Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday June 12 2007 - (813)

Tuesday June 12 2007 edition
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U.S. Warns Iraq That Progress Is Needed - Soon 2007-06-12 01:01:07 The top American military commander for the Middle East has warned Iraq's prime minister in a closed-door conversation that the Iraqi government needs to make tangible political progress by next month to counter the growing tide of opposition to the war in Congress. In a Sunday afternoon discussion that mixed gentle coaxing with a sober appraisal of politics in Baghdad and Washington, the commander, Adm. William J. Fallon, told Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that the Iraqi government should aim to complete a law on the division of oil proceeds by next month. Iraq’s Shiite dominated-government, Admiral Fallon added in the meeting, has consolidated power and should have the confidence to reach out to its opponents. “You have the power,” said Admiral Fallon. “You should take the initiative.” Read The Full Story Air Force Jets Collide In Mid-Air Over Alaska, Pilots Safe 2007-06-12 01:00:35 An F-15 fighter jet crashed Monday after colliding in mid-air with another military jet during a training exercise, Air Force officials said. The other jet landed safely, and neither pilot was injured. The pilot of the F-15C ejected before the crash, said Airman Jennifer Anton, a spokeswoman at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks. The other jet, an F-16C, was damaged but landed safely, said Airman Justin Weaver, a base spokesman. It was not immediately clear what caused the collision shortly after 11 a.m. local time during a training exercise about 90 miles east of Fairbanks in Alaska's interior, said officials. A board of Air Force officers will investigate. Read The Full Story Senate Republicans Block No Confidence Resolution Against Gonzales 2007-06-11 20:17:33 Senate Republicans Monday derailed a Democratic resolution expressing no confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, refusing to cut off debate on a measure they denounced as a meaningless political stunt. In a procedural vote that required the approval of at least 60 senators for the proposed joint resolution to move forward, the tally was 53 in favor of and 38 opposed. Democrats had hoped that the non-binding measure would prompt the embattled Justice Department chief to resign, but the White House and most Republicans denounced it as a partisan maneuver that had no place in the U.S. legislative system. Read The Full Story Britain's Defense Ministry Accused Of Role In Prince Bandar Scandal 2007-06-11 20:17:06 Pressure was mounting on British government ministers for full disclosure of the government's role in Britain's biggest arms deal Monday night after claims that the Ministry of Defense (MoD) directly administered payments of more than £1 billion ($2 billion) to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia. The MoD refused to address the specific allegations, made in BBC's Panorama program, while the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, continued to stonewall questions over his role in the affair. BAE, the weapons manufacuturer at the center of the controversy, remained silent. Last week, the Guardian newspaper revealed how the payments had been made to Prince Bandar with the full knowledge and authorization of the MoD. However, last night, the BBC went further and accused the MoD of having a much more direct involvement in the transfers of money, which were uncovered by investigators for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Read The Full Story Bush Vows To Get Immigration Bill Passed 2007-06-11 13:32:49 As he heads home from an eight-day European swing to face a hostile Congress, President Bush lashed out Monday at Democrats for scheduling a vote of no confidence on his attorney general, and vowed to get his stalled immigration legislation passed, saying, “I’ll see you at the bill signing.” Addressing reporters at a news conference, Bush said the vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales - which he called “a political statement on a meaningless resolution” - would have no bearing on Gonzales’ future, no matter how it turns out. “They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it’s not going to determine - make the determination who serves in my government,” said Bush, adding, “This process has been drug out a long time, which says to me it’s political.” Read The Full Story Iraq Parliament Votes To Oust Speaker 2007-06-11 13:32:17 Iraq's parliament voted Monday to oust its speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani, a day after one of his bodyguards allegedly roughed up another lawmaker, said legislators. The parliament voted 113 to 55, with 107 members absent, to remove Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, from his post, said an adviser to deputy speaker Khalid al Attiyah. The resolution placed Mashhadani - who took the helm of the 275-member body last year - on leave, in order to select a replacement who some legislators hope will be a less polarizing and combative presence Attiyah, who is Shiite, will act as interim speaker until a successor to Mashhadani is chosen, said his adviser, who asked not to be named for security reasons. The vote specified that, like Mashhadani, the permanent successor would come from within the leading Sunni bloc in parliament. Read The Full Story Justices Rule Against Philip Morris 2007-06-11 13:31:30 The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Philip Morris Cos. Inc. cannot move a lawsuit by cigarette smokers into federal court. The unanimous decision came in a case that consumers filed against the cigarette company in state court in Arkansas. Philip Morris, a part of Altria Group Inc., moved the case to federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas, saying it could do so because the company was pervasively regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. The court said the fact that a federal agency directs a company's activities does not permit removing the case to federal court. Read The Full Story CIA Plans Cutbacks, Limits On Contractor Staffing 2007-06-11 01:39:03 Acting under pressure from Congress, the CIA has decided to trim its contractor staffing by 10 percent. It is the agency's first effort since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to curb what critics have decried as the growing privatization of U.S. intelligence work, a circumstance that has sharply boosted some personnel costs. Contractors currently make up about one-third of the CIA workforce, but CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has said that their work has not been efficiently managed. Associate Deputy Director Michael Morell said in an interview that he does not think the CIA has become a revolving door, but "Director Hayden has said we don't want to become the farm team for contractors." Morell said reviews are underway "to identify which of our jobs here at CIA should be done by staff and which of our jobs should be done by contractors or a 'mix' of contractors and staff." Effective June 1, the agency also began to bar contracting firms from hiring former CIA employees and then offering the employees' services to the CIA within the first year and a half of their retirement from the agency - a practice known as "bidding back." Read The Full Story Michael Moore Rides To Rescue Of Nemesis Out To Discredit Him 2007-06-11 01:38:27 It's not easy being a nemesis. Particularly if your opponent is Michael Moore. Jim Kenefick has spent years trying to expose the documentary maker's "deceptions and half-truths" through his website, Moorewatch.com,under the mantra: "Watching Michael Moore's every move." What he hadn't counted on was that Moore would turn out to be his anonymous guardian angel, coming to his financial rescue with a check  for $12,000 (£6,000). The saga began last year when Kenefick was struggling to pay for healthcare for his wife, who was recovering from a neurological disorder and had no medical insurance. Kenefick, whose site is one of the most popular anti-Moore blogs, in desperation posted a note in which he pleaded for advice in words which he may live to regret: "If you can help, I will be in your debt for all of time." An operator like Moore doesn't miss such a chance. Particularly as he was making his latest film "Sicko" - a journey into the tragic, farcical world of U.S. healthcare. On May 1 last year Kenefick received a check from an anonymous individual for a lump sum equivalent to a year's medical fees for his wife. It was enough to ease the crisis and ensure the continuation of the website, so Kenefick banked the check and put up a thank you note to the person he called his "guardian angel". Read The Full Story French Right Poised For Landslide Election Win 2007-06-11 01:37:55 The French right are heading for a parliamentary landslide after an historic score in Sunday's first-round vote promised president Nicolas Sarkozy a majority to secure his economic reforms. Pro-Sarkozy parliament members could win up to 470 seats in the 577-seat national assembly, according to predictions by polling firm CSA. The divided Socialist opposition was forecast to lose between 60 and 140 parliament members, according to pollsters. The "blue tide" of conservative seats across the country was expected to confirm Sarkozy's high public support since his election last month. Strong parliamentary backing would allow him to immediately begin his "economic revolution", slashing taxes, loosening the 35-hour week, limiting strike powers and cutting the numbers of public sector workers. Read The Full Story	NASA: Shuttle Mission Extended For Repair Of Thermal Blanket 2007-06-12 01:00:52 Astronauts will try to fix a thermal blanket that peeled back during the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, extending the spacecraft's mission from 11 to 13 days, NASA managers said Monday. No decision had been made on whether the loosened blanket, covering a 4-by-6-inch area over a pod for engines, will be repaired during a previously planned third spacewalk or an additional one, said the managers. The loosened blanket was discovered Saturday during an inspection. Engineers think the blanket was loosened by aerodynamic forces during the launch, not by being hit by debris during liftoff. The rest of the vehicle appeared to be in fine shape, said NASA. Read The Full Story 17 Killed In Palestinian Infighting 2007-06-12 01:00:17 Hamas officials reported that a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the house of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, causing damage but no injuries. That attack came just hours after Monday's brutal infighting that killed 17 Palestinians. Haniyeh and his family were present during the attack on the house in the Shati refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, said Hamas security officials. A day earlier, Haniyeh's house had also come under fire. Meanwhile, rival gunmen exchanged fire at two Gaza hospitals and Cabinet ministers fled their weekly meeting after the government headquarters was caught in the crossfire. Read The Full Story Businesses Accused Of Environmental Hypocrisy At British Conference 2007-06-11 20:17:17 The business community was accused Monday of "cynicism" for saying one thing and doing another in the fight against climate change. At a "summit" on the issue organized by the Guardian newspaper in London, Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, accused Shell of sponsoring the event in a bid to align itself with green issues while failing to clean up its own act. Shell was spending more on exploiting fossil fuels - as in its carbon-intensive tar sands operations in Canada - while failing to put out its illegal flares in Nigeria, he argued. "Shell needs to move away from PR being a term for public relations and use it for pollution reduction," he said. Read The Full Story U.S. University Denies Tenure To Outspoken Holocaust Academic 2007-06-11 20:16:40 One of the most rancorous disputes in American academia has ended with a prominent political scientist with controversial views on Israel and anti-semitism being denied tenure at one of the country's top 10 private universities. Norman Finkelstein, author of "The Holocaust Industry", now has less than a year remaining on his contract with the political sciences department of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. He lost his bid for a lifelong post after a four to three vote of the promotions and tenure board. The decision came at the end of several months of wrangling, both within the Catholic university and within the wider academic and Jewish communities in the U.S. Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, has argued in his books that claims of anti-semitism are used to dampen down criticism of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians and that the Holocaust is exploited by some Jewish institutions for their own gain. Read The Full Story Court Rules In Favor Of Alleged 'Enemy Combatant' 2007-06-11 13:32:33 The Bush administration cannot legally detain a U.S. resident it believes is an al-Qaeda sleeper agent without charging him, a divided federal appeals court ruled Monday. The court said sanctioning the indefinite detention of civilians would have "disastrous consequences for the constitution - and the country." In the 2-1 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that the federal Military Commissions Act doesn't strip Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident, of his constitutional rights to challenge his accusers in court. It ruled the government must allow al-Marri to be released from military detention. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court Allows Cleanup Costs Recovery By Companies 2007-06-11 13:31:55 The Supreme Court strengthened a landmark anti-pollution program Monday, enabling companies to recover costs when they voluntarily clean up hazardous material. In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the federal Superfund law allows lawsuits to recover costs incurred in voluntary cleanups. The Bush administration had argued otherwise. The law is worded ''so broadly as to sweep in virtually all persons likely to incur cleanup costs'' and the government's interpretation ''makes little textual sense,'' said the opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas. The case involves a company that contracted with the U.S. government to retrofit rocket motors. Atlantic Research Corp. voluntarily cleaned up pollution from rocket propellent that seeped into the soil and groundwater. Read The Full Story Breach Shows U.S. Borders Still Vulnerable 2007-06-11 01:39:20 U.S. authorities last week blamed tuberculosis carrier Andrew Speaker's illicit reentry to America on a single point of human error, faulting a Champlain, New York, inspector who failed to detain him as instructed by a computer alert. The episode underscored much broader gaps in border security that may persist as a result of actions taken by Congress and the Bush administration on passport and immigration policies in recent weeks, former U.S. officials, say analysts and government reports. In August, a congressional study said investigators who used fake identification documents and posed as American travelers reported breaching U.S. land border inspections 93 percent of the time in 2002 and 2003, succeeding in 42 of 45 tries. In 2006, testers got through on all 18 attempts. Read The Full Story GOP Loyalists Often Get Immigration Judgeships 2007-06-11 01:38:48 The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, despite laws that preclude such considerations, according to an analysis by the Washington Post. At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law, Justice Department, immigration court and other records show. Two newly appointed immigration judges were failed candidates for the U.S. Tax Court nominated by President Bush; one fudged his taxes and the other was deemed unqualified to be a tax judge by the nation's largest association of lawyers. Both were Republican loyalists. Read The Full Story BAE Investigation: Questions Over Secret Bank Transfers 2007-06-11 01:38:13 The British arms company BAE Systems used a secret payments system to transfer more than £13 million ($26 million) to a company linked to David Hart, the controversial former Conservative defense adviser, according to legal sources. He has acted as a lobbyist both for Britain's biggest arms company and also for the giant military manufacturer Boeing in the U.S. Hart, an Old Etonian who lives in a Suffolk mansion, became notorious in the 1980s for helping the then prime minster Margaret Thatcher break the miners' strike in an operation he ran from a luxury suite at Claridges hotel, in London. BAE is alleged to have paid the money into a previously unknown offshore company linked to Hart called Defense Consultancy Ltd (DCL). Read The Full Story Russia's Gazprom Hints At British Acquisition By End Of June 2007-06-11 01:37:12 The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said Sunday it was about to close a deal that would increase its presence in Britain but did not name the company. Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom's deputy chief executive, said at an economic forum in St. Petersburg Sunday: "In the near future there will be a deal to further increase the customer base on the British market. Anyone who will be in London for the Wimbledon tennis tournament will know about it." Wimbledon starts at the end of this month. Gazprom has long been tipped to buy Centrica, the owner of British Gas, or other European companies as it seeks a greater presence in the markets for its gas and Medvedev's words may spark speculative interest in Centrica's shares Monday. Read The Full Story
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