Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday May 18 2007 - (813)

Friday May 18 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Wolfowitz Resigns As World Bank President 2007-05-17 23:45:55 World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz resigned Thursday, effective June 30, yielding to demands from governments around the world that he leave to end the ethics controversy that has consumed the institution. Wolfowitz's resignation, negotiated in recent days with the bank's executive board, closed the leadership crisis that has essentially paralyzed the institution for almost two months. It preempted what had been a growing likelihood that the board would reprimand or fire him after a committee report found that he broke ethics rules in awarding a substantial raise to his girlfriend. Wolfowitz and his attorney, Robert S. Bennett, extracted a measure of the exoneration they had demanded before he would resign. In a statement released last night, the board conceded that "a number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals in handling the matter under consideration," and the bank would need to improve its ethical procedures. The board declared that Wolfowitz "assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution, and we accept that." Read The Full Story Study Warns Of Iraq Collapse As At Least 60 Die In Attacks 2007-05-17 23:45:24 More than 60 people were killed and dozens wounded in mortar strikes, drive-by shootings, roadside explosions, suicide bombings and other violent attacks in Iraq on Thursday, as a new study warned that the country was close to becoming a "failed state." The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, said the country had tread close to "the edge of the abyss" but now was making progress on political reforms needed to help mend sectarian and ethnic rifts that have pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Crocker cited what he said was Iraqi political progress toward agreements on constitutional reforms, the sharing of oil revenue and allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath political party to take government and other public jobs. U.S. officials hope political compromises among Iraq's Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds will complement a U.S. troop buildup in the capital and help to improve Iraq's security situation. Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Reaches Deal On Immigration Bill 2007-05-17 14:57:36 Senators from both parties announced an agreement this afternoon on immigration-reform legislation that would bring illegal immigrants and their families “out of the shadows and into the sunshine of American life,” as Senator Edward M. Kennedy put it. The bill would provide an opportunity “right away” for millions of illegal aliens to correct their status, said Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. It would emphasize family ties as well as employment skills in weighing how soon immigrants could become legal residents, he said. It would also emphasize improved border security and would call for “very strong sanctions” against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, according to Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania. Read The Full Story No Dissent On Spying, Says U.S. Justice Department 2007-05-17 14:57:10 The Justice Department said Wednesday that it will not retract a sworn statement in 2006 by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that the Terrorist Surveillance Program had aroused no controversy inside the Bush administration, despite congressional testimony Tuesday that senior departmental officials nearly resigned in 2004 to protest such a program. The department's affirmation of Gonzales's remarks raised fresh questions about the nature of the classified dispute, which former U.S. officials say led then-Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey and as many as eight colleagues to discuss resigning. Testifying Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Comey declined to describe the program. He said it "was renewed on a regular basis" and required the attorney general's signature. He said a review by the Justice's Office of Legal Counsel in spring 2004 had concluded the program was not legal. Read The Full Story Editorial: Mr. Gonzales' Incredible Adventure 2007-05-17 14:56:44 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Thursday, May 17, 2007. There were many fascinating threads to the testimony on Tuesday by the former deputy attorney general, James Comey, who described the night in March 2004 when two top White House officials tried to pressure an ailing and hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft into endorsing President Bush’s illegal wiretapping operation. But the really big question, an urgent avenue for investigation, is what exactly the National Security Agency was doing before that night, under Mr. Bush’s personal orders. Did Mr. Bush start by authorizing the agency to intercept domestic e-mails and telephone calls without first getting a warrant? Mr. Bush has acknowledged authorizing surveillance without a court order of communications between people abroad and people in the United States. That alone violates the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Domestic spying without a warrant would be an even more grievous offense. The question cannot be answered because Mr. Bush is hiding so much about the program. But whatever was going on, it so alarmed Mr. Comey and F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller that they sped to the hospital, roused the barely conscious Mr. Ashcroft and got him ready to fend off the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, and Mr. Bush’s counsel, Alberto Gonzales. There are clues in Mr. Comey’s testimony and in earlier testimony by Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Ashcroft’s successor, that suggest that Mr. Bush initially ordered broader surveillance than he and his aides have acknowledged. Read The Full Story Google Wins Appeal On Copyright Of Nude Images 2007-05-17 14:53:51 A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Google did not infringe on the copyrights of an adult publishing company by displaying thumbnail images of its nude photographs, handing Internet search companies a victory by allowing the display of such miniature pictures in search results. Perfect 10, a publisher of sexually explicit magazines and Web sites, sued Google in 2004 for allegedly violating its copyrights, and the case quickly attracted wide attention not just for its adult subject matter but also for its possible impact on Internet copyright law. The issue of copyrighted material on the Web has assumed greater priority as videos, music and other proprietary material has flooded onto the Internet. Three months ago, Google lost a copyright lawsuit brought by Belgian newspapers to remove their headlines and links from the Google News service. Google also decided to eliminate any mention of the newspapers from its search results but restored them this month with the publications' consent. Read The Full Story Dad Of Missing Colorado Girl Indicted 2007-05-17 14:52:46 A man who said his 6-year-old daughter disappeared after an argument over a cookie was indicted on charges including child abuse resulting in her death, prosecutors said Thursday. The 60-count indictment came 18 months after Aaron Thompson reported Aarone Thompson missing. Not all the counts deal with his daughter's apparent death, said authorities. Aarone's body has not been found, and few details of the investigation or the indictment have been released. Thompson has denied any involvement in the girl's disappearance. Her biological mother has said she hasn't seen her daughter since 2001 after a bitter split with Thompson, according to police. Read The Full Story NATO Nervous As Russia Accused Of Unleashing Cyber War To Disable Estonia 2007-05-17 02:30:52 A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the western alliance, with NATO urgently examining the offensive and its implications. While Russia and Estonia are embroiled in their worst dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a row that erupted at the end of last month over the Estonians' removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in central Tallinn, the country has been subjected to a barrage of cyber warfare, disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies. NATO has dispatched some of its top cyber-terrorism experts to Tallinn to investigate and to help the Estonians beef up their electronic defenses. "This is an operational security issue, something we're taking very seriously," said an official at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "It goes to the heart of the alliance's modus operandi." Read The Full Story Scientists Cast Doubt On John F. Kennedy Bullet Analysis 2007-05-17 02:30:26 In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald  alone shot the two bullets that struck and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James. The researchers' re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination in Dallas, Texas. "Given the significance and impact of the JFK assassination, it is scientifically desirable for the evidentiary fragments to be re-analyzed," said the researchers. Read The Full Story Wolfowitz Said To Be Pushing For Deal To Quit 2007-05-17 02:29:43 After six weeks of combating efforts to oust him as president of the World Bank, Paul D. Wolfowitz began Wednesday to negotiate the terms under which he would resign, in return for the dropping or softening of the charge that he had engaged in misconduct, said bank officials. Wolfowitz was said to be adamant that he be cleared of wrongdoing before he resigned, according to people familiar with his thinking. The negotiations were still under way on Wednesday evening, and bank officials said they were increasingly hopeful that a solution was in sight, ending what had become a bitter ordeal at the bank, within the Bush administration and at economic ministries around the world. Read The Full Story Prince Harry Will Not Go To Iraq 2007-05-17 02:28:39 After months of speculation and agonizing by military advisers, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, announced Wednesday that Prince Harry will not, after all, join his comrades in southern Iraq. The prince had wanted to go, and the general initially wanted to send him. But, after consulting military commanders on a visit to Basra last week, Gen. Dannatt decided it would be too risky both for Prince Harry and the fellow members of his Household Cavalry squadron, who would also become targets for insurgents. Specific threats to the prince "expose not only him but also those around him to a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable", said the general. He insisted that though his squadron was willing to share those risks, he was not prepared to "export those risks to the families". Read The Full Story	Attorneys Seek Immunity For Cheney, Rove, Libby In Plame Lawsuit 2007-05-17 23:45:36 Attorneys forVice President Cheney and top White House officials told a federal judge Thursday that they cannot be held liable for anything they disclosed to reporters about covert CIA officer Valerie PLame or her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The officials, who include senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, argued that the judge should dismiss a lawsuit filed by the couple that stemmed from the disclosure of Plame's identity to the media. The suit claims that Cheney, Libby, Rove and former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage violated the couple's privacy and constitutional rights by publicly revealing Plame's identity in an effort to retaliate against Wilson. Plame's identity was disclosed in a syndicated column in July 2003, days after Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate Iraq's nuclear threat and justify an invasion. Libby was convicted in March of lying to a grand jury investigating the leak. Read The Full Story Congress Passes $2.9 Trillion Budget For 2008 2007-05-17 23:45:09 The U.S. Congress on Thursday approved a $2.9 trillion fiscal 2008 budget that funds President George W. Bush's huge defense buildup while also adding money for Democrats' domestic priorities. The budget, written by Democrats who control both chambers of Congress, received no backing from House Republicans, while only two moderate Republicans in the Senate supported it. The measure claims to end chronic budget deficits and produce a $41 billion surplus in 2012. It provides for some of that surplus to be spent on renewing popular middle-class tax cuts. Read The Full Story American Bird Species Plummet After Arrival Of West Nile Virus 2007-05-17 14:57:23 Several common species of North American birds have suffered drastic population declines since the arrival of the West Nile virus eight years ago, leaving rural and suburban areas quieter than they used to be and imposing ecological stresses on a variety of other animals and plants, a new study has found. In Mayrland, for example, 2005 chickadee populations were 68 percent lower than would have been expected had West Nile not arrived, and in Virginiachickadee populations were 50 percent below that prediction. The analysis, led by researchers at the National Zoo, offers sobering evidence that even a microscopic invasive species can wreak long-term environmental disruption. Read The Full Story Democrats Seek No-Confidence Vote On Gonzales 2007-05-17 14:56:59 Two Senate Democrats said Thursday they will seek a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales over accusations that he carried out President Bush's political agenda at the expense of the Justice Department's independence. Sens. Chuck Schumer, of New York, and Dianne Feinstein, of California, who have led the investigation into the conduct of White House officials and Gonzales, said the attorney general has been too weakened to run the department. Just when such a vote might occur in the Senate was uncertain. Their announcement is the latest in a series of blows suffered by Gonzales this week, including new criticism from Republicans and the prediction of one GOP veteran that the investigation into the firings of federal prosecutors would end with the attorney general's resignation. Read The Full Story At Least 10 Major Party Candidates For U.S. President Are Millionaires 2007-05-17 14:55:20 Running for president is a pursuit for the wealthy, according to personal financial disclosure forms released yesterday that show that at least 10 of the major party candidates are millionaires and, collectively, the field of contenders is worth at least a quarter-billion dollars. The candidates have amassed their fortunes in a variety of fashions. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) wrote his way to millionaire status with a best-selling memoir. Former New York mayormayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) raked in $11 million by trotting the globe giving speeches last year. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) married money - his wife is the millionaire daughter of an Arizona beer magnate. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney(R) became the richest of the 2008 candidates for the White House  by dealing in private equity funds that have bought and sold significant interests in more than 180 companies. Read The Full Story Russian Orthodox Church To End Schism 2007-05-17 14:53:34 Russian Orthodox leaders will move to end nine decades of bitter division Thursday with a pact reuniting the main church in Russia with a breakaway church that split off as Communist rule took hold after the Bolshevik Revolution. Patriarch Alexy II, who heads the largest flock in the Orthodox Christian world, is to sign the Canonical Communion Act with Metropolitan Laurus, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. The ceremony is to take place at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral - a symbol of the revival of Russia's dominant church since the 1991 collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union. The golden-domed church is a replica of the cathedral blown up in 1931 on the orders of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. "I think we stand today on the threshold of a historic event that will liquidate the tragic consequences of the civil war, which divided our people and divided our church," Alexy said Wednesday at a session of the Moscow Patriarchate leadership, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. Read The Full Story Israeli Airstrikes Target Hamas 2007-05-17 14:52:31 Israel targeted Hamas with airstrikes Thursday, destroying a compound and a car carrying senior commanders of the Islamic group and killing six people in a new layer of violence added to Palestinian infighting that has paralyzed the Gaza Strip. In all, 45 Palestinians have been killed in the infighting between Hamas and the rival Fatah since Sunday, including three on Thursday, in the worst round in more than a year. Still, street clashes were ebbing after intense fighting Wednesday, when terrified Gaza residents were trapped in their homes. The raging street battles have turned the densely populated seaside city into a war zone and endangered the Palestinian unity government. Israel unleashed the air campaign - a hit on a Hamas command center, on a trailer housing bodyguards and two vehicles - after Gaza militants fired more than 50 rockets on the Israeli border town of Sderot in three days. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Israel showed "great restraint." Read The Full Story Commentary: Rove's Worrisome Witness 2007-05-17 02:30:38 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by op-ed columnist Robert D. Novak and appears in the Washington Post edition for Thursday, May 17, 2007. On the day presidential senior adviser Karl Rove administered a tongue-lashing to a Republican congressman, disturbing news about his former executive assistant was spread on Capitol Hill. GOP House members learned that Susan Ralston is requesting immunity to testify before Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman's investigating committee. She was an assistant to Jack Abramoff, Washington super-lobbyist and Republican fundraiser, in 2001 when he recommended her for the top job with Rove as he entered the White House. As Rove's gatekeeper, Susan Bonzon Ralston became special assistant to the president and the highest-ranking Filipino American in the administration. For Waxman, she is a link between the disgraced, imprisoned Abramoff and Rove, a principal political target of the Democratic-controlled Congress. As chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Waxman is tirelessly making life miserable for a confused administration during George W. Bush's last two years as president. Bringing down Rove ranks high on Grand Inquisitor Waxman's agenda. But Ralston appears to be seeking immunity for self-protection rather than nailing her former boss, and she could be a blank fired by the fierce political marksman from westside Los Angeles. Read The Full Story At Least 26 Prosecutors Were Listed For Firing 2007-05-17 02:30:00 The Justice Department considered dismissing many more U.S. attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified last week that the effort was limited to eight U.S. attorneys fired since last June, and other administration officials have said that only a few others were suggested for removal. In fact, D. Kyle Sampson, then Gonzales' chief of staff, considered more than two dozen U.S. attorneys for termination, according to lists compiled by him and his colleagues, said the sources. Read The Full Story 21 Killed In Gun Battles As Gaza Crisis Worsens 2007-05-17 02:29:08 Intensifying factional fighting brought the Palestinians' two-month-old power-sharing government closer to collapse Wednesday as Israeli military aircraft fired on a Hamas operations camp in the Gaza Strip in an effort to end days of rocket attacks on Israeli targets. Despite calls for a cease-fire, at least 21 Palestinians, all of them apparently belonging to armed groups, died in the worst violence since Hamas and Fatah initially agreed in February to govern together. That arrangement was designed to end factional fighting but was weakened by the resignation this week of the parties' compromise candidate for interior minister. The streets of Gaza remained empty Wednesday except for gunmen from the rival camps, who now appear to be operating with little regard for their respective political leaders. At least 36 Palestinians have died in clashes since Sunday. 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