Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday May 1 2007 - (813)

Tuesday May 1 2007 edition
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Republicans Buck Bush On Iraq Benchmarks 2007-05-01 01:17:38 Brushing aside White House opposition, Republican leaders in Congress said Monday that negotiations on a second war spending bill should begin with benchmarks of success for the Iraqi government, and possible consequences if those benchmarks are not met. Democratic leaders will send a $124 billion war funding bill to President Bush today that would establish such benchmarks and tie them to troop withdrawals, which would begin as early as July 1 if they are not met. The bill will arrive at the White House on the fourth anniversary of Bush's speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, when he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq before a banner that proclaimed "Mission Accomplished." The administration dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday to try to slam shut bipartisan talk of punishing the Iraqi government for not meeting benchmarks. Bush took the same uncompromising tone yesterday when he reiterated his veto promise. Read The Full Story Venezuela Set To Gain Control Of Its Oil Fields 2007-05-01 01:17:05 President Hugo Chavez's government will take control Tuesday of what might be the world's richest oil fields, a huge swath known as the Orinoco Belt that Big Oil has spent a decade and nearly $20 billion developing. In the past two years, Venezuela, like energy-rich countries from Russia to Bolivia, has exerted increasing control over its oil. But now, Chavez's administration will take its biggest leap yet, with the state oil company assuming a 60 percent stake in four projects previously run by multinationals, including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron. The shift is being greeted with revolutionary fervor. "For the country's workers, it's a day to celebrate," Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said recently. Despite the pomp of the occasion, many oil analysts question whether the state company, Petroleos de Venezuela, is prepared to oversee the development of projects in the country's north that, if fully exploited, could give Venezuela the largest certified oil deposits in the world. Read The Full Story Senators Question Halliburton Executive About Dealings In Iran 2007-05-01 01:16:24 A Halliburton executive, facing withering criticism from Democratic lawmakers during a Senate hearing on Monday about the company’s business dealings in Iran, insisted that the firm had not broken any laws. The official, Sherry Williams, a Halliburton vice president and corporate secretary, said the company had consulted several law firms in 1995 after sanctions were imposed on Iran. Officials of the company, which recently announced it was moving its chief executive from Houston to Dubai and establishing a corporate headquarters there, determined that it was legal for independent foreign subsidiaries of United States companies to do business there, she said. “We have followed U.S. law,” she said. “We will continue to follow U.S. law.” Although the three Democratic senators on hand repeatedly suggested broader concerns than strict legality should have prompted the company to halt its business in Iran, Williams expressed no regret for the firm’s work there. From 1995 to 2000, Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s chairman; at the time he spoke out against sanctions on Iran. Read The Full Story Poles Demand Missile Shield Against Russia 2007-05-01 01:13:23 Poland and the Czech Republic are raising the ante in negotiations with the Americans, demanding missiles to deploy against Russia and security and legal guarantees in return for hosting elements of the U.S. missile shield. The missile defense program is splitting Europe and igniting a new cold war-style clash with the Kremlin, and the demands from the central Europeans plunge the Pentagon project into greater uncertainty. The negotiations, about extending the missile defense project from California and Alaska to Europe, are expected to be wound up before the end of the year. The Poles are insisting on U.S. security guarantees and supplies of Patriot missiles to protect themselves against a perceived threat from Russia, while the Czechs are embroiled in discussions over how a U.S. radar base south of Prague would be safeguarded and what's in it for the Czechs. Read The Full Story 5 British Men Found Guilty In Bombing Plot, Get Life Sentences 2007-05-01 01:12:12 Five British men were convicted Monday of plotting to kill hundreds of people by bombing a shopping center, nightclub or other target in London, in a case that officials said demonstrates increasing links between homegrown British extremists and senior members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Pakistan. After a year-long trial and a record 27 days of jury deliberation, the five were found guilty of conspiring to build and detonate a massive fertilizer bomb. Officials said the plot, which involved the purchase of 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, was at the time the most ambitious mass murder attempt ever disrupted by British security services. Testimony during the trial revealed meetings in Britain and Pakistan between the convicted men and two of the four bombers who attacked the London public transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 52 other passengers and themselves. Those links were withheld from jurors to avoid prejudicing their decision, and British law prevented the news media from reporting them until now. "You have betrayed this country that has given you every opportunity," said Judge Michael Astill, issuing life sentences to Omar Khyam, 26, the group's presumed ringleader; Waheed Mahmood, 34; Jawad Akbar, 23; Salahuddin Amin, 31; and Anthony Garcia, 24. Two other men, Nabeel Hussain and Khyam's brother, Shujah Mahmood, were found not guilty in the case, which British police referred to as Operation Crevice. Read The Full Story More Than 100 U.S. Troops Died In Iraq In April 2007-04-30 13:17:49 Five U.S. troops were killed over the weekend in Iraq, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll for April past 100 in the deadliest month for American forces this year. A suicide bomber, meanwhile, blew himself up during a Shiite funeral in a volatile area north of Baghdad, the deadliest in a series of attacks that killed at least 51 people nationwide. The bomber detonated his explosives about 6:30 p.m. inside a tent where mourners were gathered in Khalis, a flashpoint Shiite enclave in Diyala province, where U.S.-Iraqi forces have seen fierce fighting with Sunni and Shiite militants. Read The Full Story Summary Of U.S. Supreme Court Actions Monday 2007-04-30 13:17:17 The Supreme Court on Monday: -- Ruled that police may use deadly force to stop high-speed car chases without fear of being sued for civil rights violations. -- Refused to hear the case of two Guantanamo Bay prisoners who want to challenge the legality of military commissions. --Made it easier to invalidate patents, scaling back a legal test that has fueled an era of protection for new products. -- Ruled in favor of Microsoft Corp. and against AT&T in a case that restricts the reach of U.S. patents overseas. Read The Full Story World Bank Panel Questions Wolfowitz 2007-04-30 13:16:48 World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Monday decried what he called a "smear campaign" against him and told a special bank panel that he acted in good faith in securing a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend. He reiterated that he had no plans to resign. In a prepared statement to the panel, Wolfowitz said the institution's ethics committee had access to all the details surrounding the arrangement involving bank employee Shaha Riza, "if they wanted it." Wolfowitz told the panel that: "I acted transparently, sought and received guidance from the bank's ethics committee and conducted myself in good faith in accordance with that guidance." Read The Full Story Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers 2007-04-30 02:25:08 A female freelance writer who blogged about the pornography industry was threatened with rape. A single mother who blogged about "the daily ins and outs of being a mom" was threatened by a cyber-stalker who claimed that she beat her son and that he had her under surveillance. Kathy Sierra, who won a large following by blogging about designing software that makes people happy, became a target of anonymous online attacks that included photos of her with a noose around her neck and a muzzle over her mouth. As women gain visibility in the blogosphere, they are targets of sexual harassment and threats. Men are harassed too, and lack of civility is an abiding problem on the Web. But women, who make up about half the online community, are singled out in more starkly sexually threatening terms - a trend that was first evident in chat rooms in the early 1990s and is now moving to the blogosphere, said experts and bloggers. A 2006 University of Maryland study on chat rooms found that female participants received 25 times as many sexually explicit and malicious messages as males. A 2005 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the proportion of Internet users who took part in chats and discussion groups plunged from 28 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2005, entirely because of the exodus of women. The study attributed the trend to "sensitivity to worrisome behavior in chat rooms". Read The Full Story Maliki's Office Is Seen Behind Purge Of Military, Police Officers 2007-04-30 02:24:26 A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad. Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to the Washington Post. Although some of the officers appear to have been fired for legitimate reasons, such as poor performance or corruption, several were considered to be among the better Iraqi officers in the field. The dismissals have angered U.S. and Iraqi leaders who say the Shiite-led government is sabotaging the military to achieve sectarian goals. "Their only crimes or offenses were they were successful" against the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia, said Brig. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, commanding general of the Iraq Assistance Group, which works with Iraqi security forces. "I'm tired of seeing good Iraqi officers having to look over their shoulders when they're trying to do the right thing." Read The Full Story Israeli War Inquiry 'Rebukes Olmert Over Military Errors' 2007-04-30 02:21:27 The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and defense minister, Amir Peretz, faced further calls for their resignation Sunday after leaks of a report into their management of last summer's Lebanon war which suggests they made a series of errors. The Winograd report, to be published Monday, directs strong criticism at the government's conduct in the first days of the war, according to leaks in the Israeli media Sunday. In particular, Olmert and Peretz are rebuked for not seeking proper consultation and for accepting the army's recommendations without question. The politicians' lack of experience in military matters, the report says, meant they accepted the belief of Dan Halutz, the former chief of staff, that the war could be won by air power alone. The report also criticizes Olmert for setting out his war aims - which were broadly to free two captured Israeli soldiers and expel Hezbollah from southern Lebanon - without checking to find if they were attainable. Aides of both men said they had no intention of resigning but the lack of confidence in the politicians may leave them no choice. Read The Full Story	Venezuela Pulling Out Of World Bank, International Monetary Fund 2007-05-01 01:17:24 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions. "We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone," said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions. Venezuela, one of the world's top oil exporters, recently repaid its debts to the World Bank five years ahead of schedule, saving $8 million. It paid off all its debts to the IMF shortly after Chavez first took office in 1999. The IMF closed its offices in Venezuela late last year. Chavez, who says he wants to steer Venezuela toward socialism, made the announcement a day after telling a meeting of allied leaders that Latin America would be better off without the U.S.-backed World Bank or IMF. He has often blamed their lending policies for perpetuating poverty. Read The Full Story Report: Worldwide Terrorist Attacks Increase 25 Percent 2007-05-01 01:16:41 Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday. Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East, notably in Iraq, giving material aid and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, it said. In its annual global survey of terrorism, the department said 14,338 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3,185 more than in 2005 representing a 28.5 percent increase. These strikes claimed a total of 20,498 lives, 13,340 of them in Iraq, 5,800 more, or a 40.2 percent increase, than last year, it said. Read The Full Story Sunni Ministers Threaten To Quit Iraq Cabinet 2007-05-01 01:14:02 The largest bloc of Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi Parliament threatened to withdraw its ministers from the Shiite-dominated cabinet on Monday in frustration over the government’s failure to deal with Sunni concerns. President Bush stepped in to forestall the move, calling one of Iraq’s two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, and inviting him to Washington, D.C., according to a statement issued by Hashimi’s office and the White House. The bloc, known as the Iraqi Consensus Front and made up of three Sunni Arab parties, “has lost hope in rectifying the situation despite all of its sincere and serious efforts to do so,” said the statement. Read The Full Story Louisiana Plan Would Divert Mississippi River To Reclaim Land 2007-05-01 01:12:57 Over two centuries, engineers have restrained the Mississippi River's natural urge to wriggle disastrously out of its banks by building hundreds of miles of levees that work today like a riverine straitjacket. It is time, Louisiana officials propose, to let the river loose. To save the state from washing into the ocean at the astonishing rate of 24 square miles per year, Louisiana officials are developing an epic $50 billion plan that would rebuild the land by rerouting one of the world's biggest rivers. The proposal envisions enormous projects to provide flood protection and reclaim land-building sediment from the river, which now flows uselessly out into the Gulf of Mexico. The cost of the project, which was initiated by the legislature after hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed the dangers of the sinking coast, dwarfs those of other megaprojects such as the $14 billion "Big Dig" in Boston and the $8 billion Everglades restoration. Read The Full Story Fires Gut 2 Historic Sites In Washington, D.C. 2007-05-01 01:11:42 Two fires ravaged historic sites in the nation's capital Monday, one gutting part of the 134-year-old Eastern Market and the other destroying irreplaceable documents and art at the Georgetown public library branch. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said there was absolutely no suspicion that the fires were related. The first blaze tore through the southern half of the Eastern Market, a Capitol Hill landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city-owned building was empty at the time and there were no injuries, said Rubin. Hours later, a blaze rushed through the D.C. Public Library's Georgetown branch. The building, in the Georgetown National Register Historic District, was undergoing renovations. There were no injuries. Read The Full Story Chemical In Animal Feed Is Open Secret In China 2007-04-30 13:17:34 As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in the heavily polluted northern city of Zhangqiu openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein. For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here. “Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.” Read The Full Story Prosecutors Start To Lay Out Case Against U.S. Commander At Iraq Prison 2007-04-30 13:17:06 A senior commander at the American military’s main detention center here testified Monday that his predecessor, Lt. Col. William H. Steele, gave computer programs and other gifts to the daughter of a high-value detainee, breaching military law and Iraqi cultural norms. Lt. Col. Quentin Crank, whose military police unit took over for Col. Steele’s at Camp Cropper in October 2006, said the gifts were given after Col. Steele had moved on to another assignment in Iraq, but the detainee was outraged by the personal contact and told American officials that Col. Steele was trying to supplant him in the role of father. A military computer forensics expert also testified that an IBM laptop recovered during the investigation contained classified material, 37 adult pornographic videos, 122 adult pornographic images and e-mail to an undisclosed person that “appeared to be adulterous in nature.” A second Dell laptop also contained the text of a secret document, said the investigator. Read The Full Story Report: U.S. Rebuilding In Iraq Is Missing Key Goals 2007-04-30 02:25:21 The U.S. project to rebuild Iraq remains far short of its targets, leaving the country plagued by power outages, inadequate oil production and shortages of clean water and health care, according to a report to be issued Monday by a U.S. government oversight agency. The 232-page quarterly review by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction presents a sobering picture of the challenges of reconstruction in a war zone. It also says the Army has asked Parsons Corp., one of the largest contractors in Iraq, to explain why it should not be barred from pursuing government contracts for up to three years. In the Army's March letter, it questions "the effectiveness of [Parsons'] standards of conduct and internal control systems." Parsons has been the subject of previous inspector general audits and is best known for building only a small fraction of the health clinics planned to be built in Iraq and for building a police academy so flawed that human waste rained from the ceilings. Read The Full Story Down On The Pharm 2007-04-30 02:24:46 Intellpuke: A new breed of genetically modified crops could provide cheap drugs and vaccines for the developing world. There's only one problem, writes Guardian environment correspondent David Adam, what if they get into the food chain? Mr. Adam's article follows: In a windowless room on the roof of a hospital in south London, the air is being slowly sucked away. It's not enough to notice, but it keeps the sealed laboratory at a slightly lower pressure than the air outside. It's a security measure. The contents of this laboratory are highly controversial, and if anything escaped it would be a public relations disaster for the scientists who work here. The lab holds some of the most controversial plants in the U.K., which nearby residents would be less than happy to find drifting on the breeze through their back gardens. Open the door, and air rushes in, not out. The plants are tobacco, but they are not intended to be smoked. Instead, the scientists who work on them believe they could save lives. Each has been genetically engineered to carry a gene that is usually found in common algae. Inside its cells, the foreign DNA forces the tobacco plant to churn out a protein that is useless to it, but that happens to be a potent drug against HIV. The scientists say the drug, and others like it, could save millions of lives across the developing world. The technique has been dubbed pharmaceutical farming, or pharming, and it is emerging as the latest battleground in the war over genetic modification. Britain has rejected gentically modified (GM) plants once already - a media and consumer backlash persuaded most companies there was little market in the U.K. for crops that have had their genes tweaked to be resistant to pests or herbicides. With pharming the battle lines are less clearly defined, as protesters who trashed experimental GM corn plants in France discovered. The crops were making a protein that could be used to treat cystic fibrosis, and when patient groups angrily denounced the action, mainstream green campaigners were forced to deny involvement. Read The Full Story Inside The Struggle For Iran 2007-04-30 02:23:38 A grand coalition of anti-government forces is planning a second Iranian revolution via the ballot box to deny President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in office and break the grip of what they call the "militia state" on public life and personal freedom. Encouraged by recent successes in local elections, opposition factions, democracy activists, and pro-reform clerics say they will bring together progressive parties loyal to former president Mohammad Khatami with so-called pragmatic conservatives led by Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. The alliance aims to exploit the president's deepening unpopularity, borne of high unemployment, rising inflation and a looming crisis over petrol prices and possible rationing to win control of the Majlis in general elections which are due within 10 months. Read The Full Story Update: 4 Dead After Shootout In Kansas City 2007-04-30 02:21:08 A man driving a dead woman's car shot a police officer, then opened fire in a parking lot and a mall Sunday, authorities said. By the end of the day, four people, including the gunman, were dead. The chaos ended when police shot the gunman to death outside a Target store inside Ward Parkway Center in south Kansas City, said police spokesman Tony Sanders. The gunfire sent shoppers and employees scurrying for cover. Target employee Cassie Bradshaw, 19, of Kansas City was in a break room with two other people when they first heard shots. Then, her co-workers saw a man in his 50s with a rifle "shooting everywhere," she said. Read The Full Story
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