Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday September 14 2007 - (813)

Friday September 14 2007 edition
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Fact Check: After The President's Speech 2007-09-14 01:28:42 President's case for progress in Iraq at times contradicts government reports, and his own words. In his speech Thursday night, President Bush made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at times contradicted recent government reports or his own words. For instance, Bush asserted that "Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done," such as "sharing oil revenues with the provinces" and allowing "former Baathists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions." Yet his statement ignored the fact that U.S. officials have been frustrated that none of those actions have been enshrined into law - and that reports from Baghdad this week indicated that a potential deal on sharing oil revenue is collapsing. In a radio address to the nation less than a month ago, the president himself complained that the Iraqi government was failing to address these issues. "Unfortunately, political progress at the national level has not matched the pace of progress at the local level," Bush said on Aug. 18. "The Iraqi government in Baghdad has many important measures left to address, such as reforming the de-Baathification laws, organizing provincial elections and passing a law to formalize the sharing of oil revenues." Read The Full Story New Jersey To Defy Federal Health-Care Rules 2007-09-14 01:27:58 Governor will not obey federal rules that make it harder for middle-income children to get health insurance. Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine informed President Bush this week that New Jersey will not obey federal rules that would make it harder to enroll middle-income kids for a popular government-subsidized health insurance program. His move escalated the growing confrontation between a number of states and the administration over the new rules imposed on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). They have been criticized as unfair and overreaching by children's advocates and politicians of both parties, but Corzine's declaration marks the first time a governor has openly vowed to defy them. New Jersey's action comes against the background of a larger debate over the $5 billion-a-year program's future. The Senate and the House have passed legislation that would dramatically increase funding and make it possible to sign up millions of children for coverage. Read The Full Story Commentary: Oh! What A Lovely War On Terror - It's The Tune That The Arms Dealers Love 2007-09-13 22:03:18 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Simon Jenkins and appears in the Guardian edition for Friday, September 14, 2007. In it, he writes that the biggest threat to our freedoms comes not from al-Qaeda but from the security bureaucrats and their cronies. Although he is commenting in a British newspaper, Mr. Jenkins is writing about both Britain and America. His commentary follows: I admit it is a grim question for a fine autumn weekend, but is liberty in decline? Have we taken the old girl for granted so long that we cannot see her lined face, frayed garments and sagging bosom? The swimming pool in Baghdad's Green Zone may be Liberty Pool and American chips Freedom Fries, but the glory days are over. Sex appeal these days has passed from liberty to power. Anyone currently visiting the Royal Docks in London's East End will see an extraordinary display. Sleek grey warships nestle close to the vast Excel exhibition of weapons of mass destruction and repression. Hidden away from the heart of the capital, arms buyers from three dozen nations show why Britain is the world's second biggest defense exporter after America. Business is booming again following the post-cold war decline. Nor is Britain squeamish about what it sells and to whom. Totalitarian China, Saudi Arabia and Libya are welcomed, their purchases subsidized by the British Treasury if need be. I am no pacifist and support the right of sovereign peoples to defend themselves, but I cannot see how this festival of weaponry meets any foreign policy goal. It defies Britain's United Nations obligation to reduce global militarization, and aids repressive and undemocratic regimes. Britain is helping to make the world a more violent place merely because there is money in it, and "if we don't do it them someone else will" - the smuggler's defense down the ages. Governments can think of good reasons for doing anything, but they rarely step back and wonder if they are promoting liberty, or undermining it. Read The Full Story Expensive And Divisive: How America Is Losing Patience With A Failing Health System 2007-09-13 22:02:26 Onus on workers to buy health insurance as rising costs force firms to end perk. It's nearing lunchtime and the few people left on the hard chairs in the clinic waiting room are glancing at the television hanging high on the wall. In his examination room, Dr. Jamal Gwathney has seen a two-month-old baby, a young woman with a heart pacemaker and chemical burns brought in after a fight with the police, and patients with asthma and diabetes. But in clinics such as this, just across the Anacostia river from the great white dome of the Capitol, many of the ailments have an underlying cause: none of these people have access to adequate medical care. "Their healthcare sometimes just takes a back seat to putting food on the table and a roof over their heads," says Dr.  Gwathney. "They don't come in until their health gets to a critical mass - until they have been having chest pain every day for two or three weeks, or until they start throwing up a little blood with that ulcer that they have and it gets them worried." On the west side of the dome, in the K Street offices of the doctors profiled in local glossy magazines, medical practices are moving towards concierge-style care: for an annual fee topping $1,000 (£500), a trip to the doctor is akin to a visit to the spa, with appointments on demand, and even the most trivial ailments investigated by costly tests. Read The Full Story Report: Earth's Health In Bad Shape 2007-09-13 18:10:52 More wood was removed from forests in 2005 than ever before, one of many troubling environmental signs highlighted in the Worldwatch Institute's annual check of the planet's health. The Washington-based think tank's "Vital Signs 2007-2008" report points to global patterns ranging from rising meat consumption to Asian economic growth it says are linked to the broader problem of climate change. "I think climate change is the most urgent challenge we have ever faced," said Erik Assadourian, director of the Vital Signs project. "You see many trends in climate change, whether we are talking about grain production which is affected by droughts and flooding. Or meat production as livestock production makes up about 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions," he told Reuters in a telephone interview before the report's release. Read The Full Story Hurricane Humberto Crashes Ashore In Texas 2007-09-13 12:34:08 Humberto, the first hurricane to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in two years, sneaked up on south Texas and Louisiana overnight and crashed ashore Thursday with heavy rains and 80 mph winds, killing at least one person. The system weakened to a tropical storm by midmorning and bore into central Louisiana. The greatest concern for many Texas residents was the heavy rain falling in areas already inundated by a wet summer. Humberto made landfall less than 50 miles from where Hurricane Rita did in 2005, and areas of southwest Louisiana not fully recovered from Rita were bracing for more misery. "I'm in a FEMA trailer (because of Rita) and I'm on oxygen," said Albertha Garrett, 70, who spent the night at a shelter in the Lake Charles Civic Center. "I had to come to the civic center just in case the lights would go out, because I'm alone and I'm handicapped." Read The Full Story Report: Cutbacks Threaten Climate Study 2007-09-13 12:33:31 Intellpuke: There are two articles here. The first is by the New York Times. Following that is the Associated Press' take on the story which appears in the Washington Post's online edition for Thursday, September 13, 2007 ... with a little commentary that I wrote. Here's the New York Times' article: A Bush administration program for improving climate research across 13 government agencies has clarified some scientific questions, but is saddled with delays and threatened by cuts in satellites and programs monitoring conditions on earth, an independent scientific panel said in a report on Thursday. The Climate Change Science Program, created in 2002 at the request of President Bush, has also not focused enough on assessing impacts of a warming world on human affairs, said the panel, convened by the National Academies, the nation’s pre-eminent scientific advisory group. Of the $1.7 billion spent each year on climate research, the report said only about $25-$30 million a year is going to studies of impacts on human affairs. “Discovery science and understanding of the climate system are proceeding well, but use of that knowledge to support decision making and to manage risks and opportunities of climate change is proceeding slowly,” said the report. Read The Full Story Compromise On Oil Law In Iraq Seems To Be Collapsing 2007-09-13 12:32:42 A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq's rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed. The apparent breakdown comes just as Congress and the White House are struggling to find evidence that there is progress toward reconciliation and a functioning government here. Senior Iraqi negotiators met in Baghdad on Wednesday in an attempt to salvage the original compromise, said two participants. The meeting came against the backdrop of a public series of increasingly strident disagreements over the draft law that had broken out in recent days between Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, and officials of the provincial government in the Kurdish north, where some of the nation’s largest fields are located. Shahristani, a senior member of the Arab Shiite coalition that controls the federal government, negotiated the compromise with leaders of the Kurdish and Arab Sunni parties. Since then, the Kurds have pressed forward with a regional version of the law that Shahristani says is illegal. Many of the Sunnis who supported the original deal have also pulled out in recent months. Read The Full Story	'A Great Agent' Sues The FBI 2007-09-14 01:28:23 Web of suspicion, an agent's career ruined. The two male agents pictured with Rita Chiang in the FBI poster were smiling, but her stare left no doubt that she was all business. Chiang was a recruiting magnet for the FBI, but it was her skill as an investigator that got her noticed. The photo appeared in magazines and on billboards throughout the country in the 1990s, the picture cropped so tightly that only a sliver of her face could be seen. Anonymity was an asset in her job, where she matched wits with agents from the People's Republic of China in the furtive world of counterintelligence. But on Jan. 14, 2002, Chiang was stripped of her badge and gun and escorted out of the West Los Angeles office. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III suspected that she was a mole for Chinese intelligence and ordered her suspended with pay while she was investigated. Chiang was later cleared when her boss was identified as the security leak, but she contends that by then her reputation was ruined and her career derailed. She filed a discrimination suit against the agency, but it was tossed out of court. The case is on appeal, but her lawyer concedes it has been all but impossible to overcome the FBI's position that her case - if it went to trial - could jeopardize national security. Read The Full Story In Speech, Bush Aims To Sway Foes, Buy Time 2007-09-13 22:03:42 Intellpuke: Following is a transcript, as prepared for delivery, of President Bush's speech to the nation Thursday evening, September 13, 2007. THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. In the life of all free nations, there come moments that decide the direction of a country and reveal the character of its people. We are now at such a moment. In Iraq, an ally of the United States is fighting for its survival. Terrorists and extremists who are at war with us around the world are seeking to topple Iraq's government, dominate the region, and attack us here at home. If Iraq's young democracy can turn back these enemies, it will mean a more hopeful Middle East and a more secure America. This ally has placed its trust in the United States. And tonight, our moral and strategic imperatives are one: We must help Iraq defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours. Eight months ago, we adopted a new strategy to meet that objective, including a surge in U.S. forces that reached full strength in June. This week, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified before Congress about how that strategy is progressing. In their testimony, these men made clear that our challenge in Iraq is formidable. Yet they concluded that conditions in Iraq are improving, that we are seizing the initiative from the enemy, and that the troop surge is working. The premise of our strategy is that securing the Iraqi population is the foundation for all other progress. For Iraqis to bridge sectarian divides, they need to feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods. For lasting reconciliation to take root, Iraqis must feel confident that they do not need sectarian gangs for security. The goal of the surge is to provide that security and to help prepare Iraqi forces to maintain it. As I will explain tonight, our success in meeting these objectives now allows us to begin bringing some of our troops home. Since the surge was announced in January, it has moved through several phases. First was the flow of additional troops into Iraq, especially Baghdad and Anbar Province. Once these forces were in place, our commanders launched a series of offensive operations to drive terrorists and militias out of their strongholds. Finally, in areas that have been cleared, we are surging diplomatic and civilian resources to ensure that military progress is quickly followed up with real improvements in daily life. Anbar Province is a good example of how our strategy is working. Last year, an intelligence report concluded that Anbar had been lost to al-Qaeda. Some cited this report as evidence that we had failed in Iraq and should cut our losses and pull out. Instead, we kept the pressure on the terrorists. The local people were suffering under the Taliban-like rule of al-Qaeda, and they were sick of it. So they asked us for help. Read The Full Story U.N. Declares Rights For Native Peoples 2007-09-13 22:02:55 The U.N. General Assembly adopted a declaration Thursday affirming the rights of native peoples worldwide over objections from the United States and Canada, ending two decades of deliberations. The declaration, which is not legally binding, affirms the equality of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples and their right to maintain their own institutions, cultures and spiritual traditions. It also establishes standards to combat discrimination and marginalization, and eliminate human rights violations against them. The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were the only countries that voted against the declaration, although 11 nations abstained. The opponents said they wanted to work toward a solution, but that key parts of the declaration would give indigenous peoples too many rights and clash with existing national laws. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairwoman of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said the declaration is "a major victory" for the United Nations in establishing human rights standards. But she said the real test will be whether countries implement it. Read The Full Story U.S. Court Backs States' Efforts To Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2007-09-13 18:11:11 A U.S. federal judge in Vermont gave the first legal endorsement Wednesday to rules in California, being copied in 13 other states, that intend to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles and light trucks. Ruling in a lawsuit against Vermont’s standards on those heat-trapping gases, the judge, William K. Sessions III, rejected a variety of challenges from auto manufacturers, including their contention that the states were usurping federal authority. The ruling follows a decision by the United States Supreme Court in April that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide as air pollutants. The ruling in Vermont explicitly endorses the idea that California has the right to set its own regulations on the gases, and that other states, like Vermont, have the right to follow its lead. Judge Sessions ruled that the auto manufacturers had not proved their claims that compliance with the rules in Vermont - clones of the groundbreaking standards adopted in California - was not feasible. Read The Full Story At Least 15 Pakistani Soldiers Killed When Suicide Bomber Rams Mess Hall 2007-09-13 18:10:39 A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a mess hall inside a high-security base used by a Pakistani counterterrorism force, killing at least 15 soldiers, said officials. The militants' ability to penetrate the elite force's headquarters about 60 miles south of the capital was a severe blow to the army. It came hours after visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte met in Islamabad with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in Washington's war on terrorism. The army reported, meanwhile, that it had killed as many as 50 militants in a battle in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. The victims of the suicide attack belonged to the Karar commando group, which has participated in operations against Islamic militants in various parts of the country, according to two security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their jobs. Read The Full Story 4th Earthquake In 24 hours, 6.2 Magnitude, Strikes Indonesia Area 2007-09-13 12:33:53 At least 60 smaller tremors rattle region's residents. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 struck northeast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, Thursday afternoon, a day after three major earthquakes struck the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck underwater at a depth of about 20 kilometers (13 miles) about 300 kilometers northeast of Bitung at 5:48 a.m. ET. The area is 2,445 kilometers northeast of Jakarta. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami threat following the earthquake. "Based on all available data a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected," said a NOAA statement. Read The Full Story Top Sunni Sheik Killed In Iraq Bomb Attack 2007-09-13 12:33:09 Sheik was instrumental in turning local residents against al-Qaeda. Iraqi tribal leader Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a key figure in U.S. efforts to turn local residents against al-Qaeda in the restive Anbar province, was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb, U.S. military and Iraqi sources confirmed. Abu Risha was a leading member of the Anbar Salvation Council and worked closely with U.S. officials - a fact that made him a target of insurgents angry about his cooperation with the United States and his ability to convince other tribal sheiks to follow him. He and two bodyguards were killed near his home in Ramadi, a town that as recently as February was under the effective control of insurgents backed by al-Qaeda. The explosion at roughly 3:20 p.m. local time destroyed the vehicle they were riding in. An associate and fellow sheik, Jubeir Rashid, said members of the council expected attempts on Abu Risha's life, but vowed "it will not deter us". Read The Full Story Japan's Prime Minister Abe Taken To Hospital 2007-09-13 12:31:58 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was hospitalized for stress and exhaustion Thursday, a day after announcing his resignation, as his party scrambled to find a replacement amid growing calls for a general election. Abe, 52, was to remain hospitalized for at least three or four days, his doctors said, leaving the care of his scandal-scarred government with his top deputy, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kaoru Yosano. "He is suffering from extreme exhaustion," said Dr. Toshifumi Hibi at Keio University Hospital. "He has lost weight. Symptoms include abdominal pain, digestion problems and lack of appetite." Abe surprised members of his party and even his own Cabinet on Wednesday by deciding to resign only days after he pledged to stake his government on the success of legislation to extend a naval mission providing fuel for coalition warships in the Indian Ocean. Read The Full Story
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