Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday February 24 2007 - (813)

Saturday February 24 2007 edition
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Britain Supports Call For Ban On Cluster Bombs 2007-02-24 00:16:57 Britain has signed up to a new arms control declaration calling for an international ban on cluster bombs to protect civilians, despite having used the weapon in conflicts in Kosovo and Iraq and still stockpiling so-called "smart" versions of the munition. Its position, praised by humanitarian groups, puts it at odds with the U.S., Russia, China and Israel, which did not attend the Oslo conference where the declaration was agreed by 46 countries Friday. The U.K.'s Foreign Office strongly denied Britain had changed tack or would now back a blanket ban, saying the move would "complement" parallel United Nations-organized disarmament efforts in Geneva, Switzerland. Read The Full Story Former President Clinton Tops Speakers' Earnings List 2007-02-24 00:16:25 Former president Bill Clinton, who came to the White House with modest means and left deeply in debt, has collected nearly $40 million in speaking fees over the past six years, according to interviews and financial disclosure statements filed by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York). Last year, one of his most lucrative since he left the presidency, Clinton earned $9 million to $10 million on the lecture circuit. He averaged almost a speech a day - 352 for the year - but only about 20 percent were for personal income. The others were given for no fee or for donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit group he founded to pursue causes such as the fight against AIDS. His paid speeches included $150,000 appearances before landlord groups, biotechnology firms and food distributors, as well as speeches in England, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia that together netted him more than $1.6 million. On one particularly good day in Canada, Clinton made $475,000 for two speeches, more than double his annual salary as president. Read The Full Story War Authorization Battle Looms In U.S. Senate 2007-02-23 19:49:46 Senate Democratic leaders intend to unveil a plan next week to repeal the 2002 resolution authorizing the war in Iraq in favor of narrower authority that restricts the military's role and begins withdrawals of combat troops. House Democrats have pulled back from efforts to link additional funding for the war to strict troop-readiness standards after the proposal came under withering fire from Republicans and from their party's own moderates. That strategy was championed by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) and endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). "If you strictly limit a commander's ability to rotate troops in and out of Iraq, that kind of inflexibility could put some missions and some troops at risk," said Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas), who personally lodged his concerns with Murtha. Read The Full Story 4 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq 2007-02-23 19:47:58 Four American soldiers were killed Thursday in Iraq, the U.S. military announced Friday. Three soldiers died while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The military offered no details about the attack. The soldiers were assigned to the Multi-National Force-West unit. Their names were withheld by the military pending notification of next of kin. Read The Full Story U.S. Detains Son Of Prominent Shiite Iraqi Politician 2007-02-23 19:47:22 The son of a prominent Iraqi Shiite Muslim politician was detained for several hours Friday by U.S. forces as he returned from a trip to neighboring Iran, and the U.S. ambassador later apologized for the arrest and said it was being investigated. Amar al-Hakim, son of prominent Shiite political leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, was taken into custody when his convoy was stopped Friday morning after crossing the Iraqi border with Iran, according to officials of the elder Hakim's political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI). Amar al-Hakim was then transferred to a U.S. facility in the city of Kut. A U.S. military spokesman said Friday night that he was gathering information about the detention and could not immediately comment on the case. U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said Hakim was detained during a routine security operation. Read The Full Story Scientists Worry About Earth's Overheating 2007-02-23 01:08:45 Until recently, it looked like the depleted ozone layer protecting the earth from harmful solar rays was on its way to being healed. Thanks in part to an explosion of demand for air-conditioners in hot places like India and southern China -  mostly relying on refrigerants already banned in Europe and in the process of being phased out in the United States - the ozone layer is proving very hard to repair. Four months ago, scientists discovered that the “hole” created by the world’s use of ozone-depleting gases - in aerosol spray cans, aging refrigerators and old air-conditioners - had expanded again, stretching once more to the record size of 2001. An unusually cold Antarctic winter, rather than the rise in the use of refrigerants, may have caused the sudden expansion, which covered an area larger than North America. Read The Full Story IAEA: Iran Expanding Nuclear Effort 2007-02-23 01:08:15 In open defiance of the United Nations, Iran is steadily expanding its efforts to enrich uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)reported Thursday. In response, the Bush administration immediately pressed for more severe sanctions against the country, at a moment of greatly increased tensions between Washington and Tehran. In a mild surprise to outside experts, the nuclear agency reported that Iran was now operating or about to switch on roughly 1,000 centrifuges, the high-speed devices that enrich uranium, at its nuclear facility at Natanz. “They are very serious,” said David Albright, a former inspector who is now president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private nuclear study group. “They are installing faster than was commonly expected.” Read The Full Story Blair Administration Moves To Close Serious Fraud Office 2007-02-23 01:07:15 Ministers in the Blair Administration have begun working on proposals to disband Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), merging operations with other agencies, the Guardian has learned. The plan comes three months after relations between the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, and SFO director Robert Wardle reached an all-time low over the latter's two-year investigation into kickback allegations linked to a BAE Systems contract with Saudi Arabia. According to well-placed sources, one of the proposals favoured by the attorney general is partially merging the SFO within the much larger Serious and Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), which was launched last year and characterized as an FBI-style organization. The remaining SFO lawyers would join the Crown Prosecution Service. Lord Goldsmith has ordered an independent review of the body, which will inform any decision. Any move to disband the SFO is likely to be seen as controversial after the government's insistence that the agency abandon its BAE inquiry. It will also be fiercely resisted by Wardle. However, pressure on his fraud unit has been building for several years amid disappointing conviction rates and a handful of high-profile courtroom failures. Read The Full Story	Commentary: Tony Blair Makes 'Comical Ali' Seem The Voice Of Reason 2007-02-24 00:16:46 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Marina Hyde and is posted on the Guardian Unlimited's website edition for Saturday, February 24, 2007. In her column, Ms. Hyde writes that the former Iraqi regime spokesman's boasts seem almost prophetic ... unlike the British prime minister's deluded declarations. Her column follows: If one is to endure a prime ministerial discourse on Iraq for any length of time these days, it is necessary - in the name of sanity - to cultivate strategies of detachment. Destroying another radio solves nothing, and there may be health risks associated with beginning one's waking day shouting dementedly at the glottal-stopped voice drifting over the airwaves. And so it was, listening to Tony Blair sing the praises of his Iraq adventure on the Today programme on Thursday, that my mind began to wander. If it wasn't all such a bleeding mess, I thought vaguely, the prime minister's delusions of success would be almost comical. Comical ... comical ... the word triggered some neural connection. But what? Gradually but inexorably, the memory of another charismatic proselytiser for Iraq's rude health began to resolve itself. Cast your mind back to the Iraq war as it was originally billed - the one where we won in three weeks - and which revisionist historians may just come to classify as a kind of phoney war curtain-raiser to the prolonged horror that succeeded it. Quite the most entertaining cameo of the day - even counting Clare Short's hilarious insistence on staying in the cabinet so she could oversee the reconstruction effort - was that played by Saddam's information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who we came to know as Comical Ali (or as Baghdad Bob by some). Not for him the relentless negativity that so exasperates Tony Blair where critics of his mission's success are concerned. "There are only two American tanks in the city," the information minister would beam beatifically during one of his must-watch daily briefings in early 2003, surrounded by reporters who would have been to able to count at least three if they stood on a low chair. Or recall his declaration as news channels screened footage of coalition troops patrolling Saddam international airport: "They are not in control of any airport." Read The Full Story Canadian High Court Unanimously Strikes Down Indefinite Detention 2007-02-23 19:50:02 One of Canada's most contentious anti-terrorism provisions was struck down Friday by the Supreme Court, which declared it unconstitutional to detain foreign terror suspects indefinitely while the courts review their deportation orders. The 9-0 ruling was a blow to the government's anti-terrorism regulations. Five Arab Muslim men have been held for years under the ''security certificate'' program, which the Justice Department had insisted is a key tool in the fight against global terrorism and essential to Canada's security. The court found that the system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedom, Canada's bill of rights. It suspended the judgment from taking effect for a year, to give Parliament time to rewrite the part of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that covers the certificates. The security certificates were challenged on constitutional grounds by three men from Morocco, Syria and Algeria - all alleged by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to have ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks. Read The Full Story Investigation Launched Into Walter Reed Outpatient Care 2007-02-23 19:48:30 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates Friday announced the formation of an independent panel to look into what he called an "unacceptable situation" with outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and he vowed that those responsible will be held accountable. Some people who were "directly involved" in the problems at the Washington, D.C., complex already have been relieved of their duties, Gates disclosed, but he did not elaborate. In a news briefing after touring the facility and speaking to wounded soldiers there, Gates said he was "dismayed" to learn from a Washington Post series published Sunday and Monday that some injured troops have not been receiving "the best possible treatment at all stages of their recovery". Read The Full Story Secularist Blogger Gets 4 Years In Prison In Egypt 2007-02-23 19:47:44 An Egyptian blogger was convicted Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egypt's president, sending a chill through fellow Internet writers who fear a government crackdown. Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, had been a vocal secularist and sharp critic of conservative Muslims in his blog. He often lashed out at Al-Azhar - the most prominent religious center in Sunni Islam - calling it "the university of terrorism" and accusing it of encouraging extremism. Nabil's attorney, Ahmed Seif el-Islam, said he would appeal the verdict, adding that it will "terrify other bloggers and have a negative impact on freedom of expression in Egypt." Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of nine years in prison. His conviction brought a flood of condemnations from international and Egyptian rights groups, as well as fellow government critics on the Internet. Read The Full Story Britain Not Part Of U.S. Anti-Missile Shield 2007-02-23 19:46:58 The U.K. is interested in hosting part of Washington's contentious "son of Star Wars" missile interceptor system, Downing Street said Friday, only to have U.S. officials respond by saying Britain is not currently part of its plans. If the U.K. did host a missile silo or radar site it would likely prompt considerable opposition from the anti-war movement, and might spark protests echoing those at RAF Greenham Common in the 1980s. The prime minister's office confirmed Friday it had discussed the missile system with Washington. However, a senior U.S. diplomat said the country was not as yet interested in placing it in Britain. "As we go forward there may be opportunities for us to talk to other countries about their needs, but right now we are concentrating on the Czech Republic and on Poland as the primary sites where we would be looking for this," the U.S. deputy chief of mission in London, David Johnson, told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency added that it had also not heard anything about involving the U.K. in the system. Read The Full Story Diplomatic Sources: U.S. Intelligence On Iran Does Not Stand Up 2007-02-23 01:08:29 Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to United Nations inspectors by American spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, according to diplomatic sources in Vienna, Austria. The claims, reminiscent of the intelligence fiasco surrounding the Iraq war, coincided with a sharp increase in international tension as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran was defying a U.N.  security council ultimatum to freeze its nuclear program. That report, delivered to the security council by the IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, sets the stage for a fierce international debate on the imposition of stricter sanctions on Iran, and raises the possibility that the U.S.  might resort to military action against Iranian nuclear sites. At the heart of the debate are accusations, spearheaded by the U.S., that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. However, most of the tip-offs about supposed secret weapons sites provided by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have led to dead ends when investigated by IAEA inspectors, according to informed sources in Vienna. Read The Full Story Commentary: U.S. Psychological Torture System Is Finally On Trial 2007-02-23 01:07:52 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Naomi Klein, who's book on disaster capitalism is scheduled to be published this spring. In her commentary, Ms. Klein writes that America has deliberately driven hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners insane and now that system and those techniques are on trial in Miami, Florida. Ms. Klein's column follows: Something remarkable is going on in a Miami, Florida, courtroom. The cruel methods U.S. interrogators have used since September 11 to "break" prisoners are finally being put on trial. This was not supposed to happen. The Bush administration's plan was to put Jose Padilla on trial for allegedly being part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla's lawyers are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven insane by the government. Arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport, Padilla, a Brooklyn-born former gang member, was classified as an "enemy combatant" and taken to a navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina. He was kept in a cell 9-feet by 7-feet, with no natural light, no clock and no calendar. Whenever Padilla left the cell, he was shackled and suited in heavy goggles and headphones. Padilla was kept under these conditions for 1,307 days. He was forbidden contact with anyone but his interrogators, who punctured the extreme sensory deprivation with sensory overload, blasting him with harsh lights and pounding sounds. Padilla also says he was injected with a "truth serum", a substance his lawyers believe was LSD or PCP. According to his lawyers and two mental health specialists who examined him, Padilla has been so shattered that he lacks the ability to assist in his own defense. He is convinced that his lawyers are "part of a continuing interrogation program" and sees his captors as protectors. In order to prove that "the extended torture visited upon Mr. Padilla has left him damaged", his lawyers want to tell the court what happened during those years in the navy brig. The prosecution strenuously objects, maintaining that "Padilla is competent" and that his treatment is irrelevant. Read The Full Story
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