Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday February 9 2007 - (813)

Friday February 9 2007 edition
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Official's Key Report On Iraq Faulted By Pentagon For Use Of 'Dubious' Intelligence 2007-02-09 02:02:07 Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general. Feith's office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda," according to portions of the report, released Thursday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Michigan). The inspector general described Feith's activities as "an alternative intelligence assessment process". An unclassified summary of the full document is scheduled for release Friday in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs. In that summary, a copy of which was obtained from another source by the Washington Post, the inspector general concluded that Feith's assessment in 2002 that Iraq and al-Qaeda had a "mature symbiotic relationship" was not fully supported by available intelligence but was nonetheless used by policymakers. At the time of Feith's reporting, the CIA had concluded only that there was an "evolving" association, "based on sources of varying reliability". Read The Full Story Iraq, U.S. Advised To Avoid Offensive Against Militias 2007-02-09 02:01:38 Iraqi and U.S. forces should not launch a military offensive against the militias - most of them Shiite - that are a major source of turmoil in Iraq, but should instead rely on nonviolent steps to bring militiamen into the political fold, according to an Iraqi report that draws largely on the views of prominent Shiite politicians. "In the short-term at least, there can be no military offensive against the militias. Military confrontation, in the current climate, will only strengthen their appeal and swell their ranks," the Baghdad Institute for Public Policy Research concludes. The institute said the 18-page report, "Dismantling Iraq's Militias," was based on a round-table discussion by six Shiite politicians, two Kurds and a Sunni Arab. Government officials said Thursday it would be considered in setting policy, but some here saw it as reflecting the private thinking of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as more U.S. troops arrive to try to end the violence. Read The Full Story Prosecutor Rests Case In Libby Trial 2007-02-09 02:00:15 Prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, completing a methodical portrait of a top-tier presidential aide who they say diligently scrambled to defend the White House against an early critic of the Iraq war and then lied to investigators about what he had done. Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald concluded the prosecution's portion of the trial after 11 days in which he laid out for jurors a chronological narrative - of a volatile period inside in the White House in 2003 - that was sometimes dry but provided tantalizing glimpses into the worlds of President Bush's closest advisers and an elite tier of Washington journalists. The prosecution first demonstrated the steps Libby allegedly took to find out the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA officer married to a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson accused the White House of twisting intelligence he had gathered as it justified the invasion of Iraq. Read The Full Story Israeli Official Faults Egypt On Arms Flow Into Gaza 2007-02-09 01:59:26 A senior Israeli official yesterday accused Egypt of failing to halt arms smuggling into Gaza, thus bolstering the militant group Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian leadership supported by the United States. The comments, by Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, reflect the increasing frustration of Israeli officials that Hamas has been able to increase its grip on the Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew its troops in 2005. Egypt at the time agreed to monitor the six-mile border between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, but hundreds of rockets have fallen on Israeli population centers from Gaza. "There is no doubt that Egypt is not doing enough," Dichter told a group of reporters, asserting that "tens of tons" of explosives are being smuggled. "I am sure that if Egypt decides to block this flow of smuggling, they can do it, 100 percent." Read The Full Story Five Charged Under Britain's Terrorism Laws 2007-02-09 01:58:43 Five men are due to appear in court on Friday charged under anti-terrorism laws after a series of police raids in the central English city of Birmingham last week, said British police. Detectives arrested nine men on January 31 in what a defense source said was an investigation into a suspected plot to kidnap and possibly kill a British Muslim soldier. Three men have been released, while another man is still being held for questioning. "Five men from Birmingham have been charged overnight with offences under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006," police said in a joint statement with the Crown Prosecution Service. No immediate details of the charges were available. Read The Full Story Iraq's Health Minister Arrested By U.S. Troops Over Sadr Links 2007-02-08 14:57:09 Iraqi and U.S. forces in Baghdad Thursday arrested the country's deputy health minister on suspicion of providing significant help to Shia militia groups. Hakim al-Zamili, a supporter of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was detained during a raid on his office this morning, said a health ministry official. A U.S. military statement did not name Zamili, but said troops had detained a senior health ministry figure "suspected of being a central figure in alleged corruption and rogue Jaysh Al-Mahdi infiltration", using an alternative name for Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Read The Full Story Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei: Even Bush Can Be Brought To His Senses 2007-02-08 14:56:43 The war of words between the U.S. and Iran Thursday escalated as Iran's supreme leader warned that Tehran would target American interests if attacked. "The enemies know any aggression will give way to a wide reaction from Iranian people toward them and their interests in all parts of the world," Iranian state television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying. The ayatollah Khamenei, who wields ultimate power in Iran, made his remarks amid growing speculation that the U.S. will launch strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. "We believe that no one will make such an unwise and wrong move (to attack Iran) that would endanger their country and interests," said Khamenei. "Some say that the U.S. president is not the type who acts based on calculations or thinks about the consequences of his action. But even these people can be brought to their senses." Read The Full Story Libby Defense Lawyer Cross Examines NBC's Russert 2007-02-08 14:56:00 A defense attorney for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby pressed NBC News Washington Bureau chief Tim Russert this morning to admit that he fought a subpoena to be questioned about a conversation he had described to the FBI several months earlier. Testifying for a second day at Libby's perjury trial, Russert acknowledged that an FBI agent telephoned him to say that Libby had told investigators Russert was the person who revealed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to him. Russert said he told the agent it wasn't true, and that his July 10, 2003, conversation with Libby centered only on Libby's complaint about NBC broadcasts about Vice President Cheney's office. The suggestion left by the defense was that Russert - a crucial prosecution witness - had fought for the media's right to protect confidential sources in public, but had privately detailed that same conversation to the FBI. Russert testified Wednesday that Libby's claim was impossible because Russert didn't know Plame's name or that she worked at the CIA until the information was publicly revealed in Robert D. Novak's syndicated column on July 14. Read The Full Story Russia Plans Major Military Buildup 2007-02-08 14:55:15 Russia is planning to buy new intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and possibly aircraft carriers as part of an ambitious military programme, it emerged Wednesday. The defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, told the Russian parliament the military would have 17 new ballistic missiles this year - a hefty increase on the four deployed on average each year in recent times. The purchases are part of a weapons modernization program for 2007-2015 worth about 5 trillion roubles (£96.4 billion or $192.8 billion). The program envisages the deployment of 34 new silo-based Topol-M missiles and another 50 mounted on mobile launchers. Read The Full Story Editorial: Mr. Bush's Improbable Budget 2007-02-08 02:47:51 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Thursday, February 8, 2007. The editorial, which calls Mr. Bush's budget a sham, follows: President Bush claims that his new $2.9 trillion budget request is a tough-minded plan for balancing the books by 2012. In reality, it’s a smokescreen for making Mr. Bush’s tax cuts permanent - and either hollowing out the government in the process or digging the country deeper into debt. The budget is based on a series of improbable, if not dishonest, assumptions. To make it appear as if the tax cuts are affordable in the near term, it assumes that the Pentagon will not spend a single penny on Iraq or Afghanistan after 2009. It also assumes there will be no costs for fixing the alternative minimum tax after this year, even though Mr. Bush and virtually every politician in America is committed to such relief. The new budget would also slash key entitlement programs and punish many of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. Sharp reductions are envisioned for Medicare, with cuts of $66 billion over five years, and Medicaid, down approximately $11 billion. Some of the Medicare proposals could serve as useful starting points for a debate on controlling costs through such steps as raising premiums for high-income beneficiaries. But the Medicaid cuts would be largely counterproductive. At a time when the number of uninsured children is rising, the cuts would force many states to reduce their Medicaid rolls. Read The Full Story 7 GOP Senators Back War Debate 2007-02-08 02:47:23 Senate Republicans who earlier this week helped block deliberations on a resolution opposing President Bush's new troop deployments in Iraq changed course Wednesday and vowed to use every tactic at their disposal to ensure a full and open debate. In a letter distributed yesterday evening to Senate leaders, John W. Warner (Virginia), Chuck Hagel (Nebraska) and five other GOP supporters of the resolution threatened to attach their measure to any bill sent to the floor in the coming weeks. Noting that the war is the "most pressing issue of our time," the senators declared: "We will explore all of our options under the Senate procedures and practices to ensure a full and open debate." The letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nevada) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) was not more specific about the Republican senators' strategy for reviving the war debate. Under the Senate's rules, senators have wide latitude in slowing the progress of legislation and in offering amendments, regardless of whether they have anything to do with the bill. Read The Full Story Rice: Military Must Fill Civilian Jobs In Iraq 2007-02-08 02:46:40 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress Wednesday that more than 40 percent of nearly 300 State Department positions to be added in Iraq as part of President Bush's new strategy will have to be filled by military personnel. "Frankly, the agencies of the U.S. government cannot fill that many posts" as quickly as necessary, Rice said at a hearing of the House Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday morning. "And so our agreement with the Department of Defense was that for a period of time ... we would actually use reservists to fill those positions." The State Department has asked the Pentagon for 129 people to fill slots in "business development, agribusiness, medicine, city management" and other areas for 10 new provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), according to David Satterfield, Rice's coordinator for Iraq, who spoke to reporters in an afternoon briefing. Read The Full Story	Rep. Waxman Sees Potential Coverup In Coast Guard Ship Contract 2007-02-09 02:01:53 Managers of the U.S. Coast Guard's $24 billion fleet-overhaul program appeared to cover up a Navy engineering report that highlighted design flaws in a new flagship cutter under scrutiny by government investigators, a senior House Democrat said yesterday. U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-California), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the December 2005 report included "bottom-line" warnings in red ink on a pair of briefing slides that concluded the national security cutter, as it is known, would not last the required 30 years. The warnings were deleted in a copy of the report given by Coast Guard officials to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) auditors and altered in an edited version included in a wider briefing on the $1 billion-a-year fleet-replacement program, known as Deepwater, to the Coast Guard's commanding officer at the time, said  Waxman. "Sugarcoating of the situation may have made life easier for the program management, but it certainly is a disservice to you, to the Coast Guard community and to the taxpayers of this country," Waxman told DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner in a hearing. Read The Full Story From The Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq 2007-02-09 02:00:46 Intellpuke: The following article is written by journalist Craig Unger and appears in the March 2007 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Mr. Unger's article follows: The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactics-alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on WMD-to push for the bombing of Iran. As President Bush ups the pressure on Tehran, is he planning to double his Middle East bet? In the weeks leading up to George W. Bush's January 10 speech on the war in Iraq, there was a brief but heady moment when it seemed that the president might finally accept the failure of his Middle East policy and try something new. Rising anti-war sentiment had swept congressional Republicans out of power. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had been tossed overboard. And the Iraq Study Group (I.S.G.), chaired by former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton, had put together a bipartisan report that offered a face-saving strategy to exit Iraq. Who better than Baker, the Bush family's longtime friend and consigliere, to talk some sense into the president? By the time the president finished his speech from the White House library, however, all those hopes had vanished. It wasn't just that Bush was doubling down on an extravagantly costly bet by sending 21,500 more American troops to Iraq; there were also indications that he was upping the ante by an order of magnitude. The most conspicuous clue was a four-letter word that Bush uttered six times in the course of his speech: Iran. In a clear reference to the Islamic Republic and its sometime ally Syria, Bush vowed to "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies." At about the same time his speech was taking place, U.S. troops stormed an Iranian liaison office in Erbil, a Kurdish-controlled city in northern Iraq, and arrested and detained five Iranians working there. Read The Full Story Fatah, Hamas Sign Accord To Stop Feuding 2007-02-09 01:59:50 The main rival Palestinian factions agreed late Thursday to form a government of national unity aimed at ending a wave of violence between them and an international boycott. The agreement, signed in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city under Saudi auspices, appeared likely to end, at least for now, weeks of fighting that had ravaged the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Still, it seemed to stop short of meeting the demands of the international community for resuming relations and support for the Palestinian Authority. The accord, signed by Khaled Meshal of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and leader of Fatah, its main rival, is the first time that the two parties have agreed to share authority. It sets out principles for a coalition government, like the distribution of ministerial portfolios, but leaves many of the details for later. Read The Full Story Records Show Bush's Uncle Benefitted From Illegal Stock Sale 2007-02-09 01:59:07 President Bush's uncle William H.T. Bush was among a group of directors of a defense contractor who reaped $6 million from what federal regulators say was an illegal five-year scheme by two company executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants, documents show. Bush, known as "Bucky," becomes the second member of the president's family to become enmeshed in the stock options scandal this month. The two cases are unrelated. Bucky Bush is the youngest brother of former President George H.W. Bush. He was an outside, non-executive director of Engineered Support Systems Inc., a defense contractor whose profits were bolstered because of the Iraq war. Read The Full Story Anna Nicole Smith Died In S. Florida Hotel 2007-02-08 17:13:05 Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said. Smith, 39,  was found unresponsive in a room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. At 1:38 p.m. (18:38 UTC) a nurse called 911 and at 1:45 p.m. A bodyguard administered CPR before she was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital at 2:10 p.m and pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m. She was later pronounced dead upon arrival. Her death was less than five months after her son had died. Smith's boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, was with her when she died and has reported to Entertainment Tonight that her temperature was running high the night before. "She checked in Monday at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow," said Danielle Giordaano, a spokeswoman for the hotel. Smith had been a tabloid staple even before she became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. Readers were fascinated by her bombshell good looks, her marriage to an elderly billionaire and subsequent court fight over his estate, her weight fluctuations, and last year, the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith. Read The Full Story New York Attorney General To Sue Exxon Over Pollution In Brooklyn 2007-02-08 14:56:57 Andrew M. Cuomo, the Attorney General for the state of New York, moved Thursday to sue ExxonMobil and four other companies over millions of gallons of oil lying under the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn and to repair environmental damage inflicted on the nearby Newtown Creek. The decision marks a sharp turning point in the state’s handling of the half-century-old spill, which in recent years has sparked lawsuits by Greenpoint residents, local elected officials and environmental groups. A 1990 agreement between ExxonMobil and state environmental officials had required the company to recover the spilled oil, but specified no deadline, levied no penalties for the pollution and required no remediation of either the creek or the polluted soil under Greenpoint. At least 8 million gallons of oil and petroleum byproducts remain under the neighborhood, and soil tests have revealed toxic vapors emanating from the spill into the homes and businesses above. Cuomo’s action will seek a far faster pace for recovering the oil, extensive scientific testing to determine damage to the soil and groundwater under Greenpoint, and significant fines under federal environmental laws. “This is one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation, larger than the Exxon Valdez and slower in the cleanup,” Cuomo said in a statement. “ExxonMobil must and will be held accountable. The toxic footprint of ExxonMobil is found all over this area. It is ExxonMobil’s oil that remains under the homes and businesses. And it is ExxonMobil that has dragged its feet and done as little as possible to address the dangers that it created.” Read The Full Story Snow Squalls Bury Upstate New York 2007-02-08 14:56:24 While the northern Plains and Northeast U.S. shiver in dangerously cold temperatures, the folks in upstate New York are keeping warm shoveling snow - lots of snow. Since Sunday, the small towns of Parish and Mexico have recorded more than 6 feet of snow, and forecasters with the National Weather Service say it isn't over yet. Another 2 feet or more of heavy lake effect snow is expected Thursday for the communities along eastern Lake Ontario, and more squalls are likely through the weekend. "We're just trying to keep up. It's almost an unreal amount," said Mayor Randy Bateman of Oswego, where 70 inches of snow had fallen by Thursday morning. "We catch up when it stops, but then it just comes again, even heavier." Whiteout conditions - the snow has been falling at a rate of 5 inches an hour at times - forced state police to temporarily close Interstate 81 between Central Square and Pulaski, a stretch of about 15 miles. Travel advisories against unnecessary travel were posted for Oswego and its neighboring counties. Mexico officials renewed a snow emergency declaration, and many government offices were closed. Read The Full Story U.N., Google Earth Map Climate Change 2007-02-08 14:55:38 After letting computer users soar over Mount Kilimanjaro's melting snows and peer down on illegal logging in Asia, the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) is exploring how the latest technology can help it reach more people, an official said on Wednesday. It hopes to copy the success of a venture with Google Inc. that made an atlas of before-and-after satellite images of environmental change available to more than 100 million viewers through the interactive mapping program Google Earth. Now UNEP is seeking similar partnerships with firms including Microsoft, Oracle Corp., Cisco Systems and ESRI, a California-based computer mapping company, UNEP program officer Michael Wilson told Reuters. Read The Full Story As Railroads Face Tighter Safety Regulations, They Hire Lawmakers' Lobbyist Relatives 2007-02-08 02:48:06 The railroad industry is hiring relatives of Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff members as it faces tighter federal safety legislation, employing a tactic untouched by the Democrats' new ethics proposals: lobbying by congressional family members. The new Democratic Congress is working on the first overhaul of railroad-safety laws in 13 years. Long attuned to Republican control, railroad companies are now working to keep their GOP allies but also hiring Democratic lobbyists. Days after Jennifer Esposito became majority staff director of the House transportation panel's subcommittee on railroads, her father, Sante Esposito, and brother Michael Esposito signed up as railway lobbyists. Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Illinois) has just taken a seat on the subcommittee, and in the coming weeks, the railroad industry trade association said, his father and predecessor in Congress, William O. Lipinski (D-Illinois), will register as a railroad lobbyist, too. The new lobbyists join Bud Shuster (R-Pennsylvania), a former congressman and chairman of the transportation committee who lobbies for railroads and whose son, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania), also has just joined the railroads subcommittee. Read The Full Story Veterans Group Speaks Out Bluntly On Iraq War 2007-02-08 02:47:38 When Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) of "aiding the enemy," the Democratic senators gathered around him Wednesday did not wince. Nor did Democrats object when Soltz, the chairman of a group called VoteVets.org, called President Bush and Vice President Cheney "draft dodgers". In the United States Congress, where decorum usually holds sway, Soltz and his small band of veterans are saying things many Democrats would like to express but can't. And as the politics heat up over the Iraq war, Democratic leaders increasingly are being drawn to Soltz and his angry soldiers. VoteVets.org appears to be the most active group trying to influence the debate about the president's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Last month, it dispatched veterans to the home states of Republican senators waffling over resolutions on the war. Next, it ran a stark television ad on Super Bowl Sunday that drew national attention. And this week, group members crisscrossed Capitol Hill, trying to persuade lawmakers and their staffs to oppose the troop increase. Their efforts are supported by a coalition of liberal groups that blocked the president's 2005 plan to privatize Social Security, but this new campaign could prove more difficult. Read The Full Story Few Veteran Diplomats Accept Mission To Iraq 2007-02-08 02:46:52 While the diplomats and Foreign Service employees of the State Department have always been expected to staff “hardship” postings, those jobs have not usually required that they wear flak jackets with their pinstriped suits. In the last five years, the Foreign Service landscape has shifted. Now, thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the White House is calling for more American civilians to head not only to those countries, but also to some of their most hostile regions - including Iraq’s volatile Anbar Province - to try to establish democratic institutions and help in reconstruction. That plan is provoking unease and apprehension at the State Department and at other federal agencies. Read The Full Story Heaviest Snowfall In Years Threatens To Paralyze Britain 2007-02-08 02:46:12 The heaviest snow for years will have fallen on much of England and Wales Thursday morning causing misery and chaos for commuters on roads, trains and at airports. Drivers were told only to venture out Thursday if their journeys were absolutely essential as the hazardous wintry conditions transformed roads into skating rinks and iced up train tracks. Snow, which is expected to fall for several hours in many areas, could be up to 15 centimeters (6 inches) deep in hilly areas of Wales and the Midlands and between 2 centimeters and 5 centimeters deep in London and the southeast, the Met Office warned. Rain was more likely close to southern coasts and across most of Devon and Cornwall. In parts of Wales, the wind chill temperature could fall to as low as -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees above zero Fahrenheit). Conditions in the Brecon Beacons were expected to be particularly poor for motorists. People working outdoors for prolonged periods were warned to wear sufficient clothing or run the risk of frostbite. Overnight temperatures could have plunged to as low as -7C in places and Thursday's daytime temperatures are likely to remain only a couple of degrees above freezing. Read The Full Story
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