Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday August 22 2007 - (813)

Wednesday August 22 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Report Faults Tenet's Pre-9/11 Efforts 2007-08-22 02:17:07 Intellpuke: There are three items here. The first, as the headline says, is the Washington Post's article on the CIA Inspector General's report. The second is former CIA director George Tenet's statement responding to that report, also printed in the Washington Post, and the third is a link to the full report by the Inspector General. The Washington Post article follows. Former central intelligence director George J. Tenet and his top lieutenants failed to marshal sufficient resources and provide the strategic planning needed to counter the threat of terrorism in the years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a long-secret CIA report released Tuesday. Despite promises of an all-out war against terrorism in the late 1990s, leaders of the spy agency allowed bureaucratic obstacles and budget shortfalls to blunt the agency's efforts to find and capture al-Qaeda operatives, said the report, by the CIA's inspector general. It also faulted agency leaders for failing to "properly share and analyze critical data". The 19-page document - a redacted executive summary of a classified report given to congressional intelligence committees two years ago - called for the creation of a special board to assess "potential accountability" for Tenet and other former CIA leaders. Its stark assessments triggered a sharp response, with Tenet and other former and current intelligence officials denouncing the inspector general's conclusions. "The I.G. is flat wrong," Tenet said in a lengthy statement. Read The Full Story White House Manual Details How To Deal With Protesters 2007-08-22 02:16:26 Not that they're worried or anything, but the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any. A White House manual that came to light recently gives presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of "deterring potential protestors" from President Bush's public appearances around the country. Among other things, any event must be open only to those with tickets tightly controlled by organizers. Those entering must be screened in case they are hiding secret signs. Any anti-Bush demonstrators who manage to get in anyway should be shouted down by "rally squads" stationed in strategic locations. And if that does not work, they should be thrown out. But that does not mean the White House is against dissent - just so long as the president does not see it. In fact, the manual outlines a specific system for those who disagree with the president to voice their views. It directs the White House advance staff to ask local police "to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in the view of the event site or motorcade route". Read The Full Story Bush Puts Pressure On Iraq's Maliki 2007-08-22 02:15:24 President Bush pointedly declined Tuesday to offer a public endorsement of embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, expressing his disappointment at the lack of political progress in Iraq and saying that widespread popular frustration could lead Iraqis to replace their government. "The fundamental question is: Will the government respond to the demands of the people?" said Bush. Stopping short of directly endorsing Maliki, as he has on several previous occasions, Bush continued, "If the government doesn't respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government." In apparent response to congressional calls for a change of leadership in Iraq, Bush added, "That's up to the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians." White House aides said later that Bush's comments did not mean he was withdrawing support from Maliki but were simply a statement of reality - that Iraqis were growing frustrated and that under the country's new democratic system, the people could decide to replace the current government with a more capable one. But the president's tough words - together with similar strong statements from the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad - suggested that the administration's patience with the current leadership is wearing thin. Read The Full Story Server Outage 2007-08-22 00:29:45   I'd like to apologize for our outages in the last few days.   For those who are technically inclined, the details are:   On Saturday, our provider upgraded the Cisco switch to which we are attached.   We're good to go well past 1Gb/s on this segment now.  They were also kind enough to allow us to install our second server.  Our space there is completely dependent on their good will, and our readers utilizing their services.  Should you need web/e-commerce design, virtual hosting or dedicated hosting, you should contact Energenesis.   Despite the fact that Free Internet Press is hosted on a very nice server, bad things occasionally do happen.    This afternoon (Wednesday) we had a slight technical hiccup. For some reason ({cough}{cough}), the filesystem became a little corrupted.  Little being a relative t! erm.  Approximately 4,000 files were restored from backups, including some essential files like many of the /etc/rc.d/* files.  The fsck took a long time, but the file restore was fairly quick.   With the help of all of your recent donations (which I will be posting again soon, thanks everyone!), and a few anonymous benefactors, we should be bringing up another server so we will have a better level of redundancy.   As a lovely reminder, as we receive more donations, we'll be able to do more to improve Free Internet Press.    Thanks for your time, and your continued support!   JW Smythe   Editor   Free Internet Press Read The Full Story Hurricane Dean Hits Mexico's Coast, Weakens To Category 2 2007-08-21 13:33:11 The hurricane struck Mexico at Category 5 level, with winds extending out for 60 miles, but within a few hours as it moved westward across land its force diminished, it was reassessed at Category 3 and then, with winds dropping to about 105 miles an hour, at Category 2. Officials forecast that the storm will weaken further as it crosses the Yucatán Peninsula today but then regain some strength after reaching the warm waters of the southern Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico late this afternoon. “We are expecting it to strengthen a bit over the water, but it will not be a Category 5 again,” Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center, said in a telephone interview. At 11 a.m., the center of the hurricane was about 85 miles south-east of Campeche, said officials. Read The Full Story Congressman Accused Of Assault At Dulles Airport 2007-08-21 13:32:39 U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (D-California) has been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery for allegedly pushing an airline employee at Dulles International Airport on Sunday during a dispute over baggage, said authorities. Filner, who represents the San Diego, California, area, "attempted to enter an area authorized for airline employees only" while in the United Airlines baggage claim office and "pushed aside the employee's outstretched arm and refused to leave the area when asked by an airline employee," according to a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority  police statement. Filner had exited the office and was waiting near the baggage carousel when police arrived about 6 p.m. He was released after he and witnesses were interviewed, said airport police. The female airline employee, whom police did not identify, appeared before a Loudoun County magistrate that evening, and Filner was charged with assault and battery. If convicted, Filner faces up to 12 months in jail and up to a $2,500 fine under Virginia law. Read The Full Story Plaintiffs In Vioxx Cases Yet To Be Paid 2007-08-21 02:21:26 None of the 45,000 people who have sued Merck over it's painkiller Vioxx have received payment. In Carol Ernst’s eyes, two years ago she won a measure of justice. On Aug. 19, 2005, a Texas jury awarded Mrs. Ernst $253.5 million after concluding that Merck & Company and its painkiller Vioxx had caused the death of her husband, Robert, in 2001. At a news conference after the verdict, Mrs. Ernst said she was pleased that jurors had punished Merck for hiding Vioxx’s heart risks. “This has been a long road,” she said. “I just know that it was a road that I had to run and I had to finish.” But her comfort was premature. Merck, the third-largest American drug maker, appealed the verdict - which Texas laws on punitive damages automatically reduced to $26.1 million. Until higher courts rule on the appeal, Merck is not obligated to pay. So Mrs. Ernst, 62, has yet to receive any money. In fact, none of the 45,000 people who have sued Merck, contending that they or their loved ones suffered heart attacks or strokes after taking Vioxx, have received payments from the company. The lawsuits continue, for now in a state of legal limbo, with little prospect of resolution. In combating the litigation, Merck has made an aggressive, and so far successful, bet that forcing plaintiffs to trial will reduce the number of Vioxx lawsuits and, ultimately, its liability. Read The Full Story	Federal No-Bid Contracts On The Rise 2007-08-22 02:16:49 Use of favored firms a common shortcut under Bush Administration. Under pressure from the White House and Congress to deliver a long-delayed plan last year, officials at the Department of Homeland Security's counter-narcotics office took a shortcut that has become common at federal agencies: They hired help through a no-bid contract. And the firm they hired showed them how to do it. Scott Chronister, a senior official in the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement, reached out to a former colleague at a private consulting firm for advice. The consultant suggested that Chronister's office could avoid competition and get the work done quickly under an arrangement in which the firm "approached the government with a 'unique and innovative concept'," documents and interviews show. Read The Full Story Pakistan's Political Crisis Coming To A Head 2007-08-22 02:15:50 This country's long-running political crisis has entered a decisive phase, with developments in coming weeks likely to determine whether President Pervez Musharraf is able to hang on to power or is pushed aside. Exiled opponents such as former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are vowing to return and reclaim a place on the political stage. The current parliament, whose rubber-stamp approval Musharraf wants for another term as president, is nearing the end of its tenure. An emboldened Supreme Court is weighing legal challenges to Musharraf's participation in politics while he retains his position as military chief. All the while, popular anger simmers. Celebrations last week of the 60th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule and the advent of statehood were muted not only by security fears but by a sense among many Pakistanis that a transition away from military rule is long overdue. "This is supposed to be a time for national pride, but I don't see how things can continue as they are," said shopkeeper Iqbal Hussein, who allowed his three young sons out briefly into the sultry summer evening to set off a few celebratory firecrackers on Independence Day. Read The Full Story Chinese Blankets Recalled Over High Levels Of Formaldehyde 2007-08-22 02:15:10 Chinese-made blankets containing high levels of formaldehyde have been recalled across Australia and New Zealand, the product distributor said Wednesday. The voluntary recall by Australia-based Charles Parsons came two days after New Zealand launched a probe of Chinese-made clothing after scientists found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in woolen and cotton garments. The New Zealand Ministry of Consumer Affairs said Wednesday it would start a program to test for formaldehyde in clothes next week as part of its probe, while acknowledging the country had no standard for formaldehyde levels in textiles - a concern of retailers. Read The Full Story U.S. Sen. Levin Calls Urges Iraqis To Replace Leaders 2007-08-21 13:33:43 Declaring the government of Iraq "non-functional," the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee  said Monday that Iraq's parliament should oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet if they are unable to forge a political compromise with rival factions in a matter of days. "I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Michigan) said after a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan. Levin's statement, the most forceful call for leadership change in Iraq from a U.S. elected official, comes as about two dozen lawmakers are traveling to Iraq during Congress's August break to glean firsthand assessments before receiving a progress report next month from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander there, and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador. Not every Democrat has come back from Iraq supporting a drawdown of U.S. forces in the coming months, as party leaders have advocated. Staking out positions that could complicate efforts to achieve party unity in September, a few Democratic lawmakers have returned expressing support for a continued troop presence. One of them, Rep. Brian Baird (Washington), said Monday that he will no longer vote for binding troop withdrawal timelines. Read The Full Story Iran Releases Female U.S. Scholar On Bail 2007-08-21 13:32:53 American scholar Haleh Esfandiari was released on bail Tuesday after more than 100 days in Iran's notorious Evin Prison, according to family members, but there was no word on whether or when she would be allowed to return to the United States. Esfandiari, director of Middle East programs at the Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson Center, is one of at least four Americans detained in Iran. It is unclear whether the government intends to try her or any of the others. The Iranian government said Esfandiari had been involved in unspecified "crimes against national security" with the goal of helping U.S. efforts at fomenting a "soft revolution" in Iran. Esfandiari was released Tuesday on $333,000 bail and was resting at her mother's home in Tehran. Her mother put up the deed to her apartment to secure Esfandiari's release, according to family members. Read The Full Story Shuttle Endeavour Lands Safely In Florida 2007-08-21 13:32:18 Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth on Tuesday, ending a nearly two-week orbital drama that centered on a deep gouge in the shuttle's belly and an early homecoming prompted by a hurricane. The space shuttle swooped out of the partly cloudy sky and touched down on the runway at 12:32 p.m. The main concern for much of the mission was the gouge to Endeavour's protective tiles. NASA did not want the shuttle to suffer any structural damage that, while not catastrophic, might require lengthy postflight repairs. Read The Full Story Editorial: Not Paying For Medical Errors 2007-08-21 02:21:12 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, August 21, 2007. Medicare, the government insurance program for older Americans, has announced that it will soon stop paying hospitals for the extra costs of treating certain patients whose illnesses are compounded by preventable errors. The effort won’t save much money at first, and it will impose additional testing and documentation burdens on many hospitals, but it should promote better care. If the initial steps are expanded, it could yield greater savings as well. Under current payment rules, Medicare typically pays hospitals more for treating a surgical patient whose illness is complicated by an infection than it would if there were no infection present. That is true even if the infection is caused by sloppy sanitary practices in the hospital itself. The perversity of a payment system that actually rewards incompetence rather than penalizing it seems self-evident. So Medicare is clearly wise to start changing the incentives. Starting on Oct. 1, 2008, Medicare will no longer pay extra for eight specific conditions that could generally be avoided if the hospital followed proven preventive procedures or common-sense precautions. Medicare will no longer pay hospitals to retrieve surgical tools or sponges left in a patient after the initial operation. Nor will it reimburse for extra care given patients harmed by incompatible blood or air embolisms, for treating bedsores developed in the hospital, injuries caused by falls in the hospital, infections caused by prolonged use of catheters in the bladder or blood vessels, or a surgical site infection after coronary artery bypass surgery. 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