Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday July 10 2007 - (813)

Tuesday July 10 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
GOP Dissent Spurs Change In Bush's Message, But Not The Course 2007-07-10 02:28:25 President Bush, facing a growing Republican revolt against his Iraq policy, has rejected calls to change course but will launch a campaign emphasizing his intent to draw down U.S. forces next year and move toward a more limited mission if security conditions improve, senior officials said Monday. Top administration officials have begun talking with key Senate Republicans to walk them through his view of the next phase in the war, beyond the troop increase he announced six months ago today. Bush plans to lay out what an aide called "his vision for the post-surge" starting in Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday to assure the nation that he, too, wants to begin bringing troops home eventually. The White House devised the political strategy after days of intense internal discussions about how to respond to several prominent Republican senators who have broken with Bush's war policy recently. Bush decided against heeding their proposal to begin redeploying U.S. troops as early as this summer, but he and his team concluded that he needed to shift his message to show that he shares the goals of his increasingly restless Republican caucus and the broader public. Read The Full Story Gonzales Was Told Of FBI Violations But Told Congress The Opposite 2007-07-10 02:27:34 As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005. Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated. The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as a national security letter (NSL), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March. Read The Full Story Police Believe Body Found Is That Of Missing Wisconsin Student 2007-07-10 02:26:33 Investigators believe a body found in a field Monday is that of a college student who vanished last month in Madison, where the woman was last seen after a night out at the bars. Police searching an area about 10 miles south of Madison found the body on private property in a wooded area dotted with homes. Dane County Coroner John Stanley said it was tentatively identified as 22-year-old Kelly Nolan, and Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said the case is being investigated as a homicide. Formal identification may not come until Tuesday or Wednesday. Investigators have yet to get a ''detailed, up-close'' look at the body, which was covered up in a densely wooded area, but preliminary evidence suggests it is Nolan, said Stanley. Police spokesman Joel DeSpain declined to describe the condition of the body but said it was obvious to detectives that the person had been killed. Read The Full Story China's Ex-Food And Drug Chief Executed 2007-07-10 02:25:51 China on Tuesday executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog who had become a symbol of the country's wide-ranging problems on product safety. Zheng Xiaoyu's execution was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency. "The few corrupt officials of the (State Food and Drug Administration) are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems," SFDA spokeswoman Yan Jiangyang said at a news conference held to highlight efforts to improve China's track record on food and drug safety. "We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure food and drug safety, which is what we are doing now and what we will do in the future," Yan said about Zheng and a separate case involving Cao Wenzhuang, the administration's former pharmaceutical registration department director. Read The Full Story Hearst Mansion, Nation's Most Expensive Residence, On Sale For $165 Million 2007-07-10 02:25:06 The rich are getting richer, and their properties are getting pricier. The 1920s-era Beverly Hills mansion of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies was put on the market Monday for $165 million, making it the nation's most expensive residential listing. The pink stucco, H-shaped estate, dubbed "Beverly House" by the late newspaper magnate, is spread across 6.5 acres north of Sunset Boulevard. It has just about everything a billionaire could want - including three pools, 29 bedrooms, a state-of-the-art movie theater and even a disco. The compound boasts six residences - four houses, an apartment and a cottage for the security staff. Read The Full Story U.S. Hurricane Center Chief Is Reassigned 2007-07-09 20:00:26 The embattled director of the National Hurricane Center was replaced here Monday after a brief but turbulent tenure in which he publicly criticized his bosses and then lost the support of much of his staff. Bill Proenza, who had been director for just six months, went on leave less than a week after 23 members of his staff signed a statement last week asking for a new director. Proenza had "poisoned the atmosphere here at the Hurricane Center," said senior hurricane specialist James Franklin. Ed Rappaport, the center's deputy director, was named acting director, according to a memo to the staff from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. "It has been a very difficult time for everyone," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman and meteorologist at the center. "The staff is ready to move forward. We are building very quickly to the height of the season." Read The Full Story Suspect In British Plot Worked As Aviation Engineer On Boeing Airbus 2007-07-09 19:59:53 Kafeel Ahmed, the engineer identified by police as one of the two main suspects in the British car-bomb plot, worked for much of last year as an aeronautical engineer for an Indian outsourcing company that designs aircraft parts for Boeing, Airbus and other manufacturers. Ahmed worked in the Bangalore office of the company, Infotech Enterprises, between December 2005 and July 2006, K. S. Susindar, a company spokesman, said in a telephone interview Monday. Susindar offered that information after checking an employee database that listed Ahmed as having degrees from universities in India and Northern Ireland; he had a master’s in aeronautical engineering. The company, which employs 5,500 people, did not say exactly which aviation projects Ahmed worked on. Ahmed is one of the two men described by British police as principal suspects in the failed attacks. They say he was the driver of the Jeep Cherokee that drove into the terminal building at Glasgow International Airport on June 30, loaded with gasoline canisters. The resulting fire burned him over 90 percent of his body, the police say, and he remains in critical condition. Read The Full Story Bush Denies Congress Access To White House Aides, Showdown Looms 2007-07-09 15:14:44 President Bush directed two former aides Monday to defy congressional subpoenas and refuse to testify about the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys, asserting executive privilege for the second time in two weeks amid rising partisan tensions between the White House and Capitol Hill. White House counsel Fred F. Fielding notified Congress of the president's decision in a letter sent Monday  morning, saying that Bush is acting "to protect a fundamental interest of the presidency" in preserving the confidentiality of internal communications. Fielding also rejected a demand for a more detailed justification and accounting of Bush's previous executive privilege assertion. Bush's decisions, first forecast by sources over the weekend, propelled Congress and the executive branch closer to a judicial showdown over the limits of a president's power to shield deliberations by his staff. Fielding repeated his offer to let Congress question White House aides behind closed doors, not under oath and without transcript or recording, but Democrats have consistently rejected such conditions. Read The Full Story Congressional Report: Wars Costing U.S. $12 Billion A Month 2007-07-09 15:14:14 The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say. All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has cost $450 billion. The figures come from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides research and analysis to lawmakers. For the 2007 budget year, CRS says, the $166 billion appropriated to the Pentagon represents a 40 percent increase over 2006. Read The Full Story 4 Found Guilty In Failed 2005 London Bomb Plot 2007-07-09 15:13:46 Almost two years after failed bomb attacks sent shudders through London, England, on July 21, 2005, four men were convicted Monday in the case. The attempted attacks mirrored the lethal suicide bombings on London’s transit system that were carried out two weeks earlier. The convictions in the case, coming only days after yet another attempted terror strike involving failed car-bombings in London and Glasgow, illuminated Britain’s continuing battle with Islamic radicalism that has consumed the energies of police and prosecutors. More than 100 people are awaiting trial on charges arising from several alleged conspiracies since the transit bombings of July 7, 2005, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people and themselves. Two week later, in attempted attacks on almost identical targets - three subway trains and a red double-decker bus - a group of men carried explosives in backpacks onto the transport system, but the improvised bombs failed to detonate. Read The Full Story Iraq's Foreign Minister Warns Of Chaos Of U.S. Pulls Out 2007-07-09 15:13:14 Iraq's foreign minister said today that the country's security forces were overstretched trying to control violence in Baghdad and warned of all-out civil war if American forces leave, as many in Congress are demanding. The minister, Hoshyar Zebari, made his comments at a wide-ranging news conference in which he also insisted that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shiite Muslim-led government remains stable. Iraq's conspiracy-happy political circles have swirled with rumors of an imminent no-confidence vote in parliament against Maliki's government, though with the main Sunni Arab bloc boycotting the legislative body it is questionable what effect such a vote would have. "There is rising speculation about the stability of the government," said Zebari. "These speculations are exaggerated." Read The Full Story Homes Foreclosure Rate In Atlanta One Of Highest In Nation 2007-07-09 03:18:45 Despite a vibrant local economy, Atlanta homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments and losing their homes at one of the highest rates in the nation, offering a troubling glimpse of what experts fear may be in store for other parts of the country. The real estate slump here and elsewhere is likely to worsen, given that most of the adjustable rate mortgages written in the last three years will be reset with higher interest rates, said Christopher F. Thornberg, an economist with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. As a result, borrowers of an estimated $800 billion in loans will be forced in the next 12 months to 18 months to make bigger monthly payments, refinance or sell their homes. A big reason the fallout is occurring faster here is a Georgia law that permits lenders to foreclose on properties more quickly than in other states. The problems include not just people losing their homes, but also sharp declines in property values, particularly in lower-income and working-class neighborhoods. For example, a three-bedroom house near Turner Field, where the Atlanta Braves baseball team plays, fetched a high bid late last month of $134,000 at an auction by the bank that took possession of it. Almost three years ago, the new home was bought for $330,000. Read The Full Story Commentary - Bush: Naturally, Never Wrong 2007-07-09 03:18:16 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Shankar Vedantam, who writes The Department of Human Behavior column for the Washington Post. This column appears in the Post's edition for Monday, July 9, 2007. Psychologists once conducted a simple experiment with far-reaching implications: They asked people to describe an instance in their lives when they had hurt someone and another instance when they had been hurt by someone else. The incidents that people described were similar whether they saw themselves in the role of victim or perpetrator - they were familiar betrayals, lies and acts of unkindness. When people described events in which they were the perpetrators of wrongdoing, they invariably said their actions had caused only brief pain to others. Many said the hurtful acts were justified or could not have been prevented. When people reported the same kinds of incidents as victims, however, they invariably described the actions as inexplicable, senseless and immoral. Victims never felt that the wrongdoing was unavoidable. And they reported that the pain lasted a long time. The most interesting aspect of social psychologist Roy Baumeister's study was that the same people dealing with the same kinds of hurt perceive hurtful actions in entirely different ways, depending on whether they are the ones causing the hurt or the ones being hurt. Read The Full Story Tunneling Near Iran Nuclear Site Raises Concerns 2007-07-09 03:17:35 The sudden flurry of digging seen in recent satellite photos of a mountainside in central Iran might have passed for ordinary road tunneling, but the site is the back yard of Iran's most ambitious and controversial nuclear facility, leading U.S. officials and independent experts to reach another conclusion: It appears to be the start of a major tunnel complex inside the mountain. The question is, why? Worries have been stoked by the presence nearby of fortified buildings where uranium is being processed. Those structures in turn are now being connected by roads to Iran's nuclear site at Natanz, where the country recently started production of enriched uranium in defiance of international protests. As a result, photos of the site are being studied by governments, intelligence agencies and nuclear experts, all asking the same question: Is Iran attempting to thwart future military strikes against its nuclear facility by placing key parts of it in underground bunkers? The construction has raised concerns at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna, Austria-based U.N. watchdog that monitors Iran's nuclear program. On Friday, an IAEA spokeswoman confirmed that the agency has broached the subject with Iranian officials. "We have been in contact with the Iranian authorities about this, and we have received clarifications," said Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate. Read The Full Story Iran Media Accused Of Trying To Oust Ahmadinejad As President 2007-07-09 03:16:37 Allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have accused the media of trying to depose him in a "creeping coup", raising fears of a fresh clampdown on opposition newspapers and websites. The accusation, from the president's allies, coincides with disclosures that Ahmadinejad has authorized aides to establish a special team to counter "black propaganda against the government". There has been criticism from the reformist and liberal press that Ahmadinejad has failed to deliver his electoral promises of prosperity and has instead presided over an ailing economy and soaring inflation. Ahmadinejad's advisers complain he has been insulted by "rumor-mongers" who represent "economic and political gangs" opposed to his social justice agenda. In interviews, several supporters signalled that the government was preparing to retaliate. Read The Full Story	Pakistani Troops Storm "Red Mosque" 2007-07-10 02:28:13 Pakistani security forces stormed into the radical Red Mosque in central Islamabad early this morning in an operation to end a bloody week-long siege. Gunfire and explosions echoed across the city from 4 a.m. local time when special forces breached the mosque walls, hours after last-ditch peace negotiations collapsed. Islamist militants holed up inside a basement bunker were offering "stiff resistance", fighting with guns, grenades and gasoline bombs, said army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad. Article continues "Those who surrender will be arrested, but the others will be treated as combatants and killed," he said. Twenty children trapped inside the compound rushed towards the soldiers and were freed but the fate of hundreds more believed to be inside remained unknown. Read The Full Story International Energy Agency: Beware Of Energy Nationalism 2007-07-10 02:27:15 A growing trend towards nationalism over resources in Russia and even Britain could backfire by cutting expenditure on oil and gas worldwide at a time when demand is likely to rise faster than expected over the next five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned Monday. At the same time, Shell signed a strategic agreement with Kremlin-controlled oil company Rosneft, weeks after BP agreed a similar deal with government-owned gas group, Gazprom. Both companies appear to be signalling that they need the influence of local operators in order to be involved in big developments in Russia. The IEA criticized governments of energy-producing countries for using a period of high oil prices - currently $76 per barrel for Brent crude - to tighten their control over production. This comes as the IEA has adjusted its oil demand growth forecast from 2% per year over the next five years to 2.2% on the back of booming consumption in the U.S. and China. "It is little wonder that consumers focus on supply diversity, both geographically and by fuel form. This can create a vicious circle for investment," said the IEA, the Paris-based adviser to 26 industrialized nations including Britain, in its medium-term oil market report. Read The Full Story U.S. Senator's Number On 'D.C. Madam' Phone List 2007-07-10 02:26:18 U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) apologized Monday night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case. The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004. The service's proprietor, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 51, faces federal charges of racketeering for allegedly running a prostitution ring out of homes and hotel rooms in the Washington, D.C., area. Authorities say the business netted more than $2 million over 13 years beginning in 1993. Palfrey contends that her escort service was a legitimate business. "This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press. Read The Full Story Class-Action Attorney's Plea Could Help U.S. Snag Bigger Fish 2007-07-10 02:25:28 A former senior partner of a pioneering law firm that won billions for clients in securities fraud cases pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy, giving prosecutors ammunition to go after the lawyer widely regarded as the master of shareholder class actions. The plea agreement by Milberg Weiss ex-partner David Bershad in what the government has described as a kickback scheme ratchets up the pressure on William S. Lerach, another former partner of the firm, as well as firm co-founder Melvyn Weiss. The New York-based firm made its name launching shareholder suits against major corporations and recovered more than $45 billion for investors in such cases. Read The Full Story Major FBI Public Corruption Investigation In El Paso, Texas, Leads To 2nd Guilty Plea 2007-07-09 20:00:37 A huge public corruption inquiry in El Paso has resulted in a second guilty plea. Elizabeth Flores, a former El Paso County commissioner, made the plea on Friday in Federal District Court to six federal charges of mail and wire fraud. Flores confessed to accepting cash bribes for commission votes on construction contracts, a hospital bond initiative, a lawsuit settlement and other issues. Court records did not indicate how much money was involved. The plea by Flores, who faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 per charge, follows that of John Travis Ketner, the former chief of staff for County Judge Anthony Cobos, on four counts of bribery and conspiracy to commit fraud, including attempted rigging of the district court system. Veronica Escobar, who succeeded Flores as Precinct 2 commissioner in January, said she expected more indictments from the inquiry, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “It’s clear that there’s more to come,” said  Escobar. “I believe they’re closing in on folks.” Read The Full Story Pakistani Siege Talks Break Down - Clash Erupts 2007-07-09 20:00:12 Negotiations to an end a bloody standoff at a Pakistani mosque broke down on Tuesday and sustained gunfire and big explosions erupted from the vicinity of the mosque soon afterwards. Earlier on Tuesday, speculation had mounted that a deal might be struck. "We tried to make him see sense but it seems he is trying to buy time," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan told reporters. Troops have surrounded the compound since Tuesday last week when clashes between armed student radicals and government forces erupted outside the compound housing the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and a girl's religious school after months of tension. Read The Full Story U.S. Army Misses June Recruiting Goal 2007-07-09 19:59:36 The Army failed to meet its recruiting goal in June, raising concern that the unpopular Iraq war and strong economy could wreak even more havoc on enlistments. Army officials acknowledged Monday that the service missed its recruiting target for the second month in a row, but would not provide exact numbers. But two defense officials said the Army fell short of its 8,400 goal by about 15 percent - which is more than twice the June shortfall and would mean that roughly 7,000 recruits signed up. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the recruiting numbers are not scheduled for release until Tuesday. Last month the Army said it recruited 5,101 new soldiers in May, about 7 percent short of its 5,500 goal for that month. Read The Full Story Judge Stops California From Seizing People's Misplaced, Forgotten Assets 2007-07-09 15:14:31 Nearly 15 years ago, the state of California seized about $25,000 worth of stock that Richard Valdes had set aside and forgotten about. He's been fighting to get it back almost ever since. Valdes' stock was in an escrow account that the state declared dormant. Yet no one from the government tried to contact him before the shares were taken and sold. Valdes said he was effectively robbed of stock that would now be worth at least $100,000. "It's unbelievable to me that they can destroy records and sell your property without notifying you," said Valdes, 71. "I've lived in the same Newport Beach area for 50 years. It's very easy to get ahold of me." Read The Full Story Pakistan Initiates Talks With Cleric At Besieged Mosque 2007-07-09 15:13:58 After saying for days that it would not negotiate with the radical cleric at the center of the Red Mosque siege, President Pervez Musharraf's government on Monday night sent a high-level delegation to the mosque's front gate for talks. The abrupt reversal came just a day after security forces seemed on the verge of launching a major operation against militants who have been holed up inside the mosque for the past seven days. Guns fell silent Monday, as the delegation of government officials and religious leaders spoke first by loudspeaker and then by cell phone with the Red Mosque's chief cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi. The talks were continuing late Monday night. Read The Full Story Update: White House Says It's Not Debating An Iraq Pullout 2007-07-09 15:13:28 President Bush is not contemplating withdrawing forces from Iraq now despite an erosion of support among Republicans for his war policy, the White House said Monday. The administration also tried to lower expectations about a report due Sunday on whether the Iraqi government is meeting political, economic and security benchmarks that Bush set in January when he announced a buildup of 21,500 U.S. combat forces. White House press secretary Tony Snow said that all of the additional troops had just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress now. ''You are not going to expect all the benchmarks to be met at the beginning of something,'' said Snow. ''I'm not sure everyone's going to get an `A' on the first report.'' Read The Full Story To Forestall GOP Defections, Bush Considers Announcing Pullback Of Troops In Iraq 2007-07-09 03:18:56 White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities. Bush and his aides once thought they could wait to begin those discussions until after Sept. 15, when the top field commander and the new American ambassador to Baghdad are scheduled to report on the effectiveness of the troop increase that the president announced in January but, suddenly, some of Bush’s aides acknowledge, it appears that forces are combining against him just as the Senate prepares this week to begin what promises to be a contentious debate on the war’s future and financing. Four more Republican senators have recently declared that they can no longer support Bush’s strategy, including senior lawmakers who until now had expressed their doubts only privately. As a result, some aides are now telling Bush that if he wants to forestall more defections, it would be wiser to announce plans for a far more narrowly defined mission for American troops that would allow for a staged pullback, a strategy that he rejected in December as a prescription for defeat when it was proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Read The Full Story Editorial: The General Under Siege 2007-07-09 03:18:29 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the Washington Post edition for Monday, July 9, 2007. Pervez Musharraf's misrule of Pakistan during the past eight years is finally catching up with him. Sunday the general's army was engaged in the bloody siege of a mosque in Islamabad where pro-Taliban Islamic extremists have been defying his government's authority; more than 20 people already have died in the siege. The rebellion began in January, but Mr. Musharraf refrained from taking on the militants until clashes erupted around the mosque last week - a strategy symptomatic of his tolerance for the growth of Islamic extremist movements. The general has had far less patience for the secular political parties and civil society groups that could be his allies in fighting the Talibanization of Pakistan. He has refused to allow two former civilian prime ministers to return from exile; he has bullied the media, rigged elections and tried to fire the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Consequently, the pressure the president now faces from Islamists is matched by a nationwide campaign against him by Pakistan's moderate center. Last Monday a Supreme Court judge rejected the evidence that Mr. Musharraf presented against the dismissed jurist, who had been investigating political disappearances and seemed likely to resist the general's attempt to manipulate the presidential election this year. With that election approaching, Mr. Musharraf is increasingly dependent on two sources of support. One is the Pakistani army, where Islamic influence also seems to be encroaching; the other is the Bush administration, which has myopically stuck to its unqualified support for this autocratic but ineffective ruler despite his slipping support and inability to deliver on matters vital to U.S. security, such as breaking up Taliban and al-Qaeda bases near the Afghan border. The weaker Mr. Musharraf grows, the more wedded the State Department becomes to him. In a visit to Islamabad last month, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte shrugged off reports that the strongman would once again refuse to step down as army commander this year while remaining president. "I think that is something General Musharraf himself will want to decide," Mr. Negroponte said, conspicuously placing the general above Pakistan's constitution. Read The Full Story Vacancies At Homeland Security Said To Hurt U.S. Preparedness 2007-07-09 03:17:58 The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,creating a "gaping hole" in the nation's preparedness for a terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional report to be released today. As of May 1, Homeland Security had 138 vacancies among its top 575 positions, with the greatest voids reported in its policy, legal and intelligence sections, as well as in immigration agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. The vacant slots include presidential, senior executive and other high-level appointments, according to the report by the majority staff of the House Homeland Security Committee. A DHS spokesman challenged the report's tally, saying that it is skewed by a sudden expansion this spring in the number of top management jobs. Before then, only 12 percent of positions were unfilled in a department that has always been thinly staffed at headquarters, said spokesman Russ Knocke. The findings have stoked fresh concern among some in Congress about the four-year-old department's progress in overcoming management problems, dating to its troubled 2003 creation from 22 components. Read The Full Story Pakistani Special Forces Commander Killed In Mosque Siege 2007-07-09 03:16:59 A Pakistani Special Forces commander was killed after coming under heavy fire from militants holed up inside the Red Mosque in Islamabad early Sunday. Islamist rebels shot Lt. Col. Haroon Islam and another soldier as they laid bombs along the perimeter wall of the besieged mosque at 1:30 a.m. Moments later three giant explosions breached the wall but Lt. .Col. Haroon, died in a hospital. His death upped the stakes for President Pervez Musharraf as the siege of the radical mosque stretched into its sixth day, with positions hardening on both sides and signs that public patience was starting to fray. Article continues In his first comments since the crisis erupted on Tuesday, a belligerent Gen. Musharraf warned the militants to "surrender or die". The embattled chief cleric inside the mosque, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, retorted that his followers would rather perish as martyrs than give themselves up. He hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic uprising across Pakistan. Read The Full Story Pennsylvania Governor Orders Partial Shutdown Of State Offices 2007-07-09 03:16:17 Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell (D) ordered a partial government shutdown and indefinitely furloughed more than 24,000 state workers Sunday after negotiations with the state legislature did not resolve a budget stalemate. Critical services, such as health care, state police patrols and prisons, will be maintained. But about a third of the state workforce - employees whose jobs are deemed not essential to health and safety - will go without paychecks starting Monday. The state has been without a budget since June 30, and Rendell and Republicans in control of the state Senate have since been locked in a battle of wills. 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