Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday July 27 2007 - (813)

Friday July 27 2007 edition
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From Coast To Coast Federal Lawmakers Are Under Investigation 2007-07-27 02:33:23 The way U.S. Representative John T. Doolittle has been talking about it back home in California, his indictment on federal corruption charges is only a matter of time. Doolittle acknowledges that the Justice Department pressed him this spring to accept a plea bargain and confess to criminal charges involving his relationship with the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, he says he refused the deal. His public relations situation has become so desperate that he and his wife, Julie, went on a local talk-radio show in Sacramento several weeks ago to describe, in detail, the four-hour F.B.I.raid that was carried out in April on their Virginia home. Doolittle, a former member of the House Republican leadership, said the raid was an effort to coerce him to “admit to a crime that I did not commit.” Among members of Congress, Doolittle is far from alone in feeling heat from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department. More than a dozen current and former lawmakers are under scrutiny in cases involving their work on Capitol Hill. Read The Full Story At Least 25 Killed By Car Bomb In Long-Secure Baghdad Neighborhood 2007-07-27 02:32:54 A car bomb tore through a crowded market in central Baghdad on Thursday evening, killing at least 25 people and injuring 110, said police. A cloud of black smoke rose over much of the city after the explosion, which set a three-story apartment building on fire. Police said many of the victims were women shopping for food or clothing. The explosion was the latest in a string of car bombs in Karrada, a largely Shiite district long considered one of Baghdad's safest neighborhoods. More than 50 people have been killed in seven car bomb attacks in the neighborhood this month. There was no significant violence in Karrada in June, police records show. Read The Full Story Congress Delivers Blow To Bush's European Missile Project By Slashing Funding 2007-07-26 22:10:59 George Bush's plans to establish a European missile defense system suffered a big setback Thursday when a Congressional committee slashed the funding. The House appropriations committee cut $139 million (£69.5 million) from the $310 million the Bush administration wants for preparatory work on the missile project in Europe. It approved funds for a radar system in the Czech Republic but cut the $139 million Bush requested to establish a missile interception system in Poland, the most controversial part of the defense system. In addition, the committee cut a further $159 million from U.S.-based parts of the missile plan. John Murtha, chairman of the committee, said the Bush administration has "got to convince us this is worthwhile". Read The Full Story French-Libyan Nuclear Deal Criticized 2007-07-26 22:10:32 Environmentalists and France's leftist opposition on Thursday criticized a preliminary deal to provide civilian nuclear technology to Libya, with some claiming France used it as a bargaining chip to help free a group of medics held by Libya. President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the deal, a first step toward selling Libya a nuclear-powered plant to desalinate sea water, during a visit to the North African country Wednesday. The trip came a day after Libya released five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had faced life in prison on charges they'd infected the children - allegations they denied. Their release, partially brokered by French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy, removed a major obstacle to Libya rejoining the international community. French-born Eurodeputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the Green Party called the nuclear deal a "ransom". Read The Full Story 2 Dead, 4 Injured In Mojave, California, Airport Explosion 2007-07-26 22:09:47 An explosion on Thursday at a Mojave Desert airport left two people dead and four others injured, said authorities. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which happened around 2:45 p.m. in a remote section of the Mojave Air and Space Port, said Tony Diffenbaugh, an inspector with the Kern County Fire Department. The airport is home of Scaled Composites, the builder of SpaceShipOne, the first private manned rocket to reach space. The company is developing a successor for the new space tourism business Virgin Galactic. It wasn't immediately clear whether any of the company's buildings or equipment were involved. Read The Full Story Disgusted By Email 2007-07-26 20:55:03   Very rarely am I disgusted by an email that comes through.  We've had many very kind words from our readers, and a few harsh ones.    It's not too often that one like this comes across my desk.  From: Big Brother To: editor@freeinternetpress.com Date: July 26, 2007  4:36pm You have no news about the JEWS causing these crimes and wars and you DON'T want to know do you?????  Who is your  Kosher paymaster???? Name the Jackals or you are NOT FREE.   Well, Mr. Brother, there are many terms for you.  The kindest one I will use here is Antisemitic.    Racial prejudice has no place in modern society.  Bigoted people like you are one of the biggest reasons for the problems in the world.    Despite your twisted perception of reality, there's absolutely no reason to believe the Jewish people as individuals or a group, have anything to do with "crimes and war".  If you take a serious overview of current events in the world, it should be very clear who the war criminals are.    We! deliver the news, we don't create it.  If there is a newsworthy event that should have been published, we're more than happy to run it.    There is no Jewish conspiracy.  The only conspiracy has been caused by people like you committing horrendous crimes.   Try to set aside your biases, and take a serious look at the world around you.  You may find what you find very enlightening. Read The Full Story Dow Plunges More Than 310 Points On Credit Market Fears 2007-07-26 19:04:05 Wall Street suffered one of its biggest drops of the year Thursday, as the Dow Jones industrial average closed down more than 310 points, likely as a result of growing fears in the sub-prime mortgage and credit markets. Thursday's 2.3-percent plunge wiped out last week's record gains - a 283-point spike in the Dow on July 12 and its recent ascension to the 14,000 mark. The Nasdaq closed down 1.8 percent Wednesday, and the S&P 500 was down 2.3 percent. Analysts say Thursday's dive is the result of ongoing erosion in some market fundamentals that many chose to ignore. "As one of my colleagues put it, it was a question of picking up nickels in front of a steam roller," said Thomson Financial analyst Jeoff Hall. "Now, those hands are getting rolled over. It was bound to happen." Read The Full Story Taliban Negotiate Over South Korean Hostages 2007-07-26 19:03:34 Afghan clerics and tribal elders are negotiating for the release of 22 South Korean hostages, who a Taliban spokesman said Thursday have been split into small groups and are being fed bread, yogurt and rice a week after their capture. A local police chief said the talks have been difficult because the Taliban's demands were unclear. "One says, 'Let's exchange them for my relative,' the others say, 'Let's release the women,' and yet another wants a deal for money," said Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi, police chief in Qarabagh. "They have got problems among themselves." The Taliban reiterated their demand that jailed militants be freed in exchange for the captives, and set the latest of several deadlines - midday Friday - for the condition to be met or more hostages would be killed. Read The Full Story Stock Market Slides On Oil, Housing Worries 2007-07-26 12:53:37 Wall Street hit a sharp skid Thursday as more worrisome signs about the health of the housing market emerged and oil prices edged near last summer’s record. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index fell more than 2 percent, dipping below the 1,500 mark for the first time since last month. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled almost 250 points. Losses for the Nasdaq were equally steep. Investors had a lot of bad news to digest, much of it coming from the distressed housing market. The Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes dropped 6.6 percent in June, and that sales in previous months were lower than first estimated. In the last year, new home sales have fallen 22 percent. Also today, there was dismal news out of two major home builders. D.R. Horton, the nation’s second-largest builder, reported a loss of $823.8 million - far more than Wall Street analysts were expecting. Beazer Homes reported a loss in the second quarter of $123 million. Read The Full Story Bush Administration Urges Full Funding For Warheads 2007-07-26 12:53:11 The Bush administration has told Congress that delays in funding for a new generation of nuclear weapons may require a return to underground testing to ensure that older warheads remain reliable. The administration included the warning in a four-page statement on nuclear weapons signed by the secretaries of energy, defense and state and sent to Congress this week. The document defended the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead program, the funding for which is contained in fiscal 2008 authorization and appropriations bills still before Congress. In their statement, the secretaries said, "Delays on RRW ... raise the prospect of having to return to underground nuclear testing to certify existing weapons." The White House had sought $82 million for the program and hoped to have Congress vote next year on proceeding with production of new warheads that could be deployed by 2012. Read The Full Story Commentary: War Crimes And The White House 2007-07-26 12:52:39 Intellpuke: The following commentary by P.X. Kelley and Robert F. Turner appears in the Washington Post edition for Thursday, July 26, 2007. Retired Gen. P.X. Kelley served as commandant of the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1987. Robert F. Turner is co-founder of the University of Virginia's Center for National Security Law and a former chair of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security. Their commentary follows: One of us was appointed commandant of the Marine Corps by President Ronald Reagan; the other served as a lawyer in the Reagan White House and has vigorously defended the constitutionality of warrantless National Security Agency wiretaps, presidential signing statements and many other controversial aspects of the war on terrorism. But we cannot in good conscience defend a decision that we believe has compromised our national honor and that may well promote the commission of war crimes by Americans and place at risk the welfare of captured American military forces for generations to come. The Supreme Court held in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld last summer that all detainees captured in the war on terrorism are protected by Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prescribes minimum standards of treatment for all persons who are no longer taking an active part in an armed conflict not of an international character. It provides that "in all circumstances" detainees are to be "treated humanely." This is not just about avoiding "torture." The article expressly prohibits "at any time and in any place whatsoever" any acts of "violence to life and person" or "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment." Last Friday, the White House issued an executive order attempting to "interpret" Common Article 3 with respect to a controversial CIA interrogation program. The order declares that the CIA program "fully complies with the obligations of the United States under Common Article 3," provided that its interrogation techniques do not violate existing federal statutes (prohibiting such things as torture, mutilation or maiming) and do not constitute "willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual in a manner so serious that any reasonable person, considering the circumstances, would deem the acts to be beyond the bounds of human decency." Read The Full Story	Commentary: Bed Time For Gonzo 2007-07-27 02:33:09 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Eugene Robinson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post. It deals with the Alberto Gonzalez mess in Washington and appears in the Post's edition for Friday, July 27, 2007. It's way past bedtime for Gonzo. At this point, every day Alberto Gonzales continues as attorney general means more dishonor for the office and the nation - and higher blood pressure for Senate Judiciary Committe members trying desperately to get a straight answer out of the man. Gonzo has managed to do something no one else in Washington has managed in years: create a spirit of true bipartisanship. After his pathetic act in front of the committee Tuesday, it's no surprise that Democrats are threatening to investigate him for perjury. But it was Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican, who looked Gonzo in the face and told him, "I do not find your testimony credible, candidly." Specter seems ready to pop a gasket. "The hearing two days ago was devastating" for Gonzo, Specter said yesterday. "But so was the hearing before that, and so was the hearing before that." Read The Full Story New Details On Tillman's Death 2007-07-27 02:32:18 Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. "The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators. The doctors - whose names were blacked out - said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away. Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident. Read The Full Story Sen. Murkowski Plans To Sell Alaska Land Obtained In Criticized Deal 2007-07-26 22:10:45 U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday she and her husband will sell Alaska land back to its owner, a day after a complaint to the Senate ethics committee about the purchase of the riverfront property. "While Verne and I intended to make this our family home and we paid a fair price for this land, no property is worth compromising the trust of the Alaskan people," the Alaska Republican said in a prepared statement. Murkowski said the vacant lot was being sold back to a friend, real estate developer Bob Penney, for $179,400, the same price that she and her husband, Verne Martell, had paid Penney. Murkowski has drawn criticism over the purchase late last year of property along the scenic Kenai River, southwest of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula. Read The Full Story Scientists Link Diabetes Drugs Avandia And Actos To Heart Failure 2007-07-26 22:10:07 Two of the most commonly used drugs for diabetes, which were taken by hundreds of thousands of mostly overweight people in the U.K. last year, are causing widespread heart failure, scientists warn today. Use of the drugs, prescribed by doctors for type II diabetes, has doubled in the past three years as a consequence of a growing obesity problem. Last year 1.8 million prescriptions were written across the U.K., which scientists say equates to several hundred thousand patients taking the drugs which are recommended for use across Britain's  National Health Service (NHS) by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Researchers today called on NICE to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalized for heart failure. The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected. Read The Full Story Powerful Earthquake Rocks Eastern Indonesia 2007-07-26 22:09:35 A powerful earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia on Thursday, sending residents fleeing from swaying homes and hospitals, said authorities and witnesses. There were no immediate reports of damage. The quake, which had a magnitude of 6.9, triggered a tsunami warning but the alert was quickly lifted after it became clear no destructive waves had been generated, the country's geophysics agency said. In the city of Manado, people fled from markets, hospitals and schools, said witnesses. One woman ran from the second floor of a hospital carrying her son, who had an IV drip in his arm. "What's going on? What's going on?" she screamed before being calmed by other people. Read The Full Story FBI Director Contradicts Gonzales' Sworn Testimony 2007-07-26 19:04:20 The head of the FBI contradicted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sworn testimony and Senate Democrats requested a perjury investigation Thursday in a fresh barrage against President Bush's embattled longtime friend and aide. In a third blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas to compel the testimony of Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, in connection with its investigation. "It has become apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements," four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement calling for a special counsel to investigate. "I'm convinced that he's not telling the truth," added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. Read The Full Story NASA Reports Sabotage Of Shuttle Computer 2007-07-26 19:03:50 A space program worker deliberately damaged a computer that is supposed to fly aboard shuttle Endeavour in less than two weeks, an act of sabotage that was caught before the equipment was loaded onto the spaceship, NASA said Thursday. The unidentified employee, who works for a NASA subcontractor, cut wires inside the computer that is supposed to be delivered to the international space station by Endeavour, said officials. The space agency declined to speculate on a motive. The computer is supposed to measure the strain on a space station beam and relay the information to flight controllers on Earth. Read The Full Story Democrats Urge Perjury Probe Of Gonzales, Subpoena Karl Rove 2007-07-26 12:53:49 Senate Democrats called for a perjury investigation against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday and subpoenaed top presidential aide Karl Rove in a deepening political and legal clash with the Bush administration. "It has become apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements," four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement. They dispatched the letter shortly before Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, announced the subpoena of Rove, the president's top political strategist, in remarks on the Senate floor. "We have now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States Attorneys last year," said Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read The Full Story U.S. House Resolution Rejects Pemanent Bases In Iraq 2007-07-26 12:53:25 The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to bar permanent United States military installations in Iraq as  lawmakers readied for yet another clash over a Democratic demand to withdraw combat troops from the conflict. By a vote of 399 to 24, the House adopted a resolution that would limit federal spending intended “to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq or to exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.” Democrats said the measure, the latest in a series of politically tinged war votes, was needed to make it clear that America had no plan for a permanent military presence in Iraq - a fear they said was fueling some attacks on American troops and building the insurgent resistance. Read The Full Story Editorial: Defying The Imperial Presidency 2007-07-26 12:52:54 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Thursday, July 26, 2007. The House Judiciary Committee did its duty yesterday, voting to cite Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, and Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, for contempt. The Bush administration has been acting lawlessly in refusing to hand over information that Congress needs to carry out its responsibility to oversee the executive branch and investigate its actions when needed. If the White House continues its obstruction, Congress should use all of the contempt powers at its disposal. The committee really had no choice but to hold Ms. Miers in contempt. When she was subpoenaed to testify about the administration’s possibly illegal purge of nine United States attorneys, she simply refused to show up, citing executive privilege. Invoking privilege in response to particular questions might have been warranted - the courts could have decided that later. But simply flouting a Congressional subpoena is not an option. Read The Full Story
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