Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday June 27 2007 - (813)

Wednesday June 27 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
House Report Faults Pentagon Accounting Of Iraqi Forces 2007-06-27 02:26:02 The United States has invested $19 billion to train and equip nearly 350,000 Iraqi soldiers and police since toppling Saddam Hussein, but the ability of those forces to provide security remains in doubt, according to the findings of a bipartisan congressional investigation to be released Wednesday. As a result, President Bush's pledge to have U.S. troops "stand down" as Iraqi forces "stand up" remains unfulfilled. Instead, U.S. troop numbers and operations have escalated in recent months, and the overall level of violence has not decreased. Despite the substantial number of Iraqi security forces and their increasing willingness to fight - demonstrated by rising numbers of casualties - their progress toward taking full responsibility for the nation's security remains mixed, according to a report on the investigation by the oversight panel of the House Armed Services Committee. U.S. commanders now predict that it will take years and tens of thousands more Iraqi soldiers and police to achieve that goal. The Pentagon "cannot report in detail how many of the 346,500 Iraqi military and police personnel that the coalition trained are operational today," according to the 250-page report. Details of the document were provided to the Washington Post by congressional staff members. Read The Full Story New Scrutiny As Immigrants Die In Custody 2007-06-27 02:25:39 Sandra M. Kenley was returning home from her native Barbados in 2005 when she was swept into the United States’ fastest-growing form of incarceration, immigration detention. Seven weeks later, Ms. Kenley died in a rural Virginia jail, where she had complained of not receiving medicine for high blood pressure. She was one of 62 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004, according to a new tally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that counted many more deaths than the 20 previously known. No government body is charged with accounting for deaths in immigration detention, a patchwork of county jails, privately run prisons and federal facilities where more than 27,500 people who are not American citizens are held on any given day while the government decides whether to deport them. Getting details about those who die in custody is a difficult undertaking left to family members, advocacy groups and lawyers. Read The Full Story More Evacuations In Britain As Floods Threaten To Burst Dam 2007-06-27 02:25:01 Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Yorkshire, England, Tuesday after record rainfall led to a "significant risk" that a dam containing a reservoir could burst. Firefighters were trying to drain the Ulley reservoir, which is less than a mile from the M1 motorway and near a power station that serves most of Sheffield. In a separate development, West Mercia police said they were concerned about the safety of a man who called his wife Monday to say his car was being washed away by floods. He has not been heard from since. A helicopter search Monday and Tuesday failed to find any trace of the Volvo V70 estate or the man, who was travelling to Worcester from Evesham. People living near Ulley dam, in South Yorkshire, were urged by the council to leave their houses after a large section of the earth dam collapsed into a flooded stream below. Read The Full Story Judge Orders Prison Time For Ex-Interior Dept. Deputy 2007-06-27 02:24:23 A federal judge rejected the tearful pleas of the former second-ranking official in the Interior Department Tuesday and sentenced him to 10 months in prison for a felony conviction of obstructing a Senate investigation into corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramhoff. "You are not above the law," U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle told former deputy interior secretary J. Steven Griles as he asked for forgiveness. Griles pleaded guilty in March to lying to the Senate about his relationship with Abramoff. In the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended a sentence of five months of house arrest and five months in prison. But Huvelle imposed a sterner penalty of 10 months in prison and a $30,000 fine. She said she wanted to send a message to deter wrongdoing by high-ranking government officials. Defense attorneys had asked for three months of home detention, community service and a "reasonable fine." Read The Full Story Gas Rationing Sparks Iranians Anger 2007-06-27 02:23:43 Angry Iranians attacked several gas stations in protest after the government suddenly began long-threatened fuel rationing, while many others rushed to fill their tanks. The Oil Ministry announced the start of rationing Tuesday night, just three hours before it was due to begin at midnight. The sudden announcement sparked long lines at stations as Iranians tried to get one last fill-up before the limitations kicked in. Several stations were attacked "by vandals," state radio reported early Wednesday. It did not say how many stations were damaged or give details. The Iranian government has been planning for weeks to implement rationing, which was supposed to begin May 21 but was repeatedly delayed. In May, the government reduced subsidies for gas, causing a 25 percent jump in the price. Read The Full Story CIA Releases Files On Past Misdeeds - Assassination Plots, Domestic Spying And More 2007-06-27 02:22:36 Hundreds of pages of decades-old documents declassified and released by the CIA Tuesday revealed a 1970s-era agency in the throes of unaccustomed self-examination, caught between its traditional secrecy and demands that it come clean on a history of unsavory activities. Prompted by the then-unraveling Watergate affair, and by fears that CIA involvement in that scandal would be exposed along with other illegal operations, the agency combed its files for what it called "delicate" information with "flap potential." The result was a collection of documents the CIA called the "family jewels." Partly disclosed Tuesday, the documents chronicle activities including assassination plans, illegal wiretaps and hunts for spies at political conventions. One document spoke of a plan to poison an African leader. Another revealed that the CIA had offered a Mafia boss $150,000 to kill Cuba's Fidel Castro. Read The Full Story U.S. Consumer Confidence Falls In June 2007-06-26 14:45:11 Two pillars of the economy - consumer confidence and the housing market - sent off warning signs on Tuesday that could mean lower spending during the critical fall shopping season, particularly if the labor market weakens. Both pieces of the economic puzzle dropped into a market that is worried about inflation, interest rates and economic growth ahead of a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve that begins Wednesday. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates steady, but investors are watching for clues about future moves. In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose only slightly as investors were unnerved about the larger-than-expected drop in consumer sentiment. The New York-based Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index fell almost 5 points to 103.9, down from a revised 108.5 in May, reaching the lowest level since August 2006 when the reading was 100.2. Analysts had expected a reading of 106. Read The Full Story Iraq Issues Arrest Warrant Minister Of Culture, A Sunni 2007-06-26 14:39:31 An arrest warrant was issued against Iraq's Sunni culture minister, and police raided his home on Tuesday after he was accused of ordering a 2005 assassination attempt against a secular Sunni politician that killed his two sons, said officials. The main Sunni political bloc immediately demanded the decision be reversed. Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi, who was not home during the raid, was identified by two suspected militants as the mastermind of a Feb. 8, 2005, ambush against then-parliamentary candidate Mithal al-Alusi, according to Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman. Al-Alusi escaped unharmed but two of his sons were killed. "The two who planned and carried out the killings of Mithal al-Alusi's two sons confessed that they took orders from him," said al-Dabbagh. He added that al-Hashimi was a mosque imam at the time. Read The Full Story Commentary:A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney 2007-06-26 14:38:31 Intellpuke: The following commentary by Sally Quinn, co-host, with John Meacham, of "On Faith", an online conversation about religion, appears in the Washington Post edition for Tuesday, June 26, 2007. Ms. Quinn's commentary follows: The big question right now among Republicans is how to remove Vice President Cheney from office. Even before this week's blockbuster seriesin the [Washington] Post, discontent in Republican ranks was rising. As the reputed architect of the war in Iraq, Cheney is viewed as toxic, and as the administration's leading proponent of an attack on Iran, he is seen as dangerous. As long as he remains vice president, according to this thinking, he has the potential to drag down every member of the party - including the presidential nominee - in next year's elections. Removing a sitting vice president is not easy, but this may be the moment. I remember Barry Goldwater sitting in my parents' living room in 1973, in the last days of Watergate, debating whether to lead a group of senior Republicans to the White House to tell President Nixon he had to go. His hesitation was that he felt loyalty to the president and the party. But in the end he felt a greater loyalty to his country, and he went to the White House. Read The Full Story North Korea Says Funds Issue Resolved, Will Shut Down Reactor 2007-06-26 14:37:22 North Korea announced Monday that a prolonged dispute over $25 million frozen in Macau bank accounts has finally been resolved, opening the way for closure of its main nuclear reactor. The declaration, by a Foreign Ministry spokesman on the official Korean Central News Agency, said North Korea is now ready to carry out an agreement reached in Beijing on Feb. 13 to shut down the reactor and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to make sure it does not resume operation. Olli Heinonen, the agency's deputy director general for safeguards, was scheduled to arrive Tuesday in Pyongyang,  the North Korean capital, for discussions on closing the reactor, in nearby Yongbyon, and setting up regular inspections by IAEA experts. Read The Full Story GOP Senator Say Iraq Plan Not Working 2007-06-26 01:43:46 Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior Republican and a reliable vote for President Bush on the war, said Monday that Bush's Iraq strategy was not working and that the U.S. should downsize the military's role. The unusually blunt assessment deals a political blow to Bush, who has relied heavily on GOP support to stave off anti-war legislation. It also comes as a surprise. Most Republicans have said they were willing to wait until September to see if Bush's recently ordered troop buildup in Iraq was working. "In my judgment, the costs and risks of continuing down the current path outweigh the potential benefits that might be achieved," Lugar, R-Indiana, said in a Senate floor speech. "Persisting indefinitely with the surge strategy will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term." Read The Full Story Editorial: Three Bad Rulings 2007-06-26 01:42:52 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, June 26, 2007. The Supreme Court hit the trifecta Monday: Three cases involving the First Amendment. Three dismaying decisions by Chief Justice John Roberts’ new conservative majority. Chief Justice Roberts and the four others in his ascendant bloc used the next-to-last decision day of this term to re-open the political system to a new flood of special-interest money, to weaken protection of student expression and to make it harder for citizens to challenge government violations of the separation of church and state. In the process, the reconfigured court extended its noxious habit of casting aside precedents without acknowledging it -  insincere judicial modesty scored by Justice Antonin Scalia in a concurring opinion. First, campaign finance. Four years ago, a differently constituted court upheld sensible provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act designed to prevent corporations and labor unions from circumventing the ban on their spending in federal campaigns by bankrolling phony “issue ads.” These ads purport to just educate voters about a policy issue, but are really aimed at a particular candidate. Read The Full Story Ex-EPA Chief Defends Role In 9/11 Response 2007-06-26 01:42:16 Testifying at a Congressional hearing on Monday about the government’s environmental response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, Christie Whitmanstaunchly defended her statements assuring the public that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe in the days immediately after the attack. Facing some of her toughest Congressional critics, Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, repeatedly denied the critics’ assertions that there had been a deliberate attempt to play down health risks or that the White House had improperly influenced statements she made in the weeks after 9/11. She said that she was addressing residents of Lower Manhattan - not workers at ground zero - when she said a week after the attack that the air was safe to breathe. She said that the agency issued strong and repeated warnings to workers on the debris pile to wear protective equipment, but that her agency had no ability or authority to enforce that requirement. Read The Full Story Mexico Demotes Senior Police Officials In Graft Crackdown 2007-06-26 01:41:13 The heads of federal police agencies in all 32 Mexican states and 250 other high-ranking officers were demoted Monday in one of the broadest corruption crackdowns in this country's recent history. The demotions are the latest step in President Felipe Calderon's campaign to fight drug cartels, which are blamed for more than 1,000 execution-style killings this year and have been largely undeterred by Mexican military offensives against their strongholds. The demoted police chiefs and officers will undergo ethics training in hopes of bringing them up to "international standards" for professionalism, Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna said Monday at a news conference. They will remain on the payroll - under Mexican law, it is extremely difficult to fire police officers. Garcia Luna gave no details about possible crimes committed by the demoted officials or whether any of them would eventually be removed from office. Read The Full Story	Editorial: Gitmos Across America 2007-06-27 02:25:50 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Toughness is the watchword in immigration policy these days. When you combine the new toughness with same-old bureaucratic indolence and ineptitude, you get a situation like that described by Nina Bernstein in the Times Tuesday. She wrote about how the boom in immigration detention - the nation’s fastest-growing form of incarceration - ensnares people for dubious reasons, denies them access to medicine and lawyers and sometimes holds them until they die. Sandra M. Kenley, a legal permanent resident who had high blood pressure and a bleeding uterus, died in a rural Virginia jail after not receiving her medication. Returning home from a trip to Barbados she was locked up because of two old misdemeanor drug convictions. Abdoulai Sall, an auto mechanic, had no criminal record, but was still seized during an immigration interview. He had a severe kidney ailment and he, too, complained about not getting his medicine. He got sicker and died in another Virginia jail last December. Sixty-two immigrants have died since 2004 while being held in a secretive detention system, a patchwork of federal centers, private prisons and local jails. Advocacy groups and lawyers say that the system not only denies detainees the most basic rights but also lacks the oversight and regulations that apply to federal prisons. Instead of fixing this broken system, the Senate bill that is lumbering toward final passage - after surviving a crucial procedural vote yesterday - is overloaded with provisions that will make it even harsher and more unfair. Read The Full Story Psychiatrists Top List In Gifts From Pharmaceutical Companies 2007-06-27 02:25:19 As states begin to require that drug companies disclose their payments to doctors for lectures and other services, a pattern has emerged: psychiatrists earn more money from drug makers than doctors in any other specialty. How this money may be influencing psychiatrists and other doctors has become one of the most contentious issues in health care. For instance, the more psychiatrists have earned from drug makers, the more they have prescribed a new class of powerful medicines known as atypical antipsychotics to children, for whom the drugs are especially risky and mostly unapproved. Vermont officials disclosed Tuesday that drug company payments to psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year, to an average of $45,692 each from $20,835 in 2005. Antipsychotic medicines are among the largest expenses for the state’s Medicaid program. Over all last year, drug makers spent $2.25 million on marketing payments, fees and travel expenses to Vermont doctors, hospitals and universities, a 2.3 percent increase over the prior year, said the state. Read The Full Story Buffet Helps Raise $1 Million For Clinton In New York 2007-06-27 02:24:37 Billionaire investor Warren Buffett used his business clout and folksy wisdom to raise $1 million for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, telling big donors that Democrats are better than Republicans  at taking care of the less fortunate. Buffett has said he admires both Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama and could support either one. He mentioned neither by name as he regaled listeners in the New York event billed as "A Conversation with Hillary Clinton and Warren Buffett." Many of the attendees work on Wall Street. They paid $500 to hear Buffett and the New York senator, $1,000 to attend a separate cocktail party or $4,600 to attend a dinner as well, bringing the take to $1 million, said a Clinton spokeswoman. Read The Full Story Conoco, Exxon Exit Venezuelan Oil Deals 2007-06-27 02:23:57 Conoco Phillips is pulling out of its Venezuelan oil ventures after failing to agree on new contract terms with the populist government of President Hugo Chavez, and Exxon Mobil said it had also reached an impasse in negotiations there. The stalemate follows the Venezuelan national oil company's seizure of majority stakes last month in four projects in an area containing one of the largest oil deposits in the world. The move was part of a wider effort by Chavez to boost state control over parts of the economy such as utilities, television and telecommunications. It also reflected a recent trend in some oil-rich countries, such as Russia, toward squeezing foreign oil companies to a point where many of them prefer to leave. Four other major oil companies signed deals Tuesday giving the Venezuelan state oil company 60 to 83 percent interests in their ventures. The companies were Chevron, Statoil, Total and BP. Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda, Seeking New Influence, Urges Arabs To Aid Hamas 2007-06-27 02:23:25 Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, called on all Muslims Monday to support the Islamic movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip by sending money and weapons to defend it against what he said are attacks planned by Western and Arab governments. The appeal marked a shift in tactics for al-Qaeda, which has long criticized Hamas for not adhering to strict interpretations of Islamic principles and for its participation in Palestinian elections last year. The appeal follows Hamas's conquest of Gaza this month in a brutal five-day battle against Fatah, the rival Palestinian party headquartered in the West Bank. With the Palestinian Authority now split into two camps, and Gaza cut off from international assistance as the United States and Israel back Fatah and President Mahmoud Abbas, al-Qaeda is seizing an opportunity to increase its influence. "We are with you ... despite all the mistakes of your leadership," Zawahiri told Hamas in an audio recording posted on a Web site frequently used by groups linked to al-Qaeda. Read The Full Story Another GOP Senator Urges Iraq Pullout 2007-06-26 14:45:29 U.S. Sen. George Voinovich said Tuesday the U.S. should begin pulling troops out of Iraq and bolster diplomatic efforts, becoming the second Republican lawmaker in as many days to declare President Bush's war strategy a failure. "It's in their best interest to become part of the solution instead of sitting on the sidelines," the Ohio senator said of the Iraqi people. "I don't think they'll get it until they know we're leaving." Voinovich's remarks come on the heels of similar comments by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana. The two GOP senators previously had expressed concerns about Bush's decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq in a massive U.S.-led security push in Baghdad and Anbar province, but they had stopped short of saying U.S. troops should leave and declined to back Democratic legislation setting a deadline for troop withdrawals. Read The Full Story U.K. Defense Contractor BAE Systems Is Under Justice Dept. Investigation 2007-06-26 14:39:54 BAE Systems PLC said Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice has begun an investigation of the company's dealings with Saudi Arabia. BAE's brief announcement said the investigation related to the company's compliance with anti-corruption laws. BAE shares opened 6 percent lower on the London Stock Exchange at $8.30. The company has denied accusations that it paid illegal kickbacks to members of the Saudi royal family as part of the $86 billion Al-Yamamah aircraft deal negotiated in 1985. Read The Full Story Fred Thompson Defends His Lobbying Record 2007-06-26 14:39:11 Fred Thompson, a likely Republican presidential candidate, on Tuesday defended his work as a Washington lobbyist, telling the Associated Press that lobbying is an important part of life because "government's got their hands in everything." The actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee added, "Nobody yet has pointed out any of my clients that didn't deserve representation." Thompson, who likes to cast himself as a political outsider, earned more than $1 million lobbying the federal government for more than 20 years. He lobbied for a savings-and-loan deregulation bill that helped hasten the industry's collapse and a failed nuclear energy project that cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars. In a brief interview with the A.P., Thompson said he expects to hear criticism about his lobbying activities as he moves closer to declaring his candidacy. Opponents emphasized his lobbying work during his Senate races in 1994 and 1996. Read The Full Story Pro Wrestler Benoit Strangled Wife, Smothered Son, Before Hanging Himself 2007-06-26 14:38:15 Pro wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his son before hanging himself in his weight room, a law enforcement official close to the investigation told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Authorities also said they are investigating whether steroids may have been a factor in the deaths of Benoit, his wife and their 7-year-old son. Steroid abuse has been linked to depression, paranoia, and aggressive behavior or angry outbursts known as "roid rage." "We don't know yet. That's one of the things we'll be looking at," said Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard. He said test results may not be back for weeks. Autopsies were scheduled Tuesday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Read The Full Story U.S. May Deport Ex-Councilwoman 2007-06-26 02:18:16 A former Adelanto City Council member who resigned after questions of her citizenship status were raised two years ago now faces deportation for voting in the 2004 presidential election. Cuban-born Zoila Meyer surrendered to the San Bernardino County office of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday and was arrested on charges of violating immigration laws. The arrest stems from Meyer's voting in the presidential election and pleading guilty to an unlawful voter charge last year. Meyer, a 40-year-old mother of four who has lived in the United States since she was 1, is a legal alien resident but not a U.S. citizen, according to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office. Meyer could not be reached Friday but told the Associated Press that she always assumed she was a citizen, and was unaware of her immigration status when she voted and ran for office. "It makes me feel like we're all just numbers," she said. "I see people writing, 'This is my country.' It really isn't. It belongs to the government, and they decide who stays and who goes…. You think you're free; you're really not. If they can do this to me, they can do it to anybody." Read The Full Story American Indian Tribes Speak Out About Climate Change 2007-06-26 01:43:05 American Indian leaders are speaking out more forcefully about the danger of climate change. Members of six tribes recently gathered near the Baker River in New Hampshire's White Mountains for a ceremony honoring ''Earth Mother.'' Talking Hawk, a Mohawk Indian who asked to be identified by his Indian name, pointed to the river's tea-colored water as proof that the overwhelming amount of pollution humans have produced has caused changes around the globe. ''Earth Mother is fighting back - not only from the four winds but also from underneath,'' he said. ''Scientists call it global warming. We call it Earth Mother getting angry.'' At a United Nations meeting last month, several American Indian leaders spoke at a session called ''Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change.'' Also in May, tribal representatives from Alaska and northern Canada - where pack ice has vanished earlier and earlier each spring - traveled to Washington to press their case. Read The Full Story Ex-Aides Break With Bush On 'No Child Left Behind' 2007-06-26 01:42:40 President Bush urged lawmakers Monday to renew No Child Left Behind, his landmark education initiative, but one of his biggest political liabilities in achieving that goal comes from an unlikely source: his former aides. Five years after they helped craft and implement the initiative, senior administration officials from Bush's first term are speaking out against the law with increasing boldness. The shift, combined with mounting criticism from both the political right and left in Congress, is causing supporters of the law to worry that it might not win renewal this year. Speaking in the East Room of the White House Monday, Bush repeated his plea for speedy passage of the law. "The No Child Left Behind Act is working, and Congress needs to reauthorize this good piece of legislation," he said. Read The Full Story Chinese-Made Tires Are Ordered Recalled 2007-06-26 01:41:54 Federal officials have told a small New Jersey importer to recall 450,000 radial tires for pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans after the company disclosed that its Chinese manufacturer had stopped including a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating. Tread separation is the same defect that led to the recall of millions of Firestone tires in 2000. At the time, tire failure was linked to an increased risk of rollover of light trucks and S.U.V.’s. The company, Foreign Tire Sales of Union, New Jersey, had originally sought the federal government’s help with a recall, saying it did not have enough money to recall all the tires itself. Typically, importers are responsible for the cost of recalling defective foreign products. But officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it remained the responsibility of Foreign Tire Sales to pay for the costs of the recall, said Heather Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the agency. She said the agency wanted “a full tire recall” by the company. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php