Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday April 27 2007 - (813)

Friday April 27 2007 edition
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U.S. House Panel: NASA Chief Improperly Destroyed Tapes Of Meeting 2007-04-27 02:29:56 NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin held an unusual meeting with the staff of the inspector general who oversees his agency and then ordered that video recordings of the meeting be destroyed, the U.S. House Science and Technology subcommittee on investigations and oversight said Thursday. In a letter to Griffin, subcommittee chairman Rep. Brad Miller (D-North Carolina) demanded an explanation from the NASA administrator and accused him of improperly trying to influence the watchdog office's decisions on what it should investigate. In addition, the letter from Rep. Miller said the order to destroy the meeting tapes, which was issued by NASA's chief of staff, "appears on its face to be nothing less than the destruction of evidence." Read The Full Story Ex-CIA Chief Tenet Assails Cheney On Iraq 2007-04-27 02:29:26 George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney  and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States. The 549-page book, “At the Center of the Storm,” is to be published by HarperCollins on Monday. By turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical, it is the first detailed account by a member of the president’s inner circle of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the unconventional weapons that were a major justification for the war. “There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat,” Tenet writes in a devastating judgment that is likely to be debated for many years. Nor, he adds, “was there ever a significant discussion” about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion. Read The Full Story Democratic Candidates United In Criticizing Bush 2007-04-27 02:28:42 Democratic presidential candidates largely set aside their differences at the South Carolina State University campus in Orangeburg Thursday and presented a united front of opposition to President Bush and his Iraq policy, urging the president not to veto newly passed legislation that sets a timetable for beginning the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the conflict. In their first debate of the 2008 campaign, the Democrats showed some disagreement over the issue of cutting off funding for the war and vied with one another to demonstrate their willingness to retaliate swiftly if the United States is attacked by terrorists. They found common ground in accusing Bush of making the country less safe and damaging U.S. relations abroad through foreign policy and argued that the president is ignoring the will of the American people by refusing to shift course dramatically in Iraq. "The American people have spoken," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (New York). "The Congress has voted, as of today, to end this war. And now we can only hope that the president will listen." Read The Full Story Protect God's Creation: Vatican Issues New Green Message For World's Catholics 2007-04-26 21:35:58 The Vatican Thursday added its voice to a rising chorus of warnings from churches around the world that climate change and abuse of the environment is against God's will, and that the one billion-strong Catholic church must become far greener. At a Vatican conference on climate change, Pope Benedict urged bishops, scientists and politicians - including U.K. environment secretary David Miliband - to "respect creation" while "focusing on the needs of sustainable development". The Pope's message follows a series of increasingly strong statements about climate change and the environment, including a warning earlier this year that "disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence, and vice versa". Observers said Thursday that the Catholic church is no longer split between those who advocate development and those who say the environment is the priority. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, head of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, said: "For environment ... read Creation. The mastery of man over Creation must not be despotic or senseless. Man must cultivate and safeguard God's Creation." Read The Full Story Prince Harry Will Be Sent To Iraq - Despite Misgivings 2007-04-26 21:35:15 Britain's Prince Harry will be deployed with his regiment, the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry, on the frontline in southeastern Iraq next month despite concerns among military commanders that he might attract fire from insurgents and rogue elements within Shia militias. That was the message last night from the British Ministry of Defense (MoD), but officials did not rule out a late decision to leave the prince at home when his regiment begins its tour, whatever the consequences for his army career. Clarence House said it would not seek to influence the military on the matter. Friends of the prince have denied reports that he would leave the army if he was not allowed to accompany his men to Iraq but they told the BBC he would be "very disappointed" if he were kept away from the battlefield. In a statement the MoD said: "Prince Harry's deployment to Iraq is, as we have always said, under constant consideration. It is still our intention that Prince Harry will be deployed as a troop leader." A defense official said: "He would fulfill the normal role of a troop leader going out on patrol but spend a certain amount of time behind a desk". The prince is likely to be assigned a special "minder", probably an experienced non-commissioned officer though not a member of the special forces, said defense sources. Read The Full Story Russia Suspends Compliance With Key European Treaty, Cites U.S. Missile Defense Plan 2007-04-26 20:26:11 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he was suspending Russia's obligations under the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, ratcheting up a tense standoff with the NATO alliance over U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. The CFE Treaty dates from the last days of the Cold War and limits the deployment of conventional arms, including tanks and other heavy weapons, on either side of the old Iron Curtain. Putin linked his decision, which he said could lead to full withdrawal from the treaty, to the U.S. missile plan. NATO countries are "building up military bases on our borders and, more than that, they are also planning to station elements of anti-missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic," said Putin, delivering his annual state of the nation address to both houses of parliament, the cabinet and regional leaders. "In this connection, I consider it expedient to declare a moratorium on Russia's implementation of this treaty." Read The Full Story USDA: Tainted Hogs Entered Human Food Supply 2007-04-26 20:25:28 Several hundred of the 6,000 hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food are believed to have entered the food supply for humans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday. The potential risk to human health is said to be very low. The government told the three states involved it would not allow meat from any of the hogs that ate the feed to enter the food supply. No more than 345 hogs from farms in California, New York and South Carolina are involved, according to the Agriculture Department. It appears the large majority of the hogs that may have been exposed are still on the farms where they are being raised, said spokeswoman Nicol Andrews. Salvaged pet food from companies known or suspected of using a tainted ingredient was shipped to hog farms in seven states for use as feed. Read The Full Story Political Briefings At Agencies Disclosed 2007-04-26 01:56:22 White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said Wednesday. The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, said the officials. The existence of one such briefing, at the headquarters of the General Services Administration in January, came to light last month, and the Office of Special Counsel began an investigation into whether the officials at the briefing felt coerced into steering federal activities to favor those Republican candidates cited as vulnerable. Such coercion is prohibited under a federal law, known as the Hatch Act, meant to insulate virtually all federal workers from partisan politics. In addition to forbidding workplace pressures meant to influence an election outcome, the law bars the use of federal resources - including office buildings, phones and computers - for partisan purposes. Read The Full Story Baghdad's Fissures And Mistrust Keep Political Goals Out Of Reach 2007-04-26 01:55:40 U.S. military commanders say a key goal of the ongoing security offensive is to buy time for Iraq's leaders to reach political benchmarks that can unite its fractured coalition government and persuade insurgents to stop fighting. Yet, in pressuring the Iraqis to speed up, U.S. officials are encountering a variety of hurdles: The parliament is riven by personality and sect, and some politicians are abandoning Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government. There is deep mistrust of U.S. intentions, especially among Shiites who see American efforts to bring Sunnis into the political process as an attempt to weaken the Shiites' grip on power. Many Iraqi politicians view the U.S. pressure as bullying that reminds them they are under occupation. And the security offensive, bolstered by additional U.S. forces, has failed to stop the violence that is widening the sectarian divide. Read The Full Story	FDA Plan Against Tainted Food Imports Allowed To Languish 2007-04-27 02:29:43 After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Food and Drug Administration developed a comprehensive plan to guard the U.S. food supply against tainted imports, which were seen as a serious security threat but, nearly six years later, the plan has languished because of a lack of official will and tight federal budgets, according to former senior officials involved in formulating the strategy. That is a painful realization for lawmakers and others who now are struggling to deal with the discovery of chemicals used to make plastics and to treat swimming pool water in pet food ingredients imported from China. The contamination is believed to have killed or sickened hundreds of animals, forcing the recall of more than 100 brands of pet food. Similar ingredients commonly used in food meant for human consumption are imported with little government supervision. "It was a bitter pill to swallow," said Benjamin L. England, a former FDA regulatory lawyer who worked on the plan for the agency's enforcement branch. "I'm disappointed that they are basically sitting on the solution." Read The Full Story U.S. Officer Accused Of 'Aiding Enemy' In Iraq 2007-04-27 02:29:02 The American military has charged a top commander at its main detention center in Baghdad with nine violations of military law, including “aiding the enemy,” a rare and serious accusation that could carry a death sentence. According to a military statement released Thursday, the officer, Lt. Col. William H. Steele, provided aid to the enemy between Oct. 1, 2005, and Oct. 31, 2006, “by providing an unmonitored cellular phone to detainees” at Camp Cropper, an expansive prison near Baghdad International Airport that held Saddam Hussein before he was hanged. Colonel Steele, who oversaw one of several compounds at Camp Cropper as commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment, was also charged with several counts of illegally storing and marking classified information; failure to obey an order; possession of pornographic videos; dereliction of duty regarding government funds; and conduct unbecoming of an officer - for fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee since 2005, and for maintaining “an inappropriate relationship” with an interpreter in 2005 and 2006. Read The Full Story Scientists Identify 7 New Diabetes Genes 2007-04-27 02:28:15 Researchers said Thursday that they had identified seven new genes connected to the most common form of diabetes - the latest result of an intensifying race between university researchers and private companies to find genes linked to a range of diseases. The findings, presented in three reports by university scientists and one by a private company, offer novel insights into the biology of a disease that affects 170 million people worldwide. The sudden spate of new results mark an acceleration, and perhaps a turning point, in the ability to find disease genes, the long-promised payoff from the human genome project that began in 1989. Thursday’s reports bring the number of well-attested genes involved in adult-onset, or Type 2 diabetes up to 10, from the 3 known previously. The new genes do not immediately suggest any new therapy, but may point to a new biological basis for the disease, from which effective treatments could emerge in time. Read The Full Story Commentary: The World Bank Has The Pefect Standard-Bearer 2007-04-26 21:35:36 Intellpuke: In the following commentary, Naomi Klein writes that the World Bank's credibility was already fatally compromised by hypocrisies far greater than those of Wolfowitz. Ms. Klein's commentary, which appears in the Guardian's edition for Friday, April 27, 2007, follows: It's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy. That's the line on Paul Wolfowitz coming from editorial pages around the world. It's neither: not the act (the way he disregarded the rules to get his girlfriend a pay rise); and not the hypocrisy (the fact that Wolfowitz's mission as World Bank president is fighting for "good governance"). First, let's dispense with the supposed hypocrisy problem. "Who wants to be lectured on corruption by someone telling them to 'Do as I say, not as I do'?" asked one journalist. No one, of course. But that's a pretty good description of the game of one-way strip poker that is our global trade system, in which the United States and Europe - via the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization - tell the developing world: "You take down your trade barriers and we'll keep ours up." From farm subsidies to the Dubai Ports World scandal, hypocrisy is our economic order's guiding principle. Wolfowitz's only crime was taking his institution's international posture to heart. The fact that he has responded to the scandal by hiring a celebrity lawyer and shopping for a leadership "coach" is just more evidence that he has fully absorbed the World Bank way: when in doubt, blow the budget on overpriced consultants and call it aid. Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Approves War Spending Bill Including Withdrawal Timelines 2007-04-26 20:26:25 The Senate Thursday approved an Iraq spending bill that would force troop withdrawals to begin as early as July 1, dismissing President Bush's veto threat even as party leaders and the White House launch talks on the next phase of the increasingly high-stakes war debate. The 51-46 vote was a triumph for Democrats, who just weeks ago had questioned the political wisdom of a veto showdown over Iraq with the commander-in-chief; but Democrats are hesitant no more. Now that withdrawal language has passed both houses of Congress, even Republicans concede that Bush won't get the spending bill with no strings attached as he has demanded. Bush is expected to veto the bill early next week, in the meantime, bipartisan negotiations have already started on phase two. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) spoke with Bush Thursday as well as holding an initial meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) Senior Democratic and Republican senators are circulating alternatives that are meeker than the binding withdrawal terms approved by the Senate but that still restrain how Bush conducts the war. Read The Full Story Hurrah! Major Anti-Spam Lawsuit Filed In Virginia 2007-04-26 20:25:51 A company representing Internet users in more than 100 countries Thursday filed a lawsuit in Virginia seeking the identity of individuals responsible for harvesting millions of e-mail addresses on behalf of spammers. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on behalf of Project Honey Pot, a service of Unspam Technologies LLC, a Utah-based anti-spam company that consults with private companies and government agencies. The lead attorney on the case, Jon Praed of the Arlington, Virginia-based Internet Law Group, has represented America Online and Verizon Online in successful cases against junk e-mailers. Praed said the group hopes to follow the trail from the people doing the harvesting of e-mail addresses to the actual spammers. Read The Full Story Congressional Subpeonas Approved For Rice, Other Bush Appointees 2007-04-26 01:56:36 Lawmakers approved new subpoenas yesterday for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Bush administration officials, part of an expanding legal battle between the Democratic-controlled Congress and the administration over issues such as the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and flawed justifications for the war in Iraq. The subpoena issued to Rice seeks to force her testimony about the claim that Iraq sought to import uranium from Niger for its nuclear weapons program. President Bush offered that as a key rationale for the war in his 2003 State of the Union address. The subpoena was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee along party lines, 21 to 10. The same panel also issued two subpoenas to the Republican National Committee for testimony and documents related to political presentations at the General Services Administration and the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House aides, including presidential adviser Karl Rove. Read The Full Story Unemployment Pays For Top Executives 2007-04-26 01:56:03 For many top executives, losing their jobs could be lucrative. For Sprint Nextel chief executive Gary D. Forsee, it could trigger as much as $73.8 million in pay and benefits, depending on the circumstances. An excise tax would take a bite out of that sum, but it would not be Forsee's problem. Sprint would cover the bill at a cost of $16.1 million. For Danaher chief H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., unemployment could trigger a payday worth as much as $103.5 million, plus $23.3 million of tax reimbursements. For General Dynamics chief Nicholas D. Chabraja, termination could come with $62.7 million of consolation. If he left voluntarily after a takeover, he would be entitled to a windfall, too. The immediate vesting of his stock options would have been worth $11 million at the end of last year. Read The Full Story Ranger Alleges Cover-Up In Tillman Case 2007-04-26 01:55:12 An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when the former football star was cut down by friendly fire in Afghanistan said Tuesday a commanding officer had ordered him to keep quiet about what happened. The military at first portrayed Tillman's death as the result of heroic combat with the enemy. Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal told a congressional hearing that when he got the chance to talk to Tillman's brother, who had been in a nearby convoy on the fateful day, "I was ordered not to tell him what happened." "You were ordered not to tell him?" repeated Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Roger that, sir," replied O'Neal, dressed in his Army uniform. Read The Full Story
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