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Thursday February 28 2008 edition
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Former Military Prosecutor To Testify For Detainee 2008-02-28 03:50:34 Until four months ago, Col. Morris D. Davis was the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay and the most colorful champion of the Bush administration’s military commission system. He once said sympathy for detainees was nauseating and compared putting them on trial to dragging “Dracula out into the sunlight.” Then in October he had a dispute with his boss, a general. Ever since, he has been one of those critics who will not go away: a former top insider, with broad shoulders and a well-pressed uniform, willing to turn on the system he helped run. Still in the military, he has irritated the administration, saying in articles and interviews that Pentagon officials interfered with prosecutors, exerted political pressure and approved the use of evidence obtained by torture. Now, Colonel Davis has taken his most provocative step, completing his transformation from Guantanamo’s chief prosecutor to its new chief critic. He has agreed to testify at Guantanamo on behalf of one of the detainees, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden.  Read The Full Story In Leadville, Mine Water Poses Danger Of A Toxic Gusher 2008-02-28 03:49:40 In a snowswept trailer park, Emily Medina wakes each morning wondering whether she will be washed away by toxic water that local officials fear could burst from a decaying mine tunnel near her home. Like many of the 2,800 people in the old mining town of Leadville, Colorado, where wealthy prospectors and infamous gunslingers once flocked, Ms. Medina, a housekeeper at a hotel in Vail, is afraid of losing her property, or worse. “They should get us out of here,” she said. “They need to do something before it’s too late.” This month, Lake County commissioners declared a state of emergency over concerns that rising levels of contaminated water could burst from the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel and flood the town. Read The Full Story Commentary: Russia's Dangerous Double Act 2008-02-28 03:49:00 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Christian Neef and was posted on the German news magazine Der Spiegel's online edition for Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Mr. Neef's commentary follows: After Sunday's elections in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are expected to form a governing duo. But why assume that a czar duo can ensure stability? Shared leadership has never worked in Russia. On Sunday, roughly 109 million Russians will vote on who they want to see in the Kremlin as the country's next president in May. Of course, if voting means selecting, then voting isn't exactly what Russian citizens will be doing. Russia has no televised debates, Clinton tears or Obama hype. And while Europeans may find the American election circus amusing, it unquestionably reflects a fundamentally democratic system. What we are experiencing in Russia, on the other hand, is a one-man play. The outcome of the vote has been clear ever since President Vladimir Putin anointed his confidant Dmitry Medvedev to be his successor. And it has only one function: to legitimize the Kremlin leader's decision. In other words, only one Russian will be voting on March 2: Vladimir Putin. Muscovites are calling it a historic vote. "Medvedev - this is the most stable, quietest and least surprising option" to succeed the president, says Mikhail Leontyev, a journalist closely aligned with the Kremlin. According to Leontyev, Russia's future duo of leaders - Medvedev as president and Putin as prime minister - represents an "absolutely organic" solution. The historic aspect of what Putin aims to achieve with this procedure, writes Leontyev, is the attempt to break out of a vicious circle: namely to finally settle the power issue without triggering some sort of violence, and without allowing Russia to descend into a new era of confusion. Read The Full Story Federal Appeals Court Ruling Could Allow Class Action Lawsuits Against Mortgage Firms 2008-02-27 21:07:31 A federal appeals court is nearing a decision on a battle between Chevy Chase Bank and a Wisconsin couple that could for the first time enable homeowners across the country to band together in class-action lawsuits against mortgage firms and get their loans canceled. The case is alarming Wall Street's biggest banks, which could bear the hefty cost of reimbursing all mortgage interest, closing costs and broker fees to groups of homeowners who uncover even minor mistakes in their loan documents. After a federal judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ruled last year that the Wisconsin couple had been deceived and other borrowers could join their suit, Chevy Chase Bank appealed to the circuit court in Chicago, Illinois. Kevin Demet, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said a decision by the appeals court is imminent, though others involved in the case said it could be a matter of weeks. "It's one of the most important cases for the mortgage industry right now," said Louis Pizante, chief executive of Mavent, which provides consumer protection law services to major lenders. "The case was somewhat interesting a couple years ago when it started, but its ramifications and impact have completely changed given the current environment." Read The Full Story Citing Corporate Link To Global Warming, Alaska Village Files Suit 2008-02-27 21:06:47 Lawyers for the Alaska Native coastal village of Kivalina, which is being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by the changing Arctic climate, filed suit in federal court in San Francisco, California, Tuesday arguing that 5 oil companies, 14 electric utilities and the country’s largest coal company were responsible for the village’s woes. The suit is the latest effort to hold companies like BP America, Chevron, Peabody Energy, Duke Energy and the Southern Company responsible for the impact of global warming because they emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases, or, in the case of Peabody, mine and market carbon-laden coal that is burned by others. It accused the companies of creating a public nuisance. In an unusual move, those five companies and three other defendants - the Exxon Mobil Corporation, American Electric Power and the Conoco Phillips Company - are also accused of conspiracy. “There has been a long campaign by power, coal and oil companies to mislead the public about the science of global warming,” the suit says. The campaign, it says, contributed “to the public nuisance of global warming by convincing the public at large and the victims of global warming that the process is not man-made when in fact it is.” Read The Full Story News Blog: Fannie Mae Reports $3.6 Billion 4th Quarter Loss 2008-02-27 21:06:01 Fannie Mae, the mortgage funding giant, Wednesday reported that it lost $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared with a profit of $604 million in the comparable period a year earlier. The deepening red ink reflected rising mortgage defaults, falling home prices, and "extraordinary disruptions in the credit markets," Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd said in a news release. The fourth quarter woes helped drive Fannie Mae's annual loss for 2007 to $2.1 billion, compared with a profit of $4.1 billion for 2006. The outlook for housing prices in general and Fannie Mae's financial performance in particular is worse than the company has been predicting, Fannie Mae said Wednesday. Read The Full Story Update: Biggest Quake In 24 Years Shakes And Stirs U.K. 2008-02-27 21:05:03 It was like a bomb, a plane crash or even a giant lizard from a Hollywood blockbuster on the rampage, according to startled residents at the epicentre of Britain's worst earthquake for 24 years. A carved stone cross which tumbled from the roof of Market Rasen's medieval church may have been the only local casualty, but everyone in the Lincolnshire town had stories of judders, roars and terrifyingly visible wobbles in their houses' old stone walls overnight. "It was like the most awful fairground ride you can imagine," said Adrian Campbell, 56, a DVD and video producer who initially thought that his tumble dryer had somehow come on at 1am. "It just got worse and worse. We went to see a film last week about a giant lizard loose in New York, and I honestly started to wonder if something like that had come for us." The quake rippled across Market Rasen for at least 10 seconds, according to sixthformers Thea Garratt and Kirstie Silson, both 16, who recently went on the Natural History Museum's earthquake simulator on a school visit to London. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court May Split On Exxon Damages 2008-02-27 14:29:18 U.S. Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Wednesday on whether to uphold a record $2.5 billion verdict to punish Exxon Mobil Corp. for the Valdez oil spill in 1989. Several justices said the court might well lower the amount of the award to keep it in line with other legal limits on punishing corporate wrongdoing. Only eight justices heard the case, creating the possibility of a tie vote. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., withdrew because he holds Exxon stock. His move could cost the company dearly, since a tie vote would have the effect of affirming the $2.5 billion award. When the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground almost 20 years ago, it spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. Exxon admitted that its captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was drunk at the time of the accident, and the company agreed to pay $900 million to clean up the environment. It also paid out about $287 million to compensate those whose jobs were lost or whose business was destroyed. Read The Full Story William F. Buckley, Jr., Is Dead At 82 2008-02-27 14:27:26 William F. Buckley, Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. Mr. Buckley, 82, suffered from diabetes and emphysema, his son Christopher said, although the exact cause of death was not immediately known. He was found at his desk in the study of his home, his son said. “He might have been working on a column,” said Christopher Buckley. Mr. Buckley’s winningly capricious personality, replete with ten-dollar words and a darting tongue writers loved to compare with an anteater’s, hosted one of television’s longest-running programs, “Firing Line,” and founded and shepherded the influential conservative magazine, “National Review.” He also found time to write at least 55 books, ranging from sailing odysseys to spy novels to celebrations of his own dashing daily life, and to edit five more. His political novel “The Rake” was published last August, and a book looking back at the National Review’s history in November; a personal memoir of Barry Goldwater is due to be publication in April, and Mr. Buckley was working on a similar book about Ronald Reagan for release in the fall. Read The Full Story European Regulators Fine Microsoft $1.3 Billion 2008-02-27 14:26:18 European antitrust regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft $1.3 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 judgment that the company had abused its market dominance. The new fine by the European Commission was the largest it has ever imposed on an individual company, and brings the total in fines imposed on Microsoft to about $2.5 billion, in current exchange rates. Microsoft had earlier been fined after the commission determined in 2004 that the company had abused the dominance of its Windows operating system to gain unfair market advantage. The commission imposed the new fine Wednesday, it said, because the company had not met the prescribed remedies after the earlier judgment. “Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision,” the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said in a statement. “I hope that today’s decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft’s record of noncompliance with the commission’s March 2004 decision,” Ms. Kroes said. The commission is the executive arm of the European Union. Read The Full Story Gas Prices Soar, Posing A Threat To Family Budget 2008-02-27 03:45:34 Gasoline prices, which for months lagged behind the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts saying they could approach $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily, and oil settled at a record high of $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday. The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, energy increases that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could worsen the nation’s economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing. “The effect of high oil prices today could be the difference between having a recession and not having a recession,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist. The depth of the nation’s economic problems became clearer Tuesday with the release of figures showing that prices at the producer level rose 1 percent in January from December, driven in large measure by energy costs. Compared with a year ago, prices were up 7.4 percent, the worst producer price inflation in the United States since 1981. Read The Full Story Florida Power Outage Affects Millions 2008-02-27 03:45:05 Commuter trains stopped on their elevated tracks, elevators halted between floors, traffic lights went dark, and two nuclear power reactors were shut down Tuesday afternoon as a cascading power outage left millions of Floridians without electricity, according to state officials. Power was restored to most customers within four hours, but not before the outage had prompted bouts of panic, particularly as the extent of the problems became known. The state's largest electric company said the disruption was caused by a small malfunction in a transmission substation west of Miami,where a fire erupted. City and federal officials quickly rejected the possibility of a terrorism or criminal link. Florida Power and Light officials could not readily explain how the minor glitch could cause extensive outages as far away as Tampa and Daytona Beach.Safeguards built into the electrical system, they said, should have contained the trouble. "That's the part we don't have an answer for yet," said FP&L President Armando Olivera. Read The Full Story	Tax Whistleblower Sold Data To The U.S. 2008-02-28 03:50:21 The shadowy informant who blew the whistle on German tax cheats also sold data to U.S. authorities, Germany's news magazine Spiegel reported. The man, who was paid almost 5 million euros for DVDs full of information, has now been given a new identity by German intelligence. He was once kidnapped, the man told the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, to whom he was trying to sell several DVDs containing secret tax data. It was in 1997, in Argentina, he told the agents. The kidnappers, he said, locked him up for 10 days and mistreated him, sometimes by burning him with lit cigarettes; he still had the scars to prove it. He told the BND that he had had to come up with the ransom money himself, and that all of his and the Liechtenstein authorities' efforts to retrieve the money have failed. Read The Full Story Sunni Forces Losing Patience With U.S., Cite Lack Of Support 2008-02-28 03:49:25 U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support. Since Feb. 8, thousands of fighters in restive Diyala province have left their posts in order to pressure the government and its American backers to replace the province's Shiite police chief. On Wednesday, their leaders warned that they would disband completely if their demands were not met. In Babil province, south of Baghdad, fighters have refused to man their checkpoints after U.S. soldiers killed several comrades in mid-February in circumstances that remain in dispute. Some force leaders and ground commanders also reject a U.S.-initiated plan that they say offers too few Sunni fighters the opportunity to join Iraq's army and police, and warn that low salaries and late payments are pushing experienced members to quit. The predominantly Sunni Awakening forces, referred to by the U.S. military as the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens, are made up mostly of former insurgents who have turned against extremists because of their harsh tactics and interpretation of Islam. The U.S. military pays many fighters roughly $10 a day to guard and patrol their areas. Thousands more unpaid volunteers have joined out of tribal and regional fealties. Read The Full Story German State-Owned Bank Concealing Total Extent Of Subprime Losses 2008-02-28 03:47:06 German state-owned bank BayernLB is concealing the true extent of its losses incurred as a result of the subprime crisis in the United States. Now the Bavarian savings banks are threatening to give up their 50-percent stake in the bank. Erwin Huber's banishment lasted exactly nine years. When the Bavarian state cabinet was formed in 1998, Huber, a 61-year-old veteran Bavarian politician from the town of Reisbach, was forced to leave his beloved Bavarian Finance Ministry and switch first to the state Chancellery and later to the state Economics Ministry. Huber, who is an expert on tax issues, suffered in silence. He has a cool head for figures, so much so that he could probably rattle off the individual items from the state's budget plan off the top of his head. Huber was only allowed to return from exile last October. He was elected chairman of Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. What may have actually been more important for him was the fact that he also regained the position of finance minister of the prosperous state of Bavaria. Read The Full Story U.S. House Votes To End Big Oil's Tax Breaks 2008-02-27 21:07:12 The U.S. House of Representatives brushed aside threats of a White House veto Wednesday and voted 236 to 182 in favor of an $18 billion tax package that would rescind a tax break for the five biggest oil companies and use the revenue to boost incentives for wind and solar energy and energy efficiency. The measure now heads to the Senate, where Democrats face a challenge in getting enough support to bring the bill to a vote. This is the fourth time in the past year that Democrats have tried to get the package adopted. The Bush administration, Republican lawmakers and big oil companies condemned the bill, which they said would raise fuel prices for consumers, discourage oil and gas exploration in the United States and unfairly discriminate against a single industry while other manufacturers continue to enjoy tax breaks. Hours after crude oil hit a new high of $102 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, most lawmakers said they saw no reason why the oil industry couldn't pay an additional $1.8 billion a year in taxes over the next 10 years. Read The Full Story Up To 70% Of U.S. $5.4 Billion In Aid To Pakistan 'Misspent' 2008-02-27 21:06:26 America's massive military aid package to Pakistan has come under scrutiny after allegations that as much as 70% of $5.4 billion in assistance has been misspent. Since 2002, the U.S. has paid the operating costs of Pakistan's military operations in the tribal belt along the Afghan border, where Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are sheltering. Pakistan provides over 100,000 troops and directs the fight; the U.S. foots the bill for food, fuel, ammunition and maintenance. The cash payments - averaging $80 million a month - have been a cornerstone of U.S. support for President Pervez Musharraf. Over the past 18 months, as militants seized vast swaths of the tribal belt and repelled a string of Pakistani offensives, the funding has come under the microscope. Read The Full Story China Cracks Down On Polluters As River Foams Red 2008-02-27 21:05:32 Bosses in China could be fined up to half their annual income if their companies are convicted of polluting water under new laws. With China keen to step up the pressure on environmental offenders before the Olympic games, legislators told the state news agency Xinhua that the law was likely to be agreed at next week's full session of the National People's Congress (NPC). News of the legislation, which would also increase maximum fines for the companies, emerged shortly after authorities cut water supplies to as many as 200,000 people after a stretch of a river system in central China turned red and foamy. Officials in Hubei initially blamed high levels of pollutants, saying tests showed high levels of ammonia, nitrogen and permanganate. But Wednesday night water supplies to most residents resumed, with the authorities saying that non-toxic algal bloom due to weather changes was to blame for the problems along tributaries of the Han river, a branch of the Yangtze. Read The Full Story U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke Warns Of More Economic Trouble 2008-02-27 14:29:33 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that nearly every corner of the U.S. economy was in danger of running into more trouble, suggesting that Americans were in for a period of tough economic sledding. He signaled that the central bank was likely to cut interest rates further when it meets again next month. Bernanke said the nation might also have to cope with more inflation, a sign that the economy could be caught in the crossfire of "stagflation," a troubling mix of faltering growth and rising prices. Fed policymakers "will be carefully evaluating incoming information bearing on the economic outlook and will act in a timely manner ... to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks," Bernanke said in his semiannual congressional testimony about the state of the economy. "Acting in a timely manner to support growth" is Fed-speak for reducing interest rates. Read The Full Story Rice Offers Deep Regret Over Alleged Rape In Japan 2008-02-27 14:28:58 Hoping to prevent outrage here from harming ties with Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed deep regret on Wednesday over a case in which an American marine is accused of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl. Rice stopped in Tokyo on the final leg of an Asian trip intended to find ways to contain North Korea’s nuclear program. On the trip, she also visited South Korea and China, where she ordered her top Asia adviser, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, to remain to study China’s new proposals on the North Korea issue. In Japan, Rice spent much of her time trying to control diplomatic damage from the rape case and other more minor incidents on the island of Okinawa, where most of the 50,000 American military personnel here are based. Tokyo is a major ally in Washington’s bid to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. While the marine, Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, has denied raping the girl, the case has inflamed anger here at the American military presence. It has also revived bitter memories of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American servicemen in Okinawa, which set off huge protests and forced Washington to consider relocating some of its forces on the island. Read The Full Story U.S. Defense Secretary To Turks: End Iraq Incursion Soon 2008-02-27 14:26:36 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that Turkey should remove its troops from northern Iraq in the next few days, sending a strong message to Ankara that U.S. patience is running out on the operation targeting Kurdish insurgents. Gates said he will ask Turkish leaders in a series of meetings Thursday to address some of the complaints of the Kurds, and move from combat to economic and political initiatives to solve differences with them. "It's very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave," Gates said late Wednesday from India before leaving. "They have to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty. I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that, not months." It was the first time that the Pentagon chief put any time limit on the Turkish incursion launched into Iraq last Thursday against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The rebels are fighting for autonomy in the largely Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey, and have carried out attacks from northern Iraq. Overnight, Turkish troops killed more than 70 Kurdish rebels, the Turkish military said. Read The Full Story Clinton, Obama Clash In Ohio Debate 2008-02-27 03:45:47 In their final debate before critical primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton  clashed sharply on familiar ground, arguing Tuesday night over who has the better health-care plan, who has been right about Iraqand who would move most aggressively to rethink trade policy as president. In contrast to their debate five days ago in Texas, Clinton and Obama butted heads from the opening moments, starting with a clash over whether the senator from Illinois had mischaracterized her plan for universal health care in his campaign mailings, and continuing throughout the 90-minute session. "We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality, affordable health care for everyone," said Clinton (New York). Obama pushed back with equal aggressiveness. "Senator Clinton has, in her campaign at least, has constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robo-calls [prerecorded telephone messages], fliers, television ads, radio calls, and we haven't whined about it, because I understand that's the nature of this campaign," he said. Read The Full Story Democrats Propose Initiatives To Solve Mortgage Crisis, Bush Threatens Veto 2008-02-27 03:45:23 Congressional leaders Tuesday gathered support for aggressive changes to bankruptcy laws that would help troubled homeowners, even as the Bush administration threatened to veto the plan and emphasized its opposition to any program that would risk tax dollars. Democrats are calling for the government to do more than what the administration has done to date. They propose a range of initiatives that include the purchase of troubled mortgage securities by a federal agency and the empowering of bankruptcy judges to change the terms of high-interest loans held by homeowners facing foreclosure. The Bush Administration said that changing mortgage terms retroactively for a select group of troubled borrowers would only add to lenders' woes and lead to higher mortgage rates for everyone. The clash highlighted the sharp differences between Democrats and the Bush administration over how to solve the nation's worst mortgage crisis since the Great Depression. "Homeowners at risk of foreclosure are floating 50 feet from shore, and the Bush administration has thrown them a 30-foot rope," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois), the author of a proposal that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the interest rates on subprime, adjustable and other nontraditional loans for homeowners facing foreclosure. Read The Full Story Britain Told To Release Blair Cabinet's Minutes On Iraq War 2008-02-27 03:44:52 A British official on Tuesday ordered the government to release minutes from two meetings of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet in March 2003, saying they could shed light on "uncertainties and controversies" surrounding Britain's decision to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.  "There is a widespread view that the justification for the decision on military action in Iraq is either not fully understood or that the public were not given the full or genuine reasons for that decision," Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said in his ruling on a request made under the Freedom of Information Act. The case illustrates how sensitive the Iraq war remains five years after the invasion. The war is extremely unpopular in Britain and was a key factor in Blair's departure after a decade in office. Many people in Britain remain skeptical and suspicious about the government's motivations for becoming the Bush administration's chief ally in Iraq. Thomas rejected government arguments that the minutes should be exempt from public release because they deal with the formulation of public policy and ministerial communications. The Cabinet Office had argued to him that public disclosure of minutes would inhibit free and candid debate about sensitive issues in future cabinet sessions. Thomas, who was allowed to inspect the minutes as part of his deliberations, said that while he respected the government's position, "arguments for the withholding of the information are outweighed by the public interest in its disclosure." Read The Full Story
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