Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday April 3 2007 - (813)

Tuesday April 3 2007 edition
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How A Bogus Letter Became A Case For War In Iraq 2007-04-03 02:31:33 It was 3 a.m. in Italy on Jan. 29, 2003, when President Bush in Washington began reading his State of the Union address that included the now famous - later retracted - 16 words: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Like most Europeans, Elisabetta Burba, an investigative reporter for the Italian newsweekly Panorama, waited until the next day to read the newspaper accounts of Bush's remarks. But when she came to the 16 words, she recalled, she got a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach. She wondered: How could the American president have mentioned a uranium sale from Africa? Burba felt uneasy because more than three months earlier, she had turned over to the U.S. Embassy in Rome documents about an alleged uranium sale by the central African nation of Niger. And she knew now that the documents were fraudulent and the 16 words wrong. Nonetheless, the uranium claim would become a crucial justification for the invasion of Iraq that began less than two months later. When occupying troops found no nuclear program, the 16 words and how they came to be in the speech became a focus for critics in Washington and foreign capitals to press the case that the White House manipulated facts to take the United States to war. Read The Full Story The Climate Divide: Reports From Four Fronts In The War On Warming 2007-04-03 02:30:40 Over the last few decades, as scientists have intensified their study of the human effects on climate and of the effects of climate changeon humans, a common theme has emerged: in both respects, the world is a very unequal place. In almost every instance, the people most at risk from climate change live in countries that have contributed the least to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to the recent warming of the planet. Those most vulnerable countries also tend to be the poorest. And the countries that face the least harm - and that are best equipped to deal with the harm they do face - tend to be the richest. To advocates of unified action to curb greenhouse gases, this growing realization is not welcome news. Read The Full Story 6.2 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Afghanistan 2007-04-03 02:29:33 A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous area of northeastern Afghanistan Tuesday morning, shaking buildings in the capital, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India. The earthquake in Badakhshan province was about 200 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, where residents felt shaking buildings and some windows were shattered. There were no immediate casualty reports. "It was a very strong earthquake," said Agha Noor Kemtoz, the provincial police chief of Badakhshan, which shares a border with Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. "My room was shaking and the light was swinging back and forth." The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.2-quake was centered 40 miles south of Faizabad and hit at 8:05 a.m. Read The Full Story Iran Outlines Conditions For Release Of British Marines, Sailors 2007-04-02 20:09:37 Iran's most senior diplomat, Ali Larijani, called for a "delegation" to rule on whether a British naval patrol entered Iranian waters last month before his government would release the 15 marines and sailors it is holding captive. Laying out what appeared to be a vague road map for the freeing of the British personnel, Larijani said that, if it was found they had crossed into Iranian territory, there should be an apology and they would then be released. He gave some conciliatory signals in an interview with Britain's Channel Four News, saying the Iranian government is not interested in putting the detainees on trial, but warned that might change if Britain attempted to impose more international pressure on Tehran. "We are not interested in this issue getting more complicated," said Larijani, the secretary-general of Iran's national security council. "Our interest is in solving this problem as soon as possible. This issue can be resolved, and there is no need for any trial. There should be a delegation to review the case ... to clarify whether they have been in our territorial waters or not." Read The Full Story British Team Grows Human Heart Valve From Stem Cells 2007-04-02 20:09:05 A British research team led by the world's leading heart surgeon has grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time. If animal trials scheduled for later this year prove successful, replacement tissue could be used in transplants for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from heart disease within three years. Sir Magdi Yacoub, a professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, has worked on ways to tackle the shortage of donated hearts for transplant for more than a decade. His team at the heart science centre at Harefield hospital have grown tissue that works in the same way as the valves in human hearts, a significant step towards the goal of growing whole replacement hearts from stem cells. According to the World Health Organization, 15 million people died of cardiovascular disease in 2005; by 2010, it is estimated that 600,000 people around the world will need replacement heart valves. "You can see the common pathway of death and suffering is heart failure," said Prof Yacoub. "Reversing heart failure could have a major impact." Read The Full Story Scandals, Missteps Dog Nevada Governor 2007-04-02 20:08:41 As Jim Gibbons campaigned for the Nevada governorship last fall, the five-term Republican congressman ricocheted from scandal to scandal and from gaffe to gaffe. When he squeaked to a narrow victory with 48 percent of the vote, he hoped to be able to focus on his legislative agenda and put his problems behind him. Things have not turned out that way. Since Gibbons took office, his troubles have only increased. The FBI is investigating gifts from a friend to whom Gibbons steered business while he was in Congress. In March, Gibbons revealed he had established a legal defense fund last fall, raising questions about whether he used unreported money from his campaign. And last week the Wall Street Journal reported Gibbons's wife was a consultant to a company that Gibbons helped to get a federal contract. Meanwhile, the local press mocks the governor's apparent ignorance about his own legislative proposals. Read The Full Story At Least 13 Dead From Tsunami In Solomon Islands 2007-04-02 13:46:41 Tsunamis triggered by an undersea earthquake crashed ashore in the Solomon Islands on Monday, wiping away entire villages and setting off alerts from Australia to Hawaii, officials said. At least 13 people were killed, and the prime minister warned that the toll would likely grow. In the South Pacific nation's west, where the devastation appeared the most dense, there were reports of people being swept away as waves plowed up to a half-mile inland. The magnitude-8 quake - the strongest to hit the archipelago in more than three decades - was followed by more than two dozen aftershocks, including at least four of magnitude-6 or stronger. "It was just a noise like an underground explosion," said Dorothy Parkinson, a resident of Gizo, where a wall of water swept through the streets. "The wave came almost instantaneously. Everything that was standing is flattened." Some residents described a wave up to 16 feet tall. Read The Full Story Bush Balks At First Pitch 2007-04-02 13:45:24 This is a baseball story, so let's get right to the stats. Monday is Washington's 65th Opening Day since 1910, when William H. Taft gave us a tradition: the ceremonial first pitch by the president. Taft threw the inaugural one for the Senators that year. In the local club's 63 home openers since, a dozen presidents have done the honors 45 times, from front-row seats or from the mound, making them 46 for 64 overall (.719). Pretty reliable. President Bush kept up the tradition in 2005, celebrating baseball's return to the nation's capital after a 33-season absence. But he missed last year's home opener - and he'll miss Monday's, too, when the Nationals host the Florida Marlins at 1:05 p.m. Except for when the world was at war, only two other presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Richard M. Nixon, missed Opening Day ceremonies two years in a row. And Wilson had suffered a stroke. What gives? "Oh, yes, he was invited," said Bush spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. She said the president, an avid baseball fan and former part owner of the Texas Rangers, would love to be there. But "it's not possible with his schedule. He's got various meetings during the day, a meeting earlier in the morning. ... It just wasn't going to work out." With Bush's approval ratings stuck below 40 percent in recent polls, Lawrimore was asked whether the president feared he'd get booed. "No," she replied. "Certainly not." Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court Denies Appeal By Guantanamo Detainees 2007-04-02 13:44:53 The Supreme Court Monday rejected appeals by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, declining to hear their cases challenging the validity of a military commissions law passed last year and the legality of their confinement for more than five years without charge or trial. The decision not to hear the appeals represented a victory for the Bush administration in its efforts to keep terrorism suspects captured abroad out of U.S. civilian courts. But the Supreme Court cautioned that it could reconsider its jurisdiction over such cases if other remedies prove inadequate. Over the objections of three dissenting justices who voted to hear the cases, the court opted not to take up the detainees' challenge to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and their assertion of habeas corpus rights under the U.S. Constitution. The act, passed in response to the Supreme Court's earlier rejection of the Bush administration's plan to try terrorism suspects before special military tribunals, gave a congressional imprimatur to war crimes trials for those deemed "unlawful enemy combatants." The law also allowed the continuation of a CIA program to detain suspected terrorists abroad and hold them in secret locations during interrogation. Read The Full Story Top Shiite Cleric al-Sistani Opposes Return of Baathists To Iraq 2007-04-02 13:43:55 Iraq's top Shiite cleric opposes a draft law that would allow former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party to resume government positions, the head of the committee dealing with the Baathists said Sunday. Ahmed Chalabi met with Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani on Sunday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf to discuss the draft law that would allow thousands of former Baath Party members to regain their jobs or grant them pensions if they are denied jobs they once held in the government or military. The proposal, long demanded by the U.S., is designed to appease Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority in a bid to blunt the country's insurgency and return members of the minority to the political process. The law would allow those in the feared security and paramilitary forces to resume government positions but would exclude former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes. Chalabi, who runs the Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification, later met three other senior Shiite clerics. ''The grand ayatollahs said it is dangerous for the criminals to return to leading posts in the state,'' he said. Read The Full Story 13 Killed By Truck Bomb Near Iraqi School 2007-04-02 13:42:54 A suicide truck bomber targeted a police station in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, including many children from a nearby school, said police. Video by an Associated Press cameraman showed at least four wounded U.S. soldiers and one badly damaged American Humvee. The soldiers were being treated by Army medics, with one seated while having gauze bandages wound around his bloodied head. Another soldier, whose nose was bleeding, was standing and waving directions to others. A third soldier was carried away on a stretcher and the fourth was being treated on the ground. The attacker rammed the truck into the concrete blast barriers protecting the back of the compound at about 11:30 a.m., detonating his explosives, which were hidden under bags of flour, said police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir. Read The Full Story New Generation Of Al-Qaeda Chiefs On The Rise 2007-04-02 01:55:36 As al-Qaeda rebuilds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden  to cement control over the network’s operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials. The new leaders rose from within the organization after the death or capture of the operatives that built al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leading to surprise and dismay within United States intelligence agencies about the group’s ability to rebound from an American-led offensive. It has been known that American officials were focusing on a band of al-Qaeda training camps in Pakistan’s remote mountains, but a clearer picture is emerging about those who are running the camps and thought to be involved in plotting attacks. Read The Full Story 6 U.S. Soldiers Die; McCain Tours Baghdad 2007-04-02 01:55:03 After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a "full picture" of the progress. The U.S. military later reported six soldiers were killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad. Four soldiers were killed responding to the blast that killed the first two, said the military. Britain, meanwhile, announced that one of its soldiers had been shot to death in southern Iraq - its 104th combat casualty since the war started four years ago. McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, acknowledged a difficult task lies ahead in Iraq, but criticized the media for not giving Americans enough information about the recent drop in execution-style sectarian killings, the establishment of security posts throughout the city and Sunni tribal efforts against al-Qaeda in the western Anbar province. "These and other indicators are reason for cautious, very cautious optimism about the effects of the new strategy," said McCain, who was leading a Republican congressional delegation to Iraq that included Sen. Lindsey Graham. Read The Full Story Fidel Castro Attacks Bush's Biofuel Plan 2007-04-02 01:53:55 The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, today attacked George Bush's new-found fondness for biofuels, warning that food stocks for millions of people could be threatened. In his first foray into international politics following months of recuperation from intestinal surgery, Castro claimed that valuable agricultural land in poorer countries could be taken over for biofuel crops destined for wealthier nations. Castro made his attack in an article for the communist party daily, Granma, which was headlined: "Condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst - more than 3 billion people of the world." "This isn't an exaggerated number; it is actually cautious," said the article by Castro. Read The Full Story	McCain Wrong On Iraq Security, Iraqi Merchants Say 2007-04-03 02:31:09 A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions. “What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!” The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees - the equivalent of an entire company - and attack helicopters circled overhead, said a senior American military official in Baghdad. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, said witnesses, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit. “They paralyzed the market when they came,” Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.” He added, “This will not change anything.” Read The Full Story Editorial: The Surpeme Court Rules On Warming 2007-04-03 02:30:12 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, April 3, 2007. It would be hard to overstate the importance of Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court that the federal government has the authority to regulate the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by motor vehicles. It is a victory for a world whose environment seems increasingly threatened by climate change. It is a vindication for states like California that chose not to wait for the federal government and acted to limit emissions that contribute to global warming. And it should feed the growing momentum on Capitol Hill for mandatory limits on carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas. The 5-to-4 ruling was a rebuke to the Bush administration and its passive approach to the warming threat. The ruling does not require the government to regulate greenhouse gases. But it instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its refusal to regulate emissions, urges it to pay attention to the scientific evidence and says that if it takes the same stance, it has to come up with better reasons than its current “laundry list” of excuses. The ruling also demolishes President Bush’s main justification for not acting - his argument that because the Clean Air Act does not specifically mention greenhouse gases, the executive branch has no authority to regulate them. The president has cited other reasons for not acting, including costs. But his narrow reading of the Clean Air Act has always been his ace in the hole. Read The Full Story Congressmen Urge Bush To Fire NASA Official 2007-04-03 02:29:10 NASA's inspector general created a hostile and dysfunctional workplace with his "aggressive management style" and compromised his independence by appearing to be close to former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, two lawmakers said Monday after reading an investigative report on his conduct. In a letter to President Bush, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Rep. Brad Miller (D-North Carolina) said that the investigators who reviewed complaints against Robert W. Cobb unanimously "believed that disciplinary action up to and including removal could be appropriate." The legislators urged Bush to fire Cobb immediately, saying that his role in ensuring the safety of the space shuttle and other NASA missions resulted in "an untenable situation that cannot be allowed to continue." Read The Full Story Fighting For Air: Frontline Of War On Global Warming 2007-04-02 20:09:23 In the most polluted city on earth, the smog is so thick that it seems to consume its source. Iron foundries, smelting plants and cement factories loom out of the haze then disappear once more as you drive along Linfen's roads. The outlines of smoke stacks blur in the filthy mist. No sooner are the plumes of carbon and sulphur belched out than the chimneys are swallowed up again. "We only see the sun for a few days each year," said Zhou Huocun, a doctor in the outlying village of Liucunzhen. "The colour of our village is black. It is so dirty that nobody airs their quilts outside any more so we are getting more parasites. I have seen a steady increase in respiratory diseases as the air quality gets worse and worse." Outside Dr. Zhou's hospital, shoes leave marks in the black dust. But it is a different type of carbon footprint that is drawing international attention to this part of the world. Linfen is the frontline of the battle against global warming. For the past five years, the city of 3.5 million people has been the most polluted place on the planet, bottom of the World Bank's air quality rankings, and a symbol of the worst side-effects of China's breakneck economic growth. Read The Full Story Amid Sexual Abuse Scandal, Texas Youth Prisons To Free 550 Inmates 2007-04-02 20:08:54 Texas' troubled juvenile prison system plans to release more than 550 inmates who have completed their minimum sentences and haven't caused any trouble behind bars, officials announced Monday. The inmates will be released in the coming week, as soon as agency officials are able to line up the services they will need in the community, including parole supervision and counseling, said Texas Youth Commission (TYC)  spokesman Jim Hurley. The move is part of a top-to-bottom investigation of agency policies amid allegations that inmates were sexually and physically abused and employees who knew about the problems did nothing to stop it. The system incarcerates about 4,700 offenders ages 10 to 21 who are considered the most dangerous, incorrigible or chronic. Read The Full Story Stretched U.S. Army Cuts Home Time For Troops, Sends Them Back To Iraq 2007-04-02 13:47:22 For just the second time since the war began, the Army is sending large units back to Iraq without giving them at least one year of rest at home between deployments, officials said Monday. The move signaled just how stretched the U.S. fighting force has become. A combat brigade from New York and a Texas headquarters unit will return to Iraq this summer in order to maintain through August the military build-up President Bush announced earlier this year. Overall the Pentagon announced that 7,000 troops will be deploying to Iraq in the coming months, as part of the effort to keep 20 brigades in the country to help bolster the ongoing Baghdad security plan. A brigade is roughly 3,000 soldiers. "Obviously right now the Army is stretched, and we will make every effort possible not to break their dwell time," said a senior Army official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "But in this case we had to." Read The Full Story Mortgage Lender New Century Seeks Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection 2007-04-02 13:46:14 Subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp. filed Monday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and said it would fire 3,200 workers, or 54 percent of its work force, to better position the company for a possible sale. Once the second-largest provider of subprime mortgages in the U.S. based on loan volume, New Century was the latest lender to fall on hard times amid a spike in mortgage defaults caused by borrowers unable to make payments. More than two dozen subprime lenders have shut down in recent months and others are scrambling to stay in business. New Century said it has agreed to sell its loan servicing business to Carrington Capital Management LLC and its affiliate for about $139 million, subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court. Read The Full Story EMI Dropping Copy Limits On Online Music 2007-04-02 13:45:05 Breaking with established practice, the EMI Group announced Monday that the record label’s digital catalog would go on sale over the Internet without built-in copy restrictions. EMI, the world’s third-largest recording company, will start selling the songs in May through Apple's iTunes service and other online music retailers. “It was clear what we had to do because we hold the consumer at the center of our focus,” Eric Nicoli, EMI’s chief executive, said at a news conference. “We take the view that we have to trust our customers,” who had asked for their digital music purchases to be unencumbered by limits on copying them. Individual songs without so-called digital rights management software will be available at a higher fidelity and cost 30 percent more - $1.29 per song instead of 99 cents. EMI said its price for a full album without copy protection would be the same as lower fidelity copy-protected albums. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court: EPA Can Control Car Emissions 2007-04-02 13:44:31 The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the federal government Monday to take a fresh look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars, a rebuke to Bush administration policy on global warming. In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars. Greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the landmark environmental law, Justice John Paul Stevens said in his majority opinion. Read The Full Story 2 Shot To Death On University Of Washington Campus 2007-04-02 13:43:11 Two people were shot to death Monday morning inside the University of Washington's architecture building, said university police. Firefighters found the victims while responding to reports of gunfire in Gould Hall around 9 a.m., said Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick. University Assistant Police Chief Ray Wittmier told MSNBC that a weapon was found at the scene that may have belonged to one of the dead people, and that murder-suicide was a possibility. Read The Full Story Chicago Police Head Retires Amid Scandals 2007-04-02 13:42:25 Chicago's police superintendent announced Monday he was retiring early as his department tries to deal with two highly publicized videotaped beatings involving off-duty police officers. Last month, prosecutors filed felony charges against one officer accused of beating a female bartender, and six other officers were removed from street duty after they were accused of assaulting four businessmen in a bar. Superintendent Philip J. Cline, who took over as superintendent in November 2003 and had been expected to retire later this year, said at a news conference he would stay on until a replacement is found. He said he told Mayor Richard M. Daley of his intention Monday morning. Read The Full Story Seafood Poisoning Increases With Global Warming 2007-04-02 01:55:20 Bowls of piping hot barracuda soup were the much-anticipated treat when the Roa family gathered for a casual and relaxing Sunday meal. Within hours, all six fell deathly ill. So did two dozen others from the same neighborhood. Some complained of body-wide numbness. Others had weakness in their legs. Several couldn't speak or even open their mouths. ''I was scared. I really thought I was going to die,'' said Dabby Roa, 21, a student who suffered numbness in his head, tingling in his hands and had trouble breathing. What Roa and the others suffered that night last August was ciguatera poisoning, a rarely fatal but growing menace from eating exotic fish. All had bought portions of the same barracuda from a local vendor. Experts estimate that up to 50,000 people worldwide suffer ciguatera poisoning each year, with more than 90 percent of cases unreported. Scientists say the risks are getting worse, because of damage that pollution and global warming are inflicting on the coral reefs where many fish species feed. Read The Full Story Clinton, Edwards Set Fundraising Records 2007-04-02 01:54:48 Two Democratic presidential candidates broke previous fundraising records during the first three months of the year, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton setting a high bar of $26 million in new contributions for the quarter. Former Sen. John Edwards raised more than $14 million since the beginning of the year. Clinton also transferred $10 million from her Senate campaign account, bringing her total receipts for the quarter to $36 million. Unlike Edwards, Clinton aides would not reveal how much of her total was available only for the primary election and how much could be used just in the general election, if she were the party's nominee. By not breaking down the amount available for the primaries, the Clinton camp made it impossible to assess how much of an edge she actually has over Edwards. Edwards' aides said about $1 million of his $14 million in contributions could only be used in the general election, should he win the nomination. Read The Full Story
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