Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday July 4 2007 - (813)

Wednesday July 4 2007 edition
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Private Contractors Outnumber U.S. Troops In Iraq 2007-07-04 01:13:58 New U.S. data show how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of the war-torn nation. The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government's capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns. More than 180,000 civilians - including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis - are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense Department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Including the recent troop surge, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq. The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush administration has relied on private corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq - a mission criticized as being undermanned. "These numbers are big," said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written on military contracting. "They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It's the coalition of the billing." Read The Full Story Donors Give More To Democrat Than GOP Candidates 2007-07-04 01:13:06 Campaign contributors to the 2008 presidential candidates heavily favored Democrats in the three-month period that ended Saturday, giving three dollars to the party's leading contenders for every two dollars they gave to the top Republican candidates. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's 258,000 contributors since January exceed the combined number of donors of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Arizona), according to estimates provided by the campaigns. Romney announced Tuesday that he has lent his campaign $6.5 million from his personal fortune to supplement the $14 million he raised from April through June. Giuliani's campaign said it raised about $15 million during the quarter. Last week, McCain announced a dramatic staff shake-up after raising only $11 million, leaving him with just $2 million in the bank. During the quarter, Obama (Illinois) raised $32.5 million, $31 million of which can be used in the primaries. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) raised $21 million for the primaries and a total of about $27 million in the same period. Read The Full Story Death Penalty Sought For Ex-G.I. In Rape, Slayings In Iraq 2007-07-04 01:11:40 U.S. Justice Department attorneys will pursue the death penalty against a former U.S. Army soldier accused of raping and killing an Iraqi teenager and slaying her family members last year, according to papers filed Tuesday in federal court. It could be the first capital case to proceed against a U.S. service member arising out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors revealed that they will seek death for former Pfc. Steven D. Green should he be convicted of the March 12, 2006, slayings of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, 14, her parents and her young sister - one of the worst homicide cases of the war. Green is accused of plotting the attack with three other U.S. soldiers in the hotly contested Mahmudiyah area south of Baghdad.  Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales approved seeking the death penalty in the case, in part because the crimes were "heinous, cruel and depraved," according to the documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Read The Full Story Brown's Reform Plan Hands Key Powers To British Parliament 2007-07-03 20:58:39 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Gordon Brown Tuesday unveiled a startling package of reforms designed to surrender centuries-old government powers and strengthen the role of members of Parliament. Setting out a series of initiatives that could fundamentally change the balance of power in the U.K., he also launched a cross-party debate on a new bill of rights that could for the first time enshrine the rights and responsibilities of the citizen. The age of voting could also be reduced to 16 and elections held on Sundays. Brown's route map for constitutional reform was unveiled in his first House of Commons statement as prime minister. It was intended as a clear rupture with the Blair administration, and a shock to critics who fear he is a centralizing autocrat. Read The Full Story Bush Refuses To Rule Out Full Pardon For Libby 2007-07-03 13:57:54 President Bush Tuesday refused to rule out a pardon for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, one day after he spared the former White House aide prison time by commuting the 30-month sentence imposed after Libby's perjury conviction in the CIA leak case. "As to the future, I rule nothing in and nothing out," the president told reporters after visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A full pardon would wipe clean Libby's criminal record. The commuted prison sentence leaves Libby's conviction in place, along with a $250,000 fine and two years probation. The president described the commutation as a "very difficult decision". He reiterated the language of a statement released Monday evening, calling Libby's punishment "severe" and said he took into consideration Libby's background and service to the country in deciding that a 30-month term was "excessive." "I made a judgment, a considered judgment," said the President. "I stand by it." Read The Full Story Japan's Defense Minister Resigns Over Atomic Bomb Comments 2007-07-03 13:57:29 Four weeks before a crucial parliamentary election that could decide Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political fate, his gaffe-prone defense minister was Tuesday forced to resign after making comments apparently justifying the United States’ use of atomic bombs against Japan during World War II. Abe, who a day earlier had said that he would retain the defense minister, Fumio Kyuma, immediately accepted Kyuma’s resignation, in a clear attempt to quell the uproar before the July 29th upper-house election. The latest trouble came at the worst possible moment for Abe, who had extended the parliamentary session in a bid to dampen public anger over previous scandals and who over the weekend recorded his lowest approval ratings since becoming prime minister last September. Abe said he was responsible for Kyuma’s appointment and added, “It’s regrettable it had this result.” Read The Full Story Ford, Chrysler Sales Drop As Nissan Sales Jump 2007-07-03 13:57:00 Despite more aggressive discounts, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group on Tuesday reported lower U.S. sales for June, underscoring the drag on the U.S. auto industry from high gas prices, fierce competition and a weak housing market. Ford's overall monthly sales, including sales into commercial fleets, were down 8 percent, although the No. 2 U.S. automaker eked out its first monthly gain in showroom sales since October. Sales for Chrysler Group were down 1 percent in one of its last months in operation as a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG. Chrysler is being taken private by Cerberus Capital Management in a $7.4 billion deal expected to close as early as this month. Sales for Nissan Motor Co. jumped 24 percent in June on gains for its passenger car line-up, led by the subcompact Versa and the Altima sedan. Read The Full Story	Harsh For Libby But Not For Others 2007-07-04 01:13:27 Bush called 30 months "excessive", but the average term for obstruction of justice is twice that. In commuting the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, President Bush said the former vice presidential aide had suffered enough and that the 30-month prison term ordered up by a federal judge was "excessive." But records show that the Justice Department under the Bush administration frequently has sought sentences that are as long, or longer, in many cases similar to Libby's. Three-fourths of the 198 defendants sentenced in federal court last year for obstruction of justice - one of four crimes Libby was found guilty of in March - got some jail time. According to federal data, the average sentence the defendants received for that charge alone was 70 months. Just last week, the Supreme Court upheld a 33-month prison sentence for a decorated Army veteran who was convicted of lying to a federal agent about a machine gun he had purchased. The vet had a record of public service - fighting in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War - and had no criminal record. But Justice Department lawyers argued his prison term should stand because it fit within the federal sentencing guidelines. That Bush chose to make an exception for a political ally is galling to many career Justice Department prosecutors and other legal experts. Federal prosecutors said Tuesday the action would make it harder for them to persuade judges to deliver appropriate sentences. The critics include some Republicans who said Bush's decision does not square with an administration that has been ardently pro law-and-order. "It denigrates the significance of perjury prosecutions," John S. Martin, Jr., a former U.S. attorney and federal judge in New York, said of the commutation. Read The Full Story Iraqi Cabinet Approves Draft Oil Legislation 2007-07-04 01:12:07 Iraq's cabinet has again approved draft legislation establishing a framework to manage the country's vast oil resources, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday, but has not yet acted on a potentially more contentious companion law that would govern the distribution of oil revenue. At a televised news conference, Maliki also expressed disappointment that a "national unity government" has not been achieved as he had hoped. He said recent boycotts by some Sunni and Shiite members of parliament and cabinet ministers were "causing harm to the citizens and creating depression and disappointment." In February, Iraqi officials heralded the cabinet's approval of a draft oil law and said it was headed to parliament for review, but disagreement halted its progress. Read The Full Story 'Mastermind' Of Planning British Bombs Plot Overseas 2007-07-03 20:58:51 The plot to mount car bomb attacks in Britain was hatched outside the U.K., with the doctors allegedly involved linked to a ringleader or mastermind abroad, counter-terrorism officials believe. One theory is that the alleged plot was orchestrated by one or two jihadists who infiltrated Britain's National Health Service (NHS) and indoctrinated others. It emerged last night that investigators suspect that the two men caught at Glasgow airport trying to ram a Jeep into the terminal building were also behind the failed attempt to detonate two car bombs in central London last Friday. Sources also suggested that all known members of the cell had been accounted for. "There is not a huge manhunt," one well-placed official said. Though the terrorist threat level remains at "critical" there were indications that it would soon be downgraded to "severe", meaning an attack is highly likely but not imminent. All eight people arrested have links with the NHS - seven are doctors or medical students and one worked as a laboratory technician. All entered the U.K. legally. Read The Full Story BBC Journalist Alan Johnston Reportedly Freed In Gaza 2007-07-03 20:58:27 Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in Gaza since March 12, was handed over by his Islamist captors to ruling Hamas officials on Wednesday, said a Palestinian source close to negotiations for his release. The source and another Palestinian involved in the talks both said they saw the 45-year-old Briton being taken into the care of officials from the Hamas movement, which seized full control of Gaza three weeks ago. "He is sitting with his colleagues from the BBC office in Gaza," said one of the witnesses. "He is talking to them and he looks fine and well." Johnston, the only Western correspondent working full-time in the troubled coastal enclave, was the longest held of a number of foreign correspondents who have been abducted in Gaza in the past several years. Read The Full Story Briton's Cheer Brown For Attacks Response 2007-07-03 13:57:45 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown doesn't do charisma. In contrast to Tony Blair, the new British leader has offered no emotive sound bites, no promises of tough new laws and no talk of a ''war on terror'' since the failed attacks in London and Glasgow. The stern Scot's few public statements have been somber, measured and brief. Many Britons welcome the change, saying the lower-key approach may better reassure a rattled nation and prevent racial tensions from exploding. ''We need to be calm about it,'' said Duncan Walls, 64, a retired lawyer walking through a London on ''critical'' terror alert after Friday's failed double car-bombing and Saturday's fiery Jeep attack on Glasgow airport. ''I'm glad to say the abrasiveness of Blair and (former Home Secretary John) Reid, in particular, is no longer evident,'' he added. Read The Full Story 9 Killed In Clash At Mosque In Islamabad 2007-07-03 13:57:16 Clashes broke out Tuesday at a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, that is run by radical clerics who have made headlines in recent months for openly challenging the government. Nine people were killed, according to the information minister, Muhammad Ali Durrani. The clashes at Lal Mosque, also known as the Red Mosque, started when students confronted government forces who were trying to place barbed wire around the mosque compound, according to Abdur Rashid Ghazi, an administrator of the religious school in the compound. Apparently some of the students snatched weapons from the paramilitary forces, he said, and bullets and teargas cannisters were fired. “Oh God, please send your angels,” shouted a female student inside the mosque, where hundreds of students prayed fervently and wailed as tear gas enveloped the building and gunfire from the battle echoed. Durrani, interviewed by telephone, said that one of the nine people killed was a member of the country’s paramilitary forces. Read The Full Story Editorials On Bush's Commutation Of Libby's Sentence 2007-07-03 02:13:20 Intellpuke: Following are a some editorials from various news organizations on President Bush's commutation of I. Lewis Libby's Sentence to no prison time at all for lying to a grand jury. The first editorial is from the Washington Post. That is followed by editorials by the New York Times, and that is followed by The Nation's commentary. The Washington Post: Too Much Mercy In commuting I. Lewis Libby's prison sentence yesterday, President Bush took the advice of, among others, William Otis, a former federal prosecutor who wrote on the opposite page last month that Mr. Libby should neither be pardoned nor sent to prison. We agree that a pardon would have been inappropriate and that the prison sentence of 30 months was excessive. But reducing the sentence to no prison time at all, as Mr. Bush did - to probation and a large fine - is not defensible. Mr. Libby was convicted in March on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Vice President Cheney'sformer chief of staff had told the FBI and a grand jury that he had not leaked the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame to journalists, but after hearing abundant testimony and carefully deliberating, a jury concluded that he lied. As we wrote at the time of the conviction, lying under oath is unacceptable for anyone, and particularly for a government official. As Mr. Bush said in his statement yesterday, "our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable." Read The Full Story
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