Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday June 7 2007 - (813)

Thursday June 7 2007 edition
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Justice Dept. Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps 2007-06-07 01:50:57 U.S. Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators Wednesday. The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft,who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey. Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committe, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas. Read The Full Story Campaign Funds For Alaska Rep. Young; Road Aid To Florida 2007-06-07 01:50:25 It is no secret that campaign contributions sometimes lead to lucrative official favors. Rarely, though, are the tradeoffs quite as obvious as in the twisted case of Coconut Road. The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Florida, that touches five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a $10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006 transportation bill written by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska. Young, who last year steered more than $200 million to a so-called bridge to nowhere reaching 80 people on Gravina Island, Alaska, has no constituents in Florida. Read The Full Story Analysis: GOP Hopefuls Shred Bush During Debate 2007-06-07 01:49:13 If there was an unexpected loser in Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, it was President Bush and his administration's record. The Republicans criticized their Democratic opponents, but more surprising was that, on issue after issue, they systematically shredded the president's performance over the past four years. Iraq? Badly mismanaged. Katrina? Bungled. Immigration? The wrong solution. Federal spending? Out of control. At times it got personal. When the candidates were asked how they might use the president should they win the White House, former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, who served as secretary of health and human services during Bush's first term, replied: "I certainly would not send him to the United Nations." The line drew laughs from the heavily Republican audience at Saint Anselm College. Read The Full Story Suspect Arrested In Kansas Teen's Death 2007-06-07 01:48:36 Police on Wednesday arrested a man in the abduction and death of a teenager who disappeared four days ago from a store parking lot. Authorities said 18-year-old Kelsey Smith's body was found across the state line at a lake in Grandview, Missouri. Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass identified the suspect as Edwin R. Hall, 26, of Olathe. He was expected to be charged Thursday with premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. Douglass said Hall was interviewed Wednesday after police acted on a tip that matched Hall and a vehicle to surveillance video from the Target store parking lot where Smith was abducted Saturday evening. Read The Full Story Scientists Unlock Genetic Secrets Of Diseases Affecting Millions 2007-06-06 21:03:13 Scientists have made a major leap in unravelling the genetic causes of seven common diseases, including diabetes, arthritis and high blood pressure, by completing the largest analysis of the human genome. The discoveries pave the way for improved treatments and possible cures for the millions of people in the U.K. and around the world who develop the diseases every year. Using new techniques to examine the DNA of thousands of patients, scientists also found common genetic links in heart disease cases. The findings raise the prospect of improved medical treatment and preventive work with people identified as carrying a genetic risk of disease. Peter Donnelly of Oxford University, who chaired the £9 million ($18 million) research program funded by the Wellcome Trust, said: "By identifying the genes underlying these conditions, our study should enable scientists to understand better how disease occurs, which people are most at risk and, in time, to produce more effective, more personalized treatments." Read The Full Story U.S. National Guard Chief Says Equipment Levels Worst Ever 2007-06-06 21:02:29 About half of all National Guard equipment is being used in the Middle East, and the Guard's senior uniformed officer said Tuesday that could hurt the organization's overall readiness at home. National Guard units have 53 percent of the equipment they need to handle state emergencies, said Lt. General H. Steven Blum. It falls to 49 percent once Guard equipment needed for war - such as weapons - is factored in, he said. "Our problem right now is that our equipment is at an all-time low," he said at a news conference after addressing 54 National Guard commanders from every state and territory attending the annual Adjutants General Association meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. Read The Full Story Lawyer Links Rove To Alabama Investigation 2007-06-06 21:01:23 A lawyer who claims White House aide Karl Rove may have given assurances that federal authorities were investigating a former Alabama governor said Wednesday that she spoke up because she feared justice had not been served. Former Gov. Don Siegelman and a former health care executive were convicted last year of federal bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud charges after an investigation that began in 2002. Siegelman was also convicted of obstructing justice. Jill Simpson, once a campaign worker for Republican Bob Riley, said in a sworn statement last month that Rove may have played a role in the investigation. Rove, one of President Bush's closest aides, has been at the center of turmoil over allegations that the White House has politicized federal investigations. Read The Full Story Israel's Olmert Calls For Peace With Syria, Amid Growing Rumors Of Secret Talks 2007-06-06 21:00:29 Israel's prime minister said Wednesday that his country does want peace with Syria but warned President Bashar al-Assad to beware of misreading the strategic picture and launching an attack to regain occupied territory. In remarks which were sure to be closely scrutinized in Damascus and across the Middle East, Ehud Olmert sought to calm recent fears of a conflict - and fuelled speculation that a new peace initiative might be developing behind the scenes. "Israel does not want war with Syria and we need to be careful to avoid a scenario of miscalculations that could cause the security situation to worsen," Olmert was quoted as saying after meeting ministers and intelligence chiefs. "I'm willing to negotiate directly with the Syrians, but without preconditions," he said, adding that his message about Israel's peaceful intentions had been conveyed to Syria. Read The Full Story Twin Bombs Rock Baghdad Shrine Area 2007-06-06 14:29:36 Car bombings shook the streets leading to Baghdad's most revered Shiite Muslim shrine Wednesday, and police reported at least seven people were killed and 27 others wounded. The simultaneous blasts at two key intersections in the Kazimiyah district were the latest blows in an unending series of apparent attacks by Sunni extremists bent on terrorizing Iraq's Shiite majority and inflaming hostilities between the two sects. Northeast of Baghdad, in several sections of the violence-wracked city of Baqouba, Iraqi troops and U.S. helicopter gunships were reported attacking Sunni militants of the group al-Qaeda in Iraq. A medical official said the bodies of eight gunmen were brought to the hospital. The U.S. military said it was looking into the report. Read The Full Story Turkish Officials: Troops Enter Northern Iraq 2007-06-06 14:28:40 Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who attack Turkey from bases there, three Turkish security officials said. Turkey's foreign minister denied its troops had entered Iraq. The senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, characterized the raid as a "hot pursuit" raid that was limited in scope. They told the Associated Press it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks. One official said several thousand troops went less than two miles inside Iraq and were still there in late afternoon. "It is a hot pursuit, not an incursion," said one official. Read The Full Story Stocks Fall For 2nd Day On Interest Rate Concerns 2007-06-06 14:27:53 Stocks fell for a second straight session Wednesday after an increase in labor costs stirred concerns about inflation and interest rates and as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury flirted with 5 percent. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 120 points. Data showing unit labor costs rose a higher-than-expected 1.8 percent, stirring concerns of inflationary pressures. The Labor Department also as expected reported that productivity waned in the first quarter. The readings did little to alleviate investor concerns that the inflation-wary Federal Reserve might lean toward raising rather than lowering rates later this year. The inflation concerns alongside the European Central Bank's widely expected decision to raise its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4 percent. Stocks in Europe fell sharply. Read The Full Story Abbas Pulls Out Of Planned Talks With Israel 2007-06-06 14:24:32 The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has pulled out of planned talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after the two sides could not agree on an agenda. The Washington-sponsored meeting was to have taken place in the Palestinian territories for the first time, mostly likely on Thursday in the West Bank city of Jericho. Representatives of Abbas said he called off the meeting because the Israelis were not prepared to consider extending a proposed Gaza ceasefire to the occupied West Bank, or to discuss easing travel restrictions in the West Bank or releasing frozen Palestinian tax revenue, according to Reuters. Read The Full Story Doctors Warn That Avandia Still Has Heart Risks 2007-06-06 01:32:06 A medical study intended to demonstrate the heart safety of a well-known diabetes treatment seems, instead, to have added to the controversy over the drug. Its manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, says preliminary results of the clinical trial provide reassurance that the drug, Avandia, an oral medication for Type 2 diabetes that has been used by an estimated seven million people worldwide, does not raise the risk of a heart attack or death from cardiovascular disease. Influential doctors said that the data published online Tuesday in a major medical journal did nothing to ease their concerns about the heart risks. The doctors raised their concerns in three editorials accompanying the Avandia study in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Read The Full Story Hundreds Of Opposition Workers Arrested In Pakistan 2007-06-06 01:31:31 A government-led crackdown against the news media and the political opposition intensified in Pakistan Tuesday, with hundreds of party workers arrested and television stations bracing for raids. The crackdown came as Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf moved to limit the political fallout from his decision three months ago to suspend the nation's chief justice. Critics have accused the president of authoritarianism and said his tactics are an indication of his slipping grip on power. The arrests were made early Tuesday, with police hauling away opposition party workers across Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, said opposition leaders. Read The Full Story	Sen. Ted Stevens Told To Keep Records For Graft Probe 2007-06-07 01:50:40 U.S. Sen. Ted Stevesn (R-Alaska), the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, disclosed in an interview that the FBI asked him to preserve records as part of a widening investigation into Alaskan political corruption that has touched his son and ensnared one of his closest political confidants and financial backers. Stevens, who is famous for bringing home federal earmarks for Alaska when he was Appropriations Committee chairman, was not previously known to be linked to the Justice Department's probe, which has uncovered evidence that more than $400,000 worth of bribes were given to state lawmakers in exchange for favorable energy legislation. Investigators have used secret recording equipment, seized documents and cooperating witnesses to secure the indictments of four current and former state lawmakers, including the former state House speaker, shaking the core of Alaska's Republican Party. Two executives of a prominent energy company have pleaded guilty to bribery and extortion charges and are cooperating with the inquiry, which is being run by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and includes two federal prosecutors and FBI agents based in Anchorage, Alaska. Read The Full Story Immigration Bill Survives Challenges - For Now 2007-06-07 01:49:47 The plan to overhaul the nation's immigration system survived its most serious challenges Wednesday, when the Senate defeated amendments to disqualify hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from legalization and to extend visas to hundreds of thousands more relatives of U.S. citizens and green-card holders. By beating back challenges to the deal from the right and the left, the fragile bipartisan coalition behind the "grand bargain" showed it is holding together as the legislation nears final passage - though barely. The bill took a decidedly conservative turn last night with the adoption of amendments that would at once declare English the national language and designate English the "common language" of the United States. The Senate also blocked the bill's newly legalized illegal immigrants from receiving the earned-income tax credit, while denying legalized undocumented workers any Social Security benefits they may have earned after overstaying their visa. Read The Full Story Finally, FDA Issues Strictest Warnings On Diabetes Drugs 2007-06-07 01:48:51 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called for the toughest safety warning on two diabetes drugs, Avandia and Actos, whose health risks have become a focus of Congressional concern. That decision, disclosed on Wednesday by the F.D.A. commissioner at a packed House hearing, comes more than a year after the agency’s safety reviewers strongly recommended just such a step. And it occurs amid a Congressional investigation into why the agency delayed its warnings about Avandia for years. In a written statement, the commissioner, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, said the agency has asked the makers of Actos and Avandia to carry the more prominent warning, a so-called black box warning, of its heart risks because “despite existing warnings, these drugs were being prescribed to patients with significant heart failure.” Read The Full Story New Charges Filed In Abramoff Investigation 2007-06-06 21:03:26 The head of a Republican environmental advocacy group is set to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff scandal and is cooperating with an FBI investigation into corruption involving Congress and the Bush administration, two people close to the case said Wednesday. Italia Federici served as a go-between for Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist, and J. Steven Griles, the deputy interior secretary during President Bush's first term, prosecutors said Wednesday in documents charging her with tax evasion and obstructing a Senate inquiry into the Abramoff scandal. Under a deal with the Justice Department, she must cooperate with authorities and is identifying other criminal targets, said one of the people. Read The Full Story Air Passengers Face More Delays As U.S. Plans Fingerprinting At Airports 2007-06-06 21:02:52 Millions of Britons leaving United States airports face mandatory fingerprinting under new security guidelines. Passengers travelling from the U.S. will have to present their fingers as well as their passports at check-in from the end of next year, according to a senior security official. Virgin Atlantic, whose customers may be forced to endure longer waits in terminals, has vowed to oppose the move. Michael Jackson, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the procedure would apply to all passengers and airlines flying out of the U.S. as the country accumulates information on every foreign national travelling through America. "We will need biometric as well as biographical data," he said. Read The Full Story BAE Accused Of Secretly Paying $2 Billion To Saudi Prince For Arms Deal 2007-06-06 21:01:59 The British arms company BAE secretly paid Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia more than £1 billion ($2 billion) in connection with Britain's biggest ever weapons contract, it is alleged. A series of payments from the British firm was allegedly channelled through a U.S. bank in Washington, D.C., to an account controlled by one of the most colorful members of the Saudi ruling clan, who spent 20 years as their ambassador in the U.S. It is claimed that payments of £30 million ($60 million) were paid to Prince Bandar every quarter for at least 10 years. Read The Full Story Pentagon's Acquisition Chief Resigns 2007-06-06 21:00:46 The Pentagon's acquisition chief resigned Wednesday, the latest in a recent string of high-level departures from the department. Kenneth Krieg, the defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said his resignation would be effective July 20, or when a replacement was confirmed by the Senate, whichever came first. Krieg has been in charge of the department's research, development and purchasing of new weapons systems, aircraft and other technologies and a key adviser to the defense secretary on the military's key future programs. Read The Full Story G8 Summit To Face Rifts On Russia And Climate 2007-06-06 14:29:47 On the eve of a meeting of the leaders of the Group of 8 wealthy industrial nations, the United States remained deeply at odds with many of its international partners on climate change,and work still needed to be done before an agreement could be reached on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters alongside President George W. Bush after the two had lunch together, Merkel, the host of the summit meeting, said “there remain a few things here and there that we still need to discuss.” The two leaders made a strong show of public friendliness. Merkel characterized their meeting as “very satisfactory,” and Bush said that he had “a strong desire to work with” the German leader on combating climate change. Read The Full Story Thousands Flee As Cyclone Skirts Oman 2007-06-06 14:29:21 Oman evacuated tens of thousands of people Wednesday, suspended oil exports and closed a major port as a weakening Cyclone Gonu roared toward the Strait of Hormuz - the world's major transport artery for Persian Gulf oil. Oil markets were little changed in midday trading, but had the potential to increase as the storm - a rarity in the region - headed toward Iran.  As heavy rains lashed coastal areas of Oman, authorities closed all operations at the port of Sohar and evacuated 11,000 workers, port spokesman Dirk Jan De Vink said. Sohar's oil refinery and petrochemical plant remained running at very low levels, with authorities considering a total shutdown, he said. Read The Full Story World Health Organization Faults U.S. Handling Of TB Case 2007-06-06 14:28:18 Top officials of the World Health Organization Tuesday criticized U.S. health authorities' handling of the case of a 31-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, lawyer with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis who defied official requests that he not take a long airplane flight. At the least, local health officials should have told airlines to keep Andrew Speaker from boarding a plane once they concluded he was likely to defy advice and go ahead with plans to fly to Europe to be married. "If his physician was aware that Mr. Speaker was going to travel, then he or she should have informed the public health authorities, and the public health authorities should have informed the airline ... or put them [Speaker and his fiancee] on a watch list," said Paul Nunn, the head of WHO's office on drug-resistant tuberculosis. Read The Full Story 'Deranged' German Man Tries To Jump On Pope's Jeep 2007-06-06 14:27:28 A 27-year-old German man described by the Vatican as "clearly deranged" leaped over a barricade on Wednesday and tried to jump on to Pope Benedict's open-topped jeep. The man took the German Pope's bodyguards by surprise in St. Peter's Square, coming within a meter of the pontiff in an episode that brought back memories of the assassination attempt against his predecessor Pope John Paul in 1981. Television pictures showed the man, wearing a baseball cap, jump out of the crowd and over a wooden barricade as the Pope passed by to start his weekly audience for some 40,000 people. Hurtling from the Pope's right, he tried to jump on the back of the moving "popemobile" but managed only to touch it before being wrestled to the ground by Vatican security guards. Read The Full Story World Health Organization Warns Of Spread In Drug-Resistent TB 2007-06-06 01:32:19 Tuberculosis may reach the point where most new cases in some countries are resistant to many drugs unless far greater efforts are made now to stop the spread of the infection, World Health Organization officials said Tuesday. That chilling forecast is based in part on the organization’s analyses showing that on average, a patient infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis in 2004 was resistant to more drugs than a similar patient with that diagnosis in 1994, Dr. Paul P. Nunn, a TB expert for the organization, said at a news conference. The case of Andrew Speaker, the Atlanta, Georgia, man with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis who took commercial flights for his wedding in Greece and honeymoon in Europe and set off an international health scare, has focused attention on the disease, and prompted the news conference. Read The Full Story Editorial - Gitmo: A National Disgrace 2007-06-06 01:31:48 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Wednesday, June 6, 2007. Ever since President Bush rammed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 through Congress to lend a pretense of legality to his detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, we have urged Congress to amend the law to restore basic human rights and judicial process. Rulings by military judges this week suggest that the special detention system is so fundamentally corrupt that the only solution is to tear it down and start again. The target of the judges’ rulings were Combatant Status Review Tribunals, panels that determine whether a prisoner is an “unlawful enemy combatant” who can be tried by one of the commissions created by the 2006 law. The tribunals are, in fact, kangaroo courts that give the inmates no chance to defend themselves, allow evidence that was obtained through torture and can be repeated until one produces the answer the Pentagon wants. On Monday, two military judges dismissed separate war crimes charges against two Guantánamo inmates because of the status review system. They said the Pentagon managed to get them declared “enemy combatants,” but not “unlawful enemy combatants,” and moved to try them anyway under the 2006 law. That law says only unlawful combatants may be tried by military commissions. Lawful combatants (those who wear uniforms and carry weapons openly) fall under the Geneva Conventions. Read The Full Story Sea Lions In California Hit By High Levels Of Acid Poison 2007-06-06 01:31:13 A distressed, possibly pregnant sea lion was wheeled recently into the Marine Mammal Care Center here, just as two other lions were herded into cages in preparation for their return to the ocean. “That’s just the way it is,” said Lauren Palmer, the chief veterinarian at the center. “Two go out and more come in.” Peter Wallerstein of the Whale Rescue Team, a private group authorized by Los Angeles to rescue whales and other marine mammals, said he had found the sea lion on the sand in nearby Manhattan Beach. Wallerstein said he feared she could have been poisoned by domoic acid, a toxin released by large blooms of algae that causes seizures in sea lions. Read The Full Story
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