Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday July 16 2007 - (813)

Monday July 16 2007 edition
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Mahdi Army Is No. 1 Enemy Is Western Baghdad, Not Al-Qaeda 2007-07-16 02:58:19 The lights were on in Baghdad. Something was wrong. Two platoons were creeping through the southwestern neighborhood of al-Amil well past midnight last week. Headlights snapped off, night vision lenses lowered into place, they maneuvered their Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles down narrow streets, angling for surprise. As they approached the suspected homes of the militia leaders they were hunting, their cover of darkness disappeared, fluorescent bulbs on the houses and street lights casting a glow on their vehicles. At 3 in the morning in a city notoriously hard up for power, these blocks were strangely bright. Capt. Sean Lyons, the company commander leading the raid, said he knew why. "This whole area here is just absolutely dominated by Jaish al-Mahdi," he said, using the Arabic for the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia led by the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "They control the power distribution." In the 10-square-mile district of West Rashid, the Mahdi Army also controls the housing market, the gas stations and the loyalty of many of the residents, according to the soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. The militia has a structure familiar to U.S. soldiers: brigade and battalion commanders leading legions of foot soldiers. Its fighters are willing and able to attack Americans with armor-piercing bombs, mortars, machine guns and grenades. Meanwhile, the political wing of Sadr's movement plays an outsize role in the national government. Read The Full Story Senators Seek Update On Iraq War Authorization 2007-07-16 02:57:42 U.S. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Virginia) said Sunday that the congressional resolution approved in October 2002 that gave President Bush authority to use force in Iraqneeds to be changed because it no longer covers what U.S. forces are doing or will do in the future. The former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee recalled during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" that Bush was given authority to protect the United States from Saddam Husseinand enforce United Nations resolutions involving Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but Warner said that the original resolution "does not embrace what the missions are today and the missions that are likely to take place with our forces." Warner said he wanted Bush to offer a revised resolution this fall so that by the fifth anniversary of the original Oct. 16 authorization "our forces fighting and the world can see this clear support between the Congress and the president's mission." Read The Full Story Intelligence Reports Cast Doubts On Abbas' Strength, Warn Of Hamas' Tenacity 2007-07-16 02:57:09 Several intelligence assessments have warned that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the man U.S. policymakers hope can help salvage the Middle East peace process, may not be politically strong enough to achieve that goal, according to U.S. officials. The assessments have also cautioned that his opponents in Hamas - the Islamic movement that is being shunned by Abbas, Israel and the United States - will not be easily marginalized. The White House is now betting that Abbas, replenished by the return of aid from the West and tax revenue withheld by Israel, can create a stable enclave in the West Bank and resume peace negotiations with Israel, a view reiterated Sunday by national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.He said on ABC's "This Week" that President Bush Monday will publicly discuss "what we are going to do to support [Abbas] ... financially, diplomatically." The administration intends to continue politically isolating the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Abbas dismissed the Hamas government, which was democratically elected and has refused to recognize Israel, after it routed his security forces in Gaza. The "West Bank first" strategy is the White House's biggest and potentially riskiest policy departure in its dealings with the Palestinian Authoritysince it was created in 1994. The administration is moving into uncharted territory in trying to aid Abbas even though he and his Fatah political party control just a portion of the Authority. Read The Full Story Pakistan Peace Deal Is Dead, Say Tribal Leaders 2007-07-16 02:56:37 A controversial peace deal between the Pakistani government and local tribal leaders in an area where al-Qaeda is  known to be regrouping appeared to collapse Sunday, as tensions escalated and a fresh wave of bombings killed at least 44 people. The 10-month-old deal in the restive region of North Waziristan was designed to curb cross-border attacks against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan; but it has been widely criticized by security analysts and, lately, U.S. officials, who said it provided terrorist groups including the Taliban and al-Qaeda with a safe haven in which to train recruits and plot attacks. On Sunday, local Taliban fighters proclaimed the deal dead and announced the start of an all-out guerrilla war against the Pakistani army. Pakistani officials stopped short of conceding the agreement's demise, but the military has been moving tens of thousands of troops toward troubled spots along the border in recent days, after the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, last week announced a new crackdown on extremism. Military officials said the troops were being deployed in a bid to keep the peace following last week's raid on the Red Mosque in Islamabad. That effort appeared to be breaking down Sunday, as security forces continued to take heavy losses in a series of attacks that killed more than 70 people over the weekend. Most of those killed were soldiers or police. Read The Full Story BREAKING NEWS: 2 Killed, 33 Injured As 6.8 Earthquake Hits Japan 2007-07-16 01:18:29 Two elderly women were killed and at least 33 people were injured when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, centered 17 kilometers below sea level, struck just off the northwestern Japanese coast Monday morning, knocking down several small buildings, authorities reported. A spokesman at Kashiwazaki Chuo Hospital said the two women who were killed were at least 80 years old. While government sources would only confirm 33 people hurt, local media reports place the number at over 260. The quake struck at 10:13 a.m. (0113 GMT), the Japanese Meteorological Agency reported. The quake caused minor shaking in Tokyo, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of its epicenter. Read The Full Story Economics At Heart Of Washington's Climate Change Debate 2007-07-15 15:30:51 Here's the good news about climate change: Energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures. Here's the bad news: Because of the enormous cost of addressing global warming, the energy legislation considered by Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. Despite growing public concern over global warming, the House has failed to agree on new standards for automobile fuel efficiency, and the Senate has done little to boost the efficiency of commercial office buildings and appliances. In September, Congress is expected to start wrestling with more ambitious legislation aimed at slowing climate change; but because of the complexity of the likely proposals, few expect any bill to become law. Even if passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, the final measure may not be tough enough to slow global warming. "I don't think there's any question that what is being talked about now would, over the long term, be insufficient," said Philip Sharp, president of the think tank Resources for the Future and a former House member. "The issue is: Will Congress get in place a larger architecture that sends a signal to the economy that accelerates change?" Read The Full Story Militants In Pakistan's Tribal Region Disavow Peace Pact 2007-07-15 15:29:06 Militants in northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government and launched two days of suicide attacks and bombings that killed at least 70 people, dramatically escalating the violence in the al-Qaeda infiltrated region. The attacks Sunday and Saturday followed strident calls by extremists to avenge the government's bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque and a declaration of jihad, or holy war, by at least one pro-Taliban cleric. Termination of the peace treaty, the hopeful handiwork of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, puts even greater pressure on the military leader as he struggles with both Islamic extremists and a gathering pro-democracy movement. There is concern in Pakistan that the gathering sense of crisis could prompt Musharraf to cancel elections later this year and declare a state of emergency - despite his repeated denials. Read The Full Story U.S. Homeland Security Loses Leaders At Twice The Rate Of Rest Of Federal Government 2007-07-15 15:28:05 The U.S. Homeland Security Department lost senior leaders at twice the rate of the rest of the federal government over the last two years, including 23 of 26 top officials who report to the secretary, according to a new government report and DHS officials. Turnover was highest at headquarters, where more than half of 60 presidential appointees and senior executives left in 2005 and 2006, according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm. The leadership losses reflect "enormous challenges" facing the department four years after its March 2003 merger from 22 agencies, with "serious consequences for the security of our country," according to congressional auditors. A copy of the study, to be published as early as Monday, was released by the House Committee on Homeland Security. Read The Full Story Ford Motor Co. May Be Seeking Offers For Volvo 2007-07-15 15:27:17 The Ford Motor Company, which has been struggling to reorganize amid record losses and slumping American sales, will entertain offers for Volvo, people with knowledge of the situation said Sunday. Ford’s decision to talk to interested bidders comes after the company’s board met last week, these people said. The move is a reversal of Ford’s contention that Volvo was not for sale, a stand that company executives reinforced as recently as two weeks ago. “We’ve said we’re evaluating all of our operations, but we’re not saying anything beyond that,” a Ford spokesman, Tom Hoyt, said Sunday. Hoyt confirmed that Ford’s board met last week, but said the company was not in talks with any bidders. Indeed, bankers said Sunday that Ford had not designated an investment bank to handle the sale, nor had it prepared an offer book for Volvo, a step normally taken in such transactions. Read The Full Story Bombings Of Convoys In Pakistan Kill 34 2007-07-15 02:42:46 A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy near the Afghan border on Saturday, killing at least 24 Pakistani soldiers as thousands of troops deployed to thwart a call for an anti-government holy war. Another bomb struck a convoy elsewhere in the border region early Sunday, killing more than 10 security personnel, said police. The escalating violence along the frontier, a haven for Pakistani and foreign extremists, follows the government's bloody attack on Islamabad's Red Mosque that sparked calls for revenge from radical groups. Pakistani commandos overran the mosque Wednesday, ending an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff. With Sunday's attack, at least 63 people have been killed in bombings and shootings in the north since the Red Mosque crisis began July 3. Read The Full Story	Clues To Rising Seas Are Hidden In Polar Ice 2007-07-16 02:57:59 Few consequences of global warming pose as severe a threat to human society as sea-level rise, but scientists have yet to figure out how to predict it. And not knowing what to expect, policymakers and others are hamstrung in considering how to try to prevent it or prepare for it. To calculate sea-level rise, the key thing researchers need to understand is the behavior of the major ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica.The disintegration of one would dramatically raise the ocean. While computer models now yield an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how a warming atmosphere would behave, such models have yet to fully encapsulate the complex processes that regulate ice sheet behavior. "The question is: Can we predict sea level? And the answer is no," said David Holland, who directs New York University's Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science. Holland, an oceanographer, added that this may mean researchers will just have to watch the oceans to see what happens: "We may observe the change much more than we ever predict it." Read The Full Story IAEA Confirms That N. Korea Has Shut Down Nuclear Reactor 2007-07-16 02:57:27 United Nations inspectors have verified that North Korea has shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor, the chief of the watchdog agency said Monday, confirming the isolated country had taken its first step in nearly five years to halt production of atomic weapons. South Korea sent more oil to the North on Monday to reward its compliance with an international disarmament agreement. "Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday," said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency. "The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It's a good step in the right direction," ElBaradei said in Bangkok, where he was to attend an event sponsored by Thailand's Ministry of Science. Read The Full Story U.S. Aid To Pakistan's Tribal Areas Raises Concerns 2007-07-16 02:56:50 The United States plans to pour $750 million of aid into Pakistan’s tribal areas over the next five years as part of a “hearts and minds” campaign to win over this lawless region from al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Even before the plan has been fully carried out, documents and officials involved in the planning are warning of the dangers of distributing so much money in an area so hostile that oversight is impossible, even by Pakistan’s own government, which faces rising threats from Islamic militants. Who will be given the aid has quickly become one of the most contentious questions between local officials and American planners concerned that millions might fall into the wrong hands. The local political agents and tribal chiefs in this hinterland on the Afghan border have for years accommodated the very groups the American and Pakistani governments seek to drive out. Read The Full Story Cheney Pushes Bush To Take Military Action Against Iran 2007-07-16 01:38:00 The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favor of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned. The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo." The White House claims that Iran, whose influence in the Middle East has increased significantly over the last six years, is intent on building a nuclear weapon and is arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vice-president, Dick Cheney, has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. He is being resisted by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates. Last year Bush came down in favor of Rice, who along with Britain, France and Germany has been putting a diplomatic squeeze on Iran. But at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month,  Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Bush sided with him. "The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern," the source said this week. Read The Full Story U.S. Official: Nearly Half Of Iraq's Insurgents Are Saudis 2007-07-15 15:31:17 Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers. About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said. Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency. He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis. Read The Full Story Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound For Iraq 2007-07-15 15:29:35 The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles. The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada. The arrival of these outsized U.S. ''hunter-killer'' drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill. That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected ''soon,'' says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? ''We're still working that,'' Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview. Read The Full Story Car Bomb Kills 10 In Baghdad Square 2007-07-15 15:28:47 A car bomb packed with explosives detonated Sunday in a central Baghdad square, killing 10 people and wounding 25, the deadliest attack on a violent day that claimed the lives of at least 18 others. Still, a U.S. military spokesman on Sunday that the month-old American offensives in and around the capital were starting to have an effect, reducing violence and civilian deaths. He did not cite figures. The Bush administration is under increased pressure from critics in Congress who say the U.S. strategy in Iraq is not working, raising calls for a troop withdrawal. Proponents of a pull-out have pointed to the failure of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to enact political reforms considered vital to a long-term fall in violence. The car bomb attack came in central Hussein Square, which has several kebab stalls and other take-out stands, said a police official. The afternoon blast ripped through stalls and shops, killing 10 and wounding 25, according to officials at the two hospitals where the victims were taken. Read The Full Story Two Top NASA Officials To Leave Space Agency 2007-07-15 15:27:37 Two top NASA officials, including the man in charge of developing new spacecraft for future missions to the moon and Mars, plan to leave the space agency, a spokeswoman said Thursday. Former astronaut Scott ''Doc'' Horowitz, who heads NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate will leave by October, and associate administrator Rex Geveden will leave at the end of July. The timing of both decisions was coincidental, and neither was asked to leave by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, said NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey. Horowitz leaves at a critical time for the development of next-generation spacecraft as NASA finishes signing development contracts and works around a funding squeeze that forced the agency to push back the first manned flight of the new Orion spacecraft to 2015. Read The Full Story British Military Chiefs: Failure In Afghanistan Could Lead To Islamist Government In Pakistan 2007-07-15 02:43:06 Britain's most senior generals issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighboring Pakistan. Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 (the prime minister's offices) that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain. Lord Inge, the former chief of Britain's defense staff, highlighted their fears in public last week when he warned of a "strategic failure" in Afghanistan. The Observer understands that Inge was speaking with the direct authority of the general staff when he made an intervention in a House of Lords debate. "The situation in Afghanistan is much worse than many people recognize," Inge told peers. "We need to face up to that issue, the consequence of strategic failure in Afghanistan and what that would mean for NATO ... We need to recognize that the situation - in my view, and I have recently been in Afghanistan - is much, much more serious than people want to recognize." Read The Full Story Editorial: Terrorism And The Law - In Washington, A Need To Right Wrongs 2007-07-15 02:42:31 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Sunday, July 15, 2007. Congress and President Bush are engaged in a profound debate over what the founding fathers intended when they divided the powers to declare and conduct war between two co-equal branches of government. But on one thing, the Constitution is clear: Congress makes the rules on prisoners. At least that is what it says in Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to “make rules concerning captures on land and water.” And it is good that Congress seems finally ready to get back on the job. This week, the Senate will consider a bill that would restore to the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay the right to challenge their detention in court. The Senate and then the House must pass the bill with veto-proof majorities. But that is only a start. The White House and its Republican allies have managed to delay consideration of bills that would finally shut the prison at Guantanamo Bay and begin undoing the damage wrought by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. That national disgrace gave legal cover to secret prisons, kangaroo courts and the indefinite detention of prisoners without charges in a camp outside the United States. Read The Full Story
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