Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday September 11 2007 - (813)

Tuesday September 11 2007 edition
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Clinton's Campaign To Return $850,000 In Hsu Funds 2007-09-10 23:32:31 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton announced last night that she will return $850,000 in campaign donations solicited by Norman Hsu, severing ties with a top fund raiser who was jailed last week after attempting to flee from criminal charges in California.  The refund, one of the largest in political history, came after weeks of reports about Hsu's controversial history and murky business practices. Clinton officials said that the senator, acting out of "an abundance of caution," had directed the campaign to return donations from about 260 contributors tied to Hsu because of his apparent involvement in an illegal investment scheme. Clinton declined to identify the donors involved. Clinton's finance chairman, Terry McAuliffe, declined requests to explain how Hsu had become so prominent in her fundraising. Hsu is wanted on a 15-year-old warrant issued in California; after turning himself in to authorities last week, he failed to appear at a hearing and later fell ill on a train ride to Colorado, where he was taken into custody. Read The Full Story Book Extract: The Erasing Of Iraq 2007-09-10 23:30:13 Intellpuke: The following is an extract from a new book titled "The Shock Doctrine" by British author Naomi Klein. In the extract, Ms. Klein writes: It's a tried-and-tested torture technique: strike fear into your victims, deprive them of cherished essentials and then eradicate their memories. In 2003, the U.S. applied this on an enormous scale for its invasion of Iraq. And then, after Saddam's regime crumbled, Washington set out to rebuild the traumatized country through a disastrous program of privatization and unfettered capitalism. The extract, which appears in the Guardian edition for Tuesday, September 11, 2007, follows: When the Canadian citizen Maher Arar was grabbed by U.S. agents at JFK airport in 2002 and taken to Syria, a victim of extraordinary rendition, his interrogators engaged in a tried-and-tested torture technique. "They put me on a chair, and one of the men started asking me questions ... If I did not answer quickly enough, he would point to a metal chair in the corner and ask, 'Do you want me to use this?' I was terrified, and I did not want to be tortured. I would say anything to avoid torture." The technique Arar was being subjected to is known as "the showing of the instruments," or, in U.S. military lingo, "fear up". Torturers know that one of their most potent weapons is the prisoner's own imagination - often just showing fearsome instruments is more effective than using them. As the day of the invasion of Iraq drew closer, U.S. news media outlets were conscripted by the Pentagon to "fear up" Iraq. "They're calling it 'A-Day'," began a report on CBS News that aired two months before the war began. "A as in airstrikes so devastating they would leave Saddam's soldiers unable or unwilling to fight." Viewers were introduced to Harlan Ullman, an author of the Shock and Awe doctrine, who explained that "you have this simultaneous effect, rather like the nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, not taking days or weeks but in minutes". The anchor, Dan Rather, ended the telecast with a disclaimer: "We assure you this report contains no information that the Defense Department thinks could help the Iraqi military." He could have gone further: the report, like so many others in this period, was an integral part of the Department of Defense's strategy - fear up. Iraqis, who picked up the terrifying reports on contraband satellites or in phone calls from relatives abroad, spent months imagining the horrors of Shock and Awe. The phrase itself became a potent psychological weapon. Would it be worse than 1991? If the Americans really thought Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, would they launch a nuclear attack? One answer was provided a week before the invasion. The Pentagon invited Washington's military press corps on a special field trip to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to witness the testing of the Moab, which officially stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast, but which everyone in the military calls the "Mother of All Bombs". At 21,000 lbs., it is the largest non-nuclear explosive ever built, able to create, in the words of CNN's Jamie McIntyre, "a 10,000-foot-high mushroom-like cloud that looks and feels like a nuclear weapon". Read The Full Story Class War Threaten Bolivia Over Morales' Reforms 2007-09-10 23:28:09 Farmers rally to back presidential program while leaders blame clashes on U.S. interference. Thousands of poor farmers and indigenous activists marched through the Bolivian city of Sucre Monday to support the embattled government's attempt to rewrite the constitution. The demonstrators vowed to defend President Evo Morales' "democratic revolution", a radical effort to empower previously marginalised groups which is shaking South America's poorest country. Morales, a former coca farmer, wants to redress Bolivia's colonial legacy in a new charter drafted by a constituent assembly. For his indigenous supporters, who form 60% of the population, the assembly is a long overdue assertion of their power and rights. "For the first time the political constitution will recognize our existence as indigenous people. Until now we have not had rights, that is why this fight is important," said Wilber Flores, a member of Bolivia's national assembly and indigenous leader. Article continues However, the initiative risks foundering because of opposition from students and the middle class, many of them descendants of European settlers. They accuse Morales of polarizing the country and excluding the relatively wealthy eastern lowlands from power. Read The Full Story Surprise - Not! Petraeus Claims Major Progress Following 'Surge' 2007-09-10 18:37:30 The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress Monday that the military objectives of the Bush administration's troop increase strategy in Iraq "are in large measure being met," and he forecast a reduction of U.S. forces in coming months without jeopardizing gains. Appearing with the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq to report on military and political developments in the four-year-old war effort, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus claimed major progress for the so-called "surge," the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last spring. Citing a drop in the overall level of violence in Iraq, Petraeus said, "I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to pre-surge levels .. without jeopardizing security gains we fought so hard to achieve." He said he also believes that "it is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time," although this will be "neither quick nor easy." Read The Full Story Tangled Authorities Muddy Tribes' Protection Under U.S. Clean Water Act 2007-09-10 18:36:35 The growth of a massive algae bloom on the Penobscot River from the Katahdin Paper Company's phosphorous discharges coincided in August with a 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that stripped Maine's Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes of authority to regulate water quality on rivers that pass through tribal lands. The court upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to allow Maine's state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to regulate water at 19 off-reservation sites that discharge into tribal waters, left open the EPA's assertion that it has the authority to revisit any DEP-issued permits, warning the state agency that it needs to protect tribal rights. ''If Maine is wise in its exercise of its new authority, quite possibly these questions will not need to be resolved,'' said the court. The intersecting events raised questions of both local and national significance about the federal government's trust responsibilities, the tangled regulatory authority of tribes, states and the EPA, and whether the Clean Water Act can protect tribal rights. Read The Full Story Poll Highlights Disconnect Between U.S. Commanders, Iraqi People 2007-09-10 12:40:36 Seven out of 10 Iraqis believe the U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad and Anbar province has made security worse in those areas, and nearly as many say their own lives are going badly, according to a new poll conducted by ABC News, the British Broadcasting Corp., and the Japanese broadcaster NHK. The poll reveals a disconnect between U.S. commanders' view of a steadily improving situation in Iraq and a bleaker outlook among Iraqis. As Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker prepare to testify before Congress on Monday and Tuesday about the results of the troop increase, poll numbers show that ordinary Iraqis are significantly more likely to say "things are going badly" than in the early days of the increased military presence in March. Fewer than one-quarter of Iraqis report that things in Iraq are going well, down from 35 percent in March, while the number of people who expect conditions to improve in the next year has declined precipitously. Read The Full Story Democrats Struggle To Turn Iraq Tide 2007-09-10 12:39:28 Party leaders have so far failed to force a single, substantial change in U.S. policy in Iraq. On the morning of Dec. 18, 2006, the phone lines in the office of incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid suddenly lit up - a warning signal that the coming debate over Iraq could prove a perilous exercise for congressional Democrats. Though an official announcement was weeks away, it was already clear that, the election returns notwithstanding, President Bush was preparing to send more troops into Iraq, not getting ready to pull them out. The new Senate leader, asked the day before about his reaction to those reports, sounded mildly receptive. "If ... it's part of a program to get us out of there as indicated by this time next year, then sure, I'll go along with it," said Reid. Mobilized by MoveOn.org, one of the antiwar groups that helped the Democrats retake the House and Senate the previous month, liberal war opponents registered their outrage over Reid's conciliatory words. Read The Full Story Explosions Rupture Six Of Mexico's Gas Pipelines 2007-09-10 12:38:38 Sabateurs suspected as residents in area are evacuated, two highways closed. Six explosions believed to be the work of saboteurs ripped apart natural gas pipelines for Mexico's state oil monopoly early Monday, sparking fires and prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people and shut down two highways. The blasts reverberated for miles. No direct injuries were reported, though civil defense agencies reported that two women in their 70s who lived nearby died of heart attacks shortly afterward. The six blasts, which occurred on at least four pipelines, happened about 2 a.m. in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, the Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a statement. The company immediately shut down the lines affected as well as an extra line in the area as a precaution. Flames from the fires could be seen up to six miles away, said Pedro Jimenez, a resident who was packing his family into a truck to leave. "You could see the fields of crops lit up." Read The Full Story Poll: Most Americans Doubt Petraeus Assessment Will Be Accurate 2007-09-10 01:22:21 Most Americans think this week's report from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus will exaggerate progress in Iraq, and few expect it to result in a major shift in President Bush's policy. Despite skepticism about the Petraeus testimony and majority support for a U.S. troop reduction in Iraq, there has also been a slight increase in the number who see the situation there as improving. The findings, from a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, underscore the depth of public antipathy toward the Iraq war, the doubts about the administration's policies and the limited confidence in the Iraqi government to meet its commitments to restore civil order. Fifty-eight percent, a new high, said they want to decrease the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. And most of those who advocated a troop reduction said they want the drawdown to begin either right away or by the end of the year. A majority, 55 percent, supported legislation that would set a deadline of next spring for the withdrawal of American combat forces. That figure is unchanged from July. Read The Full Story Arecibo Radio Telescope And Its Budget Hang In The Balance 2007-09-10 01:21:39 In the tangled forests of Puerto Rico's steamy interior, suspended by steel cables strung from 300-foot towers, an array of antennas hangs above an aluminum bowl 1,000 feet in diameter that gazes into space. Arecibo Observatory, the largest and most sensitive radio telescope on Earth, looks like a secret outpost built by aliens. In fact, one of its missions is to search the galactic frontier for signs of intelligent life - a sci-fi goal that landed it a leading role in the Jodie Foster movie "Contact" and cameos in a James Bond movie. Among astronomers, Arecibo is an icon of hard science. Its instruments have netted a decades-long string of discoveries about the structure and evolution of the universe. Its high-powered radar has mapped in exquisite detail the surfaces and interiors of neighboring planets. It is the only facility on the planet able to track asteroids with enough precision to tell which ones might plow into Earth - a disaster that could cause as many as a billion deaths and that experts say is preventable with enough warning. Yet, for want of a few million dollars, the future for Arecibo appears grim. Read The Full Story Canada's Oil Sands Facing Pipeline Capacity Squeeze 2007-09-10 01:20:45 There's a lack of pipeline capacity to take Canadian crude to refineries in the U.S. between now and 2009. A lack of pipeline capacity to take Canadian crude to refineries in the United States between now and 2009 will increase competition for producers to get their output to market, according to a new report from energy industry consultancy Purvin & Gertz. The constraints could result in apportionment, an unpromising scenario where there's not enough infrastructure in place to take all production to market, creating both lower prices and higher price volatility. Consequently, producers could delay some oil sands projects to try to ensure they don't have to discount their future output to guarantee it gets to market, said Tom Wise, executive vice-president at Purvin & Gertz. “We do see growth in Canadian production, but the pipelines are full and we could see apportionment,” he said in an interview. Read The Full Story Canadian Wages Swell As Jobless Rate Matches 33-Year Low 2007-09-10 01:13:43 Canadian employers boosted wages and created a greater-than-expected 23,300 jobs in August as the construction and education sectors added to payrolls. The jobless rate held steady at 6 per cent, matching a 33-year low as more people looked for work, Statistics Canada said Friday. A tight labor market caused wages to heat up. Average hourly wages rose the fastest in six years. August was the fourth month in a row with year-over-year hourly wage increases above 3 per cent, well above Canada's inflation rate of 2.2 per cent and making a future interest-rate increase more likely. “Canada's shrink-wrap-tight labor market just got a little tighter, and wages are beginning to respond,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, in a note. Read The Full Story	Global Warming May Be Hurting Gray Whales Recovery 2007-09-10 23:32:19 As many as 118,000 gray whales roamed the Pacific before humans decimated the population through hunting, and human-induced climate change may now be depriving those that remain of the food they need, according to a study released Monday. The research, based on a detailed analysis of DNA taken from gray whales living in the eastern Pacific, highlights how human behavior has transformed the oceans, said the scientists. Today there are only about 22,000 Pacific gray whales, including about 100 in the western Pacific. By examining the genetic variability of the current population, scientists at Stanford University and the University of Washington at Seattle calculated that there were between 76,000 and 118,000 gray whales in the Pacific before commercial whaling in the 1800s shrank their numbers. Federal officials took eastern Pacific gray whales off the endangered species list in the mid-1990s, but a rise in sea temperatures appears to have limited the whales' available food. A recent spike in deaths among gray whales may suggest "this decline was due to shifting climatic conditions on Arctic feeding grounds," the researchers wrote in the paper, being published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Read The Full Story India Building Nuclear Submarine, Says Top Scientist 2007-09-10 23:28:37 Vessel may undergo sea trials next year. India has kept its efforts to build a nuclear submarine under wraps for more than 30 years, but a top Indian scientist has confirmed that the ongoing project at the Kalpakkam nuclear facility near Chennai to develop a nuclear reactor fueled by enriched uranium was in fact intended to power the country's first indigenously built submarine. After several setbacks, the top secret military program appears to be nearing completion, and the nuclear submarine, codenamed the Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV), is expected to undergo sea trials next year before its induction into the Indian navy in 2009. "Indian scientists and technologists are capable of making light water reactors and we are already constructing an LWR at Kalpakkam in south India for the submarine," the former chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, P.K. Iyengar, said at a public debate on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal in Mumbai on Saturday. Light water reactors, which use ordinary water to produce steam for running the turbines that produce the power, are considered safer and therefore more suitable for submarines. Read The Full Story Germany's Merkel, France's Sarkozy Call For Transparency In International Financial Markets 2007-09-10 23:27:20 The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, called for transparency in international financial markets Monday, as the two leaders exhibited a united front following an informal meeting at a castle in Meseberg, north of Berlin. As well as working together on projects in Afghanistan, the two leaders, who greeted each other with smiles and kisses on the cheek and huddled under an umbrella in the Berlin drizzle, emphasized what Mrs. Merkel called "our common wish" for transparency in turbulent global financial markets. Read The Full Story Analysis: Petraeus Leaves Big Questions Unanswered 2007-09-10 18:36:51 The long-awaited testimony this afternoon of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, once seen as a potential turning point in war policy, seemed more like an exercise of kicking the can down the road. Appearing before two House committees, Petraeus confirmed that 30,000 U.S. troops could be withdrawn from Iraq by the middle of next summer, but that was hardly unexpected: Officials have been forecasting for months that the so-called surge would have to end no later than April 2008 or there would be unacceptable strains on the American military. Petraeus left the larger questions - what will be the future size and mission of the American "footprint" in Iraq - unanswered. He offered hints that the reductions might continue beyond next summer but said he would not be able to offer a definitive judgment until March. "Our experience in Iraq has repeatedly shown that projecting too far into the future is not just difficult, it can be misleading and even hazardous," testified Petraeus. Read The Full Story Editorial: Native Nations Continue To Fight For The Line 2007-09-10 18:36:20 Intellpuke: The following editorial appeared on the Indian Country Today's website edition for Thursday, September 6, 2007. The short distance between the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Canada Border Services Agency can seem like no man's land to many Native North Americans who attempt to pass freely across the border. Forced by U.S. law to show identification issued by a country from which one does not accept citizenship is one thing. It is outright humiliating to be told that one's tribal or First Nations-issued identification means ''nothing'' to a border agent. A recent incident at an Ontario border crossing sparked controversy in Canada, but with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requiring passports for all travelers entering the states imminent, the story should have raised more eyebrows here in the midsection of Turtle Island. Brandon Nolan, a professional Ojibway hockey player (and son of Ted Nolan, a well-known National Hockey League playmaker and coach), said he was harassed and denied entry into his native Canada in August by a pair of customs officials. According to media reports, Nolan presented a New York state driver's license and a First Nation status card. The license, said one officer, did not provide proof of U.S. residence, and the status card meant ''nothing'' to him. Nolan was sent back to the United States and it was suggested he try another port of entry, specifically the crossing at ''Cornwall.'' The guard referred to the only customs house in Canada located on Native territory, on Cornwall Island, Ontario (known locally by its Mohawk name, Kawennoke). Nolan was offended by the comment, aware that the port at Akwesasne is often associated with drug smuggling and other illegal activities. ''I was treated like a criminal,'' the young man said. This sentiment is common among residents of the Akwesasne territory. Mohawks comprise three-quarters of the border crossers there, according to a study conducted by Transport Canada, and often experienced similar incidents. Despite a traffic lane designated specifically for Akwesasne Mohawks, complaints of harassment by customs officers continue. Efforts by nation and tribal governments to improve relations between the community and the CBP have increased in importance since the proposal of the WHTI. Read The Full Story Audit: Insurance Companies Keep Tens Of Millions In Medicare Funds That Should Have Gone To Consumers 2007-09-10 12:40:14 Private insurance companies participating in Medicare have been allowed to keep tens of millions of dollars that should have gone to consumers, and the Bush administration did not properly audit the companies or try to recover money paid in error, Congressional investigators say in a new report. The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said the money could have been used to reduce premiums or provide additional benefits to older Americans. Under federal law, Medicare officials are supposed to audit the financial records of at least one-third of the insurance companies each year; but the investigators said the Bush administration had fallen far short of that goal and had never met the “statutory requirement.” Indeed, they said, the proportion of companies audited by Medicare declined steadily - to 14 percent in 2006 from 24 percent in 2001 - despite a steady growth in Medicare payments to the plans. Those payments now total $75 billion a year, about one-fifth of all Medicare spending. Read The Full Story China's Censors - Determined To Control What Citizens Read, Write, Hear, Sing, Say Or Perform - Now Scour The Web 2007-09-10 12:38:59 Li Hua was outraged. The public high school where he had been teaching civics for six years was about to be swallowed up by a fancy private institution. The merger had been ordered by local officials, Li suspected, because they had a financial stake in the big new school and wanted to see it flourish. Following the literary traditions of this little farm town in the center of Hainan Island, just off China's southern rim, Li gave voice to his anger with a bawdy folk song in the distinctive local dialect. Among other things, it said merrily that Danzhou's leaders "sold us like pigs, sold our flesh and sold our doo-doo". One verse took things a step further: It named as main culprits the Danzhou Communist Party secretary, Zhao Zhongshe; the deputy mayor, Wang Yuehua; and the school superintendent, Li Shenghua. Li's irreverent ditty was folk art of a kind Danzhou officials did not appreciate. On July 27, five days after the lyrics were posted on various Web sites - including the school system's - Li was thrown in jail. He was interrogated twice, he recalled, and forced to translate the song into Mandarin Chinese so his jailers could understand it. At noon on the seventh day, he was released, but only after writing a self-criticism about how naughty it was to compose ribald lyrics describing the actions of party officials. "I felt the sky was broken and the earth was cracked," said Li, still appearing shaken and dejected as he described his experience six weeks later. "When I made up that folk song, I could never have imagined it would bring me such trouble." Read The Full Story Ex-Premier Of Pakistan Deported To Saudi Arabia After Arrest 2007-09-10 12:38:02 Nawaz Sharif, a Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister, was arrested here today and flown to Saudi Arabia after he arrived here intent on leading an effort to oust the current president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The harsh government action is an indication of the profound threat that Sharif poses for General Musharraf and appears to fly in the face of a recent Supreme Court ruling that ordered that Sharif should be allowed to return to Pakistan unhindered. It will set the stage for another clash with the country’s newly independent chief justice, lawyers warned. Sharif was dragged out of a lounge in the Islamabad airport by several police officers after being served with an arrest warrant for a money laundering case that was revived recently. The government also arrested almost all the members of the leadership of his political party as they tried to travel to the airport to greet him. It was unclear exactly on what basis Sharif left the country. Tariq Azim Khan, Pakistan’s state minister for information, said Sharif had chosen to leave for Saudi Arabia, where he has been in exile, instead of remaining in Pakistan under arrest. Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda Says It Carried Out Algeria Bombings That Killed At Least 52 People 2007-09-10 01:22:03 Fears that North Africans now part of terror network. Al-Qaeda's purported North African wing has claimed responsibility for two deadly suicide bomb attacks in Algeria, reinforcing fears that jihadi militants have opened a new frontline in the Maghreb. At least 30 people died on Saturday and 50 were injured when a hijacked delivery van packed with explosives smashed through a barrier at a coastguard barracks at Dellys, east of Algiers. The bombing appeared timed to kill as many officers as possible, when they were grouped together to raise the national flag. Last Thursday, 22 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a man detonated a bomb in a crowd waiting to meet President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Batna, also east of the capital. That was an apparent assassination attempt, but the attacker was spotted by the crowd, and set off the device before Bouteflika arrived. Algerian security named the man as Bellazrak Houari, 20, and said he had been on their wanted list since 2006. In an internet statement, the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa) said it was trying to target police and security forces "in defense of Islam and the Islamic nation", not innocent people. "We swear to God to continue sacrificing our lives until you stop supporting the crusaders in their war, apply Islamic tenets, and stop your war against God's religion," it stated. Read The Full Story Hunt Oil Company Signs Deal With Iraq's Kurds 2007-09-10 01:21:09 Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and Kurdistan's regional government said Saturday they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August. A Hunt subsidiary, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, the parties said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hunt is a privately held independent oil company based in Dallas, Texas. A third partner, Impulse Energy Corp., also has a stake in the project. "We're very pleased to have the opportunity to be a part of these landmark events by actively participating in the establishment of the petroleum industry," Ray L. Hunt, Hunt's CEO, said in a statement. Read The Full Story Strong 6.8 Earthquake Hits Columbia's Pacific Coast 2007-09-10 01:20:03 A strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit near the Pacific coast of Colombia Monday, but local authorities said there were no immediate reports of serious damage. Officials in coastal Narino province said they had no news of damaged buildings or injuries, but they were continuing to contact remote rural areas. Residents told local radio the shock knocked out electricity in some areas. "For now, the checks conducted by operational units show no reports of any impact, but we will have to wait for the results of monitoring," said Luz Amanda Pulido, national director of Colombia's disaster prevention office. Read The Full Story
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