iranian subversion in Iraq. "Iran has steadily ramped up its activity in Iraq in the last three to four months. This applies to the scope and pace of their operations. You could call these brazen activities," a senior U.S. official said in London Tuesday. Read The Full Story Canadian Town To Immigrants: You Can't Stone Women 2007-01-30 18:53:18 Immigrants in the small Quebec town of Herouxville must not stone women in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules made public by the local council. The declaration, published on the town's website, has deepened a debate in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province over how tolerant Quebecers should be towards the customs and traditions of immigrants. "We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," said the declaration, which also says women are allowed to drive, vote, dance, write checks, dress how they want, work and own property. "Therefore we consider it completely outside these norms to ... kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them, etc." Read The Full Story Global Climate Panel's First Report Looks Dire, 2nd Report Even More So 2007-01-30 15:45:29 Tidbits of the much-anticipated report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have trickled out over the last week or so - ahead of its official Friday release - and experts on the outside have dickered over whether the findings were spot-on. An early sense that the report would estimate rises in sea levels not quite as dramatic as had been predicted in the past, for instance, caused some chatter - and charges that the panel had failed to include the recent melt-off of large chunks of Greenland and Antarctica. As the Associated Press reported today, "many fear this melt-off will mean the world's coastlines are swamped much earlier than previously thought. Others believe the ice melt is temporary and won't play such a dramatic role." Even as a group of 500 scientists toil in Paris this week, doing a final line-edit on that report, which is still expected to be the strongest and most grave assessment of global warming by the world's experts to date, it is only Part 1 of a three-part series of reports that the panel is compiling. Part 1 describes "The Physical Science Basis" of global warming. Seems though, that Part 2, "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" - not due until April - is where the real fire-and-brimstone stuff is. Yes, a draft copy of that has now leaked out too. Read The Full Story Cheney Aide Recalls Libby Saying 'I Didn't Do It' 2007-01-30 15:45:00 Amid the furor over the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, bluntly told a White House lawyer, "I didn't do it," the lawyer testified Tuesday. David Addington, who served as Cheney's legal counsel during the CIA leak scandal, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began. "I just want to tell you, I didn't do it," Addington recalled Libby saying. "I didn't ask what the 'it' was," Addington added. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says Libby discussed CIA operative Valerie Plame with reporters, then lied about those conversations. He is accused of perjury and obstruction but neither he nor anyone else is charged with the leak itself. Read The Full Story U.S. Policy Blamed For Iran's Regional Rise 2007-01-30 02:29:55 Kuwait rarely rebuffs its ally, the United States, partly out of gratitude for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but in October it reneged on a pledge to send three military observers to an American-led naval exercise in the Gulf, according to U.S. officials and Kuwaiti analysts. "We understood," said a State Department official. "The Kuwaitis were being careful not to antagonize the Iranians." Four years after the United States invaded Iraq, in part to transform the Middle East, Iran is ascendant, many in the region view the Americans in retreat, and Arab countries, their own feelings of weakness accentuated, are awash in sharpening sectarian currents that many blame the United States for exacerbating. Iran has deepened its relationship with Palestinian Islamic groups, assuming a financial role once filled by Gulf Arab states, in moves it sees as defensive and the United States views as aggressive. In Lebanon and Iraq, Iran is fighting proxy battles against the United States with funds, arms and ideology. And in the vacuum created by the U.S. overthrow of Iranian foes in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is exerting a power and prestige that recalls the heady days of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when Iranian clerics led the toppling of a U.S.-backed government. Read The Full Story Bush Directive Increases White House Sway On Regulation 2007-01-30 02:29:08 President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy. In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities. This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats. Read The Full Story Virus Warnings As Microsoft Launches Vista 2007-01-30 02:28:17 Microsoft launches its long-awaited new version of Windows Tuesday with the promise of next-generation computing power, but experts have warned that the system may suffer from the same security problems as its predecessors. Windows Vista, which has been beset by delays, is finally going on sale to the public with the backing of a huge advertising campaign and widespread support from the computer industry. The system - promoted with the tagline "The wow starts now" - is intended to bring huge advances to computer users worldwide, offering detailed 3D graphics, better performance and improved protection from viruses and other online threats. Some security experts, however, are already concerned that the system may not be as secure as users have been led to expect. Webroot Software, one of the plethora of security companies that helps protect Windows users from attacks, said that buyers should be aware of the potential holes in Vista. "We want to make sure that users understand the system's limitations," said Gerhard Eschelbeck, a spokesman for Webroot, "and caution them that Microsoft's anti-virus programs may not fully protect them." In testing, the company said, the new Windows Defender program failed to block 84% of viruses - including 15 of the most common pieces of malicious code. Read The Full Story Analysis: Bush's Big Afghanistan Push Comes To Shove 2007-01-30 02:27:16 Overshadowed by President George Bush's controversial, last-chance bid to salvage American honor in Iraq, the U.S. is mounting a parallel military and reconstruction "surge" in Afghanistan ahead of an anticipated Taliban spring offensive. Washington is also encountering some familiar Iraq-style obstacles: reluctant allies, meddlesome neighbors, a weak central government and the realization that time is not on its side. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice underscored the administration's newfound sense of urgency at a hastily convened NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels last Friday. "Every one of us must take a hard look at what more we can do to help the Afghan people and to support one another," said Rice. "We need greater commitments to reconstruction, to development, to fight the poppy economy. We need additional forces on the ground - ready to fight. And we need to provide greater support for the development of Afghan institutions, especially security forces ... If there is to be a spring offensive, it must be our offensive," said  Rice. Read The Full Story
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