Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday March 1 2007 - (813)

Thursday March 1 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
U.S. Commanders Admit: We Face A Vietnam-Style Collapse 2007-03-01 03:08:20 An elite team of officers advising the U.S. commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat. The officers - combat veterans who are experts in counter-insurgency - are charged with implementing the "new way forward" strategy announced by George Bush on January 10. The plan includes a controversial "surge" of 21,500 additional American troops to establish security in the Iraqi capital and Anbar province. The team, known as the "Baghdad brains trust" and ensconced in the heavily fortified Green Zone, is struggling to overcome a range of entrenched problems in what has become a race against time, according to a former senior administration official familiar with their deliberations. "They know they are operating under a clock. They know they are going to hear a lot more talk in Washington about 'Plan B' by the autumn - meaning withdrawal. They know the next six-month period is their opportunity. And they say it's getting harder every day," he said. Read The Full Story Fired U.S. Attorney Says Lawmakers Pressured Him 2007-03-01 03:07:43 A political tempest over the mass firing of federal prosecutors escalated Wednesday with allegations from the departing U.S. attorney in New Mexico, who said that two members of Congress attempted to pressure him to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections. David C. Iglesias, who left Wednesday after more than five years in office, said he received the calls in October and believes that complaints from the lawmakers may have led the Justice Department to fire him late last year. Iglesias also responded to allegations from Justice officials that he had performed poorly and was too often absent, citing positive job reviews and data showing increasing numbers of prosecutions. He also noted that he is required to serve 40 days a year in the Navy Reserve. Iglesias declined to name the lawmakers who called him, but he said in an interview: "I didn't give them what they wanted. That was probably a political problem that caused them to go to the White House or whomever and complain that I wasn't a team player." Read The Full Story Italian Senate Gives Prodi Confidence Vote 2007-03-01 03:06:13 Romano Prodi last night pulled his centre-left government through the gravest emergency of its nine months in office, winning a senate vote of confidence. The former European Union commission president needed 160 votes and won 162 in Italy's upper house, with 157 senators voting for Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing opposition. Prodi's victory, ending seven days of uncertainty, was made possible only by the defection of two conservative senators, one being Marco Follini, a Christian Democrat and former deputy prime minister under Mr Berlusconi, who was loudly booed by his erstwhile colleagues when his vote was declared. Berlusconi accused Follini of "distorting the outcome" of last April's general election. The government also benefited from a last-minute decision by a life senator, Giulio Andreotti, 88, and former Christian Democrat prime minister, whose abstention in a lost vote on the government's foreign policy helped provoke the crisis; he announced he would not take part in the ballot. Prodi was "very satisfied" with the result. Read The Full Story Are Ethics Panels Interfering With Academic Freedom? 2007-02-28 16:25:47 Ever since the gross mistreatment of poor black men in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study came to light three decades ago, the federal government has required ethics panels to protect people from being used as human lab rats in biomedical studies. Yet now, faculty and graduate students across the country increasingly complain that these panels have spun out of control, curtailing academic freedom and interfering with research in history, English and other subjects that poses virtually no danger to anyone. The panels, known as Institutional Review Boards, are required at all institutions that receive research money from any one of 17 federal agencies and are charged with signing off in advance on almost all studies that involve a living person, whether a former president of the United States or your own grandmother. This results, critics say, in unnecessary and sometimes absurd demands. Among the incidents cited in recent report by the American Association of University Professors are a review board asking a linguist studying a preliterate tribe to “have the subjects read and sign a consent form,” and a board forbidding a white student studying ethnicity to interview African-American Ph.D. students “because it might be traumatic for them.” Read The Full Story U.S. Economic Growth Slower Than Thought 2007-02-28 16:25:16 The American economy is much weaker than previously thought. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the economy inched ahead by 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, just ahead of the 2 percent growth in the third quarter, but sharply down from the government’s prior estimate of 3.5 percent growth in the final three months of the year. Coupled with a reported 16.6 percent decline in new home sales in January and the 7.8 percent drop last month in orders of durable goods, like computers and washing machines, the lower growth estimate pointed to a weaker economy than many analysts had thought. That suggests that the weakness in the housing market and rising short-term interest rates have taken a bigger toll on economic activity than it appeared only a few weeks ago. “I think we are going to discover that the economy is softer than the Fed thinks,” said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at ITG in Rye Brook, New York. Read The Full Story Thieves Nab $66 Million In Picasso Paintings 2007-02-28 16:24:04 At least two Picasso paintings worth a total of nearly $66 million were stolen from the house of the artist's granddaughter in Paris, police said Wednesday. The paintings, "Maya and the Doll" and "Portrait of Jacqueline," disappeared overnight Monday to Tuesday from the chic 7th arrondissement, or district, said a Paris police official. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said they were worth nearly $66 million, and that there were signs of breaking and entering in the house. The Art Loss Register, which maintains the world's largest database on stolen, missing and looted art, lists 444 missing Picasso pieces, including paintings, lithographs, drawings and ceramics. Read The Full Story 'Lost Tomb of Jesus' Claim Called A 'Stunt' 2007-02-28 16:23:23 Leading archaeologists in Israel and the United States Tuesday denounced the purported discovery of the tomb of Jesus as a publicity stunt. Scorn for the Discovery Channel's claim to have found the burial place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and - most explosively - their possible son came not just from Christian scholars but also from Jewish and secular experts who said their judgments were unaffected by any desire to uphold Christian orthodoxy. "I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't have a dog in this fight," said William G. Dever, who has been excavating ancient sites in Israel for 50 years and is widely considered the dean of biblical archaeology among U.S. scholars. "I just think it's a shame the way this story is being hyped and manipulated." Read The Full Story	Top Officials Knew Of Neglect At Walter Reed 2007-03-01 03:08:03 Top officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including the Army's surgeon general, have heard complaints about outpatient neglect from family members, veterans groups and members of Congress for more than three years. A procession of Pentagon and Walter Reed officials expressed surprise last week about the living conditions and bureaucratic nightmares faced by wounded soldiers staying at the Washington, D.C., medical facility; but as far back as 2003, the commander of Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is now the Army's top medical officer, was told that soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were languishing and lost on the grounds, according to interviews. Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, said he ran into Kiley in the foyer of the command headquarters at Walter Reed shortly after the Iraq war began and told him that "there are people in the barracks who are drinking themselves to death and people who are sharing drugs and people not getting the care they need." "I met guys who weren't going to appointments because the hospital didn't even know they were there," Robinson said. Kiley told him to speak to a sergeant major, a top enlisted officer. Read The Full Story Kennedy Insider Arthur Schlesinger Dies At 89 2007-03-01 03:06:34 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Kennedy insider who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War and remained an eminent public thinker into the 21st century, has died, his son said. He was 89. Schlesinger suffered a heart attack while dining out with family members Wednesday night in Manhattan, Stephen Schlesinger said. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital, where he died. Among the most famous historians of his time, Schlesinger was widely respected as learned and readable, with a panoramic vision of American culture and politics. He received a National Book Award for ``Robert Kennedy and His Times'' and both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for ``A Thousand Days,'' his memoir/chronicle of President Kennedy's administration. He also won a Pulitzer, in 1946, for ``The Age of Jackson,'' his landmark chronicle of Andrew Jackson's administration. With his bow ties and horn-rimmed glasses, Schlesinger seemed the very image of a reserved, tweedy scholar. But he was an assured member of the so-called Eastern elite, friendly with everyone from Mary McCarthy to Katherine Graham and enough of a sport to swim fully clothed in the pool of then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Read The Full Story McCain Announces Bid For Presidency ... On Letterman 2007-03-01 03:05:13 Setting aside any doubt, Republican Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, announced Wednesday he would seek the presidential nomination. McCain, who had a presidential exploratory committee, made the declaration on the "Late Show with David Letterman," taped earlier Wednesday. "We are going to formally announce it in early April," John Weaver, a top adviser to McCain, told CNN. Read The Full Story Hail Storm Blankets Canberra, Australia 2007-02-28 16:25:34 A freak summer hail storm left ice blanketed across large parts of Australia's drought-hit capital Canberra on Wednesday, forcing some businesses and government departments to close due to storm and flood damage. While thunder storms are common in Canberra in the last month of summer, the rare hail storm left the national capital resembling snow-bound cities in the United States, with tractors sent out to clear ice from busy roads. The hail storm left meter-deep ice in parts of Canberra's central business district, and caused flooding and damage in over 60 buildings at the nearby Australian National University and the city's main shopping center, which were closed for the day. "I can't remember the last time we've actually received hail that has piled up on the roads in such a large amount," Owen Offler from Australia's Bureau of Meteorology told Reuters. Read The Full Story Stock Market Gains After Steep Decline Tuesday 2007-02-28 16:25:01 The stock market showed tentative signs of recovery this morning, recouping some of its losses after suffering its steepest drop in nearly four years on Tuesday. Most international markets traded off sharply today for a second day, with losses of 2 percent or more in many major Asian bourses and 1 percent declines common in Europe, but the New York Stock Exchange began advancing from the opening bell at 9:30. The gains were small and a bit fleeting at first, but by midday both the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks were solidly in positive territory, with gains of half a percentage point or more. Read The Full Story Libby Jurors Ask For Clarification 2007-02-28 16:23:53 Jurors deliberating in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby asked for the judge's advice about how to interpret one of five counts in the case. The count charges that the vice president's former chief of staff lied to the FBI about his conversation with former Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, according to a note from the jury released by the court this morning. Even before the judge was able to advise them, the jurors said they had resolved the matter themselves. The jurors appeared confused about whether the charge involved Libby making specific false statements to the FBI about his conversation with Cooper, or whether the general "content" of how he described the conversation was false. "Is the charge that the statement was made or is it about the content of the statement itself?" the jurors wrote. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php