Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday March 30 2007 - (813)

Friday March 30 2007 edition
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Inspector General Faults Interior Appointee On Imperiled Species 2007-03-30 01:02:31 A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions, the department's inspector general concluded. The investigator's report on Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks - which was triggered by an anonymous complaint from a Fish and Wildlife Service employee and expanded in October after a Washington Post article about MacDonald - said she frequently sought to reshape the agency's scientific reports in an effort to ease the impact of agency decisions on private landowners. Inspector General Earl E. Devaney referred the case to Interior's top officials for "potential administrative action," according to the document, which was reported Thursday in the New York Times. The I.G. noted that MacDonald "admitted that her degree is in civil engineering and that she has no formal educational background in natural sciences" but repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats," despite her lack of expertise. Read The Full Story Bombs Kill More Than 100 In Baghdad, Khalis 2007-03-30 01:02:01 Bombs tore through crowds of after-work shoppers in Baghdad and a town north of the capital on Thursday in an onslaught of violence that killed more than 100 people, according to Iraqi government and hospital officials. Both areas - a bazaar in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab and the farming town of Khalis in Diyala province - are populated predominantly by Shiites, and Iraqi government officials quickly blamed the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.The attacks followed two violent days of bombings and reprisal killings in the northern city of Tall Afar and threatened to increase the likelihood of a resurgence of open sectarian warfare despite the heightened U.S. military presence in Iraq. The bombing in Shaab, which police said killed at least 60 people, took aim at the six-week-old Baghdad security plan, under which U.S. and Iraqi officials have sought to protect public marketplaces from such catastrophic attacks. Read The Full Story Japan Sets Up Missile Defense Shield Near Tokyo 2007-03-30 01:01:22 Japan trucked its first ballistic missile interceptors to an air force base north of Tokyo on Friday in an effort to beef up its defenses against its unpredictable neighbor North Korea. The deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers, capable of shooting down incoming missiles in the final stage of flight as they near their target, was sparked by Pyongyang's firing of a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan. Tokyo rushed the equipment into service a year ahead of schedule after North Korea unnerved the region last year by firing more missiles and testing a nuclear device. "We consider it very meaningful to deploy the air defense missiles close to metropolitan Tokyo, which is the center of business and political activities," Kazumasa Echizen, the Iruma air base public information chief, said in a statement. "We will continue our efforts to be ready for any possible emergencies." Read The Full Story Data On 45.7 Million Credit, Debit Cards Stolen From T.J. Maxx 2007-03-29 12:34:16 More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers' financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period. In a regulatory filing that gives the first detailed account of the breach initially disclosed in January, the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and other stores in North America and the United Kingdom also said another 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers. The data that was stolen covers transactions dating as far back as December 2002, TJX said in the filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read The Full Story Texas-Sized Piece Of Antarctica Is Melting 2007-03-29 12:33:48 A Texas-sized area of Antarctica is thinning and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly in the long-term, polar ice experts said in wrapping up a three-day conference. "Surprisingly rapid changes" are occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, an ice drainage system that faces the southern Pacific Ocean, the experts said in a statement, adding that more study was needed to determine how fast it was melting and how much it could cause sea levels to rise. The warning came Wednesday at the end of a conference of U.S. and European polar ice experts at the University of Texas in Austin. Read The Full Story Circuit City Cuts 3,400 'Overpaid' Workers 2007-03-29 12:31:32 Circuit City fired 3,400 employees in stores across the country Wednesday, saying they were making too much money and would be replaced by new hires willing to work for less. The company said the dismissals had nothing to do with performance but were part of a larger effort to improve the bottom line. The firings represent about 9 percent of the company's in-store workforce of 40,000. "Retail is very competitive and store operations just have to contain their costs," said Jim Babb, a Circuit City spokesman. "We deeply regret the negative impact that was had on these folks. It was no fault of theirs." The company gave the dismissed workers severance pay and told them that after 10 weeks they were free to apply for any openings. Employees reached by a reporter said they were notified Thursday morning and told to leave immediately. Read The Full Story Senate OKs War Bill With Iraq Timeline 2007-03-29 12:30:43 Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a bill Thursday requiring President Bush to start withdrawing troops from "the civil war in Iraq," dealing a rare, sharp rebuke to a wartime commander in chief. In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a bill providing $122 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of passage while setting a nonbinding goal of ending combat operations by March 31, 2008. The vote came shortly after Bush invited all House Republicans to the White House to appear with him in a sort of pep rally to bolster his position in the continuing war policy fight. Read The Full Story Troop Surge May Mean Longer Army Tours In Iraq, Afghanistan 2007-03-29 02:05:11 Sustaining the U.S. troop increase in Iraq beyond this summer will not be possible without keeping some Army combat brigades in the war zone for up to 16 months - much longer than the standard year-long tour, a top U.S. general in charge of the military's rotation plans said Wednesday. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, also said that if the increase of more than 28,000 combat and support troops continues until February, there is a "high probability" that some Army units would have less than a year at home between combat rotations, further compressing the limited time to train and reconnect with families. "It will be very difficult" to sustain the increase past the summer, Smith told defense reporters. "The challenges are really in trying to allow a unit to have enough time at home to train, reset and reinvigorate themselves, and to not have to extend them too long in Iraq beyond the one year boots on the ground." Read The Full Story Attacks On Baghdad's Green Zone Are Increasing 2007-03-29 02:03:59 Iraqi insurgents are increasingly hitting Baghdad's fortresslike Green Zone with rockets and mortar shells, officials said Wednesday. Insurgents have struck inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy, on six of the past seven days, once with deadly consequences. A U.S. soldier and a U.S. government contractor were killed Tuesday night by a rocket attack that also seriously wounded a civilian, said military and embassy officials. One soldier and at least three other civilians received minor injuries, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor. The attack stunned a workforce normally blase about Baghdad's habitual wartime booms and blasts. A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said, "There are increasing attacks on the embassy." Read The Full Story Ousted Pakistan Chief Justice Speaks Out 2007-03-29 02:02:48 Pakistan's suspended chief justice received a hero's welcome from some 2,000 lawyers Wednesday as he gave his first address since President Pervez Musharraf removed him from the bench nearly three weeks ago. The Supreme Court judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, was showered with rose petals and greeted with boisterous chants of "Go, Musharraf, go!" by supporters who have rallied to Chaudhry's side and want Pakistan's president to resign. The clash between Musharraf and Chaudhry has riveted the nation since the judge was suspended on March 9, and many feel it represents the most serious domestic challenge to Musharraf since he came to power in a military coup eight years ago. Critics say the decision to suspend Chaudhry was an attempt by Musharraf to crush the judiciary ahead of elections planned for later this year. The government has said Chaudhry misused his office, and Musharraf has accused opponents of exploiting the controversy for political gain. Read The Full Story	Saudis Publicly Get Tough With U.S. 2007-03-30 01:02:15 Of all the foreign leaders President Bush has dealt with over the past six years, few have been as direct or blunt in private as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, according to U.S. officials. At one point in 2002, Abdullah showed Bush images of Palestinian children killed by Israeli troops and demanded to know whether he was committed to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, that private toughness has become public, just as Saudi Arabia has begun to play an uncharacteristically assertive diplomatic role in the region in an effort to calm potential flashpoints in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. In a speech Wednesday before a summit of the Arab League, Abdullah decried what he called the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of Iraq and called for a lifting of the "unjust embargo imposed on the people of Palestine" that has been led by the Bush administration. U.S. officials said they were puzzled by Abdullah's description of the situation in Iraq and will demand an explanation. For months, U.S. officials have said that they were pleased by Saudi Arabia's willingness to shoulder a greater diplomatic burden, but Abdullah's remarks come after disquieting signs that Riyadh is distancing itself from the Bush administration. The king is reported to have canceled a state dinner that Bush had planned to hold in his honor next month - though officially the White House says no dinner was ever scheduled - and last month Abdullah brokered a unity accord among Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, that upended Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plans for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read The Full Story Arabs Call On Israel To Take Peace Offer 2007-03-30 01:01:40 Arab leaders on Thursday reiterated their offer to normalize ties with Israel and showed signs of flexibility in their terms for peace. At a news conference at the end of a summit where the Arab leaders' peace plan was the main issue on the agenda, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Arab countries would establish normal ties with Israel as soon as it had resolved its disputes with its immediate neighbors. "We cannot change the plan because it offers peace, and changing it would mean we're no longer offering peace," said Faisal, echoing Arab League chief Amr Moussa's insistence that there would be no changes in the plan ahead of negotiations. Faisal said: "Once Israel returns occupied land and comes to an agreement with the Palestinians, returns occupied land to Syria and comes to an agreement with them, and it resolves its land issues with Lebanon, Arab states will immediately establish relations." Read The Full Story Ex-Aide: Gonzales Played Role In Firings 2007-03-29 12:34:33 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wrongly stated he was not involved in discussions about the firings of federal prosecutors, his former chief of staff told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. "I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate," testified Kyle Sampson, who quit this month as Gonzales' top aide. "I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign." Sampson said Gonzales attended a crucial meeting on the firings Nov. 27, 10 days before they were carried out. Read The Full Story 3 Dead As Major Storms Sweep U.S. Plains States 2007-03-29 12:34:02 An early spring storm swept across the Plains early Thursday, spinning off tornadoes that killed an Oklahoma couple in a home that was blown to pieces and a Colorado woman whose small town was nearly destroyed. A tornado as wide as two football fields carved a destructive path through Holly, Colorado, late Wednesday, destroying five homes, damaging dozens more and littering the streets with broken power lines, tree limbs and debris. “Homes were there and now they’re gone,” county administrator Linda Fairbairn said. “Many, if not all, the structures in town suffered some degree of damage.” A 28-year-old woman who suffered massive injuries during the twister died after she was airlifted to a hospital in Colorado Springs, Prowers County Coroner Joe Giadone said Thursday. Read The Full Story GSA Chief Grilled By House On GOP Political Presentation 2007-03-29 12:33:22 The chief of the General Services Administration testified on Capitol Hill Thursday that she could not recall details of a Jan. 26 videoconference in which a White House official briefed top political appointees at the agency about targeting 20 congressional Democrats in 2008. Lurita Alexis Doan, the GSA's administrator, appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about her 10-month tenure at the government's premier contracting agency, including her attempt to award a no-bid job to a business associate and her alleged intervention in a contract dispute with a technology company. Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-California) said the committee was focusing on the videoconference at GSA facilities because it might have violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts government agencies and employees from engaging in political activity on the job. Read The Full Story 15 Million Gallons Of Sewage Disappears? 2007-03-29 12:31:02 About 15 million gallons of partially treated sewage water disappeared from a 250,000-square-foot storage lagoon into a sinkhole, but officials don't know where it went after that. Kent County utility operator Nathan Danenberg, who runs the sewage treatment system for Sand Lake, discovered the leak in the 8-foot-deep lagoon on Friday while taking samples. It wasn't clear when or why the leak occurred. "I don't know if maybe there are old mines in the area," Danenberg told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Tuesday. "It's an odd case. A sinkhole gobbled up all the water, and we don't know where it went.... It seems to have just gone down into the earth. Read The Full Story Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting 2007-03-29 02:05:24 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys,complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion. About a half-dozen United States attorneys voiced their concerns at a private meeting with Gonzales in Chicago, Illinois. Several of the prosecutors said the dismissals caused them to wonder about their own standing and distracted their employees, according to one person familiar with the discussions. Others asked Gonzales about the removal of Daniel C. Bogden, the former United States attorney in Nevada, a respected career prosecutor whose ouster has never been fully explained by the Justice Department. Read The Full Story Ex-Gonzales Aide To Say Others Knew Of Firings 2007-03-29 02:04:46 The attorney general's former chief of staff plans to testify Thursday that other Justice Department officials knew about the "origins and timing" of the effort to fire eight U.S. attorneys, which began two years earlier in the White House, according to prepared testimony for a Congressional hearing. But D. Kyle Sampson - who resigned earlier this month ahead of revelations that White House political officials helped direct the dismissals - also will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he "never sought to conceal or withhold material fact about this matter" while helping prepare witnesses for Congress. Lawmakers are seeking to determine whether top Justice Department officials misled them while testifying on the matter in recent months. "Others in the department knew what I knew about the origins and timing of this enterprise," reads Sampson's statement, obtained Wednesday. "None of us spoke up on those subjects ... not because there was some effort to hide this history, but because the focus of our preparation sessions was on other subjects." Read The Full Story Ex-Senator Fred Thompson May Run For President In 2008 2007-03-29 02:03:14 "Law & Order" star and former U.S. senator Fred Dalton Thompson is considering a bid for the White House that would test whether Hollywood can once again launch a Republican to the world's premier political stage. His interest, confirmed in a brief interview this week, is generating buzz in Washington. He was third among Republican-leaning voters in a recent Gallup-USA Today survey, behind Sen. John McCain (Arizona) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The onetime senator from Tennessee is known to many Americans for playing New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order" and an admiral in the film "The Hunt for Red October." But his real-life record as a no-nonsense lawmaker who also served as the minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee is appealing to party activists dissatisfied with the current crop of Republican hopefuls. Read The Full Story
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