Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday February 15 2007 - (813)

Thursday February 15 2007 edition
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Mahdi Army Commanders Withdraw To Iran During Crackdown 2007-02-15 03:55:01 Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official told the Guardian Wednesday. On the day the Iraqi government formally launched its crackdown on insurgents and amid disputed claims about the whereabouts of Sadr, the official said the Mahdi army leadership had withdrawn across the border into Iran to regroup and retrain. "Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army," he said. The aim of the Iranians was to "prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia militias" in the Iraqi capital - one of the chief aims of the U.S.-backed security drive. "The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return and fill the vacuum," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Tehran authorities were "playing a waiting game" until the commanders could return to Baghdad and resume their activities. "All indications are that Moqtada is in Iran, but that is not really the point," he added. Read The Full Story Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Peanut Butter 2007-02-15 03:54:22 A salmonella outbreak that has slowly grown to nearly 300 cases in 39 states since August has been linked to tainted peanut butter, federal health officials said Wednesday. It is believed to be the first salmonella outbreak associated with peanut butter in U.S. history, said officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 20 percent of the 288 infected people have been hospitalized, but none has died, said Dr. Mike Lynch, a CDC epidemiologist. About 85 percent of the infected people said they ate peanut butter, said CDC officials. Read The Full Story 13 Deaths Blamed On Winter Storm In U.S. Northeast, Midwest 2007-02-15 03:53:30 Blowing snow and sleet glazed windshields and roads across the Northeast and the Midwest on Wednesday, messing up Valentine's Day flower deliveries and wrecking couples' plans for romantic dinners. The storm grounded hundreds of flights and forced the closing of schools and businesses from Kentucky to Maine. Many of those stuck at home had no heat or lights because of blackouts that affected more than a quarter of a million customers. "I'm just trying to figure out where to take my wife for Valentine's Day," said Skip Daniels, the emergency management director in Sussex County, New Jersey. At least 13 deaths were blamed on the huge storm system. Read The Full Story Chrysler To Cut 13,000 Jobs In Overhaul 2007-02-14 18:37:40 DaimlerChrysler said Wednesday that it was leaving all options open for the future of its struggling Chrysler Group, which announced a plan to close all or part of four plants and eliminate 13,000 jobs in North America. The announcements came as DaimlerChrysler said it earned nearly $7.3 billion last year, despite a loss of nearly $1.5 billion for Chrysler. The Chrysler loss compared with a profit of just more than $2 billion in 2005. “It was a strong year at three of our divisions, but it’s been a difficult and disappointing one here at the Chrysler Group,” Dieter Zetsche, the chief executive of the German parent, said this morning. The restructuring plan marked a dramatic swing for a company that had seemed to avoid the same declines as its Detroit rivals. Read The Full Story Testimony Ends In CIA Leak Trial 2007-02-14 18:37:02 Attorneys for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby rested their case in the CIA leak trial Wednesday after a day of legal wrangling over classified information and whether additional witnesses could be presented. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald called no rebuttal witnesses, ending the testimony phase of the trial. Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday. The final day of testimony in Libby's perjury and obstruction trial had been billed as a blockbuster. Attorneys said for months that Libby and his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, would testify for the defense. Libby's attorneys reversed course Tuesday and said neither man would testify, leaving Wednesday to fight over whether NBC newsman Tim Russert could be called back to testify and how much evidence jurors would hear in Libby's absence. Read The Full Story Army Recruits With Criminal Backgrounds Increase 65 Percent 2007-02-14 01:57:17 The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in 2003, Department of Defense records show. During that time, the Army has employed a variety of tactics to expand its diminishing pool of recruits. It has offered larger enlistment cash bonuses, allowed more high school dropouts and applicants with low scores on its aptitude test to join, and loosened weight and age restrictions. It has also increased the number of so-called “moral waivers” to recruits with criminal pasts, even as the total number of recruits dropped slightly. The sharpest increase was in waivers for serious misdemeanors, which make up the bulk of all the Army’s moral waivers. These include aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide. The number of waivers for felony convictions also increased, to 11 percent of the 8,129 moral waivers granted in 2006, from 8 percent. Read The Full Story Cleric Sadr In Iran Ahead Of Planned Crackdown 2007-02-14 01:56:40 The radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is said to have fled Iraq and sought shelter in Iran ahead of a U.S.  crackdown aimed at ending the violence in the country. Sadr and his senior Mahdi army commanders left Baghdad two weeks ago after the prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, said he could not guarantee their safety, a senior Iraqi official said. The cleric is thought to be in Tehran, where he has family. Washington believes the Mahdi army is the biggest threat to Iraq's security and has urged Maliki to disarm it, although Sadr is one of the prime minister's closest political allies. Iraqi authorities announced last night that the country is to close its land borders with Syria and Iran and extend the night-time curfew in Baghdad as part of the much-heralded security plan to stop insurgents in the capital and the volatile Anbar province to the west. Read The Full Story Bus Bombs In Lebanon Kill 3 On Eve Of Political Rally 2007-02-14 01:55:18 Explosions tore through two buses in early morning traffic Tuesday in the Lebanese mountain village of Ain Alaq, north of Beirut, killing at least three people and wounding 21 others. The two bombs, detonated within 10 minutes of each other, occurred on the eve of a pro-government rally planned for Wednesday to mark the assassination two years ago of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. The blast occurred less than a mile from the Christian village of Bikfaya, the hometown of the former president Amin Gemayel, whose son Pierre Gemayel, a one-time cabinet minister, was assassinated by gunmen in November. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack Tuesday. Read The Full Story	Justice Department Official Bought Vacation Home With Oil Lobbyist 2007-02-15 03:54:43 A senior Justice Department official who recently resigned her post bought a nearly $1 million vacation home with a lobbyist for ConocoPhillips months before approving consent decrees that would give the oil company more time to pay millions of dollars in fines and meet pollution-cleanup rules at some of its refineries. Sue Ellen Wooldridge, former assistant attorney general in charge of environment and natural resources, bought a $980,000 home on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, last March with ConocoPhillips lobbyist Don R. Duncan. A third owner of the house is J. Steven Griles, a former deputy interior secretary, who has been informed he is a target in the federal investigation of Jack Abramoff's lobbying activities. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said yesterday that Wooldridge sought and received approval from a career ethics official in her office before buying the vacation property. Wooldridge's lawyer and officials at ConocoPhillips said that Duncan had no role in negotiating the consent decrees and never lobbied Wooldridge. Read The Full Story Detroit's Slump Could Breakup Chrysler Group 2007-02-15 03:53:51 Every decade provides a new lesson for the American automobile industry. In the 1980s, automakers underestimated their Japanese competitors, thinking they would never build anything but small cars. In the 1990s, the Americans focused too heavily on sport utility vehicles, only to see profits wiped out when buyers’ tastes shifted back to cars. The lesson of this decade? Better to go it alone than bulk up through mergers and alliances. DaimlerChrysler said as much on Wednesday, when it disclosed that it was considering all options for its struggling Chrysler Group, including a spinoff. It has hired JPMorgan as a strategic adviser, said people with knowledge of the move. A breakup would end the historic acquisition nine years ago of Chrysler by DaimlerBenz of Germany, which was promoted as a merger of equals but has evolved into an unhappy marriage of opposites. Read The Full Story Bush Says Iran Is Supplying Weapons In Iraq 2007-02-14 18:37:58 President Bush said Wednesday he has no doubt that Iran has supplied weapons used against U.S. forces in Iraq, but he stressed that he does not know whether the top leadership in Iran ordered the activity and he denied that he is using the issue as a "pretext" for war against Iran. In his first news conference of the new year, Bush also sought to walk a fine line on a House resolution that expresses disapproval of his plan to augment U.S. forces in Iraq. He said the Democratic resolution, which is scheduled to come to a vote Friday after three days of debate, prejudges a Baghdad security plan that the troop surge is aimed at bolstering. But he stopped short of the harsher criticism leveled by fellow Republicans, and he said the key issue is the continuation of congressional funding for U.S. troops deployed in Iraq. Bush said he received his first briefing this morning from Baghdad by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus in his new capacity as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and was told that the Baghdad security plan "is beginning to take shape." Bush praised the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for "following through on its commitments" to deploy three additional Iraqi army brigades in the capital and to meet other benchmarks. Read The Full Story Al Franken Announces Candidacy For U.S. Senate Seat From Minnesota 2007-02-14 18:37:23 Al Franken announced Wednesday that he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2008, making it clear that the comedian and author of "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot" wants to be taken seriously as a political figure. Franken said he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and immediately acknowledged the doubts voters may have about electing a former "Saturday Night Live" performer. "Minnesotans have a right to be skeptical about whether I'm ready for this challenge, and to wonder how seriously I would take the responsibility that I'm asking you to give me," Franken said in a video on his Web site. "I want you to know: Nothing means more to me than making government work better for the working families of this state, and over the next 20 months, I look forward to proving to you that I take these issues seriously," he said. Read The Full Story Former Top CIA Official Indicted 2007-02-14 01:57:36 The CIA's former executive director and a defense contractor were indicted Tuesday by a San Diego, California,  grand jury for allegedly corrupting the intelligence agency's contracts, marking one of the first criminal cases to reach into the CIA's clandestine operations in Europe and the Middle East. Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a longtime logistics officer who was the CIA's top administrator from November 2004 until last May, was accused of using his seniority and influence at a prior CIA job in Europe to steer business deals to his longtime friend Brent R. Wilkes, a California businessman and top Republican fundraiser. The 11-count indictment states that Wilkes subsidized meals and lavish vacations for Foggo and his family in Washington, Hawaii and Scotland and promised to employ Foggo after his retirement from the CIA. It also accuses Foggo - a former ethics official in two divisions at the CIA - of improperly providing classified information to Wilkes about the CIA, his contracting competitors and "other matters". Read The Full Story New Baghdad Crackdown Announced 2007-02-14 01:56:56 The Iraqi government on Tuesday ordered tens of thousands of Baghdad residents to leave homes they are occupying illegally, in a surprising and highly challenging effort to reverse the tide of sectarian cleansing that has left the capital bloodied and Balkanized. In a televised speech, Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, who is leading the new crackdown, also announced the closing of Iraq's borders with Iran and Syria, an extension of the curfew in Baghdad by an hour, and the setup of new checkpoints run by the Defense and Interior Ministries, both of which General Qanbar said he now controlled. He said the government would break into homes and cars it deemed dangerous, open mail and eavesdrop on phone calls. General Qanbar did not mention the role American forces would play in the crackdown, but his remarks were clearly timed to coincide with more aggressive efforts by American troops on the streets of Baghdad. The Americans have been establishing outposts - called joint security stations - to work alongside the Iraqi Army and police to end the sectarian bloodletting. Read The Full Story Britain's Serious Fraud Office To Investigate Drug Firms Accused Of Bribing Saddam 2007-02-14 01:55:42 Britain's Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into allegations that a number of major U.K.-based firms paid bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. The firms being targeted include the drug giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly. The international oil traders and U.K. bridge-builders Mabey and Johnson are also to be investigated. They are on a long list of international companies accused in a United Nations report of paying kickbacks under the discredited oil-for-food sanctions regime, which enabled Saddam to illicitly amass an estimated $1.8 billion. Ministers have agreed to fund the investigation with £22 million ($44 million) over three years. The inquiry was ordered last week by the SFO director, Robert Wardle. Tuesday the agency confirmed: "The director of the SFO has opened an investigation centred on alleged breaches of sanctions in respect of the U.N.  oil-for-food program." Under their wide-ranging powers, investigators from the SFO can order companies to disclose documentation and call witnesses for questioning. Ultimately, the SFO could launch criminal prosecutions. Read The Full Story
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