Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday May 28 2007 - (813)

Monday May 28 2007 edition
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U.S. Immigration Agency Mired In Inefficiency 2007-05-28 03:00:00 Last June, U.S. immigration officials were presented a plan that supporters said could help slash waiting times for green cards from nearly three years to three months and save 1 million applicants more than a third of the 45 hours they could expect to spend in government lines. It would also save about $350 million. The response? No thanks. Leaders of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected key changes because ending huge immigration backlogs nationwide would rob the agency of application and renewal fees that cover 20 percent of its $1.8 billion budget, according to the plan's author, agency ombudsman Prakash Khatri. Read The Full Story Heavy Rains Strand 1,500 Oklahoma Campers 2007-05-28 02:59:34 Heavy rains pounded central Oklahoma on Sunday, sending swollen rivers and creeks over their banks and stranding hundreds of campers who came for the holiday weekend at a popular park. About 1,500 campers at Turner Falls Park near Davis were stuck with their vehicles Sunday after flash flooding forced the closure of the only road leading into the campgrounds, park manager Tom Graham said. No injuries were reported. "One minute it was OK, and 20 minutes later a wave came through and caused us to shut it down," said Graham. "We started warning people yesterday evening that if they stayed, they may get flooded in." Read The Full Story U.S., Iraqi Troops Free 42 Iraqis Held By Al-Qaeda 2007-05-28 02:59:03 U.S. and Iraqi forces freed 42 kidnapped Iraqis - some of whom had been hung from ceilings and tortured for months - in a raid Sunday on an al-Qaeda hideout north of Baghdad, said the U.S. military. Military officials said the operation, launched on tips from residents, showed that Iraqis in the turbulent Diyala province were turning against Sunni insurgents and beginning to trust U.S. troops. "The people in Diyala are speaking up against al-Qaeda," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. Elsewhere in Diyala, a U.S. soldier was killed when an explosion hit his vehicle and a second soldier was killed in an explosion in Baghdad, the military said. The deaths brought the number of troops killed this month to at least 102, putting May on pace to become the deadliest month for Americans here in more than 2 years. Read The Full Story Japan's Agriculture Minister Dies 2007-05-28 02:58:24 Japan's agricultural minister died Monday after reportedly hanging himself just hours before he was to face questioning in parliament in a political scandal, said officials. Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, was found unconscious in his apartment and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead hours later, said a Tokyo Metropolitan Police official. "We've confirmed that Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka is dead," said Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the chief government spokesman. "We are greatly saddened." Shiozaki said the police were still investigating the cause of death, and that he could not officially confirm it was a suicide. Japanese media reported that Matsuoka had been found hanging in his apartment and that efforts to resuscitate him at the hospital failed. Read The Full Story Assad The Only Choice In Presidential Referendum 2007-05-28 02:57:56 High above the teeming streets of Damascus, from giant hoardings, posters and balloons, Bashar al-Assad gazed benignly down on his people - determined, proud, statesmanlike and reassuring - the carefully crafted image of a man fit to carry on leading Syria for another seven years. Banners praised "our Bashar", defender of sovereignty and stability. "We love you," declared another slogan, printed over a thumbprint in the national colors. Nightly street parties, concerts, dabke dancing and rallies created a festive, jubilee-like atmosphere in the run-up to Sunday's presidential referendum. No one was surprised that celebrations were taking place before a single ballot was cast; President Assad was, after all, the only candidate nominated by the ruling Ba'ath party. There is no legal opposition. Tellingly, the event is described in Arabic as "renewing the pledge of allegiance" as if this young, British-educated ophthalmologist and computer buff were a mediaeval Caliph. Read The Full Story U.S. House Speaker Pelosi Heads To Europe For Climate Talks 2007-05-27 14:04:43 U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on an overseas trip to embrace an audience and a topic for which President Bush has shown scant affection: "Old Europe" and global warming. Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and seven other House members left Saturday for meetings with scientists and politicians in Greenland, Germany and Belgium on ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The trip comes shortly before a climate change summit next month involving the leading industrialized nations and during a time of increased debate over what should succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that caps the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from power plants and factories in industrialized countries. It expires in 2012. Bush rejected the accord, saying that it would harm the U.S. economy and that it unfairly excluded developing countries such as China and India from its obligations. Pelosi, who disagrees with Bush's decision and many other of his environmental policies, said Friday that she wanted to work with the administration rather than provoke it. Read The Full Story Without Foreign Workers, U.S. Parks Struggle 2007-05-27 14:04:05 From Ukraine to Ecuador, scores of young maids and dishwashers are having trouble getting U.S. visas this spring  - and that means trouble in Yosemite Valley. "I've been making beds and scrubbing showers," said Tracy Rogge, vice president of operations for park concessionaire Delaware North Cos. The chief operating officer "cleaned toilets and bagged groceries. Our director of finance was making burgers. This really caught us off-guard." Laura Chastain, recruiting manager for Delaware North, estimates that she is 300 employees short. "I don't sleep at night right now," she said. Concession managers in Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national parks bring in hundreds of foreign workers annually from Eastern Europe, South America, Asia and Southern Africa because, they say, they cannot recruit American youths to fill the dirtiest jobs in the park's kitchens and hotels. Read The Full Story U.N.: Thousands Leave Lebanon Refugee Camp 2007-05-27 14:03:29 A majority of families from a besieged Palestinian refugee camp caught in the crossfire between Islamic militants and the Lebanese army have fled but thousands remain trapped inside, a U.N. official said Sunday. The Nahr al-Bared camp, located near the outskirts of this northern Lebanon port city, was calm Sunday after sporadic gunfire overnight between the army and Fatah Islam militants inside punctured a four-day-old truce. Hoda al-Turk, a spokeswoman for U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known as UNRWA, said more 5,000 refugee families - or about 25,000 refugees - have left the camp since the fighting began one week ago. The camp is home to about 31,000 people. A majority of the families have fled to the nearby Beddawi refugee camp, while others are staying in Tripoli and other villages, she said. Read The Full Story Hundreds Participate In Hong Kong Tiananmen March 2007-05-27 14:02:36 Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday to commemorate the Tiananmen Square protests 18 years ago, angry over comments from a lawmaker who appeared to take China's side in the crackdown. Walking through heavy rain, the demonstrators chanted slogans condemning the lawmaker, Ma Lik, who disputed witness accounts of the June 4, 1989, crackdown, saying Chinese troops did not fire indiscriminately at protesters. Organizers said about 1,500 people took part in the march, which has been held every year since 1989 on the Sunday before June 4. Police put the figure at 1,000. Read The Full Story Taliban Release 3 Afghan Aid Workers 2007-05-27 14:00:40 The Taliban released three Afghan aid workers Sunday who were kidnapped with two French colleagues nearly two months ago, as the militant group announced a new operation targeting foreign and government forces. The three aid workers from the France-based group Terre d'Enfance - Mohammad Hashim and brothers Ghulam Rasul and Ghulam Azrat - were abducted April 3 along with the two French nationals in the southwestern province of Nimroz. The Taliban released the French woman, Celine Cordelier, on April 28, and the man, Eric Damfreville, on May 11. "The three Afghans who were detained with the two French aid workers have been released today in Nimroz province at the request of tribal leaders," purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Sunday. Read The Full Story A Longtime Gone For Minnesota National Guardsmen 2007-05-27 02:01:28 As often as he can, 6-year-old Austin Cassavant sits by his mother's computer in Crookston, Minnesota, and watches his father's face appear on the webcam from Iraq. On good days, sitting thousands of miles apart, they will tell stories and play tic-tac-toe. Waiting for his father's return, Austin began writing down his thoughts on slips of paper and dropping them in a jar. No one knows what he writes. "He and his dad can go through them," his grandmother said, "when he's home." By the time winter gave way to spring, the Minnesota National Guard was supposed to be back from war. Austin's father, Sgt. 1st Class Corey Cassavant, would be fishing for walleye and bass and grilling his catch. Spec. Corey Stusynski would be behind the counter at his paint store and teaching Sunday school. Staff Sgt. Logan Wallace would be plowing the fields near Thief Lake. Read The Full Story U.S., British Troops Clash With Sadr Militia 2007-05-27 02:01:02 U.S. and British troops battled Maqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra  on Friday and Saturday, killing about a dozen fighters shortly after the influential Shiite cleric demanded a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced that six American soldiers and two Marines were killed Friday and Saturday in five separate attacks, bringing to at least 101 the number of service members killed in Iraq this month. Most of the latest deaths came in roadside bombings or other attacks against vehicles, the military said. In other violence Saturday, an armed Shiite militia attacked a community in Khalis, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, about noon and killed 17 Sunnis and burned 20 houses, according to Lt. Mohammed Hakman of the Diyala province police. In recent months, the province has been the scene of some of Iraq's worst sectarian violence. During Sadr's Friday sermon in the southern holy city of Kufa, he called on Iraqis of all faiths and sects to stop fighting one another and instead unite against the U.S. military occupation. Read The Full Story U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire In Baghdad 2007-05-27 02:00:04 Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, said U.S.and Iraqi officials. A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area. Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm's policy of not addressing incidents publicly. Read The Full Story	Another Memorial Day Marks Grief's Journey 2007-05-28 02:59:49 Not a waking hour goes by when Judy Adamouski does not think of the son she lost at war. Some nights, she drifts from room to room in her Springfield home - sleepless, taking in what is left of his life. A framed photograph of a soldier in uniform. A wedding portrait. A diploma from West Point. "You miss the voice," she said. "You miss seeing him. It's just hard. All we have is our memories and our pictures." Her son is not a recent casualty but one of the early deaths of the Iraq war: Army Capt. James F. Adamouski, killed April 2, 2003, in a Black Hawk helicopter crash as U.S. troops made their way toward Baghdad two weeks into combat operations. This is her fifth Memorial Day since then - a holiday that marks time's passing but still finds her living with a mother's grief. "Jimmy," as she called him, was her only son, 29 years old, newly married, bound for Harvard University for a master's degree. Read The Full Story Guantanamo Detainee Told: Stay In Jail Or Face Torture In Home Country 2007-05-28 02:59:22 The British government was under pressure last night to allow a London man held in Guantanamo Bay for four years to return to Britain after the U.S. cleared him for release from the notorious prison. Jamil el-Banna was detained by the U.S. in 2002 after Britain sent the CIA false information about him. He had also failed to accept an MI5 offer to turn informant. If refused entry to Britain, Banna could be returned to face torture in his native Jordan, from where he fled to Britain in 1994 after alleging ill treatment. Speaking through his lawyer from Guantanamo, Banna described how he longed to be reunited with his wife and five children, and denied involvement in terrorism. "They should admit the truth - that they have been holding an innocent man for four-and-a-half years. I just want to be home with my family," he said. Read The Full Story Police Use Water Cannons To Stop Protest As Anti-Chavez Station Taken Off The Air 2007-05-28 02:58:45 Troops and police broke up an opposition protest using water cannon and tear gas last night as the Venezuelan government prepared to pull the plug on a TV channel opposed to President Hugo Chavez. Protesters scattered as they were hit by water jets then sang the national anthem as they returned to face riot police outside the state telecommunications commission. Tension mounted in Caracas, the capital, as the clock ticked towards the midnight deadline for the channel to cease broadcasting, a decision which has triggered accusations of censorship. Radio Caracas Television, the country's "oldest and most popular" private channel, hosted an emotional farewell to viewers and depicted its imminent demise as a political watershed. "This marks a turn toward totalitarianism," said its director, Marcel Granier. Read The Full Story Israeli Prime Minister Risks Losing Office 2007-05-28 02:58:08 Israel's government faces fresh upheaval Monday when the Labor party begins primaries for a new leader who could deal a final blow to Ehud Olmert's tenure as prime minister. The two leading contenders to take the party's helm from Peretz have said that they will work to get rid of Olmert, who has been under intense pressure following a damning report into his prosecution of last year's war in Lebanon. Labor is part of the ruling coalition along with Olmert's Kadima party. Peretz, also tainted by the Lebanon campaign, has already said he will resign as defense minister after the primaries. Opinion polls suggest that Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Shin Bet internal security service, will win but may not get the required 40% of the vote to avoid a second round of voting. Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, is second with Peretz a distant third. Read The Full Story Republican Rift Over Immigration Bill Widens 2007-05-27 14:04:59 The roiling congressional debate over a plan to legalize undocumented immigrants has rekindled a bitter fight in the Republican Party over the best strategy to restore the GOP to political dominance - with each side accusing the other of following a course that would destroy the party for decades. The clash has grown increasingly intense in recent days, drawing in the most senior figures in Republican politics. President Bush aimed unusually pointed language Thursday at critics, many in his own party, who opposed a more permanent status for illegal immigrants. Two conservative senators were booed by Republican crowds in their home states last week for endorsing the legalization effort. And conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked the Bush-backed plan as the "Destroy the Republican Party Act." Read The Full Story Commentary: I Lost My Son To A War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty. 2007-05-27 14:04:26 Intellpuke: The following commentary appears in the Washington Post edition for Sunday, May 27, 2007. It was written by Andrew J. Bacevich, whose son was killed in Iraq on May 13th after a suicide bomb explosion in Salah al-Din province. Mr. Bacevich teaches history and international relations at Boston College. His commentary follows: Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death. Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son's death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings. This may seem a vile accusation to lay against a grieving father. But in fact, it has become a staple of American political discourse, repeated endlessly by those keen to allow President Bush a free hand in waging his war. By encouraging "the terrorists," opponents of the Iraq conflict increase the risk to U.S. troops. Although the First Amendment protects antiwar critics from being tried for treason, it provides no protection for the hardly less serious charge of failing to support the troops - today's civic equivalent of dereliction of duty. What exactly is a father's duty when his son is sent into harm's way? Read The Full Story Chaudhry Warns Against Musharraf 2007-05-27 14:03:43 Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry warned against centralized power in a thinly disguised criticism of President Pervez Musharraf, without ever mentioning him by name. In a nationally televised address at a judiciary seminar Saturday, Chaudhry told the thousands of lawyers gathered, along with several diplomats, "The determination of the people cannot be resisted for long." "Centralization of power in one person or institution is dangerous," he added. Thousands of supporters rallied with anti-Musharraf slogans outside the court where the seminar, entitled "Separation of Power and Independence of Judiciary," was held. A large television set up on the street televised Chaudhry's speech. Read The Full Story Syrian President Assad's Fortunes Revive In Time For Election 2007-05-27 14:03:08 Inside the tent, the trappings of a modern election campaign were on display: jingles playing, flags waving, confetti coating the floor, and posters of President Bashar al-Assad hanging near the stage. Outside, however, Syria’s realities were evident. Government security officers manhandled anyone trying to come in and blocked reporters from covering the rally, which was financed by one of Syria’s most powerful oligarchs. The sparseness of the crowd at the start of the campaign on May 11 hinted at growing fear of the future and apathy about Syrian politics. Only a year ago, Assad faced so many troubles that some Syrians began questioning his political survival. His troops had been forced out of Lebanon, his government faced accusations of collusion in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, and the Bush administration had imposed sanctions that affected everything from the fleet of Boeings in Syria’s national airline to medical equipment. Waning oil reserves hinted at economic collapse, and the European Union delayed signing a much-needed trade agreement. Read The Full Story Viking Longship To Sail Across North Sea 2007-05-27 14:02:20 On the skipper's command, deckhands haul in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splash into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pull with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord. A thousands years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn. This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder. The Sea Stallion of Glendalough is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction, modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years. Read The Full Story Russian Police Detain Gays As Punches Fly 2007-05-27 14:00:21 Russian nationalists shouting "death to homosexuals" punched and kicked demonstrators calling for the right to hold a Gay Pride parade in central Moscow on Sunday while riot police detained dozens of gay protesters. Two European parliamentarians were among those held as they tried to present a petition asking Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade. Nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as "evil" while a group of thick-set young men turned up with surgeon's masks, which they said would protect them from the "gay disease". "We are defending our rights," said a young gay man named Alexey, with blood pouring from his nose after he was beaten up by a man screaming "homosexuals are perverts" opposite the mayor's office. His attacker was detained. Read The Full Story Editorial: War Without End 2007-05-27 02:01:13 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Sunday, May 27, 2007. Never mind how badly the war is going in Iraq. President Bush has been swaggering around like a victorious general because he cowed a wobbly coalition of Democrats into dropping their attempt to impose a time limit on his disastrous misadventure. By week’s end, Mr. Bush was acting as though that bit of parliamentary strong-arming had left him free to ignore not just the Democrats, but also the vast majority of Americans, who want him to stop chasing illusions of victory and concentrate on how to stop the sacrifice of young Americans’ lives. And, ever faithful to his illusions, Mr. Bush was insisting that he was the only person who understood the true enemy. Speaking to graduates of the Coast Guard Academy, Mr. Bush declared that al-Qaeda is “public enemy No. 1” in Iraq and that “the terrorists’ goal in Iraq is to reignite sectarian violence and break support for the war here at home.” The next day, in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush turned on a reporter who had the temerity to ask about Mr. Bush’s declining credibility with the public, declaring that al-Qaeda is “a threat to your children” and accusing him of naively ignoring the danger. Read The Full Story Engulfed By Climate Change, Alaska Town Seeks Lifeline 2007-05-27 02:00:39 The sturdy little Cessnas land whenever the fog lifts, delivering children’s bicycles, boxes of bullets, outboard motors and cans of dried oats. And then, with a rumble down a gravel strip, the planes are gone, the outside world recedes and this subarctic outpost steels itself once again to face the frontier of climate change.  “I don’t want to live in permafrost no more,” said Frank Tommy, 47, standing beside gutted geese and seal meat drying on a wooden rack outside his mother’s house. “It’s too muddy. Everything is crooked around here.” The earth beneath much of Alaska is not what it used to be. The permanently frozen subsoil, known as permafrost, upon which Newtok and so many other Native Alaskan villages rest, is melting, yielding to warming air temperatures and a warming ocean. Sea ice that would normally protect coastal villages is forming later in the year, allowing fall storms to pound away at the shoreline. Erosion has made Newtok an island, caught between the ever widening Ninglick River and a slough to the north. The village is below sea level, and sinking. Boardwalks squish into the spring muck. Human waste, collected in “honey buckets” that many residents use for toilets, is often dumped within eyeshot in a village where no point is more than a five-minute walk from any other. The ragged wooden houses have to be adjusted regularly to level them on the shifting soil. Read The Full Story Chinese Media Blast Pentagon Report 2007-05-27 01:59:47 Chinese state media on Sunday blasted a Pentagon report on Beijing's defense plans as misleading and insulting, and said China had to pursue military modernization to avoid falling further behind the United States. The U.S. Defense Department report released on Friday said that while Beijing remained focused on the Taiwan Strait as a potential flashpoint, it also appeared to be looking to project its growing military strength elsewhere. Beijing has yet to give a formal reaction to the report, but the ruling Communist Party's newspaper and other state media signaled China's rancor. While Beijing and Washington have been cooperating on North Korea and other international crises, the tough words underscored the distrust that overshadows military perceptions on both sides. Read The Full Story
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