Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday March 14 2007 - (813)

Wednesday March 14 2007 edition
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E-Mail Shows Loyalty To Bush, Gonzales Was Factor In Prosecutors' Firings 2007-03-14 01:43:33 Late in the afternoon on Dec. 4, a deputy to Harriet E. Miers, then the White House counsel and one of President Bush’s most trusted aides, sent a two-line e-mail message to a top Justice Department aide. “We’re a go,” it said, approving a long-brewing plan to remove seven federal prosecutors considered weak or not team players. The message, from William K. Kelley of the White House counsel’s office to D. Kyle Sampson, the chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, put in motion a plan to fire United States attorneys that had been hatched 22 months earlier by Miers. Three days later, the seven prosecutors were summarily dismissed. An eighth had been forced out in the summer. The documents provided by the Justice Department add some new details to the chronicle of the fired prosecutors but leave many critical questions unanswered, including the nature of discussions inside the White House and the level of knowledge and involvement by the president and his closest political aide, Karl Rove. The White House said Monday that Bush and Rove had raised concerns about lax voter fraud prosecutions with the Justice Department. And several of the fired attorneys told Congress last week that some lawmakers had questioned them about corruption investigations, inquiries the prosecutors considered inappropriate. The documents do not specifically mention either topic. Read The Full Story KBR's $400 Million Iraq Question 2007-03-14 01:43:06 There's a $400 million question facing the Pentagon's largest contractor, KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary responsible for more than 50,000 personnel in Iraq and billions in government contracts: Will the mammoth corporation be forced to repay the government nearly half a billion dollars because it hired private security forces in Iraq, including Blackwater USA, when the Army itself was supposed to be providing it with protection? It's a scandal that has been brewing for more than two years, kept alive largely through the efforts of Representative Henry Waxman. The California Democrat has been on a warpath against Halliburton and KBR almost since the Bush Administration took power in 2000. But it was actually an incident involving the private military company Blackwater USA that sparked the current controversy, which could result in the hefty KBR repayment to the government. It began with one of the most iconic incidents of the Iraq War: the March 31, 2004, ambush of four Blackwater contractors in the Sunni city of Falluja. The men were burned, dragged through the streets and strung from a bridge. For many in Congress-and the broader population-it was the first they had heard of private soldiers operating in the war zone. Finding out who exactly they were working for in Falluja that day would take nearly three years. Read The Full Story Dirty Bomb Materials Remain A Concern 2007-03-13 23:49:46 The Energy Department has not done enough in Russia and in developing countries to secure radioactive material that could be used to make a so-called dirty bomb, congressional investigators said Tuesday. A report by the Government Accountability Office said that over the past four years security has been improved at hundreds of sites containing radioactive material in 40 countries but "many of the highest-risk and most dangerous sources still remained unsecured". The U.S. program is aimed at providing financial support and technical expertise for securing such devices. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Legacy Of Iraq Is That World Stands By While Darfur Burns 2007-03-13 23:49:02 Intellpuke: The following commentary, written by Jonathan Freedland, appears in the Guardian edition for Wednesday, March 14, 2007. Mr. Freedland writes that an unprecedented plea from 14 United Nations humanitarian organizations on behalf of the people of western Sudan has been roundly ignored. His column follows: I once spoke to a journalist who had covered the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s. He said that he and his colleagues kept heading into harm's way, because they believed that once the world knew of the horrors they had witnessed, the world would be stirred to act. They filed their reports and waited. Soon enough, they understood. The world knew what was going on - and yet it did nothing. For some of those reporters, this experience broke their faith in the power of journalism. For others, it broke their faith in their fellow human beings. I suspect the aid workers and United Nations staff who signed a collective statement on the plight of Darfur in January are going through a similar heartbreak right now. Fourteen different U.N. humanitarian bodies, including the World Food Program and the World Health Organization, issued an unprecedented cry of despair. They explained that their workers had "effectively been holding the line for the survival and protection of millions, [but] that line cannot be held much longer". Under attack themselves, these U.N. workers could no longer reach the people they sought to protect and feed. "In the last six months alone," they wrote, "more than 250,000 people have been displaced by fighting, many of them fleeing for the second or third time. Villages have been burnt, looted and arbitrarily bombed and crops and livestock destroyed. Sexual violence against women is occurring at alarming rates. This situation is unacceptable." Read The Full Story Europe Leads Bid To Lure Syria In From The Cold 2007-03-13 23:48:26 Syria is hailing its return from international isolation with a landmark visit Wednesday by the European Union's foreign policy chief as diplomacy in the Middle East intensifies ahead of a key Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia at the end of this month. Damascus is trumpeting the talks with Javier Solana as evidence that the country is coming in from the cold after being largely shunned by Europe since the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, two years ago. Solana, mandated by all 27 European Union member states, was only able to arrange the trip late last week when France lifted the veto imposed by Jacques Chirac after the murder of Hariri, a close friend. The Syrian government and media is preparing to give him the red carpet treatment, but there is no evidence of a change on basics. Read The Full Story Stocks Tumble On Worries About Subprime Mortgage Lenders 2007-03-13 14:27:16 Stocks plunged Tuesday as troubles for subprime lenders kept piling up and U.S. retail sales came in weaker than anticipated, leading investors to brace for a wilting economy. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 150 points. Investors fled the already deflated stocks of subprime mortgage lenders as the sector's problems mounted. The New York Stock Exchange said shortly before the opening bell it would immediately suspend trading in shares of New Century Financial Corp. and move to delist the stock. The lender, which saw trading in its shares halted throughout Monday's session, on Tuesday disclosed more details on the raft of financial hurdles it faces. Word from Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. that it is grappling with a liquidity shortfall also bolstered concerns that the sector's troubles are widespread, as did a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which showed that mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures climbed in the last quarter of 2006. ''The market's still jittery, and they're starting to get full-blown concerns over a bleed in the larger subprime mortgage market,'' said Matt Kelmon, portfolio manager of the Kelmoore Strategy Funds. He noted that the subprime market is a relatively small sector of the U.S. economy, but that Tuesday's selling was accentuated by options expiring and increased volatility since the market's big tumble in late February - a drop that was caused partially by the problems of subprime lenders, who loan to people with poor credit. Read The Full Story Firing Of 93 U.S. Attorneys Recommended By White House 2007-03-13 14:26:51 The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors last year, according to e-mails and internal documents that the administration will provide to Congress Tuesday. The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in October that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations, according to a White House spokeswoman. Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of U.S. attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005. The aide in charge of the dismissals - his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson - resigned Monday, officials said, after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress. Read The Full Story Viacom Sues Google For $1 Billion Over YouTube Copyright Violations 2007-03-13 14:25:15 Entertainment giant Viacom Inc. - home of cable networks such as MTV and Comedy Central - is suing Google Inc.'s YouTube for $1 billion, alleging the video Web site knowingly violates copyright law by posting unlicensed Viacom content, such as clips from "The Daily Show." YouTube, which allows anyone to post video to the Web to be viewed by a global audience, includes both user-generated video and clips produced by professional content-creators, such as Viacom. The Web site was purchased by Google in October for $1.65 billion. In October, YouTube said it began purging Comedy Central clips from its site but, in February, the company demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 clips of Viacom shows. Also in February, Viacom agreed to license much of its content to Joost, a nascent YouTube rival. Read The Full Story 5 Abducted Tourists In Ethiopia Released After 2 Weeks 2007-03-13 14:24:19 Five Europeans abducted almost two weeks ago in one of Ethiopia's most remote and inhospitable regions were released Tuesday in neighboring Eritrea after the government there pressured tribal leaders to intervene, officials said. British officials would not say whether a ransom had been paid. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the three British men, an Anglo-Italian and a French woman - all British diplomats or their relatives - were released in Eritrea and taken to the British Embassy in Asmara, the Eritrean capital. "The five are being fed and given fresh clean clothes," Beckett said in London. "They are seeing a doctor and medical checks are continuing, but I understand they are broadly in good health." Read The Full Story	Asian Stock Markets Nose-Dive After Wall St. Losses 2007-03-14 01:43:19 Asian stocks plunged Wednesday after Wall Street chalked its second-biggest point drop in four years and rattled already nervous markets worldwide. The tumble extended a couple weeks of international trading turmoil rooted in concerns about overheated global markets and slower growth in the U.S. economy, a major export market for Asian companies. Worries about U.S. sub-prime lenders and lackluster retail sales sent the Dow Jones industrials down 1.97 percent Tuesday, sparking selloffs across Asia. Stocks in Japan, South Korea, India, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and the Philippines were all down more than 2 percent. Read The Full Story Fears Of U.S. Mortgage Crisis As Homeowners Face 12 Percent Interest 2007-03-13 23:49:58 A national survey showing that a soaring number of homeowners failed to make their mortgage payments in the last quarter of 2006 rattled lawmakers in Washington and the markets in New York yesterday, as the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 2 percent, or nearly 243 points. The report, which sent every major stock market indicator tumbling when it was released at noon, revealed that the problems in the market for "subprime" mortgages - loans made to home buyers with blemished credit histories - might be spilling over to the broader mortgage industry, said analysts. While the number of risky borrowers who missed payments climbed to a four-year high, the number of foreclosures on all homes jumped to its highest level in nearly four decades, according to the survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Home buyers who relied on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration also had record default rates. Read The Full Story Bush Leaves Latin America Empty Handed 2007-03-13 23:49:33 George Bush wrapped up a tour of Latin America tonight with little to show for his six-day swing through the region. The U.S. president was due to head home with no substantive deals or immediate evidence that the public relations offensive had salvaged Washington's reputation in the five countries he visited. No breakthroughs had been expected but Bush hoped to soften hostility towards himself and his administration's policies on trade and immigration by expressing concern for the region's poor. His stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, chosen for their relatively friendly governments, were marked by street protests and lukewarm to cold reviews by local media. Read The Full Story Commentary: Was I A Good American During The Time Of George Bush? 2007-03-13 23:48:45 Intellpuke: The following opinion column, written by Rebecca Solnit, appears in the Guardian edition for Wednesday, March 14, 2007. Ms. Solnit is the author of "Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power", and "Wanderlust: A history of walking". Her column follows: Was I a good American? How good an American was I? Did I do what I could to resist the takeover of my country and the brutalization of my fellow human beings? How much further could I have gone? Were the crimes of the Bush administration those that demand you give up your life and everyday commitments to throw yourself into maximum resistance? If not, then what were we waiting for? The questions have troubled me regularly these last five years, because I was one of the millions of American citizens who did not shut down Guantanamo Bay and stop the other atrocities of the administration. I wrote. I gave money, sometimes in large chunks. I went to anti-war marches. I demonstrated. I also planted a garden, cooked dinners, played with children, wandered around aimlessly, and did lots of other things you do when the world is not crashing down around you. And maybe when it is. Was it? It was for the men in our gulag. And the boys there. And the rule of law in my native land. Before the current administration, it had always been easy to condemn the "good Germans" who did nothing while Jews, Gypsies and others were rounded up for extermination. One likes to believe that one will be different, will harbor Anne Frank in one's secret annex, smuggle people across the border, defy the authorities who do evil. Those we scornfully call good Germans merely did little while the mouth of hell opened up. Read The Full Story Britain Upgrading Trident Missiles 2007-03-13 23:47:48 Britain's Trident nuclear weapons are being secretly upgraded to increase their accuracy and ability to attack a wider range of targets, the Guardian has learned. Ministers have repeatedly denied there are plans to refurbish Britain's nuclear warheads, arguing that it will be up to the next parliament to decide whether to do so. However, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has now admitted that a new firing device developed by the U.S. is to be installed in Britain's nuclear weapons system by scientists at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire. Analysts said the device - called the Arming, Fusing and Firing (AF&F) system - would make the Trident system more effective because the weapons' power, impact and radioactive fallout could be changed depending on the target. The Mark 4A system is a new version of the older design currently fitted in the Trident missiles. The disclosure angered anti-nuclear campaigners on the eve of a Commons vote Wednesday on the government's plans to renew Trident. Read The Full Story Halliburton's Move To Dubai Draws Warnings From Congressmen 2007-03-13 14:27:03 Ever since Erle P. Halliburton established the New Method Oil Well Cementing Co. in Oklahoma in 1919, his name has been associated with American corporate know-how in the oilfield services business. But over the weekend, the company now known as Halliburton announced that its chief executive, Dave Lesar, would move to a new corporate headquarters in Dubai to focus on business in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia. The announcement sparked warnings from members of Congress, who suspected that the company once run by Vice President Cheney was trying to trim its tax bill and remove itself from the limelight here, where it has come under fire about the way it obtained and executed government contracts, especially those connected to troubled reconstruction projects in Iraq. Read The Full Story Gen. Pace Expresses Regret Over Gay Remark 2007-03-13 14:25:34 The Pentagon's top general expressed regret Tuesday that he called homosexuality immoral, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and gay advocacy groups. In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces. In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays - and "less on my personal moral views." He did not offer an apology, something that had been demanded by gay rights groups. Read The Full Story U.S. Embassy In Algeria Warns Of Commercial Airliner Threat 2007-03-13 14:24:44 Extremists in Algeria may be plotting to attack a commercial airliner carrying Western workers, the U.S. Embassy in the North African country said. The embassy said officials have no specific details about which airline might be targeted or when the suspected plot could be carried out. Algeria is already subject to a State Department travel warning that says the risk of terrorism in parts of the country is significant. The embassy warning was posted on its Web site Monday. Read The Full Story
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