US military deaths in Afghan region at 1,036
As of Friday, June 18, 2010, at least 1,036 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count. (AP, 7:40 p.m.)
WILMINGTON, North Carolina (Reuters) - Three workers died when an explosion caused a roof collapse at a ConAgra Foods Inc processing plant in North Carolina, and more than 40 people were injured, the company and police said on Wednesday.
The 500,000-square-foot (46,000-sq-meter) plant in Garner, south of the state capital of Raleigh, employed 900 people in three shifts and made Slim Jim meat sticks, ConAgra said.
Tuesday's explosion started a fire and blew out a wall that fell onto a row of parked cars, crushing them. People at the scene reported a strong smell of ammonia fumes.
The cause of the blast was unknown.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
A New Beginning
Cairo, Egypt
June 4, 2009
I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable
institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic
learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s
advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am
grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to
carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim
communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world –
tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The
relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by
colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in
which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their
own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization
led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of
Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view
Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America andWe meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world –
tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The
relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by
colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in
which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their
own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization
led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of
Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view
Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America andWe meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world –
tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The
relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by
colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in
which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their
own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization
led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of
Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view
Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and
Continue reading "Hank Aaron aka President Obama hits another home run" »
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke last night at a dinner of the Foreign Policy Association, where he lambasted former Vice President Dick Cheney's speech last week for dishonestly claiming that the interrogation techniques he approved were not torture, and were not connected to Abu Ghraib -- saying that Cheney "bore false witness":Log In
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New Polls: Sotomayor Getting High Marks From The Public
The Face Of The Sotomayor Opposition
Sestak Tells Supporters He Intends To Run For Senate
« Where Do Conservative Democrats Stand On Sotomayor? | Home | TPMDC Morning Roundup »
Levin Calls Cheney A Liar On Torture
By Eric Kleefeld - May 28, 2009, 6:39PM
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke last night at a dinner of the Foreign Policy Association, where he lambasted former Vice President Dick Cheney's speech last week for dishonestly claiming that the interrogation techniques he approved were not torture, and were not connected to Abu Ghraib -- saying that Cheney "bore false witness":
"I do so as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which recently completed an 18-month investigation into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, and produced a 200-page bipartisan report, which gives the lie to Mr. Cheney's claims," said Levin. "I do so because if the abusive interrogation techniques that he champions, the face of which were the pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib, if they are once more seen as representative of America, our security will be severely set back."
Levin also went after Cheney for claiming that "enhanced interrogation" saved American lives, and that it was no different from what is done to our own people in SERE training:
Continue reading "Levin Calls Cheney A Liar On Torture.......thanks sue" »
For those who question Pelosi's statement on the CIA wacth the link below, it'll take ya 5 minutes and learn how good the CIA really is.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30773808
By Emma Graham-Harrison
BAGRAM, Afghanistan, May 8 (Reuters) - Life as 8-year-old Razia knew it ended one March morning when a shell her father says was fired by Western troops exploded into their house, enveloping her head and neck in a blazing chemical.
Now she spends her days in a U.S. hospital bed at the Bagram airbase, her small fingernails still covered with flaking red polish but her face an almost unrecognisable mess of burned tissue and half her scalp a bald scar.
"The kids called out to me that I was burning but the explosion was so strong that for a moment I was deaf and couldn't hear anything," her father, Aziz Rahman, told Reuters.
"And then my wife screamed 'the kids are burning' and she was also burning," he said, his face clouding at the memory.
Continue reading "EXCLUSIVE-Afghan girl's burns show horror of chemical strike" »
> http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=223861&title=00bama-international-man-of
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's highest court on Tuesday reduced the prison sentence for an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush from three years to one, a court spokesman said.
Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, the spokesman, said the decision was taken because the journalist had no prior criminal history.
The defense appealed the original ruling to the Federal Appeals Court citing an Iraqi law stipulating a maximum sentence of only two years for publicly insulting a visiting foreign leader.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.
German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.
An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.
"After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it," police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
The Old North Church in Boston, where two lanterns signaled the departure of British regulars to Lexington, has been immortalized for what happened atop its 277-year-old Medford bricks. But far below, in a dark and dusty crypt where the public rarely visits, the stories of hundreds of early Bostonians have long lay dormant and forgotten.
TANALEE SMITH | Associated Press Writer
9:01 AM EDT, April 6, 2009
SYDNEY (AP) — Australian researchers sifting papers belonging to the author of "Schindler's List" discovered a yellowing roll of 801 men saved from the Holocaust by the German industrialist — the very copy the writer used to bring the story to the world's attention, a curator said Monday.
The 13-page document is a copy of one of Oskar Schindler's famed compilations of names that eventually included 1,100 men and women he saved by employing them in his factories in World War II Germany.
binghamton N.Y.
Guy walks into a place and stabs 15 people to death
wait
wait
sorry
man SHOOTS 15 people to death, another proud N.R.A. moment
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Job losses in the U.S. private sector accelerated in March, more than economists' expectations, according to a report by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday.
Private employers cut jobs by a record 742,000 in March versus a 706,000 revised cut in February that was originally reported at 697,000 jobs, said ADP, which has been carrying out the survey since 2001.
Continue reading "U.S. private sector axes 742,000 jobs in March" »
Alaska, US government file civil lawsuits against BP for oil spills on North Slope
MARK THIESSEN | Associated Press Writer
6:42 AM EDT, April 1, 2009
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Separate state and federal civil lawsuits were filed Tuesday against BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. over two spills at the nation's largest oil field in 2006.
The lawsuits were filed two years after the company pleaded guilty to federal violations of the Clean Water Act for one of the spills and agreed to pay a $20 million fine.
Abu Zubaida was the alpha and omega of the Bush administration's argument for torture.
That's why Sunday's front-page Washington Post story by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick is such a blow to the last remaining torture apologists.
Finn and Warrick reported that "not a single significant plot was foiled" as a result of Zubaida's brutal treatment -- and that, quite to the contrary, his false confessions "triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms."
ARIZONA:
— Douglas Dispatch — Formerly The Daily Dispatch, went from five to three days a week in August.
— East Valley Tribune — In January, suburban Phoenix newspaper scaled back from seven days to Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It also became a free publication delivered to four growing communities, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek; Scottsdale and Tempe dropped from delivery zone.
Continue reading "List of newspapers cutting publication days to save money" »
MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — As the Red River crept within view of their backyard this past week, Denette and Billy Narum had an extra incentive to pray their sandbags held. Like most people in the path of potential floods, they have no flood insurance.
MADRID, (AP) — A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.
A middledle school principal has laid down the law: You put your hands on someone -- anyone -- in any way, you're going to pay.
A violent incident that put one student in the hospital has officials at the Milford school implementing a "no touching" policy, according to a letter written by the school's principal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to keep secret from travelers and the public its vast records on how frequently and where commercial planes are damaged by hitting flying birds.
HAVELOCK - Jeremy Brown thought he had seen everything as chief of the Harlowe Volunteer Fire Department.
That was until Saturday morning.
A group of volunteer firefighters needed more than an hour to rescue a dog that had gotten its head stuck in the bottom of a hollowed-out tree.
"We've never been taught anything about extricating a dog from a tree," Brown said. "We're good at cars, not at trees. There's no textbook to tell you how to extricate a dog from a tree."
The scent of burning wood mulch smells like money to New Bern.
While the city is still bracing for smaller returns in nearly all of its revenue categories, its partnership with the Craven County Wood Energy Biomass Plant has yielded monumental returns.
Since late September, the city has been selling at least 25 tons of wood mulch daily to the plant, which is in the Craven County Industrial Park. City leaders thought the partnership with plant operator CMS Energy might "put a little extra money" in New Bern's piggybank this year, Assistant City Manager Danny Meadows said.
They weren't expecting an extra $100,000.
The convenient and long-standing tradition south of the border is to blame Mexico's problems on the U.S. It can often be justified when the matter is the drug-trafficking violence now terrorizing much of Mexico, which is powered in large part by the insatiable gringo demand for drugs, the relentless flow of high-powered weapons from the U.S. and the just as chronic laundering of drug cash north of the border. As Washington hyperventilates over the threat of Mexico's narco-carnage spilling into the U.S., it can't ignore America's role in its neighbor's trafficking tragedy.
Continue reading " Obama's Other War: Fighting Mexico's Drug Lords" »
CLEVER, Missouri: Crashing through a gate in the dead of night, thieves using trucks and trailers recently robbed a farmer here of 53 Brahman crossbreed cows valued at some $50,000.
LONDON (Reuters) - Vandals smashed windows and damaged a car Wednesday at the home of a former bank chief who sparked public anger when he refused to give up his huge pension after the government rescued his bank.
A previously unknown group calling itself "Bank Bosses Are Criminals" said it had carried out the attack.
Sir Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, left the bank with an annual pension of around 700,000 pounds last October after the government bailed it out.
After the attack in the early hours, a protest group emailed local papers claiming responsibility for the attack.
"We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless," the message said.
"This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning."
BACKLASH
Goodwin's refusal to repay the pension, despite leading the bank into Britain's biggest ever corporate failure, triggered a public and political backlash.and so it begins
Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG's impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28. That is 10 days before Treasury staffers say they first learned "full details" of the bonus plan, and three days before the Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG.
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Bad luck for this Irishman: Visiting PM begins speech, realizes it's Obama's
By Associated Press
8:28 PM EDT, March 17, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.
Cowen was set to speak twice at the White House on Tuesday night because there were two different parties going on at the executive mansion. No matter — he would give the same speech to the two different audiences.
But Cowen was 20 seconds into his second address when it dawned on him that he was giving word for word the speech that Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.
Cowen stopped and looked back at the president to say, "That's your speech."Obama laughed and returned to the podium to offer what might have been Cowen's remarks. In doing so, President Obama thanked President Obama for inviting everyone over.
Conn. teacher accused of forcing 5-year-old boy to eat his lunch from a garbage can
By Associated Press
6:16 AM EDT, March 18, 2009
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A kindergarten teacher in a Bridgeport school has been arrested for allegedly forcing a 5-year-old boy to eat his lunch from a garbage can.
Sixty-seven-year-old Anne O'Donnell of Fairfield, a teacher at Park City Magnet School, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of risk of injury to a minor.
School officials say the charge stems from an incident last week when the boy apparently tossed out his lunch of chicken nuggets and a banana from the school cafeteria.
The teacher is accused of retrieving the items from the garbage can and forcing the boy to eat them in front of her.
Sea-level rise poses new flood risk to California
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's farms and cities may be left high and dry by prolonged drought, but climate change is expected to leave much of the state's fabled shoreline awash in excess seawater before too long.
Nearly 500,000 people and $100 billion worth of property in coastal California are at risk of severe flooding from rising sea levels this century unless new safeguards are put in place, researchers reported on Wednesday.
Iraq shoe thrower sentenced to three years jail
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Baghdad court sentenced an Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush to three years in prison on Thursday, a verdict critics said was politically motivated.
Palin's daughter Bristol splits from fiance: report
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska's governor and last year's Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has split from her fiance Levi Johnston, celebrity magazine People reported on Wednesday.
The break-up happened "a few weeks ago," People reported, citing an unnamed source it said was close to the couple.
Bristol, whose pregnancy briefly occupied the headlines during her mother's vice presidential campaign last year, gave birth to a son named Tripp in December, fathered by Johnston.
The teenage pregnancy was an awkward moment for the vice presidential candidate, whose campaign supported sex education in public schools that encourages abstinence.
A representative from the Alaska governor's office declined comment on the matter.
People convicted in the Abramoff influence-peddling investigation
By The Associated Press
4:24 PM EDT, March 10, 2009
Among the lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:
—Abramoff was sentenced in September 2008 to four years in prison on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion. Since pleading guilty in 2006, the once-powerful lobbyist has cooperated with the federal investigation of influence-peddling in Washington. He is nearly two years into a six-year prison sentence in a criminal case out of Florida, where he pleaded guilty in January 2006 to charges of conspiracy, honest services fraud and tax evasion in the purchase of gambling cruise boats.
—David Safavian, the government's former chief procurement officer, was found guilty for a second time in December 2008 for lying to investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, who provided gifts in return for information from Safavian about government property the lobbyist wanted to acquire. Safavian's 2006 conviction on similar charges was overturned on appeal. He is the only person to take his case to trial.
—John Albaugh, a one-time top aide to former Oklahoma Rep. Ernest Istook, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the House. Albaugh admitted in federal court in Washington that he accepted meals and sports and concert tickets, along with other perks, from lobbyists in exchange for official favors. He is cooperating with investigators.
—Robert E. Coughlin II, a Justice Department official, pleaded guilty to conflict of interest. He admitted in federal court in Washington that he accepted meals, concert tickets and luxury seats at Redskins and Wizards games from a former Abramoff associate, lobbyist Kevin Ring, while helping the lobbyist and his clients. Coughlin is cooperating with investigators.
—Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, was sentenced to two months in a halfway house, four years on probation and a $74,000 fine after agreeing to help federal investigators. She pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with Interior Department officials.
—Former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, acknowledged taking bribes from Abramoff. Ney was in the traveling party on an Abramoff-sponsored golfing trip to Scotland at the heart of the case against former White House official David Safavian. Ney was released in August 2008 —a year early —after completing treatment for alcohol problems.
—Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for obstructing justice. He admitted lying to a Senate committee about his relationship with Abramoff, who repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at Interior on behalf of Indian tribal clients.
—Tony Rudy, lobbyist and one-time aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, pleaded guilty in March 2006 to conspiring with Abramoff. He is cooperating with investigators.
—Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business partner and DeLay aide, pleaded guilty in November 2005 to conspiring to bribe public officials in connection with his lobbying work on behalf of Indian tribes and casino issues. He is cooperating with investigators.
—William Heaton, Ney's former chief of staff, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge involving a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients. He cooperated with investigators and was sentenced to two years probation and a $5,000 fine.
—Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, was sentenced to two years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid.
—Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He acknowledged accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and a golf trip to Scotland from Abramoff's team in exchange for official acts on the lobbyist's behalf.
—Trevor L. Blackann, a former aide to Missouri Republicans Sen. Kit Bond and Rep. Roy Blount, pleaded guilty to not reporting $4,100 in gifts from lobbyists in return for helping clients of Abramoff and his associates. Among the gifts were tickets to the World Series and concerts, plus meals and entertainment at a "gentleman's club."
—James Hirni, a former Republican Senate aide and one-time Abramoff associate, pleaded guilty to using wire communications to defraud taxpayers of congressional aides' honest services. Hirni acknowledged providing Blackann with meals, concert passes and tickets to the opening game of the 2003 World Series between the Florida Marlins and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
—Todd Boulanger, a former Abramoff deputy, pleaded guilty to lavishing congressional aides with meals and tickets to sporting events, concerts and the circus in exchange for help with legislation favorable to his clients.
—Ann Copland, a former aide to Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, pleaded guilty to taking more than $25,000 worth of concert and sporting event tickets in return for helping one of Abramoff's top clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
—Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, was sentenced to two years on probation in January 2007 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting hundreds of dollars worth of sports and concert tickets he received from Abramoff.
—Former Abramoff business partner Adam Kidan was sentenced in Florida in March 2006 to nearly six years in prison for conspiracy and fraud in the 2000 purchase of the Fort Lauderdale-based SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.
Former naval officer and wife on trial, charged with defrauding 9/11 fund by faking injuries
Mar 10, 2009 16:23 -0400
Updated: 4:23 p.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former naval commander cited for his service during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is standing trial on charges that he faked injuries to get money from the victims' compensation fund.
Police say Mass. woman gives birth, then steals another new mom's purse to buy crack cocaine
By Associated Press
8:19 AM EDT, March 10, 2009
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) — Police say a woman who gave birth at a Massachusetts hospital tried to leave the maternity ward with more than just a newborn.
Framingham police say Jennifer Morris stole another new mother's purse containing a cell phone and digital camera that she sold to get money for crack cocaine.
The 36-year-old Morris was arrested Sunday, the day after she allegedly snatched the purse from the mother of triplets at MetroWest Medical Center.
Lt. Paul Shastany told the MetroWest Daily News that Morris was caught on surveillance video taking the purse.
Texas ranks last nationally in child homelessness, report says
DALLAS (AP) — Larry Canady took his family to a homeless shelter three weeks ago, no longer able to make ends meet after he and his wife were laid off from their jobs.
The family of five was already living from paycheck-to paycheck. They went from renting a four-bedroom brick home in a south Dallas suburb to sharing one room in a dormitory-like shelter.
"No one knew the economy was going to crash so hard like it did," said Larry Canady, 38, now at the nonprofit Family Gateway facility in Dallas. "It caught us off guard."
The Canady family's story is a familiar one and in no place more so than Texas. A study by the National Center on Family Homelessness released Tuesday placed Texas 50th — last of all states — in how homeless children fare.
Obama to reverse Bush's 8-year-old restrictions on federal funding for cell research
By BEN FELLER and LAURAN NEERGAARD | Associated Press Writers
6:19 AM EST, March 7, 2009
Barack Obama
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Secret Service agents, waves to a crowd gathered outside Sidwell Friends School in Bethesda, Md., where his daughter Sasha attends, after a parent teacher meeting, Friday, March 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak, AP / March 6, 2009)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight years of frustration are close to an end for scientists seeking ways to use embryonic stem cells to combat illness and injury.
On Monday, President Barack Obama plans to reverse limits imposed by President George W. Bush on using federal money for research with embryonic stem cells.
The long-promised move will allow a rush of research aimed at one day better treating, if not curing, ailments from diabetes to paralysis — research that is has drawn broad support, including from notables like Nancy Reagan, widow of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan, and the late Christopher Reeve.
Former first lady Barbara Bush in good condition after successful heart surgery in Texas
The State Department issued a travel alert for people going to.........MEXICO
They describe Mexico and a land of Kidnappings and indiscrimate killings.
Washington Square Salt Lake City, Utah August 30, 2006
A patriot is a person who loves his or her country.
Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation - and for our world?
And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation's leaders tell us the truth?
Let's hear it: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
Let no one deny we are patriots. We love our country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we are distressed at what our President, his administration, and our Congress are doing to, and in the name of, our great nation.
Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.
A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.
That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience - a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid - afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane, regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.
In response to those who believe we should blindly support this disastrous president, his administration, and the complacent, complicit Congress, listen to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great president and a Republican, who said: The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
We are here today as truth-tellers.
And we are here to demand: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
We are here today to insist that those who were elected to be our leaders must tell us the truth.
We are here today to insist that our news media live up to its sacred responsibility to ascertain and report the truth - rather than acting like nothing more than a bulletin board for the lies and propaganda of a manipulative, dishonest federal government.
We have been getting just about everything but the truth on matters of life and death . . . on matters upon which our nation's reputation hinges . . . on matters that directly relate to our nation's fundamental values . . . and on matters relating to the survival of our planet.
In the process, our nation has engaged in an unnecessary war, based upon false justifications. More than a hundred thousand people have been killed - and many more have been seriously maimed, brain damaged, or rendered mentally ill.
Our nation's reputation throughout much of the world has been destroyed. We have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of Iraq.
And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take many years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.
What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our President to talk about a Crusade while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of a Muslim country!
Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the violence, the cruelty, the incompetence, and the inhumanity of the Bush administration and the lackey Congress that has so cowardly abrogated its responsibility and authority under our checks-and-balances system of government.
We are here to say, "We will not stand for it any more. No more lies. No more pre-emptive, illegal war, based on false information. No more God-is-on-our-side religious nonsense to justify this immoral, illegal war. No more inhumanity."
Let's raise our voices, and demand, "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
Let's consider some of the most monstrous lies - lies that have led us, like a nation of sheep, to this tragic war.
Following September 11, 2001, the world knew that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible for the horrific attacks on our country. Our long-time allies were sympathetic and supportive. But our president transformed that support into international disdain for the United States, choosing to illegally invade and occupy Iraq, rather than focus on and capture the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
Why invade and occupy Iraq? Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice represented to us, without qualification, that there were strong ties between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
In September, 2002, President Bush made the incredible claim that "You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam."
President Bush represented to Congress, without any factual basis whatsoever, that Iraq planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 9/11 attacks.
Our President and Vice-President, along with an unquestioning news media, repeatedly led our nation to believe that there was a working relationship between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, a relationship that threatened the US. Even last week, when I met with Thomas Bock, National Commander of the American Legion, I asked him why we are engaged in the war in Iraq. He said, "Why, of course, because of the 9/11 attacks on our country." I asked, "What did Iraq have to do with those attacks?" He looked puzzled, then said, "Well, the connection between al Qaeda and Iraq."
I was shocked. Here is a man who has criticized us for opposing the war in Iraq - and he is completely wrong about the underlying facts used to justify this war.
Not only has there never been any evidence of any involvement by Saddam Hussein or Iraq with the attacks on 9/11, but there has never been any evidence of any operational connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
Colin Powell finally conceded there is no "concrete evidence about the connection." "The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track al Qaeda" disclosed that "his team had found no evidence linking al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein." And the top investigator for our European allies has said, 'If there were such links, we would have found them.
But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.'"
President Bush himself finally admitted nine days ago during a press conference that there was no connection between the attacks on 9/11 and Iraq. It's terrific that the President has now admitted what others have known for so long - but where is the accountability for the tragic war we were led into on the basis of his earlier misrepresentations?
Besides the fictions of Saddam Hussein somehow being linked to the 9/11 attacks and his supposed connection with al Qaeda, what was the principal justification for forgoing additional weapons inspections, failing to work with our allies toward a solution, refraining from seeking additional resolutions from the United Nations, and hurrying to war - a so-called "pre-emptive" war - in which we would attack and occupy a Muslim nation that posed no security risk to the United States, and cause the deaths of many thousands of innocent men, women, and children - and the deaths and lifetime injuries to many thousands of our own servicemen and servicewomen?
The principal claim was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction - biological and chemical weapons - and was seeking to build up a nuclear weapons capability. As we now know, there was nothing - no evidence whatsoever - to support those claims.
President Bush represented to us - and to people around the world - that one of the reasons we needed to make war in Iraq - and to do it right away - was because Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons. His assertions about Saddam Hussein trying to purchase nuclear materials from an African nation and about Iraq seeking to obtain aluminum tubes for the enrichment of uranium were challenged at the time by our own intelligence agency and scientists, yet he didn't tell us that! Ten days before the invasion of Iraq, it was proven that the documents upon which President Bush's claim about Saddam Hussein trying to obtain uranium was based were forgeries. However, President Bush did not disclose that to the American people. By that failure, he betrayed each of us, he betrayed our country, and he betrayed the cause of world peace.
Neither did the vast majority of the news media disclose the forgeries - until it was far too late. It took our local newspapers here in Salt Lake City four months - until after President Bush declared that major combat in Iraq was over - to report the discovery that the documents were forgeries - and, therefore, that there was no basis for the false claims about Saddam Hussein trying to build up a nuclear capability. By its failure to promptly disclose the forgeries, the news media betrayed us as well.
Had the American people known we were being lied to - had President Bush informed us that the documents were forged and that he had no other basis for his claim - had our nation's media done its job, rather than slavishly repeating to us the lies being fed to it by the Bush administration - our nation may well not have allowed the commencement of this outrageous, illegal, unjustified war.
To President Bush, to his administration, to our go-along Congress, and to our news media, we are here today, demanding, "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
Then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs," warning "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
Undisclosed by President Bush or Condoleezza Rice was the fact that top nuclear scientists had informed the Administration that the tubes were "too narrow, too heavy, too long" to be useful in developing nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes. Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed.
So much for the phony claims of Saddam Hussein building nuclear weapons - the primary claims justifying the rush to war.
What were we told about chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction? These claims were as baseless and fraudulent as the claims about nuclear weapons.
President Bush told us in his January 2003 State of the Union address that Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. Then, in May of 2003, he made the outlandish statement that, "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us, "We know where the [WMDs] are." Vice President Cheney and then-Secretary of State Powell also joined in the chorus of lies and misinformation about weapons of mass destruction. Of course, no stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons were found.
Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay noted that Iraq did not have an ongoing chemical weapons program after 1991-a conclusion remarkably similar to statements made by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 attacks - and before they sacrificed the truth in the service of promoting the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq.
On February 24, 2001, less than 7 months before 9/11, Colin Powell said that Saddam Hussein "has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors," said Colin Powell.
And in July 2001, two months before 9/11, Condoleezza Rice said: "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
It is astounding how they changed their claims after the President decided to make a case for the invasion and occupation of Iraq!
To think that we could be lied to by so many members of the Bush administration with such impunity is frightening - chilling. Yet these imperious, arrogant, dishonest people think we should just fall in line with them and continue to take them at their word.
The truth has been established. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There is no evidence of any operational ties between Iraq and al Qaeda. And there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
What a tragedy, leading to greater tragedy. We are fed lie after lie, our media reinforces those lies, and we are a nation led to a tragic, illegal, unprovoked war.
We are here because of our values. We love our country. We cherish the freedoms and liberties of our country. We don't call those who speak out against our nation's leaders unpatriotic or un-American or appeasers of fascists. We have good, wholesome family values. In our families, we teach honesty, we teach kindness and compassion toward others, we teach that violence, if ever justified, must be an absolutely last resort. In our families, we teach that our nation's constitutional values are to be upheld, and that they are worth standing up and fighting for. Our family values promote respect and equal rights toward everyone, regardless of race, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation.
In our families, we teach the value of hard work and competence - and we are left to wonder about a President who, after receiving an intelligence memo about the threat posed by al Qaeda, decides to continue his month-long vacation - just before the 9/11 attacks on our country.
As we demand the truth from others, let us also face the truth. Our government all too often has not cared about the human rights of people in other nations - and it doesn't really care about democracy, unless it leads to the election of those who will do our bidding.
Consider the irony regarding the claims that Saddam had chemical weapons and, because of that, we needed to rush to war in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons - first against Iranians, then against his own people, the Kurds - our country provided him with biological and chemical agents and equipment to make the weapons. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush refused even to support economic sanctions against Hussein for his use of weapons of mass destruction.
What did our nation do in response to Hussein's use of chemical weapons, killing tens of thousand of people, when he actually had them?
We befriended, coddled, and rewarded him - with government-guaranteed loans totaling $5 billion since 1983, freeing up currency for Hussein to modernize his military assets.
Perhaps those in the US government who aided and abetted Saddam Hussein to further US business interests, while he was gassing the Kurds, should be sharing his courtroom dock as he is being tried now for crimes against humanity.
No more lies, no more hiding of the truth, no more wars that more than triple the value of stock in Dick Cheney's prior employer, Halliburton - and which, as of last September, has increased the value of the Halliburton CEO's stock by $78 million.
We are patriots. We're deeply concerned. And we demand change, now.
No more lies from Condoleezza Rice about whether she and President Bush were advised before 9/11 of the possibility of planes being flown into buildings by terrorists.
No more gross incompetence in the office of the Secretary of Defense.
No more torture of human beings.
No more disregard of the basic human rights enshrined in the Geneva Convention.
No more kidnapping of people and sending them off to secret prisons in nations where we can expect they will be tortured.
No more unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.
No more proposed amendments to the United States Constitution that would, for the first time, limit fundamental rights and liberties for entire classes of people simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
No more federal land giveaways to developers.
No more increases in mercury emissions from old, dirty, dangerous coalburning power plants.
No more backroom deals that deprive protection for millions of acres of wild lands.
No more attacks on immigrants who work so hard to build better lives.
No more inaction by Congress on fixing our hypocritical and inconsistent immigration laws and policies.
No more reliance on fiction rather than the science of global warming.
No more manipulation of our media with false propaganda.
No more disastrous cuts in funding for those most in need.
No more federal cuts in community policing and local law enforcement grant programs for our cities.
No more inaction on stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
No more of the Patriot Act.
No more killing.
No more pre-emptive wars.
No more contempt for our long-time allies around the world.
No more dependence on foreign oil.
No more failure to impose increased fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.
No more energy policies developed in secret meetings between Dick Cheney and his energy company cronies.
No more excuses for failing to aggressively cut global warming pollutant emissions.
No more tragically incompetent federal responses to natural disasters.
No more tax cuts for the wealthiest, while the middle class and those who are economically-disadvantaged continue to struggle more and more each year.
No more reckless spending and massive tax cuts, resulting in historic deficits and historic accumulated national debt.
No more purchasing of elections by the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country.
No more phony, ineffective, inhumane so-called war on drugs.
No more failure to pass an increase in the minimum wage.
No more silence by the American people.
This is a new day. We will not be silent. We will continue to raise our voices. We will bring others with us. We will grow and grow, regardless of political party - unified in our insistence upon the truth, upon peace-making, upon more humane treatment of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We will be ever cognizant of our moral responsibility to speak up in the face of wrongdoing, and to work as we can for a better, safer, more just community, nation, and world.
So we won't let down. We won't be quiet. We will continue to resist the lies, the deception, the outrages of the Bush administration. We will insist that peace be pursued, and that, as a nation, we help those in need. We must break the cycle of hatred, of intolerance, of exploitation. We must pursue peace as vigorously as the Bush administration has pursued war. It's up to all of us to do our part.
Thank you everyone for lending your voices to this call for compassion, for peace, for greater humanity. Let us keep in mind the injunction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Democrats Cite Report On Troop Cuts in Iraq
Pentagon Plan Like Theirs, Senators Say
By Michael Abramowitz and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 26, 2006; Page A01
Senate Democrats reacted angrily yesterday to a report that the U.S. commander in Iraq had privately presented a plan for significant troop reductions in the same week they came under attack by Republicans for trying to set a timetable for withdrawal.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that the plan attributed to Gen. George W. Casey resembles the thinking of many Democrats who voted for a nonbinding resolution to begin a troop drawdown in December. That resolution was defeated Thursday on a largely party-line vote in the Senate.
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"That means the only people who have fought us and fought us against the timetable, the only ones still saying there shouldn't be a timetable really are the Republicans in the United States Senate and in the Congress," Boxer said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "Now it turns out we're in sync with General Casey."
Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), one of the two sponsors of the nonbinding resolution, which offered no pace or completion date for a withdrawal, said the report is another sign of what he termed one of the "worst-kept secrets in town" -- that the administration intends to pull out troops before the midterm elections in November.
"It shouldn't be a political decision, but it is going to be with this administration," Levin said on "Fox News Sunday." "It's as clear as your face, which is mighty clear, that before this election, this November, there's going to be troop reductions in Iraq, and the president will then claim some kind of progress or victory."
At issue was a report yesterday in the New York Times that Casey presented a private briefing at the Pentagon last week in which he projected that the number of U.S. combat brigades -- each with about 3,500 troops -- would decrease from 14 to five or six by the end of 2007. About 127,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq, including many support troops beyond the combat brigades.
White House and Pentagon officials declined to confirm the projections, saying only that Casey met with President Bush on Friday to discuss how the military might proceed in Iraq after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki forms a new government. Bush has often said the U.S. military will stand down as Iraqi forces become adequately trained to handle security.
One White House official said there was "no formal plan presented or signed off on" in Casey's meeting with Bush, only a discussion of "various scenarios" to guide their talks with the new Iraqi government.
"We are entering a phase where discussions with the Iraqis will begin to practically define what 'stand up, stand down' will look like over the next two years," said this official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal conversations.
This official dismissed the suggestion by some Democrats that Casey's approach resembles their approach. "A conditions-based strategy outlined by our generals on the ground is a far cry from politicians in Washington setting an arbitrary date for withdrawal," the official said.
A Pentagon official said his impression is that Bush and Casey had no lengthy discussion about troop reductions, and that any projections of specific numbers remain speculative. This source noted that Casey had said that he hoped U.S. force levels would be substantially reduced this year but has decided against such a move because of the continuing violence in Iraq.
"I think there will be a modest decrease between now and the end of the year," the official added. But, he concluded, "Nobody really knows."
U.S. commanders have long wanted to cut the size of their force in Iraq. But plans to do so have proven difficult to realize.
Before the U.S. invasion in March 2003, the Pentagon's war plans called for a swift reduction, from about 150,000 to 30,000 by the early autumn of that year. Paul Wolfowitz, then the deputy defense secretary, told a congressional committee that the thinking behind this was that "it is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam [Hussein] Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army -- hard to imagine."
That plan was shelved when a fierce insurgency broke out in the summer of 2003. That fall, top commanders hoped to cut the U.S. presence to about 100,000 by the next summer. But a major escalation in violence in the spring of 2004, along with the collapse of the new Iraqi police force and parts of the new army, forced that plan to be discarded as well.
The result is that the United States has kept about 135,000 soldiers in Iraq for the past three years, with occasional fluctuations to as high as 160,000.
The widespread expectation inside the Army is that the U.S. presence will be cut to about 100,000 by the end of this year, with further reductions in 2007 to perhaps 50,000 to 75,000. That size could be maintained almost indefinitely by the Army and the Marine Corps. But whether those new plans will be realized will depend on events in Iraq, which have proven difficult to predict.
Casey's meeting with Bush followed an eventful several weeks in Iraq that included the death of insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the completion of a new Iraqi government. It also followed particularly rancorous debates in the House and Senate, in which GOP lawmakers -- with the encouragement of the White House -- went after Democrats for being insufficiently supportive of the war effort and said decisions about issues such as troop deployments should remain with the president.
Coming so soon after the congressional debates, the report of Casey's briefing served to keep the debate going another day.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored an unsuccessful resolution setting a July 1, 2007, deadline for the removal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, issued a statement saying the Casey plan looks "an awful lot like what the Republicans spent the last week attacking. Will the partisan attack dogs now turn their venom and disinformation campaign on General Casey?"
But Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, played down the significance of the reported briefing. "The department's drawn up plans at all times, but I think it would be wrong now to say that this is the plan that we're going to operate under," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
Warner counseled patience. "We have struggled and made tremendous sacrifice to give this nation its sovereignty," he said. "They are now beginning to exercise this sovereignty with a young government. Give them a chance to move out. We will consult with them. I'm confident our government will not let them make mistakes that would reflect adversely on troop withdrawals."
Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, voiced some skepticism that the administration can reach the conditions set for withdrawing troops.
"Given current events in Baghdad, in particular, reported on every day quite apart from Anbar province, the violence is horrific," he said on "Face the Nation." "So getting to the plans either of General Casey or Maliki are a broad sweep. But it is good news to know that there are contingency plans."
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A nanny who was arrested after police viewed hidden camera recordings that appeared to show her shaking a 5-month-old baby filed a lawsuit against the device's manufacturer.
Claudia Muro, 32, alleged that the camera footage, which was broadcast on television around the country, was distorted and wrongfully led to her arrest in October 2003. She spent more than two years in jail awaiting trial before prosecutors dropped the case because of concerns about the tape.
Muro maintained her innocence, and said she was simply playing with the baby. Doctors found the girl had no injuries.
The lawsuit was filed against Boca Raton-based Tyco Fire & Security, according to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
In March, Broward County prosecutors said experts they had consulted concluded the footage was not reliable as evidence because its videotape was time-lapsed, meaning that the movements that appeared to be rough shaking might not have been as violent as they appeared.
Robert McKee, Muro's civil attorney, said the footage was misleading and consumers should be warned about problems with the images.
Rove won't be charged in CIA leak
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top White House aide Karl Rove has been told by prosecutors he won't be charged with any crimes in the investigation into leak of a CIA officer's identity, his lawyer said Tuesday.
ON DEADLINE: Reaction to Rove
Attorney Robert Luskin said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald informed him of the decision on Monday, ending months of speculation about the fate of one of President Bush's closest advisers. Rove testified five times before a grand jury.
Fitzgerald has already secured a criminal indictment against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
"On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove," Luskin said in a statement.
"In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation," Luskin said. "We believe the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct."
Military revises al-Zarqawi account
Posted 6/10/2006 7:02 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
THE DEATH OF ZARQAWI
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — An Iraqi man who was one of the first people on the scene of the U.S. airstrike targeting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said he saw American troops beating a man who had a beard like the al-Qaeda leader.
The witness, who lives near the house where al-Zarqawi spent his last days, said he saw the man lying on the ground near an irrigation canal. He was badly wounded but still alive, the man told Associated Press Television News.
U.S. troops arriving on the scene wrapped the man's head in an Arab robe and began beating him, said the local man, who refused to give his name or show his face to the camera. His account could not be independently verified.
The U.S. military made no mention of any physical contact between U.S. troops and al-Zarqawi other than an attempt to provide him with medical attention.
Zarqawi died shortly after the U.S. military obliterated his hideout northwest of Baghdad Wednesday with two 500-pound bombs. The bombs tore a huge crater in the date palm forest where the house was nestled outside the town of Baqouba.
Initially, the military had said al-Zarqawi was killed outright. But on Friday, the spokesman for the U.S.-led forces in Iraq said Iraqi forces found al-Zarqawi clinging to life.
"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said of the Jordanian-born terrorist's last words.
Iraqi police pulled him from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious, and tried to provide medical treatment, the spokesman said.
"He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military," Caldwell told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Baghdad.
Al-Zarqawi "attempted to, sort of, turn away off the stretcher," he said. "Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike."
Terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi survived the bombing of his safe house, but died a short time later, U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said today. "Zarqawi did in fact survive the airstrike," Caldwell said. He added that al-Zarqawi "mumbled a little something" and "attempted to ... turn away off the stretcher."
Coulter Calls 9/11 Widows "Witches"
Reuters
Wednesday 07 June 2006
New York - Conservative author Ann Coulter sparked a storm on Wednesday after describing a group of September 11 widows who backed the Democratic Party as millionaire "witches" reveling in their status as celebrities.
"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," Coulter writes in her book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," published on Tuesday, referring to four women who headed a campaign that resulted in the creation of the September 11 Commission that investigated the hijacked plane attacks.
Coulter wrote that the women were millionaires as a result of compensation settlements and were "reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."
The four, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie Van Auken, declined to discuss the book in detail but issued a statement saying they had been slandered.
"There was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again," said the statement signed by the four, along with a fifth woman, Monica Gabrielle.
The four women, who live in or around East Brunswick, New Jersey, became friends after September 11 and formed a group that agitated for the investigation. "Our only motivation ever was to make our nation safer," they said.
Coulter, whose books include the bestseller "How to talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," argues in the new book the women she dubs "the Witches of East Brunswick" wanted to blame President George W. Bush for not preventing the attacks.
She criticized them for making a campaign advertisement for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004, and added: "By the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."
Personal Attacks
Asked by Reuters why she made such personal comments, Coulter said by email: "I am tired of victims being used as billboards for untenable liberal political beliefs."
"A lot of Americans have been seething over the inanities of these professional victims for some time," she added.
The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News. Corp., on Wednesday slammed the comments in an article headlined "Righty writer Coulter hurls nasty gibes at 9/11 gals."
Coulter, a regular television commentator and figurehead for some conservatives, was challenged on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday over what host Matt Lauer called "dramatic" remarks, prompting her to say "You are getting testy with me."
Coulter is known for a combative column after September 11 saying: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." In one book, she wrote: "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do."
Bush Hawks Down
By Jim Lobe
Inter Press Service
Tuesday 06 June 2006
The takeover of Mogadishu this week by Islamic militias marks a major defeat for the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which had secretly backed a coalition of warlords that has reportedly been routed from the Somali capital.
While the victors, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), sought to assure the international community that they have no intention of setting up a Taliban-style fundamentalist state, U.S. officials have expressed strong concerns about their possible ties to al Qaeda associates believed to be in Mogadishu, including at least one individual who allegedly helped organize the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.
"We do have real concerns about the presence of foreign terrorists in Somalia and that informs an important aspect of our policy with regard to Somalia," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormick on Monday. U.S. officials say their biggest fear is that the UIC will offer safe haven to al Qaeda and other radical Islamists as the Taliban did after it took control of Afghanistan.
Powerful Lawmaker's Relative Linked Financially to Contractor
By Peter Pae, Tom Hamburger and Richard Simon
The Los Angeles Times
Thursday 08 June 2006
Washington - A political fundraising committee headed by a defense contractor has paid thousands of dollars in fees to the stepdaughter of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) at a time when the contractor has been lobbying Congress for funding.
Lewis' stepdaughter, Julia Willis-Leon, has been paid more than $42,000 by the Small Biz Tech Political Action Committee, according to campaign finance records. The PAC is led by Nicholas Karangelen, founder and president of Trident Systems Inc.
Records show the company received at least $11.7 million in earmarked funds in recent defense spending bills over which Lewis' committee has jurisdiction.
The Small Biz Tech PAC was created early last year "to establish a strong and clear voice for small technology businesses" dealing with Congress, according to its website, which features a photo of Lewis at one of its events.
PACs customarily collect money from donors and distribute it to political figures in the form of campaign contributions. But in the case of Small Biz Tech, almost one-third of the $115,350 it has reported raising was given to Lewis' stepdaughter, according to figures in its financial disclosure reports.
In fact, the payments to Willis-Leon exceeded the $15,600 total it has contributed to political candidates and other PACs.
Lewis is chairman of the House committee that - with its Senate counterpart - writes all federal spending bills. He is a prominent figure in the broad federal investigation into the relationships that powerful members of Congress and their senior aides have with the government contractors and lobbyists who seek to curry favor with them.
Democrats Try to Save Poverty Survey
The Associated Press
Thursday 08 June 2006
Washington - Democratic lawmakers say Congress will be working in the dark on big issues such as Social Security and Medicaid if the Census Bureau eliminates a unique survey of poverty and income.
The Bush administration has proposed cutting the Survey of Income and Program Participation. It is the government's only survey that repeatedly questions thousands of people over time about how income changes affect their poverty status, health coverage and use of government services.
Democrats are trying to save the program, which will cost $32 million this year, while some Republicans are looking to cut the agency's spending.
A House committee is scheduled to take up the Census Bureau's 2007 budget next week. A dozen Democrats in Congress wrote Bush's budget director on Wednesday questioning the elimination of the survey.
Supporters say the 22-year-old survey has been crucial for measuring the effects of welfare changes, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other services. They argue it could be an important tool to evaluate how older people will be affected by the new Medicare drug plan.
Every four months, the same people are asked the same survey questions. The sample sizes have ranged from 14,000 to 36,700 households.
"This data is essential to the government in managing Social Security, disability payments, and assistance to needy families," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. "This action by the administration gives the term 'heartless' a bad name."
Agency officials said the survey is cumbersome, requiring respondents to sit through interviews that can last three hours. As a result, many people drop out over time, requiring the bureau to start a new group every few years.
Specter ready to force showdown
GOP senator emerges as White House rival on legislative issues
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | June 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter emerged this week as a nemesis that the Bush White House hasn't had to face: A subpoena-wielding member of Congress who is ready to force a showdown over what he sees as the Bush administration's intrusion into legislative territory.
From President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program to the ``signing statements" in which he selectively enforces portions of laws, Republicans in control of the House and Senate have been unwilling to challenge the White House.
Democrats have howled in protest but remain powerless to force changes because of their minority status in Congress.
Specter, however, seems willing to take Bush and his administration to task. A strong believer in the Senate's institutional prerogatives, the Pennsylvania Republican has grown increasingly frustrated with a presidency that he believes is encroaching on Congress's power -- and lawmakers' checks on the power of the White House.
That spurred the unusual letter Specter fired off Wednesday to Vice President Dick Cheney. Specter blasted the vice president, accusing him of going behind his back to derail a Senate investigation into the administration's secret collection of Americans' phone records to look for terrorist activity.
Specter has also made it clear that he is willing to use his post on the powerful judiciary committee to broaden his inquiry into other controversial White House policies. He is raising fresh concerns over Bush's use of signing statements as well as Justice Department threats to prosecute reporters, and the recent FBI raid on a House member's office; it is unclear, however, if he has enough support from other committee members.
Bush ``doesn't have a blank check. He's not the final word. We have a Constitution," Specter said Wednesday night on CNN. ``I intend to press hard, because there are very fundamental values at issue here: civil rights and congressional oversight authority."
Cheney's response to Specter, however, offered no apologies -- and did not address Specter's questions about the wiretapping program or other White House actions. The vice president described his private conversations with Republican senators simply as ``government at work."
Despite their disagreements, ``we should proceed in a practical way to build on the areas of agreement," Cheney wrote. ``We look forward to working with you, knowing of the good faith on all sides."
The 9/11 Story That Got Away
By Rory O'Connor and William Scott Malone, AlterNet. Posted May 18, 2006.
In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper.
On Oct. 12, 2000, the guided missile destroyer USS Cole pulled into harbor for refueling in Aden, Yemen. Less than two hours later, suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa approached the ship's port side in a small inflatable craft laden with explosives and blew a 40-by-40-foot gash in it, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. The attack on the Cole, organized and carried out by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida terrorist group, was a seminal but still murky and largely misunderstood event in America's ongoing "Long War."
Two weeks prior, military analysts associated with an experimental intelligence program known as ABLE DANGER had warned top officials of the existence of an active Al Qaida cell in Aden, Yemen. And two days before the attack, they had conveyed "actionable intelligence" of possible terrorist activity in and around the port of Aden to Gen. Pete Schoomaker, then commander in chief of the U.S. Special Operation Command (SOCOM).
The same information was also conveyed to a top intelligence officer at the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), headed by the newly appointed Gen. Tommy Franks. As CENTCOM commander, Franks oversaw all U.S. armed forces operations in a 25-country region that included Yemen, as well as the Fifth Fleet, to which the Cole was tasked. It remains unclear what action, if any, top officials at SOCOM and CENTCOM took in response to the ABLE DANGER warnings about planned Al Qaida activities in Aden harbor.
None of the officials involved has ever spoken about the pre-attack warnings, and a post-attack forensic analysis of the episode remains highly classified and off-limits within the bowels of the Pentagon. Subsequent investigations exonerated the Cole's commander, Kirk Lippold, but Lippold's career has been ruined nonetheless. He remains in legal and professional limbo, with a recommended promotion and new command held up for the past four years by political concerns and maneuvering.
Meanwhile, no disciplinary action was ever taken against any SOCOM or CENTCOM officials. Schoomaker was later promoted out of retirement to chief of staff, U.S. Army, and Franks went on to lead the combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Enter Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-New York Times reporter at the center of the ongoing perjury and obstruction of justice case involving former top White House official I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Miller spent 85 days in jail before finally disclosing that Libby was the anonymous source who confirmed to her that Valerie Plame was a CIA official, although Miller never wrote a story about Plame.
Now, in an exclusive interview, Miller reveals how the attack on the Cole spurred her reporting on Al Qaida and led her, in July 2001, to a still-anonymous top-level White House source, who shared top-secret NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) concerning an even bigger impending Al Qaida attack, perhaps to be visited on the continental United States.
Ultimately, Miller never wrote that story either. But two months later -- on Sept. 11 -- Miller and her editor at the Times, Stephen Engelberg, both remembered and regretted the story they "didn't do."
Interview with Judith Miller:
"I was working on a special project in 2000-2001 -- trying to do a series on where Al Qaida was, who Al Qaida was, and what kind of a threat it posed to the United States. In the beginning I thought it was going to be pretty straightforward, but it turned out to be anything but. And it took me a long, long time, and a lot of trips to the Middle East, and a lot of dead ends, before I finally understood how I could tell the story to the American people. It was a long-term investigative piece, which meant that for the most part, I didn't write articles on specific individual attacks -- I was working the story …
"I was fairly persuaded that the attack on the Cole was an Al Qaida operation, based on the sources that I was talking to, because I had no independent information, obviously. The people that I was covering ardently believed that Al Qaida was behind a lot of these attacks on American forces and Americans throughout the Middle East that we were beginning to see. At the time there was still a fair amount of debate and a fair amount of resistance to that thesis within the intelligence community, as it's so-called. But from the get go, I think the instinctive reaction of the people I was covering was that this was an Al Qaida operation. So I started looking at the attack on the Cole as an example of Al Qaida terrorism.
"I learned that the Al Qaida Cole attack was not exactly a hugely efficient operation, and I learned later on that there had been an earlier attempt to take out the Cole or another American ship that had floundered badly because of poor Al Qaida training. Because of incidents like that -- you know, overloading a dinghy that was supposed to go have gone out to the ship and blow it up, so that the dinghy would sink -- people tended to discount Al Qaida. They said, 'Oh, they are just a bunch of amateurs." But I'd never thought that. I never believed that. And the people I was covering didn't think that …
"I had begun to hear rumors about intensified intercepts and tapping of telephones. But that was just vaguest kind of rumors in the street, indicators … I remember the weekend before July 4, 2001, in particular, because for some reason the people who were worried about Al Qaida believed that was the weekend that there was going to be an attack on the United States or on a major American target somewhere. It was going to be a large, well-coordinated attack. Because of the July 4 holiday, this was an ideal opportunistic target and date for Al Qaida.
My sources also told me at that time that there had been a lot of chatter overheard -- I didn't know specifically what that meant -- but a lot of talk about an impending attack at one time or another. And the intelligence community seemed to believe that at least a part of the attack was going to come on July 4. So I remember that, for a lot of my sources, this was going to be a 'lost' weekend. Everybody was going to be working; nobody was going to take time off. And that was bad news for me, because it meant I was also going to be on stand-by, and I would be working too.
"I was in New York, but I remember coming down to D.C. one day that weekend, just to be around in case something happened … Misery loves company, is how I would put it. If it were going to be a stress-filled weekend, it was better to do it together. It also meant I wouldn't have trouble tracking people down -- or as much trouble -- because as you know, some of these people can be very elusive.
"The people in the counter-terrorism (CT) office were very worried about attacks here in the United States, and that was, it struck me, another debate in the intelligence community. Because a lot of intelligence people did not believe that Al Qaida had the ability to strike within the United States. The CT people thought they were wrong. But I got the sense at that time that the counter-terrorism people in the White House were viewed as extremist on these views.
"Everyone in Washington was very spun-up in the CT world at that time. I think everybody knew that an attack was coming -- everyone who followed this. But you know you can only 'cry wolf' within a newspaper or, I imagine, within an intelligence agency, so many times before people start saying there he goes -- or there she goes -- again!
"Even that weekend, there was lot else going on. There was always a lot going on at the White House, so to a certain extent, there was that kind of 'cry wolf' problem. But I got the sense that part of the reason that I was being told of what was going on was that the people in counter-terrorism were trying to get the word to the president or the senior officials through the press, because they were not able to get listened to themselves.
"Sometimes, you wonder about why people tell you things and why people … we always wonder why people leak things, but that's a very common motivation in Washington. I remember once when I was a reporter in Egypt, and someone from the agency gave me very good material on terrorism and local Islamic groups.
"I said, 'Why are you doing this? Why are you giving this to me?' and he said, 'I just can't get my headquarters to pay attention to me, but I know that if it's from the New York Times, they're going to give it a good read and ask me questions about it.' And there's also this genuine concern about how, if only the president shared the sense of panic and concern that they did, more would be done to try and protect the country.
"This was a case wherein some serious preparations were made in terms of getting the message out and responding, because at the end of that week, there was a sigh of relief. As somebody metaphorically put it: 'They uncorked the White House champagne' that weekend because nothing had happened. We got through the weekend … nothing had happened.
"But I did manage to have a conversation with a source that weekend. The person told me that there was some concern about an intercept that had been picked up. The incident that had gotten everyone's attention was a conversation between two members of Al Qaida. And they had been talking to one another, supposedly expressing disappointment that the United States had not chosen to retaliate more seriously against what had happened to the Cole. And one Al Qaida operative was overheard saying to the other, 'Don't worry; we're planning something so big now that the U.S. will have to respond.'
"And I was obviously floored by that information. I thought it was a very good story: (1) the source was impeccable; (2) the information was specific, tying Al Qaida operatives to, at least, knowledge of the attack on the Cole; and (3) they were warning that something big was coming, to which the United States would have to respond. This struck me as a major page one-potential story.
"I remember going back to work in New York the next day and meeting with my editor Stephen Engelberg. I was rather excited, as I usually get about information of this kind, and I said, 'Steve, I think we have a great story. And the story is that two members of Al Qaida overheard on an intercept (and I assumed that it was the National Security Agency, because that's who does these things) were heard complaining about the lack of American response to the Cole, but also … contemplating what would happen the next time, when there was, as they said, the impending major attack that was being planned. They said this was such a big attack that the U.S. would have to respond.' Then I waited.
"And Stephen said, 'That's great! Who were the guys overheard?'
"I said, 'Well, I don't know. I just know that they were both Al Qaida operatives.'
"'Where were they overheard?' Steve asked.
"Well, I didn't know where the two individuals were. I didn't know what countries they were in; I didn't know whether they were having a local call or a long-distance call.
"'What was the attack they were planning?' he said. 'Was it domestic, was it international, was it another military target, was it a civilian target?'
I didn't know.
'Had they discussed it?'
"I didn't know, and it was at that point that I realized that I didn't have the whole story. As Steve put it to me, 'You have a great first and second paragraph. What's your third?"'
Anatomy of a scoop
Stephen Engelberg confirms Miller's tale in all respects. Engelberg first mentioned the incident in an article by Douglas McCollam in the October 2005 edition of Columbia Journalism Review, which noted:
"Miller was naturally excited about the scoop and wanted the Times to go with the story. Engelberg, himself a veteran intelligence reporter, wasn't so sure. There had been a lot of chatter about potential attacks; how did they know this was anything other than big talk? Who were these guys? What country were they in? How had we gotten the intercept? Miller didn't have any answers, and Engelberg didn't think they could publish without more context. Miller agreed to try and find out more, but in the end, the story never ran."
In a recent interview, Engelberg expanded on his comments. "I recall thinking it made perfect sense at the time," Engelberg told us. "The Cole attack was out of character -- unlike the Africa embassy attacks, the Millennium plot, the earlier World Trade Center bombing.
"That weekend, pre-4th of July, everybody was nervous," said Engelberg. "Judy went down to check with the White House and the NSC types at the Old Executive Office Building and CTC. And she came back in and had the story. And I knew the source.
"Judy had two guys talking, but no names or details," Engelberg recalled. "One guy says, 'The U.S. didn't retaliate for the Cole.' And the other guy says the coming attack 'will be so big they're gonna have to retaliate.' But no details … Judy had the what but not the who and the where.
"I said, 'Check with the CIA, NSA, DIA,'" Engelberg remembered. "But we couldn't get anything that week."
Interview with Judith Miller:
"I realized that this information was enormously sensitive, and that it was going to be difficult to get more information, but that my source undoubtedly knew more. So I promised to Steve that I would go back and try to get more. And I did … try.
"He knew who my source was. He knew that the source was impeccable. I had also confirmed from a second source that such a conversation had taken place -- that there was such an intercept -- though my second source did not seem to know as much about the content of the intercept as the first source did. But that was enough for me to know that there was a good story there.
"But whoever knew about the 'who' and the 'where' was not willing tell me at that time. After the fact I was told that, 'The bad guys were in Yemen on this conversation.' I didn't know that at that time. I remember knowing that the person who'd told me seemed to know who had been overheard, but he was not about to share that information with me …
"And Washington being Washington, and the CT world being the CT world, I was soon off pursuing other things. I simply couldn't nail it down with more specificity. I argued at that time that it was worth going with just what we had, even if it was vague, that the fact that the Al Qaida was planning something that was so spectacular that we have to respond was worth getting into the paper in some way, shape or form. But I think Steve decided, and I ultimately agreed, that we needed more details. And I simply couldn't pry them loose.
"At the time I also had had a book coming out. Steve, Bill Broad and I were co-authors of a book about biological terrorism. So we were working flat out on that book trying to meet our deadline. I was desperately trying to get my arms around this series that we were trying to do on Al Qaida. I was having a lot of trouble because the information was very hard to come by. There was a lot going on. I was also doing biological weapons stories and homeland security stories. And in Washington, if you don't have a sense of immediacy about something, and if you sense that there is bureaucratic resistance to a story, you tend to focus on areas of less resistance.
"Our pub date was Sept. 10th. I remember I was very worried about whether or not the publisher was actually going to get copies of the books to the warehouses in time. Because of course, Steve, Bill and I had delivered the manuscript late -- everything was very late.
"The morning of Sept. 11, I was downtown about 12 blocks from the World Trade Center. I remember walking to a school around the corner with a very clear view of the World Trade Center, because it was just a few blocks away. And all I can remember thinking was, 'Are they going to get those books to the warehouses on time?' I was also trying to make up my mind who I was going to vote for in the New York Democratic Primary. And -- everybody says this -- it was one of most beautiful days in New York I ever remember!
"When I got to the Baxter School, there were people standing out in front of the school, pointing at the World Trade Center, which was on fire, and I looked up. I asked what had happened, and they said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. There was an awfully big gash in the building and I didn't see the plane, but there was an awful lot of smoke and I thought, 'Gosh! That was a pretty big space for a Cessna or something to have gotten into that building.'
"And here I had spent my whole summer, my whole past year thinking about an Al Qaida attack, and I yet wouldn't let myself believe that it was happening right then. I simply wouldn't believe. So I turned around without voting, without going into the building, and I started to call my CT sources in Washington, and I remember reaching the counter-terrorism office at the White House, and I was told that nobody was there, that all of the principals were out giving speeches or doing something else. And I said, 'OK, I'll try to call back in 15 minutes.'
"By that time I walked to my house a couple of blocks away, and I heard a boom, and I turned around and once again I didn't see the plane, but I saw the fire shoot out from the building from the plane.
"It was only then, after the second plane hit, that I allowed myself to believe that it really was a terrorist attack -- the attack that we had been so worried about for so long. And I think I was kind of amazed at myself, at the power of denial. When you don't want to believe something's happening, it does not, it's not happening! And I think that was what was going on in the intelligence community. The idea that Al Qaida would actually strike in the United States, not at the Cole or overseas, or in Jordan as part of a warning bombing plot, but here in the U.S., that was just kind of unthinkable! People were in the state of denial, as I was that morning.
"I remember calling back the White House that morning, and at that point, I talked to the secretary in the counter-terrorism office and she said: 'Nobody's here, Judy, and we're evacuating this building. I gotta go. Bye.' At that point, I hadn't even heard about the Pentagon attack, but I knew.
"It was very strange … it was a strange feeling to have written a series that virtually predicted this, and to have had not a single other reporter call, not a single other newspaper follow up on some of the information that we had broken in that series. At the time of the series, which was published in January 2001, we had information about chemical and biological experiments at Al Qaida camps.
We had gotten the location of the camps, we had gotten satellite overhead of the camps. I had interviewed, in Afghanistan, Al Qaida-trained people who said that they were going to get out of the 'prison' in Afghanistan and go back and continue their jihad. They had talked about suicide bombings. We had Jordanian intelligence say that attempts to blow up hotels, roads and tourist targets in Jordan over the millennium was part of the Al Qaida planned attack. And yet I guess people just didn't believe it. But I believed it. I believed it absolutely, because I've covered these militants for so long. There was nothing they wouldn't do if they could do it."
The one that got away
Like Miller, Steve Engelberg, now managing editor of the Oregonian in Portland, still thinks about that story that got away. "More than once I've wondered what would have happened if we'd run the piece?" he told the CJR. "A case can be made that it would have been alarmist, and I just couldn't justify it, but you can't help but think maybe I made the wrong call."
Engelberg told us the same thing. "On Sept. 11th, I was standing on the platform at the 125th Street station," he remembered ruefully more than four years later. "I was with a friend, and we both saw the World Trade Center burning and saw the second one hit. 'It's Al-Qaida!' I yelled. 'We had a heads-up!' So yes, I do still have regrets."
So does Judy Miller.
"I don't remember what I said to Steve on Sept. 11," she concluded in her interview with us. "I don't think we said anything at all to each other. He just knew what I was thinking, and I knew what he was thinking. We were so stunned by what was happening, and there was so much to do, and I think that was the day in which words just fail you.
"So I sometimes think back, and Steve and I have talked a few times about the fact that that story wasn't fit, and that neither one of us pursued it at that time with the kind of vigor and determination that we would have had we known what was going to happen. And I always wondered how the person who sent that [intercept] warning must have felt.
DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge will go ahead with hearings in a legal challenge to a warrantless domestic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency.
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor also criticized the Justice Department for failing to respond to the legal challenge, The Detroit News reported Friday.
The NSA and the Justice Department declined immediate comment. The Bush administration has said that hearings would reveal state secrets that affect national security.
The American Civil Liberties Union in Detroit and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York filed lawsuits against the program in January, saying it violates Americans' rights to free speech and to privacy.
In March, the plaintiffs asked the judge to declare the National Security Agency's program illegal. They said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires that the spy agency go to a secret court in order to spy within the United States.
The government filed a motion saying that no court can consider the issues because of a privilege against revealing state secrets, if doing so harms national security. The judge said she will hear the government's motion only after proceeding with a June 12 hearing on the plaintiffs' motion to summarily declare the spying illegal.
U.S. moving 1,500 reserve troops to Iraq
Updated 5/30/2006 3:04 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military commanders have moved about 1,500 combat troops from a reserve force in Kuwait into the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq to help local authorities establish order there.
The move, announced Tuesday by military commanders, comes as Iraqi officials continue to struggle to set up their government, amid new spikes in violence.
In a statement Tuesday, the military command in Iraq described the new deployment as short-term. The plan is to keep the latest troops — two battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division — in Anbar no longer than four months, said one military official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the move.
Bloggers' 'victory' over Iraq war memos
By Kevin Anderson
BBC News website
Since early May, a blog-driven campaign has been trying to get the mainstream media to pay attention to one and now two leaked secret memos from meetings that Prime Minister Tony Blair had with key cabinet members and intelligence figures in the summer before the war in Iraq.
Bloggers are keen to keep up the pressure
The bloggers believe the memos, leaked to the Sunday Times, show that the Bush administration had made up its mind to attack Iraq and then went about trying to justify it.
With the release of the second memo, blogs can take some credit in raising the profile of the story in the US media.
And Mr Bush's Democratic opponents sense a political opening to attack a now seemingly vulnerable president.
Blog blockbuster
The Sunday Times wrote about the first memo in May. It is the transcript of a Downing Street meeting from July 2002.
In the memo, "C", the head of MI6, said that based on meetings in Washington there had been a shift in attitude and that "military action was now seen as inevitable".
President Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein from power and would do so "justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD," the memo said.
Opponents of Mr Bush in the blogosphere have latched onto the next line: "But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
The website Technorati tracks the most talked about news stories in weblogs.
Usually, the torrid pace of the 24-hour news cycle means that stories pass quickly in and out of the news listings, but not what has become known as the Downing Street memos.
Bloggers, keen to keep the pressure on the Bush and Blair governments, have tried to keep the memos in the limelight and put pressure on the mainstream media.
Based on bloggers linking to the Times, the story has rarely left the top five for much of the last month and a half.
The memo even has its own website: Downingstreetmemo.com.
The site was created on 13 May by bloggers from DailyKos.com who were concerned that the memo was not being covered by the US media.
The bloggers of DailyKos and many liberal allies in the blogosphere tried to play up the memo while conservative blogs such as Blogs for Bush heaped scorn on their arguments and said there was no new information in the memo.
Meanwhile, the memo failed to warrant much mention in the American mainstream media.
"While the European media have covered the memo extensively, it has received scant attention by the mainstream media in America," wrote Terry Neal of the Washington Post this week.
As blogger Juan Cole points out, the Times published the story on 1 May, and the first story in the Washington Post didn't appear until 13 May.
And it was only last week during a joint press conference with Tony Blair that President Bush was asked and answered a question about the memo.
'Downing Street's Deep Throat'
That has all changed with the publishing of a second memo this week.
The second memo, sometimes referred to as DSM II, as in the Downing Street Memo II, said ministers were told that they had no choice but to find a way to make the war in Iraq legal.
The blog campaigners celebrated at the publishing of the first front page story in the Washington Post about the memos.
And the Post declared that Downing Street now has a Deep Throat, a reference to the recently unmasked famous Watergate informant, FBI second-in-command Mark Felt.
The Post said a high level official "seems to have taken up a mission of helping an investigative reporter probe allegations of misconduct and cover-up."
Bloggers have had some success in getting the press and some members of Congress interested in the memo, says Professor Michael Cornfield who has studied the emerging impact of blogs on politics in the US.
Democratic Congressman John Conyers has held hearings about the memo.
And Democrats and online pressure group MoveOn.org held a rally near the White House on 17 June and delivered a petition calling on President Bush to answer questions about the memos, Professor Cornfield said.
It's unclear what the bloggers want, he said, but some are calling for a congressional investigation.
"That would make it a formal institutionalised story and a large daily embarrassment for both administrations," he added.
A handful of bloggers and consumer advocate Ralph Nader have called for impeachment proceedings. At this point, that is unlikely, Professor Cornfield said.
What is more likely is that Republicans will lose control of the daily agenda in Washington and lose their aura of political invulnerability, he added.
Blogs with their seamless linking and ability to post comments develop a network and generate buzz that would not have been possible before using traditional websites, Mr Cornfield said.
Here it is - the secret smoking gun memo - discovered by the Times of
London. - GP]
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY
DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard
Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally
Morgan, Alastair Campbell
IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY
Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss
Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It
should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.
John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment.
Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to
overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was
worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not
convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime
expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that
regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public
was probably narrowly based.
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible
shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush
wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the
conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were
being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN
route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's
record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after
military action.
CDS said that military planners would brief CENTCOM on 1-2 August,
Rumsfeld on 3 August and Bush on 4 August.
The two broad US options were:
(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72
hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time
of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait).
(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous
air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60
days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option.
The US saw the UK (and Kuwait) as essential, with basing in Diego Garcia
and Cyprus critical for either option. Turkey and other Gulf states were
also important, but less vital. The three main options for UK
involvement were:
(i) Basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus, plus three SF squadrons.
(ii) As above, with maritime and air assets in addition.
(iii) As above, plus a land contribution of up to 40,000, perhaps with a
discrete role in Northern Iraq entering from Turkey, tying down two
Iraqi divisions.
The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun "spikes of
activity" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken,
but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to
begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US
Congressional elections.
The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this
week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military
action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin.
Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was
less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan
for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors.
This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.
The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a
legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases:
self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The
first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR
1205 of three years ago would be difficult. The situation might of
course change.
The Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference politically
and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors. Regime
change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was
producing the WMD. There were different strategies for dealing with
Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would
support regime change. The two key issues were whether the military plan
worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military
plan the space to work.
On the first, CDS said that we did not know yet if the US battleplan was
workable. The military were continuing to ask lots of questions.
For instance, what were the consequences, if Saddam used WMD on day one,
or if Baghdad did not collapse and urban warfighting began? You said
that Saddam could also use his WMD on Kuwait. Or on Israel, added the
Defence Secretary.
The Foreign Secretary thought the US would not go ahead with a military
plan unless convinced that it was a winning strategy. On this, US and UK
interests converged. But on the political strategy, there could be US/UK
differences. Despite US resistance, we should explore discreetly the
ultimatum. Saddam would continue to play hard-ball with the UN.
John Scarlett assessed that Saddam would allow the inspectors back in
only when he thought the threat of military action was real.
The Defence Secretary said that if the Prime Minister wanted UK military
involvement, he would need to decide this early. He cautioned that many
in the US did not think it worth going down the ultimatum route. It
would be important for the Prime Minister to set out the political
context to Bush.
Conclusions:
(a) We should work on the assumption that the UK would take part in any
military action. But we needed a fuller picture of US planning before we
could take any firm decisions. CDS should tell the US military that we
were considering a range of options.
(b) The Prime Minister would revert on the question of whether funds
could be spent in preparation for this operation.
(c) CDS would send the Prime Minister full details of the proposed
military campaign and possible UK contributions by the end of the week.
(d) The Foreign Secretary would send the Prime Minister the background
on the UN inspectors, and discreetly work up the ultimatum to Saddam.
He would also send the Prime Minister advice on the positions of
countries in the region especially Turkey, and of the key EU member
states.
(e) John Scarlett would send the Prime Minister a full intelligence
update.
(f) We must not ignore the legal issues: the Attorney-General would
consider legal advice with FCO/MOD legal advisers.
(I have written separately to commission this follow-up work.)
MATTHEW RYCROFT
(Rycroft was a Downing Street foreign policy aide)
Leading economic indicators fall in April, signaling possible slowdown
Updated 5/18/2006 10:46 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
By Theresa Agovino, Associated Press
NEW YORK — A widely watched barometer of economic activity slipped in April, a private research group said Thursday, signaling a possible slowdown ahead for the economy.
The Conference Board said its Index of Leading Indicators fell 0.01% to 138.9 in April after it rose a revised 0.04% to 139 in March.
April's decline came amid rising gas prices, lagging consumer confidence and increasing interest rates.
The April figure was below analyst's expectations of a 0.1% increase from March.
The index is closely watched because it is designed to predict economic activity three to six months in the future.
"It is saying what we all know: Second quarter growth will fall short of the first quarter," says Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. "And growth for the second half of the year, will be slower than the first."
Hoffman expects GDP growth between 3% and 3.5% at an annual rate in the second quarter, and no more than 3% in the second half of the year.
Gary Thayer, chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons, says several recent economic reports point toward a slowdown. For example, earlier this month the Commerce Department reported that the number of new housing projects in April dropped 7.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.849 million units.
Consumer confidence sank to a seven-month low in early May. The RBC CASH Index, based on results from the international polling firm Ipsos, showed confidence at 67.1 in early May, deteriorating from 89.4 in April.
Energy prices also remain high, raising concerns about inflation. Oil futures fetched $69 a barrel earlier this week — 40% more than a year ago, but down from $75 a barrel at the end of April.
"The economy is just poised for a slowdown," says Thayer.
Three of the ten indicators that comprise the index increased in April: vendor performance, stock prices and interest rate spread. Negative contributors were building permits, manufacturers' new orders for non-defense goods, index of consumer expectations, average weekly claims for unemployment, real money supply and manufacturers new orders for consumer goods and materials. Average weekly manufacturing hours held steady in April.
While a divided Congress wrangled over how to solve the immigration crisis, advocates of illegal aliens yesterday denounced all of the major legislation under consideration, along with President Bush's proposals, demanding in protests throughout California that they be given full citizenship now.
Protest organizer Luis Magaña in Stockton, Calif., condemned the president's guest-worker proposal, contending a similar program run from 1942 to 1964 was abusive, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Mexico Threatens Suits Over Guard Patrols
May 16 5:03 PM US/Eastern
Email this story
By MARINA MONTEMAYOR
Associated Press Writer
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico
Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.
Mexican border officials also said they worried that sending troops to heavily trafficked regions would push illegal migrants into more perilous areas of the U.S.-Mexican border to avoid detection.
announced Monday that he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile border, but they would provide intelligence and surveillance support to agents, not catch and detain illegal immigrants.
"If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez told a radio station. He did not offer further details.
Mexican officials worry the crackdown will lead to more deaths. Since Washington toughened security in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked. Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. The reported 473 deaths in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
In Ciudad Juarez, Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, local representative of the Mexican government's National Immigration Institute, said Tuesday she will ask the government to send its migrant protection force, known as Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of the border.
Sending the National Guard "will not stop the flow of migrants, to the contrary, it will probably go up," as people try to get into the U.S. in the hope that they could benefit from a possible amnesty program, Nunez said.
Juan Canche, 36, traveled more than 1,200 miles to the border from the southern town of Izamal and said nothing would stop him from trying to cross.
"Even with a lot of guards and soldiers in place, we have to jump that puddle," said Canche, referring to the drought-stricken Rio Grande dividing Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. "My family is hungry and there is no work in my land. I have to risk it."
Some Mexican newspapers criticized President Vicente Fox for not taking a stronger stand against the measure, even though Fox called Bush to express his concerns.
A political cartoon in the newspaper Reforma depicted Bush as a gorilla carrying a club with a flattened Fox stuck to it.
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico accepted Bush's statement that the sending in the National Guard didn't mean militarizing the area. He also said Mexico remained "optimistic" that the would approve an "in the interests of both countries."
Aguilar noted that Bush expressed support for the legalization of some immigrants and implementation of a guest worker program.
"This is definitely not a militarization," said Aguilar, who also dismissed as "absolutely false" rumors that Mexico would send its own troops to the border in response.
Bush has said sending the National Guard is intended as a stopgap measure while the builds up resources to more effectively secure the border.
In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Honduran Antonio Auriel said he would make it into the U.S.
"Soldiers on the border? That won't stop me," he said. "I'll swim the river and jump the wall. I'm going to arrive in the United States."
Confidence In GOP Is At New Low in Poll
Democrats Favored To Address Issues
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01
Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.
Dissatisfaction with the administration's policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans. The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country -- 69 percent said the nation is now off track -- and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats' chances to make gains in November.
Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll. The survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections.
Bush: 6,000 Troops to Border
Associated Press | May 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday night he would order as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. border with Mexico and urged Congress to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, as he tried to build support for a major overhaul of the nation's tattered immigration laws.
"We do not yet have full control of the border and I am determined to change that," the president said in pressing for his $1.9 billion plan in a 17-minute prime-time address from the Oval Office.
Bush gave strong support to a plan that would give many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States an eventual path to possible citizenship - a move derided by some conservatives in his own Republican Party as amnesty. He rejected that term.
"It is neither wise nor realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep roots in the United States and send them across the border," he said. "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation."
The Guard troops would mostly serve two-week stints before rotating out of the assignment, so keeping the force level at 6,000 over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops.
Still, Bush insisted, "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border."
The White House wouldn't say how much the deployments would cost, but said the troops would paid for as part of $1.9 billion being requested from Congress to supplement border enforcement this year.
The president timed his speech hours after the Senate began intense debate on an immigration bill that has been getting increasing attention in a year when all House seats and one-third of Senate seats are up for election. The rare televised, prime-time Oval Office address signified the high stakes for Bush, who has been asking for an immigration overhaul since his the 2000 campaign.
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., indicated Bush may have some trouble getting some conservatives on board with his overall plan.
Bush: 6,000 Troops to Border
Associated Press | May 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday night he would order as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. border with Mexico and urged Congress to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, as he tried to build support for a major overhaul of the nation's tattered immigration laws.
"We do not yet have full control of the border and I am determined to change that," the president said in pressing for his $1.9 billion plan in a 17-minute prime-time address from the Oval Office.
Bush gave strong support to a plan that would give many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States an eventual path to possible citizenship - a move derided by some conservatives in his own Republican Party as amnesty. He rejected that term.
"It is neither wise nor realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep roots in the United States and send them across the border," he said. "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation."
The Guard troops would mostly serve two-week stints before rotating out of the assignment, so keeping the force level at 6,000 over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops.
Still, Bush insisted, "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border."
The White House wouldn't say how much the deployments would cost, but said the troops would paid for as part of $1.9 billion being requested from Congress to supplement border enforcement this year.
The president timed his speech hours after the Senate began intense debate on an immigration bill that has been getting increasing attention in a year when all House seats and one-third of Senate seats are up for election. The rare televised, prime-time Oval Office address signified the high stakes for Bush, who has been asking for an immigration overhaul since his the 2000 campaign.
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., indicated Bush may have some trouble getting some conservatives on board with his overall plan.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the telephone industry, should open an investigation into whether the nation's phone companies broke the law by turning over millions of calling records to the government, an FCC commissioner says.
The National Security Agency has been collecting records of calls made in the U.S. by ordinary Americans as part of its anti-terrorism efforts, according to USA TODAY. The newspaper story followed reports that the NSA has been conducting eavesdropping on the electronic communications of suspected al-Qaeda members and their contacts in the U.S. without warrants.
Commissioner Michael J. Copps' comments also come as the three phone companies allegedly involved — AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. — face a growing number of lawsuits by consumers. The latest, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks billions of dollars in damages for violation of federal privacy laws.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush insisted Tuesday that the United States does not listen in on domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans. But he declined to specifically discuss the government's alleged compiling of phone records, or whether it would amount to an invasion of privacy.
"We do not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval," Bush said in an East Room news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
"What I've told the American people is we'll protect them against an al-Qaeda attack. And we'll do that within the law," Bush said.
The president's new press secretary, Tony Snow, later insisted that Bush's comments did not amount to a confirmation of published reports that the NSA's surveillance was broader than initially acknowledged and that it included secretly collecting millions of phone-call records. heh heh heh heh
May 16, 8:48 AM EDT
New England Sees Worst Floods in 70 Years
By KEN MAGUIRE
Associated Press Writer
Dam Nearly Collapses in Swollen River
LOWELL, Mass. (AP) -- Storm-weary New England residents waded out into a fifth day of rain Tuesday as the region's dams kept a tenuous hold against cresting rivers and evacuees wondered what remained of their homes after water filled their basements and surged over some rooftops.
Across northeastern Massachusetts, thousands of people fled submerged neighborhoods during the region's worst flooding in nearly 70 years. More than a foot of rain fell during the weekend in some areas.
"It seemed almost Biblical," Gov. Mitt Romney said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "We're sort of making jokes about Noah and taking two of each kind of animal because we haven't ever seen rain like this."
The stubborn storm system lingering over the region was expected to move out by Wednesday, and Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said the worst of the flooding appeared to be over.
But Tuesday morning, commuters still awoke to another day of driving rain.
In Lowell, crews took to the streets in boats and used bullhorns to urge 1,000 households to evacuate. Nick Barrett, 24, took an air mattress when he left his condominium overlooking the Merrimack River, and later joked it might become a raft.
"I'm going to use it to get back in, too," he said late Monday night as he looked over the flooded parking lot of his building.
In New Hampshire, more than 600 roads have been damaged, destroyed or inundate by water. In Maine, flooding washed out dozens of roads and bridges, and threatened a pair of dams along the swollen Salmon Falls River in Lebanon. Two areas of Lebanon near the Spaulding Dam were evacuated Monday as a precaution.
The rising water of Pillsbury Lake in Webster, N.H., breached a dam Monday, releasing millions of gallons of water and threatening to drain the lake. The water eroded the earth from one side of the dam and began running into woods and downstream to the Contoocook River, causing some flooding and forcing the evacuation of several families.
Several hundred residents in Methuen, Mass., also left their homes after officials became concerned that the Spicket River Dam, shored up by several thousand sand bags, would give way under the pressure of the raging river.
Even though the ferocious water tore away a wooden walkway across the top of the dam and knocked over a nearby lamp post, the concrete structure kept a tenuous hold when the river crested early Tuesday.
"We still have dams holding back a lot more water than they were designed to carry," Romney said on CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday. "This is what you can expect when you've got a storm that's bigger than anything we've faced in 70 years."
U.S. Route 1 north of Boston was expected to remain closed for the Tuesday morning commute, state police said. Large portions of the highway between Route 16 in Revere and the interchange with Route 128 in Lynnfield were underwater, forcing the shutdown of dozens of businesses.
Schools across the North Shore and Merrimack Valley as well as in southern New Hampshire closed for a second day Tuesday.
The flood water also overwhelmed sewage systems and drowned waste water treatment plants. Burst pipes in Haverhill have been dumping 35 million gallons of waste a day since Sunday into the Merrimack River. A flood at a regional treatment plant in Lawrence was threatening to shut down the power there, which would send sewage into the Merrimack at a rate of 115 million gallons a day.
The statewide damage was expected to reach the tens of millions of dollars, Romney said Tuesday. He said officials were also concerned about the long-term environmental impact of the sewage on shellfish beds.
"This is gonna be a big financial crisis for a lot of people," he said.
Officials: General to head CIA
Negroponte aide to replace Goss after apparent power struggle
Friday, May 5, 2006; Posted: 11:09 p.m. EDT (03:09 GMT)
Gen. Michael Hayden, right, is a deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, left.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has settled on Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as his choice for CIA director, and an announcement is planned for Monday, senior administration officials told CNN late Friday.
Hayden, 61, is the principal deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
If confirmed by the Senate, Hayden would replace Porter Goss, who abruptly resigned the CIA post earlier Friday after losing what intelligence sources described as a power struggle with Negroponte.
Hayden was director of the National Security Agency in 2001 when Bush authorized a controversial program allowing the agency to monitor the communications of people inside the United States
Rep. Kennedy entering rehab after crash
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, son of Sen. Ted Kennedy, said Friday that he will enter a drug rehabilitation program after crashing his car on Capitol Hill a day earlier. "I know that I need help," he said at an afternoon press conference, detailing what he called a long-term struggle with addiction.
ABA Rates Conn. Judge 'Not Qualified'
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A judge recommended by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to fill an open seat on the federal bench is not qualified for the job, the American Bar Association said.
Superior Court Judge Vanessa L. Bryant was rated "not qualified" - the lowest of three possible rankings - by a substantial majority of the bar association's federal judiciary committee.
Rell recommended Bryant to President Bush to replace U.S. District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito, who left the court in November 2004 for a reduced caseload as a senior judge. Bush has the final say on nominations.
Reserve captain forced into duty
Norton man ordered to report despite suit
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | May 6, 2006
An Army Reserve captain from Norton who is suing top military leaders will be forced to report for training Monday at Fort Hood, Texas, by officials who plan to send him to Iraq.
But the legal battle over Jonathan E. O'Reilly's deployment will continue in a federal case in Boston that lawyers say tests the power of President Bush to force officers to remain on active duty beyond their commitment dates because of a recruitment shortage.
''It's truly a backdoor draft," said Donald G. Rehkopf Jr., a New York lawyer and military law specialist who represents O'Reilly. The outcome of O'Reilly's case and a similar case in Los Angeles, he said, could potentially have an impact on all military reserve officers.
A federal appeals court refused a request yesterday by O'Reilly, 32, a Norton School Committee member, to halt his deployment until his lawsuit is decided, ruling that any harm he might face is outweighed by the harm the military will face if it loses his services.
But the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said it will hold a hearing on O'Reilly's case in early June, so a decision on whether his lawsuit should be decided in Boston, or another court, can be made before he's sent to Iraq, which the Army says will happen sometime after June 17.
O'Reilly is slated to be the logistics officer on a team that will help train the Iraqi Army and ''holds a critical shortage job skill in the Army Reserves, so he is not easy to replace," US Army Colonel David W. Puster wrote in an affidavit filed with the court. O'Reilly is being deployed to Iraq for a year and a half.
But Rehkopf said his client has no special skills and is being forced into service more than two years after his obligation ended because the Army doesn't have enough captains.
''They do not have enough bodies. . . . That's the only reason they won't let him out," Rehkopf said.
Lay says he was forced to sell Enron stock, prosecutors disagree
Updated 5/1/2006 2:36 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
HOUSTON — Former Enron CEO Ken Lay sold tens of millions of dollars of Enron stock in 2001 to finance a lavish lifestyle that included chartered boats and holidays on the French Riviera and in Mexico, a prosecutor said in court here Monday morning.
In testimony last week, Lay described his sales of Enron stock in 2001, which totaled $70 million, as "forced" by banks making margin calls on loans secured by Enron stock. Throughout much of 2001, Enron's stock price fell, precipitating those margin calls, he said.
Under questioning from prosecutor John Hueston, Lay acknowledged that some of his stock sales, which did not have to be immediately disclosed to the investing public, were used to finance his lifestyle. But Lay insisted the sales that occurred after he resumed the CEO title in August 2001, following the resignation of Jeff Skilling, were forced and that he only sold Enron stock because he had no other liquid assets.
The government has accused Lay, 64, and Skilling, 52, of conspiring to hide the true state of Enron's financial condition from the investing public between 1999 and 2001. In particular, Lay is accused of making bullish statements about Enron to investors and employees in the fall of 2001. In September of that year, for example, Lay told employees that Enron's stock was undervalued and that he had recently bought stock.
Prosecutors have demonstrated that even while Lay was buying $4 million in Enron stock, he was unloading more than $20 million through a line-of-credit program at Enron that did not require immediate public disclosure of the stock sales.
Moreover, Lay sold his Enron stock to pay down personal debt even though he had access to more than $10 million in cash and other stocks that could be sold quickly. In addition to his stocks, Lay owned a $10 million luxury apartment in Houston and $20 million in other real estate, mostly from three homes in Aspen, Colo.
Lay and his attorneys have insisted throughout the trial that he sold his Enron stock only as a last resort to fend off bank creditors. As Hueston reminded him over and over again about the choices he made to sell Enron stock instead of liquidating other assets, Lay repeated his response.
"I always thought Enron stock was undervalued," he said. Lay said he thought the value of Enron stock would bounce back quickly and that he wouldn't have to keep selling.
Tens of Thousands in NYC Protest War
By DESMOND BUTLER
NEW YORK (AP) -- Tens of thousands of protesters marched Saturday through lower Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, just hours after this month's death toll reached 70.
Cindy Sheehan, a vociferous critic of the war whose soldier son also died in Iraq, joined in the march, as did actress Susan Sarandon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
"End this war, bring the troops home," read one sign lifted by marchers on the sunny afternoon, three years after the war in Iraq began. The mother of a Marine killed two years ago in Iraq held a picture of her son, born in 1984 and killed 20 years later.
One group marched under the banner "Veterans for Peace."
The demonstrators stretched for about 10 blocks as they headed down Broadway. Organizers said 300,000 people marched, though a police spokesman declined to give an estimate. There were no reports of arrests.
Republican "family values" in action
by kos
Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 07:53:09 AM PDT
Sex sells. The dam is already breaking.
The San Diego Tribune provides the outline:
A source close to the bribery case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, told the Union-Tribune that Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty in February to bribing Cunningham, told federal prosecutors that he periodically helped arrange for a prostitute for the then-congressman.
A limousine would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and take them to the ADCS hospitality suite, Wade reportedly told investigators. Federal agents are investigating whether other legislators had similar arrangements with Wilkes or Wade, a business associate of Wilkes who ran his own defense contracting company, MZM Inc.
The CIA director appears to be implicated, and perhaps as many as half a dozen Republican congressmen could be snared in this sex scandal.
Last night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Dean Calbreath of the San Diego Union Tribune - which recently won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Cunningham case - said that "as many as a half a dozen" members of Congress could ultimately be implicated in the prostitution scandal
And in the world of the Republicans' culture of corruption, even the limo company who drove the prostitutes around got lavishly rewarded:
I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees--including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. I've also been able to learn the name of the limousine service that was used to ferry the guests and other attendees to the parties: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia. Wilkes, I've learned, even hired Shirlington as his personal limousine service.
It gets even more interesting: the man who has been identified as the CEO of Shirlington has a 62-page rap sheet (I recently obtained a copy) that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously--or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections--Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to the Washington Post, last fall it won a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rush Limbaugh reached a settlement with prosecutors Friday in a fraud case involving prescription painkillers, though the conservative radio commentator maintains his innocence.
Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities about 4 p.m. on a warrant for fraud to conceal information to obtain a prescription, the first charge in the nearly 3-year-old case, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the state attorney. He was released an hour later on $3,000 bail.
Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, said his client and prosecutors reached a settlement on a charge of doctor shopping.
Under the deal, Limbaugh would eventually see the charge dismissed in 18 months if he continues treatment for drug addiction, Black said.
Apr 28, 6:27 PM (ET)
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.
It was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a national security letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without court approval.
Friday's disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law.
The FBI delivered a total of 9,254 NSLs relating to 3,501 people in 2005, according to a report submitted late Friday to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In some cases, the bureau demanded information about one person from several companies.
The department also reported it received a secret court's approval for 155 warrants to examine business records last year, under a Patriot Act provision that includes library records. However, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the department has never used the provision to ask for library records.
The number was a significant jump over past use of the warrant for business records. A year ago, Gonzales told Congress there had been 35 warrants approved between November 2003 and April 2005.
Republican "family values" in action
by kos
Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 07:53:09 AM PDT
Sex sells. The dam is already breaking.
The San Diego Tribune provides the outline:
A source close to the bribery case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, told the Union-Tribune that Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty in February to bribing Cunningham, told federal prosecutors that he periodically helped arrange for a prostitute for the then-congressman.
A limousine would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and take them to the ADCS hospitality suite, Wade reportedly told investigators. Federal agents are investigating whether other legislators had similar arrangements with Wilkes or Wade, a business associate of Wilkes who ran his own defense contracting company, MZM Inc.
The CIA director appears to be implicated, and perhaps as many as half a dozen Republican congressmen could be snared in this sex scandal.
Last night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Dean Calbreath of the San Diego Union Tribune - which recently won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Cunningham case - said that "as many as a half a dozen" members of Congress could ultimately be implicated in the prostitution scandal
And in the world of the Republicans' culture of corruption, even the limo company who drove the prostitutes around got lavishly rewarded:
I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees--including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. I've also been able to learn the name of the limousine service that was used to ferry the guests and other attendees to the parties: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia. Wilkes, I've learned, even hired Shirlington as his personal limousine service.
It gets even more interesting: the man who has been identified as the CEO of Shirlington has a 62-page rap sheet (I recently obtained a copy) that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously--or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections--Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to the Washington Post, last fall it won a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support.
Red Lights on Capitol Hill?
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
Sources
The Wall Street Journal reported today that indicted former California Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham may not have limited his good times to partying on a rented yacht. It turns out the FBI is currently investigating two defense contractors who allegedly provided Cunningham with free limousine service, free stays at hotel suites at the Watergate and the Westin Grand, and free prostitutes.
The two defense contractors who allegedly paid most of the bills, said the Journal, were Brent Wilkes, the founder of ADCS Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc.; both firms profited greatly from their connections with Cunningham. The Journal also suggested that other lawmakers might be implicated. I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees—including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. I've also been able to learn the name of the limousine service that was used to ferry the guests and other attendees to the parties: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia. Wilkes, I've learned, even hired Shirlington as his personal limousine service.
It gets even more interesting: the man who has been identified as the CEO of Shirlington has a 62-page rap sheet (I recently obtained a copy) that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously—or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections—Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to the Washington Post, last fall it won a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support. (I tried to contact Shirlington but was unable to get past their answering service.)
Unforeseen Spending on Materiel Pumps Up Iraq War Bill
Senate to Take Up Measure as Military Fights to Keep Guns, Tanks Working
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 20, 2006; Page A01
With the expected passage this spring of the largest emergency spending bill in history, annual war expenditures in Iraq will have nearly doubled since the U.S. invasion, as the military confronts the rapidly escalating cost of repairing, rebuilding and replacing equipment chewed up by three years of combat.
The cost of the war in U.S. fatalities has declined this year, but the cost in treasure continues to rise, from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found.
Buy This Photo
Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker told Congress that the Pentagon did not "have a good prediction about what our battle losses would be." (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
Graphic
The Rising Cost of War in Iraq
The annual cost of the Iraq War has nearly doubled, in part because of equipment costs.
News From Iraq
Al-Jafari to Give Up Nomination for Iraqi Prime Minister
Rove Gives Up Policy Post in Shake-Up
Unforeseen Spending on Materiel Pumps Up Iraq War Bill
Iraqi Prime Minister Says Resigning Is 'Out of the Question'
Iraqi Prime Minister Rules Out Stepping Down
More News
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Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972, in today's dollars. The invasion's "shock and awe" of high-tech laser-guided bombs, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft has long faded, but the costs of even those early months are just coming into view as the military confronts equipment repair and rebuilding costs it has avoided and procurement costs it never expected.
"We did not predict early on that we would have the number of electronic jammers that we've got. We did not predict we'd have as many [heavily] armored vehicles that we have, nor did we have a good prediction about what our battle losses would be," Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker recently told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Steven M. Kosiak, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments' director of budget studies, said, "If you look at the earlier estimates of anticipated costs, this war is a lot more expensive than it should be, based on past conflicts."
The issue will be hotly debated next week when the Senate takes up a record $106.5 billion emergency spending bill that includes $72.4 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House passed a $92 billion version of the bill last month that included $68 billion in war funding. That funding comes on top of $50 billion already allocated for the war this fiscal year.
The bill is the fifth emergency defense request since the Iraq invasion in March 2003. Senate Democrats say that, in the end, they will vote for the measure, which congressional leaders plan to deliver to President Bush by Memorial Day. But the upcoming debate will offer opponents of the war ample opportunity to question the Bush administration's funding priorities.
A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic
Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story
By Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 9, 2006; Page A01
As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.
Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.
Former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on March 29, after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to cooperate in an investigation into his dealings with members of Congress. Sources familiar with the federal probe have told The Post that half a dozen lawmakers are under scrutiny, along with Hill aides, former business associates and government officials.
Ex-Bush Aide Denies Calls on Phone Jamming
By KATHARINE WEBSTER
Associated Press Writer
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- A former White House political director denied Tuesday that he or anyone on his staff spoke with New England Republicans about a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002.
Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, acknowledged that local GOP officials had called a White House operative in the days surrounding the election. But he said none of the conversations involved the phone-jamming incident.
"As White House political director during the 2002 election cycle, my staff and I regularly communicated with competitive congressional campaigns and Republican Party organizations," Mehlman said.
On Nov. 5, 2002, repeated hang-up calls jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center during a New Hampshire Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent.
Phone records introduced in court show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 - as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down. At the time, Tobin was New England chairman of Bush's re-election campaign and a top regional official of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside of New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial
Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War
Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Page A01
On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."
The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.
U.S. officials asserted that Iraq had biological weapons factories in trailers, even after a Pentagon mission found them unsuited for that role. (By Pfc. Joshua Hutcheson Via Associated Press)
Two Iraqi trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops became a center-piece of U.S. claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. But shortly after the fall of Baghdad, an internal report showed the trailers had nothing to do with banned weapons.
A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.
More Human Remains Found Near Trade Center
AP Photo/MARK LENNIHAN
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Construction workers near the World Trade Center discovered 74 more bone fragments on a damaged skyscraper being prepared for demolition, the largest discovery of human remains since cleanup of the building began last fall, officials said.
Investigators reviewing emergency calls from the morning of the terrorist attacks also identified eight more recordings of emergency dispatches and 911 calls from the towers that had previously been overlooked.
Most of the bone fragments discovered over the weekend were found mixed with gravel that had been raked to the sides of the roof of the former Deutsche Bank building, which suffered extensive damage when the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, said workers still had more than 100 yards of material to rake through and said she wouldn't be surprised by the discovery of additional remains.
Wanted: More women, minorities for fishing
LONDON, April 2 (UPI) -- The British government is spending $33 million for a 10-year campaign to attract more minorities and women to fishing.
About 4 million people enjoy a quiet afternoon on the river bank each year, but the government has determined that today's fishermen are too white, too male and too middle-aged, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The Environment Agency will use money raised each year by the sale of fishing licenses to pay for a new leaflet entitled "10 things you should know about angling."
"Angling does not discriminate against gender, race, age or athletic ability" and the "Government is interested in angling in the context of social inclusion in deprived urban areas," the leaflet says.
There are also pilot programs, such as an effort in Swansea that taught Muslim women and children to fish by experts from the Salmon and Trout Association.
Critics of the program say the funds would be better spent on increasing biodiversity in rivers by safeguarding otters, kingfishers and native crayfish instead of "socially engineering" fishing.
Former mogul champ peddling underwear
Kari Traa, the Norwegian freestyle skier who's won Olympic and World Cup gold before deciding to retire, now plans to peddle underwear. And she's getting state support to help sell her G-strings.
Kari Traa intends to use her name and fame to sell fancy underwear.She announced her retirement from competitive freestyle skiing this winter.
Traa, 32, told newspaper VG on Monday that she's putting all her energy now into Kari Traa AS, the company she's formed to market a new collection of women's underwear.
"Today, nearly everyone has an Ulvang sock at home," said Traa, referring to the wool sock collection launched by former cross-country skiing champion Vegard Ulvang. "My goal is that everyone will soon have some Traa underpants also."
DeLay says he'll resign
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the once-powerful Texas Republican, plans to resign from Congress and will drop his re-election bid, citing a desire to keep his House seat in Republican hands. "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign," DeLay said in a video announcement released today.
India Nuclear Deal May Face Hard Sell
Rice Set to Defend Landmark Accord She Orchestrated Without Congress
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 3, 2006; Page A01
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew into New Delhi a year ago and set in motion a revolution in U.S. policy on nuclear weapons and relations with India.
She didn't tip her hand publicly during the brief stop, sticking to bland expressions of "a new relationship" with "great potential." The outlines of her plan were known by only a handful of people in the U.S. government.
Rice, Straw Press Iraqis to Forge Unity
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 2 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flew here together in an unannounced visit Sunday and made a dramatic appeal to feuding Iraqi politicians to quickly form a national unity government before the country fractures further along...
Graphic
The Accord
President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a nuclear accord last summer.
Four months later, on July 18, President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved a landmark accord at the White House.
Beyond the invasion of Iraq, few of Bush's decisions have as much potential to shake the international order than his deal with India, supporters and opponents agree. The debate over the deal has pitted against each other two powerful national security goals -- the desire to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and the desire to counter the rise of China, in this case by accelerating New Delhi's ascent as a global power.
After three decades of treating India as a pariah because it used a civilian nuclear program to produce fissile material for weapons, Bush decided the United States would forgive the transgression. India would be able to buy foreign-made nuclear reactors if it opened its civilian facilities to international inspections -- while being allowed to substantially ramp up its ability to produce materials for nuclear weapons.
U.S. Plan to Build Iraq Clinics Falters
Contractor Will Try to Finish 20 of 142 Sites
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 3, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD -- A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.
The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.
Story out of Poland:
Ex-con sues prison for orgasms
A former prison inmate is suing the state for the excess of orgasms he claims he had in prison. The inmate worked in a chamber with vibrating equipment used for concrete block production. "I pressed the equipment with my hips, very hard, it vibrated. I ejaculated every dozen minutes or so, and now I am infertile. I simply had too many orgasms," says the ex-inmate in his letter to a prison administrator. Prison administrator Franciszek Tarasewicz said the ex-inmate's claim took him by surprise, but he is going to treat the matter seriously. "The inmate wants to discuss with me the amount of money he feels we owe him due to his health deterioration," says Tarasewicz. "I admit it is the most extraordinary complaint that has ever been lodged with us."
BOSTON - This Prada's bag was no designer purse. A Boston detective searching the apartment of a drug suspect wound up wrestling a sack containing 108 bags of marijuana out of the clenched jaws of a pitbull named Prada.
The dog was running around carrying a tan-colored bag Tuesday as police were searching the apartment, where they had already found a loaded gun, $1,000 cash and 14 bags of marijuana.
Prada did not give up without a fight.
When an officer tried to grab Prada's bag, the pooch pulled back. The plastic tore, and police said could they could see bags of marijuana inside the sack in Prada's mouth.
"All 108 bags were recovered from the dog's mouth after a vigorous struggle," police said in a written statement.
Officers locked Prada in a dog crate. They also arrested three people at the apartment.
Inside Trading: Congress for sale
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Here's a little history to consider.
Congress enacted the Securities Act of 1933, which required registration of publicly traded companies -- making more information open and available to the public. A year later, Congress added more protections for investors. One of those provisions made it illegal to trade stock by corporate insiders who were privy to special information that could help or hurt a stock.
After this generation's corporate scandals, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002 to improve corporate governance and audit independence. But one of the measures added reporting requirements and tougher standards for insider trading.
Unfortunately, Congress forgot itself. It remains perfectly legal for a member of Congress to buy and sell stocks based on information that's not available to the public. Last year it was reported that a "political intelligence" firm tipped off its clients to an undelivered speech by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on asbestos liability.
Woman Charged in Death of Daughter
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A mother was booked on murder charges Thursday for allegedly lighting a gas grill inside her closed car, asphyxiating her 3-year-old daughter and injuring her 4-year-old son.
Police called the crime an apparent murder-suicide attempt and said Linda Woo, 39, had set up an area inside the family's garage to mimic a "camping trip" for her children.
Prosecutors also charged Woo with attempted murder. She was hospitalized in the jail ward of San Francisco General Hospital on Thursday.
Woman Gets Probation in Newborn's Drowning
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A woman who pleaded guilty to manslaughter for giving birth on a toilet and letting the baby drown was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to get psychological treatment for depression, paranoia and anorexia.
Shatoya Nelson, 23, told investigators she did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth at her mother's Tamarac home on July 21, 2004.
Bush reassures Mexico on migrants
The three leaders visited the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza
US President George W Bush has said he supports immigration to the US from Mexico and Central America, so long as it is orderly.
Mr Bush was speaking during talks with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, at the start of a two-day summit in Cancun, also involving Canada.
Mr Bush said he was not in favour of allowing illegal immigrants to be put on a fast-track to US citizenship.
But he promised to try to push through legislation on a work-permit system.
Unexpected warming in Antarctica
By Jonathan Fildes
BBC News science reporter
Data from nine research stations were used in the study
Winter air temperatures over Antarctica have risen by more than 2C in the last 30 years, a new study shows.
Research published in the US journal Science says the warming is seen across the whole of the continent and much of the Southern Ocean.
The study questions the reliability of current climate models that fail to simulate the temperature rise.
In addition, the scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) say the cause of the warming is not clear.
It could be linked to increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or natural variations in Antarctica's climate system.
Scientists are keen to understand the change in temperatures over the continent as the region holds enough water in its ice to raise sea levels by 60 metres.
By Rumsfeld's Standards, Mission Accomplished
By Al Kamen
Monday, March 27, 2006; Page A13
P resident Bush 's comment last week that U.S. troops would be in Iraq three more years provoked some consternation. Bush had always said the troops would be there until "the job is done and not a day longer," but few assumed that the troops would remain through his presidency.
Actually, Bush is being way too pessimistic. On April 9, 2003, three weeks after the invasion of Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld clearly set out the 10 objectives to be achieved "before victory can be declared."
· "Baghdad is in the process of being liberated" and the Hussein regime must be run out of there and other cities, he said. Check -- been run out of just about everywhere at least once.
· "We still must capture [or] account for . . . Saddam Hussein and his sons and the senior Iraqi leadership." Check.
· "We still must find and ensure the safe return of prisoners of war . . . in this war as well as any still held from the last Gulf War." Check -- save for one missing soldier.
· "We still must secure the northern oil fields." Check -- although the pipelines keep getting hit.
· "We still need to find and secure Iraq's weapons of mass destruction facilities. . . ." Check -- they are tightly secured.". . . and secure Iraq's borders so we can prevent the flow of weapons of mass destruction materials and senior regime officials out of the country." Check -- no outward flow.
· "We need to locate Iraqi scientists with knowledge of these programs." Check.
· "We must also capture or kill the terrorists still operating in Iraq and prevent them from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction." Check -- at least for those there in '03 and none are getting access to that WMD.
· "We must locate Baath Party members, records and weapons caches," records of elite intelligence and military units and regime millions outside the country. Check.
· "And we must begin the process of working with free Iraqis . . . and those returning home from exile, to establish an Iraqi interim authority and help to pave the way for a new Iraqi government." Check -- done that several times now.
Election Whistle-Blower Stymied by Vendors
After Official's Criticism About Security, Three Firms Reject Bid for Voting Machines
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A07
MIAMI -- Among those who worry that hackers might sabotage election tallies, Ion Sancho is something of a hero.
The maverick elections supervisor in Leon County, Fla., last year helped show that electronic voting machines from one of the major manufacturers are vulnerable, according to experts, and would allow election workers to alter vote counts without detection.
Now, however, Sancho may be paying an unexpected price for his whistle-blowing: None of the state-approved companies here will sell him the voting machines the county needs.
"I've essentially embarrassed the current companies for the way they do business, and now I believe I'm being singled out for punishment by the vendors," he said.
There are three vendors approved to sell voting equipment in Florida, and each has indicated it cannot or will not fill Sancho's order for 160 voting machines for the disabled. Already, he has had to return a $564,000 federal grant to buy the machines because he has been unable to acquire the machines yet.
"I'm very troubled by this, to be honest -- I can't believe the way he's being treated," said David Wagner, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley who sits on a California board that reviews voting machine security. "What kind of message is this sending to elections supervisors?"
The trouble began last year when Sancho allowed a Finnish computer scientist to test Leon County's Diebold voting machines, a common type that uses an optical scanner to count votes from ballots that voters have marked. Diebold Election Systems is one of the largest voting machine companies in the United States.
While some tests showed that the system is resistant to outside attack, others showed that elections workers could alter the vote tallies by manipulating the removable memory cards in the voting machines, and do so without detection.
A Diebold spokesman scoffed at the results, and compared them to "leaving your car unlocked, with the windows down and keys left in the ignition and then acting surprised when your car is stolen."
State officials similarly played down the results.
But last month, California elections officials arranged for experts to perform a similar analysis of the Diebold machines and also found them vulnerable -- noting a wider variety of flaws than Sancho's experts had. They characterized the vulnerabilities as "serious" but "fixable."
"What he [Sancho] discovered was -- oops -- that the conventional wisdom was all wrong," said Wagner, a member of the panel that reviewed the Diebold machines. "It was possible to subvert the memory card without detection."
Near Paul Revere Country, Anti-Bush Cries Get Louder
By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 25, 2006; Page A01
HOLYOKE, Mass. -- To drive through the mill towns and curling country roads here is to journey into New England's impeachment belt. Three of this state's 10 House members have called for the investigation and possible impeachment of President Bush.
Thirty miles north, residents in four Vermont villages voted earlier this month at annual town meetings to buy more rock salt, approve school budgets, and impeach the president for lying about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and for sanctioning torture.
Window cleaner Ira Clemons put down his squeegee in the lobby of a city mall and stroked his goatee as he considered the question: Would you support your congressman's call to impeach Bush? His smile grew until it looked like a three-quarters moon.
"Why not? The man's been lying from Jump Street on the war in Iraq," Clemons said. "Bush says there were weapons of mass destruction, but there wasn't. Says we had enough soldiers, but we didn't. Says it's not a civil war -- but it is." He added: "I was really upset about 9/11 -- so don't lie to me."
It would be a considerable overstatement to say the fledgling impeachment movement threatens to topple a presidency -- there are just 33 House co-sponsors of a motion by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to investigate and perhaps impeach Bush, and a large majority of elected Democrats think it is a bad idea. But talk bubbles up in many corners of the nation, and on the Internet, where several Web sites have led the charge, giving liberals an outlet for anger that has been years in the making.
"The value of a powerful idea, like impeachment of the president for criminal acts, is that it has a long shelf life and opens a debate," said Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted last month to urge Congress to impeach Bush, as have state Democratic parties, including those of New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin. A Zogby International poll showed that 51 percent of respondents agreed that Bush should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, a far greater percentage than believed President Bill Clinton should be impeached during the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.
And Harper's Magazine this month ran a cover piece titled "The Case for Impeachment: Why We Can No Longer Afford George W. Bush."
"If the president says 'We made mistakes,' fine, let's move on," said Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.). "But if he lied to get America into a war, I can't imagine anything more impeachable."
Democrats remain far from unified. Prominent party leaders -- and a large majority of those in Congress -- distance themselves from the effort. They say the very word is a distraction, that talk of impeachment and censure reflect the polarization of politics. Activists spend too many hours dialing Democratic politicians and angrily demanding impeachment votes, they say.
In California, poet Kevin Hearle, an impeachment supporter, is challenging liberal Rep. Tom Lantos -- who opposes impeachment -- in the Democratic primary in June.
Calling Ken
by kos
Fri Mar 24, 2006 at 07:06:55 AM PDT
Well, look who was working with convicted political dirty trickster James Tobin in New Hampshire:
In the days before and after the state Republican Party's 2002 Election Day phone-jamming scheme, the man who now chairs the Republican National Committee was the White House director of political affairs.
And a Democratic-affiliated advocacy group says that court records show Ken Mehlman's office received more than 75 telephone calls from now-convicted phone-jam conspirator James Tobin from Sept. 30 to Nov. 22 of that year.
The Senate Majority Project, a brainchild "527" of former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, wonders why Tobin called the White House so often. Tobin at the time worked for the Republican National Committee and the affiliated National Republican Senatorial Committee -- and a hot race that year was the New Hampshire Senate contest between Republican John Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.
On election morning, a telemarketer hired by the state GOP jammed the telephones of five state Democratic and one firefighters union get-out-the-vote phone banks [...]
"All we have is the phone number and the fact that calls were made to the White House," says SMP executive director Mike Gehrke, a former high-level Clinton administration staffer. "But we also know from the court record that a lot of other calls about the scheme were going on. For a period of time, this was the hot topic.
"With that many calls, I believe it's inconceivable that there wasn't some knowledge of this at the White House," Gehrke said. "At the very least, it is evidence that there needs to be a bigger net cast here before the end of this case."
As a bonus to this story, guess who Tobin's boss was at the time? Terry Nelson, the ethically compromised DeLay lieutenant hired by opportunist John McCain.
REMINDER: WILLIAMS & CONNOLLY represents this Tobin guy and the RNC has spent wll over $2 million in legal fees to defend him. Wonder why????
The following appeared on Boston.com:
Headline: Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
Date: March 24, 2006
"WASHINGTON -- When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the
USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did
not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how
the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers."
Abramoff May Be Subpoenaed in Slaying Case
Mar 24 1:52 PM US/Eastern
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By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
A judge has approved subpoenas for former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and an ex-business partner to answer questions about the mob-style slaying of the owner of a gambling fleet they bought.
Abramoff and Adam Kidan have insisted, through their attorneys, that they know nothing about the slaying of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, who was ambushed in his car by a gunman in Fort Lauderdale a few months after the pair bought SunCruz Casinos from him.
A lawyer for Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, one of three men charged in the 2001 slaying, wants to question Abramoff and Kidan, according to court documents. Circuit Judge Michael Kaplan approved the request Thursday, but the subpoenas had not been issued by Friday morning.
The SunCruz purchase is "at the heart" of the murder case, Moscatiello attorney Dave Bogenschutz said in court papers.
Abramoff and Kidan are not charged in the slaying but are scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in federal court after pleading guilty earlier this year to fraud charges stemming from the purchase. Their lawyers did not return telephone calls or e-mails seeking comment Friday.
Abramoff, once a prominent Republican lobbyist and political fundraiser, has also pleaded guilty to federal charges in a Washington corruption investigation that threatens several powerful members of Congress and their staff members.
As part of their federal plea deals, Abramoff and Kidan are required to cooperate with prosecutors
Russians Helped Iraq, Study Says
Papers Show Hussein Was Tipped Off About U.S. Strategy During Invasion
By Ann Scott Tyson and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 25, 2006; Page A01
Russian officials collected intelligence on U.S. troop movements and attack plans from inside the American military command leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq and passed that information to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, according to a U.S. military study released yesterday.
The intelligence reports, which the study said were provided to Hussein through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad at the height of the U.S. assault, warned accurately that American formations intended to bypass Iraqi cities on their thrust toward Baghdad. The reports provided some specific numbers on U.S. troops, units and locations, according to Iraqi documents dated March and April 2003 and later captured by the United States.
"The information that the Russians have collected from their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha is that the United States is convinced that occupying Iraqi cities are impossible, and that they have changed their tactic," said one captured Iraqi document titled "Letter from Russian Official to Presidential Secretary Concerning American Intentions in Iraq" and dated March 25, 2003.
President Bush Thursday becomes the longest-sitting president since Thomas Jefferson not to exercise his veto, surpassing James Monroe. (Related: Republicans work together)
Monroe was in office 1,888 days before he vetoed his first bill on May 4, 1822, a measure to impose a toll on the first federal highway. Jefferson never exercised his veto during two terms in 1801-09.
Thursday is Bush's 1,889th day in office, and no veto is in sight. As of Wednesday, Congress had sent him 1,091 bills. He signed them all.
Bush came close to a veto last month when Congress threatened to block a deal to turn over operations at ports in six states to a company owned by the Arab emirate of Dubai. He threatened a veto, but he avoided a showdown when the Dubai company decided to sell that part of its business to American interests.
"After that, we're not likely to hear a veto threat from him that much again," says G. Calvin Mackenzie, government professor at Maine's Colby College.
Some analysts say Bush's failure to use his veto shows an unwillingness to confront fellow Republicans who control Congress. "He doesn't want to fight battles unnecessarily and create a distance between himself and his party," says Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist who has studied presidential vetoes.
Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
In addendum to law, he says oversight rules are not binding
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | March 24, 2006
WASHINGTON -- When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.
The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.
Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.
In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."
Bush wrote: ''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . "
The statement represented the latest in a string of high-profile instances in which Bush has cited his constitutional authority to bypass a law.
After The New York Times disclosed in December that Bush had authorized the military to conduct electronic surveillance of Americans' international phone calls and e-mails without obtaining warrants, as required by law, Bush said his wartime powers gave him the right to ignore the warrant law.
And when Congress passed a law forbidding the torture of any detainee in US custody, Bush signed the bill but issued a signing statement declaring that he could bypass the law if he believed using harsh interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security.
Past presidents occasionally used such signing statements to describe their interpretations of laws, but Bush has expanded the practice. He has also been more assertive in claiming the authority to override provisions he thinks intrude on his power, legal scholars said.
Bush's expansive claims of the power to bypass laws have provoked increased grumbling in Congress. Members of both parties have pointed out that the Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to write the laws and the executive branch the duty to ''faithfully execute" them.
Prosecutors Want DeLay Charges Reinstated
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Prosecutors argued before a Texas appeals court Wednesday that some of the criminal charges against Rep. Tom Delay should be reinstated.
A lower court judge dismissed a conspiracy charge against DeLay in December, agreeing with defense arguments that a conspiracy law did not cover election code violations when the alleged offense was committed.
But prosecutors said Wednesday that Texas' prohibition on using corporate money in political campaigns is a felony and should be subject to the state's criminal conspiracy law.
The three-judge panel of the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals was not expected to rule for at least a month.
Pentagon plans cyber-insect army
By Gary Kitchener
BBC News
The Pentagon's defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.
The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.
Experts told the BBC some ideas were feasible but others seemed "ludicrous".
A similar scheme aimed at manipulating wasps failed when they flew off to feed and mate.
The new scheme is a brainwave of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technological superiority of the US military.
Army Still Trips Over Cover-Up
Atlanta Journal-Constitution | March 16, 2006
Hear a roundtable discussion about Pat Tillman's service and death at 'The Editor's Desk' this week.
The honor code is carved into stone at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point:
"A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do."
The words express the integrity expected of those who lead our men and women into battle, and they have a purpose: Officers who cannot be trusted have no place in positions of responsibility, not when the consequences of such a character flaw can be death, not when the American people put such confidence in those in uniform.
But somehow, it is hard to square that admirable code of honor with the Army's behavior in the Pat Tillman case. It is not merely individual officers --- from lowly captains to three-star generals --- who apparently failed to tell the truth about what happened to the former NFL star in the hills of Afghanistan. The deception is so broad that it implicates the Army as an institution.
Tillman's story is heartbreaking. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he rejected a $3.6 million contract from the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to enlist, along with his brother, as an Army Ranger. And while his decision drew widespread media attention, Tillman refused all interview requests. To him, it wasn't about the spotlight, it was about doing his duty.
But on April 22, 2004, Tillman was killed while on patrol with his unit near the Pakistan border. Immediately, the Army put out the word that he had died heroically, protecting his fellow soldiers in a firefight.
A week later, Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, told the press that a day earlier he had discussed "that firefight where Pat Tillman lost his life" with Tillman's platoon leader.
On April 30, the Army posthumously awarded Tillman the Silver Star for bravery, stating that Tillman died in a heroic charge up an enemy-held hill. "Corporal Tillman put himself in the line of devastating enemy fire. . . . While mortally wounded, his audacious leadership and courageous example under fire inspired his men to fight with great risk to their own personal safety, resulting in the enemy's withdrawal and his platoon's safe passage from the ambush kill zone."
The truth, though, was that Tillman had been killed by three bullets to the forehead fired by American soldiers in a friendly fire accident, and Army officials knew it immediately. Officers on the scene knew it, which may be why they ordered that Tillman's body armor and uniform be burned. Abizaid knew it when he made those comments to the press a week after Tillman's death. The officers who drafted the false Silver Star citation knew it, too.
The truth, or at least some version of it, finally began to emerge on May 28, 2004. It's unlikely the concession came voluntarily, given the elaborate lies the Army had spread earlier. Army officials probably realized that the jig was up, that too many people knew the facts. Tillman's brother, for example, had been nearby when Tillman died, although he, too, had been lied to about what happened.
Eventually, seven soldiers in Tillman's unit were mildly punished for their role in his death. No one has been punished for lying to the American people. But last week, the Army inspector general recommended the launching of a fourth investigation into the tragedy. The goal is to explore possible charges of gross negligence leading to Tillman's death, and to determine how the public was so misled.
Mistakes made in the heat of battle, out in the field, are a serious thing. But they are also part of war. Calculated lies by military bureaucrats, aimed at the American public, are something else entirely.
And unfortunately, the Tillman case is just one of several cases raising questions about the credibility of senior military officials.
For example, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, has repeatedly denied that he exported Guantanamo-style torture to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But now that two enlisted men at that facility are being tried for prisoner abuse, Miller refuses to repeat that claim under oath, citing his right not to incriminate himself.
In a related case, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez denied to Congress that he had authorized abusive interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib. But later, a document surfaced signed by Sanchez directly contradicting that testimony.
In both cases, deception by general officers may be leaving their subordinates unfairly exposed to prosecution. That's a far more serious breach of military honor than the Tillman affair, a breach that strikes at the foundation of military discipline.
Mar 13, 11:44 PM EST
Miss Deaf Texas Struck by Train, Killed
AUSTIN (AP) -- The reigning Miss Deaf Texas died Monday afternoon after being struck by a train, officials said.
Tara Rose McAvoy, 18, was walking near railroad tracks when she was struck by a Union Pacific train, authorities said. A witness told Austin television station KTBC the train sounded its horn right up until the accident occurred.
U.S. Push for Democracy Could Backfire Inside Iran
By Karl Vick and David Finkel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 14, 2006; Page A01
TEHRAN -- Prominent activists inside Iran say President Bush's plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote democracy here is the kind of help they don't need, warning that mere announcement of the U.S. program endangers human rights advocates by tainting them as American agents.
In a case that advocates fear is directly linked to Bush's announcement, the government has jailed two Iranians who traveled outside the country to attend what was billed as a series of workshops on human rights. Two others who attended were interrogated for three days.
The workshops, conducted by groups based in the United States, were held last April, but Iranian investigators did not summon the participants until last month, about the time the Bush administration announced plans to spend $85 million "to support the cause of freedom in Iran this year."
"We are under pressure here both from hard-liners in the judiciary and that stupid George Bush," human rights activist Emad Baghi said as he waited anxiously for his wife and daughter to emerge from interrogation last week. "When he says he wants to promote democracy in Iran, he gives money to these outside groups and we're in here suffering."
Bush Sets Target for Transition In Iraq
President Bush vowed for the first time yesterday to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, setting a specific benchmark as he kicked off a fresh drive to reassure Americans alarmed by the recent burst of sectarian violence.
Police in Baghdad find 72 bodies, shot and discarded
BAGHDAD (AP) — Police found at least 72 bodies killed by gunfire in Baghdad in the past 24 hours — a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian reprisal attacks in some of the capital's most dangerous neighborhoods, officials said Tuesday.
The bloodshed followed explosions in a teeming Shiite slum on Sunday in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded. The apparent retaliatory attacks marked the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since Feb. 22, when bombers destroyed an important Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.
An abandoned minibus containing 15 bodies was found Tuesday on the main road between two mostly Sunni neighborhoods in west Baghdad, not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, said Interior Ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi.
Fourteen bodies — handcuffed and shot and dressed only in underwear — were discovered in southeast Baghdad, police Lt. Bilal Ali said.
At least 40 more bodies were discarded in various parts of Baghdad, including both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, said al-Mohammedawi, while three bodies with gunshot wounds were found in Mosul, said Dr. Baha-Aldin al-Bakri at Mosul's Jumhouri Hospital.
Those killed in Baghdad included a number of bodies recovered from Sadr City, where two car bombs and four mortar rounds shattered shops and market stalls at nightfall Sunday, as residents shopped for food for their evening meals.
Scorched pavement, destroyed shops and burned-out cars awaited Shiite residents emerging from their homes Monday in Sadr City.
Woman Gets Beer From Her Kitchen Faucet Mon Mar 13, 6:30 PM ET
OSLO, Norway - It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.
Two flights down, employees and customers at the Big Tower Bar were horrified when water poured out of the beer taps.
By an improbable feat of clumsy plumbing, someone at the bar in Kristiandsund, western Norway, had accidentally hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes for Gundersen's apartment.
"We had settled down for a cozy Saturday evening, had a nice dinner, and I was just going to clean up a little," Gundersen, 50, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. "I turned on the kitchen faucet and beer came out."
However, Gundersen said the beer was flat and not tempting, even in a country where a half-liter (pint) can cost about 25 kroner ($3.75) in grocery stores.
Per Egil Myrvang, of the local beer distributor, said he helped bartenders reconnect the pipes by telephone.
U.S. Campaign Is Aimed at Iran's Leaders
Uneasy About Tehran's Nuclear Plans, Bush Administration Tries to Build Opposition to Theocracy
By Peter Baker and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 13, 2006; Page A01
As the dispute over its nuclear program arrives at the U.N. Security Council today, Iran has vaulted to the front of the U.S. national security agenda amid Bush administration plans for a sustained campaign against the ayatollahs of Tehran.
President Bush and his team have been huddling in closed-door meetings on Iran, summoning scholars for advice, investing in opposition activities, creating an Iran office in Washington and opening listening posts abroad dedicated to the efforts against Tehran.
The internal administration debate that raged in the first term between those who advocated more engagement with Iran and those who preferred more confrontation appears in the second term to be largely settled in favor of the latter. Although administration officials do not use the term "regime change" in public, that in effect is the goal they outline as they aim to build resistance to the theocracy.
Last roundup: Hilltop in Braintree to close; Famed eatery will make way for Toyota dealership
The Hilltop in Braintree opened in 1991. (LISA BUL/The Patriot Ledger)
By RICK COLLINS
The Patriot Ledger
BRAINTREE - The Hilltop Steak House is about to serve up its last slab of beef in Braintree.
The owners of the popular restaurant have agreed to sell the business to the Tufankjian family, who plan to move their Toyota dealership from Bridge Street in Weymouth to the Grossman Drive site.
Hilltop’s landmark Saugus location - the one with the roadside neon cactus and fiberglass cows - is not part of the deal.
‘‘The new Toyota dealership ... represents a significant improvement as compared to the 42-year-old existing restaurant building,’’ said Frank Marinelli, the Tufankjians’ attorney.
The Hilltop Steak House on Route 1 in Saugus was well known in 1991 when founder Frank Giuffrida bought the lease of the former La Biftheque restaurant in Braintree. The site had also been a Valle’s Steak House.
The Tufankjians and the owners of the Hilltop, High County Investors, shook hands on the deal in December. It is contingent on approval of permits for the new dealership.
The site is off Route 3 and Union Street, in what was once a Grossman’s lumber yard and is now the Marketplace.
Hilltop restaurant officials could not be reached to comment on the sale.
Marinelli said the Tufankjians want to raze the existing restaurant and build a 44,000 square-foot, two-story showroom on the 4-acre site. The building would include 16,000 square feet of sales space and a 22,000 square-foot service area with 37 bays.
Underneath would be a basement large enough to store 215 cars.
Another 144 new and used cars would be parked outside.
If the proposal wins town approval, Marinelli said the Weymouth property would probably be used for auto inventory storage, not sales.
The Braintree zoning board of appeals has already signed off on the plan.
Ariz. Governor Orders Troops to Border
By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX (AP) -- Gov. Janet Napolitano on Wednesday ordered more National Guardsmen posted at the Mexican border to help stop illegal immigrants and curb related crimes.
National Guard troops have worked at the border since 1988, but Napolitano signed an order authorizing commanders to station an unspecified number of additional soldiers there to help federal agents.
Bush Touts Grants to Religious Charities
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 10, 2006; Page A05
President Bush said yesterday that the federal government gave more than $2.1 billion in grants to religious charities last year -- a 7 percent increase from the prior year and proof, he said, that his administration has made it easier for faith-based groups to obtain taxpayer funds.
Speaking to a White House-organized conference of 1,200 charity leaders from across the country, Bush said the administration is creating "a level playing field" for religious organizations to compete with secular groups to run drug treatment programs, homeless shelters and other social services.
Government's role is "to fund, not to micromanage how you run your programs," he said. "I repeat to you, you can't be a faith-based program if you don't practice your faith."
The speech, accompanied by a blizzard of statistics on federal grants, was partly an appeal to religious supporters and partly a response to rising criticism.
Security Forces Would Bear Brunt
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 10, 2006; Page A01
The U.S. military will rely primarily on Iraq's security forces to put down a civil war in that country if one breaks out, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told lawmakers yesterday.
Sectarian violence in Iraq has reached a level unprecedented since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and is now eclipsing the insurgency as the chief security threat there, said Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, who appeared with Rumsfeld.
Buy This Photo
"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, second from right, told the Senate Appropriations Committee. With him, from left, are Army Gen. John Abizaid, Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
Transcript
U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing on the Supplemental Budget Request for Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that despite a surge in sectarian violence in Iraq, the process of creating a stable government is proceeding satisfactorily.
"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee when pressed to explain how the United States intended to respond should Iraq descend wholesale into internecine strife.
If civil war becomes reality, "it's very clear that the Iraqi forces will handle it, but they'll handle it with our help," Abizaid said later when asked to elaborate on Rumsfeld's remark.
Tight Budgets Imperil the Nation's Environmental Satellites - Vital Forecasting Tools
By MATT CRENSON
The Associated Press
Budget cuts and poor management may be jeopardizing the future of our eyes in orbit, America's fleet of environmental satellites, vital tools for forecasting hurricanes, protecting water supplies and predicting global warming.
Amazing, thought I, upon first read. And convenient too, for an administration that has consistently downplayed the dangers (and reality) of global warming. This is a predictable pattern with this gang: Don't adequately fund or legally acknowledge an issue and you can pretend a problem doesn't exist, i.e., if you don't teach sex education, teens will stop having sex; if you don't let gays marry, people will stop being gay; if you don't let women have abortions, they will stop luring men into sex with their wicked, wicked ways, etc. I think of it as the "If You Don't Buy an Umbrella, It Will Never, Ever Rain!" school of SimpleLand Leadership.
Everything in this administration comes down to three political positioning maneuvers (and note that #2 and #3 really are subsets merely designed to serve #1):
1. Corporations should operate absolutely unfettered in order to line the pockets of the oligarchical elite (See: empire building, environmental and safety deregulation, using the armed forces to pry open new markets/ resources/cheap labor, tax cuts, union busting, privatization of anything and everything, etc.)
2. Pandering to the Religious Right (in order to get the votes to further #1).
3. Escape any and all responsibility for the obscenely awful consequences of #1 upon the 90% of Americans who fund the stupidity - and pay the personal price in their daily lives - for these policies.
So on a second read of this defunding the satellites story, we can catch a glimpse of future Monty Python "No one could have foreseen .... [fill in the blank: the Iraqi insurgency, planes flying into buildings, levees breaching, etc.]" moments.
Scientists warn that the consequences of neglecting Earth-observing satellites could have more than academic consequences. It is possible that when a big volcano starts rumbling in the Pacific Northwest, a swarm of tornadoes sweeps through Oklahoma or a massive hurricane bears down on New Orleans, the people in harm's way and those responsible for their safety will have a lot less information than they'd like about the impending threat.
Oh, goody! A twofer! Bush can now claim that global warming doesn't exist because it hasn't been observed or measured AND with a few years of defunding, he (or his Rove-ordained successor) won't be bothered with pesky, alarmist NOAA reports predicting unimaginable devastation. No more silly questions about why he ignored evidence, because there won't be any evidence to ignore. The U.S. simply won't fund it.
Carry this trend out long enough, and we'll all be thrown back into the 14th century, at the mercy of forces we can neither measure nor understand, a nation of praying sheep huddled in the courtyard of our feudal masters, praying to an angry and bewildering God for deliverance from mysterious phenomena visited upon us for sins we never knew we committed in the first place.
> Subject: Mulch
> Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2006 09:19:42 -0600
> Thread-Topic: Mulch
>
>
> If you use mulch around your house be very careful about buying
mulch
>this year. After the hurricane in New Orleans many trees were blown
over.
>These trees were then turned into mulch and the state is trying to get
rid
>of tons and tons of this mulch to any state or company who will come
and
>haul it away. So it will be showing up in Home Depot and Lowes at dirt
>cheap prices with one huge problem; Formosan Termites will be the bonus
in
>many of those bags. New Orleans is one of the few areas in the country
were
>the Formosan Termites has gotten a strong hold and most of the trees
blown
>down were already badly infested with those termites. Now we may have
the
>worst case of transporting a problem to all parts of the country that
we
>have ever had. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and we
have
>no good control against them, so tell your friends that own homes to
avoid
>cheap mulch and know were it came from.
FBI Cites More Than 100 Possible Eavesdropping Violations
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006; Page A09
The FBI reported more than 100 possible violations to an intelligence oversight board over the past two years, including cases in which agents tapped the wrong telephone, intercepted the wrong e-mails or continued to listen to conversations after a warrant had expired, according to a report issued yesterday.
In one case, the FBI obtained the contents of 181 telephone calls rather than just the billing records to which it was entitled. In another, a communication was monitored for more than a year after eavesdropping should have ended -- although investigators blamed a third-party provider for the mix-up.
Vermont Towns Endorse Move to Impeach Bush
By DAVID GRAM
Associated Press Writer
NEWFANE, Vt. (AP) -- In five Vermont communities, a centuries-old tradition of residents gathering in town halls to conduct local business became a vehicle to send a message to Washington: Impeach the president.
An impeachment article, approved by a paper ballot 121-29 in Newfane Tuesday, calls on Vermont's lone member of the U.S. House, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against President Bush, alleging he misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.
"It absolutely affects us locally," said Newfane select board member Dan DeWalt, who drafted the impeachment article. "It's our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, who are dying" in the war in Iraq.
At least four other Vermont towns, spurred by publicity about Newfane's resolution, endorsed similar resolutions during Tuesday's meetings: Brookfield, Dummerston, Marlboro and Putney
Retirement Fund Tapped to Avoid National Debt Limit
By Stephen Barr
Wednesday, March 8, 2006; D04
The Treasury Department has started drawing from the civil service pension fund to avoid hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit. The move to tap the pension fund follows last month's decision to suspend investments in a retirement savings plan held by government employees.
In a letter to Congress this week, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said he would rely on the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund to avoid bumping up against the statutory debt limit. He said the Treasury is suspending investments and will redeem a portion of the money credited to the fund.
Once Congress raises the debt limit, the Treasury will
A growing number of House Democrats now favor holding an impeaching inquiry into alleged official misconduct by President Bush - and more than a dozen congressional candidates are running this fall on a pledge to vote for an impeachment investigation if they get elected.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
"A House resolution offered by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan seeking an initial impeachment inquiry has attracted support from 26 of 201 House Democrats . . . ImpeachPAC, a group of Democratic activists seeking to remove Mr. Bush from office, lists 14 candidates offering similar commitments."
While the numbers still represent a small minority, that could change quickly after this November's election.
Porn Stars, Sex Toys Part of Yale Program
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- In a lecture hall on Yale's storied Old Campus, not long after an afternoon astronomy class has cleared out, a middle-aged sex toy saleswoman demonstrates her technique and hands out free products to an eager crowd.
"I want you to close your eyes," Patty Brisben playfully instructs a young man as she rubs scented lotion into his forearm and, to raucous laughter, reaches for an electric toy and a glove. "Fantasize about having an all-over body massage."
Welcome to Sex Week at Yale, a biennial celebration that has become one of the most provocative campus events in the country.
Organizers say Sex Week gets students talking about sex in a way that's more relevant than middle-school film strips, more honest than movies and television, and more fun than requisite college health lectures.
"To get people's attention, we do have to do things a little risque and a little different than other sex education programs," said junior Dain Lewis, who was inspired to direct Sex Week 2006 after attending the 2004 event.
Yale's event, which ends Saturday, includes lectures from dating specialists, a sex therapist and a discussion of homosexuality with a former Roman Catholic priest. More provocative sessions include a panel of porn stars and stripping lessons from a Playboy Channel hostess.
Critics say Sex Week is just the latest act of debauchery at colleges in recent years: Students started sex columns. Vassar and others created erotica journals. Harvard launched H-Bomb, a magazine featuring suggestive pictures of undergraduates. Washington University in St. Louis offered a sex-themed week with orgasm seminars and condom telegrams.
"I don't see how bringing a Playboy stripper to campus is helping anything," said Travis Kavulla, editor of the Harvard Salient, which joined other conservative newspapers in giving Sex Week the Collegiate Network 2004 Outrage Award. "How are universities trying to educate students in sponsoring activities like this?"
Sex Week is a recognized student organization but Brisben's company, PureRomance.com, sponsors the events, not Yale. Advertising helps pay for marketing and for Sex Week at Yale, the Magazine.
The magazine contains sex advice for men, help for selecting the right condom and suggestions for women trying to satisfy themselves.
Editors say they're promoting sexual awareness, not sex. The magazine includes an article encouraging abstinence until marriage, a guide to healthy relationships and an essay on unrequited love.
The interview with the porn star, organizers said, was just for fun.
"It would seem like we were trying to intellectualize sex if we didn't have something on the other end of the spectrum," said Whitney Seibel, a senior psychology major who posed for the cover wearing only red panties and a strategically placed arm.
About 25,000 copies were distributed at Yale and on other campuses nationwide. The editors are considering a second printing
U.S. Reviewing 2nd Dubai Firm
Israeli Deal Also Faces Security Check
By Jonathan Weisman and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page A01
The Bush administration, stung by the public outcry over the Dubai port deal, has launched a national security investigation of another Dubai-owned company set to take over plants in Georgia and Connecticut that make precision components used in engines for military aircraft and tanks.
The administration notified congressional committees this week that its secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is investigating the security implications of Dubai International Capital's $1.2 billion acquisition of London-based Doncasters Group Ltd., which has subsidiaries in the United States. It is also investigating an Israeli company's plans to buy the Maryland software security firm Sourcefire, which does business with Defense Department agencies.
Video Shows Bush Being Warned on Katrina
Officials Detailed a Dire Threat to New Orleans
By Spencer S. Hsu and Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page A01
A newly leaked video recording of high-level government deliberations the day before Hurricane Katrina hit shows disaster officials emphatically warning President Bush that the storm posed a catastrophic threat to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and a grim-faced Bush personally assuring state leaders that his administration was "fully prepared" to help.
The footage, taken of a videoconference of federal and state officials on Aug. 28, offered an unusually vivid glimpse of real-time decision making by an administration that has vigorously guarded its internal deliberations.
Reactions to the tape, which was obtained by the Associated Press, varied widely -- reflecting the intense debate that has brewed for six months about who should be held accountable for an initially flaccid government response to the catastrophe.
Democrats said the tape shows Bush being warned in urgent terms of the potential magnitude of the storm, making it less defensible that the administration did not act with more dispatch to be ready.
White House officials said the footage reinforces what they have said to critics: that the president, at his Texas vacation home, was fully engaged from the opening hours of the emergency, while leaving operational decisions to the agencies in charge.
Bush was dialed into the conference Sunday at noon Eastern time from a meeting room at his ranch in Crawford, with Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin at his side.
"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever resources and assets we have at our disposal after the storm," Bush said, gesturing with both hands for emphasis on the digital recording. Neither Bush nor Hagin asked questions, however.
Then-Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael D. Brown, who joined the call from Washington, and Max Mayfield, head of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, briefed participating federal and state officials in explicit terms.
"This is, to put it mildly, the big one," Brown said. "Everyone within FEMA is now virtually on call."
Brown warned that thousands of New Orleans residents were gathering in a shelter of last resort at the Louisiana Superdome, which he said was about 12 feet below sea level.
"I don't know what the heck we're going to do for that, and I also am concerned about that roof," Brown said. "Not to be kind of gross here, but I'm concerned about [medical and mortuary disaster team] assets and their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe."
Gonzales Seeks to Clarify Testimony on Spying
Extent of Eavesdropping May Go Beyond NSA Work
By Charles Babington and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; A08
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appeared to suggest yesterday that the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance operations may extend beyond the outlines that the president acknowledged in mid-December.
In a letter yesterday to senators in which he asked to clarify his Feb. 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales also seemed to imply that the administration's original legal justification for the program was not as clear-cut as he indicated three weeks ago.
At that appearance, Gonzales confined his comments to the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program, saying that President Bush had authorized it "and that is all that he has authorized."
But in yesterday's letter, Gonzales, citing that quote, wrote: "I did not and could not address . . . any other classified intelligence activities." Using the administration's term for the recently disclosed operation, he continued, "I was confining my remarks to the Terrorist Surveillance Program as described by the President, the legality of which was the subject" of the Feb. 6 hearing.
At least one constitutional scholar who testified before the committee yesterday said in an interview that Gonzales appeared to be hinting that the operation disclosed by the New York Times in mid-December is not the full extent of eavesdropping on U.S. residents conducted without court warrants.
"It seems to me he is conceding that there are other NSA surveillance programs ongoing that the president hasn't told anyone about," said Bruce Fein, a government lawyer in the Nixon, Carter and Reagan administrations.
A Justice Department official who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the program, said, however, that Gonzales's letter "should not be taken or construed to be talking about anything other than" the NSA program "as described by the president."
In his letter, Gonzales revisited earlier testimony, during which he said the administration immediately viewed a congressional vote in September 2001 to authorize the use of military force against al-Qaeda as justification for the NSA surveillance program. Bush secretly began the program in October 2001, Gonzales's letter said.
On Feb. 6, Gonzales testified that the Justice Department considered the use-of-force vote as a legal green light for the wiretapping "before the program actually commenced."
But in yesterday's letter, he wrote, "these statements may give the misimpression that the Department's legal analysis has been static over time."
Fein said the letter seems to suggest that the Justice Department actually embraced the use-of-force argument some time later, prompting Gonzales to write that the legal justification "has evolved over time."
One government source who has been briefed on the issue confirmed yesterday that the administration believed from the beginning that the president had the constitutional authority to order the eavesdropping, and only more recently added the force resolution argument as a legal justification.
Ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) said Gonzales's letter falls "far short of helping us focus this picture. Instead, they blur it further with vague responses about their shifting legal analysis for this illegal domestic spying and with unclear clarifications on the scope of the program over the last four years."
Also yesterday, the Senate voted 69 to 30 to end a filibuster of the proposed four-year extension of the USA Patriot Act, the sweeping anti-terrorism law enacted in 2001. The Senate plans today to approve the measure, which contains hotly debated modifications.
In a morning Judiciary Committee hearing, hours before Gonzales's letter was released, Fein was one of several constitutional experts who sharply challenged the constitutionality of the NSA program. Other scholars and former CIA director R. James Woolsey strongly defended it.
Bush has acknowledged that he authorized the NSA to monitor phone calls and e-mails involving one party in the United States and one abroad, provided that federal agents suspect one party of terrorist ties. The administration contends that the program is not covered by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which established a secret court to consider government requests to wiretap U.S. citizens and residents in terrorism and espionage cases.
Numerous lawmakers, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), disagree. Specter says the NSA program violates the FISA law, and he is proposing legislation that would allow the FISA court to rule on the program's constitutionality and to oversee aspects of the surveillance operations.
The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, had a troubled start.
Four Marines died in a 2000 crash in North Carolina that was caused by a ruptured titanium hydraulic line. Nineteen others were killed in a crash that year in Arizona that investigators blamed on pilot error.
The Pentagon approved full production of the Osprey in a $19 billion program last year, and the Marines have been showing them off. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew aboard one last week.
Lawsuit Alleges Illegal Wiretaps by NSA
By WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Civil rights attorneys have sued the National Security Agency, claiming it illegally wiretapped conversations between the leaders of an Islamic charity that had been accused of aiding Muslim militants and two of its lawyers.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland asks that electronic surveillance by the NSA be shut down, arguing the agency illegally wiretapped electronic communications between a local chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, both attorneys in Washington, D.C.
The complaint also seeks $1 million in damages for each of the plaintiffs.
It alleges the NSA did not follow procedures required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and failed to obtain a court order authorizing electronic surveillance of the charity and its attorneys
Former Taliban Spokesman Now Yale U. Student
A one-time member of the Taliban has apparently taken up studies at Yale University.
While his former colleagues in Afghanistan’s former Taliban government are dead, hiding, or imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is studying at Yale on a student visa.
Once the Taliban’s "ambassador-at-large,” Rahmatullah was the subject of the feature article in this weekend’s New York Times magazine.
He surfaced at Yale through the efforts of Mike Hoover, a CBS News cameraman, whom he met while serving as an interpreter for the Taliban. Rahmatullah was admitted to Yale despite only having a fourth-grade education and high school equivalency certificate
Bush: Iraq has choice between 'chaos or unity'
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush downplayed fears of civil war in Iraq, but said the war-torn country must choose between "chaos or unity" after one week of sectarian violence left hundreds dead.
In an interview with ABC television, Bush said he would not reduce US troops levels in Iraq in response to a spate of bombings and bloody clashes touched off by last week's bombing of a revered 1,000-year-old Shiite Muslim shrine.
"The US troops will stay there so long as -- until the Iraqis can defend themselves. I mean, my policy has not changed," the president told ABC before leaving for India, Pakistan, and, possibly, Afghanistan.
Asked how he would respond if the violence continues or escalates into civil war, Bush replied: "I don't buy your premise that there's going to be a civil war."
Bush job rating falls to all-time low: poll
Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:56 PM ET
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's job rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, amid strong opposition to the Dubai Ports World deal and increasing pessimism over the war in Iraq, according to a CBS News poll released on Monday.
Bush's overall job approval fell eight points from 42 percent last month. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they disapproved of Bush's performance on the job, the poll found.
Bush's previous low job approval rating of 35 percent came last October, a month after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast and shortly after the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached the 2,000 mark, CBS said.
Long among his strongest suits, ratings for Bush's handling of Iraq fell to a new low of 30 percent, down from 37 percent in January, the poll found.
In addition, 62 percent of Americans said they think U.S. efforts to bring stability and order to Iraq were going badly compared with 36 percent who said things were going well.
In recent days, the Bush administration has faced increasing sectarian violence and fears of civil war in Iraq as well as strong bipartisan congressional opposition to a deal allowing an Arab state-owned company to operate six key U.S. ports.
According to the poll, 70 percent believe the Dubai Ports World transaction should not be allowed to go through while only 21 percent did not see the ports deal as a problem.
One surprising bright spot for the administration in the polls was that Americans appeared ready to move on after Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident. Seventy-six percent said it was understandable that the accident could happen.
However media coverage of the accident may have made the public's generally negative view of Cheney a bit more so, CBS said. The poll found that 46 percent hold a negative view of Cheney and 18 percent hold a favorable view, down from a 23 percent favorable rating in January.
Bush unaware of port deal until after approval
White House: President only learned recently of handover to Arab firm
BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 10:43 a.m. ET Feb. 22, 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.
Arab Company, White House Had Secret Deal
WASHINGTON (AP) - Under a secretive agreement with the Bush administration, a company in the United Arab Emirates promised to cooperate with U.S. investigations as a condition of its takeover of operations at six major American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The U.S. government chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.
In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.
Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.
Former Sen. Bob Dole was hired last year by a United Arab Emirates company to facilitate its takeover of shipping operations at six American ports.
Dole, a registered lobbyist and former GOP presidential candidate, is among a team of lawyers at the Washington law firm of Alston & Bird that has been working with Dubai Ports World, which is owned by the UAE.
The company hired the firm in 2005, according to CNN. But even Dole’s wife, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., has expressed concern about turning port operations over to a state-owned Middle Eastern company, reports the News & Observer in North Carolina.
In a letter to Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Dole – a member of the committee - wrote:
Senate Rejects Wiretapping Probe
But Judge Orders Justice Department to Turn Over Documents
By Charles Babington and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 17, 2006; Page A06
The Bush administration helped derail a Senate bid to investigate a warrantless eavesdropping program yesterday after signaling it would reject Congress's request to have former attorney general John D. Ashcroft and other officials testify about the program's legality. The actions underscored a dramatic and possibly permanent drop in momentum for a congressional inquiry, which had seemed likely two months ago.
Senate Democrats said the Republican-led Congress was abdicating its obligations to oversee a controversial program in which the National Security Agency has monitored perhaps thousands of phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents and foreign parties without obtaining warrants from a secret court that handles such matters.
"It is more than apparent to me that the White House has applied heavy pressure in recent days, in recent weeks, to prevent the committee from doing its job," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the intelligence committee, said after the panel voted along party lines not to consider his motion for an investigation.
Japanese Putting All Their Energy Into Saving Fuel
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Page A01
KAMIITA, Japan -- When the Japanese government issued a national battle cry against soaring global energy prices this winter, no one heeded the call to arms more than this farming town in the misty mountains of western Japan.
To save on energy, local officials shut off the heating system in the town hall, leaving themselves and 100 workers no respite from near-freezing temperatures. On a recent frosty morning, rows of desks were brimming with employees bundled in coats and wool blankets while nursing thermoses of hot tea. To cut back on gasoline use, officials say, most of the town's 13,000 citizens are strictly obeying a nationwide call to turn off car engines while idling, particularly when stopped at traffic lights
Rice wants funds for democracy initiative in Iran
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | February 16, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress yesterday to fund a sweeping initiative to promote democracy inside Iran that would expand satellite broadcasts to enable Washington to ''engage" directly with the Iranian people. The initiative also would lift US restrictions to allow US funding for Iranian trade unions, political dissidents, and nongovernmental organizations.
Army Offers Incentives to Try to Retain Officers
Data Project Shortage of 3,500 Experienced Leaders Mostly in Active-Duty Units
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 12, 2006; Page A12
The Army, forecasting a shortage of several thousand officers as wartime demands grow, is boosting the incentives it offers to try to hold on to experienced commanders.
The need for officers is expected to be acute in career fields strained by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as transportation, aviation, Special Forces and military intelligence, Army personnel statistics show. Demand is also high for skills concentrated in Army Reserve units heavily deployed in Iraq, such as military police and civil affairs. The Army projects it will fall 7 percent short of the number of active-duty officers it needs with ranks from captain to colonel, with shortages rising to 15 to 50 percent for dozens of specific ranks and skills.
In another sign of the pressing demand for officers, the Army is recalling hundreds of officers who had returned to civilian life but who are still subject to call-up, sparking protests from some who have already served in Iraq and now face more than a year of extended war-zone duty.
The looming officer shortage is part of a wider manpower crunch the Army faces stemming from the surge in demand for U.S. ground forces at home and overseas since the 2001 terrorist attacks. But it is distinct from the Army's recruiting difficulties, reflecting less a problem with signing up new officers than one of promoting and retaining experienced officers.
The shortfall could worsen if the number of officers leaving the force continues to grow. The percentage of officers -- from lieutenants to colonels -- who leave the Army each year has been rising since 2004.
Cross-Border Tunnel Found in San Diego
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- An incomplete tunnel was found in the same area where investigators recently found one of the longest passages discovered beneath the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.
The 3-foot-wide tunnel extended from just south of the border fence in Mexico to a point about 23 feet into the United States, ending at a concrete levee, Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite said.
A patrol agent noticed a distortion in the road running along the border fence, and agents digging in the area found the tunnel Thursday, Kite said.
"It was only about six inches below the asphalt," he said.
In the East, a Storm Of Epic Proportions
'Classic Nor'easter' Brings Cities to a Halt
By Michael Powell and David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 13, 2006; Page A10
NEW YORK, Feb. 12 -- A nor'easter snowstorm rumbled over New York City and New England over the weekend, dumping record quantities of snow and bringing this densest of urban corridors to a silent stop.
The snow totals acquired a prodigious quality as one weather station after another weighed in Sunday afternoon. Central Park stood at an all-time record 26.9 inches, Hartford at 21 inches and Boston at 20 inches -- and the falling flakes were still thick and accompanied by the rare peal of "thunder snow."
Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Texas Accident
Companion in Intensive Care With Upper-Body Wounds
By Shailagh Murray and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 13, 2006; Page A01
Vice President Cheney accidentally sprayed a companion with birdshot while hunting quail on a private Texas ranch, injuring the man in the face, neck and chest, the vice president's office confirmed yesterday after a Texas newspaper reported the incident.
The shooting occurred late Saturday afternoon while Cheney was hunting with Harry Whittington, 78, a prominent Austin lawyer, on the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas. Hearing a covey of birds, Cheney shot at one, not realizing that Whittington had startled the quail and that he was in the line of fire.
2005 trade deficit hits record of $725.8B
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit soared to an all-time high of $725.8 billion in 2005, pushed upward by record imports of oil, food, cars and other consumer goods.
The deficit with China hit an all-time high as did America's deficits with Japan, Europe, OPEC, Canada, Mexico, and South and Central America.
The Commerce Department reported that the gap between what America sells abroad and what it imports rose to $725.8 billion last year, up by 17.5% from the previous record of $617.6 billion set in 2004.
It marked the fourth consecutive year that America's trade deficit has set a record and was certain to spark increased debate in Congress over President Bush's trade policies. Since mid-2000 the country has lost nearly 3 million manufacturing jobs and Democrats blame the administration's flawed policies of emphasizing free trade agreements.
The United States imported a record $175.6 billion of crude oil in 2005, paying a record average price of $46.78 per barrel.
The U.S trade deficit could approach $1 trillion annually if it continues to grow at the current pace, but that is only a worry if foreigners become unwilling to finance the debt, said Drew Matus, senior financial economist at Lehman Bros..
"There have been historical precedents where people have spent well in excess of what they've earned from foreign trading partners for extended periods of time and nothing has happened," Matus said. "The big wild card is you have a reserve currency (such as the dollar), how much extra room does that give you. That's the $100,000 question, or the $100 million question, or the $1 trillion question."
Bush Shifts on Muslim Protests
Violence Is Criticized, Not the Cartoons
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A01
The Bush administration yesterday condemned the violent response to European cartoons mocking Islam and accused Iran and Syria of exploiting the international controversy to incite unrest and protests in the Middle East.
"I have no doubt that Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and have used this for their own purposes," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday. "The world ought to call them on it."
Fury in the Muslim World
Anger grows in the Middle East after European publications reprint cartoon caricatures of Muslim prophet Muhammed.
A few hours earlier, at a White House ceremony with Jordan's King Abdullah, President Bush rejected the violence but not the cartoons that incited bloody protests from Afghanistan to Denmark, where the drawings first appeared. "We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press," Bush said.
Chad and Sudan in Tripoli pact to end tension
Wed 8 Feb 2006 5:16 PM ET
(Updates with more quotes, comments by presidents, background)
TRIPOLI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The leaders of Chad and Sudan agreed on Wednesday to end to a crisis between their two countries, which have accused each other of backing insurgents, a Libyan official said.
The Tripoli Agreement between Presidents Idriss Deby of Chad and Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan was reached at the end of mini-summit hosted by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
"The two countries Chad and Sudan agreed to end media campaigns against one another and to stop using their territories to back harmful activity against one another," said a senior Libyan official who had seen the text of the accord.
Khartoum and N'Djamena pledged to work towards restoring diplomatic and consular ties, according to the official.
"The two countries also agreed to ban anti-government insurgents from setting up bases in each country and stop interfering in one another's internal affairs," he added.
Chad has accused Sudan of supporting insurgents sworn to oust Deby and who attacked the Chadian border town of Adre in December. Chad declared a "state of belligerence" with its eastern neighbour.
Mayor: New Orleans will seek aid from other nations
Mon 6 Feb 2006 4:30 PM ET
By Michael Depp
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Shortcomings in aid from the U.S. government are making New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look to other nations for help in rebuilding his hurricane-damaged city.
Nagin, who has hosted a steady stream of foreign dignitaries since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, says he may seek international assistance because U.S. aid has not been sufficient to get the city back on its feet.
"I know we had a little disappointment earlier with some signals we're getting from Washington but the international community may be able to fill the gap," Nagin said when a delegation of French government and business officials passed through on Friday to explore potential business partnerships.
Jordan's King Abdullah also visited New Orleans on Friday and Nagin said he would encourage foreign interests to help redevelop some of the areas hardest hit by the storm.
"France can take Treme. The king of Jordan can take the Lower Ninth Ward," he said, referring to two of the city's neighborhoods.
Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,300 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Bush administration has pledged billions of dollars to Katrina victims but five months after the storm, New Orleans remains largely in ruins.
DeLay Gets Coveted Committee Seat
From Times Wire Reports
Indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), forced to step down as the No. 2 Republican in the House, scored a soft landing as GOP leaders gave him a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee.
DeLay also claimed a seat on the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, which is investigating an influence-peddling scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"Allowing Tom DeLay to sit on a committee in charge of giving out money is like putting Michael Brown back in charge of FEMA — Republicans in Congress just can't seem to resist standing by their man," said Bill Burton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
O: Dems win special elections!
by Sean023
Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 07:47:40 PM PDT
Coming off state legislative special election victories in Minnesota and Virginia, Democrats are hoping to elect three more Democrats to join State Rep. Jane Bogetto, who won a special election in November.
The three elections are in districts 91, 105, and 132. Two of the seats are currently held by Republicans and all of them are competitive.
Democrats look to have won distrct 105 and 132, the districts that were seen as the more difficult to win. That suggests they may have won the other seat as well and is good news as they prepare for a coming special for a GOP-held 2nd senate district.
Update: Unfortunately Gen Frank was defeated by Dwight Schornhorst by a 51.9-48.1 margin. Still, it was a close race and Democrats picked up one seat in the Missouri house, holding their own even in the more conservative parts of the state.
Injured Soldier Made to Pay for Body Armor
By ALLISON BARKER
Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A former soldier injured in Iraq is getting a refund after being forced to pay for his missing body armor vest, which medics destroyed because it was soaked with his blood, officials said Wednesday.
First Lt. William "Eddie" Rebrook IV, 25, had to leave the Army with a shrapnel injury to his arm. But before he could be discharged last week, he says he had to scrounge up cash from his buddies to pay $632 for the body armor and other gear he had lost.
Rebrook, who graduated from West Point with honors, said he was billed because a supply officer failed to document that the vest was destroyed as a biohazard. He said a battalion commander refused to sign a waiver for the vest, saying Rebrook would have to supply witness statements to verify the vest was taken from him and burned.
"When that vest was removed from my bleeding body in Iraq, it was no longer my responsibility," Rebrook said Wednesday.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., questioned Gen. Peter Schoomaker, chief of staff of the Army, on Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee budget hearing, and on Wednesday an Army official said Rebrook would get refunds for the $510 vest and its contents, worth about $50.
Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, said there have been at least 21 similar cases. "In all of those cases, not one soldier was held accountable for items lost in combat," he said.
Told of the refund, Rebrook said: "How kind of them."
Iran is world's top sponsor of terrorism: Rumsfeld
Sat Feb 4, 2006 8:40 AM ET
By Louis Charbonneau
MUNICH (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran on Saturday of being the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, a charge that his Iranian counterpart rejected as "ridiculous" and "outrageous".
"The Iranian regime is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," Rumsfeld told an annual security conference in Munich where talk of Iran's nuclear program was at the top of the agenda.
Senate intelligence chair endorses domestic spying
Sat Feb 4, 2006 4:57 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee on Friday endorsed President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program and said the White House was right to inform only a handful of lawmakers about its existence.
In a letter to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas expressed "strong support" for a program that has raised an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans who believe Bush may have overstepped his authority. The panel is to hear testimony Monday from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the issue.
Roberts said he believes Bush's use of warrantless surveillance is legal, necessary, reasonable and within the president's powers.
"I am confident the president retains the constitutional authority to conduct 'warrantless' electronic surveillance," he said in the 19-page letter addressed to the judiciary panel's Republican chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and its senior Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
After the September 11 attacks, Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants as a means of tracking al Qaeda operations.
The administration, which refers to the eavesdropping as a limited "terrorist surveillance program," says it is justified by Bush's constitutional authority as commander in chief and by the authorization of military force that Congress granted the president after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Democrats and other critics say the NSA program could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, as well as the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to seek wiretap warrants from a secret court even during times of war.
Roberts' office released the letter a day after Democrats on his committee aired concerns that the oversight panel and the intelligence community had become part of a White House public relations campaign to defend the NSA program.
"The question I am wrestling with is whether the very independence of the U.S. intelligence committee has been co-opted -- to be quite honest about it -- by the strong, controlling hand of the White House," Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, the committee's ranking Democrat, said at Thursday's hearing.
More Allegations of Libby Lies Revealed
Judge's Report Shows Cheney Aide Is Accused Of Broad Deception
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 4, 2006; Page A03
The special prosecutor in the CIA leak case alleged that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was engaged in a broader web of deception than was previously known and repeatedly lied to conceal that he had been a key source for reporters about undercover operative Valerie Plame, according to court records released yesterday.
The records also show that by August 2004, early in his investigation of the disclosure of Plame's identity, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald had concluded that he did not have much of a case against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for illegally leaking classified information. Instead, Fitzgerald was focused on charging Cheney's top aide with perjury and making false statements, and knew he needed to question reporters to prove it.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, foreground, and lawyer Theodore Wells leave U.S. District Court. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
Transcript
On Woodward
Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. discussed Bob Woodward's revelation that he may have been the first reporter told of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative.
The court records show that Libby denied to a grand jury that he ever mentioned Plame or her CIA job to then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer or then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller in separate conversations he had with each of them in early July 2003. The records also suggest that Libby did not disclose to investigators that he first spoke to Miller about Plame in June 2003, and that prosecutors learned of the nature of the conversation only when Miller finally testified late in the fall of 2005.
All three specific allegations are contained in previously redacted sections of a U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that were released yesterday. The opinion analyzed Fitzgerald's secret evidence to determine whether his case warranted ordering reporters to testify about their confidential conversations with sources.
Fitzgerald revealed none of these specifics when he publicly announced Libby's indictment in October on charges of making false statements, perjury and obstruction of justice.
The once-sealed portions of the federal court opinion were written in February 2005 by U.S. Circuit Judge David S. Tatel, who was a member of a three-judge panel that agreed with Fitzgerald that the testimony of two reporters, Miller and Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, was crucial to his investigation.
Yesterday, the same panel concluded that because Libby was indicted and now faced public charges, the court no longer had to keep secret many of the details of the grand jury investigation that Tatel analyzed. Dow Jones Inc., parent company of the Wall Street Journal, had petitioned the court to release the eight-page Tatel opinion. Three of the pages were redacted.
Attorneys for Libby and Fleischer and a spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment yesterday.
Since January 2004, Fitzgerald has been investigating whether senior Bush administration officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity to discredit allegations made by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Plame's name and her CIA role were first mentioned publicly in a column by syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003, eight days after Wilson publicly accused the administration of twisting intelligence to justify a war with Iraq.
According to Tatel's summary of the evidence that Fitzgerald presented in the court's chambers in August 2004, the prosecutor had at least a good circumstantial case on perjury but charging Libby with intentionally leaking classified information was "currently off the table," though it could be "viable" if he gained new evidence.
Tatel wrote that interviewing Miller would be crucial to making that decision, because Libby might have mentioned to her that he knew Plame's status was covert. He concluded that simply lying about a national security matter was serious enough to warrant ordering the reporters to testify about their conversations with Libby.
"While it is true that on the current record the special counsel's strongest charges are for perjury and false statements rather than security-related crimes ... perjury in this context is itself a crime with national security implications," he wrote.
Libby trial won't start until after fall election
By Toni Locy, Associated Press | February 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The perjury trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff won't begin until January 2007, after the midterm congressional elections, in timing that Democrats consider favorable to Republicans.
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Boston.com
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts US District Judge Reggie B. Walton yesterday set Jan. 8 for jury selection in the trial of I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby, the former top White House aide charged with lying to investigators and a grand jury in the CIA leak inquiry.
Walton, appointed to the court by President Bush, said he had wanted to start the trial in September but agreed to push the date back when one of Libby's lawyers had a scheduling conflict.
Democrats had hoped Libby's trial would be held before the November elections to help bolster their attacks on Republican congressional candidates over the CIA leak investigation, the bribery scandal involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and Bush's domestic spying program.
''The Republicans dodged a bullet," said Democratic strategist Dane Strother. ''It's a whole menu of corruption . . . and it's a shame we have to wait to have Scooter Libby for dessert."
Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said putting Libby on trial during the fall campaigns could have hurt Republican candidates.
''There's something stronger about testimony under oath in public" rather than information that trickles out in the run-up to a trial, Franklin said.
Libby, 55, was indicted late last year on charges that he lied about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters.
The Valentine Earmark
By Al Kamen
Friday, February 3, 2006; Page A17
Mark the date! Earmark Feb. 20 for the opening of the $14.2 million library wing at the University of Louisville.
No private fundraising was needed for this one, a university source said. It's all from the federal government, an earmark by an alum, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). And the new library's auditorium is to be named for his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao .
Many workers feel 'married' to their jobs; many more feel 'married' to their coworkers, according to a recent survey.
January 27, 2006: 1:59 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Having a pseudo-wife or pseudo-husband at work may not only make you happier with your job but may even improve your chances for promotions and raises, according to a report Friday.
Non-romantic "marriages" in the workplace are the newest craze in office romance, the New York Post said, citing a survey by Vault Inc., a career research and consulting company.
Having a support system could lead to better performance reviews and advancement, the survey said.
The firm's national survey of workplace romance said workplace "spousing" has surged in the last year, in part because it offers immediate intimacy without the sex or commitment.
"It's a wonderful support system among workers, and makes a more productive worker," Mark Oldman, co-founder of Vault, told the paper.
According to the study, 32 percent of office workers said they have an office "spouse," with many having more than one.
"They have a big attraction -- there are no strings attached, and if doesn't work out, you go pick out another office 'spouse,' and no divorce is necessary," Oldman told the paper.
There are many emotional benefits of close workplace relationships modeled after a marriage, the study said. "The 'office spouses' can be more open with each other than they can with their own spouses, and there's no guilt involved," Oldman told the paper.
Election Update: Do-Over on First Ballot
By Ben Pershing
Roll Call Staff
Thursday, Feb. 2
House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting. Stay with RollCall.com for updates.
Rumsfeld: Terrorism threat may be greater
Says extremists have 'global reach'
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press | February 3, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Despite progress in fighting terrorism, the threat today may be greater than ever before because the weapons available are far more dangerous, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
''The enemy -- while weakened and under great pressure -- is still capable of global reach, still possesses the determination to kill more Americans, and still trying to do so with increasingly powerful weapons," Rumsfeld said at the National Press Club.
The US strategy, he said, includes doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from gaining weapons of mass destruction, improving homeland defense and intelligence gathering, and helping friendly nations become better able to fight the terrorists in their own countries.
''Because they lurk in shadows, without visible armies, and are willing to wait long periods between attacks, there is a tendency to underestimate the threat they pose," Rumsfeld said. He said there are no fewer than 18 organizations, loosely connected with Al Qaeda, conducting terrorist attacks.
Rumsfeld described the stakes in stark terms.
''They will either succeed in changing our way of life, or we will succeed in changing theirs," he said.
During a question-and-answer session, a protester stood and shouted at Rumsfeld, accusing him of pressing an unjust war, before being escorted from the room. Once she was gone, Rumsfeld remarked, ''We'll count her as undecided."
Addressing the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld said the time has arrived for the Iraqis to take more responsibility for their own future, including quelling the insurgency and creating a unified government.
''They're going to have to grab ahold of their country and make it work," he said.
Bush to request $120B more for wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will ask Congress soon for another $120 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing total spending since the Sept. 11 attacks to about $440 billion.
Administration officials said the request is intended to fund operations into next year. However, deputy budget director Joel Kaplan and Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that won't be enough, even as the U.S. military tries to turn more responsibility over to Iraqi forces.
Andrea Yates Leaves Jail for Hospital
By PAM EASTON
Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON (AP) -- Andrea Yates left jail early Thursday for a state mental hospital where she will await her second capital murder trial for the drowning deaths of her young children.
A bondsman, a friend of Yates' attorney, posted her $200,000 bond, releasing her from incarceration for the first time since the five children were drowned in the family bathtub in June 2001.
Iraq War Sign Next to Army Office Removed
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) -- A sign tallying the American troops killed and wounded in Iraq has been removed from its spot right next to an Army recruiting office.
Scott Cameron, the sign's creator, said he took down the sign from the adjoining office window to make amends with offended Iraq war veterans and to take pressure off the building's other occupants.
"It was a personal decision I made to be 'Minnesota nice,'" Cameron said Wednesday.
"I respect our troops totally. It offends me that my patriotism has been called into question in the community," he added.
Landlord Melissa Swor, with offices in the same building, told The Associated Press on Thursday: "I'm happy that he took it down so that TV crews are no longer coming in and taping."
Cameron is a Vietnam War vet and a volunteer for state Sen. Steve Kelley, a Democrat running for governor. The window where the sign appeared was in Kelly's campaign office.
Swor declined to say whether she had pressured the campaign, which has a month-to-month lease, to get rid of the sign. Cameron said Swor had implied to him that the lease was in jeopardy.
R.I. School Essay Brings in Secret Service
WEST WARWICK, R.I. (AP) -- The Secret Service is investigating a seventh-grader who wrote a school essay that authorities say advocated violence against President Bush, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and others.
The boy's homework assignment for English class was to write what he would do on a perfect day. In addition to the president and Winfrey, the boy wrote that violence should be directed at executives of Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart, police and school officials said.
"His perfect day would be to see the destruction of these people," Schools Superintendent David Raiche said.
The Secret Service investigation is ongoing, but the essay may have been a "cry for help," said Thomas M. Powers, resident agent in charge in Providence. Threatening the president is a felony, he said.
Authorities would not identify the boy or his teacher or release a copy of the essay. He was not arrested, police Detective Sgt. Fernando Araujo said.
"It wasn't any detailed, minute-by-minute plan," Araujo said. "It didn't meet the criteria for a criminal charge."
The boy has been temporarily barred from school, but as a mental health rather than disciplinary precaution, Raiche said.
Lawmakers Urge More Executive Branch Oversight
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 3, 2006; Page A03
The Bush administration's reluctance to provide lawmakers with documents related to domestic surveillance, the response to Hurricane Katrina and other matters prompted stern complaints from Congress yesterday, as Democrats in particular vowed to push for more aggressive oversight of the executive branch.
The sharpest exchanges involved the administration's legal reasoning for tasking the National Security Agency to monitor Americans' international calls and e-mails without obtaining a court warrant. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on the issue starting Monday, but some members said the inquiry will be pointless if the administration refuses to share legal documents that rationalized the eavesdropping program soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to "take all appropriate steps, including subpoenas" to compel the Justice Department to turn over its classified legal opinions on the NSA program. Specter met last night with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales but declined to say whether Gonzales had shown a willingness to disclose more documents.
"That's a subject which will be addressed at the hearing" on Monday, where Gonzales will be the only witness, Specter said in an interview.
Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said the department "has been extremely clear and forthcoming about the legal rationale for the terrorist surveillance program," referring to a 42-page "white paper" on the topic issued last month. "The attorney general has personally addressed this issue at length."
President Bush has said the warrantless NSA eavesdropping is required in order to act quickly on conversations involving terrorist suspects. But Specter and others have said the program appears to violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and they have pressed the administration to explain why the law does not provide the needed eavesdropping leeway.
Feinstein released a letter yesterday from 14 legal scholars or former federal officials challenging the legality of the NSA program. At least one of the signers -- former FBI director William S. Sessions, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan -- has strong Republican credentials.
The letter said the Justice Department has "failed to assert any plausible legal defense for the National Security Agency's domestic spying program." Accepting the department's justifications for the program, it said, "would require a radical rewriting of clear and specific legislation to the contrary."
Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence joined the call yesterday for more disclosure by the administration regarding the NSA program's legality.
"I'm deeply troubled by what I see as the administration's continued effort to selectively release intelligence information that supports its policy or political agenda while withholding equally pertinent information that does not do that," ranking Democrat John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) told Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.
Six GOP senators held a news conference yesterday defending the NSA program. Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) called it "absolutely necessary to prevent another 9/11 catastrophe."
Lawmakers, including some Republicans, also have pressed the administration to provide more documents concerning its response to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans and nearby regions last year. White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., in a recent letter to the Senate Governmental Affairs panel, said the administration "is committed to continue to provide information to the committee."
Also yesterday, Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) said they would seek a "sense of the Senate" resolution that the White House should "provide the public with a thorough account of the meetings the president, his staff, and senior executive branch officials had" with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Shell makes record £12.93bn profits
2 February 2006
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has announced record profits for a UK company of £12.93 billion.
The figure - which equates to almost £1.5 million an hour - was up nearly a third on last year, when it set a UK record with profits of 17.59 billion US dollars (£9.8bn).
It follows a year in which the cost of crude jumped from below 45 US dollars a barrel to hit a new record above 70 US dollars.
Shell made 5.4 billion US dollars (£3.04bn) in the last quarter of its financial year, against 5.22 billion US dollars (£2.94bn) in the same period last year.
The group said it expected to use some of the windfall to return up to five billion US dollars (£2.82bn) to investors through share buybacks in 2006.
The bulk of Shell's profits come from its "upstream" business - getting oil and gas out of the ground.
This division has been boosted by the spiralling cost of crude oil, which rose sharply last summer on tensions in oil-producing countries and a particularly bad hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico.
But the storms also disrupted Shell's production, shutting refineries temporarily and forcing it to spend significant sums on repairs.
Chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said: "Our good performance in the fourth quarter of 2005 gives us a solid platform to build on in 2006."
FLASHBACK: Man Wearing Anti-Clinton T-Shirt Removed from Senate Gallery at Impeachment Trial
Wed Feb 01 2006 08:47:08 ET
Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist who was removed from the House gallery last night before the State of the Union address for wearing a t-shirt with a political message, is not the first person to be tossed from a Congressional gallery at a high-profile event for wearing a political t-shirt.
In the early days of the Senate's impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in January 1999, a Pennsylvania man named Dave Delp was removed by the Capitol police from the Senate gallery for wearing a t-shirt that said, "Clinton doesn't inhale, he sucks."
The Pennsylvania school teacher was yanked out of a VIP Senate gallery and briefly detained last week during the impeachment trial for wearing a T-shirt with graphic language dissing President Clinton.
Delp, 42, of Carlisle, Pa., and a friend had just settled into their seats when four Capitol security guards approached them. Delp said at the time that he was ordered to button his coat and follow the guards. Outside the chamber, he was told "several people felt threatened by your shirt."
Even after establishing that Delp was a guest of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), the guards wouldn't let him back in and escorted him to a basement security area, where they questioned and photographed him.
After being given one of the photos as a souvenir, Delp said he was banned from the Capitol for the rest of the day. "They were polite and professional," Delp added, "but they really did scare me. I think I should have been given the chance to cover up."
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - The Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" policy will lead to "dumbing down" tests in public schools because Washington has not fully funded the policy, the state of Connecticut said in a court hearing on Tuesday to try to block the program.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told U.S. District Court in New Haven that President George W. Bush's signature education policy was "mistaken" and "misguided," as he fought
a motion by the federal government to throw out his lawsuit.
The suit, filed in August, makes Connecticut the first state seeking to block the 2002 policy that calls for standardized testing of students.
"If the federal government asks us to undertake the mandate, we would be willing to do it, but they have to provide the money," Blumenthal told the court in New Haven.
Blumenthal said federal funding was not enough for the state to test in a way that maintains its high standards, leaving Connecticut $41.6 million short of what it needs to comply with the law. He said that dynamic would force Connecticut to rely on multiple choice tests rather than costlier written tests which would better challenge students.
"There is always the option of dumbing down the test to the point that would be inadequate, and we are not willing to do that," he said. "We're left with no choice but to either defy the statute or (follow) an interpretation that we believe is mistaken and misguided."
U.S. Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Goitein, representing the U.S. Education Department, said Connecticut was avoiding its obligations and was aware of the law's demands when the state accepted education funding from Washington.
The promise of education reform has bolstered Bush's support among minorities in a country where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school and only 50 percent of black Americans and Hispanics graduate.
Connecticut has taken the strongest legal stand yet against "No Child Left Behind" but other states have also challenged it. A judge in November threw out a similar lawsuit by the National Education Association on behalf of school districts in three states. The state of Utah has rebelled by passing a measure defying the law.
World Bank head backs aid to Palestinians - report
Tue 31 Jan 2006 10:14 PM ET
LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Palestinian government should continue to receive international aid despite concerns over last week's election victory by Islamic militant group Hamas, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Wolfowitz urged Russia, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations to allow the bank to continue working in the region.
The so-called Quartet of world powers has said Hamas must reject violence and recognise the right of Israel to exist or risk losing the aid.
"What we do now depends on what the Quartet asks us to do," Wolfowitz told the British newspaper. "I hope they will ask us to stay."
Hamas, which won a shock victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections last week, has carried out suicide attacks in Israel and its charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Wolfowitz, who arrived at the bank eight months ago from the U.S. Pentagon with a reputation as a neoconservative ideologue, said the Hamas election win put the World Bank in a difficult position.
"We are on the horns of a dilemma," he said. "We need to keep up pressure for reform, but this interim government is not in a position to do very much right now.
"It will help the whole process if the life of the average Palestinian improves. We ought to be the last people to disengage."
The bank chairs the committee of donors for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority is the biggest single employer in the those areas and relies on foreign aid to stay afloat.
Last year, it received 500 million euros ($606.4 million) from the European Union and more than $200 million from the United States.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested in the House of Representatives chamber on Tuesday shortly before President George W. Bush gave his State of the Union address because she refused to cover up an anti-war slogan on her shirt.
Sheehan, who was attending the speech as the guest of U.S. Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California, was taken from the Capitol in handcuffs and charged with unlawful conduct, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.
A Reuters photographer said Sheehan entered the House gallery a few minutes before Bush was to speak and was directed to her seat. She had been seated for less than a minute when a plainclothes Capitol Police officer took her by the arm, said, "You've got to leave," and rushed her from the gallery.
Sheehan did not resist and left with a smile. Rather than hearing Bush say in his speech that there would be no sudden U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, Sheehan was being processed at the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters near the Capitol.
Schneider said Sheehan was arrested because she was wearing a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan and refused to cover it up. She said the unlawful conduct charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
4 Democrats ( soon to be kicked out of office) voted for Alito......Senators Byrd,Bydh,Conrad and Johnson.
Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island (republican) voted against the dirt bag
Breaking News
BUSH'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS TO BE SIMULCAST IN ENGLISH
President Hopes to Reach Broader Audience, Aides Say
For the first time since he was elected President of the United States, George W. Bush's State of the Union address tonight will be simulcast in English, the White House confirmed.
With the president's approval ratings sagging, the decision to simulcast the speech in English was widely seen as an attempt by the president to make an appeal to a broader audience.
"The majority of people in this country are English speaking, and quite frankly, we can't afford to ignore them any longer," one senior aide said. "Hopefully, by doing the English simulcast, we'll be reaching out to a lot of those folks."
Once the decision was made earlier in the month to launch the historic first English simulcast of a speech by President Bush, then began the hard work of translating the text of the address from Mr. Bush's language into English.
Davis Logsdon, a professor of linguistics at the University of Minnesota, was one of several scholars approached to do the translation who ultimately quit in frustration.
"The problem is that the language the president speaks, by most measures, is not a language at all," Professor Logsdon said.
Still, the White House remains guardedly optimistic about tonight's simulcast, and aides said that if all goes as planned they might soon offer English simulcasts of press briefings by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Elsewhere, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein stormed out of his courtroom today, got a good look at what was going on in the streets of Baghdad, and quickly hurried back in.
Oil execs refuse to testify at U.S. Senate hearing
Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:16 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials from six major oil companies have refused to testify this week at a Senate hearing looking into whether oil industry mergers in recent years have made gasoline more expensive at the pump.
With oil companies reporting record profits from higher energy prices, consumer groups have complained that mergers in the industry have stifled competition.
Exxon Mobil said on Monday it earned $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year and $36.1 billion for all of 2005 -- bigger than the economies of 125 countries.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is holding the hearing on Wednesday morning, said it asked representatives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Valero Energy and the U.S. units of BP and Royal Dutch Shell to tell their side of the story.
"All declined the invitation to testify," the committee said in a statement on Monday, without providing details.
Dominatrix Acquitted in Bondage Death
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) -- A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who prosecutors say suffered a heart attack while strapped to a replica of a medieval rack.
Barbara Asher, a 56-year-old woman who called herself Mistress Lauren M, was also cleared of dismemberment.
Prosecutors said that 53-year-old Michael Lord suffered a heart attack in 2000 during a bondage session in a "dungeon" in Asher's condominium and that Asher did nothing to help him for five minutes for fear authorities would find out about her business.
Asher had her boyfriend chop up the body of the 275-pound retired telephone company worker, and they dumped it behind a restaurant in Maine, prosecutors said. His remains have never been found.
Prosecutors said Asher confessed to police, but the alleged confession was not taped, and investigators testified they did not save their notes.
Asher's lawyer, Stephanie Page, said there was nothing to prove Lord was even dead - no body, no blood, no DNA.
Border Tunnel Probe Yields First Arrest
By SETH HETTENA
Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A Mexican citizen was arrested on drug charges in the investigation into the longest tunnel ever found underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said Monday.
The suspect was taken into custody Saturday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He appeared in federal court Monday on charges of conspiracy to import more than a ton of marijuana, which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.
The 2,400-foot tunnel runs from a warehouse near the airport in Tijuana to a warehouse in San Diego. It was unclear how long it had been in operation, but more than two tons of marijuana were found inside.
Authorities said the passage was 5 feet high and ran as deep as 90 feet below the surface. It had a concrete floor, lights along one of the hard soil walls, a groundwater pump, and pipes that circulated fresh air.
NYC Coroner Says Indonesian Killed Himself
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- An Indonesian man found dead in the blood-spattered basement of his country's consulate committed suicide by repeatedly stabbing himself with various knives, authorities said Monday.
Bambang Welianto, 36, was found Sunday with a kitchen knife in his chest and his left wrist almost severed. Several other knives, including a meat cleaver, were found around him in the four-story mansion on the Upper East Side.
The death was ruled a suicide, said a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Ellen Borakove.
Super Bowl Host Is U.S.'s Poorest Big City
By SARAH KARUSH
Associated Press Writer
DETROIT (AP) -- Before the Super Bowl kickoff this weekend, private planes will land here, limousines will clog the streets, and lavish parties will be thrown for those with famous names or lots of money. The kitchens of Ford Field will be stocked with two tons of lobster.
Much of the rest of Detroit, though, is a landscape dotted with burned-out buildings, where liquor stores abound but supermarkets are hard to come by, and where drugs, violence and unemployment are everyday realities.
Officials in the nation's poorest big city see hosting the game as a huge boost. They say it will be a catalyst for further development and provide a chance to improve Detroit's gritty reputation. They hope visitors will take note of new restaurants, clubs and lofts downtown. To make sure the city makes a good impression, dilapidated buildings have been torn down, roads repaved and landmarks renovated.
Yet with the exception of a few square miles in the center of town, many residents say they have not seen any improvement. And they don't expect the Super Bowl to have an effect on their lives.
"They spend all that money on the Super Bowl ... but they ain't doing nothing for here," said Arthur Lauderdale, 59, who lives about four miles from the heart of downtown on Detroit's east side.
The scenery along Van Dyke Street near Lauderdale's home would be familiar to anyone who has seen "8 Mile," Eminem's movie about life in Detroit. The street's once-bustling commercial section is dominated by boarded-up stores, charred buildings and vacant lots. The only signs of activity are at storefront churches and the occasional liquor store and hot-dog joint.
Fla. Blast Releases Low Level Radiation
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- More than 70 people underwent decontamination Monday after being exposed to a small amount of radiation from an exploded krypton gas container at a defense contractor's plant Monday, officials said.
No one was in danger of being exposed to a life-threatening dose, authorities said.
Sixteen people were taken to a hospital after complaining of nausea, said Bennie Seth, a fire and rescue spokeswoman. No one was seriously ill.
No radiation escaped the building at Union Industries.
Seventy-three people were found to be exposed to levels of radiation high enough that they had to be decontaminated, Seth said. A tent was set up between two fire trucks next to the building, and people disrobed and were washed down one by one.
Krypton gas is colorless and nontoxic. It can be made artificially radioactive for use in manufacturing. The krypton at the plant was used for making medical supplies, Seth said.
Coretta Scott King Dies at 78
By ERRIN HAINES
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.
Flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.
"We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country," the King family said in a statement. The family said she died overnight, but did not say where she died. She suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005.
Al-Zawahri Calls Bush a 'Butcher' in Video
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAJD
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri said in a videotape aired Monday that President Bush was a "butcher" and a "failure" because of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeting the bin Laden deputy, and he threatened a new attack on the United States.
Al-Zawahri, shown in the video wearing white robes and a white turban, said a Jan. 13 airstrike in the eastern village of Damadola killed "innocents," and he said the United States had ignored an offer from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden for a truce.
"Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies," he said, referring to Bush. "Bush, do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses."
The airstrike hit a building in Damadola, where U.S. intelligence believed al-Zawahri had been attending an Islamic holiday dinner. The strike killed four al-Qaida leaders - including a man believed to be al-Zawahri's son-in-law - but intelligence officials said later they believe al-Zawahri sent his aides to the dinner in his place.
Thirteen villagers also were killed in the strike, angering many Pakistanis.
Exxon Sees Record Profits for Any U.S. Co.
Jan 30 11:15 AM US/Eastern
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By STEVE QUINN
AP Business Writer
DALLAS
Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday _ $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year _ as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose nearly 3 percent in morning trading.
The company's earnings amounted to $1.71 per share for the October- December quarter, up 27 percent from $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. The result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter of 2005.
Exxon's profit for the year was also the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, a stock market analyst for Standard & Poor's. He said the previous high was Exxon's $25.3 billion profit in 2004.
Poll: Most think Bush is failing second term
President 'looking forward' to congressional campaigning
Friday, January 27, 2006; Posted: 8:22 a.m. EST (13:22 GMT)
President Bush defended his job performance Thursday, pointing to an improved economy.
George W. Bush
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A majority of Americans are more likely to vote for a candidate in November's congressional elections who opposes President Bush, and 58 percent consider his second term a failure so far, according to a poll released Thursday.
Fewer people consider Bush to be honest and trustworthy now than did a year ago, and 53 percent said they believe his administration deliberately misled the public about Iraq's purported weapons program before the U.S. invasion in 2003, the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found.
Pollsters interviewed 1,006 American adults Friday through Sunday. Most questions in the survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. (Poll)
Bush is preparing for his State of the Union address, set for next week, and told reporters Thursday that he is "looking forward" to campaigning for Republicans in November's elections. (Full story)
But the latest poll indicated Americans remain in a pessimistic mood.
Fifty-eight percent of those polled said Bush's second term has been a failure so far, while 38 percent said they consider it a success. A smaller number -- 52 percent -- consider his entire presidency a failure to date, with 46 percent calling it successful. (Complete poll results)
In the latter case, the numbers fall within those two questions' margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Bush defended his performance Thursday, pointing to an improved economy despite higher prices for gasoline, heating oil and natural gas. He said the November elections would be about "peace and prosperity."
"We've got a record, and a good one," he said. "That's what I intend to campaign on and explain to people why I made the decisions I made, and why they're necessary to protect the American people, and why they've been necessary to keep this economy strong -- and why the policies we've got will keep this economy strong in the future."
But 51 percent of those polled said they were more likely to vote for a candidate in congressional elections who opposes Bush, while 40 percent said they were likely to vote for a candidate who backs the president.
Bush's own approval rating remained at 43 percent, unchanged since mid-December, according to results released earlier this week. Another 54 percent disapproved of his job performance, that survey found.
Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in the latest poll -- 62 percent -- said they were dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, while 35 percent said they were satisfied.
And 64 percent said things in the United States have gotten worse in the past five years, while 28 percent said things have improved.
For the first time since Bush took office in 2001, a majority of those polled said the president -- who campaigned as "a uniter, not a divider" -- has been a divisive leader. Fifty-four percent called Bush a divider, while 41 percent called him a uniter.
Just over a third -- 34 percent -- said Bush had a clear plan for solving the nation's problems, and 44 percent agreed that he cared about the needs of people like them and shared their values.
A narrow majority of 51 percent said they consider Bush to be a strong and decisive leader, compared with 48 percent who disagreed. Although those totals fall within the margin of sampling error, they mark a decline from a year ago, when 61 percent called the president strong and decisive.
Split on honesty
Americans were divided evenly -- 49-49 -- on the question of Bush's honesty.
The number of those polled who consider Bush trustworthy improved from a November survey, when only 46 percent rated him honest. But the figure is down from a year ago, when 56 percent considered him honest and trustworthy, and only 41 percent disapproved.
Specifically, 53 percent said they believe his administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, as Bush and other top officials argued on the eve of the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Once Hussein was overthrown, U.S. inspectors concluded that Iraq had not kept stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, long-range missiles and a nuclear weapons program, though Iraq had concealed weapons-related research from the United Nations.
U.S. troops are battling a persistent insurgency in Iraq, with two soldiers killed in combat Wednesday, raising the American death toll to 2,238. More than 2,000 of those have died since Bush declared an end to "major combat operations" May 1, 2003.
The war in Iraq topped the list of respondents' concerns going into 2006, with 58 percent calling it extremely important. Terrorism was next with 57 percent, followed by health care with 47 percent, the economy at 46 percent and corruption at 45 percent.
Most of those polled said they believe the United States will have a "significant number" of troops in Iraq for more than a year, with 47 percent believing the U.S. commitment will last one to three years and 33 percent believing the U.S. presence will last longer than that.
Thirty-four percent said they considered economic conditions good and 5 percent excellent, while 41 percent rated the economy fair and 18 percent poor.
Asked which way the economy was headed, 35 percent said they believed it was improving; 54 percent said it was getting worse.
Economic growth has picked up in recent months, and unemployment has declined since 2003. But gasoline prices remain well over $2 a gallon on average, and natural gas and heating oil bills have gone up since 2005.
Al Qaeda Detainee's Mysterious Release
Moroccan Spoke Of Aiding Bin Laden During 2001 Escape
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 30, 2006; Page A01
Tabarak was captured and taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was classified as such a high-value prisoner that the Pentagon repeatedly denied requests by the International Committee of the Red Cross to see him. Then, after spending almost three years at the base, he was suddenly released.
Today, the al Qaeda loyalist known locally as the "emir" of Guantanamo walks the streets of his old neighborhood near Casablanca, more or less a free man. In a decision that neither the Pentagon nor Moroccan officials will explain publicly, Tabarak was transferred to Morocco in August 2004 and released from police custody four months later.
Tabarak's odyssey from Afghanistan to Guantanamo and back to his native land illustrates the grit and at times fanatical determination of one bin Laden recruit. Yet his story also shows how little is known publicly about al Qaeda figures who were captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Major gaps remain in his account, and terrorism experts and intelligence officials continue to debate whether he was a member of al Qaeda's inner circle or its rank and file.
His case also highlights mysteries of U.S. priorities in deciding who to keep and who to let go. As the Pentagon gears up to hold its first military tribunals at Guantanamo after four years of preparations, it has released a prisoner it called a key operative. At the same time, it retains under heavy guard men whose background and significance are never discussed.
Eighteen months after he left Guantanamo, Tabarak, 50, still faces minor criminal offenses in Rabat, the capital, such as passport forgery and conspiracy. But his attorney predicts that it's only a matter of time before the case is dropped and all allegations of terrorist activities are dismissed.
Mexico Army Likely Part of Border Incident
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- It wasn't just Mexican military-style uniforms that suspected drug runners were wearing when they were confronted by Texas lawmen, the Hudspeth County sheriff says.
The men carried Mexican military-issue weapons and drove a military Humvee, said Arvin West, whose officers who were involved in the standoff.
"It was military," he said Friday. "Due to the pending congressional hearings I can't comment further."
West said the determination that the equipment was military-issue came from the federal government, but he would not elaborate.
A U.S. Army spokesman said he could not confirm West's statement, and the Mexican Foreign Relations Department said it would have no comment.
The Mexican government has denied that any soldiers were involved in the standoff Monday in a remote spot along the Rio Grande in West Texas. The smugglers escaped back across the border without a shot fired, abandoning more than a half-ton of marijuana as they fled.
Mexican officials have said the uniforms and other equipment could have been stolen.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other officials have said they will seek hearings investigating such border incursions.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar, in El Paso Friday, said he could not rule out Mexican soldiers' involvement in the standoff at Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso.
Woman Accused of Driving Bloodmobile Drunk
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- The driver of a bloodmobile ran a red light on her way to a blood drive and has been charged with drunken driving, police said.
Sharon Renea Dunlap, 46, told police she quit drinking about 3 a.m. Wednesday, and took some pain pills. She was pulled over about 14 hours later after a Jacksonville police officer saw the Florida Georgia Blood Alliance bloodmobile run a red light, police said.
Police said Dunlap failed a field sobriety test and was charged with driving under the influence and running a red light.
She has been suspended from her job, pending the outcome of the case. A call to her telephone listing said the line had been disconnected. It was not known if Dunlap had an attorney.
Tenn. Certificates Lure Illegal Immigrants
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee's driving certificate for illegal immigrants isn't valid as a form of ID, but people are paying hundreds of dollars on the black market and traveling hundreds of miles to get one.
Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since it became the first state to offer them in July 2004, but not every certificate has gone to someone living there.
Two major federal arrests in recent months exposed shuttles bringing South and Central American immigrants from as far away as New Jersey to state licensing centers in Knoxville, where the immigrants got certificates using fake residency papers.
Last week, a third sweep revealed an alleged conspiracy in which prosecutors say state license examiners in Murfreesboro, outside Nashville, accepted bribes to provide illegal immigrants with driver's licenses and certificates without testing.
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"We have seen individuals coming to Tennessee to take advantage of the driver's certificate program because they are easy to obtain," said acting U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick.
The disclosures come as Tennessee's certificate system is being studied as a possible model for handling "non-conforming drivers" under the Real ID program recently enacted by Congress that will set a national standard for driver's licenses by 2008.
Although the words "not valid for identification" appear in bold red letters on the face of the wallet-size certificates, Dedrick said banks accept them as legal ID and they "can easily be passed off for other types of identification documents."
Lawyer Mike Whalen, who represents a woman accused of bringing as many as 100 immigrants from New Jersey to Knoxville for certificates, said the government is making too much of the problem. His client represented workers, not terrorists, he said.
"Somebody went through the roof and said, 'Remember 9-11, every one had driver's licenses,'" he said. "Well, none of these Mexican immigrants are in flight school anywhere. There is a difference."
That argument carries little weight in law enforcement circles.
The certificate law "just kind of opened up a flood gate of everyone wanting to come here to get some sort of identification," said Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison, whose officers discovered that 58 illegal immigrants used the same Knoxville address to get certificates.
Hamas Sweeps Palestinian Elections, Complicating Peace Efforts in Mideast
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 26 -- The radical Islamic movement Hamas won a large majority in the new Palestinian parliament, according to official election results announced Thursday, trouncing the governing Fatah party in a contest that could dramatically reshape the Palestinians' relations with...
Economic slowdown unexpectedly steep in Q4
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Economic growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter to the weakest pace in three years as consumers spent less robustly, growth in homebuilding eased and businesses were less eager to boost investments, a government report Friday showed.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity within U.S. borders, advanced at a 1.1% annual rate in the October-December period — little more than a quarter of the third quarter's 4.1% rate and the weakest for any three months since 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Consumer spending, which fuels two-thirds of national economic activity, slowed to a 1.1% annnual rate of growth, sharply below the third-quarter rate and the weakest since a 1% gain in second quarter of 2001.
Fourth-quarter growth was far weaker than the 2.8% rate economists had forecast and reflected widespread softness. Spending on costly durable goods, which include cars and other items intended to last three years or more, plunged at a 17.5% rate. That was the steepest drop in durables spending in nearly 19 years, since a 23.2% fall in the first quarter of 1987.
Prosecutor Will Step Down From Lobbyist Case
By PHILIP SHENON and ELISABETH BUMILLER
The chief prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff inquiry will step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
White House Got Early Warning on Katrina
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 24, 2006; Page A02
In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show.
A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's "situation room," the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document.
The NISAC paper warned that a storm of Katrina's size would "likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching" and specifically noted the potential for levee failures along Lake Pontchartrain. It predicted economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars, including damage to public utilities and industry that would take years to fully repair. Initial response and rescue operations would be hampered by disruption of telecommunications networks and the loss of power to fire, police and emergency workers, it said.
In a second document, also obtained by The Washington Post, a computer slide presentation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, prepared for a 9 a.m. meeting on Aug. 27, two days before Katrina made landfall, compared Katrina's likely impact to that of "Hurricane Pam," a fictional Category 3 storm used in a series of FEMA disaster-preparedness exercises simulating the effects of a major hurricane striking New Orleans. But Katrina, the report warned, could be worse.
The hurricane's Category 4 storm surge "could greatly overtop levees and protective systems" and destroy nearly 90 percent of city structures, the FEMA report said. It further predicted "incredible search and rescue needs (60,000-plus)" and the displacement of more than a million residents.
The NISAC analysis accurately predicted the collapse of floodwalls along New Orleans's Lake Pontchartrain shoreline, an event that the report described as "the greatest concern." The breach of two canal floodwalls near the lake was the key failure that left much of central New Orleans underwater and accounted for the bulk of Louisiana's 1,100 Katrina-related deaths.
The documents shed new light on the extent on the administration's foreknowledge about Katrina's potential for unleashing epic destruction on New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities and towns. President Bush, in a televised interview three days after Katrina hit, suggested that the scale of the flooding in New Orleans was unexpected. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm," Bush said in a Sept. 1 interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
War Protester Sentenced for Trespassing
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) -- A peace activist was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for splattering his own blood at a military recruiting station to protest the then-looming war in Iraq.
Daniel Burns was the first of four activists to be sentenced this week for splattering their blood onto the windows, walls, pictures and an American flag at the Army and Marine Corps recruiting station on March 17, 2003.
The so-called Saint Patrick's Four were convicted for damaging government property and entering a military recruiting station for unlawful purposes.
U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy said he wasn't punishing Burns for protesting, but for how he protested and what he did.
"The court doesn't question your motivation," he said. "I know you didn't go there with evil purpose in mind. You went in good conscience. But what you did clearly violated the law."
Burns, 45, was fined $250 for contempt and ordered to share payment of $958 in restitution for cleaning up the damage at the recruiting station near Ithaca.
The four were acquitted of the most serious charge - conspiracy to impede an officer of the United States, which carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
Jury Orders Reprimand, No Jail for Soldier
By JON SARCHE
Associated Press Writer
FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) -- A military jury has recommended that an officer once facing up to life in prison for the interrogation death of an Iraqi general be given only a reprimand, a decision that drew applause from soldiers.
Initially charged with murder, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. now faces no jail time, the forfeiture of $6,000 in salary and what amounts largely to a barracks restriction for 60 days.
"I deeply apologize if my actions tarnished the soldiers serving in Iraq," Welshofer said during his sentencing hearing. "It was never my intent to cast aspersions on their tremendous accomplishments."
Welshofer was convicted Saturday of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty for stuffing the Iraqi general headfirst into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest
The sentence will be reviewed by Fort Carson's commander, Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon. He cannot order a harsher sentence, said Welshofer's defense attorney Frank Spinner.
Prosecutors had described Welshofer as a rogue interrogator who became frustrated with Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush's refusal to answer questions and escalated his techniques from simple interviews to beatings to simulating drowning, and finally, to death.
MANHATTAN, Kansas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush rejected charges his domestic eavesdropping program was illegal on Monday, while other administration officials said the war on terrorism had made the federal law on electronic surveillance outdated.
Bush appeared on stage at Kansas State University as part of a White House public relations campaign to defend a National Security Agency spying program that has raised an outcry among Democrats and Republicans who say Bush may have overstepped his authority.
"You know, it's amazing that people say to me, 'Well, he was just breaking the law.'
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - A European human rights investigator said on Tuesday there was evidence the United States had "outsourced" torture to other countries and it was likely that European governments knew about it.
But Swiss senator Dick Marty, who heads an investigation by the Council of Europe human rights watchdog, said he had not uncovered any irrefutable evidence to confirm allegations that the CIA operated secret detention centers in Europe.
His remarks, in a preliminary report, kept pressure on the CIA and European governments over allegations that the U.S. intelligence agency flew prisoners through airports in Europe to jails in third countries where they may have been tortured.
"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing of torture'," Marty said in his initial report into the allegations for the 46-nation Council, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.
He said it had been proved that "individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported to different destinations in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture."
Halliburton Cited in Iraq Contamination
By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer
January 23, 2006, 4:12 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- Water supplied to a U.S. base in Iraq was contaminated and the contractor in charge, Halliburton, failed to tell troops and civilians at the facility, according to internal documents from the company and interviews with former Halliburton officials.
Although the allegations came from Halliburton's own water quality experts, the company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney denied there was a contamination problem at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi.
"We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated," said a July 15, 2005, memo by William Granger, the official for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait.
"The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River," Granger wrote in one of several documents.
The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who will chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting abuses in Iraq. He said Democrats were acting on their own because they had not been able to persuade committee chairmen in the Republican-run Senate to investigate.
The company's former water treatment expert at Camp Junction City said he discovered the problem last March, a statement confirmed by his e-mail the day after he tested the water.
While bottled water was available for drinking, the contaminated water was used for virtually everything else, including handwashing, laundry, bathing and making coffee, said water expert Ben Carter of Cedar City, Utah.
Another former Halliburton employee who worked at the base, Ken May of Louisville, Ky., said there were numerous instances of diarrhea and stomach cramps -- problems he also suffered.
A spokeswoman for Halliburton, Melissa Norcross, said its own inspection found neither contaminated water nor medical evidence to substantiate reports of illnesses at the base. The company now operates its own water treatment plant there, she said.
A military medical unit that visited Camp Ramadi in mid-April found nothing out of the ordinary in terms of water quality, said Marine Corps Maj. Tim Keefe, a military spokesman. Water-quality testing records from May 23 show the water within normal parameters, he said.
"The allegations appear not to have merit," Keefe said.
Halliburton has contracts to provide a number of services to U.S. forces in Iraq and was responsible for the water quality at the Ramadi base.
Granger's July 15 memo said the exposure had gone on for "possibly a year" and added, "I am not sure if any attempt to notify the exposed population was ever made."
The first memo on the problem -- written by Carter to Halliburton officials on March 24, 2005 -- was an "incident report" from tests Carter performed the previous day.
"It is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including Coliform bacteria," Carter wrote. "There is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required 2 mile distance.
"Therefore, it is my conclusion that chlorination of our water tanks while certainly beneficial is not sufficient protection from parasitic exposure."
Carter said he resigned in early April after Halliburton officials did not take any action to inform the camp population.
The water expert said he told company officials at the base that they would have to notify the military. "They told me it was none of my concern and to keep my mouth shut," he said.
On at least one occasion, Carter said, he spoke to the chief military surgeon at the base, asking him whether he was aware of stomach problems afflicting people. He said the surgeon told him he would look into it.
"They brushed it under the carpet," Carter said. "I told everyone, 'Don't take showers, use bottled water."
A July 14, 2005, memo showed that Halliburton's public relations department knew of the problem.
"I don't want to turn it into a big issue right now," staff member Jennifer Dellinger wrote in the memo, "but if we end up getting some media calls I want to make sure we have all the facts so we are ready to respond."
Halliburton's performance in Iraq has been criticized in a number of military audits, and congressional Democrats have contended that the Bush administration has favored the company with noncompetitive contracts.
Bush Aide Says Abramoff Photos Coincidence
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By Associated Press
January 23, 2006, 7:52 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- An adviser to President Bush said Monday that Bush's photographs in the company of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff amount to a coincidence and shouldn't be interpreted any more seriously than that.
"He doesn't have a personal relationship with him," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said of Bush and Abramoff, who recently pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from his lobbying practices and has pledged to cooperate with government prosecutors.
"We acknowledge he (Abramaoff) attended some Hannukuah celebrations," Bartlett said in an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. "Any suggestions by critics or anyone else to suggest the president is doing something nefarious with Abramoff is absurd."
Bush himself has said that he doesn't recall meeting Abramoff.
Both Washingtonian and Time magazines have reported the existence of about a half-dozen photos showing the two together, however.
Time reported on its Web site Sunday that its staff members have seen at least six photos featuring Bush and Abramoff. They appeared to have been taken at White House functions, according to the reports.
On ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday, Bartlett said, "I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that there's probably widely-gathered events where the president does photo-line opportunities."
The White House has not released any photos featuring the president and Abramoff, who was declared a Bush "pioneer" for raising at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign.
Contributions that came directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the American Indian tribes he represented -- a total of $6,000 -- were donated to the American Heart Association by the campaign just days after Abramoff entered his guilty pleas.
The White House, after playing down the Bush-Abramoff photos and the lobbyist's ties to the president, criticized Abramoff for breaking the law. "Mr. Abramoff admitted being involved in outrageous wrongdoing," spokeswoman Dana Perino said Sunday.
"Intelligent design" debate goes to kids' TV
Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:57 PM ET
By Jamie McGeever
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The debate over whether children should be taught "intelligent design" in U.S. public schools as an alternative to evolution is moving to children's television.
"There's a fight going on the science room," says Linda Ellerbee, presenter of "Nick News," a news magazine on the children's TV cable channel Nickelodeon.
The channel is tackling the subject on Sunday by presenting both sides of the controversy in "God, Science, Politics and Your School."
Supporters of intelligent design say that nature is so complex that it must have been the work of an unnamed creator, rather than the result of random natural selection as outlined in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
"The goal of this show is not to debate the issues of evolution, intelligent design or creationism," Ellerbee said in a statement.
"We just want to give kids a better understanding of what all the shouting is about. We also want to hear from kids affected by these disputes."
The controversy, stirred by a recent court case in Pennsylvania, centers on whether teaching intelligent design violates U.S. constitutional separation of church and state.
Syria accuses Israel of assassinating Arafat
Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:57 AM ET
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel on Saturday of assassinating former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the cause of whose death 14 months ago remains a mystery.
"Of the many assassinations that Israel carried out in a methodical and organized way, the most dangerous thing that Israel did was the assassination of President Yasser Arafat," Assad told a gathering of Arab lawyers.
"This was under the world's gaze and its silence, and not one state dared to issue a statement or stance toward this, as though nothing happened."
Arafat died in Paris on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75 after being rushed from his West Bank compound to a French military hospital.
Israel has denied being responsible for the deterioration in Arafat's health before his death and has denied poisoning him.
Israeli officials said he had access to medical treatment, food, water and medication during the two years he spent in his battered compound in Ramallah, which was besieged by Israeli troops for months in 2002.
French doctors denied rumors that Arafat was poisoned but have refused to publish his medical reports, citing strict privacy laws.
Arafat aides had quoted doctors as saying he had a low count of platelets, which help the blood to clot. They later said he had gone into a coma, suffered a brain hemorrhage and lost the use of his vital organs one by one. But no definitive cause of death was announced.
Rove tells Republicans to run on Bush's record
Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:48 PM ET
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House political adviser Karl Rove on Friday said Democratic critics of the Iraq war were wrong and Republicans should highlight the issue in November's congressional elections.
Most polls show majorities of Americans have lost confidence in President George W. Bush's handling of the war. But Rove, still under the threat of indictment in a CIA-leak probe, said Republicans should emphasize Bush's record on security, the economy and the courts during the November campaign.
"We need a commander in chief and a Congress who understand the nature of the threat and the gravity of the moment America finds itself in," Rove told a meeting of the Republican National Committee in a rare public appearance.
"President Bush and the Republican Party do. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many Democrats," he said.
Rove, Bush's top political guru, also capitalized on the party's traditional advantage on national security issues to help Republicans sweep to victories in elections in 2002 and 2004, citing new dangers after the September 11 attacks.
This year Rove and Republicans have grown nervous about their prospects in November amid public doubts about the Iraq war and corruption scandals involving prominent party members, including former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Rove himself remains under threat of indictment in an investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA agent whose husband is a prominent Iraq-war critic.
Smithfield N.C.- An Iraq war veteran who pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the death of his 2 year old son was ordered to pay for the funeral but spared from prison. Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of almost 2 years in prison for William C. Ullom, but Judge William C. Gore Jr. said Thursday that too much time had passed since Christian Norris was violently shaken in 2002. "Some people will look at your defendant as a baby killer, others will say he is the authentic American hero", the judge said. "At this point, this is far removed from the act,,,,it appears to ot be in the interest of justice to put him in prison."
Clinton-Era Coverup on Cisneros Is Alleged
Special Counsel Ends 10-Year Probe
By Dan Eggen and Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 20, 2006; Page A01
More than a decade and $21 million after it began, the final and longest-running independent counsel investigation in U.S. history ended yesterday with allegations from the prosecutor that "a coverup at high levels of our government" prevented him from bringing further charges in the case of Henry G. Cisneros, former secretary of housing and urban development.
In a 474-page report, independent counsel David M. Barrett conceded that he was "not able to say with certainty whether any criminal laws were broken" by government officials in his inquiry of possible tax violations by Cisneros. But he alleged that officials in the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service "resisted our efforts to investigate" the possibilities.
Henry Cisneros, right, with President Bill Clinton, was indicted on 18 felony charges but pleaded guilty in 1999 to a single misdemeanor of making false statements. Clinton eventually pardoned him. (By J. Scott Applewhite -- Associated Press)
The report itself does not appear to include clear evidence of obstruction, however. Many officials named in the investigation angrily denied Barrett's accusations in written rebuttals attached to the document.
"Mr. Barrett conjured up a far-fetched theory of a wide-reaching government conspiracy to justify prolonging his tenure for another six years," wrote Susan J. Park, a trial lawyer in the Justice Department's public integrity section. "He has nothing to show for his efforts. If Mr. Barrett is serious about exploring the issue of integrity, he should examine his own."
The investigation began in May 1995 after Cisneros's former mistress, Linda Medlar, accused him of lying to the FBI about money he gave her. Cisneros was eventually indicted on 18 felony charges but pleaded guilty in 1999 to a single misdemeanor of making false statements. He paid a $10,000 fine and was later pardoned by outgoing president Bill Clinton in January 2001.
Cheney says domestic surveillance vital
NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday defended the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, saying it is an essential tool in monitoring al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
Cheney speaks to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York City.
By Spencer Platt, Getty Images
But Cheney stressed that the program was limited and conducted in a way that safeguarded civil liberties.
"A spirit of debate is now underway, and our message to the American people is clear and straightforward: These actions are within the president's authority and responsibility under the Constitution and laws, and these actions are vital to our security," Cheney said at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
Officials see no indication of impending terror attack
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has no plans to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden saying al-Qaeda is planning attacks, counterterrorism officials said Thursday.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Justice Department to turn over a database of search terms as part of a government probe of online pornography but Google rejected the demand as overreaching by the government.
In a Wednesday filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the Justice Department demanded that Google provide all queries entered on the company's Web search system between June 1 and July 31 of last year.
The Justice Department includes a request for Google to produce a random sample of one million Web addresses, known as URLs.
The data request is part of a broader government effort to track the effectiveness of a 1998 law, the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, which penalizes Web site operators who allow children to view pornography, the filing said.
A 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Ashcroft vs ACLU, upheld an injunction that blocked the government from enforcing the law and the Justice Department is seeking evidence from Google and others as part of an appeal of this injunction.
The motion by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez vs. Google details the negotiations between the government and Google's lawyers, who have resisted the request as overreaching, burdensome and a violation of trade secrets.
"Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches," Nicole Wong, Google's associate general counsel, said in a statement. "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously."
Maker of Frisbee, Hula Hoop sold to Hong Kong distributor
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wham-O, the maker of vintage toys like the Frisbee, Slip'N Slide and Hula Hoop, has been sold to a Hong Kong distributor that's trying to build a one-stop shop for outdoor fun.
Kids demonstrate Hula Hoop techniques on Art Linkletter's House Party show in 1958.
AP file
Financial terms weren't disclosed, but Cornerstone Overseas Investment is paying less than the $80 million price that Wham-O's previous owners, the Charterhouse Group, sought when it put the toymaker on the sales block in 2004, said James Rybakoff, an investment banker representing Cornerstone.
The deal closed last week, but wasn't announced until Thursday.
Charterhouse paid $20 million to acquire Wham-O in 1997 and hired new management to revive a venerable toy line that had been neglected during the three years the company was owned by industry giant Mattel.
Purported bin Laden tape talks of attacks, truce
CAIRO (AP) — Al-Jazeera on Thursday broadcast portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying al-Qaeda is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
The voice on the tape said heightened security in the United States is not the reason there have been no attacks there since the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings.
Instead, the reason is "because there are operations that need preparations," he said. (Related video: More on the tape)
"The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures. But the operations are happening in Baghdad and you will see them here at home the minute they are through (with preparations), with God's permission," he said.
"Based on what I have said, it is better not to fight the Muslims on their land," he said. "We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term ... so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan. ... There is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war."
The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by Al-Jazeera.
There was no immediate confirmation of the tape's authenticity, although the voice resembled that of bin Laden's in previous messages.
It has been more than a year since the last confirmed message from bin Laden — the longest period without a video or audiotape from the al-Qaeda leader. The last audiotape purported to be from bin Laden was broadcast in December 2004 by Al-Jazeera. In that recording, he endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of Iraqi elections.
Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief Ahmed al-Sheik would not comment on when or where the tape was received. He said the full tape was 10 minutes long. The station aired four excerpts with what it "considered newsworthy," he said, but would not say what was on the remainder.
Al-Sheik said the tape seemed to have been made "recently" but would not saw what led him to that conclusion.
Jan 17, 3:34 AM EST
Court Sides With Heir to Looted Nazi Art
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Maria Altmann fondly remembers her family's five precious Gustav Klimt paintings - as well as the bitter series of events that took them away.
As a newlywed in Austria, Altmann was forced to watch as the Nazis seized power in 1938 and then stole the possessions of her wealthy Jewish family.
She and her husband - who had been detained in the Dachau concentration camp - eventually escaped to safety in America.
"My husband was in the concentration camp and everything was taken - but material values at the time didn't matter one bit. It was only after that it did matter."
Altmann, now 89, celebrated news Monday that an Austrian arbitration court had determined that the country is legally obligated to give her family back the paintings.
The Klimt paintings have been estimated to be worth at least $150 million and are considered national treasures by Austria.
"I tell you, frankly, I had a very good feeling the last few days. I had a very positive feeling, thinking things will go all right," said Altmann, reached by telephone at her home in Los Angeles. "I'm thrilled that it came to this end."
Though the court's ruling is nonbinding, both parties have previously said they will abide by it, and Austria's government is expected to give up the works of art that have been displayed for decades in Vienna's ornate Belvedere Castle.
Altmann's attorney, E. Randol Schoenberg, said it was too early to say exactly what would happen to the paintings in light of the court's ruling. He said Altmann has four siblings - two in Vancouver, British Columbia, one in Montreal and one in Alamo, Calif. - who are also heirs with claims to the artwork.
"We're going to see how things play out now. I don't exactly know what the next step is," he said. "They're going to have to decide that collectively and they haven't made that decision yet because it's a little too early."
The case stemmed from a 1998 Austrian law that required federal museums to review their holdings for any works seized by the Nazis and determine whether they were obtained without remuneration.
A formal announcement of the court decision, and Austrian government reaction, were expected Tuesday. The paintings' return would represent the costliest concession since Austria began returning valuable art objects looted by the Nazis.
One of the disputed paintings - the oil and gold-encrusted 1907 portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" - is considered priceless. Altmann is the niece of Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925. Her family commissioned the five works.
Lawyers for the two sides have fought since 1998 over rights to the famed portrait and four other paintings - a lesser-known Bloch-Bauer portrait as well as "Apfelbaum" ("Apple Tree"), "Buchenwald/Birkenwald ("Beech Forest/Birch Forest) and "Haeuser in Unterach am Attersee" (Houses in Unterach on Attersee Lake").
The two sides began mediation in March, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that Altmann, a retired Beverly Hills clothing boutique operator, could sue the Austrian government.
Jane Kallir, co-director of New York City's Galerie St. Etienne, which introduced Klimt to the United States in 1959, calls the 1907 portrait "literally priceless." Stylistically similar to Klimt's world-renowned "The Kiss," the painting is replicated on T-shirts, cups and other souvenirs.
Increased Reserve, Re-up, and Career Bonuses Announced for 2006
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Huge Bonuses for 2006
With the signing of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act, prior-service and active duty military servicemembers may be eligible for the following new or increased bonuses:
A $20,000 bonus for prior-service members who affiliate with the reserve.
A $10,000 bonus for those who join the reserve officer corps.
A $2,500 bonus for those who agree to transfer from one service to another.
An increase to $90,000 in the maximum Selective Re-enlistment Bonus for servicemembers (active duty and reserve) with critical skills.
A $1,000 finders fee for soldiers who refer a person who enlists and completes training in the Army, Army Reserve or National Guard.
A $5,000 signing bonus for ROTC Nursing Students.
The 2006 NDAA authorizes these increases, however it is still up to the specific services to determine how and when to implement them. Military.com will continue to update this information and implementation plans as they become available.
General Asserts Right On Self-Incrimination In Iraq Abuse Cases
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 12, 2006; Page A01
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, a central figure in the U.S. detainee-abuse scandal, this week invoked his right not to incriminate himself in court-martial proceedings against two soldiers accused of using dogs to intimidate captives at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to lawyers involved in the case.
The move by Miller -- who once supervised the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and helped set up operations at Abu Ghraib -- is the first time the general has given an indication that he might have information that could implicate him in wrongdoing, according to military lawyers.
Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller headed prison facilities in Cuba and helped set up Abu Ghraib in Iraq. (By John Moore -- Associated Press)
Harvey Volzer, an attorney for one of the dog handlers, has been seeking to question Miller to determine whether Miller ordered the use of military working dogs to frighten detainees during interrogations at Abu Ghraib. Volzer has argued that the dog handlers were following orders when the animals were used against detainees.
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 2210
WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.
But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him under surveillance.
Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words “by Border Protection” and carrying the official Homeland Security seal.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Military medical advances are keeping more soldiers alive in the Iraq War but also creating a growing pool of badly wounded veterans who will need expensive, long-term medical care, the U.S. secretary of Veteran Affairs said on Friday.
"We have cut fatalities a great deal and as a result of that we have people who are now seriously wounded who in previous wars would have been dead," Secretary Jim Nicholson in a visit with wounded soldiers at San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center.
"We need to provide and continue to provide these people with world class health care and we need to be there when they need it in the future."
More than 2,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and nearly 9,000 have been wounded, according to the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A report by a research arm of Congress on Friday concluded the administration's justification for eavesdropping authorized by President George W. Bush conflicts with existing law, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The Congressional Research Services report, the first nonpartisan findings on the program to date, rejects key assertions made by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order the eavesdropping into telephone calls and e-mails, the paper wrote.
The 44-page CRS report said that Bush likely cannot claim the broad presidential powers he has relied upon as authority to order the secret monitoring of phone calls made by U.S. citizens since the fall of 2001.
A 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, forbids domestic spying on U.S. citizens without the approval of a special court. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to intercept communications without court approval.
Critics of the administration warn that civil liberties could be jeopardized by government eavesdropping practices that avoid judicial oversight.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
NBC changes official transcript of Andrea Mitchell interview, deletes reference to Bush possibly wiretapping CNN's Christane Amanpour
by John in DC - 1/04/2006 04:29:00 PM
Well this is getting interesting. NBC just delete two paragraphs from its Andrea Mitchell interview, the paragraphs that talked about whether Bush was wiretapping ace CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour (kudos to Atrios for spotting this).
Here's what the NBC "official" transcript used to say (I copied this text from NBC's own page only 2 hours ago):
Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?
Risen: No, I don't. It's not clear to me. That's one of the questions we'll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don't know the answer to that
Mitchell: You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?
Risen: No, no I hadn't heard that.
Here's what it says now:
Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?
Risen: No, I don't. It's not clear to me. That's one of the questions we'll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don't know the answer to that
Mitchell: You are very, very tough on the CIA and the administration in general in both the war on terror and the run up to the war and the war itself Â? the post-war operation. Let's talk about the war on terror. Why do you think they missed so many signals and what do you think caused the CIA to have this sort of break down as you describe it?
Risen: I think that, you know, to me, the greater break down was really on Iraq. It's very difficult to have known ahead of time about these 19 hijackers. They were, you know, probably lucky that they got through and they did something that no one really assumed anybody would ever do. And I think that made 9/11 a lot like Pearl Harbor. That even when you see all the clues in front of you that it's very difficult to put it together.
Since when is NBC in the business of deleting entire paragraphs from their official transcripts? What's going on here?
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - An international bus line launched tours of devastated sections of New Orleans on Wednesday, amid controversy over whether so-called disaster tourism would help, hurt or humiliate the hurricane-ravaged city.
Two sold-out Gray Line tour busses slowly prowled along the city's broken levees, through its rubble-strewn streets and past the heavily damaged Superdome where desperate residents took shelter when Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29 and most of the city flooded in the aftermath.
Plans for the "Hurricane Katrina - America's Worst Catastrophe" tour, at $35 per person, prompted debate over whether it is appropriate or exploitative to turn devastation into a tourist attraction.
Gray Line, which runs more than 150 tours around the world, plans to donate $3 of each New Orleans ticket to charity. The three-hour tour will run once a day, Wednesday through Sunday.
Bush to Give Up $6,000 In Abramoff Contributions
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page A01
Republican Party officials said yesterday that President Bush will give up $6,000 in campaign contributions connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, joining an expansive list of politicians who have shed more than half a million dollars in tainted campaign cash.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea in a U.S. corruption probe sent shock waves across Washington on Wednesday as top Republicans sought to avoid being tainted by the scandal and Democrats pressed the issue.
President George W. Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and House Majority Leader Roy Blunt were among Republicans who donated to charities the campaign contributions they had received from Abramoff. Democrats said the issue would loom large in November's congressional elections.
Others said the investigation would bring needed discipline to a lobbying industry that has enjoyed a freewheeling culture and record earnings.
"A lot of the relationships around lobbying have been awfully loose and enforcement of existing laws has been fairly lax," said Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, a lobbying-industry trade group.
The Republican National Committee said Bush will return $6,000 that Abramoff, his wife and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe, an Abramoff client, gave to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. But the campaign doesn't plan to return more than $100,000 that Abramoff raised from friends and associates, spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.
Jack Abramoff used his Republican contacts to create an extensive pay-to-play system with Republican members of Congress where political money was used for policy outcomes
Abramoff Expected to Plead Guilty to 3 Felony Charges
By William Branigin and Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 3, 2006; 10:39 AM
Former high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff is expected to plead guilty today to three felony charges in a Washington courtroom, a Justice Department spokesman said.
The plea deal opens the prospect that Abramoff could provide testimony about members of Congress and congressional staffers in a wide-ranging political corruption investigation focused on his lobbying activities.
U.S. Allies Reducing Troop Levels in Iraq
Associated Press | December 27, 2005
WARSAW, Poland - The U.S. coalition in Iraq saw its size dwindle Tuesday as Ukraine and Bulgaria said all of their troops had left the country while Poland said it would remain, but reduce its number of troops by 600 next year.
The Polish government's decision, which must be approved by President Lech Kaczynski, would be a boost for U.S. President George W. Bush, who has faced withering criticism at home and abroad over his handling of the Iraq war and the growing insurgency there.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said keeping troops there longer would support "the growing democratization of life" in Iraq after the country's constitutional referendum and parliamentary elections.
"We would like to gradually carry the pullout of Polish troops from Iraq, not in an abrupt way, but gradually," he told reporters in Warsaw. "Stabilization is taking place. The high turnout in the October referendum and a still higher turnout in the elections Dec. 15 - all this suggests that within two or three months there will be a government of national unity in place created by all the political forces in Iraq."
Marcinkiewicz conceded it was "a very difficult decision." The deployment, which has cost the lives of 17 Polish soldiers, is unpopular with the public.
Kaczynski, who took office last week, has until the end of the month to decide. As the armed forces' commander in chief, the president approves overseas military deployments.
His approval, however, was considered largely a formality due to his closeness to Marcinkiewicz' government. Kaczynski is a leading member of the prime minister's conservative party, Law and Justice, while the party's chairman is his twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Ukraine and Bulgaria, which had troops serving in Iraq under Polish command, both announced Tuesday that they had completed the withdrawal of their forces from Iraq.
Poland's own troop levels would be cut to 900 from about 1,500 in March, the deputy defense minister, Gen. Stanislaw Koziej, said. The soldiers will focus on advising and training Iraqi security forces, he added.
Marcinkiewicz said the decision also came upon appeals from U.S. leaders, and considering the United Nations Security Council's extension last summer of its mission in Iraq.
Ukraine's defense ministry said Tuesday that its last troops had left Iraq, fulfilling a long-planned withdrawal pledged by President Viktor Yushchenko.
A column of eight armored personnel carriers and 44 soldiers had left the country and arrived in Kuwait, the statement said. Ukraine had kept 867 soldiers in Iraq after partial pullouts earlier this year. By Friday, all are due back in Ukraine, where the deployment has been unpopular.
Posted at 08:30 AM ET, 12/15/2005
The American Battlefield
The Pentagon now says that it has ordered a "review" of the collection of information about U.S. citizens, particularly those who pose no plausible terrorist threat, after my NBC Nightly News piece ran Tuesday and my blog yesterday revealed some of the contents of a Pentagon database compiling "suspicious incidents."
Shocked that there is gambling going on in the casino, here's my prediction of what the Pentagon "review" will find:
They will conclude that information collected on certain incidents fell within Pentagon guidelines for "force protection."
They will find that no information naming U.S. persons was disseminated outside of valid law enforcement or intelligence channels.
They will find that perhaps over-zealous anti-terrorism and law enforcement personnel retained information beyond a 90 day limit set to determine if real threats exist.
They will order a further review of the practices of the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) in compiling and disseminating databases of incidents deemed non-threatening.
In other words, the Pentagon will not conclude that the military shouldn't spy on peace groups and anti-war protestors.
The problem here is that the United States is seen as another battlefield in the war on terrorism. We, ladies and gentleman, are the potential enemy.
Our Winner: A Pistol-Packing Hottie
By Al Kamen
Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A19
And now, the 2005 Loop Lawmaker of the Year: Rep. Jean "Mean Jean" Schmidt (R-Ohio). Schmidt narrowly edged former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). Cunningham, who had been seen as a slam-dunk winner. Unfortunately, he was ruled ineligible after having resigned from the House for personal reasons and a bribery indictment.
Schmidt gives herself an "A-minus" for her work these past few months. When asked by the Enquirer if that speech might have been a low point, she said: "I'm not sure I've had any. The first 100 days have been rewarding, challenging, invigorating and exciting."
Her stunning attack on Murtha catapulted her to national fame, three marriage proposals and lots of requests for dates. "It's amazing. . . . They think I'm a hottie," said Schmidt, 54 -- and married.
And in October, Schmidt easily passed a tough firearms class -- written and target shooting -- to get a license to carry a concealed weapon. She used her new Bersa .380 ACP semiautomatic handgun -- a Sweetest Day gift from her husband -- in the test. It's similar to James Bond 's famous Walther PPK.
She says she won't bring it to work here, but she wouldn't tell the Enquirer whether she'll carry it in Ohio. " 'You never know whether Schmidt's carrying or not,' she said with a chuckle."
Truly an A-plus effort.
Heating aid slashed; N.E. faces burden
US spending was tied to Alaska drilling
By Susan Milligan and Rick Klein, Globe Staff | December 23, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The federal program to help poor families heat their homes got cut to less than half the amount originally promised by Congress, because of a flurry of late-night maneuvers on Wednesday that could leave tens of thousands of New England families struggling with skyrocketing heating bills this winter.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Congress authorized $5.1 billion earlier this year for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, which provides grants to needy residents to ease heating and cooling costs. But in last-minute deals to complete spending bills in the waning hours of the Senate's 2005 session, the program was slashed to $2.16 billion for the 2006 fiscal year that began in October -- $20 million less than the amount allocated for the 2005 fiscal year and far less than the minimum $4.5 billion energy assistance officials say they need to keep poor families warm this winter.
Bush's false choices
By Ellen Goodman | December 23, 2005
SO IT COMES DOWN to September 11, 2001. Again. The president has drawn a great dividing line through the country, separating his supporters from his critics. Again.
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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts This time, those who see a presidency run amok are not just labeled ''defeatists." They are considered amnesiacs.
This time, those who oppose torture are diagnosed with short-term memory loss. Those who are outraged at domestic snooping are people who have forgotten to be afraid.
The president's ''humble" speech from the Oval Office contained the inevitable line: ''September the 11th, 2001, required us to take every emerging threat to our country seriously." His decidedly unhumble wrestling with the media on the subject of domestic spying had no less than 10 references to ''this new threat [that] required us to think and act differently."
Meanwhile, what was Vice President Cheney's response when asked if he was concerned that 100 people had died in US custody? What actually worried him was that ''as we get farther and farther away from 9/11 . . . there seems to be less concern about doing what's necessary in order to defend the country."
It's as if the administration were waving a sampler embroidered with that old saying: If you are keeping your head while all about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't know the seriousness of the situation.
We have been handed yet another in an endless series of false choices. Those who don't blindly trust the president are dismissed as amnesia victims. Americans who don't connect the dots from 9/11 to Iraq or spying or torture are cast as actors living in a foolish, fearless, fantasy world. Indeed, 9/11 was the day the president became the commander in chief. The words he often repeats were spoken to him by a rescue worker at the World Trade Center: ''Whatever it takes."
If there are Americans who have actually forgotten the attacks in all their searing horror, I don't know any. I remember the weeks when I would wake up and reach for the remote to see if we'd caught Osama. When did that expectation fade? I remember the just pursuit of Al Qaeda into its safety zone, Afghanistan. And the satisfaction in overthrowing the Taliban.
But gradually, 9/11 became the all-purpose excuse for . . . whatever it takes. The war in Iraq was conflated with the war on terror, and preemptive strikes were launched against weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. In ''The Assassin's Gate," George Packer, a liberal hawk, tries to assess why the United States really did invade Iraq. ''It still isn't possible to be sure -- and this remains the most remarkable thing about the Iraq War," he writes. ''Iraq is the Rashomon of wars" and all he can conclude is that it ''has something to do with September 11."
As recently as last February, 47 percent of Americans still believed that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. Does the White House accuse its supporters of false memory?
And what of the president himself? In his news conference, he angrily attacked those who leaked the spy story. He asked reporters to guess what happened the last time there was a similar security leak. Then he stumbled over the answer, ''Saddam . . . Osama bin Laden changed his behavior." Memory loss?
Those who criticize the commander in chief wonder if he is the one who's forgotten 9/11. Has he forgotten when the country was united? Has he forgotten when the world was on our side? Has he forgotten that we were the good guys?
As for fear? My generation grew up under the threat of a mushroom cloud. There is an old theatrical adage that when there's a gun on stage in the first act, it will go off by the third act. We have no false sense of security in this dangerous world. Nor do we embrace the equally false belief that curtailing liberty automatically makes us safer. We have seen how the promise of protection becomes a protection racket.
''Whatever it takes" does not mean ''whatever the president says it takes." It does not mean becoming our own worst enemies. It does not mean approving torture or domestic spying. And it most certainly does not mean watching silently as a commander in chief takes on the uniform of a generalissimo.
Who owns September 11? The White House has built its own memorial and raised a stiff price of admission. It only allows in those who agree with the president. But the memory and meaning of 9/11 do not belong to any partisan. It's common ground waiting to be recaptured. Whatever it takes.
MILAN (Reuters) - A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003, Prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday.
Milan magistrates suspect a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured.
Casualties in Iraq
The Human Cost of Occupation
Edited by Michael Ewens :: Contact American Military Casualties in Iraq
Date Total In Combat
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 2160 1740
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (the list) 2023 1631
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 1693 1434
Since Handover (6/29/04): 1294 1106
Since Election (1/31/05): 722 630
American Wounded Official Estimated
Total Wounded: 15881 15000 - 48100
Latest Fatality December 20th, 2005
Page last updated 12/22/05 3:17 pm EDT
US Military Deaths by Month
Put a Casualty Counter on Your Website
Others
Other Coalition Troops 199
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan 246
Iraqi Body Count IBC
American Civilian Casualties
Sources: DoD, CentCom, MNF, and iCasualties.org
Daily DoD Casualty Release
The Faces The List Sources American Casualties Iraqi Casualties Contact
.::A Running Log of the Wounded::.
UPI reports :
As many as 1 of every 10 soldiers from the war on terror evacuated to the Army's biggest hospital in Europe was sent there for mental problems.
Between 8 and 10 percent of nearly 12,000 soldiers from the war on terror, mostly from Iraq, treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany had "psychiatric or behavioral health issues," according to the commander of the hospital, Col. Rhonda Cornum.
That means about 1,000 soldiers were evacuated for mental problems.
The hospital has treated 11,754 soldiers from the war on terror, with 9,651 from Iraq and the rest from Afghanistan, according to data released by the hospital.
Also see The Missing Wounded.
American Count
Dates and sources of Americans killed in Iraq since 5/1/03 are documented in this file. Admittedly the file is incomplete, for the Department of Defense does not maintain old records. All data was compiled from http://www.defenselink.mil. If something is amiss in the data collection, please contact Michael Ewens.
Iraqi Civilian Count
We have not set up a database for these numbers, rather we direct you Iraq Body Count.
CIVILIAN DEATHS
Latest updates:
Dec 15: Guard near polling station, Mosul
Dec 15: One by mortar shell, Tal Afar
Dec 15: Two police at polling station, Kirkuk
Dec 12: 2-4 in clashes in Ghazaliyah, Baghdad
Dec 15: One by roadside bomb in Baquba
Dec 14: Child by roadside bomb in Samarra
Dec 14: Two police by roadside bomb in Mosul
Dec 13: Trade Ministry employee in Baiji
Dec 12: Policeman in Ameriyah, Baghdad
Dec 12: Police sergeant shot dead in Baghdad
Dec 12: 2 shot dead, Raghba Khatoon, Baghdad
Dec 13: Sunni politician shot dead in Ramadi
Dec 11-12: 4 men found shot dead, Dora, Baghdad
Dec 12: 2-3 by minibus bomb, Karkh, Baghdad
Dec 12: Two shot dead in Dora, Baghdad
Dec 12: Woman by roadside bomb in Muqdadiyah
Dec 11: Election worker shot dead in Mosul
Dec 11: Two at Turkmen Front HQ, Mosul
Dec 10: Election worker shot dead in Mosul
Dec 09: Nine bodies found bound, shot, nr. Musayyib
Dec 10: Two by car bomb, Mosul
Dec 09: 2 brothers shot dead in Buhriz
Dec 09: Policeman and civilian by bomb,south Baghdad
Dec 09: Islamic Party member near Balad
Dec 09: Father and son, Al-Imam, south of Baghdad
Dec 09: Two in clashes in Jamiaa, western Baghdad
Dec 09: Two by roadside bomb, Saydiyah, Baghdad
Dec 08: 29-33, Al-Nahda bus station, Baghdad
Dec 07: Three found bound, shot dead outside Falluja
Dec 07: Three police guards at Kirkuk hospital
Dec 06: Police general, companion, Dora, Baghdad
Dec 06: Policewoman in Amiriyah, Baghdad
Dec 06: One by bomb near restaurant, south Baghdad
Dec 06: Bodyguard of al-Jaafari, Al-Khalis
Dec 06: 40-43 by suicide bombers at Baghdad police academy
Dec 06: 2 Islamic Union members in Zakho
British Medical Journal Lancet estimates 100,000 civilians killed.
Sources and Links
Web page listing names of those killed since 5/1/03
Central Command Department of Defense Profiles of Americans Who Have Died
BBC News Coalition Casualty Count The Washington Post
Iraq Body Count Fox News Listing by month
Search Casualties by Name Cost of War
Reproduction of material from any original Antiwar.com pages
without written permission is strictly prohibited.
Copyright 2005 Antiwar.com
Judge resigns to protest Bush spying program
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has resigned from a special court set up to oversee government surveillance, apparently in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program on people with suspected terrorist ties.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson would not comment Wednesday on his resignation, but The Washington Post reported that it stemmed from deep concern that the surveillance program Bush authorized was legally questionable and may have tainted the work of the court. The Post quoted two associates of the judge.
An aide to Robertson said the resignation letter submitted to Chief Justice John Roberts was not being released. Robertson did not step down from his district judgeship in Washington.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan would not comment on Robertson's reported resignation or the reasons cited for his departure. "Judge Robertson did not comment on the matter and I don't see any reason why we need to," McClellan said.
President George W. Bush, 2004:
"[T]here are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any
time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it
requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed,
by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important
for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act,
constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what
is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the
Constitution."
Bush bypassed compliant court on wiretapping
But many lawyers familiar with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as the group of judges who secretly authorize national security wiretaps is known, challenged Gonzales's description of the court procedures as cumbersome. Records showed that the court had rejected none of more than 11,000 requests for warrants from 1979 through 2001. Since then, it has rejected just four of more than 5,200 applications.Congress set up the special electronic surveillance court in 1978 in response to revelations that former President Richard M. Nixon had used the FBI to spy on his domestic enemies. The law required the government to obtain a warrant from the court before it could wiretap a phone line.
New Overnight: Men Fall Off 410 Overpass During Fight
LAST UPDATE: 12/8/2005 4:13:42 AM
Posted By: Laura Berryhill
This story is available on your cell phone at mobile.woai.com.
Two men fell off an overpass early Thursday, after they started fighting right in the middle of Loop 410.
This happened around 12:30 a.m. on 410 at Wetmore, on the north side.
Police say the men stopped their truck on the freeway, got out, and started throwing punches.
After the men fell off the overpass, one landed on top of the other -- then walked away. The other man suffered broken bones and is currently at University Hospital in undetermined condition. No word yet on whether any charges will be filed.
Police: Officer Zaps Partner After Soda Dispute
POSTED: 6:19 am CST December 8, 2005
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HAMTRAMCK, Mich. -- Authorities said a police officer in Michigan used a Taser stun gun on his partner during an argument about stopping for a soft drink.
The suspect was fired after the Nov. 3 incident and is charged with assault.
Ronald Dupuis, 32, could get up to 93 days in jail if convicted.
Authorities said Dupuis asked partner Prema Graham to stop at a store for a soft drink, but she refused and instead kept driving back to headquarters.
Authorities said the partners struggled over the steering wheel, and Dupuis hit Graham's leg with his department-issued Taser gun. She wasn't seriously hurt.
Kissinger: U.S. Should Stay in Iraq for Now
By PEGGY HARRIS
Associated Press Writer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Wednesday that Republicans and Democrats should forge bipartisan support for President Bush to bring stability to Iraq instead of arguing over the war.
"The fundamental fact is we cannot afford to leave that area under conditions that leave chaos," Kissinger told hundreds of business people at an annual meeting of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce.
Terrorists cannot be disabled through traditional diplomatic means, said Kissinger, who was secretary of state and national security adviser under the administrations of Nixon and Ford. He retains substantial influence in foreign affairs, and continues to have close links to the Bush administration.
Kissinger, 82, urged compromise across political party lines and international boundaries.
As the war continues, President Bush's ratings have fallen. On Wednesday, Bush again defended his war policy, saying that while the violence has been unrelenting, Iraq is making steady progress. Democrats criticize the White House as having no clear plan for bringing American troops home.
Ann Coulter Cuts University Speech Short
By SHELLEY K. WONG
Associated Press Writer
STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter cut short a speech at the University of Connecticut amid boos and jeers, and decided to hold a question-and-answer session instead.
"I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am," Coulter told the crowd of 2,600 Wednesday.
Before cutting off her speech after about 15 minutes, Coulter called Bill Clinton an "executive buffoon" who won the presidency only because Ross Perot took 19 percent of the vote.
Coulter's appearance prompted protests from several student groups. About 100 people rallied outside the auditorium where she spoke, saying she spread a message of intolerance
"We encourage diverse opinion at UConn, but this is blatant hate speech," said Eric Knudsen, a 19-year-old sophomore journalism and social welfare major who heads campus group Students Against Hate.
It wasn't the first time Coulter has had trouble at a university speech. In October 2004, two men ran onstage and threw custard pies as she was giving a speech at the University of Arizona.
LIVERPOOL, England/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Liverpool and New York prepared to honor pop icon John Lennon on Thursday with floral and musical tributes and a candle lit vigil close to where he was shot dead 25 years ago.
In a ceremony in the center of the northern English city where Lennon was born and raised, fans and officials will create a shrine beneath a statue of the legendary Beatle, gunned down in New York by a fan in the presence of his wife Yoko Ono.
Later in the day, the city holds a memorial service for the man who created some of the best-known tunes in pop and is considered one of the most influential songwriters of all time.
In New York, hundreds of mourners are expected to gather at the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park and light candles at 10:50 p.m. EST (0350 GMT Friday), the time Lennon was shot.
Friends in Liverpool remembered Lennon with fondness, but also felt he distanced himself from them after meeting Ono, the woman who many fans blame for breaking up the Beatles in 1970.
"You couldn't approach John at the end, and looking back it was from the moment ... he met Yoko Ono," said former friend and fellow musician Billy Kinsley, who knew Beatles Lennon and Paul McCartney in the 1960s.
"It was sad. He was my hero from when I was a 15-year-old kid, and he was always approachable, always said hello, and had a little chat. But after he met Yoko, that went out the window completely."
His assessment of Lennon and the Beatles as musicians, however, has never changed.
"It really did make a big impression on me seeing the Beatles on that first night at the Cavern, because it just changed my outlook," he told Reuters in a makeshift recording studio in his garden, recalling the night in February 1962.
"I thought 'My God, I have just seen the best thing that I could ever see', and since then it's been downhill because I've never seen anything as good as the Beatles."
MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. air marshals on Wednesday shot and killed an American Airlines passenger who claimed to be carrying a bomb in his backpack and ran off a plane at Miami International Airport after being confronted.
Federal officials said the 44-year-old American made threats and indicated he had a bomb in his bag as he was boarding a flight to Orlando in central Florida.
It was the first time an airplane passenger was shot by air marshals since the U.S. marshals program was beefed up after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Witnesses said the man might have been mentally ill.
The man, who arrived in Miami from Quito, Ecuador, was identified as Florida resident Rigoberto Alpizar.
Authorities said he was challenged by two air marshals on board the Orlando-bound plane, and shot on the passenger gangway after running off the aircraft. He ignored demands to put his bag on the ground and instead reached into it, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said.
"Shots were fired as the team attempted to subdue the subject," the spokesman said.
The shooting triggered a scramble by air marshals to guard airports across the United States against possible attacks.
But Jim Bauer, special agent in charge of the federal air marshals' Miami office, said investigators found no immediate evidence of a link to terrorism and no sign of a bomb.
A woman who said she was a witness told NBC television's Miami affiliate, WTVJ, that the man's wife had screamed "my husband, my husband," and said he had bipolar disorder and needed medication.
"Her husband ran through the aisle frantically. She ran after him and all of a sudden there were four or five shots," passenger Mary Gardner told the station by telephone.
Federal officials said they could not comment on the allegation that the suspect might have been mentally ill.
US planting stories in Iraqi newspapers
Articles by troops said to offer one-sided view
By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times | December 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the US military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the US mission in Iraq.
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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts The articles, written by US military ''information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to US military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of US and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents, and tout US-led efforts to rebuild the country.
While the articles are basically truthful, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the US or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the United States has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles -- with headlines such as ''Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism" -- since the effort began this year.
The operation is designed to mask any connection with the US military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.
The military's effort to disseminate propaganda in the Iraqi media is taking place even as US officials are vowing to promote democratic principles, political transparency, and freedom of speech to a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and corruption. It comes as the State Department is training Iraqi reporters in basic journalism skills and Western media ethics, including one workshop titled ''The Role of Press in a Democratic Society."
Two congressmen injured in Iraq
Monday, November 28, 2005; Posted: 12:33 a.m. EST (05:33 GMT)
A military vehicle carrying U.S. politicians overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport Saturday, injuring two congressmen, a fellow congressman traveling with them said.
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania, was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, was sent to a Baghdad hospital, said U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall. Marshall, a Georgia Democrat, was in the vehicle but was not hurt.
The politicians were riding in a box-like vehicle in a convoy. The convoy was taking up the middle of the road, a common practice used by the military to deter oncoming motorists. Shortly after dark, an oncoming truck refused to yield, Marshall said. (Watch Murphy describe what happened -- 2:49)
"Then all of a sudden brakes get slammed on. Then we hit something and go off the side of the road and tip over," Marshall said.
Marshall said that as the vehicle toppled over, he held onto Skelton, who has limited use of his arms due to childhood polio.
The delegation had traveled to Afghanistan for Thanksgiving with the troops and then on to Baghdad to meet with troops there.
Calls to Skelton and Murphy on Sunday were not immediately returned, but Marshall spokesman Doug Moore said both suffered minor injuries. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed the accident but declined to release further information.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of previously owned homes fell 2.7% in October as evidence builds the red-hot housing market of the past five years is cooling these days.
The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales of existing homes and condominiums declined 2.7% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.09 million units. The decline would have been an even larger 3.2% without a spurt in sales in areas where people displaced by the Gulf Coast hurricanes have moved.
Sales surged 83% in Baton Rouge; 32% in Mobile, Ala., and 14% in Houston. By contrast, sales were down 42% in New Orleans and 44% in Beaumont, Texas.
Even with the decline in sales, the median price of an existing home sold last month rose 16.6% to $218,000 compared to the median — or midpoint — price in October 2004.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Any European Union state that secretly hosted a CIA prison faces loss of its voting rights, and Washington should punish any violations that occurred, an EU commissioner said on Monday.
Franco Frattini, commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, said that under EU law, if reports of secret CIA jails were true, states would face "serious consequences, including the suspension of the right to vote in the Council".
Frattini told a news conference he would be obliged by EU treaties to recommend the suspension to the Council, which brings together ministers of the 25 member countries and is the bloc's main decision-making body.
The comments were his most explicit to date on the implications for any country found to have hosted a secret CIA facility for interrogating terrorism suspects.
A suspension of voting rights for a member country would take the EU into uncharted territory.
It would require the unanimous backing of all the other member states plus the approval of the European Parliament, said an EU source familiar with the bloc's workings.
"You can imagine how difficult it would be to get unanimity on that. It has never happened before," he said.
The Washington Post this month reported the existence of secret CIA jails in Eastern Europe. Campaign group Human Rights Watch named Poland, already an EU member, and Romania, which hopes to join in 2007, as the most likely hosts.
Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 27, 2005; A06
The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.
The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.
The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public.
"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview.
Wyden has since persuaded lawmakers to change the legislation, attached to the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill, to address some of his concerns, but he still believes hearings should be held. Among the changes was the elimination of a provision to let Defense Intelligence Agency officers hide the fact that they work for the government when they approach people who are possible sources of intelligence in the United States.
Modifications also were made in the provision allowing the FBI to share information with the Pentagon and CIA, requiring the approval of the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, for that to occur, and requiring the Pentagon to make reports to Congress on the subject. Wyden said the legislation "now strikes a much fairer balance by protecting critical rights for our country's citizens and advancing intelligence operations to meet our security needs."
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the data-sharing amendment would still give the Pentagon much greater access to the FBI's massive collection of data, including information on citizens not connected to terrorism or espionage.
The measure, she said, "removes one of the few existing privacy protections against the creation of secret dossiers on Americans by government intelligence agencies." She said the Pentagon's "intelligence agencies are quietly expanding their domestic presence without any public debate."
Lt. Col. Chris Conway, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said that the most senior Defense Department intelligence officials are aware of the sensitivities related to their expanded domestic activities. At the same time, he said, the Pentagon has to have the intelligence necessary to protect its facilities and personnel at home and abroad.
"In the age of terrorism," Conway said, "the U.S. military and its facilities are targets, and we have to be prepared within our authorities to defend them before something happens."
Among the steps already taken by the Pentagon that enhanced its domestic capabilities was the establishment after 9/11 of Northern Command, or Northcom, in Colorado Springs, to provide military forces to help in reacting to terrorist threats in the continental United States. Today, Northcom's intelligence centers in Colorado and Texas fuse reports from CIFA, the FBI and other U.S. agencies, and are staffed by 290 intelligence analysts. That is more than the roughly 200 analysts working for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and far more than those at the Department of Homeland Security.
In addition, each of the military services has begun its own post-9/11 collection of domestic intelligence, primarily aimed at gathering data on potential terrorist threats to bases and other military facilities at home and abroad. For example, Eagle Eyes is a program set up by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which "enlists the eyes and ears of Air Force members and citizens in the war on terror," according to the program's Web site.
The Marine Corps has expanded its domestic intelligence operations and developed internal policies in 2004 to govern oversight of the "collection, retention and dissemination of information concerning U.S. persons," according to a Marine Corps order approved on April 30, 2004.
The order recognizes that in the post-9/11 era, the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity will be "increasingly required to perform domestic missions," and as a result, "there will be increased instances whereby Marine intelligence activities may come across information regarding U.S. persons." Among domestic targets listed are people in the United States who it "is reasonably believed threaten the physical security of Defense Department employees, installations, operations or official visitors."
Perhaps the prime illustration of the Pentagon's intelligence growth is CIFA, which remains one of its least publicized intelligence agencies. Neither the size of its staff, said to be more than 1,000, nor its budget is public, said Conway, the Pentagon spokesman. The CIFA brochure says the agency's mission is to "transform" the way counterintelligence is done "fully utilizing 21st century tools and resources."
One CIFA activity, threat assessments, involves using "leading edge information technologies and data harvesting," according to a February 2004 Pentagon budget document. This involves "exploiting commercial data" with the help of outside contractors including White Oak Technologies Inc. of Silver Spring, and MZM Inc., a Washington-based research organization, according to the Pentagon document.
For CIFA, counterintelligence involves not just collecting data but also "conducting activities to protect DoD and the nation against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, assassinations, and terrorist activities," its brochure states.
CIFA's abilities would increase considerably under the proposal being reviewed by the White House, which was made by a presidential commission on intelligence chaired by retired appellate court judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.). The commission urged that CIFA be given authority to carry out domestic criminal investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States.
The Silberman-Robb panel found that because the separate military services concentrated on investigations within their areas, "no entity views non-service-specific and department-wide investigations as its primary responsibility." A 2003 Defense Department directive kept CIFA from engaging in law enforcement activities such as "the investigation, apprehension, or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of criminal offenses against the laws of the United States."
The commission's proposal would change that, giving CIFA "new counterespionage and law enforcement authorities," covering treason, espionage, foreign or terrorist sabotage, and even economic espionage. That step, the panel said, could be taken by presidential order and Pentagon directive without congressional approval.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the CIFA expansion "is being studied at the DoD [Defense Department] level," adding that intelligence director Negroponte would have a say in the matter. A Pentagon spokesman said, "The [CIFA] matter is before the Hill committees."
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a recent interview that CIFA has performed well in the past and today has no domestic intelligence collection activities. He was not aware of moves to enhance its authority.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has not had formal hearings on CIFA or other domestic intelligence programs, but its staff has been briefed on some of the steps the Pentagon has already taken. "If a member asks the chairman" -- Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) -- for hearings, "I am sure he would respond," said Bill Duhnke, the panel's staff director.
European investigator probes alleged CIA prison flights
PARIS (AP) — The head of a European probe into alleged secret CIA prisons in eastern Europe is investigating 31 suspected flights that landed in Europe and is trying to acquire past satellite images of sites in Romania and Poland, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday.
Investigator Dick Marty said there are "many hints ... that have to be investigated."
By Jacques Brinon, AP
Dick Marty, a Swiss senator leading the investigation for the Council of Europe, presented a first report on his work at a closed meeting of the human rights watchdog's legal affairs committee in Paris.
Marty said he had asked the Brussels-based Eurocontrol air safety organization to provide details of the 31 suspected flights, a list of which was given to him by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"I received from Human Rights Watch a list of 31 aircraft alleged to belong to entities with direct or indirect links to the CIA," Marty said in the report, which is to be made public next week. "It is claimed these were used by the CIA to transport prisoners."
A diplomat said Tuesday that Britain, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has agreed to write to the United States requesting clarification of news reports of secret prisons in Eastern Europe.
Several nations including Finland and the Netherlands asked Britain to write the letter during a EU foreign ministers' meeting Monday, the European diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
In an interview with the AP, Marty said there was still no direct proof that secret prisons existed anywhere in Europe, but that there were "many hints, such as suspicious moving patterns of aircraft, that have to be investigated."
Marty said he had asked the European Union's Satellite Center in Spain to look up and hand over satellite images of locations in Romania and Poland that were cited by Human Rights Watch as sites of possible CIA secret prisons.
"When we talk about 'prisons,' they don't necessarily have to be for many people, they could be cells for a very small group of people," he said.
Human Rights Watch identified the Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania and Poland's Szczytno-Szymany airport as likely sites for secret detention centers. The group says it based its conclusion on flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 that it had obtained.
Other airports that might have been used by CIA aircraft in some capacity are Palma de Majorca in Spain's Balearic Islands, Larnaca in Cyprus and Shannon in Ireland, Marty's report said.
Allegations that the CIA hid and interrogated key al-Qaeda suspects at Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe were first reported in The Washington Post on Nov. 2. The paper did not identify the countries involved. A day after the report appeared, Human Rights Watch said it had evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.
The parliamentary assembly of the Council appointed Marty two weeks ago to investigate the paper's claims. Marty said the Council had a "moral obligation" to investigate, but that the inquiry was not meant to spark anti-American feelings or question the U.S. fight against terrorism.
6,644 are still missing after Katrina; toll may rise
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
The whereabouts of 6,644 people reported missing after Hurricane Katrina have not been determined, raising the prospect that the death toll could be higher than the 1,306 recorded so far in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to two groups working with the federal government to account for victims.
US soldiers fatally shoot 3 civilians in car
Erratic movement near base is cited
By Bassem Mrque, Associated Press | November 22, 2005
BAGHDAD -- US soldiers fired on a civilian vehicle yesterday because they feared it might hold a suicide bomber, killing at least two adults and a child northeast of the capital, American and Iraqi officials said.
The troops fired on the car because it was moving erratically outside a US base in Baqubah, 35 miles from Baghdad, said Major Steven Warren, a US military spokesman. ''It was one of these regrettable, tragic incidents."
Dr. Ahmed Fouad at the city morgue and police officials gave a higher death toll, saying five people -- including three children -- were killed while driving home from a funeral.
Iraqi officials have long complained about American troops firing at civilian vehicles that appear suspicious.
GM to Slice 30,000 Jobs, Shut or Cut 12 Plants
No. 1 Automaker Struggles To Maintain Market Position
By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Page A01
General Motors Corp. said it will eliminate 30,000 jobs and close all or part of 12 facilities as the automaker confronts the biggest threat to its survival since the onslaught of Japanese rivals led to a vast overhaul in the early 1990s.
GM has made strides since then, improving vehicle quality and making plants more flexible and efficient. But GM's rivals have stepped up, too, placing the No. 1 automaker in the painful position of shrinking again and possibly losing its spot as the world's largest automaker to Toyota Motor Corp.
A worker walks down the assembly line at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Doraville, Ga. The company will eliminate 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close nine North American plants by 2008. (John Bazemore - AP)
Planned Closings Stun GM Employees
Twenty minutes before yesterday's announcement that General Motors Corp. would cut 30,000 jobs and shut down all or part of 12 facilities, Chris "Tiny" Sherwood heard that his beloved Lansing, Mich., plant would be among the ones closed
As part of the latest overhaul, GM will reduce its annual North American manufacturing capacity to 4.2 million vehicles by 2008, down from 6 million vehicles in 2002, a 30 percent reduction.
Yesterday's announcement adds 5,000 job cuts to the 25,000 the company promised in June, lowering GM's workforce to about 100,000 by the time the reductions are completed in 2008.
Cheney Again Assails Critics of War
Rejection of 'Revisionism' Comes as His Standing Drops in Polls
By Michael A. Fletcher and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Page A01
Vice President Cheney yesterday accused critics of engaging in "revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety" in the Iraq debate, in a major speech that reflected the uncompromising style that has made him a touchstone for many of the controversies shadowing President Bush.
In remarks before the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization where he once served as a research fellow and a trustee, Cheney said Democratic critics of the war are lying when they say Bush lied about prewar intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Vice President Cheney speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington Monday, Nov. 21, 2005. Cheney charged that some Senate Democrats were "dishonest and reprehensible" for suggesting Bush lied to the nation about going to war in Iraq. (J. Scott Applewhite - AP)
"Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney said, decrying the "self-defeating pessimism" of many Democrats. He added that to begin withdrawing from Iraq now, as some lawmakers have suggested, "would be a victory for the terrorists."
The 19-minute speech cast the vice president in a familiar role: as the no-nonsense purveyor of a Bush administration policy that he was central in developing. Yet Cheney's defiant public image concerns even some White House aides.
The speech came amid a determined White House effort to answer critics of a war that polls show is growing increasingly unpopular, and that in recent weeks has helped erode Bush's standing with the public to the lowest of his presidency.
But the war has hurt Cheney's reputation even more. A recent Newsweek poll found that only 29 percent of Americans regard him as honest and ethical. The same poll found that more than one in four Republicans agreed with that dim assessment of Cheney's integrity -- a finding that surprised some top White House aides, who were already concerned about how the public views the vice president.
Beyond Iraq, Cheney's popularity is sagging under the weight of the indictment of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in the CIA leak case and by his determined campaign to exempt the CIA from anti-torture standards, which has provoked opposition even from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Ex-DeLay aide pleads guilty in corruption case
Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:17 PM ET
(Page 1 of 2)
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ex-aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and partner to a powerful Republican lobbyist pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Monday under a deal in which he is cooperating with prosecutors probing alleged influence-buying involving the lobbyist and lawmakers.
Michael Scanlon, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in defrauding Indian tribes of millions of dollars and lavishing gifts upon a member of the U.S. Congress.
He was ordered to pay $19.7 million in restitution to the tribes, could serve up to five years in prison and be fined $250,000 and must cooperate with prosecutors.
Scanlon left Delay's office and become a partner to wealthy lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has been indicted for fraud in a separate case in Florida. The plea agreement has been seen as a major advance in prosecutors' efforts to investigate alleged influence-buying involving Abramoff, members of Congress and government agencies.
Scanlon's lawyer Plato Cacheris said Scanlon has more information to provide to the government, but in an exchange with reporters after the hearing refused to comment on whether more members of Congress might be implicated.
"Guilty, your honor," Scanlon, 35, told federal Judge Ellen Huvelle in formalizing the plea deal.
Abramoff has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Florida that he defrauded lenders in a casino cruise line deal.
'LOBBYIST A'
According to prosecutors, from January 2000 through at least April 2004, Scanlon conspired with a lobbyist, only identified as "Lobbyist A," to "corruptly" give gifts to government officials. In return, the officials were to perform acts benefiting Scanlon and "Lobbyist A."
In court papers filed last week, Scanlon was alleged to have given a member of Congress and his staff a golf trip to Scotland, sports tickets and other entertainment, as well as meals and campaign contributions.
DeLay has faced questions about whether his expenses for the Scotland trip were paid by Abramoff, which would violate House rules.
FDA probes deaths of Tamiflu patients
Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:15 PM ET
U.N. warns against panic in China
China confirms human bird flu
By Lisa Richwine
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are studying the deaths of 12 children in Japan who took Roche AG's flu-fighting drug Tamiflu, officials said on Thursday, but they said it was difficult to tell whether the drug played a role in any of the cases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was "concerning" that 32 psychiatric events, such as hallucinations and abnormal behavior, also had been reported in children who took Tamiflu, which is in high demand because it is considered to be one of the best defenses against avian flu in people.
All but one of the psychiatric problems also were reported in Japan, the FDA said.
The agency will ask for input on the cases from an advisory panel of outside experts at a public meeting on Friday. Officials said the review was part of the routine monitoring of the safety of medicines used by children.
In a separate summary posted on the FDA Web site, Roche said: "There is no increase in deaths and neuropsychiatric events in patients on Tamiflu versus influenza patients in general."
Senate Passes Bill to Require Full Funding of Private Pensions
By Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page D01
The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly approved a bill to strengthen the nation's private pension system by requiring employers to pay higher premiums to the government's pension insurance agency and toughening rules for keeping plans adequately funded.
The House has completed committee action on a pension bill that lacks the special relief for airlines. Chairman John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) of the House Education and the Workforce Committee said yesterday that he expects a vote on the bill after Thanksgiving.
The Senate action came the day after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. reported that the liabilities it has assumed to pay the pensions promised by failed companies remain more than $22 billion greater than its assets. The agency's executive director said the agency will run out of money if nothing is done.
Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force
By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 16, 2005; Page A01
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.
The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
Testifying at a Senate hearing last week were, from left, Lee R. Raymond of Exxon Mobil, David J. O'Reilly of Chevron, James J. Mulva of ConocoPhillips, Ross Pillari of BP America and John Hofmeister of Shell Oil. (By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)
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White House Energy Task Force Litigation
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In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.
Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force's work; that meeting is not noted in the document.
The task force's activities attracted complaints from environmentalists, who said they were shut out of the task force discussions while corporate interests were present. The meetings were held in secret and the White House refused to release a list of participants. The task force was made up primarily of Cabinet-level officials. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club unsuccessfully sued to obtain the records.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who posed the question about the task force, said he will ask the Justice Department today to investigate. "The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force," Lautenberg said.
Failing Upward, Bush Style
By Tom Engelhardt
The motto of this administration might easily be: "failing upward." Of course, that's not hard when those leading the country into catastrophe are also making the appointments and bestowing the honors. Somewhere in this world of ours there should be at least one Wall of Shame (and perhaps an adjoining Wall of Cronyism) for an administration which has heaped favor, position, and honors on those who have blundered, lied, manipulated, and broken the law (not to say, cracked open the Constitution and the republic).
Here is just a sampling of the band of culprits who might appear on such a wall and but a few of the things for which they might be held accountable.
Honored for Catastrophe
Former CIA Director George ("slam dunk") Tenet, who oversaw an "intelligence" program of lies, misinformation, abductions, torture, the disappearing of prisoners, and the setting up of a mini-gulag of private prisons from Thailand to Eastern Europe, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as his tenure at the Agency ended.
Former Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul (I never saw an army I didn't want to disband) Bremer III, under whose leadership in Baghdad the American occupation mis- and displaced more money than is humanly imaginable, and under whose leadership Iraq descended into chaos, awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard ("Guantanamo is a model facility") Myers, who oversaw the Iraq War and whose claim to fame may have been that he called Dan Rather of CBS to try to suppress the first "60 Minutes II" report on Abu Ghraib, awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Former Centcom Commander Tommy ("we don't do body counts" ) Franks, who oversaw "victories" in Afghanistan and Iraq in wars that have never ended, retired to great administration praise and became a "paid patriot," awarded the Medal of Freedom
Promoted (or Retained) for Disaster
Defense Secretary Donald ("stuff happens") Rumsfeld, who planned the invasion and occupation of Iraq so brilliantly and bragged that he could stand up longer than any Guantánamo detainee, kept on as Secretary of Defense in George Bush's second term.
Former Undersecretary of Defense Paul ("There is no history of ethnic strife in Iraq") Wolfowitz, who spearheaded the administration's blind cakewalk into Iraq and declared himself "reasonably certain" that the Iraqi people "will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to keep requirements down," was made World Bank president and now prefers not to be "distracted" with ancient "history."
Former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John ("I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the vote" and "there is no such thing as the United Nations") Bolton, who never saw a country he couldn't include in the Axis of Evil, a treaty he wasn't ready to shred, or negotiations he wasn't prepared to sabotage, was given a presidential recess appointment as UN Ambassador after his nomination was deep-sixed by Senate Democrats.
The Torture Brigade
Former White House Counsel Alberto (no rules apply) Gonzales, who helped marshal the administration's case for "relaxing" interrogation rules on prisoners, and the man to whom so many of those torture memos were sent, was made Attorney General.
Former General Counsel for the Pentagon William J. Haynes II, who appointed a working group to circumvent laws and treaties restricting the administration's urge to torture, developed administration policies to deny detainees at Guantánamo prisoner of war status; developed the Pentagon's military tribunal policy to try them; promoted the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens by the President without legal counsel or judicial review, and recommended (over the protests of military lawyers) many of the most abusive tactics used at Guantánamo, was nominated to a judgeship in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals by George W. Bush on September 29, 2003. Only a Democratic filibuster in the Senate derailed the appointment.
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice John ("must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death") Yoo, infamous for drafting the August 2002 "torture memo" to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and a supporter of unfettered presidential rule in matters of foreign policy, returned to his position as professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and wrote a book.
Former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Jay ("certain acts may be cruel, inhuman, or degrading, but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within [a legal] proscription against torture") Bybee, who was the official author of the August 2002 torture memo , is now a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Former Legal Counsel to the Vice President David Addington, "a staunch advocate of allowing the president in his capacity as commander in chief to deviate from the Geneva Conventions," "a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects and… a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts," known for his "devotion to secrecy" and to an extreme version of unfettered presidential power (as well as a backer of the stalled Haynes judgeship), was promoted to Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff after I. Lewis Libby's resignation.
Former head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division Michael Chertoff, who advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002-03 on how far CIA interrogators could go in coercive interrogation methods on terror suspects under the federal anti-torture statute, was appointed head of the Homeland Security Department where he oversaw FEMA's disastrous responses to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, and where he remains today.
Former principal deputy assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs John Hannah, a conduit for Iraqi exile prewar mis- or disinformation on Saddam's WMD arsenal, involved in producing prewar administration claims linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks and in the Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson smear campaign, promoted to National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney.
"Demoted"
Former FEMA Director Michael ("I am a fashion god") Brown, who so spectacularly botched the agency's response to hurricane Katrina, is now on the federal payroll as a $148,000-a-year consultant to FEMA.
Former U.S. Military Commander in Iraq Lt. General Ricardo ("Arab fear of dogs") Sanchez, who personally signed off on the use of coercive interrogation techniques outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, including the use of "working dogs," was to be made head of the U.S. Southern Command and nominated for his fourth star until Pentagon officials came to fear that his role overseeing the Abu Ghraib scandal would create opposition in the Senate and so he was given a major command in Europe.
Former Commander of Joint Task Force Guantánamo Maj. Gen. Geoffrey ("Gitmo-ize the confinement operation") Miller, who brought Guantánamo interrogation methods, including the use of dogs, to Iraq before the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal (reportedly claiming that Arab prisoners "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe they're more than a dog, then you've lost control of them"), and for his efforts was then made senior commander in charge of detention operations in Iraq, instead of being cashiered in shame, is now assigned to an Army management position in the Washington, D.C area.
Sadly, while this gallery of rogues was being honored and/or promoted and/or protected, those who really should have received honors and medals were, by and large, overlooked or forgotten -- not just figures like ex-Marine and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who insisted before the war (to the sneers of American reporters) that Iraq was unlikely to possess even the shreds of its former WMD program, but all those millions who massed in the streets and insisted that an invasion of Iraq would be a path, paved by lies, that would lead only to madness. No "medals of freedom" for the likes of them.
US denies using white phosphorus on Iraqi civilians
Tue Nov 8, 2005 3:42 PM ET
By Phil Stewart
ROME (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Iraq denied a report shown on Italian state television on Tuesday saying U.S. forces used incendiary white phosphorus against civilians in a November 2004 offensive on the Iraqi town of Falluja.
It confirmed, however, that U.S. forces had dropped MK 77 firebombs -- which a documentary on Italian state-run broadcaster RAI compared to napalm -- against military targets in Iraq in March and April 2003.
The documentary showed images of bodies recovered after a November 2004 offensive by U.S. troops on the town of Falluja, which it said proved the use of white phosphorus against men, women and children who were burned to the bone.
"I do know that white phosphorus was used," said Jeff Englehart in the RAI documentary, which identified him as a former soldier in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division in Iraq.
"Burned bodies. Burned children and burned women," said Englehart, who RAI said had taken part in the Falluja offensive. "White phosphorus kills indiscriminately."
The U.S. Marines in Baghdad described white phosphorus as a "conventional munition" used primarily for smoke screens and target marking. It denied using it against civilians.
"Suggestions that U.S. forces targeted civilians with these weapons are simply wrong," U.S. Marine Major Tim Keefe said in an e-mail to Reuters. "Had the producers of the documentary bothered to ask us for comment, we would have certainly told them that the premise of the program was erroneous."
He said U.S. forces do not use any chemical weapons in Iraq.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said earlier on Tuesday he did not recall white phosphorus being used in Falluja.
An incendiary device, white phosphorus is also used to light up combat areas. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned by the Geneva Convention since 1980.
The United States did not sign the relevant protocol to the convention, a U.N. official in New York said.
Arguments against torture -- along both moral and pragmatic lines, from both Democrats and Republicans, and even from inside the White House -- have not dissuaded the vice president. Indeed, he got some apparent support today from President Bush, who had this exchange with a reporter in Panama. From the transcript :
"Q Mr. President, there has been a bit of an international outcry over reports of secret U.S. prisons in Europe for terrorism suspects. Will you let the Red Cross have access to them? And do you agree with Vice President Cheney that the CIA should be exempt from legislation to ban torture?
"PRESIDENT BUSH: Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. The executive branch has the obligation to protect the American people; the legislative branch has the obligation to protect the American people. And we are aggressively doing that. We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do to that effort, to that end, in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture.
"And, therefore, we're working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it possible -- more possible to do our job. There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans, and wants to hurt America again. And so, you bet, we'll aggressively pursue them. But we will do so under the law. And that's why you're seeing members of my administration go and brief the Congress. We want to work together in this matter. We -- all of us have an obligation, and it's a solemn obligation and a solemn responsibility. And I'm confident that when people see the facts, that they'll recognize that we've -- they've got more work to do, and that we must protect ourselves in a way that is lawful."
Bush defends detainees policy
'We do not torture,' president says
Monday, November 7, 2005; Posted: 3:59 p.m. EST (20:59 GMT)
President Bush addresses the press with Panama President Martin Torrijos Monday.
Manage Alerts | What Is This? PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- President Bush vigorously defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terror Monday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture.
"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."
He declared, "We do not torture."
Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects.
The European Union is investigating the reports, which have not been confirmed by the White House.
"Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."
Protests Turn Violent as Western Hemisphere's Leaders Sit Down to Debate Free Trade Zone
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By Dan Molinski Associated Press Writer
Published: Nov 4, 2005
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (AP) - U.S. President George W. Bush and fellow leaders at the Summit of the Americas prepared to debate Saturday whether to rekindle languishing talks on a hemispheric-wide free trade bloc as protesters torched businesses and clashed with police.
Inside the summit, which ends Saturday, a more diplomatic battle was being waged. The United States worked to build support for reviving the Free Trade Area of the Americas, while Bush's nemesis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was doggedly determined to quash the idea. The FTAA, which would bring down trade barriers from Canada to Chile, has stalled amid opposition from Venezuela, Brazil and others.
"Only united can we defeat imperialism and bring our people a better life," Chavez said, addressing more than 10,000 protesters at a soccer stadium hours before heading out for the summit's inauguration. "Here, in Mar del Plata, FTAA will be buried!" He was joined at the stadium by Argentinian soccer great Diego Maradona and Bolivian presidential hopeful Evo Morales.
Chavez - who has repeatedly voiced what American officials have dismissed as spurious accusations of Washington-backed efforts to oust him - is pushing an alternative deal based on socialist ideals. To that end, he has offered fuel with preferential financing to various Caribbean and Latin American countries, using Venezuela's oil wealth to build support.
Chavez - who has repeatedly voiced what American officials have dismissed as spurious accusations of Washington-backed efforts to oust him - is pushing an alternative deal based on socialist ideals. To that end, he has offered fuel with preferential financing to various Caribbean and Latin American countries, using Venezuela's oil wealth to build support.
U.S. Officials Say Replacement F-16 Parts Being Sent to Venezuela
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By Marcel Honore Associated Press Writer
Published: Nov 4, 2005
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The United States has recently sent replacement parts to Venezuela for U.S.-made warplanes, American officials said Friday, denying claims that it has not honored a supply contract.
President Hugo Chavez threatened this week to provide Venezuela's F-16s to Cuba or China earlier this week, because of what he said was Washington's failure to supply the parts needed to keep the aircraft flying.
The United States has continued to ship those parts necessary to maintain the safety of Venezuela's F-16 fighter jets in accordance with previous agreements, a U.S. Embassy official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Cheney pushes senators for exemption to CIA torture ban
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.
Cheney appeals to Republican senators to allow CIA exemptions to proposed ban on torture.
Todd Bennett, Getty Images
Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.
U.S. Faces Scrutiny Over Secret Prisons
Officials in Eastern Europe Deny Role
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 4, 2005; Page A20
THE HAGUE, Nov. 3 The International Committee of the Red Cross, the European Union and human rights groups said Thursday they would press the U.S. and European governments for information about the reported existence of secret prisons in Eastern Europe, where the CIA has detained top al Qaeda captives.
Government officials across that region issued denials Thursday that their countries hosted the prisons, which some European officials contend would violate local human rights laws. But the revelation, reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, captured headlines across the continent and led human-rights organizations to call for official investigations.
The Post reported that the CIA had been interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda prisoners at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe. The classified site is part of a global network of covert prisons the CIA established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with locations in eight countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand and several East European democracies.
In Brussels, a spokesman for the European Union, Friso Roscam Abbing, said that the E.U. would query its 25 member states to find out more about the prisons. Their existence, he said, could violate the European Convention on Human Rights and the international Convention Against Torture, treaties that all E.U. nations are bound to follow.
Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military
Recruits' Job Worries Outweigh War Fears
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; Page A01
As sustained combat in Iraq makes it harder than ever to fill the ranks of the all-volunteer force, newly released Pentagon demographic data show that the military is leaning heavily for recruits on economically depressed, rural areas where youths' need for jobs may outweigh the risks of going to war.
More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas, Pentagon figures show. In contrast, 14 percent come from major cities. Youths living in the most sparsely populated Zip codes are 22 percent more likely to join the Army, with an opposite trend in cities. Regionally, most enlistees come from the South (40 percent) and West (24 percent).
Many of today's recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median.
Such patterns are pronounced in such counties as Martinsville, Va., that supply the greatest number of enlistees in proportion to their youth populations. All of the Army's top 20 counties for recruiting had lower-than-national median incomes, 12 had higher poverty rates, and 16 were non-metropolitan, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group that analyzed 2004 recruiting data by Zip code.
"A lot of the high recruitment rates are in areas where there is not as much economic opportunity for young people," said Anita Dancs, research director for the NPP, based in Northampton, Mass.
Senior Pentagon officials say the war has had a clear impact on recruiting, with a shrinking pool of candidates forcing the military to accept less qualified enlistees -- and presumably many for whom military service is a choice of last resort. In fiscal 2005, the Army took in its least qualified group of recruits in a decade, as measured by educational level and test results.
Retired Judge to Preside in DeLay Case
Appointee Was Chosen for Apparent Nonpartisan Stance
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; Page A04
The state of Texas finally found a judge yesterday to preside over the criminal trial of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), but not without a new, last-minute dispute about partisan political interference.
Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub, who earlier this week removed a judge overseeing the proceedings against DeLay for alleged liberal bias, withdrew yesterday from decision making about a replacement judge after an official complaint about Schraub's links to Republicans.
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) had requested the removal of a Democratic judge who gave money to MoveOn.org in 2004. (Reuters)
Majority Leader Delay Indicted
Rep. Tom Delay (R-Tex.), a hard-charging partisan with an intimidating reputation, was charged by a Texas prosecutor in a campaign finance probe.
DeLay Indicted
DeLay Indicted in Texas Finance Probe
Defense Wins New Judge in DeLay Case
DeLay Loath to Doff His Leadership Hat
DeLay Booked in Houston on Money-Laundering, Conspiracy Charges
DeLay is Booked on Charges in Houston
Schraub passed the decision to the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Wallace B. Jefferson. But within hours, political activists in Texas complained that Jefferson has close ties to individuals and political contributors at the heart of the allegations against DeLay.
By day's end, Jefferson seemed to settle the matter by appointing a retired judge from San Antonio, Pat Priest, whose only recent political donations were three checks of $150 each to Democratic candidates for the Texas House in 2004, according to the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice.
The task of finding a supposedly apolitical arbiter for DeLay's trial was complicated by the fact that Texas -- like seven other states -- elects its judges in partisan elections. It also allows elected judges to make financial contributions to partisan causes, and it even permits those with business before the courts to subsidize the judges' political campaigns.
Bush's Popularity Reaches New Low
58 Percent in Poll Question His Integrity
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 4, 2005; Page A01
For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.
On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.
Virtually the only possible bright spot for Bush in the survey was generally favorable, if not quite enthusiastic, early reaction to his latest Supreme Court nominee, Samuel A. Alito Jr. Half of Americans say Alito should be confirmed by the Senate, and less than a third view him as too conservative, the poll found.
Overall, the survey underscores how several pillars of Bush's presidency have begun to crumble under the combined weight of events and White House mistakes. Bush's approval ratings have been in decline for months, but on issues of personal trust, honesty and values, Bush has suffered some of his most notable declines. Moreover, Bush has always retained majority support on his handling of the U.S. campaign against terrorism -- until now, when 51 percent have registered disapproval.
The CIA leak case has apparently contributed to a withering decline in how Americans view Bush personally. The survey found that 40 percent now view him as honest and trustworthy -- a 13 percentage point drop in the past 18 months. Nearly 6 in 10 -- 58 percent -- said they have doubts about Bush's honesty, the first time in his presidency that more than half the country has questioned his personal integrity.
The indictment Friday of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, in the CIA leak case added to the burden of an administration already reeling from a failed Supreme Court nomination, public dissatisfaction with the economy and continued bloodshed in Iraq. According to the survey, 52 percent say the charges against Libby signal the presence of deeper ethical wrongdoing in the administration. Half believe White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, the president's top political hand, also did something wrong in the case -- about 6 in 10 say Rove should resign.
Beyond the leak case, Americans give the administration low scores on ethics, according to the survey, with 67 percent rating the administration negatively on handling ethical matters, while just 32 percent give the administration positive marks. Four in 10 -- 43 percent -- say the level of ethics and honesty in the federal government has fallen during Bush's presidency, while 17 percent say it has risen.
Faced with its cascade of recent setbacks, the White House is hoping the latest court nomination can rally disaffected conservatives and score the president a victory akin to the one he enjoyed in the nomination of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Alito begins the confirmation process with the support of 49 percent of the public, while 29 percent say he should not be confirmed, the poll found. One in 5 Americans -- 22 percent -- did not yet know enough about him to make a judgment.
The dissatisfaction with Bush flows in part out of broad concerns about the overall direction of the country. Nearly 7 in 10 -- 68 percent -- believe the country is seriously off course, while only 30 percent are optimistic, the lowest level in more than nine years. Only 3 in 10 express high levels of confidence in Bush, while half say they have little or no confidence in this administration.
Just 35 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as either excellent or good, with 65 percent describing it as not so good or poor. Although the government reported last week that gross domestic product rose 3.8 percent in the last quarter, despite the effects of Hurricane Katrina, 29 percent of those surveyed said they regard the economy as poor, the highest recorded during Bush's presidency.
Attitudes toward Bush are sharply polarized by party, as they have been throughout his presidency. Almost 8 in 10 -- 78 percent -- of Republicans support the president, while just 11 percent of Democrats rate him positively. Republicans long have been the key to Bush's overall strength, but Bush has suffered some defections since the beginning of the year, when 91 percent approved of the way he was handling his job.
Among independents, Bush's approval has plummeted since the beginning of the year. In the latest poll, 33 percent of independents approved of his performance, while 66 percent disapproved. In January, independents were evenly divided, with 49 percent approving and an equal percentage disapproving.
Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey [a/k/a Marie Antoinette] set off a firestorm of protest yesterday when she suggested that children of undocumented immigrants who cannot get in-state tuition rates at Massachusetts' public colleges should ''go to private schools" instead.
''Let them go to private schools if they want to," Healey said on WRKO radio. Moments later, she repeated: ''Let them go to private schools."
Blair loses key ally as problems mount
By Mike Peacock | November 2, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Tony Blair suffered a heavy blow on Wednesday when a scandal-tainted ally quit his government, compounding the reverses the prime minister has faced since starting his last term in power this year.
Cabinet minister David Blunkett resigned for the second time in less than a year just months after Blair had brought his close colleague back into government, prompting a blistering opposition attack in parliament over his judgment.
Problems are mounting for the prime minister, who has declared he will not fight another election after winning a third term in May -- a move analysts say risks his authority waning as the clock winds down on his premiership.
"We have seen the slow seepage of his authority turn into a hemorrhage," Michael Howard, outgoing leader of the opposition Conservatives, told parliament.
"For how long will this country have to put up with this lame duck prime minister, in office but not in power?"
Last week, ministers split openly over issues ranging from a ban on smoking in public to an overhaul of the state education system, previously unthinkable for a government which had imposed iron discipline since taking power in 1997.
Blair is also facing an increasingly restive parliamentary party, ready to defy him on a number of issues.
May's election cut Blair's parliamentary majority to 66, about 100 less than he had enjoyed since 1997, meaning just 34 Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) voting with opposition parties can defeat the government.
A stiff test will come later on Wednesday when some Labour MPs will oppose key aspects of Blair's counter-terrorism bill, notably a proposal to give police powers to hold suspects for up to 90 days without charge.
"It is certainly possible that the government could lose it," said Blair's former interior minister John Denham.
BLUNKETT BIG LOSS
But the loss of loyal ally Blunkett is the more serious blow to Blair as many in his party press for him to hand power to finance minister Gordon Brown sooner rather than later.
Blair loses key ally as problems mount
By Mike Peacock | November 2, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Tony Blair suffered a heavy blow on Wednesday when a scandal-tainted ally quit his government, compounding the reverses the prime minister has faced since starting his last term in power this year.
Cabinet minister David Blunkett resigned for the second time in less than a year just months after Blair had brought his close colleague back into government, prompting a blistering opposition attack in parliament over his judgment.
Problems are mounting for the prime minister, who has declared he will not fight another election after winning a third term in May -- a move analysts say risks his authority waning as the clock winds down on his premiership.
"We have seen the slow seepage of his authority turn into a hemorrhage," Michael Howard, outgoing leader of the opposition Conservatives, told parliament.
"For how long will this country have to put up with this lame duck prime minister, in office but not in power?"
Last week, ministers split openly over issues ranging from a ban on smoking in public to an overhaul of the state education system, previously unthinkable for a government which had imposed iron discipline since taking power in 1997.
Blair is also facing an increasingly restive parliamentary party, ready to defy him on a number of issues.
May's election cut Blair's parliamentary majority to 66, about 100 less than he had enjoyed since 1997, meaning just 34 Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) voting with opposition parties can defeat the government.
A stiff test will come later on Wednesday when some Labour MPs will oppose key aspects of Blair's counter-terrorism bill, notably a proposal to give police powers to hold suspects for up to 90 days without charge.
"It is certainly possible that the government could lose it," said Blair's former interior minister John Denham.
BLUNKETT BIG LOSS
But the loss of loyal ally Blunkett is the more serious blow to Blair as many in his party press for him to hand power to finance minister Gordon Brown sooner rather than later.
Two U.S. Marines Killed in Helicopter Crash in Iraq
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By Thomas Wagner Associated Press Writer
Published: Nov 2, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. Marine attack helicopter crashed Wednesday near Ramadi, killing two crew members, after insurgents fought with American ground forces in the city and destroyed at least one of their Humvees, police said.
Associated Press Television News video from the streets of Ramadi showed a burning civilian vehicle and what appeared to be the wreckage of the destroyed Humvee.
A crowd of Iraqis gathered at the site, and one man, who waved a damaged machine gun in the air, said the attacks caused U.S. casualties. Police Capt. Nassir al-Alousi said insurgents used guns, rockets and roadside bombs to attack U.S. patrols late Tuesday.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it had no immediate information of ground fighting in Ramadi on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Security Heightened at U.S. Base Where Suspected Top Al-Qaida Operative Escaped
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By Daniel Cooney Associated Press Writer
Published: Nov 2, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Security has been tightened at the U.S. military prison in Afghanistan following the escape of a suspected al-Qaida leader, a U.S. official said Wednesday. Indonesian anti-terrorism officials accused Washington of failing to tell them of the breakout.
Omar al-Farouq, born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, was considered one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in 2002 and turned him over to the United States.
He was one of four suspected Arab terrorists to escape in July from the detention facility at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan. It was not clear how long he had been held in Afghanistan.
Although the escape was widely reported at the time, al-Farouq was identified by an alias and the U.S. military only confirmed Tuesday that he was among those who fled.
A video the four men made of themselves after they escaped from Bagram was broadcast on Dubai-based television station Al-Arabiya on Oct. 18, the broadcaster said.
In the video, the four men said they escaped on a Sunday when many of the Americans on the base were off duty, and one of the four - Muhammad Hassan, said to be Libyan - said he picked the locks of their cell, according to Al-Arabiya.
Senators clash over inquiry on Iraq
Democrats force a rare closed session
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | November 2, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In a power play that stunned and angered Republicans, Senate Democrats yesterday forced the chamber into a rare closed session to demand further investigation into the intelligence that led the nation into the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.
Breaking News Alerts US may increase forces in Iraq before parliament elections. A2
After the two-hour session, lawmakers emerged to announce that the Intelligence Committee would resume work on its investigation of the prewar intelligence next week. Republicans insisted the review was already scheduled to begin next week, but Democrats countered that the GOP had been dragging its feet on the inquiry since before the 2004 presidential election, as US casualties mounted and more questions surfaced about the war.
''The troops have a right to expect answers and accountability worthy of [their] sacrifice," Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, told his colleagues on the floor before calling for the closed-door session. ''I demand on behalf of the American people that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted."
America is losing war on terror, specialists say
By David Morgan, Reuters | November 2, 2005
WASHINGTON -- US terrorism specialists Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have reached a stark conclusion about the war on terrorism: the United States is losing.
Despite an early US victory over the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, President Bush's policies have created a haven for terrorism in Iraq that escalates the potential for Islamic violence against Europe and the United States, the two former Clinton administration officials say.
America's badly damaged image in the Muslim world could take more than a generation to set right, they say, and Bush's mounting political woes at home have undermined the chance for any bold US initiatives to address the grim social realities that feed Islamic radicalism.
''It's been fairly disastrous," said Benjamin, who worked as a director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 1994 to 1999.
''We have had some very important successes getting individual terrorists. But I think the broader story is really quite awful. We have done a lot to fuel the fires, and we have done a lot to encourage people to hate us," he added in an interview.
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 2, 2005; Page A01
The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.
In Afghanistan, the largest CIA covert prison was code-named the Salt Pit, at center left above. (Space Imaging Middle East)
Detainees Database
The Pentagon has declined to identify the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan during and after the 2001 war there. The Post has compiled a list of names made public thus far, encompassing 434 men whose identities have appeared in media reports, on Arabic Web sites...
The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.
The existence and locations of the facilities -- referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents -- are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.
The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.
While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad.
But the revelations of widespread prisoner abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. military -- which operates under published rules and transparent oversight of Congress -- have increased concern among lawmakers, foreign governments and human rights groups about the opaque CIA system. Those concerns escalated last month, when Vice President Cheney and CIA Director Porter J. Goss asked Congress to exempt CIA employees from legislation already endorsed by 90 senators that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoner in U.S. custody.
Democrats force Senate into rare closed session
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that led to the Iraq war and deriding a lack of congressional inquiry.
Democrats "hijacked" the Senate by forcing a closed session, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.
Dennis Cook, AP
"I demand on behalf of the America people that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted," Democratic leader Harry Reid said, triggering a closed session that lasted about two hours. (Video: Senate closes doors)
Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.
"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said Majority Leader Bill Frist. "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas," the Republican leader said.
Reid demanded the Senate go into closed session. The public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed, and the doors were closed. No vote is required in such circumstances.
The chamber re-opened about two hours later, with Frist announcing that he had reached an agreement with Reid for a bipartisan group of senators to report back to the chamber by Nov. 14 on Iraq intelligence.
Reid's move shone a spotlight on the continuing controversy over intelligence that President Bush cited in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Despite prewar claims, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and some Democrats have accused the administration of manipulating the information that was in their possession.
Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last Friday in an investigation that touched on the war, the leak of the identity of a CIA official married to a critic of the administration's Iraq policy.
"The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions," Reid said before invoking Senate rules that led to the closed session.
Libby resigned from his White House post after being indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury.
Democrats contend that the unmasking of Valerie Plame was retribution for her husband, Joseph Wilson, publicly challenging the Bush administration's contention that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Africa. That claim was part of the White House's justification for going to war.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Reid was making "some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak."
A former majority leader, Lott said a closed session was appropriate for such overarching matters as impeachment and chemical weapons — the two topics that last sent the senators into such sessions.
In addition, Lott said, Reid's move violated the Senate's tradition of courtesy and consent. But there was nothing in Senate rules enabling Republicans to thwart Reid's effort.
As Reid spoke, Frist met in the back of the chamber with a half-dozen senior GOP senators, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, who bore the brunt of Reid's criticism. Reid said Roberts reneged on a promise to fully investigate whether the administration exaggerated and manipulated intelligence leading up to the war.
Judge in DeLay case dismissed
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The judge in Rep. Tom DeLay's conspiracy case was removed at the congressman's request Tuesday because of his donations to Democratic candidates and causes.
DeLay's attorneys claimed State Judge Bob Perkins' Democratic campaign contributions created an appearance of bias.
Harry Cabluck, AP
A new judge will be appointed to preside over the case, a judge who came out of retirement to hear the dispute ruled.
The ruling came after a hearing in which attorneys for the former House Republican leader argued that state District Judge Bob Perkins' political donations called his impartiality into question. Perkins, a Democrat, has contributed to candidates such as John Kerry and the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org.
"The public perception of Judge Perkins' activities shows him to be on opposite sides of the political fence than Tom DeLay," defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told Judge C.W. Duncan, who was called out of retirement to decide the matter.
Perkins had declined to withdraw from the case, and prosecutor Rick Reed argued at the hearing that DeLay must prove that a member of the public would have a "reasonable doubt that the judge is impartial" before Perkins could be removed.
"Judges are presumed to be impartial," Reed said.
Judges are elected in Texas and are free to contribute to candidates and political parties. DeGuerin said no one contends Perkins did anything wrong, but "to protect the integrity" of the judicial system, he should not preside over a trial for someone to whom he is opposed politically.
The issue has come up for Perkins before. He voluntarily stepped aside in a 1994 case against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perkins had made a $300 contribution to Hutchison's political opponent. Hutchison, also represented by DeGuerin, was ultimately acquitted of misconduct charges.
DeLay was forced to step down as House majority leaader after being charged with funneling corporate campaign contributions to Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature. Texas law forbids the direct use of corporate money for campaigning.
Delay's lawyers cited 34 contributions Perkins has made to Democrats since 2000, including donations to Kerry and to MoveOn.org, a group that has waged a campaign against DeLay.
Perkins has said that his contributions to MoveOn.org were made before it launched its anti-DeLay campaign. Prosecutors also argued that six of the contributions were wrongly counted twice by DeLay's attorneys.
Exxon-Mobil Employees Given Fake Flu Shots
Oct 28 12:46 PM US/Eastern
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BAYTOWN, Texas
Fake flu shots were given out last week at a health fair at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown complex and an investigation was under way, authorities said.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Treacy A. Roberts said Thursday that the FBI told the company that what was administered "definitely not the flu vaccine."
It doesn't appear that the fake shots were harmful, but steps were being taken to ensure workers' safety, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said in a statement Thursday.
Exxon Mobil offered blood tests and counseling to the up to 1,000 employees who took part in the health fair at the oil company's vast complex of refineries and chemical plants just east of Houston.
The FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating what was in the syringes and whether others might have received the fake vaccine, Rosenberg said.
Jeanne Miller, another Exxon Mobil spokeswoman, said a doctor provided the shots in Exxon's first use of an outside contractor to administer the shots. She declined to identify the doctor because of the federal investigation.
In the past, Miller said, company medical staff had offered flu shots at health fairs.
FBI officials did not explain how they found out about the potential fraud, Roberts said.
In May, a nurse in Minnesota, Michelle Torgerson, pleaded guilty to dispensing a drug without a prescription, admitting she used diluted vaccine left over from an earlier clinic and pocketed the cash when she gave college students shots at $20 each.
Police: Woman Used Stolen Card in Lottery
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said.
Grand jury issues new subpoenas in DeLay investigation
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor asked Thursday for all e-mail sent and received in 2002 by three indicted associates of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay as part of an investigation into an alleged campaign finance scheme.
Rep. Tom DeLay, left, talks with his attorney.
By Jay Janner, AP
The latest subpoenas issued by District Attorney Ronnie Earle request correspondence to and from e-mail addresses belonging to John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold. He did not ask DeLay to provide e-mails.
Colyandro was executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee founded by DeLay. Ellis runs DeLay's national fundraising committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, and RoBold is a Republican fundraiser in Washington.
Prosecutors allege that DeLay and his associates funneled corporate money given to the Texas committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee, which sent it back to seven GOP candidates for the Texas Legislature. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used directly in a political campaign. (Related story: DeLay says conservative politics being criminalized)
DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro are charged with conspiracy and money laundering. Colyandro and RoBold are charged with accepting or making restricted corporate donations.
Among the information being requested, the subpoenas seek records from DeLay's political committee in Texas, including billing information and subscriber and recipient details.
The prosecutor also repeated a request for telephone records from DeLay's daughter, Danielle DeLay Ferro, a political consultant who did work for DeLay's Texas committee.
A History of Indictments Involving White House Staff
Skip directly to the full story.
The Associated Press
Published: Oct 28,2005
- The only sitting Cabinet member in recent history to be indicted while in office was Raymond J. Donovan, President Reagan's labor secretary. In September 1984, Donovan was indicted along with several others, accused of grand larceny in his co-ownership of a construction firm. After going on unpaid leave in October, Donovan resigned in March 1985. In 1987, a jury acquitted Donovan and his co-defendants.
- In October 2005, David H. Safavian, the top procurement official for President Bush, resigned. Three days later, he was arrested and indicted on five felony counts connected to criminal investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. At the time the indictment covered, from May 2002 to January 2004, Safavian had been serving as the chief of staff at the General Services Administration. Case pending.
- In November 1996, Henry G. Cisneros resigned from his position as President Clinton's housing secretary. In December 1997, he was indicted on 18 counts of conspiracy, obstruction and lying to the FBI. Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 1999 and was fined $10,000.
- In December 1994, Mike Espy resigned from his position as Clinton's agriculture secretary. In August 1997, Espy was indicted on 39 corruption counts in allegations that he had received financial gifts from Tyson Foods Inc., one of the companies his department regulated. In December 1998 Espy was acquitted on all counts.
- In May 1993, White House travel office chief Billy R. Dale and his entire staff were fired by the Clinton administration. Dale was indicted in December 1994 on two counts of embezzlement and conversion after a grand jury said he pocketed up to $68,000 from media organizations traveling with the president. Dale was acquitted of all charges in November 1995.
- In November 1986, John M. Poindexter resigned from his post as national security adviser to President Reagan. In March 1988, Poindexter and three others were indicted in relation to the Iran-Contra affair. Poindexter was charged with two additional counts of obstructing Congress and two counts of making false statements. He was convicted in 1990, but the charges were overturned the following year.
- In 1983, Thomas C. Reed resigned from the Reagan administration after working as a presidential assistant under National Security Adviser William P. Clark. In August 1984, he was indicted on four counts related to alleged illegal stock trading. He was acquitted in 1985.
- In April 1973, President Nixon forced White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, domestic affairs counsel John Ehrlichman and five other staff members to resign. In March 1974, they were indicted in connection with the Watergate cover-up. Along with several others found guilty, both Haldeman and Ehrlichman were convicted in 1975 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Fmr. FEMA Director Mike Brown’s $148K Salary Extended For Another 30 Days…
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday defended FEMA's decision to extend former director Michael Brown's post-resignation employment by another 30 days.
"It's important to allow the new people who have the responsibility ... to have access to the information we need to do better," Chertoff told The Associated Press as he flew to view Hurricane Wilma's damage in Florida.
Bush Administration Will Reinstate Prevailing Wages on Katrina Contracts
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By Devlin Barrett Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration will reinstate rules requiring that companies awarded federal contracts for Hurricane Katrina pay prevailing wages, usually an amount close to the pay scales in local union contracts.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., was among congressmen critical of the administration's decision to waive the requirement and who met Wednesday with White House chief of staff Andrew Card. He said Card told them the wage requirement would be reinstated Nov. 8.
"We thought it was bad policy and bad politics, and I guess they accepted our argument," King told The Associated Press. "There's no need to antagonize organized labor."
King was part of a congressional delegation headed by Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., and Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, that met with Card.
In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, President Bush suspended provisions of the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which sets wages for employees on federal contracts to ensure they are not underpaid.
The administration contended the move would reduce rebuilding costs and help open opportunities to minority-owned companies, but unions and other critics said it would result in lower pay for workers.
WASHINGTON Oct 25, 2005 — President Bush tried Tuesday to begin reviving U.S. support for the war in Iraq and reinvigorating his troubled presidency as the U.S. military death toll topped 2,000.
"I know this is a trying time for our military spouses," Bush said at a Joint Armed Forces Officer Wives' luncheon at Bolling Air Force Base. "We've lost some of our nation's finest men and women in the war on terror."
"And the best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom," he said.
A few hours after Bush spoke, the Pentagon announced a fatality that raised The Associated Press count of military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,000.
Letters Show Frist Notified Of Stocks in 'Blind' Trusts
Documents Contradict Comments on Holdings
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005; Page A01
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about his stake in his family's hospital company, according to records that are at odds with his past statements that he did not know what was in his stock holdings.
Managers of the trusts that Frist once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, according to the documents.
Hospital Corporation of America in Nashville was founded by Frist's father and brother. (By Rusty Russell -- Getty Images)
Melina Mara's Eye on Congress
Harriet Miers is President Bush's choice to replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. If confirmed, she will become the third woman to serve on the highest court.
• Since 2001, the trustees have written to Frist and the Senate 15 times detailing the sale of assets from or the contribution of assets to trusts of Frist and his family. The letters included notice of the addition of HCA shares worth $500,000 to $1 million in 2001 and HCA stock worth $750,000 to $1.5 million in 2002. The trust agreements require the trustees to inform Frist and the Senate whenever assets are added or sold.
The letters seem to undermine one of the major arguments the senator has used throughout his political career to rebut criticism of his ownership in HCA: that the stock was held in blind trusts beyond his control and that he had little idea of the extent of those holdings.
The extent of Frist's knowledge of the inner workings of his trusts and his family's health care company is related to a recently launched federal investigation of possible insider trading involving the liquidation this summer of Frist's HCA stock. Within weeks of Frist's decision to sell his holdings in June, HCA shares fell sharply because of a weak earnings report. Frist has said he possessed only publicly available and not "insider" information about the company when he directed the sale and, therefore, did nothing wrong.
Bush Won't Release All Miers Records
By NEDRA PICKLER
The Associated Press
Monday, October 24, 2005; 11:23 AM
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Monday that he will not release any records of his conversations with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that could threaten the confidentiality of the advice that presidents get from their lawyers.
"It's a red line I'm not willing to cross," Bush said.
White House Counsel Harriet Miers reacts while speaking with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N .Y., during a meeting to discuss her nomination to the Suprme Court Capitol Hill Monday, Oct. 17, 2005. Schumer is member of the Judiciary Committee, which will hold hearings and take the first vote on the nomination. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) (Dennis Cook - AP)
Both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding more documents on Miers, including from her work at Bush's counsel.
"People can learn about Harriet Miers through hearings, but we are not going to destroy this business about people being able to walk into the Oval Office to say, Mr. President, this is my advice," Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet.
Bush did not directly answer the question that was posed to him by a reporter at the end of the meeting _ whether the White House is working on contingency plans to withdraw Miers nomination in the face of opposition to her from liberals and conservatives. Instead, he said that she is an "extraordinary woman" and that he understands people want to learn more about her.
Enemy Body Counts Revived
U.S. Is Citing Tolls to Show Success in Iraq
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005; Page A01
Eager to demonstrate success in Iraq, the U.S. military has abandoned its previous refusal to publicize enemy body counts and now cites such numbers periodically to show the impact of some counterinsurgency operations.
The revival of body counts, a practice discredited during the Vietnam War, has apparently come without formal guidance from the Pentagon's leadership. Military spokesmen in Washington and Baghdad said they knew of no written directive detailing the circumstances under which such figures should be released or the steps that should be taken to ensure accuracy.
U.S. soldiers near Baghdad can be bolstered by the release of enemy body counts, a Marine spokesman said. (By Lance Cpl. Michael R. Mcmaugh -- U.s. Army Via Reuters)
FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations
Secret Surveillance Lacked Oversight
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005; A01
The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today.
Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view.
In one case, FBI agents kept an unidentified target under surveillance for at least five years -- including more than 15 months without notifying Justice Department lawyers after the subject had moved from New York to Detroit. An FBI investigation concluded that the delay was a violation of Justice guidelines and prevented the department "from exercising its responsibility for oversight and approval of an ongoing foreign counterintelligence investigation of a U.S. person."
In other cases, agents obtained e-mails after a warrant expired, seized bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search," according to the documents.
Although heavily censored, the documents provide a rare glimpse into the world of domestic spying, which is governed by a secret court and overseen by a presidential board that does not publicize its deliberations. The records are also emerging as the House and Senate battle over whether to put new restrictions on the controversial USA Patriot Act, which made it easier for the government to conduct secret searches and surveillance but has come under attack from civil liberties groups.
The records were provided to The Washington Post by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group that has sued the Justice Department for records relating to the Patriot Act.
David Sobel, EPIC's general counsel, said the new documents raise questions about the extent of possible misconduct in counterintelligence investigations and underscore the need for greater congressional oversight of clandestine surveillance within the United States.
"We're seeing what might be the tip of the iceberg at the FBI and across the intelligence community," Sobel said. "It indicates that the existing mechanisms do not appear adequate to prevent abuses or to ensure the public that abuses that are identified are treated seriously and remedied."
FBI officials disagreed, saying that none of the cases have involved major violations and most amount to administrative errors. The officials also said that any information obtained from improper searches or eavesdropping is quarantined and eventually destroyed.
"Every investigator wants to make sure that their investigation is handled appropriately, because they're not going to be allowed to keep information that they didn't have the proper authority to obtain," said one senior FBI official, who declined to be identified by name because of the ongoing litigation. "But that is a relatively uncommon occurrence. The vast majority of the potential [violations] reported have to do with administrative timelines and time frames for renewing orders."
The documents provided to EPIC focus on 13 cases from 2002 to 2004 that were referred to the Intelligence Oversight Board, an arm of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board that is charged with examining violations of the laws and directives governing clandestine surveillance. Case numbers on the documents indicate that a minimum of 287 potential violations were identified by the FBI during those three years, but the actual number is certainly higher because the records are incomplete.
FBI officials declined to say how many alleged violations they have identified or how many were found to be serious enough to refer to the oversight board.
Catherine Lotrionte, the presidential board's counsel, said most of its work is classified and covered by executive privilege. The board's investigations range from "technical violations to more substantive violations of statutes or executive orders," Lotrionte said.
Most such cases involve powers granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs the use of secret warrants, wiretaps and other methods as part of investigations of agents of foreign powers or terrorist groups. The threshold for such surveillance is lower than for traditional criminal warrants. More than 1,700 new cases were opened by the court last year, according to an administration report to Congress.
In several of the cases outlined in the documents released to EPIC, FBI agents failed to file annual updates on ongoing surveillance, which are required by Justice Department guidelines and presidential directives, and which allow Justice lawyers to monitor the progress of a case. Others included a violation of bank privacy statutes and an improper physical search, though the details of the transgressions are edited out. At least two others involve e-mails that were improperly collected after the authority to do so had expired.
Some of the case details provide a rare peek into the world of FBI counterintelligence. In 2002, for example, the Pittsburgh field office opened a preliminary inquiry on a person to "determine his/her suitability as an asset for foreign counterintelligence matters" -- in other words, to become an informant. The violation occurred when the agent failed to extend the inquiry while maintaining contact with the potential asset, the documents show.
The FBI general counsel's office oversees investigations of alleged misconduct in counterintelligence probes, deciding whether the violation is serious enough to be reported to the oversight board and to personnel departments within Justice and the FBI. The senior FBI official said those cases not referred to the oversight board generally involve missed deadlines of 30 days or fewer with no potential infringement of the civil rights of U.S. persons, who are defined as either citizens or legal U.S. resident aliens.
"The FBI and the people who work in the FBI are very cognizant of the fact that people are watching us to make sure we're doing the right thing," the senior FBI official said. "We also want to do the right thing. We have set up procedures to do the right thing."
But in a letter to be sent today to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sobel and other EPIC officials argue that the documents show how little Congress and the public know about the use of clandestine surveillance by the FBI and other agencies. The group advocates legislation requiring the attorney general to report violations to the Senate.
The documents, EPIC writes, "suggest that there may be at least thirteen instances of unlawful intelligence investigations that were never disclosed to Congress."
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A traffic warden slapped a parking ticket on a car which had its dead driver slumped at the wheel outside an Australian shopping mall, an official said Friday.
The body of the 71-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released, was discovered Thursday in a parking lot in the southern city of Melbourne, The Age newspaper reported Friday.
The man had been reported missing nine days earlier and was known to be seriously ill, the newspaper said.
Nevertheless, a parking officer who inspected the vehicle failed to notice the man inside and issued the parking fine two days before his body was discovered.
Paul Denham, the mayor of Maroondah council, where the man was found, said the parking officer was ``distressed'' to learn that the dead man had been inside the car.
``Our local laws officer checked and wrote out the ticket at the rear of the vehicle and placed the ticket from the passenger side on the windscreen,'' Denham said in a statement. ``The local laws officer did not notice anything unusual regarding the vehicle, and is extremely distressed to have learned of the situation.''
Suspected Illegal Workers Found at Halliburton Job Site
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 22, 2005; Page A09
Federal agents have identified 10 suspected illegal immigrants working at a naval base near New Orleans where the Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root is leading hurricane reconstruction, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A spokesman for the base said last night that 13 workers were barred from the base this week for lack of proper work papers, and that they were employees of Texas-based BMS Catastrophe. Officials of the company could not be reached yesterday for comment.
A KBR spokeswoman said the firm will look into any allegations that its subcontractors have violated the law or the company's code of conduct. She could not immediately say whether BMS was working for KBR.
Immigration and Customs spokeswoman Jamie E. Zuieback said yesterday that agents were called in Thursday by base security personnel and found that 10 workers lacked proper documentation. The workers have not been taken into custody, Zuieback said. She said the investigation is ongoing, but would not comment on its scope
Alleged Desecration of Bodies Investigated
U.S. Military Acts to Control Muslim Backlash After Incident in Afghanistan
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; Page A16
The senior U.S. operational commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, flew to the southern city of Kandahar yesterday to confer with officers about the alleged burning of two Taliban fighters by U.S. soldiers in the area as the Bush administration moved to try to limit the damage from the reported incident.
Fearing a Muslim backlash against television images of the apparent desecration, the State Department sent U.S. embassies instructions "to engage on this issue" and to stress that the pictures do not reflect U.S. values or the actions of "the vast majority" of the U.S. military, said spokesman Sean McCormack.
A video aired on Australian television allegedly shows U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burning two dead Taliban fighters. (Sbs Via Cnn)
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Specialists in U.S.-Muslim relations warned that the alleged incident could deepen hostility against the United States and further damage an American image already tarnished by scandals over mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"If true, the incident would fit a seeming pattern that has emerged of the U.S. military gaining enough knowledge of Islamic culture and sensitivities to devise ways of offending Muslims," said Khaled Abu el Fadl, a specialist in Islamic law at UCLA law school.
The latest scandal surfaced Wednesday when an Australian television network aired video showing members of a U.S. airborne unit purportedly setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters
Number Overstated for Storm Evacuees in Hotels
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The Red Cross and federal government said Tuesday that they had been significantly overreporting the number of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels. Instead of 600,000 people, 200,000 remain in hotels, the charity said.
Although the lower number means that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and cities receiving evacuees will find new housing for far fewer people, the count shows the lack of knowledge that FEMA has about the relocations and its limited oversight over the money it is committed to spend on such housing.
"FEMA still does not know any more about what it was doing last week than it was a month ago," Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said. "It is still, as far as I am concerned, an incompetent agency."
FEMA had reported to Congress that as of last Wednesday, it was housing 576,135 people in 206,564 hotels rooms, with the largest numbers, in order, in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida. The New York Times and other news organizations reported the Red Cross and FEMA estimates, which meant that the government would have been spending $11 million a night for hotels and motels. Now, relief officials say, 70,000 rooms are occupied, costing $4 million a night.
A spokeswoman for the emergency agency, Frances Marine, said it had relied on the Red Cross for the estimates that it provided to Congress as its own. "It is unfortunate," Ms. Marine said.
The Red Cross has been operating the hotel program since shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. A FEMA official said Tuesday that the agency did not question the figures because as the population in emergency shelters had dropped, to 11,304 on Monday from a peak of 273,000, it made sense that the number of people in hotels was significantly increasing.
Local officials in cities that included Dallas and Houston, where many evacuees settled, said the Red Cross figures seemed high.
"We kind of looked at those numbers ourselves and thought they were exaggerated," said Frank J. Librio, a spokesman for Mayor Laura Miller of Dallas.
Because of discrepancies between the reported numbers of occupied rooms and billing records, The New York Times raised questions about the figures on Thursday with members of Congress and the inspector general's office of the Homeland Security Department and on Monday with Red Cross officials. The Red Cross and FEMA acknowledged on Tuesday that they had issued inaccurate numbers.
They attributed the error to a "misinterpretation by the Red Cross of data provided to it by the contractor" that ran the motel program, resulting in the publishing of cumulative counts of occupied rooms instead of the actual nightly counts.
"When you are off on any number, it is significant," Armond T. Mascelli, the Red Cross vice president for domestic disaster response, said. "Clearly, we made a mistake."
No refunds are necessary, because the government has not been asked to pay the bills, which total $150 million so far. Even now, the Red Cross cannot precisely estimate how many people are in the government-financed hotel rooms or say definitively that the hotel guests are eligible for their rooms.
That is because the Red Cross and FEMA use unusually informal arrangements to manage the program. Corporate Lodging Consultants of Wichita, Kan., hired by the Red Cross to run the program, learns how many rooms evacuees have occupied after it receives bills, its president, George Hansen, said. That can take two weeks from the stay, Mr. Hansen said. Even then, Corporate Lodging knows only how many rooms it pays for, not the number of occupants. The Red Cross estimates that 3.1 people stay in each room.
Neither the Red Cross nor the government monitors who stays in the hotels, Red Cross officials said. To obtain free rooms, guests were asked to show driver's licenses or other identification that included a ZIP code from areas with widespread storm damage.
Corporate Lodging received bills for 35,000 rooms for Monday night. Mr. Hansen said that after all the bills arrived the likely total room count for this week would be 60,000 to 70,000 rooms. He acknowledged that number was largely a guess.
That is the basis of the new Red Cross estimate of 200,000 people.
If the numbers are accurate, FEMA may have less work to do in finding temporary housing for evacuees than it had anticipated.
Last week, Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, who is in charge of the relief operation for the Homeland Security Department, estimated 200,000 to 250,000 housing units in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast had been lost or were uninhabitable.
The lowered hotel count suggests that many more families than expected may have found temporary housing. Currently, FEMA cannot estimate how many housing units it needs to provide. "I don't have a hard number on that," Ms. Marine, the spokeswoman, said.
Representative Obey said the agency should have more detailed and accurate information for Congress before it asked for more money for hurricane relief.
"I don't think it is appropriate for Congress to appropriate any more money until we know what the hell is going on, and we don't know at this point," he said.
Even with the lower numbers, cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio said they faced huge challenges to find temporary housing for the evacuees they had welcomed. A spokeswoman for the Joint Hurricane Housing Task Force in Houston, Sharon Adams, said the Houston metropolitan region probably had 43,500 evacuees in hotels as of Friday. Robbie Ashe, an aide to Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, said FEMA had to help move families quickly from hotels to apartments.
"However many people are in hotels," Mr. Ashe said, "we could house them much more cheaply and in a superior fashion in an apartment."
DeLay's campaign goes after prosecutor
Campaign distributes information attacking prosecutor
Friday, October 14, 2005; Posted: 7:33 p.m. EDT (23:33 GMT)
Rep. Tom DeLay was forced to give up his House leadership position after he was indicted.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tom DeLay is using his congressional campaign to distribute to voters derogatory information about the Texas prosecutor who has indicted him -- and to raise more money for a re-election bid that has been affected by the criminal case.
"Help Tom fight back," reads one of the solicitations on the www.TomDelay.com Web site that voters are being directed to as part of an Internet-based campaign paid for by DeLay's re-election committee.
Contributors, voters and others who sign up can get regular e-mails and an electronic "toolkit" from DeLay's campaign with the latest disparaging information his legal team has prepared on Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle.
"Join thousands of conservatives across the country in the fight against liberal DA Ronnie Earle," recipients are told.
Recipients are offered a full dossier about the Democratic prosecutor and his "baseless political indictment" with subjects like:
"Ronnie Earle's previous misuse of his office," which highlights failures in Earle's career such as his unsuccessful case against Republican Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 1990s.
"Earle asks for a Do-Over," which focuses on the prosecutor's decision to seek a re-indictment of DeLay on different charges after the congressman's lawyers raised technical questions about the first indictment.
"Coming Soon: The Ronnie Earle Movie," which highlights reports that Earle allowed a film crew to follow him during parts of the investigation.
Legal experts said DeLay's use of congressional campaign donations to attack Earle probably was permissible, though it could lead to legal questions about whether he was trying to influence potential jurors for his trial.
"He clearly is aiming at the jury pool and aiming at voters, hoping to generate as much sympathy as he can," said Larry Noble, the government's former chief election enforcement lawyer. "And it shows DeLay never misses a beat when it comes to fundraising -- no matter how dark things get."
Bruce Yannett, a former Iran-Contra prosecutor, said DeLay's campaign effort might raise questions of trying to taint the potential jury pool but the legal standard for making such a case is difficult to meet.
Nonetheless, Yannett said he could not imagine former President Reagan overtly using his campaign to attack prosecutors during the 1980s investigation of the Iran-Contra affair. "It does seem a little unusual," Yannett said.
DeLay has been indicted along with several colleagues on charges he conspired to launder illegal corporate contributions to Texas state candidates. He denies the charges. (Read about latest subpoenas)
Earle, apparently, hasn't been solicited by the campaign. "I haven't seen it and have no comment," the prosecutor said when reached Friday. Earle has strongly denied politics has anything to do with his prosecution.
'Perfectly legal'
Don McGahn, a lawyer for DeLay's campaign, said the use of the campaign for the anti-Earle effort was "perfectly legal" and had nothing do with trying to sway jurors.
The indictment "is obvious big news in Texas, so it is obviously something the campaign should address for the voters whom it affects," McGahn said. "The intent is just for people to understand the truth. There is no other purpose here."
"Ronnie Earle is wrong on the facts. Ronnie Earle is wrong on the law," the Web site states as it analyzes the twists and turns in the case in the most favorable light to the congressman.
It also gives readers their own tools -- letting them send a letter to newspaper editors in support of DeLay, contact a radio talk show or e-mail DeLay's statement to friends.
And the Web site wouldn't be complete without the oldest pitch in politics.
"Make a contribution," it asks.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Wednesday his advisers were telling conservatives about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' religious beliefs because they are interested in her background and "part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."
"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush told reporters at the White House. "They want to know Harriet Miers' background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."
Bush, speaking at the conclusion of an Oval Office meeting with visiting Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, said that his advisers were reaching out to conservatives who oppose her nomination "just to explain the facts."
He spoke on a day in which conservative James Dobson, founder of Focus on Family, said he had discussed the nominee's religious views with presidential aide Karl Rove.
ederal Deficit Below Last Year's Record
Oct 15 2005 11:28AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal deficit hit $319 billion for the budget year just ended, down from last year's record red ink though a surge in Katrina-driven spending threatens to drive it up again.
The improvement from the record $413 billion recorded in the 2004 budget year, which the Treasury Department reported on Friday, is largely due to a surge in federal revenues from an improving economy.
The figures were released three days before Congress returns from a recess and commences a struggle to cut $35 billion from federal benefit programs over the next five years to help defray hurricane recovery costs. Friday's deficit figures underscored that even if lawmakers agree to such savings, they would have a barely visible effect on the overall red ink figure.
Despite the improvement from last year's budget gap, the 2005 shortfall was still the third-highest ever recorded. The government's 2005 budget year ended on Sept. 30.
Because hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in August and September, only about $4 billion of the $62 billion in emergency aid provided for the storms was actually spent in fiscal 2005, according to a senior Treasury official. Congressional analysts figure another $30 billion of those funds will be spent in the budget year that began Oct. 1, though more spending is likely to be approved in coming weeks.
The most recent White House estimate for the new fiscal year projects a $341 billion deficit, but that was issued before the hurricanes hit.
Republicans emphasized that the figure was an improvement from earlier deficit projections.
At the beginning of this year, the White House projected a $427 billion shortfall for 2005, which would have set another record in sheer dollar terms. The Congressional Budget Office forecast a gap of $365 billion, although both lowered their forecasts as the year progressed.
The improvements were due to a surge of 15 percent in federal revenues over 2004 levels. Meanwhile, spending went up 8 percent.
``Lower taxes and pro-growth economic policies have created millions of jobs and a growing economy that has swelled tax revenues over the past year,'' said Treasury Secretary John Snow. ``While deficits are never welcome, the fact that we finished FY 2005 with a much lower-than-expected deficit is encouraging news.''
The White House and most economists say the truest measure of the deficit is relative to the size of the economy. In those terms, the deficit measured 2.6 percent of gross domestic product. The 2004 deficit, by contrast, equaled 3.6 percent of GDP. That is well below the post-World War II worst-ever record, a 6 percent figure set in 1983 under President Reagan.
Democrats say that despite the improvement over 2004, the administration's record on the deficit isn't anything to be proud of. They add that congressional forecasts that factor in costs such as the war in Iraq, adjustments to the alternative minimum tax and the enactment of personal Social Security accounts, the deficit rises well above White House estimates.
``The deficit in 2006 is almost certain to increase, because the bulk of spending for Katrina and Rita will occur in 2006,'' said Rep. John Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. ``What's worse is that when the Congressional Budget Office factors the Bush agenda into the budget, CBO sees the deficit doubling to $640 billion in 2015.''
Indeed, the deficit picture remains far worse than when President Bush took office in 2001, when both White House and congressional forecasters projected cumulative surpluses of $5.6 trillion over the subsequent decade. Then, the White House forecast a surplus for 2005 of $269 billion.
Those earlier estimates assumed the revenue boom fueled by the surging stock market and worker productivity gains would continue. But that bubble burst and a recession and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults adversely affected the books.
Several rounds of tax cuts, including Bush's signature $1.35 trillion, 10-year 2001 tax cut also contributed to the return to deficits three years ago after four years of surpluses.
The White House has set a goal of cutting the deficit in half from the $521 billion prediction for 2004 that it issued at the beginning of that year.
The administration says it is still on track to reach that $260 billion goal by the time Bush leaves office. But administration budget projections leave out the long-term costs of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and have yet to be updated with cost estimates of hurricane relief.
Inflation In Sept. Highest Since '80
Federal Benefits To Rise Up to 4.1%
By Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 15, 2005; Page A01
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita helped make energy prices soar in September at the fastest rate on record, contributing to the highest monthly consumer price inflation in 25 years, the government reported yesterday.
The inflation spike means payments to millions of Americans receiving Social Security and other federal benefits will rise next year by the largest amount since 1991, because of automatic cost-of-living adjustments.
However, average wages for most workers have risen more slowly than prices over the past 12 months, leaving workers with less spending power than a year earlier.
Energy prices have eased a bit this month and other prices show no sign of breaking out of control, analysts said. The worst monthly inflation increase in a generation does not signal a return to the economic turbulence of the 1970s and early '80s, with double-digit inflation and interest rates. Global competition and a vigilant Federal Reserve should prevent that, they said.
But consumers will probably have to live with higher prices and rising interest rates for months to come. That mixture, at a time when household debt is high and savings are low, is already slowing economic growth, several analysts said.
LONDON (Reuters) - 2005 will be the second or third warmest year on record globally, Britain's national weather service said on Friday, as climate concerns build among people in polar and low-lying areas and in the insurance and utility industries.
"Whether it is second or third depends on how Siberia reacts between now and the end of the year," said Wayne Elliott, Met Office spokesman.
"1998 was the warmest ever, 2005 is looking at being second. It will be another very warm year generally, which is in line with global climate change research."
Republicans declining Senate runs
Concerns raised about recruiting efforts by party
By Charles Babington and Chris Cillizza, Washington Post | October 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Republican politicians in multiple states have decided recently not to run for the US Senate next year, stirring anxiety among Washington operatives about the effectiveness of the party's recruiting efforts and whether this signals a broader decline in GOP congressional prospects.
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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Prominent Republicans in recent days passed up races in North Dakota and West Virginia, both GOP-leaning states with potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Earlier, Republican recruiters on Capitol Hill and at the White House failed to lure their first choices to run in Florida, Michigan, and Vermont.
These setbacks have prompted grumbling. Some Republican operatives, including some who work closely with the White House, privately point to what they regard as a lackluster performance by Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the group that heads fund-raising and candidate recruitment for GOP senators.
But some strategists more sympathetic to Dole point the finger right back. With an unpopular war in Iraq, ethical controversies shadowing top Republicans in the House and Senate, and President George W. Bush getting the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, the waters look less inviting to politicians deciding whether to plunge into an election bid next year.
Additionally, some Capitol Hill operatives complain that preoccupied senior White House officials have been less engaged in candidate recruitment than they were in 2002 and 2004.
Lobbyists dominate La. reconstruction planning
By Alan C. Miller and Ken Silverstein, Los Angeles Times | October 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Lobbyists representing transportation, energy, and other special interests dominated panels that advised Louisiana's US senators crafting legislation to rebuild the storm-damaged Gulf Coast, records and interviews show.
The Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act -- introduced last month by Senators Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican -- included billions of dollars in business for clients of those lobbyists and a total price tag estimated as high as $250 billion.
One advisory panel member who discovered that most of his fellow panelists were lobbyists called the resulting legislation ''a huge injustice" to the state.
''I was basically shocked," said Ivor van Heerden, director of a hurricane public health research center at Louisiana State University. ''What do lobbyists know about a plan for the reconstruction and restoration of Louisiana?"
Iraq seeks arrest of former officials over missing defense funds
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press | October 11, 2005
BAGHDAD -- Iraq has issued arrest warrants against the defense minister and 27 other officials from the US-backed government of former prime minister Iyad Allawi over the alleged disappearance or misappropriation of $1 billion in military procurement funds, officials said yesterday.
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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Those accused include four other ministers from Allawi's government, which was replaced by an elected Cabinet led by Shi'ite parties in April, said Ali al-Lami of Iraq's Integrity Commission. Many of the officials are believed to have left Iraq, including Hazem Shaalan, the former defense minister who moved to Jordan shortly after the new government was installed.
For months, Iraqi investigators have been looking into allegations that millions of dollars were spent on overpriced deals for shoddy weapons and military hardware, apparently to launder cash, at a time when Iraq was battling a bloody insurgency that still persists.
Floodwall Overtopping May Not Be to Blame
Focus Now on New Orleans's Shifting Soil
By Peter Whoriskey and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 8, 2005; Page A11
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 7 -- The system of levees and concrete walls that was supposed to protect the New Orleans area from flooding was breached in dozens of places, investigators said Friday, a finding that indicates that the failures were far more widespread than originally thought.
Engineers probing the failures said they are increasingly convinced that floodwaters did not overtop two key floodwalls that collapsed on Aug. 29, swamping large portions of the city. Instead, evidence suggests that the floodwalls were weakened by the shifting soil beneath the structures, according to a team of experts from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In the early days after the storm, accounts offered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others focused attention on a few of the most prominent breaches. But the team of engineers working with the Corps said the places where water broke through were much more numerous.
"This place was ripped to shreds. I was amazed," said Peter Nicholson, a University of Hawaii professor of civil engineering who is part of the investigating team. "There were dozens and dozens of breaches."
Engineers from ASCE and an NSF-funded group at the University of California at Berkeley have been poking through the wreckage of the levees to determine what went wrong.
Many miles of earthen berms and concrete walls are supposed to prevent the low-lying city from being inundated by the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and other nearby waters. The engineers said Friday that the system failed in a number of ways.
At two key breaches where huge volumes of water inundated the city -- at the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal -- the quality of the soil supporting the flood walls appears to have been a problem.
At the 17th Street Canal, they said, a section of the levee embankment moved back 35 feet. There is evidence of a similar "soil mass movement" at one of two London Avenue sites. The engineers speculate that either the pressure on the walls pushed them back against the soft soil or water seeping beneath the walls softened the soil, weakening the wall's support. "The soil moved," said Paul Mlakar of the Army Corps of Engineers. "The exact mechanism is not known at this time."
The soil in the area, composed of sand, silt, clay and peat is "compressible and not very strong," said Raymond Seed, a professor of civil engineering at UC-Berkeley.
An extensive analysis at the two canal locations has virtually ruled out overtopping as the cause of the failures, the engineers said. Overtopping occurs when rising waters spill over the top of a floodwall. The analysis shows that the water levels in both the London Avenue and 17th Street canals missed the top of the floodwalls by at least two feet, Nicholson said.
Many levees and flood walls did overtop. In some cases, catastrophic failures followed the overtoppings because the rushing floodwaters wore away the ground supporting the walls and the walls fell over.
"Some were simply overwhelmed and largely destroyed," Nicholson said. "However, many miles of levees performed satisfactorily, even many that were overtopped."
Concern about the inferior quality of the soil beneath the floodwalls is not new. In the early 1990s, a New Orleans-based contractor filed a legal claim against the Corps alleging that the soil beneath the floodwall on the 17th Street Canal was poor. A judge dismissed the contractor's complaint in 1996.
The teams investigating the floodwall failures say that a thin band of soft, peatlike soil lay more than 20 feet below the walls at both the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. But because the layer was deep and narrow, the crews that initially built the walls did not discover it, the engineers said.
"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
Nazi Herman Goering on Military Recruting
WEST BEND, Wis. (AP) - Pat Faragher has a sure-fire way to get out of jury duty - he'll just excuse himself.
Faragher, a Washington County Circuit judge, was summoned for jury duty recently in his own court. He has his excuse already prepared: "I think I'll just say it may not be a good idea to be summoned to my own court."
Jury clerk Deb Donath said a computer randomly compiles juror lists from information provided by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. "I can't pull any names out, not even his in his own branch," she said of the judge.
Faragher also has been summoned for jury duty in the court of a colleague, Judge Andy Gonring.
"Andy thought it was hilarious," Faragher said.
Rove's Testimony a Risky Move, Legal Experts Say, but Not Testifying Also Might Be Risky
Skip directly to the full story.
By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 7, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential aide Karl Rove's upcoming fourth appearance before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity is a risky legal move because it opens him up to making statements that are inconsistent with what he previously has said, legal experts say.
Rove offered in July to return to the grand jury and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald accepted last Friday, lawyers familiar with the investigation said Thursday, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
The grand jury normally meets on Fridays and was also scheduled to convene next week, but it was unclear when Rove would testify again.
"In a normal criminal investigation, most defense lawyers are extremely cautious about their clients testifying even once before a grand jury and are generally loathe to let them testify more than once," said former federal prosecutor E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. "This is a classic example of what happens when there's a large political overlay to a criminal investigation."
At the same time, it may be risky for Rove not to testify, since Fitzgerald warned Rove that prosecutors can no longer guarantee he won't be indicted. The warning came in a letter accepting Rove's offer to testify one more time.
Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor, said it was unusual for a witness to be called back to a grand jury four times and that the prosecutor's legally required warning to Rove before this next appearance is "an ominous sign" for the presidential adviser.
"It suggests Fitzgerald has learned new information that is tightening the noose," Gillers said.
After last week's appearance before the grand jury by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Gillers said Fitzgerald may now suspect that Rove may in some way be implicated in the revelation of Valerie Plame's identity, or that he is investigating various people for obstruction of justice, false statements or perjury.
Making a Mockery of Conservation
By Kelpie Wilson, TruthOut.org
Posted on October 7, 2005, Printed on October 7, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/26504/
A senior energy analyst at the recent API (American Petroleum Institute) convention warned that if the U.S. petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capacity, it will never see any substantial increase in refining margins...
- Internal Chevron document, November 30, 1995
Billionaire oil baron John Paul Getty knew that the secret to accumulating great wealth was to never miss an opportunity. He even installed a pay telephone at his English country estate to ensure that guests paid for their own calls. If he wasn't going to get your dime one way, he'd get it another.
The Bush regime follows the same methods to accumulate wealth and power, and they've had no trouble finding ways to use the recent hurricane disasters to keep fortunes flowing their way.
Bush and the Republicans have a well-known agenda of removing all regulatory restrictions on industry. They have already suspended labor and contracting laws to "speed" Gulf Coast reconstruction. Now they are using the disaster-spawned energy crunch to break down environmental laws and restrictions that they failed to destroy with last summer's energy bill. Three big ones are now in their sights: the Clean Air Act, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and restrictions on offshore oil drilling.
The House is scheduled to vote today on what's being called the "refinery bill" after the perceived need to hurry up and build a lot of new oil refineries. All summer long (since well before hurricane season), the business press was blaming high gas prices on a lack of refinery capacity. Supposedly, strict environmental laws have kept new refineries from being built. But the reality is far different.
Several years ago, Senator Ron Wyden's office started looking into the issue of U.S. refinery capacity and found documents -- oil industry internal memos -- that show that oil companies deliberately shut down refineries all through the 1990s in order to keep supply throttled and profit margins high.
Wyden stated: "Information I have received during my ongoing investigation raises serious concerns that the nation's major oil suppliers have set out in a strategic effort to orchestrate a financial triple play, a coordinated effort that would reduce supply, raise prices at the pump and relax environmental regulations."
Between 1995 and 2001, 24 refinery closings took offline nearly 830,000 barrels of oil per day. At the same time, oil industry profits rose hugely. Taking the example of Texaco, the report found that while the company's production steadily decreased from 1998 to 2000, its net income more than quadrupled during the same period. Texaco gets high marks as an energy hog. You can read Wyden's report here. [PDF]
Now that they've got the reduced supply and high prices they wanted, the oil industry is working on the relaxing-environmental-rules part of their triple play, and that's what the refinery bill is really about.
The real target of the refinery bill is the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR). The NSR program requires owners of aging power plants and industrial facilities to modernize pollution controls whenever they expand their facilities and increase emissions. But the refinery bill doesn't just exempt refineries from New Source Review requirements. It exempts ALL energy industry facilities -- approximately 20,000 large industrial facilities and power plants across the country -- not just on the Gulf Coast.
The refinery bill would also allow cities with the worst smog problems to simply skip their cleanup deadlines for years. And it would take refinery permitting authority away from states, keeping the power flowing to the federal government.
The bill would also repeal the one environmental accomplishment that the Bush administration can take credit for: EPA's new clean diesel standards. A great chance to clean up that mistake!
The public learned this week that House Republicans would not try to open up the Arctic Refuge and protected offshore areas to oil drilling with this refinery bill, but it will be a short respite. Republicans will insert both items into the budget reconciliation process that starts at the end of October. That's how it works. They never miss an opportunity.
It was a little disconcerting to see that the Bush administration has actually launched an energy conservation program as announced this week. It's just not like them. Could they be slipping? Trying to give something back to the little people? Perhaps something like the two-billion-dollar program the Canadian government just approved to give rebates to people struggling with high energy costs?
But no worries, Bush's program is nothing but an ad campaign that uses a cartoon mascot, "Energy Hog," to pass out tips to consumers to help "put the chill on winter energy bills."
The only problem is that Energy Hog is dressed like a punk anarchist, with spiky hair and piercings. He looks nothing at all like J. Paul Getty. Kids might get the wrong idea.
Woman Booted Off Flight For Anti-Bush Shirt
POSTED: 12:49 pm EDT October 6, 2005
RENO -- A Washington state woman was bounced from a Southwest Airlines flight in Reno for wearing a T-shirt with the pictures of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and the F-word.
The shirt was a play on words taken from the movie "Meet the Fockers." It had the title of the movie, with the last word changed to a curse word, according to KRNV-TV in Reno.
Lorrie Heasley said she plans to press a civil-rights complaint against the airline over Tuesday's action at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Heasley said the airline offered to let her continue her flight if she were to change her shirt, which she refused to do.
"I didn't feel that I should have to change my shirt, because we live in the United States, and it's freedom of speech and it was based on the movie 'The Fockers,' and I didn't think it should have offended anyone," Heasley told KRNV.
Southwest officials said other passengers complained about her shirt, and that rules prohibit offensive clothing.
DeLay and Successor Blunt Swapped Donations Between Secretive Groups SHARON THEIMER Associated Press Writers
Skip directly to the full story.
By John Solomon and
WASHINGTON (AP) - Reps. Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt, the deputy who succeeded him as House majority leader, orchestrated a political money carousel in 2000 that diverted donations secretly collected for presidential convention parties to some of their own pet causes.
When it all ended, DeLay's private charity, along with the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son, Matt, who now is the state's governor, all ended up with a piece of the pie, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
Congress Seeks to Slash Food Aid for Poor, Conservation
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats are fighting attempts to make cuts in food stamps and conservation programs at a time when people are coping with hurricanes and drought.
"Right now the difference between life and death for many Americans is the food stamp program," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. "We should not, we cannot, cut the very nutritional programs that are literally saving lives."
A Republican plan to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion was scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Senate Agriculture Committee. But a spokesman for the panel's chairman, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said late Wednesday that the vote was being put off indefinitely. He didn't offer a reason.
The bill by Chambliss would cut food programs for the poor by $574 million and conservation programs and farm payments by more than $1 billion each.
Bush seeks military option on bird flu
Suggests troops should be sent in if outbreak occurs
By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press | October 5, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, stirring debate on the worrisome possibility of a bird flu pandemic, suggested dispatching American troops to enforce quarantines in any areas with outbreaks of the killer virus.
Bush asserted aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling US outbreak of a bird flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing specialists to fear it could become the next deadly pandemic. Citing concern that state and local authorities might be unable to contain such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military.
The president has already indicated he wants to give the armed forces lead responsibility for conducting search-and-rescue operations and sending in supplies after massive natural disasters and terrorist attacks -- a strategy that could require a change in law and that some in the Pentagon have reacted to skeptically.
For some, the idea raised the image of soldiers cordoning off communities hit by disease.
''The president ought to have all . . . assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," Bush said during a 55-minute question-and-answer session with reporters in the Rose Garden.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, called the president's suggestion an ''extraordinarily draconian measure" that would be unnecessary if the nation had built the capability for rapid vaccine production.
''The translation of this is martial law in the United States," Redlener said.
Role of Rove, Libby in CIA Leak Case Clearer
Bush and Cheney Aides' Testimony Contradicts Earlier White House Statement
By Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 2, 2005; Page A05
As the CIA leak investigation heads toward its expected conclusion this month, it has become increasingly clear that two of the most powerful men in the Bush administration were more involved in the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame than the White House originally indicated.
With New York Times reporter Judith Miller's release from jail Thursday and testimony Friday before a federal grand jury, the role of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, came into clearer focus. Libby, a central figure in the probe since its earliest days and the vice president's main counselor, discussed Plame with at least two reporters but testified that he never mentioned her name or her covert status at the CIA, according to lawyers in the case.
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating the leak. (Kevin Wolf - AP)
His story is similar to that of Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser. Rove, who was not an initial focus of the investigation, testified that he, too, talked with two reporters about Plame but never supplied her name or CIA role.
Their testimony seems to contradict what the White House was saying a few months after Plame's CIA job became public.
Another Law Under Assault
The post-Katrina agitation to repeal the Posse Comitatus Act comes in the wake of another assault on a venerable protection of the rights of Americans, namely the web of Executive Orders and regulations restricting military and civilian intelligence agencies from collecting information on U.S. citizens.
Today in DC: Commandos in the Streets?
Today, somewhere in the DC metropolitan area, the military is conducting a highly classified Granite Shadow "demonstration."
Granite Shadow is yet another new Top Secret and compartmented operation related to the military’s extra-legal powers regarding weapons of mass destruction. It allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control.
Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Photos By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 29, 7:00 PM ET
NEW YORK - A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of dozens more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting government arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said that terrorists "do not need pretexts for their barbarism" and that suppressing the pictures would amount to submitting to blackmail.
"Our nation does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command. Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed," he said.
Hellerstein ordered the release of 74 pictures and three videotapes from the Abu Ghraib prison, potentially opening the military up to more embarrassment from a scandal that stirred outrage around the world last year when photos of 2003 abuse became public.
The photographs covered by Thursday's ruling were taken by a soldier. A military policeman who saw them turned them over to the Army. Some may be duplicates of photos already seen by the public.
An appeal of Hellerstein's ruling is expected, which could delay release of the pictures for months.
Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that releasing the photos would hinder his work against terrorism.
"When we continue to pick at the wound and show the pictures over and over again it just creates the image — a false image — like this is the sort of stuff that is happening anew, and it's not," Abizaid said.
Updated: 8:18 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2005
WASHINGTON - Two female gorillas have been photographed using sticks as tools to get through swampy areas, the first time the apes have been seen doing so in the wild, researchers reported on Thursday.
“This is a truly astounding discovery,” said Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who led the study.
The findings can help shed light on how human beings came to use tools, and also broaden the understanding of how animals use them, the researchers said.
Although there are reports of tool use by captive gorillas, including object throwing and use of tools in feeding, there has been to our knowledge no reported case of tool use in by wild gorillas, despite decades of field research,” they wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science Biology, an online journal.
Tools often used in captivity
All great apes use tools in captivity, but scientists have worried that this does not necessarily reflect natural behavior, just something copied from humans.
“Tool usage in wild apes provides us with valuable insights into the evolution of our own species and the abilities of other species. Seeing it for the first time in gorillas is important on many different levels.”
They describe the two instances in the northern rain forests of the Republic of Congo.
“We first observed an adult female gorilla using a branch as a walking stick to test water deepness and to aid in her attempt to cross a pool of water at Mbeli Bai, a swampy forest clearing in northern Congo,” Breuer and his international colleagues wrote.
In the second case, they saw another pull up a dead shrub.
“She forcefully pushed it into the ground with both hands and held the tool for support with her left hand over her head for two minutes while dredging food with the other hand,” they wrote. “Efi then took the trunk with both hands and placed it on the swampy ground in front of her, crossed bipedally on this self-made bridge, and walked quadrupedally towards the middle of the clearing.”
Chimps and crows use tools, too
Chimpanzees, closely related bonobos and other apes have also been seen using tools in the wild — for instance, to catch termites. And other animals such as crows have been seen using them. But never wild gorillas.
“Information on tool use and factors favoring tool use in wild apes helps us to understand its importance in the evolution of our own species,” Breuer and his colleagues, Mireille Ndoundou-Hockemba and Vicki Fishlock, wrote.
The gorillas live in a protected area, and the researchers said this was key.
“These protected areas are not only important for the conservation of species they contain, they also hold the key to comparing our own development as a species with our next of kin,” Breuer said in a statement.
William Bennett Defends Comment on Abortion and Crime'Book of Virtues' Author Says Hypothetical Remark Was Valid
By JAKE TAPPER
Sept. 29, 2005 — After pondering on his radio program how aborting every black infant in America would affect crime rates, best-selling author and self-styled "Values Czar" Bill Bennett is vehemently denying he is a racist and defending his willingness to speak publicly about race and crime.
On the Wednesday edition of his radio show, "Bill Bennett's Morning in America," syndicated by Salem Radio Network, a caller raised the theory that Social Security is in danger of becoming insolvent because legalized abortion has reduced the number of tax-paying citizens. Bennett said economic arguments should never be employed in discussions of moral issues.
If it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, Bennett said, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.
"That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he added.
'N.Y. Times' reporter freed to testify on CIA leak
WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Times reporter Judith Miller appeared for testimony before a federal grand jury Friday, throwing a spotlight once again on the White House role in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.
Judith Miller will appear before a grand jury Friday in the government's CIA leak probe.
Freed after 85 days in a federal detention center, Miller arrived at about 8:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse to testify for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation about her conversations in July 2003 with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Miller said in a statement that her source — identified by the Times as Libby — had released her from her promise of confidentiality.
Bush Pardons Coal Mine Bomber, 13 Others
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
President Bush granted pardons Wednesday to 14 people, including a member of the mineworkers union who was convicted for his role in bombings at a West Virginia coal mine, a counterfeiter and a bootlegger.
Jesse Ray Harvey of Scarbro, W.Va., was given a 25-month sentence in 1990 after his conviction for using explosives to damage Milburn Colliery. The mine had been the target of a long strike by about 45 members of a United Mine Workers local.
Bush has issued 60 pardons and sentence commutations during 56 months in office.
His father, former President George H.W. Bush, issued 77 pardons during his single term, from 1989 to 1993, according to statistics collected by the University of Pittsburgh law school
Cops fire 77 bullets at gunman
BY VERONIKA BELENKAYA and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Firing 77 bullets, cops wounded an ex-con early yesterday after he shot at another man and turned his weapon on police outside a Manhattan housing project, authorities and witnesses said.
Cedrick Rooks began spraying bullets outside the Taft Houses shortly before 1a.m. and was still waving his .32-caliber gun when he was confronted by a dozen cops, witnesses said.
He allegedly shot five to seven times at the cops before his gun jammed.
Six officers from Manhattan's 23rd and 28th Precincts and an NYPD housing unit fired at least 77 rounds at Rooks in two bursts of gunfire, said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.
Rooks, who was on parole for a robbery conviction, was hit in the hip, neck and shoulder in front of 5 E. 115th St. He was in stable condition yesterday at Harlem Hospital. No cops were wounded.
"The cop was like, 'Get down!' And the guy didn't get down," said a 23-year-old woman who witnessed the shootout. "He shot at the other boys and at the police."
Top U.S. General Says Number of Capable Iraqi Battalions Drops to One
Skip directly to the full story.
By Liz Sidoti Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 29, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of Iraqi battalions capable of combat without U.S. support has dropped from three to one, the top American commander in Iraq told Congress Thursday, prompting Republicans to question whether U.S. troops will be able to withdraw next year.
Gen. George Casey, softening his previous comments that a "fairly substantial" pull out could begin next spring and summer, told lawmakers that troops might begin coming home from Iraq next year depending on conditions during and after the upcoming elections there.
"The next 75 days are going to be critical for what happens," Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Bush administration says training Iraqi security forces to defend their own country is the key to bringing home U.S. troops. But Republicans pressed Casey on whether the United States was backsliding in its efforts to train Iraqis.
In June, the Pentagon told lawmakers that three Iraqi battalions were fully trained, equipped and capable of operating independently. On Thursday, Casey said only one battalion is ready.
"It doesn't feel like progress," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Despite the drop, Casey hailed significant progress in training Iraqi security forces and noted that U.S. troops are embedded with more Iraqi units in mentoring roles than before. "Have we lost ground? Absolutely not," Casey said.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Three suicide attackers detonated car bombs nearly simultaneously in a mainly Shiite town north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 60 people and wounding 70 others, a hospital official said. In the western town of Ramadi, the military said a roadside bomb killed five American soldiers.
FEMA's Brown was warned early of shortages
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown defends his response to Hurricane Katrina on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005, during testimony before a House select committee investigating preparation and response to the hurricane. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
By Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press Writer | September 29, 2005
WASHINGTON --Former FEMA director Michael Brown was warned weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit that his agency's backlogged computer systems could delay supplies and put personnel at risk during an emergency, according to an audit released Wednesday.
An internal review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's information-sharing system shows it was overwhelmed during the 2004 hurricane season. The audit was released a day after Brown vehemently defended FEMA for the government's dismal response to Katrina, instead blaming state and local officials for poor planning and chaos during the Aug. 29 storm and subsequent flooding.
The review by Homeland Security Department acting Inspector General Richard L. Skinner examined FEMA's response to four major hurricanes and a tropical storm that hit Florida and the Gulf Coast in August and September 2004. It noted FEMA's mission during disasters as rapid response and coordinating efforts among federal, state and local authorities.
"However, FEMA's systems do not support effective or efficient coordination of deployment operations because there is no sharing of information," the audit found. "Consequently, this created operational inefficiencies and hindered the delivery of essential disaster response and recovery services," it said.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said parts of the report were misleading because FEMA's system was never designed to track supplies -- although it is now testing a Global Positioning System program, used during Katrina, to do just that.
"We are taking a look at a broad range of issues that have come up as a result of the hurricane," Knocke said. "Obviously, logistics support systems present some concerns and that is an area that we will address moving forward."
In an Aug. 3 response, Brown and one of his deputies rejected the audit, calling it unacceptable, erroneous and negative.
"The overall tone of the report is negative," wrote FEMA chief information officer Barry C. West in an Aug. 3 letter that Brown initialed.
"We believe this characterization is inaccurate and does not acknowledge the highly performing, well managed and staffed (informational technology) systems supporting FEMA incident response and recovery."
Among the problems the audit identified:
--FEMA's system could not track and coordinate delivery of ice and water to Florida, resulting in millions of dollars worth of ice left unused at response centers, and $1.6 million in leftover water returned to storage.
--An estimated 200,000 victims had to wait for temporary housing aid from disaster assistance employees because of backlogged computers.
--Emergency personnel were potentially put at risk because the system did not provide real-time disaster warnings and other information.
Reilly sues Wilkerson over campaign finances
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | September 29, 2005
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, her political career already marked by a federal tax conviction and other financial violations, was sued yesterday by Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly for numerous alleged campaign law violations from 2000 and 2001, including failure to report $26,935 in political donations and failure to explain $18,277 paid to her by her political committee.
The lawsuit filed by Reilly and the head of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance said that the violations are ''more pervasive" than similar campaign finance violations in 1998 that led to an agreement in which Wilkerson paid $11,500 in civil penalties. The complaint also said that Reilly and the campaign finance office had given the Boston Democrat repeated opportunities to explain the more recent discrepancies in her campaign finance reports, but that she has been ''unable or unwilling to provide such information."
''The prolonged noncompliance of Wilkerson and the Committee with these requirements . . . has made it impossible for OCPF to determine, and for the citizens of the Commonwealth to ascertain, how and from whom Wilkerson, as a member of the Senate, raised campaign funds, and to whom and for what purposes the Committee paid those funds out," the complaint said.
Gas prices blamed for record past-due credit accounts
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The percentage of credit card payments that were past due shot up to a record 4.81% in the second quarter as surging gasoline prices strained budgets and made it difficult for some people to pay their bills.
The American Bankers Association said Wednesday that the seasonally adjusted percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due in the April-to-June quarter was the highest since the association began collecting this information in 1973. That follows a delinquency rate of 4.76% in the first quarter.
"The rise in gas prices is really stretching budgets to the breaking point for some people," the association's chief economist, Jim Chessen, said in an interview. "Gas prices are taking huge chunks out of wallets, leaving some individuals with little left to meet their financial obligations."
And that report was for a period before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita send energy prices into the stratosphere.
While Chessen mostly blamed high gasoline prices for the rise in credit card delinquencies, other factors played a role, he said.
With personal savings rates dismally low, people have less of a cushion to absorb the big jumps in energy, Chessen said. The personal savings rate dipped to a record low, negative 0.6%, in July.
Rising borrowing costs also probably contributed to the spike in credit card delinquencies, he said.
On CNN. MSNBC, etc.:
BREAKING NEWS: A Texas grand jury today charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader. --Developing
Bush warns of upsurge of violence in Iraq
President Bush listens to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, left, as acting FEMA director David Paulison, right, looks on during a statement in front of a damaged hanger at Northrop Grumman in Lake Charles, La., Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005. Bush was getting a personal look at Hurricane Rita's damage to U.S. energy resources while visiting Lake Charles, La., and Beaumont, Texas. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer | September 28, 2005
WASHINGTON --President Bush on Wednesday warned there will be an upsurge in violence in Iraq before next month's voting, but said the terrorists will fail. "Our troops are ready," he said.
Bush's remarks in the Rose Garden came a day after Iraqi and U.S. forces announced they had killed Abdullah Abu Azzam, the No. 2 al-Qaida leader in Iraq, during a weekend raid in Baghdad.
"This guy's a brutal killer," Bush said. (heh heh)
Al-Qaida in Iraq issued an Internet statement denying that Abu Azzam was its deputy leader, calling him "one of al-Qaida's many soldiers" and "the leader of one its battalions operating in Baghdad." The U.S.-led coalition, however, called Abu Azzam the mastermind of an escalation in suicide bombings that have killed nearly 700 people in Baghdad since April.
"We can expect they'll do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom," Bush said. "And our troops are ready for it."
Reuters says US troops obstruct reporting of Iraq
A U.S soldier unlocks a gate as Iraqi detainees stand in line to be releases from Abu Ghraib prison in the town of Abu Ghraib, 33 km (21 miles) west of Baghdad September 26, 2005. (REUTERS/Pool/Wathiq Khuzaie)
By Barry Moody | September 28, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - The conduct of U.S. troops in Iraq, including increasing detention and accidental shootings of journalists, is preventing full coverage of the war reaching the American public, Reuters said on Wednesday.
In a letter to Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Reuters said U.S. forces were limiting the ability of independent journalists to operate.
The letter from Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger called on Warner to raise widespread media concerns about the conduct of U.S. troops with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is due to testify to the committee on Thursday.
Schlesinger referred to "a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained, and/or illegally abused by U.S. forces in Iraq."
He urged Warner to demand that Rumsfeld resolve these issues "in a way that best balances the legitimate security interests of the U.S. forces in Iraq and the equally legitimate rights of journalists in conflict zones under international law."
At least 66 journalists and media workers, most of them Iraqis, have been killed in the Iraq conflict since March 2003.
U.S. forces acknowledge killing three Reuters journalists, most recently soundman Waleed Khaled who was shot by American soldiers on August 28 while on assignment in Baghdad. But the military say the soldiers were justified in opening fire.
Reuters believes a fourth journalist working for the agency, who died in Ramadi last year, was killed by a U.S. sniper.
"The worsening situation for professional journalists in Iraq directly limits journalists' abilities to do their jobs and, more importantly, creates a serious chilling effect on the media overall," Schlesinger wrote.
"By limiting the ability of the media to fully and independently cover the events in Iraq, the U.S. forces are unduly preventing U.S. citizens from receiving information...and undermining the very freedoms the U.S. says it is seeking to foster every day that it commits U.S. lives and U.S. dollars," the letter said.
"SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL"
Schlesinger said the U.S. military had refused to conduct independent and transparent investigations into the deaths of the Reuters journalists, relying instead on inquiries by officers from the units responsible, who had exonerated their soldiers.
The U.S. military had failed even to implement recommendations by its own inquiry into one of the deaths, that of award-winning Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana who was shot dead while filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in August 2003.
Schlesinger said Reuters and other reputable international news organizations were concerned by the "sizeable and rapidly increasing number of journalists detained by U.S. forces."
He said most of these detentions had been prompted by legitimate journalistic activity such as possessing photographs and video of insurgents, which U.S. soldiers assumed showed sympathy with the insurgency.
In most cases the journalists were held for long periods at Abu Ghraib or Camp Bucca prisons before being released without charge.
At least four journalists working for international media are currently being held without charge or legal representation in Iraq. They include two cameramen working for Reuters and a freelance reporter who sometimes works for the agency.
A cameraman working for the U.S. network CBS has been detained since April despite an Iraqi court saying his case does not justify prosecution. Iraq's justice minister has criticized the system of military detentions without charge.
Schlesinger's letter said: "It appears as though the U.S. forces in Iraq either completely misunderstand the role of professional journalists or do not know how to deal with journalists in a conflict zone, or both."
Reuters and other media organizations in Iraq had repeatedly tried to hold a dialogue with the Pentagon to establish appropriate guidelines on how to safeguard journalists. These efforts had failed "and the situation is now spiraling out of control," Schlesinger said.
He asked Warner to question Rumsfeld specifically about the rules of engagement toward professional journalists, the failure to hold independent investigations into shooting incidents and to ask what was the guidance to U.S. forces on how to distinguish legitimate journalists from insurgents.
Explosion rocks Baghdad bus; 2 Americans killed
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated hidden explosives on a small bus in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least five people, and two American soldiers died in separate attacks, authorities said.
One of the Americans died in a roadside bombing between the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, while the other was killed by small arms fire in Ramadi, the U.S. military said.
The deaths raised to 1,912 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
President Bush, briefed at the Pentagon on Thursday, acknowledged the loss of American lives and said, "We'll honor their sacrifice by completing the mission and winning the war on terrorism." (and getting more killed)
He added that withdrawing American forces from Iraq would make the world more dangerous and allow terrorists "to claim an historic victory over the United States."
Obviously he's forgot about Lebanon.........Vietnam..........Somalia..............Korea........
In Break With Tradition, Casinos May Get Tax Breaks, Too
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 22, 2005; Page A01
National gambling companies -- already rushing to rebuild casinos on the Gulf Coast -- would be granted access to millions of dollars in tax breaks under President Bush's plan to entice businesses into the Katrina disaster zone.
In a break from previous Gulf Coast economic development practices, White House officials said they do not plan to exclude the gambling industry from huge tax write-offs for investment in equipment and structures in the president's proposed Gulf Opportunity Zone. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) endorsed that policy yesterday, saying, "They should be treated like any other business. That's the way we do it in Mississippi."
The Grand Casino barge, which was washed up onto the highway during Hurricane Katrina, is demolished. (By Steve Helber -- Associated Press)
INTERACTIVE MAP:
Katrina's Aftermath in the Gulf Coast
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Hurricane Katrina brought unprecedented destruction to the Gulf Coast. View the Post's multimedia coverage of the disaster. (Ricky Carioti - The Washington Post)
In Focus -- Accountability
This collection showcases Washington Post reporting on the debate over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and its pre-storm planning.
Katrina's Aftermath -- Accountability
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But economic development officials in the state say Mississippi does not do it that way. The gambling industry largely has been excluded by statute from economic development incentives, said Brian Richard, former director of research at the Mississippi Gaming Association and an economic development expert at the University of Southern Mississippi. Until recently, the casinos even were prohibited from conducting employee training on state property, said Bill Crawford, deputy director of the Mississippi Development Authority.
"The casinos don't need this," said William F. Shughart II, an economist at the University of Mississippi. "If they are [eligible], that would be a complete waste of money."
In fact, the casino industry is trying to appeal to governments by saying it will provide jobs and tax revenue, said Alberto Lopez, director of strategic communication at Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which lost two major casinos on the Mississippi coast. "We're actually scratching our heads. We can't ever remember an instance of being offered a tax credit -- ever."
Defense Spending Is Overstated, GAO Report Says
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 22, 2005; Page A23
The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress's ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.
The Defense Department has reported spending $191 billion to fight terrorism from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks through May 2005, with the annual sum ballooning from $11 billion in fiscal 2002 to a projected $71 billion in fiscal 2005. But the GAO investigation found many inaccuracies totaling billions of dollars.
Acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison was once the fire chief of which city's fire department?
"Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent," the report to Congress stated. The GAO said the problem is rooted in long-standing weaknesses in the Pentagon's outmoded financial management system, which is designed to handle small-scale contingencies.
The report said the Pentagon overstated the cost of mobilized Army reservists in fiscal 2004 by as much as $2.1 billion. Because the Army lacked a reliable process to identify the military personnel costs, it plugged in numbers to match the available budget, the report stated. "Effectively, the Army was reporting back to Congress exactly what it had appropriated," the report said.
The probe also found "inadvertent double accounting" by the Navy and Marine Corps from November 2004 to April 2005 amounting to almost $1.8 billion.
The report turned up aberrations in imminent-danger pay -- $225 a month offered to military personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries -- which had "little correlation with the numbers of deployed personnel." That pay totaled $38 million in April 2004, implying that 170,000 military personnel were receiving it, but by August 2004 it had mushroomed to $231 million, suggesting that more than 1 million U.S. troops were serving in danger zones.
The report comes as budgetary pressures are mounting on the Pentagon from Gulf Coast hurricanes and the ongoing fighting in Iraq. "This is a very expensive and long-term endeavor," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) after a closed briefing on Iraq yesterday with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
The Pentagon agreed "generally" with the GAO's recommendations, and announced it would take "immediate action" to strengthen procedures for reporting war costs, according to a letter from Undersecretary of Defense Tina W. Jonas.
Jonas, the comptroller, disagreed with a GAO proposal that the Pentagon issue guidelines to promote costs controlling by U.S. military commanders, and said it had partially accounted for some of the overstated costs.
This is global warming, says environmental chief
As Hurricane Rita threatens devastation, scientist blames climate change
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Published: 23 September 2005
Super-powerful hurricanes now hitting the United States are the "smoking gun" of global warming, one of Britain's leading scientists believes.
The growing violence of storms such as Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans, and Rita, now threatening Texas, is very probably caused by climate change, said Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Hurricanes were getting more intense, just as computer models predicted they would, because of the rising temperature of the sea, he said. "The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming."
In a series of outspoken comments - a thinly veiled attack on the Bush administration, Sir John hit out at neoconservatives in the US who still deny the reality of climate change.
Referring to the arrival of Hurricane Rita he said: "If this makes the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation." As he spoke, more than a million people were fleeing north away from the coast of Texas as Rita, one of the most intense storms on record, roared through the Gulf of Mexico. It will probably make landfall tonight or early tomorrow near Houston, America's fourth largest city and the centre of its oil industry. Highways leading inland from Houston were clogged with traffic for up to 100 miles north.
There are real fears that Houston could suffer as badly from Rita just as New Orleans suffered from Hurricane Katrina less than a month ago.
Asked what conclusion the Bush administration should draw from two hurricanes of such high intensity hitting the US in quick succession, Sir John said: "If what looks like is going to be a horrible mess causes the extreme sceptics about climate change in the US to reconsider their opinion, that would be an extremely valuable outcome."
Asked about characterising them as "loonies", he said: "There are a group of people in various parts of the world ... who simply don't want to accept human activities can change climate and are changing the climate."
"I'd liken them to the people who denied that smoking causes lung cancer."
With his comments, Sir John becomes the third of the leaders of Britain's scientific establishment to attack the US over the Bush government's determination to cast doubt on global warming as a real phenomenon.
Sir John's comments follow and support recent research, much of it from America itself, showing that hurricanes are getting more violent and suggesting climate change is the cause.
A paper by US researchers, last week in the US journal Science, showed that storms of the intensity of Hurricane Katrina have become almost twice as common in the past 35 years.
Although the overall frequency of tropical storms worldwide has remained broadly level since 1970, the number of extreme category 4 and 5 events has sharply risen. In the 1970s, there was an average of about 10 category 4 and 5 hurricanes per year but, since 1990, they have nearly doubled to an average of about 18 a year. During the same period, sea surface temperatures, among the key drivers of hurricane intensity, have increased by an average of 0.5C (0.9F).
Sir John said: "Increasingly it looks like a smoking gun. It's a fair conclusion to draw that global warming, caused to a substantial extent by people, is driving increased sea surface temperatures and increasing the violence of hurricanes."
CBS5) The presence of the supernatural and the influence of voodoo long have been synonymous with New Orleans.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, members of the U.S. military are saying that there's something spooky going on and it's not just images of death and destruction that's haunting them.
By all accounts, the Sophie B. Wright Middle School in New Orleans sits empty and evacuated except for military personnel who have taken over the campus as a staging site for missions around the battered city.
But the men in uniform have the feeling that they're not alone. It prompted a chaplain to utter this directive: "In the name of Jesus Chris, I command you Satan to leave the dark areas of this building."
Said Sgt. Robin Hairston of the California National Guard: "I was in my sleeping bag and I opened by eyes and in the doorway was a little girl," . "It wasn't my imagination."
Hairston wasn't the only one seeing things. Spc. Rosales Leanor had her own close encounter.
"I was using the restroom and I just saw a little shadow," Leanor said, "kind of looming in front of me."
Another member of the Guard unit said that she saw and heard a little girl laughing when she opened a closet that contained cleaning supplies.
At a Baton Rouge marina, boats were strewn like trash, but not a shred of paper could be found. Except for the pages of a Bible, which was found by a soldier. It was open to the Book of Revelations.
At a nearby church, nearly destroyed, another Bible was found, showing the exact same passage from Revelations.
Water Pours Into New Orleans Neighborhood
Sep 23 10:53 AM US/Eastern
By MICHELLE ROBERTS and BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press Writers
NEW ORLEANS
Water poured over a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods and heightening fears that Hurricane Rita would re-flood this devastated city.
"Our worst fears came true. The levee will breach if we keep on the path we are on right now, which will fill the area that was flooded earlier," Barry Guidry with the Georgia National Guard.
Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast.
The impoverished neighborhood was one of the areas of the city hit hardest by Katrina's floodwaters and finally had been pumped dry before Hurricane Rita struck.
Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said water is rushing over part of the levee that previously was breached.
Bonds thinks Congress should drop steroids subject
By Howard Fendrich
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:10 p.m. September 20, 2005
WASHINGTON – In the nation's capital on his first road trip of 2005, Barry Bonds questioned why Congress, the media and fans continue to talk about steroids.
"I think we have other issues in this country to worry about that are a lot more serious. I think you guys should direct your efforts into taking care of that," the San Francisco Giants slugger said Tuesday before facing the Washington Nationals. "Talk about the athletes that are helping Katrina. Ask yourselves how much money y'all personally donated and have helped."
Asked whether Congress was wasting time by looking into steroid use in sports, Bonds responded: "Pretty much, I think so. Yeah."
Several congressional committees have held hearings on drug testing in pro sports, and legislation has been proposed to standardize leagues' drug policies.
"You know what? There are still other issues that are more important," Bonds said. "Right now, people are losing lives, don't have homes, I think that's a little more serious. A lot more serious."
The Associated Press
BRISTOW, Okla. Sep 20, 2005 — Jurors hearing the case against a former judge accused of exposing himself in his Creek County courtroom will be allowed to see the sex toy at the center of the state's allegations, a judge ruled Tuesday in rejecting a defense motion.
They also can hear testimony that a second "penis pump" was seen under former District Judge Donald Thompson's bench, among other evidence Thompson's attorneys sought to have barred from next week's scheduled trial.
"It's so fantastic and so unconnected to factual support, and so prejudicial," attorney Clark Brewster complained in trying to convince Judge C. Allen McCall to suppress some state evidence.
Thompson, 58, who spent more than 20 years on the bench before stepping down more than a year ago, faces three counts of indecent exposure.
Prosecutors allege he masturbated with a penis pump under his robe while presiding over two murder trials and a civil trial in 2003.
By JENNIFER LUCE and DON GENTILE
Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal.
Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.
Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.
His worried wife yelled at him: "Stop, George."
Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against "falling off the wagon" and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.
"When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot," said one insider. "He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: "Stop George!"
Feds Want Ex-White House Official's Cooperation in Abramoff Probe, Lawyer Says
By Mark Sherman Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 22, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The lawyer for a former Bush administration official arrested this week says authorities are using the charges to pressure her client to aid their investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
David Safavian was arrested Monday and charged with making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation relating to a 2002 golf outing to Scotland with Abramoff, former Christian Coalition executive Ralph Reed, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and others.
Safavian hid from investigators that Abramoff had business before the General Services Administration, where Safavian was chief of staff in 2002, when they took their Scotland trip, according to federal authorities.
Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's lawyer, said her client would fight the charges. He accurately reported that Abramoff was not doing business with GSA at the time of the trip, Van Gelder said.
"This is a creative use of the criminal code to secure his cooperation against someone else," Van Gelder said in an interview Wednesday.
Safavian, a former Abramoff lobbying associate, abruptly resigned last week as the Bush administration's top procurement official, three days before his arrest.
The federal government is diverting hundreds of truckloads of bagged ice cubes from the Gulf Coast hurricane relief effort to cold storage in Portland and other cities.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it has more ice than it can use in the hurricane zone and wants to keep it in storage for use in a future emergency. But critics, including some truck drivers who have been paid $800 a day while hauling the same loads for a week or more, say the process seems like a waste of taxpayers' money.
"The $9,000 they're paying me to move this load should have gone to some family down there," said Loren Reeves, who hauled his load of ice from Long Island, N.Y., to Alabama before being sent to Maine. "There is definitely millions being wasted that could go to people who need it."
Reeves' truck was one of several lined up at AmeriCold Logistics refrigerated storage facility on Read Street, offloading pallets stacked with 25-pound bags of ice. Georgia-based AmeriCold Logistics provides cold storage facilities across the country, and many of the ice deliveries have been sent to its facilities in places such as Tennessee and Pennsylvania.
A spokesman for the AmeriCold facility, which has 1.7 million cubic feet of storage, would not comment on the operation. Local officials said they are expecting 220 truckloads of ice to be delivered here through Thursday.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, residents of the region needed ice, and emergency officials started ordering it from near and far. The government delivered more than 180 million pounds of ice to the area, FEMA spokeswoman Kathy Cable said.
"People go pick up ice and take it back to their house because they don't have electricity. With Katrina, most of these people don't have houses so they didn't come get ice," she said.
That caused some trucks to sit idle in places like Selma, Ala. and Memphis, Tenn., while others were redirected to remote storage facilities like Portland.
"It's more economical to store them and be able to use them right away. When we need it, we need all of it and we need it now. It's better to have it stored than to go out and buy it," Cable said.
Cable said she did not know how much it is costing to divert the ice trucks because the Army Corps of Engineers ships ice and water into disaster areas for FEMA.
In Portland, ice ranges from $64 per ton when purchased in bulk to $300 per ton when purchased retail by the bag. Trucks coming to Portland from the Gulf Coast have been carrying between 15 and 23 tons.
The Army Corps of Engineers said last week that 6,260 truckloads of ice had been delivered to the hurricane area and it has not ordered new commodities since Sept. 5, according to its Web site. It anticipates that it has enough ice to last through the 2005 hurricane season.
FEMA has 50 truckloads of ice and water in Fort Worth, Texas in anticipation of Tropical Storm Rita, Cable said. Storing commodities like ice makes more sense than buying it when a disaster hits, Cable said.
Truckers interviewed Monday have been told they may be called on to head south with the ice stored in Portland if a storm bearing down on the Florida keys creates a demand.
Johnny Jennings hauled a load of ice from Cincinnati to Joplin, Ark., where it was loaded into a quarry cave being used as an ice house. He hauled another load from Fort Wayne, Ind. that was distributed directly to people who needed it near Hattiesburg, Miss.
He set out with his third load from Indianapolis on Sept. 9 bound for Meridian, Miss., then he was sent to Selma before being dispatched to Portland.
"It's been a lot of riding and a lot of sitting," he said Monday, leaning against a fence at AmeriCold while 24 pallets of bagged ice, wrapped in plastic, were transferred by forklift from his truck to the company's freezers.
Rick Benn, who had been shepherding his load of ice from Indianapolis for two weeks, said he's worked disaster relief before but this was the worst. He couldn't understand why he trucked a load of ice all the way to the Deep South, waited for a week in Alabama, then hauled it to Northern New England.
"It's the government. What do you expect?" he said.
Still, he's being paid $800 a day. He would normally spend almost half that money on fuel but when he's waiting instead of hauling, his operating expenses are minimal.
Reeves, who is from New York, said he's gone from feeling upbeat about his disaster work, to feeling guilty.
"I thought I was doing some real good," he said.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.
The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel — which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus — failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.
WH Lawyer to Lead Katrina Investigation?
By irishkg
From: Misc. Politics Table
The issue is competent emergency planning and management for hurricane Katrina. The Bush Administration's action is to appoint a lawyer, former prosecutor and WH insider to lead their internal investigation.
If Jon Stewart, late night comics and editorial writers get paid this week they are stealing the money.
Sept. 19 NY Times
President Bush has named Frances Fragos Townsend, his domestic security adviser, to lead an internal White House inquiry into the administration's performance in handling Hurricane Katrina."
In Bushworld they continue to believe they can control the message. What they have yet to factor in is that the images of Katrina were so powerful that anyone other than the most loyal of his supporters will see this for what it is - politics as usual. I hope (although I have given up holding my breath) that the public will remember who allowed this charade to be played out - the Republican members of congress - and make
Frist sold stock just before a decline
Trade involved a family firm
By Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press | September 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sold all his stock in his family's hospital corporation, about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent.
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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Frist held an undisclosed amount of stock in Hospital Corporation of America, in Nashville, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. On June 13, he instructed the trustee managing the assets to sell his shares and those of his wife and children, said Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Frist.
Frist's shares were sold by July 1, and those of his wife and children were sold by July 8, Call said. The trustee decided when to sell the shares, and Frist had no control over the exact time they were sold, she said.
Hospital Corporation of America shares peaked at midyear, at $58.22 a share on June 22. The price fell to $49.90 on July 13, after the company announced that its quarterly earnings would not meet analysts' expectations. Yesterday, the shares closed at $48.76.
The value of Frist's stock at the time of the sale was not given.
CRYING IN THE WIND
WASHINGTON - The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy.
The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29.
http://kravenmoorehead.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
NASA estimated Monday it will cost $104 billion to return astronauts to the moon by 2018 in a new rocket that combines the space shuttle with the capsule of an earlier NASA era.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, in unveiling the new lunar exploration plan announced by President Bush last year, said he is not seeking extra money and stressed that the space agency will live within its future budgets to achieve this goal.
He dismissed suggestions that reconstruction of the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina might derail the program first outlined by President Bush in 2004.
"We're talking about returning to the moon in 2018. There will be a lot more hurricanes and a lot more other natural disasters to befall the United States and the world in that time, I hope none worse than Katrina," Griffin said at a news conference.
"But the space program is a long-term investment in our future. We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long- term investments in our future. When we have a hurricane, we don't cancel the Air Force. We don't cancel the Navy. And we're not going to cancel NASA."
The $104 billion price tag, spread over 13 years, represents 55 percent of what the Apollo moon-landing program cost measured in constant dollars, Griffin said. Apollo spanned eight years. The objective is to pay as you go and what you can afford, he noted.
The new space vehicle design uses shuttlelike rocket parts, an Apollo- style capsule and lander capable of carrying four people to the surface. The rockets _ there would be two, a small version for people and a bigger one for cargo _ would come close in height to the 363- foot Saturn 5 moon rocket. They would be built from shuttle booster rockets, fuel tanks and main engines, as well as moon rocket engines. The so-called crew exploration vehicle perched on top would look very much like an Apollo capsule, albeit larger.
"Think of it as Apollo on steroids," Griffin said.
The crew exploration vehicle would replace the space shuttle, due to be retired in 2010, but not before 2012 and possibly as late as 2014 depending on the money available, Griffin said. It could carry as many as six astronauts to the international space station.
If all goes well, the first crew would set off for the moon by 2018 _ or 2020 at the latest, the president's target year.
Scotland tops list of world's most violent countries
By Katrina Tweedie
A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.
England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest.
The study, based on telephone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official police figures. They include non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults.
Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years and levels, per head of population, are now comparable with cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Tbilisi.
The attacks have been fuelled by a “booze and blades” culture in the west of Scotland which has claimed more than 160 lives over the past five years. Since January there have been 13 murders, 145 attempted murders and 1,100 serious assaults involving knives in the west of Scotland. The problem is made worse by sectarian violence, with hospitals reporting higher admissions following Old Firm matches.
Top Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe
The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested Monday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government.
Delta to miss pensions
Sep 15 6:31 PM US/Eastern
By Jui Chakravorty and Christian Plumb
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc.
The moves came as the third- and fourth-largest U.S. air carriers began their Chapter 11 cases a day after they joined United Airlines and US Airways in Chapter 11, after losing an uphill struggle with soaring oil prices and low-cost rivals.
Bonds of both airlines rose as analysts said it would be easier for them to cut wages and operating costs while they are in bankruptcy. Delta shares rose while Northwest's fell.
Delta pilots suffered what may be the first of many blows for the airlines' employees as the Atlanta-based carrier said it would send a letter to some 3,500 retired pilots telling them it may miss their October pension payments.
The warning came as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney urged airlines not to "use bankruptcy as a cover to shed workers' pensions and responsibilities to loyal employees."
Global warming 'past the point of no return'
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 16 September 2005
A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.
They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating.
The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.
Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.
Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend - a clear sign that melting has accelerated.
Scientists are now preparing to report a record loss of Arctic sea ice for September, when the surface area covered by the ice traditionally reaches its minimum extent at the end of the summer melting period.
Sea ice naturally melts in summer and reforms in winter but for the first time on record this annual rebound did not occur last winter when the ice of the Arctic failed to recover significantly.
Arctic specialists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University, who have documented the gradual loss of polar sea ice since 1978, believe that a more dramatic melt began about four years ago.
In September 2002 the sea ice coverage of the Arctic reached its lowest level in recorded history. Such lows have normally been followed the next year by a rebound to more normal levels, but this did not occur in the summers of either 2003 or 2004. This summer has been even worse. The surface area covered by sea ice was at a record monthly minimum for each of the summer months - June, July and now August.
Scientists analysing the latest satellite data for September - the traditional minimum extent for each summer - are preparing to announce a significant shift in the stability of the Arctic sea ice, the northern hemisphere's major "heat sink" that moderates climatic extremes.
"The changes we've seen in the Arctic over the past few decades are nothing short of remarkable," said Mark Serreze, one of the scientists at the Snow and Ice Data Centre who monitor Arctic sea ice.
Scientists at the data centre are bracing themselves for the 2005 annual minimum, which is expected to be reached in mid-September, when another record loss is forecast. A major announcement is scheduled for 20 September. "It looks like we're going to exceed it or be real close one way or the other. It is probably going to be at least as comparable to September 2002," Dr Serreze said.
"This will be four Septembers in a row that we've seen a downward trend. The feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover."
The extent of the sea ice in September is the most valuable indicator of its health. This year's record melt means that more of the long-term ice formed over many winters - so called multi-year ice - has disappeared than at any time in recorded history.
Sea ice floats on the surface of the Arctic Ocean and its neighbouring seas and normally covers an area of some 7 million square kilometres (2.4 million square miles) during September - about the size of Australia. However, in September 2002, this dwindled to about 2 million square miles - 16 per cent below average.
Sea ice data for August closely mirrors that for September and last month's record low - 18.2 per cent below the monthly average - strongly suggests that this September will see the smallest coverage of Arctic sea ice ever recorded.
As more and more sea ice is lost during the summer, greater expanses of open ocean are exposed to the sun which increases the rate at which heat is absorbed in the Arctic region, Dr Serreze said.
Sea ice reflects up to 80 per cent of sunlight hitting it but this "albedo effect" is mostly lost when the sea is uncovered. "We've exposed all this dark ocean to the sun's heat so that the overall heat content increases," he explained.
Current computer models suggest that the Arctic will be entirely ice-free during summer by the year 2070 but some scientists now believe that even this dire prediction may be over-optimistic, said Professor Peter Wadhams, an Arctic ice specialist at Cambridge University.
"When the ice becomes so thin it breaks up mechanically rather than thermodynamically. So these predictions may well be on the over-optimistic side," he said.
As the sea ice melts, and more of the sun's energy is absorbed by the exposed ocean, a positive feedback is created leading to the loss of yet more ice, Professor Wadhams said.
"If anything we may be underestimating the dangers. The computer models may not take into account collaborative positive feedback," he said.
Sea ice keeps a cap on frigid water, keeping it cold and protecting it from heating up. Losing the sea ice of the Arctic is likely to have major repercussions for the climate, he said. "There could be dramatic changes to the climate of the northern region due to the creation of a vast expanse of open water where there was once effectively land," Professor Wadhams said. "You're essentially changing land into ocean and the creation of a huge area of open ocean where there was once land will have a very big impact on other climate parameters," he said.
A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.
They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating.
The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.
Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.
Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend - a clear sign that melting has accelerated.
Scientists are now preparing to report a record loss of Arctic sea ice for September, when the surface area covered by the ice traditionally reaches its minimum extent at the end of the summer melting period.
Sea ice naturally melts in summer and reforms in winter but for the first time on record this annual rebound did not occur last winter when the ice of the Arctic failed to recover significantly.
Arctic specialists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University, who have documented the gradual loss of polar sea ice since 1978, believe that a more dramatic melt began about four years ago.
In September 2002 the sea ice coverage of the Arctic reached its lowest level in recorded history. Such lows have normally been followed the next year by a rebound to more normal levels, but this did not occur in the summers of either 2003 or 2004. This summer has been even worse. The surface area covered by sea ice was at a record monthly minimum for each of the summer months - June, July and now August.
Scientists analysing the latest satellite data for September - the traditional minimum extent for each summer - are preparing to announce a significant shift in the stability of the Arctic sea ice, the northern hemisphere's major "heat sink" that moderates climatic extremes.
"The changes we've seen in the Arctic over the past few decades are nothing short of remarkable," said Mark Serreze, one of the scientists at the Snow and Ice Data Centre who monitor Arctic sea ice.
Scientists at the data centre are bracing themselves for the 2005 annual minimum, which is expected to be reached in mid-September, when another record loss is forecast. A major announcement is scheduled for 20 September. "It looks like we're going to exceed it or be real close one way or the other. It is probably going to be at least as comparable to September 2002," Dr Serreze said.
"This will be four Septembers in a row that we've seen a downward trend. The feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover."
The extent of the sea ice in September is the most valuable indicator of its health. This year's record melt means that more of the long-term ice formed over many winters - so called multi-year ice - has disappeared than at any time in recorded history.
Sea ice floats on the surface of the Arctic Ocean and its neighbouring seas and normally covers an area of some 7 million square kilometres (2.4 million square miles) during September - about the size of Australia. However, in September 2002, this dwindled to about 2 million square miles - 16 per cent below average.
Sea ice data for August closely mirrors that for September and last month's record low - 18.2 per cent below the monthly average - strongly suggests that this September will see the smallest coverage of Arctic sea ice ever recorded.
As more and more sea ice is lost during the summer, greater expanses of open ocean are exposed to the sun which increases the rate at which heat is absorbed in the Arctic region, Dr Serreze said.
Sea ice reflects up to 80 per cent of sunlight hitting it but this "albedo effect" is mostly lost when the sea is uncovered. "We've exposed all this dark ocean to the sun's heat so that the overall heat content increases," he explained.
Current computer models suggest that the Arctic will be entirely ice-free during summer by the year 2070 but some scientists now believe that even this dire prediction may be over-optimistic, said Professor Peter Wadhams, an Arctic ice specialist at Cambridge University.
"When the ice becomes so thin it breaks up mechanically rather than thermodynamically. So these predictions may well be on the over-optimistic side," he said.
As the sea ice melts, and more of the sun's energy is absorbed by the exposed ocean, a positive feedback is created leading to the loss of yet more ice, Professor Wadhams said.
"If anything we may be underestimating the dangers. The computer models may not take into account collaborative positive feedback," he said.
Sea ice keeps a cap on frigid water, keeping it cold and protecting it from heating up. Losing the sea ice of the Arctic is likely to have major repercussions for the climate, he said. "There could be dramatic changes to the climate of the northern region due to the creation of a vast expanse of open water where there was once effectively land," Professor Wadhams said. "You're essentially changing land into ocean and the creation of a huge area of open ocean where there was once land will have a very big impact on other climate parameters," he said.
Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction Fri Sep 16,10:30 AM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.
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Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together.
When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet.
"It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told Australian radio Friday.
"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt."
Employees, unsure of the cause of the mysterious burning smell, telephoned firefighters who evacuated the building.
"There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise -- a bit like a whip -- both inside and outside the building," said fire official Henry Barton.
Firefighters cut electricity to the building thinking the burns might have been caused by a power surge.
Clewer, who after leaving the building discovered he had scorched a piece of plastic on the floor of his car, returned to seek help from the firefighters.
"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.
"I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've never come across anything like this," he said.
Firefighters took possession of Clewer's jacket and stored it in the courtyard of the fire station, where it continued to give off a strong electrical current.
David Gosden, a senior lecturer in electrical engineering at Sydney University, told Reuters that for a static electricity charge to ignite a carpet, conditions had to be perfect.
"Static electricity is a similar mechanism to lightning, where you have clouds rubbing together and then a spark generated by very dry air above them," said Gosden.
Mice Infected With Bubonic Plague Missing
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago, and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk. (WE APPARENTLY JUST REALIZED)
The mice were unaccounted-for at the Public Health Research Institute, which is on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government.
Federal official said the mice may never be accounted for. Among other things, the rodents may have been stolen, eaten by other lab animals or just misplaced in a paperwork error.
If the mice got outside the lab, they would have already died from the disease, state Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said.
The possibility of theft prompted the institute to interrogate two dozen of its employees and conduct lie detector tests, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Thursday.
The FBI said it was investigating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating, the newspaper reported.
University officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday morning.
The mice were injected as part of an inoculation and vaccination experiment, investigators said.
Health officials say 10 to 20 people in the United States contract plague each year, usually through infected fleas or rodents. It can be treated with antibiotics, but about one in seven U.S. cases is fatal. Bubonic plague is not contagious, but left untreated it can transform into pneumonic plague, which can be spread from person to person.
The incident came as federal authorities investigate possible corruption in the school's finances. The FBI is reviewing political donations and millions of dollars in no-bid contracts awarded to politically connected firms.
A baby boy for Britney
September 15, 2005
Pop singer Britney Spears became a mom yesterday, giving birth to a baby boy in Los Angeles. Declaring itself ''the first media outlet in the world" to report the birth, Us Weekly said Spears, 23, and husband Kevin Federline showed up at the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center with a police escort shortly before 6 a.m., and the baby was born via C-section just before 1 p.m.
This Year, Bush Takes a Different Tone With the U.N.
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 15, 2005; Page A08
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 14 -- Three years ago, making the case for confronting Iraq, President Bush said the United Nations would sink into irrelevancy if it failed to act at a "difficult and defining moment." But, addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, the president struck a strikingly different tone, praising the "vital work and great ideals of this institution" and its efforts to take the "first steps" toward managerial and structural reforms.
Winter Heating Bills Set To Soar
High Fuel Prices, Low Temperatures Chill the Forecast
By Peter Behr
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, September 15, 2005; Page D01
This summer's gasoline price shock will be followed by a similarly sharp jump in winter heating bills in the Washington area, analysts are warning, and fuel bills will leap even higher if forecasts for unusually cold weather prove true.
Winter heating costs have followed in lockstep with the rise of crude oil and natural gas prices, as supplies of energy commodities strain to keep up with growing demand for fuels worldwide. Natural gas prices paid by consumers have doubled since the beginning of 2000, and the increase in heating oil costs has been almost as great.
Demand already has increased at Mark Killinger's Atlantic Firewood in East Windham, Maine, as steep energy costs are expected nationwide this winter. (By Jessica Rinaldi -- Reuters)
Consumers nationwide are expected to spend 34 percent more for heating oil this winter than last, 52 percent more for natural gas, 16 percent more for coal and 11 percent more for electricity, according to the preliminary winter fuel projection by the government's Energy Information Administration. The heaviest burden should fall on natural gas customers in the Midwest, the EIA predicts, with costs 71 percent higher than last winter.
The winter fuel increases will bring total energy spending for the nation to just over $1 trillion this year, 24 percent higher than in 2004, claiming the biggest share of U.S. output since the end of the oil crisis 20 years ago, the EIA said
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The director of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Michael Brown resigned on Monday after being recalled to Washington amid criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
In an apparent nod to demands that Brown be replaced by someone with experience in emergency response, President George W. Bush replaced Brown with David Paulison, a veteran firefighter who now runs FEMA's preparedness division.
Paulison was also the Homeland Security official who urged Americans to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting in 2003 to protect against a biological or chemical attack, a recommendation that was widely ridiculed in the media.
Lavish tastes of card-carrying lowlifes
Profiteering ghouls have been using debit cards distributed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina - intended to buy essentials for evacuated families - in luxury-goods stores as far away as Atlanta.
"We've seen three of the cards," said a senior employee of the Louis Vuitton store at the Lenox Square Mall in affluent Buckhead, who asked not to be named. "Two I'm certain have purchased; one actually asked if she could use it in the store. This has been since Saturday."
The distinctive white cards were distributed by the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and carry a value of up to $2,000.
"It doesn't say anything on the card other than alcohol, tobacco and firearms cannot be purchased with it," the store employee told me. "There's nothing legally that prevents us from taking it, unfortunately. Other than morally, it's wrong."
The source told me that the two women who had made purchases with the card each bought a signature monogrammed Louis Vuitton handbag in the $800 range.
"They didn't look destitute by any stretch. You would never have said, 'They must be one of the evacuees.' … The one that I dealt with yesterday was 20. She'll be 21 next month." The source described the reaction of other store-keepers in the mall - which includes luxury brands Ferragamo, Burberry, Judith Leiber and Neiman Marcus - as "outrage."
"It doesn't say anywhere on there, but it would have to be a good amount to be shopping in here," the source said with a dark chuckle.
Pot' patch price grows to $14,000
By Maggie Mulvihill
Sunday, September 11, 2005
The Romney administration paid a Florida firm nearly $14,000 - far more than it admitted paying early last week - for uniform patches for state workers, thousands of which were botched and couldn't be worn.
``That is such a waste of money when there are so many in this state who need money,'' said state Rep. Brian P. Wallace (D-Boston).
Wallace criticized the Department of Recreation and Conservation for creating a patch for park rangers that didn't feature the state seal and sported a leafy plant many felt resembled marijuana. Three versions of the patch were produced for the uniforms worn by the 140 full-time staff members of DCR, as well as for seasonal employees, said DCR spokesman Joseph O'Keefe.
O'Keefe told the Herald Wednesday DCR spent some $3,300 on patches for rangers, but later admitted the cost for the total production of DCR patches was $13,639. The funds were paid to Tampa, Fla., printing firm Hallmark Emblems Inc., he said.
Wallace said there is no need to hire a firm in Florida for state business. ``I'm pretty upset that they wouldn't do business in Massachusetts. If they are going to shop around, they should shop around in Massachusetts,'' Wallace said
Lawyer Is Fired After Talking About Rove
By Associated Press
September 11, 2005, 7:12 AM EDT
AUSTIN, Texas -- A lawyer with the Texas secretary of state was fired after she spoke to a reporter about presidential adviser Karl Rove's eligibility to vote in the state.
Elizabeth Reyes, 30, said she was dismissed last week for violating the agency's media policy after she was quoted in a Sept. 3 story by The Washington Post about tax deductions on Rove's homes in Washington and Texas.
Scott Haywood, a spokesman for Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, confirmed Reyes' firing but wouldn't discuss specifics. He had earlier told the Post that Reyes "was not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency."
Reyes told the Post on Friday a superior told her that her bosses were upset about the article. Williams has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republicans, including President Bush, who relies heavily on Rove for political strategy.
While Reyes said she didn't know she was talking to a reporter, she said the press policy doesn't bar her from speaking with the media.
"The policy allows us to talk to members of the media," she told the Post. "The policy says if it's a controversial issue or a special issue, it needs to be forwarded on to someone else. Just talking to the media doesn't violate it, as I read it. ... Karl Rove didn't come up. It wasn't something you could classify as controversial."
She said she sent a certified letter to Williams's office asking that her dismissal be reconsidered.
The Post earlier reported that Rove inadvertently received a homestead tax deduction on his home in Washington, even though he had not been eligible for the benefit for more than three years. Rove was eligible for the deduction when he bought the home in 2001, but a change in the tax law in 2002 made the deduction available only to property owners who do not vote elsewhere. Rove is registered to vote in Texas.
The tax office admitted the mistake, saying it failed to rescind the deduction, and Rove agreed to reimburse the city an estimated $3,400 in back taxes, the Post reported.
Rove is registered to vote in Kerr County, Texas, where he and his wife own two rental homes that he claims as his residence. But two local residents told the Post they had never seen Rove there.
The Post reported Saturday that when its reporter called the Texas secretary of state's office for her story, she was told the press officer was on vacation and she was transferred to Reyes.
The attorney told the reporter that it was potential vote fraud in Texas to register in a place where you don't actually live, and she was quoted as saying Rove's cottages don't "sound like a residence to me, because it's not a fixed place of habitation."
The Post ran a correction Saturday saying Reyes had not been asked about Rove by name and that the story should have mentioned Reyes's further explanation that an individual's intent to return to a home owned in Texas is a primary factor in qualifying for residency.
Court backs Bush on detainee
Says citizen can be held without trial
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | September 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush has the power to imprison without trial a US citizen arrested on American soil, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The decision is likely to set up a confrontation in the Supreme Court over the balance between civil liberties and national security.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., held that Bush has the power to hold Jose Padilla, a US citizen arrested in Chicago three years ago on suspicion of plotting attacks for Al Qaeda, without trial as an ''enemy combatant." Padilla has been held without charges for three years in a South Carolina brig.
The decision extended previous court approval for Bush's authority to detain terrorism suspects outside the civilian justice system to US citizens arrested domestically. The Supreme Court ruled last year that Bush could indefinitely hold a citizen captured on a foreign battlefield, but a US District Court said in February that any citizen taken into custody in the United States must be charged or released.
''The . . . question before us is whether the president of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country
Whiny Kilts puts Boston on notice: Gillette head slams Hub, warns critics
By Brett Arends
Friday, September 9, 2005 - Updated: 03:24 AM EST
Gillette Chief Executive James Kilts lashed out at the Hub yesterday, complaining he had become ``Boston's pinata'' and implying the city has a ``negative attitude.''
The Rye, N.Y.-based Kilts, who will make about $180 million from the sale of Gillette Co. to Ohio-based Procter & Gamble, also decried ``Boston's assault on the merger'' and issued a thinly veiled threat that the company's new masters in Cincinnati might punish the Hub by cutting off further investment.
And he made the remarkable admission that he's only staying with Gillette because P&G insisted on it as a condition of the blockbuster deal. ``Walking away would have been fine with me,'' he said.
Kilts' aggressive and confrontational speech took place in front of about 200 business leaders at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce meeting downtown, and lasted the best part of an hour
Sep 9, 9:49 AM EDT
Powell Criticizes Response to Katrina
NEW YORK (AP) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized the response to Hurricane Katrina, saying "a lot of failures" occurred at all levels of government.
Powell, the highest ranking black official in President Bush's first term, also said he does not believe race was a factor in the slow delivery of relief to the hurricane victims.
"I think there have been a lot of failures at a lot of levels - local, state and federal. There was more than enough warning over time about the dangers to New Orleans. Not enough was done," Powell told ABC News' Barbara Walters in an interview to be aired Friday night.
"I don't think advantage was taken of the time that was available to us, and I just don't know why," said Powell, who recently visited storm survivors at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
"I don't think it's racism, I think it's economic," he told Walters.
"When you look at those who weren't able to get out, it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious to everybody that when you order a mandatory evacuation, you can't expect everybody to evacuate on their own.
"These are people who don't have credit cards; only one in 10 families at that economic level in New Orleans have a car. So it wasn't a racial thing - but poverty disproportionately affects African-Americans in this country. And it happened because they were poor," he said.
In the interview, Powell also said his prewar speech to the United Nations accusing Iraq of harboring weapons of mass destruction was a "blot" on his record.
"I'm the one who presented it to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It is painful now," he said.
Powell's presentation to the U.N. in February 2003 lent considerable credibility to Bush's case against Iraq and for going to war to remove Saddam Hussein.
GOP Moves Ahead With Spending-Cut Plans
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are going ahead with long-standing plans to trim Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits, even though party moderates are balking at cutting programs that aid the poor while hundreds of thousands are homeless from Hurricane Katrina....
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, according to the Associated Press.
Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.
Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad w. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.
Patronage appointments to the crisis-response agency are nothing new to Washington administrations. But inexperience in FEMA's top ranks is emerging as a key concern of local, state and federal leaders as investigators begin to sift through what the government has admitted was a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.
But scorching criticism has been aimed at FEMA, and it starts at the top with Brown, who has admitted to errors in responding to Hurricane Katrina and the flooding in New Orleans. The Oklahoma native, 50, was hired to the agency after a rocky tenure as commissioner of a horse sporting group by former FEMA director Joe M. Allbaugh, the 2000 Bush campaign manager and a college friend of Brown's.
Rhode, Brown's chief of staff, is a former television reporter who came to Washington as advance deputy director for Bush's Austin-based 2000 campaign and then the White House. He joined FEMA in April 2003 after stints at the Commerce Department and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Altshuler is a former presidential advance man. His predecessor, Scott Morris, was a media strategist for Bush with the Austin firm Maverick Media.
David I. Maurstad, who stepped down as Nebraska lieutenant governor in 2001 to join FEMA, has served as acting director for risk reduction and federal insurance administrator since June 2004. Daniel A. Craig, a onetime political fundraiser and campaign adviser, came to FEMA in 2001 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he directed the eastern regional office, after working as a lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Legislators criticize White House for nuclear deal with India
Pact would mark US policy change
By Dafna Linzer, Washington Post | September 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration came under heavy criticism yesterday by Republican and Democratic members of Congress for signing a major nuclear deal with India, which has expressed support for Iran's right to a nuclear energy program despite US efforts to pressure Tehran into giving it up.
Members of the House International Relations Committee also chided two administration officials for reaching the India deal, which would reverse decades of US policy and could require significant changes to US laws, without first consulting Congress.
''You chose an initiative for which you may not be able to deliver, and you chose to make this initiative without, to my knowledge, any serious prior consultation with the Congress," said Representative Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa.
The India deal, announced at the White House in July, would for the first time provide New Delhi with sensitive civilian nuclear technology. That would create an exception to the US ban on nuclear assistance to any country that does not accept international monitoring of its nuclear facilities. India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires such oversight, and conducted its first nuclear detonation in 1974.
Texas political group indicted
Is charged with taking illegal corporate funds
By April Castro, Associated Press | September 9, 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- A Texas grand jury has indicted a political organization formed by Tom DeLay, accusing it of taking illegal corporate money as the House majority leader helped Republicans win control of the Texas Legislature and kept Congress in GOP hands.
DeLay, Republican of Texas, was not indicted by a Travis County grand jury in the charges made public yesterday, although three of his political associates were charged earlier. District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, said he had no jurisdiction over DeLay's personal conduct.
A prominent Texas business group was also charged in what Earle called an attempt to funnel ''massive amounts of secret corporate wealth" into campaigns. State law prohibits the use of corporate contributions to advocate the election or defeat of state candidates.
The complaint alleges that once DeLay helped Republicans win control of the Legislature in 2002, the majority leader engineered a Republican redistricting plan that gave the state's US House delegation a 21-to-11 majority in the current Congress. The effort helped Republicans increase their House presence by five seats this year.
Sept. 11 relief loans went to unaffected firms
Record analysis finds loose lending practices
By Dirk Lammers and Frank Bass, Associated Press | September 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The government's $5 billion effort to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks was so loosely managed that it gave low-interest loans to companies that didn't need terrorism relief -- or even know they were getting it, the Associated Press has found.
And while some at Ground Zero couldn't get the assistance they desperately sought, companies far removed from the devastation -- a South Dakota country radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop, a Utah dog boutique, and more than 100 Dunkin' Donuts, and Quiznos and Subway sandwich shops -- had no problem getting the government-guaranteed loans.
''That's scary. 9/11 had nothing to do with this," said James Munsey, a Virginia entrepreneur who described himself as ''beyond shocked" to learn that his nearly $1 million loan to buy a special events company in Richmond was drawn from the Sept. 11 program.
''It would have been inappropriate for me to take this kind of loan," he said, stating that the company he bought suffered no ill effects from the attacks.
Arvind ''Andy" Patel, 50, said he used his $350,000 loan in fall 2002 to remodel his Dunkin' Donuts shop in western New York State and never knew it was drawn through the Sept. 11 program.
''Not at all," Patel said when asked whether his business was hurt by the attacks.
Beaver Statues Given Implants
Electronic Gadget Can Alert Police
BEAVERCREEK, Ohio -- Beavercreek officials knew they had to do something when their 250-pound fiberglass beaver statues started going missing from the streets.
So they embedded tracking devices in the six-and-a-half-foot-tall sculptures, which are being displayed to celebrate the city's 25th anniversary.
The electronic gadgets alert police if the beavers are picked up, and enable officers to track them. The devices also give off loud beeping sounds if the beavers are moved.
The statues are the brainchild of a former mayor who was inspired by Chicago's fiberglass cows and Cincinnati's fiberglass pigs. They will be auctioned off on Oct. 15, with the proceeds used for improvements at a senior citizens center, a community theater and a teen center.
LOVE TRIUMPHS
6-year-old becomes a hero to band of toddlers, rescuers
Tense days lead to reunion of kids and their moms
By ELLEN BARRY
Los Angeles Times
BATON ROUGE, LA. - In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of evacuees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.
They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he said his name was Deamonte Love.
After their rescue Thursday, paramedics in the Baton Rouge rescue operations headquarters tried to coax their names out of them.
Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans.
"It goes back to the same thing," he said. "How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"
Inebriated Belgian woman dies in cemetery accident
Wed Sep 7, 2005 1:43 PM BST
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An inebriated Belgian woman died in a freak accident when she ended up beneath a heavy grave stone at a cemetery, local news agency Belga said on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old was on her way home from a bar in the Belgian town of Pulle in the early hours of Saturday when she took a short cut through the cemetery.
But she urgently needed to relieve herself and crouched down between two gravestones. As she lost her balance, she grabbed one of the stones which gave way and landed on top of her.
The public prosecutor's office said she died of suffocation as she was unable to lift the heavy stone.
Chinese President Visits Canada Intent on Oil, Energy Ties; Washington Looks On
By Beth Duff-Brown Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 8, 2005
TORONTO (AP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Canada this week, at a time when Beijing is boosting investments in Canadian oil and natural resources, and Washington and Ottawa continue to snipe over lumber tariffs.
Hu arrives in Canada on Thursday for his first state visit, celebrating 35 years of diplomatic ties and rapidly expanding trade and energy agreements with Canada.
China is Canada's second-largest trading partner, after the United States, and Ottawa and Beijing conducted some $30 billion worth of trade last year. With the world's fastest growing economy and rapid urbanization, the Chinese are hungry for more oil and natural resources - and Canada has those, in abundance.
Washington will closely eye the official visit, which includes meetings with Prime Minister Paul Martin and federal, provincial and business leaders in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. Hu was supposed to meet President Bush at the White House next week, but postponed the visit after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast.
The United States relies on Canada for some 17 percent of its oil and energy and is well aware that China is boosting investments in Canadian oil and natural resources. At the same time, Washington and Ottawa, the world's largest trading partners, continue to snipe over lumber tariffs and question each other's long-term defense policies.
"What I worry about is that the United States is making it easy for China; that in one way or another the United States is screwing up in its relationship with Canada," said Richard C. Bush, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"And that makes it very easy for Hu Jintao to walk in and say, 'Hi, I'm from China and we want to be your friend. And by the way, I want to buy your oil and your minerals and let's not worry about your neighbor next door. We've both got problems with them, so let's talk.'"
Vice President Dick Cheney's national energy policy report in 2001 noted the importance of Canada's oil sands to U.S. energy security. But while Americans blocked a bid by China to buy Unocal Corp., claiming it could threaten U.S. national security, Canadians support potential oil deals with China.
The state-controlled China National Petroleum Corp. announced last month it would pay $4.2 billion for Canada-based PetroKazakhstan Inc. In April, CNOOC bought nearly 17 percent of Calgary-based MEG Energy Corp.
Martin, meanwhile, is hosting Hu at a state banquet in Ottawa on Thursday. Hu will also attend a banquet and give a speech at the Canada China Business Council in Toronto on Saturday and visit Niagara Falls on a personal visit.
Hu then heads to Mexico on Sunday. He intends to meet with President Bush on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week before returning to Vancouver Sept. 16 for two days of meetings and another banquet hosted by Martin.
U.S. agency blocks photos of New Orleans dead
Tue Sep 6, 2005 8:56 PM ET
NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.
An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.
The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.
The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29
Bird flu pandemic a question of when, not if -WHO
Wed 7 Sep 2005 10:07 AM ET
COLOMBO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The world is going to face a pandemic of the bird flu strain lethal to humans and Thailand is the only nation in South and Southeast Asia ready to deal with it, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
WHO officials said the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily from one human to another, making it easier for it to spread rapidly across great distances and kill between one million and seven million people worldwide.
"We may be at almost the last stage before the pandemic virus may emerge," Dr. Jai P. Narain, Director of WHO's communicable diseases department told a news conference on the sidelines of a Southeast Asia health summit in the Sri Lankan capital.
"Whether the avian influenza pandemic will occur, that is not the question any more, (but) as to when the pandemic will occur," he added.
"So far there is only one country in Southeast Asia with a pandemic preparedness plan ... Thailand... They have a stockpile of anti-viral drugs," Narain said. "At the same time we are in dialogue with our member countries. We are in the process of preparing this pandemic preparedness plan."
The deadly bird flu virus, now feared to be heading for Europe, killed one person in Vietnam last week, taking the number of deaths in Asia from the disease to 63.
The death took Vietnam's bird flu death toll to 44, with 23 of the victims dying since the virus returned in December 2004, after sweeping through much of Asia in late 2003.
It has also killed at least 12 people in Thailand, four in Cambodia, three in Indonesia and has struck six Russian regions and Kazakhstan, causing the deaths of nearly 14,000 fowl.
Narain said migrating birds posed a serious risk of spreading avian flu around the world and Asia was very vulnerable as winter approaches.
"It is no longer poultry. We are concerned about a whole range of bird species," Narain said.
"The virus has been detected in migratory birds in some former Soviet states where the these birds traditionally fly towards Asia to escape the cold winter months," he added.
Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor
John Nichols1 hour, 5 minutes ago
The Nation -- Finally, we have discovered the roots of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism."
On the heels of the president's "What, me worry?" response to the death, destruction and dislocation that followed upon Hurricane Katrina comes the news of his mother's Labor Day visit with hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston.
Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees -- cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases -- former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out.
"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.
On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake.
At the very least, she was expressing a measure of empathy commensurate with that evidenced by her son during his fly-ins for disaster-zone photo opportunities.
On Friday, when even Republican lawmakers were giving the federal government an "F" for its response to the crisis, President Bush heaped praise on embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown. As thousands of victims of the hurricane continued to plead for food, water, shelter, medical care and a way out of the nightmare to which federal neglect had consigned them, Brown cheerily announced that "people are getting the help they need."
Barbara Bush's son put his arm around the addled FEMA functionary and declared, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Like mother, like son.
Even when a hurricane hits, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Halliburton Subsidiary Taps Contract For Repairs
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
Monday, September 5, 2005; Page A20
An Arlington-based Halliburton Co. subsidiary that has been criticized for its reconstruction work in Iraq has begun tapping a $500 million Navy contract to do emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and Marine facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc., won the competitive bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters.
Jan Davis, a spokeswoman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, said yesterday that KBR would receive $12 million for work at the Naval Air Station at Pascagoula, Miss., the Naval Station at Gulfport, Miss., and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. KBR will receive $4.6 million for work at two smaller Navy facilities in New Orleans and others in the South
Gun control efforts weaken in South
With laws relaxed, Northerners fear more trafficking
By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | September 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Even as Boston struggles against a tide of smuggled handguns, some state governments in the South are loosening their gun control laws in ways that critics say will make it easier for traffickers to bring illegal firearms into the Northeast.
Under pressure from the National Rifle Association, South Carolina abolished a state law last year that limited to one the number of handguns individuals can buy in a month, a measure that was designed in 1975 to prevent trafficking.
Virginia, which was the epicenter of gun smuggling into New York and Boston before it passed a one-gun-per-month law in 1993, weakened that rule in 2004 and gun control advocates fear that it could soon be abolished.
Academic studies have shown that limits on monthly gun purchases help limit smuggling, but lobbyists for gun manufacturers call such laws ''gun rationing" and say they infringe on Second Amendment gun ownership rights.
Over the past five years the overall trend on the state level has been toward lax gun laws, said David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who studies gun crime. That has left states such as Massachusetts and New York, which retain their strict gun limits, increasingly isolated.
When it is easy to buy firearms in neighboring states, Hemenway said, ''it just makes it a lot harder for states with less permissive gun laws to keep guns out."
Urban jurisdictions in the Northeast have some of the most restrictive gun ownership laws in the country, though shootings in Boston were up 11 percent from last year, according to statistics obtained by the Globe.
Police seized 490 guns in Boston through Aug. 23, up from 380 in the same period last year and 294 in 2001. A large percentage of those guns originated from outside the region.
Last month, a South Carolina judge sentenced a Boston man to 24 years in federal prison for buying 21 guns in the state, which he resold illegally in Boston after removing their serial numbers.
Sergeant Thomas Sexton, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department, said the police were concerned that less restrictive gun laws in other states would fuel smuggling into the region.
''It is a concern that some of these other states are relaxing some of their gun laws," he said.
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, a Democrat, signed legislation ending that state's ban in May 2004. In Virginia, Democratic Governor Mark Warner, who may seek the party's 2008 presidential nomination, approved an exemption for gun owners with ''right-to-carry" permits from the state's one-gun-a-month limit.
Pinpointing the precise source of guns smuggled into the Northeast is difficult, analysts say, because last year Congress inserted a provision into a spending bill that prevented the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from releasing federal data about where guns used in violent crimes originated.
The amendment, sponsored by US Representative Todd Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican, prohibited the ATF from releasing documents related to ''traces" of guns. Local authorities can request traces for individual firearms to locate the owner of a stolen gun or in criminal investigations, but they don't have access to traces requested by other agencies.a bipartisan bill to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act and efforts like the Sunshine in Government Initiative.
Report says US data secrecy expanding and getting costlier
Expenses rose to $7.2b in 2004
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press | September 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The government is withholding more data than ever from the public and expanding ways of shrouding information. Last year, federal agencies spent a record $148 creating and storing new secrets for each $1 spent declassifying old secrets, a coalition of watchdog groups reported yesterday.
That's a $28 jump from 2003, when $120 was spent to keep secrets for every $1 spent revealing them. In the late 1990s, the ratio was $15-$17 a year to $1, according to the secrecy report card by OpenTheGovernment.org.
Overall, the government spent $7.2 billion in 2004 stamping 15.6 million documents ''top secret," ''secret," or ''confidential." That almost doubled the 8.6 million new documents classified as recently as 2001.
Last year, the number of pages declassified declined for the fourth straight year to 28.4 million. In 2001, 100 million pages were declassified; the record was 204 million pages in 1997.
These figures cover 41 federal agencies, excluding the CIA, whose classification totals are secret.
''These numbers show we are going in the wrong direction," said Rick Blum, author of the report and director of the coalition of consumer, environmental, labor, journalism and library groups.
The report also noted the growing use of secret searches, court secrecy, closed meetings by government advisory groups. and patents kept from public view.
''The 9/11 Commission pointed out that too much secrecy can make us less safe from terrorists, and the inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina shows the public needs to know what could happen in their communities and what the response plans are," Blum said. He said a new law outside the classification system shrouds ''sensitive homeland security information" about infrastructure vulnerabilities and plans.
''Public engagement in helping fight terrorism or addressing public health risks is the biggest single advantage American society has," Blum said.
The numbers do not solely reflect over classification, said J. William Leonard, director of the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office, which monitors classification. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ''many agencies have gone to 24/7 operations, others have increased their intelligence product, and the military is fighting two wars. You can't do that without producing more classified, and unclassified, information."
Leonard said classification costs rise as agencies share secrets electronically. Yet, he said, ''the great lesson of 9/11 is that improper hoarding of information can cost lives and harm national security."
The report identified 50 new restrictions in laws, regulations or ''mere assertions by government officials" that keep unclassified information from the public. Some are needed to protect privacy or trade secrets, the report said, but ''such unchecked secrecy threatens accountability in government."
These include labels like ''limited official use," ''critical infrastructure information," and ''operations security protected."
''The volume and impact of these pseudo-classifications is growing," said Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who is chairman of the House national security subcommittee, and ''inhibits the free flow of critical information."
Leonard said, ''No one individual in government can identify all the controlled, unclassified [markings], let alone describe their rules."
Blum said he was encouraged by emergence in the last year of ''a vocal chorus pushing back against secrecy." He cited
By Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder | August 28, 2005
HIT, Iraq -- US Marine Sergeant LaDaunte Strickland, sweat pouring down his face, stared at the four Iraqi soldiers sitting in the shade of a truck.
They were supposed to be helping Strickland and his group of Marines stand guard at a vehicle-control point, a basic operation in which troops hope to catch insurgents at traffic stops they set up quickly on the roadsides.
''Come on! Get up," said Strickland, 30, of Cleveland, stabbing a cigar in the air to make his point.
The Iraqis didn't stir. Without an interpreter -- a common occurrence -- the Iraqis didn't understand Strickland, no matter how loud he got.
Three weeks of patrols and interviews in restive Anbar Province suggested that Iraqi security forces will need years of preparation before they're ready to take charge of the complex and violent tribal areas of western Iraq. President Bush has said repeatedly that US troops will withdraw only when Iraqi troops are ready to take over.
But many of the Iraqi troops appear to be in poor condition, unable or unwilling to complete long foot patrols without frequent breaks. They often do not know what to do in complicated situations, standing back and letting Marines and soldiers take the lead.
Many of the Iraqi troops are Shi'ite Muslims -- the majority religious group in Iraq -- who were long oppressed by Sunni Muslims, Anbar's predominant ethnic group but a minority across Iraq. That history creates obstacles to establishing trust with the locals.
In Fallujah, after a US assault last November routed the insurgency that had demolished the town's police force, the Interior Ministry sent in troops from its Public Order Brigade. Residents accuse the battalion of being a de facto Shi'ite militia.
Marine Major Shaun Fitzpatrick, 36, of San Antonio, said the Marines were aware of the sectarian problems and were hoping to put a predominantly Sunni police force on the streets in coming months. Until then, he said of the public-order troops, ''Basically, they're Shi'ite and they're from Baghdad or Basra [a Shi'ite town]. We've had problems. There are inevitable cultural clashes."
In the meantime, insurgents are attacking new police stations and intimidating contractors.
The Iraqi National Guard, heralded last year as the answer to security in the area, has been disbanded because morale was low and insurgents had infiltrated it. The old national guard trucks, with their blue emblems, now sit rusting. As with the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the predecessor to the national guard, American officials say the new Iraqi Army and police will establish security in places such as Anbar.
However, the police force has collapsed in Ramadi, the provincial capital. Two divisions of Iraqi soldiers -- a total of 12,000 men -- are to establish security, but so far only 2,000 are available, and half of them lack basic training
Hit, a city of 130,000, has no police force. North of Hit, in Haditha -- near the site of attacks that killed 20 Marines this month -- the police chief handed over all the patrol cars to the Marines in January.
''He said, 'We can't protect these anymore,' " said Major Plauche St. Romain, the head intelligence officer for the Marine battalion that oversees Haditha, Haqlaniya, and Hit. ''He turned in the uniforms and [armor] vests, too."
That police chief was assassinated in April.
''It was pretty obvious what happened with the police. Their police stations got blown up and a lot of them were murdered," said Army Major William Fall, 48, of Cresson, Pa., who oversees Iraqi security-force operations in Ramadi.
Marine Captain John LaJeunesse, who works with the police in Ramadi, said it wasn't fair to put too much blame on the police. Those who have remained to get trained and be part of the new force haven't been paid in 2 1/2 months, he said.
So far, a little more than 5,900 police officers have been screened for all of Anbar, about half the number needed. Most of those still must be trained, said LaJeunesse, 30, of Boise, Idaho.
''The ones that stay are working without pay, and the insurgents are threatening their families," he said.
During a recent operation in Haqlaniya, a squad from the Iraqi Intervention Force, one of the more seasoned units in Iraq's army, swept through neighborhoods looking for insurgents.
During a raid on a suspected insurgent hide-out, the Iraqis discovered they'd forgotten their bolt cutters. Instead of sending someone back to get them, they tried breaking a lock off an outside gate with the butts of their AK-47s. By the time they were through, they'd made so much noise that everyone in the neighborhood was aware of their presence on what was supposed to be a stealth operation.
When they arrived at their second objective, still without bolt cutters, the men wanted to use grenades to breach the door.
Their supervisor, US Army Captain Terrence Sommers, stepped in and said they'd risk hurting themselves and would give away their position to insurgents.
''They've still got a ways to go," said Sommers, 34, of Trenton.
''We definitely need to do something about this interpreter thing," said Sergeant First Class Anthony James, 33, of Vicksburg, Miss. ''I don't see things changing here. We're not reaching the people."
Because the Iraqis and Americans sometimes can't communicate with one another, they frequently end up wandering in the middle of the street, yelling commands in English and Arabic and heading in opposite directions.
By Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder | August 28, 2005
HIT, Iraq -- US Marine Sergeant LaDaunte Strickland, sweat pouring down his face, stared at the four Iraqi soldiers sitting in the shade of a truck.
They were supposed to be helping Strickland and his group of Marines stand guard at a vehicle-control point, a basic operation in which troops hope to catch insurgents at traffic stops they set up quickly on the roadsides.
''Come on! Get up," said Strickland, 30, of Cleveland, stabbing a cigar in the air to make his point.
The Iraqis didn't stir. Without an interpreter -- a common occurrence -- the Iraqis didn't understand Strickland, no matter how loud he got.
Three weeks of patrols and interviews in restive Anbar Province suggested that Iraqi security forces will need years of preparation before they're ready to take charge of the complex and violent tribal areas of western Iraq. President Bush has said repeatedly that US troops will withdraw only when Iraqi troops are ready to take over.
But many of the Iraqi troops appear to be in poor condition, unable or unwilling to complete long foot patrols without frequent breaks. They often do not know what to do in complicated situations, standing back and letting Marines and soldiers take the lead.
Many of the Iraqi troops are Shi'ite Muslims -- the majority religious group in Iraq -- who were long oppressed by Sunni Muslims, Anbar's predominant ethnic group but a minority across Iraq. That history creates obstacles to establishing trust with the locals.
In Fallujah, after a US assault last November routed the insurgency that had demolished the town's police force, the Interior Ministry sent in troops from its Public Order Brigade. Residents accuse the battalion of being a de facto Shi'ite militia.
Marine Major Shaun Fitzpatrick, 36, of San Antonio, said the Marines were aware of the sectarian problems and were hoping to put a predominantly Sunni police force on the streets in coming months. Until then, he said of the public-order troops, ''Basically, they're Shi'ite and they're from Baghdad or Basra [a Shi'ite town]. We've had problems. There are inevitable cultural clashes."
In the meantime, insurgents are attacking new police stations and intimidating contractors.
The Iraqi National Guard, heralded last year as the answer to security in the area, has been disbanded because morale was low and insurgents had infiltrated it. The old national guard trucks, with their blue emblems, now sit rusting. As with the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the predecessor to the national guard, American officials say the new Iraqi Army and police will establish security in places such as Anbar.
However, the police force has collapsed in Ramadi, the provincial capital. Two divisions of Iraqi soldiers -- a total of 12,000 men -- are to establish security, but so far only 2,000 are available, and half of them lack basic training
Hit, a city of 130,000, has no police force. North of Hit, in Haditha -- near the site of attacks that killed 20 Marines this month -- the police chief handed over all the patrol cars to the Marines in January.
''He said, 'We can't protect these anymore,' " said Major Plauche St. Romain, the head intelligence officer for the Marine battalion that oversees Haditha, Haqlaniya, and Hit. ''He turned in the uniforms and [armor] vests, too."
That police chief was assassinated in April.
''It was pretty obvious what happened with the police. Their police stations got blown up and a lot of them were murdered," said Army Major William Fall, 48, of Cresson, Pa., who oversees Iraqi security-force operations in Ramadi.
Marine Captain John LaJeunesse, who works with the police in Ramadi, said it wasn't fair to put too much blame on the police. Those who have remained to get trained and be part of the new force haven't been paid in 2 1/2 months, he said.
So far, a little more than 5,900 police officers have been screened for all of Anbar, about half the number needed. Most of those still must be trained, said LaJeunesse, 30, of Boise, Idaho.
''The ones that stay are working without pay, and the insurgents are threatening their families," he said.
During a recent operation in Haqlaniya, a squad from the Iraqi Intervention Force, one of the more seasoned units in Iraq's army, swept through neighborhoods looking for insurgents.
During a raid on a suspected insurgent hide-out, the Iraqis discovered they'd forgotten their bolt cutters. Instead of sending someone back to get them, they tried breaking a lock off an outside gate with the butts of their AK-47s. By the time they were through, they'd made so much noise that everyone in the neighborhood was aware of their presence on what was supposed to be a stealth operation.
When they arrived at their second objective, still without bolt cutters, the men wanted to use grenades to breach the door.
Their supervisor, US Army Captain Terrence Sommers, stepped in and said they'd risk hurting themselves and would give away their position to insurgents.
''They've still got a ways to go," said Sommers, 34, of Trenton.
''We definitely need to do something about this interpreter thing," said Sergeant First Class Anthony James, 33, of Vicksburg, Miss. ''I don't see things changing here. We're not reaching the people."
Because the Iraqis and Americans sometimes can't communicate with one another, they frequently end up wandering in the middle of the street, yelling commands in English and Arabic and heading in opposite directions.
Fire and floods sweep Europe in summer of intense weather
By Danica Kirka, Associated Press | August 26, 2005
VIENNA -- Fire and floods have engulfed Europe this summer, as a drought in Spain and Portugal transformed swaths of woodland into a massive tinderbox and torrential downpours carved a trail of destruction through Alpine valleys and impoverished Balkan villages.
Breaking News Alerts Entire sections of the Swiss capital, Bern, have been submerged. Blazes flare up as others are snuffed in Portugal and Spain. And dozens have been killed in a third straight summer of extreme European weather that has people asking: Why?
''People wonder, 'Hey, what's going on with our climate?' " said Dale Mohler, the director of international forecasting at AccuWeather.com. ''But we've seen these kind of heat waves in southwest Europe before."
Both the fire and the floodwaters may be devastating, but they are not all that unprecedented, Mohler argued. Heat waves like the one that has scorched Portugal and Spain leaving forests looking like barren winter landscapes, have occurred every 15 to 20 years.
Supreme Court Won't Reconsider Property Case
By Gina Holland Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 22, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court, given a chance to revisit a heavily criticized ruling, refused Monday to reconsider its decision giving local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development.
So contentious was the court's narrow 5-4 ruling in the so-called eminent domain case earlier this year that some critics launched a campaign to seize Justice David Souter's farmhouse in New Hampshire to build a luxury hotel. Others singled out Justice Stephen Breyer's vacation home in the same state for use as a park.
Both Souter and Breyer voted on the prevailing side. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who did not, sharply criticized her colleagues at the time. She said in a minority opinion that the ruling favored the well-heeled over the less fortunate.
Supreme Court Won't Reconsider Property Case
By Gina Holland Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 22, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court, given a chance to revisit a heavily criticized ruling, refused Monday to reconsider its decision giving local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development.
So contentious was the court's narrow 5-4 ruling in the so-called eminent domain case earlier this year that some critics launched a campaign to seize Justice David Souter's farmhouse in New Hampshire to build a luxury hotel. Others singled out Justice Stephen Breyer's vacation home in the same state for use as a park.
Both Souter and Breyer voted on the prevailing side. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who did not, sharply criticized her colleagues at the time. She said in a minority opinion that the ruling favored the well-heeled over the less fortunate.
By Darlene Superville Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 22, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - President Bush defended the war in Iraq on Monday in the face of growing skepticism, asserting that "a policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety" from terrorism.
With U.S. casualties rising and his approval rating falling, Bush urged Americans to stand united in the war in Iraq and against terrorists everywhere.
While the United States has not been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush said, "We're not yet safe. Terrorists in foreign lands still hope to attack our country. We must confront threats before they fully materialize."
"The only way to defend to our citizens where we live is to go after the terrorists where they live," Bush said in a speech to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
By Darlene Superville Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 22, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - President Bush defended the war in Iraq on Monday in the face of growing skepticism, asserting that "a policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety" from terrorism.
With U.S. casualties rising and his approval rating falling, Bush urged Americans to stand united in the war in Iraq and against terrorists everywhere.
While the United States has not been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush said, "We're not yet safe. Terrorists in foreign lands still hope to attack our country. We must confront threats before they fully materialize."
"The only way to defend to our citizens where we live is to go after the terrorists where they live," Bush said in a speech to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Library Missing Roberts File
Papers Lost After Lawyers' Review
By R. Jeffrey Smith and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 17, 2005; Page A04
A file folder containing papers from Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.'s work on affirmative action more than 20 years ago disappeared from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library after its review by two lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department in July, according to officials at the library and the National Archives and Records Administration.
Archivists said the lawyers returned the file but it now cannot be located. No duplicates of the folder's contents were made before the lawyers' review. Although one of the lawyers has assisted in the Archives' attempt to reconstruct its contents from other files, officials have no way of independently verifying their effort was successful.
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It is rare for the Archives to lose documents in its care and the agency has requested an investigation by its inspector general, said Sharon Fawcett, the assistant archivist for presidential libraries.
The lost file has also aroused some concern on Capitol Hill. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, wrote yesterday to R. Duke Blackwood, executive director of the Reagan Library, asking that he "continue to investigate thoroughly" the missing affirmative action file
Rumsfeld, in Latin America, Voices Democracy Concerns
Bolivia Is Focus of Appeals for Regional Help
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 17, 2005; Page A08
ASUNCION, Paraguay, Aug. 16 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, arriving in this South American capital Tuesday, said countries in the region should help strengthen democracy in Bolivia and suggested that governments in Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in Bolivia in "unhelpful ways."
Rumsfeld's brief trip is aimed at reinforcing ties with regional democracies as they fight political instability, terrorism and drug trafficking, defense officials said. Rumsfeld will also visit Peru.
Col. Elvio Flores points the way upon Secretary Rumsfeld's arrival in Asuncion. (By Jorge Saenz -- Associated Press)
Increasing political problems in Bolivia, which borders Paraguay to the northwest, have been fostered by Cuban and Venezuelan authorities, U.S. officials contend.
U.S. officials said the challenge is to steer Bolivia toward a democratic outcome while encouraging South American neighbors to work together. Peasant groups, urban activists and socialist parties have staged repeated protests in Bolivia, a deeply impoverished country.
"Any time you see issues involving stability in a country, it is something that one wishes would be resolved in a democratic, peaceful way," Rumsfeld told reporters en route to Paraguay. "There certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways."
Weird miss
A homing pigeon bound for Norway landed in Sweden instead, but the bird's mistake showed signs of unusual intelligence.
Last week Gösta Schützer walked out to his garage in Östra Deje, north of Karlstad, Sweden. He was met by a pigeon that was sitting by the garage door, newspaper Värmlands Folkblad reports.
Schützer didn't pay much attention to the bird, and went into the garage, and after a while the pigeon followed.
"It shuffled around behind me like a dog. When I tried to talk to it, it opened its beak as if it wanted to answer," Schützer told the paper.
It turned out that the pigeon, owned by Colin Allman, had attended a homing pigeon conference in Malung, in midwestern Sweden. From there the Norwegian bird was released and was to go home, to Allman's home in Tangenveien just outside of Oslo, but bad weather hindered many of the pigeons from making their trips.
Allman's partner, Elisabeth Myhrvold is baffled by why the homing pigeon decided to stop in the wrong country, but even more puzzling is where the bird chose to settle - at a house in Tångenvägen, a nearly identical address.
Myhrvold said she can't believe that the pigeon can read and confused the Norwegian and Swedish ways of spelling the street name. "But you never know," she said.
LEESBURG, Fla. -- Eyewitnesses said a Lake County mother took her baby into a bar and, when she was told to leave, she went out to her car and passed out with the baby inside.
Customers at the Shamrock Lounge said Holly Bacon was so out of it that they were able to take her baby and his carrier out of the back seat without her even noticing. They called it outrageous, while police called it neglect.
"She came in and the bartender told her to leave. She had an infant in the carrier," said eyewitness Lucy Sandstedt.
The young mother walked right back outside. The bartender said the woman already seemed drunk.
"How'd she drive here? That's the thing that amazes me, she was lucky and the baby, this is a terrible risk for a baby," said bar owner Katie Zuccaro.
But it was not nearly as risky as what they saw next. Forty minutes later, Linda Herald was on her way out of the bar when she noticed the mother and baby inside a white car.
"I was petrified, because it's hot and here's a baby in the car and mother passed out," said Herald.
The bartender called 911 while customers took the baby out of the car, carrier and all. They said Bacon never woke up.
"The fact that she just slept through that entire event
Crash tradegy Aug 17 2005
By Helen Rae, The Evening Chronicle
A grandfather whose heart stopped at the wheel was jolted back to life when he crashed into a bus stop - only to suffer a second fatal attack.
Just minutes after Selby Sarginson, 66, dropped off his wife Frances for work at a chartered surveyors in Gateshead's Team Valley, he is believed to have blacked out causing him to lose control of his car.
But the pensioner, known as Sonny, appeared fine when his wife arrived at the scene of the accident on Ropery Road, Gateshead, after a call from police, although he couldn't recall what happened.
Sonny, of Cedar Crescent, Dunston, Gateshead, who had a heart transplant in 1997, had just been for a regular hospital check-up. He was taken to Newcastle's Freeman hospital for observation but while Frances sat in the waiting room he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Crash tradegy Aug 17 2005
By Helen Rae, The Evening Chronicle
A grandfather whose heart stopped at the wheel was jolted back to life when he crashed into a bus stop - only to suffer a second fatal attack.
Just minutes after Selby Sarginson, 66, dropped off his wife Frances for work at a chartered surveyors in Gateshead's Team Valley, he is believed to have blacked out causing him to lose control of his car.
But the pensioner, known as Sonny, appeared fine when his wife arrived at the scene of the accident on Ropery Road, Gateshead, after a call from police, although he couldn't recall what happened.
Sonny, of Cedar Crescent, Dunston, Gateshead, who had a heart transplant in 1997, had just been for a regular hospital check-up. He was taken to Newcastle's Freeman hospital for observation but while Frances sat in the waiting room he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Inflation surges in July as energy prices shoot higher
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — Consumer prices shot up in July, reflecting sharply higher prices for gasoline and other energy products. But new-car prices fell by the biggest amount in 30 years, helping to keep underlying inflation pressures tame.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its closely watched consumer price index rose 0.5% in July, the biggest rise in three months. In July, overall inflation was driven higher by a big 3.8% jump in energy costs.
However, outside of food and energy, prices remained well-behaved.
Inflation surges in July as energy prices shoot higher
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — Consumer prices shot up in July, reflecting sharply higher prices for gasoline and other energy products. But new-car prices fell by the biggest amount in 30 years, helping to keep underlying inflation pressures tame.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its closely watched consumer price index rose 0.5% in July, the biggest rise in three months. In July, overall inflation was driven higher by a big 3.8% jump in energy costs.
However, outside of food and energy, prices remained well-behaved.
DeLay political committee's fund-raising eyed
FEC audit finds 'soft money' may have been misused
By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press | August 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A political committee founded by Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, may have improperly spent unregulated ''soft money" on get-out-the-vote and fund-raising activities, the Federal Election Commission said. A DeLay attorney said yesterday the money has been reimbursed.
Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee ''potentially" spent about $203,000 in soft money from its nonfederal account to pay for the political activities and administrative expenses, an FEC audit found.
The committee has federal and nonfederal accounts that shared certain expenses. The federal account could contain only money subject to federal contribution limits and from individuals and PACs, or hard money.
DeLay political committee's fund-raising eyed
FEC audit finds 'soft money' may have been misused
By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press | August 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A political committee founded by Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, may have improperly spent unregulated ''soft money" on get-out-the-vote and fund-raising activities, the Federal Election Commission said. A DeLay attorney said yesterday the money has been reimbursed.
Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee ''potentially" spent about $203,000 in soft money from its nonfederal account to pay for the political activities and administrative expenses, an FEC audit found.
The committee has federal and nonfederal accounts that shared certain expenses. The federal account could contain only money subject to federal contribution limits and from individuals and PACs, or hard money.
Quincy couple scrambles up to roof to flee home invasion
Armed invaders get away before police arrive
By John Ellement, Globe Staff | August 12, 2005
QUINCY -- A couple escaped three armed gunmen shortly before noon yesterday by climbing out a second-floor window and onto the roof of their home -- where the woman waited under the broiling sun for some 30 minutes before being rescued, police and neighbors said.
The husband jumped from the second-story roof of the rented bungalow, landed on the front lawn, and ran down Montclair Avenue to Mullaney's Variety store on West Squantum Street where he frantically asked a clerk to call police.
The attack left police perplexed as to why the couple and a third person in the house were targeted. Their attackers were Vietnamese and the victims are Chinese, police said. The husband told neighbors he was robbed.
''We have no idea what the purpose for them being there was," said Detective Lieutenant Patrick P. Glynn, commander of the Special Investigations Unit. He would not release the victims identities, who declined comment. He said it was unclear if anything was stolen. The suspects made a clean getaway.
According to police and neighbors, the attack began shortly before 11:30 a.m. when the gunmen forced their way inside the couple's home. A third person, a male relative, was also there, police said.
The attackers rounded up the victims, bound their hands and feet with plastic ties, and led all three to a second-floor bedroom at the front of the house, police said. While the attackers were apparently searching the house, the husband managed to break free and crawled through an open window onto the roof. Then he jumped to the ground and went for help.
The husband ran into the variety store where Joshua P. Smith was manning the counter.
''A man just came running into the store. He was screaming and hollering, 'Call 911! Call 911! Someone's in my house with a gun!,' "' said Smith, who called police at 11:34 a.m. ''He was freaking out."
Smith said the man also told him that his wife was still inside the house and that he feared she was trapped inside with the gunmen. Police said that after he left the house, his wife had escaped her restraints and fled to the roof.
''They all had guns and they were in the house and they were trying to rob him," Smith said the husband told him.
Michael J. Cheney was working at a real estate office at the corner of Montclair and West Squantum streets when he saw a marked cruiser pull into the street. Cheney said he first feared police were going to ticket cars as they have in the past. But he knew things were different when the officer got out of the cruiser.
''I saw him hop out of his car with his gun drawn," said Cheney.
Police quickly started arriving in marked and unmarked cruisers, emerging from their vehicles with their handguns at the ready, according to witnesses.
While the husband was with Smith, the wife managed to crawl out onto the roof near the front of the house and then made her way to the peak where neighbors said they could hear her calling for help. Police quickly spotted her and ordered her to stay put, Glynn said.
''She was trying to escape and she was hiding on the roof," he said.
At its peak, about 15 officers surrounded the house, Glynn said.
The husband gave police the cellphone number of his relative which police used to make sure the man was able to exit the house without being mistaken for a suspect, Glynn said. The victims were not injured.
Glynn said some may consider leaving the woman on the roof as an outrageous act by police. But, he said, police had to act to protect the officers, neighbors, and the woman herself by making sure the intruders had left the building.
''[The roof] was the safest place for her to be at that moment," said Glynn.
Glynn said police were not sure how the suspects escaped. Some witnesses reported seeing the men run away, while others said they spotted the gunmen climbing into a waiting car.
The case remains under investigation, Glynn said.
Quincy couple scrambles up to roof to flee home invasion
Armed invaders get away before police arrive
By John Ellement, Globe Staff | August 12, 2005
QUINCY -- A couple escaped three armed gunmen shortly before noon yesterday by climbing out a second-floor window and onto the roof of their home -- where the woman waited under the broiling sun for some 30 minutes before being rescued, police and neighbors said.
The husband jumped from the second-story roof of the rented bungalow, landed on the front lawn, and ran down Montclair Avenue to Mullaney's Variety store on West Squantum Street where he frantically asked a clerk to call police.
The attack left police perplexed as to why the couple and a third person in the house were targeted. Their attackers were Vietnamese and the victims are Chinese, police said. The husband told neighbors he was robbed.
''We have no idea what the purpose for them being there was," said Detective Lieutenant Patrick P. Glynn, commander of the Special Investigations Unit. He would not release the victims identities, who declined comment. He said it was unclear if anything was stolen. The suspects made a clean getaway.
According to police and neighbors, the attack began shortly before 11:30 a.m. when the gunmen forced their way inside the couple's home. A third person, a male relative, was also there, police said.
The attackers rounded up the victims, bound their hands and feet with plastic ties, and led all three to a second-floor bedroom at the front of the house, police said. While the attackers were apparently searching the house, the husband managed to break free and crawled through an open window onto the roof. Then he jumped to the ground and went for help.
The husband ran into the variety store where Joshua P. Smith was manning the counter.
''A man just came running into the store. He was screaming and hollering, 'Call 911! Call 911! Someone's in my house with a gun!,' "' said Smith, who called police at 11:34 a.m. ''He was freaking out."
Smith said the man also told him that his wife was still inside the house and that he feared she was trapped inside with the gunmen. Police said that after he left the house, his wife had escaped her restraints and fled to the roof.
''They all had guns and they were in the house and they were trying to rob him," Smith said the husband told him.
Michael J. Cheney was working at a real estate office at the corner of Montclair and West Squantum streets when he saw a marked cruiser pull into the street. Cheney said he first feared police were going to ticket cars as they have in the past. But he knew things were different when the officer got out of the cruiser.
''I saw him hop out of his car with his gun drawn," said Cheney.
Police quickly started arriving in marked and unmarked cruisers, emerging from their vehicles with their handguns at the ready, according to witnesses.
While the husband was with Smith, the wife managed to crawl out onto the roof near the front of the house and then made her way to the peak where neighbors said they could hear her calling for help. Police quickly spotted her and ordered her to stay put, Glynn said.
''She was trying to escape and she was hiding on the roof," he said.
At its peak, about 15 officers surrounded the house, Glynn said.
The husband gave police the cellphone number of his relative which police used to make sure the man was able to exit the house without being mistaken for a suspect, Glynn said. The victims were not injured.
Glynn said some may consider leaving the woman on the roof as an outrageous act by police. But, he said, police had to act to protect the officers, neighbors, and the woman herself by making sure the intruders had left the building.
''[The roof] was the safest place for her to be at that moment," said Glynn.
Glynn said police were not sure how the suspects escaped. Some witnesses reported seeing the men run away, while others said they spotted the gunmen climbing into a waiting car.
The case remains under investigation, Glynn said.
Thou art no Romeo
Famed swan couple is all-female
The not-so-aptly named Romeo and Juliet reside in the Public Garden in spring and summer. (Globe Staff Photo / John Tlumacki)
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | August 12, 2005
Boston's beloved pair of swans -- feted by city leaders, residents, and tourists alike as one of the Hub's most celebrated summer attractions -- are a same-sex couple. Yes, scientific tests have shown that the pair, named Romeo and Juliet, are really Juliet and Juliet.
The city's Parks and Recreation Department conducted the tests months ago, but didn't announce the results for fear of destroying the image of a Shakespearean love story unfolding each year in the Public Garden.
Thou art no Romeo
Famed swan couple is all-female
The not-so-aptly named Romeo and Juliet reside in the Public Garden in spring and summer. (Globe Staff Photo / John Tlumacki)
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | August 12, 2005
Boston's beloved pair of swans -- feted by city leaders, residents, and tourists alike as one of the Hub's most celebrated summer attractions -- are a same-sex couple. Yes, scientific tests have shown that the pair, named Romeo and Juliet, are really Juliet and Juliet.
The city's Parks and Recreation Department conducted the tests months ago, but didn't announce the results for fear of destroying the image of a Shakespearean love story unfolding each year in the Public Garden.
Sunni Arabs reject Shiite proposal for federal Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — Sunni Arab leaders on Friday rejected calls for a Shiite federal region to be enshrined in the constitution, saying the proposal would fracture Iraq along religious and ethnic lines. The dispute threatens to delay completion of the charter by a Monday deadline.
Sunni Arab leaders were responding to a demand by a leading Shiite lawmaker for provisions to allow local Shiite control in the southern and central parts of the country. Sunni Arabs fear they will lose out on oil revenues if the country is split into federated zones.
"We reject it wherever it is, whether in the north or in the south, but we accept the Kurdish region as it was before the war," said Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the committee drafting the constitution. Some Shiite leaders want to replicate the success of Kurdish leaders in the north who govern an autonomous part of the country.
"The aim of federalism is to divide Iraq into ethnic and sectarian areas. We will cling to our stance of rejecting this," Hamdoun said.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Apache helicopter crashed Friday in northern Iraq, injuring two U.S. troops, and a roadside bomb killed an American soldier in the central city of Tikrit, the military said.
The two injured servicemembers were being evacuated in the area of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, said Staff Sgt. Duane Brown, a spokesman for the 42nd Infantry Division. He said the helicopter crash was under investigation.
In central Iraq, a U.S. soldier was killed Friday in a roadside bombing while on patrol in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldier, whose name was not released, was assigned to Task Force Liberty.
The American casualties came as the death toll among the National Guard and Reserve in Iraq soared to at least 32 in the first 10 days of August, according to a Pentagon count. That total is more that in any full month of the entire war.
More broadly, Pentagon casualty reports show that the number of deaths among Guard and Reserve forces has been trending upward much of this year, totaling more than 100 since May 1. That ranks as the deadliest stretch of the war for the Guard and Reserve, whose members perform both combat and support missions.
Sunni Arabs reject Shiite proposal for federal Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — Sunni Arab leaders on Friday rejected calls for a Shiite federal region to be enshrined in the constitution, saying the proposal would fracture Iraq along religious and ethnic lines. The dispute threatens to delay completion of the charter by a Monday deadline.
Sunni Arab leaders were responding to a demand by a leading Shiite lawmaker for provisions to allow local Shiite control in the southern and central parts of the country. Sunni Arabs fear they will lose out on oil revenues if the country is split into federated zones.
"We reject it wherever it is, whether in the north or in the south, but we accept the Kurdish region as it was before the war," said Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the committee drafting the constitution. Some Shiite leaders want to replicate the success of Kurdish leaders in the north who govern an autonomous part of the country.
"The aim of federalism is to divide Iraq into ethnic and sectarian areas. We will cling to our stance of rejecting this," Hamdoun said.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Apache helicopter crashed Friday in northern Iraq, injuring two U.S. troops, and a roadside bomb killed an American soldier in the central city of Tikrit, the military said.
The two injured servicemembers were being evacuated in the area of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, said Staff Sgt. Duane Brown, a spokesman for the 42nd Infantry Division. He said the helicopter crash was under investigation.
In central Iraq, a U.S. soldier was killed Friday in a roadside bombing while on patrol in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldier, whose name was not released, was assigned to Task Force Liberty.
The American casualties came as the death toll among the National Guard and Reserve in Iraq soared to at least 32 in the first 10 days of August, according to a Pentagon count. That total is more that in any full month of the entire war.
More broadly, Pentagon casualty reports show that the number of deaths among Guard and Reserve forces has been trending upward much of this year, totaling more than 100 since May 1. That ranks as the deadliest stretch of the war for the Guard and Reserve, whose members perform both combat and support missions.
WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan gets 5 years in prison
By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — In a textbook example of how cooperation with government prosecutors can pay big dividends, former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan received a five-year sentence in federal court here, despite the fact that he was the principal architect of one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the U.S. capital markets.
Scott Sullivan leaves the federal courthouse in Manhattan Thursday.
Stephen Chernin, Getty Images
In sentencing Sullivan, whose guilty pleas to three criminal counts exposed him to a maximum sentence of 22 to 27 years, U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones saluted him for his exemplary cooperation with the government's prosecution of former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers.
"He provided information about private conversations he had with Mr. Ebbers, without which Mr. Ebbers could not have been indicted," Jones said.
Still, the judge said, "Mr. Sullivan's offenses were of the highest magnitude. Mr. Sullivan, I believe, was the architect of the fraud at WorldCom."
In March, a jury convicted Ebbers, 63, of instigating an $11 billion fraud at WorldCom, the exposure of which cost thousands of employees their jobs and drove the company into bankruptcy.
WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan gets 5 years in prison
By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — In a textbook example of how cooperation with government prosecutors can pay big dividends, former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan received a five-year sentence in federal court here, despite the fact that he was the principal architect of one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the U.S. capital markets.
Scott Sullivan leaves the federal courthouse in Manhattan Thursday.
Stephen Chernin, Getty Images
In sentencing Sullivan, whose guilty pleas to three criminal counts exposed him to a maximum sentence of 22 to 27 years, U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones saluted him for his exemplary cooperation with the government's prosecution of former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers.
"He provided information about private conversations he had with Mr. Ebbers, without which Mr. Ebbers could not have been indicted," Jones said.
Still, the judge said, "Mr. Sullivan's offenses were of the highest magnitude. Mr. Sullivan, I believe, was the architect of the fraud at WorldCom."
In March, a jury convicted Ebbers, 63, of instigating an $11 billion fraud at WorldCom, the exposure of which cost thousands of employees their jobs and drove the company into bankruptcy.
11-Year-Old Fresno Girl Who Threw Rock to Be Tried for Felony
By Lisa Leff Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 3, 200
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Advocates for an 11-year-old girl who was arrested on a deadly weapon charge for throwing a 2-pound rock during a water balloon fight say the charge in no way fits the crime.
But Fresno's mayor and police chief say Maribel Cuevas's case was handled appropriately, and that assault with a deadly weapon is the proper charge for an act that might have had fatal consequences.
The case was to go to trial Wednesday in the Juvenile Delinquency Division of Fresno Superior Court. In an unusual move for a case involving a minor, the trial will be open to the public.
Maribel was arrested in April for throwing the rock at a neighborhood boy who had pelted her with a water balloon. The rock gashed the boy's forehead, and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm.
Lisa Bennett, a legal assistant for defense attorney Richard Beshwate Jr., said efforts to avert a trial were fruitless. "Even though there may or may not be good offers, having her plead guilty to a crime is not acceptable," Bennett said Tuesday.
Alvin Harrell, the Fresno County assistant district attorney who supervises juvenile cases, said court rules prohibited him from commenting.
In a statement issued shortly after The Associated Press published a story about the case, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer defended his department's actions.
"The simple fact is that we have an 11-year-old girl who struck a boy in the head with a jagged-edged, two-pound river rock, that required him to have stitches," Dyer said. "That is a felony, assault with a deadly weapon, and we are very fortunate that that act did not cause a more serious injury, even death."
Elijah Vang, the boy who was injured by Maribel and who has acknowledged throwing a water balloon at her, was expected to testify at the trial.
11-Year-Old Fresno Girl Who Threw Rock to Be Tried for Felony
By Lisa Leff Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 3, 200
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Advocates for an 11-year-old girl who was arrested on a deadly weapon charge for throwing a 2-pound rock during a water balloon fight say the charge in no way fits the crime.
But Fresno's mayor and police chief say Maribel Cuevas's case was handled appropriately, and that assault with a deadly weapon is the proper charge for an act that might have had fatal consequences.
The case was to go to trial Wednesday in the Juvenile Delinquency Division of Fresno Superior Court. In an unusual move for a case involving a minor, the trial will be open to the public.
Maribel was arrested in April for throwing the rock at a neighborhood boy who had pelted her with a water balloon. The rock gashed the boy's forehead, and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm.
Lisa Bennett, a legal assistant for defense attorney Richard Beshwate Jr., said efforts to avert a trial were fruitless. "Even though there may or may not be good offers, having her plead guilty to a crime is not acceptable," Bennett said Tuesday.
Alvin Harrell, the Fresno County assistant district attorney who supervises juvenile cases, said court rules prohibited him from commenting.
In a statement issued shortly after The Associated Press published a story about the case, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer defended his department's actions.
"The simple fact is that we have an 11-year-old girl who struck a boy in the head with a jagged-edged, two-pound river rock, that required him to have stitches," Dyer said. "That is a felony, assault with a deadly weapon, and we are very fortunate that that act did not cause a more serious injury, even death."
Elijah Vang, the boy who was injured by Maribel and who has acknowledged throwing a water balloon at her, was expected to testify at the trial.
Steroid ring found in Italy; some said to go to US troops
By Associated Press | August 2, 2005
ROME -- Police have seized 215,000 doses of prohibited substances while dismantling a ring that supplied steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to customers around the world, including US soldiers in Iraq, a police official said yesterday.
The US military in Iraq had no immediate comment, but the popularity of steroid abuse has long been discussed as US troops and contractors in Iraq work out in gyms set up in bases and even in the mirrored halls of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.
Joe Donahue, program director for the Vietnam Vets of America Foundation -- who spent 16 months in Iraq, often lifting weights in the Green Zone gyms -- said steroids were on offer for those who wanted them.
''I had them offered to me by an Iraqi guy who sure as hell looked like he was using them," Donahue said. ''There were guys I'm pretty sure were juicing."
Donahue said two Iraqi bodybuilders sold steroids and other supplements in the Green Zone building where he worked. ''I can say with no equivocation, I was offered steroids," Donahue said in an interview.
Private security contractors said that steroid use also is a problem among their employees, because the drugs are readily available in Iraq -- as easy as buying a soda from the local stores, according to a contractor.
The police investigation in Italy began after a post office in Trieste, in northeastern Italy, reported that US postal authorities in Iraq returned hundreds of packets of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs because they had been improperly addressed.
Steroid ring found in Italy; some said to go to US troops
By Associated Press | August 2, 2005
ROME -- Police have seized 215,000 doses of prohibited substances while dismantling a ring that supplied steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to customers around the world, including US soldiers in Iraq, a police official said yesterday.
The US military in Iraq had no immediate comment, but the popularity of steroid abuse has long been discussed as US troops and contractors in Iraq work out in gyms set up in bases and even in the mirrored halls of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.
Joe Donahue, program director for the Vietnam Vets of America Foundation -- who spent 16 months in Iraq, often lifting weights in the Green Zone gyms -- said steroids were on offer for those who wanted them.
''I had them offered to me by an Iraqi guy who sure as hell looked like he was using them," Donahue said. ''There were guys I'm pretty sure were juicing."
Donahue said two Iraqi bodybuilders sold steroids and other supplements in the Green Zone building where he worked. ''I can say with no equivocation, I was offered steroids," Donahue said in an interview.
Private security contractors said that steroid use also is a problem among their employees, because the drugs are readily available in Iraq -- as easy as buying a soda from the local stores, according to a contractor.
The police investigation in Italy began after a post office in Trieste, in northeastern Italy, reported that US postal authorities in Iraq returned hundreds of packets of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs because they had been improperly addressed.
Where Camp is a Blast
ROLLA, MO-August 1, 2005 — Some teens are having a blast this summer – at explosives camp.
Click Here for More WPVI.com Bizarre News
More than 20 teens are taking a five-day course sponsored by the University of Missouri-Rolla.
The teens get to work with real high explosives, like dynamite and C-Four, the plastic explosive used by the military. The campers are also designing their own fireworks. Most of the teenagers are looking ahead to well-paying careers in the mining, demolition or fireworks industries.
Margaret Howard will be a freshman at UMR's Mining Engineering school this fall. She says getting paid to blow up stuff would be great.
Where Camp is a Blast
ROLLA, MO-August 1, 2005 — Some teens are having a blast this summer – at explosives camp.
Click Here for More WPVI.com Bizarre News
More than 20 teens are taking a five-day course sponsored by the University of Missouri-Rolla.
The teens get to work with real high explosives, like dynamite and C-Four, the plastic explosive used by the military. The campers are also designing their own fireworks. Most of the teenagers are looking ahead to well-paying careers in the mining, demolition or fireworks industries.
Margaret Howard will be a freshman at UMR's Mining Engineering school this fall. She says getting paid to blow up stuff would be great.
Ex-Cop Who Killed Denies Setting Up 'Hit' On Whistleblower
NEW ORLEANS -- A former New Orleans police officer told a jury Monday that he did not order the killing of a woman who filed a brutality complaint against him, but was instead setting her up in a drug deal.
Representing himself, Len Davis is undergoing a second sentencing hearing to decide whether he will die for the 1994 slaying of Kim Groves, a killing that federal prosecutors said he ordered another man to perform.
Davis' 1996 conviction for federal civil rights violations still stands, but various appeals court rulings tossed out his original death sentence and that of convicted hit man Paul Hardy. Hardy will face a second sentencing hearing in October.
At the time of Groves' killing, Davis was the target of an FBI sting operation that included a tap on his cell phone. Federal agents had set up a fake cocaine warehouse and Davis was looking for other corrupt officers to guard the building.
Eleven New Orleans police officers were eventually convicted in the drug sting, including Davis, who got an additional sentence of life in prison.
Ex-Cop Who Killed Denies Setting Up 'Hit' On Whistleblower
NEW ORLEANS -- A former New Orleans police officer told a jury Monday that he did not order the killing of a woman who filed a brutality complaint against him, but was instead setting her up in a drug deal.
Representing himself, Len Davis is undergoing a second sentencing hearing to decide whether he will die for the 1994 slaying of Kim Groves, a killing that federal prosecutors said he ordered another man to perform.
Davis' 1996 conviction for federal civil rights violations still stands, but various appeals court rulings tossed out his original death sentence and that of convicted hit man Paul Hardy. Hardy will face a second sentencing hearing in October.
At the time of Groves' killing, Davis was the target of an FBI sting operation that included a tap on his cell phone. Federal agents had set up a fake cocaine warehouse and Davis was looking for other corrupt officers to guard the building.
Eleven New Orleans police officers were eventually convicted in the drug sting, including Davis, who got an additional sentence of life in prison.
Bottom Falling Out Of Thong Market
Cracks are appearing in the UK thong market with sales down nearly 20% in the past year.Ever since the buttock-baring item of women's underwear was worn by a catwalk model in 1997, G-strings have been all the rage.Today sales of thongs remain firm among women aged 25 and under.
But demand from older women has started to sag, new figures show.
Bottom Falling Out Of Thong Market
Cracks are appearing in the UK thong market with sales down nearly 20% in the past year.Ever since the buttock-baring item of women's underwear was worn by a catwalk model in 1997, G-strings have been all the rage.Today sales of thongs remain firm among women aged 25 and under.
But demand from older women has started to sag, new figures show.
Global Warming?: Scientists Are Seeing More Dead Birds, Fewer Fish on the Pacific Coast
By Terence Chea Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 1, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton - the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.
Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?
Few scientists are willing to blame global warming, the theory that carbon dioxide and other manmade emissions are trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere and causing a worldwide rise in temperatures. Yet few are willing to rule it out.
"There are strange things happening, but we don't really understand how all the pieces fit together," said Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist and climate change expert at Oregon State University. "It's hard to say whether any single event is just an anomaly or a real indication of something serious happening."
Scientists say things could very well swing back to normal next year. But if the phenomenon proves to be long-lasting, the consequences could be serious for birds, fish and other wildlife.
This much is known: From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem.
Global Warming?: Scientists Are Seeing More Dead Birds, Fewer Fish on the Pacific Coast
By Terence Chea Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 1, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton - the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.
Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?
Few scientists are willing to blame global warming, the theory that carbon dioxide and other manmade emissions are trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere and causing a worldwide rise in temperatures. Yet few are willing to rule it out.
"There are strange things happening, but we don't really understand how all the pieces fit together," said Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist and climate change expert at Oregon State University. "It's hard to say whether any single event is just an anomaly or a real indication of something serious happening."
Scientists say things could very well swing back to normal next year. But if the phenomenon proves to be long-lasting, the consequences could be serious for birds, fish and other wildlife.
This much is known: From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem.
Draft Iraqi constitution elevates role of Islam
Updated: 7:18 p.m. ET July 26, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A part of Iraq’s draft constitution obtained by The Associated Press
gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns
that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.
Proposal may erode women's rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance
Iraq Constitution Framers Seek Extension
July 31, 2005, 5:23 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq --
The committee writing the new Iraqi constitution decided Sunday
to ask parliament for a 30-day extension to finish the draft, members said.
The decision marks a setback to U.S. efforts to maintain political momentum to
combat the insurgency.
The formal request will be submitted to parliament Monday, committee members said.
The decision was taken in a meeting ahead of the Aug. 15 deadline for parliament to approve
the draft and submit it to a national referendum in mid-October.
Before the meeting, the committee chairman, Humam Hammoudi, said he would recommend a 30-day extension. After the meeting, one of the framers, Baha al-Araji, said the recommendation had been accepted.
Al-Araji said Kurdish delegates wanted a six-month delay but the Shiites and Sunni Arabs decided to ask for 30 more days.
The United States had mounted considerable pressure on the Iraqis to meet the Aug.15 deadline.
Ten Commandments get an Indiana niche
Some lament monument being on private land
By Robert Preer, Globe Correspondent | July 31, 2005
BEDFORD, Ind. -- Janie Blake and Mary Brewer sat at a table one recent morning outside a Subway restaurant in downtown Bedford, across from the Lawrence County Courthouse, enjoying cold drinks and cookies.
Facing them was a limestone monument with the Ten Commandments inscribed on one side. The two women said they liked the display under the restaurant's portico, but wished it could be where it had been intended: on the State House lawn in Indianapolis.
''It's stuck here in a cubbyhole," said Blake, who lives in nearby Mitchell. ''It's time America took a stand for what it was founded on."
With a religious state in mind
Christian Exodus asks conservatives to relocate to S.C.
By Paul Nussbaum, Knight Ridder | July 31, 2005
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Frank and Tammy Janoski, the Pennsylvania pilgrims, have landed.
With their four children, they have settled into a little subdivision in the country, the first transplants of a movement that wants to bring legions of conservative Christians here to turn South Carolina's government into a biblically inspired oasis.
In the South Carolina of their dreams, abortion would be illegal, the Ten Commandments would be proudly displayed, public schools would be a thing of the past, taxes would be severely limited, and property rights would be paramount.
And if the federal government tried to interfere, well, they'd secede.
Draft Iraqi constitution elevates role of Islam
Updated: 7:18 p.m. ET July 26, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A part of Iraq’s draft constitution obtained by The Associated Press
gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns
that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.
Proposal may erode women's rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance
Iraq Constitution Framers Seek Extension
July 31, 2005, 5:23 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq --
The committee writing the new Iraqi constitution decided Sunday
to ask parliament for a 30-day extension to finish the draft, members said.
The decision marks a setback to U.S. efforts to maintain political momentum to
combat the insurgency.
The formal request will be submitted to parliament Monday, committee members said.
The decision was taken in a meeting ahead of the Aug. 15 deadline for parliament to approve
the draft and submit it to a national referendum in mid-October.
Before the meeting, the committee chairman, Humam Hammoudi, said he would recommend a 30-day extension. After the meeting, one of the framers, Baha al-Araji, said the recommendation had been accepted.
Al-Araji said Kurdish delegates wanted a six-month delay but the Shiites and Sunni Arabs decided to ask for 30 more days.
The United States had mounted considerable pressure on the Iraqis to meet the Aug.15 deadline.
Ten Commandments get an Indiana niche
Some lament monument being on private land
By Robert Preer, Globe Correspondent | July 31, 2005
BEDFORD, Ind. -- Janie Blake and Mary Brewer sat at a table one recent morning outside a Subway restaurant in downtown Bedford, across from the Lawrence County Courthouse, enjoying cold drinks and cookies.
Facing them was a limestone monument with the Ten Commandments inscribed on one side. The two women said they liked the display under the restaurant's portico, but wished it could be where it had been intended: on the State House lawn in Indianapolis.
''It's stuck here in a cubbyhole," said Blake, who lives in nearby Mitchell. ''It's time America took a stand for what it was founded on."
With a religious state in mind
Christian Exodus asks conservatives to relocate to S.C.
By Paul Nussbaum, Knight Ridder | July 31, 2005
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Frank and Tammy Janoski, the Pennsylvania pilgrims, have landed.
With their four children, they have settled into a little subdivision in the country, the first transplants of a movement that wants to bring legions of conservative Christians here to turn South Carolina's government into a biblically inspired oasis.
In the South Carolina of their dreams, abortion would be illegal, the Ten Commandments would be proudly displayed, public schools would be a thing of the past, taxes would be severely limited, and property rights would be paramount.
And if the federal government tried to interfere, well, they'd secede.
Homeland Security Nets More Than 500 Gang Arrests
By Lara Jakes Jordan Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 1, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal authorities arrested 528 alleged gang members over a two-week period, officials said Monday, targeting more than 54 violent groups they say have spawned street crimes across the country.
Investigators picked up most of the offenders between July 16 and July 28 on immigration violations for being in the United States illegally. Seventy-six face criminal charges, ranging from illegal possession of a firearm to holding fraudulent documents.
"Street gangs in America have grown and expanded their influence to an alarming level, marked by increased violence and criminal activity," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in prepared remarks announcing the arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. "These gangs pose a severe threat to public safety and this growth must not go unchallenged."
ICE is an arm of the Homeland Security Department.
Homeland Security Nets More Than 500 Gang Arrests
By Lara Jakes Jordan Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 1, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal authorities arrested 528 alleged gang members over a two-week period, officials said Monday, targeting more than 54 violent groups they say have spawned street crimes across the country.
Investigators picked up most of the offenders between July 16 and July 28 on immigration violations for being in the United States illegally. Seventy-six face criminal charges, ranging from illegal possession of a firearm to holding fraudulent documents.
"Street gangs in America have grown and expanded their influence to an alarming level, marked by increased violence and criminal activity," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in prepared remarks announcing the arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. "These gangs pose a severe threat to public safety and this growth must not go unchallenged."
ICE is an arm of the Homeland Security Department.
Oil passes $61 a barrel on Saudi king's death
By Gillian Wong, Associated Press
SINGAPORE — Crude oil futures rose more than $1 a barrel Monday after the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, although the nation's oil policy is not expected to change now that power has formally shifted to his brother — who has been de facto leader since 1995.
With world oil consumption rising and only a limited amount of excess production capacity, energy traders are easily put on edge by a change in the weather, let alone a transfer of authority within the world's biggest oil producer. (Related: Saudi succession set.)
"The market is hypersensitive to facts, rumors and noise because the supply cushion is gone," said Larry Goldstein, president of the New York-based nonprofit Petroleum Industry Research Foundation.
Adding to oil market jitters was the resumption of uranium reprocessing in Iran. It is one step below uranium enrichment, which is necessary for the development of nuclear weapons. Iran suspended enrichment of uranium in November under international pressure, but the country maintains that it has the right to resume the activities.
Traders also kept an eye on refinery operations in the United States, where two fires last week stifled production to a limited extent.
Oil passes $61 a barrel on Saudi king's death
By Gillian Wong, Associated Press
SINGAPORE — Crude oil futures rose more than $1 a barrel Monday after the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, although the nation's oil policy is not expected to change now that power has formally shifted to his brother — who has been de facto leader since 1995.
With world oil consumption rising and only a limited amount of excess production capacity, energy traders are easily put on edge by a change in the weather, let alone a transfer of authority within the world's biggest oil producer. (Related: Saudi succession set.)
"The market is hypersensitive to facts, rumors and noise because the supply cushion is gone," said Larry Goldstein, president of the New York-based nonprofit Petroleum Industry Research Foundation.
Adding to oil market jitters was the resumption of uranium reprocessing in Iran. It is one step below uranium enrichment, which is necessary for the development of nuclear weapons. Iran suspended enrichment of uranium in November under international pressure, but the country maintains that it has the right to resume the activities.
Traders also kept an eye on refinery operations in the United States, where two fires last week stifled production to a limited extent.
Bush Sidesteps Senate, Installs Bolton as U.N. Envoy
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 1, 2005; 11:33 AM
President Bush sidestepped the U.S. Senate on Monday and installed controversial nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, saying the post was "too important to leave vacant any longer."
Speaking at the White House, Bush said he was sending Bolton, a 56-year-old lawyer, to the United Nations with his "complete confidence."
President Bush, center, stands with John Bolton, left and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as he announces Bolton's installation as United States ambassador to the United Nations in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite -- AP)
Video
Bush Appoints Bolton as U.N. Ambassador
President Bush appoints John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday at the White House.
Monday, August 1, at 1 p.m. ET
Bush Appoints Bolton to U.N.
Brookings Institution scholar Sarah Binder discusses Bush's appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N.
Politics Trivia
President Bush has lost eight pounds since his last physical in 2004. To what does the president attribute his previous weight gain?
Big Macs
Doughnuts
Jelly Beans
M&M Chocolate
The appointment constituted what is known as a recess appointment. It ended a five-month impasse with Senate Democrats who had accused the conservative Bolton of twisting intelligence to suit a hawkish ideology and of abusing subordinates.
Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, the recess appointment will last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.
Speaking at a White House Roosevelt Room ceremony flanked by the mustachioed Bolton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush said that "a majority of U.S. senators agree that he is the right man for the job. Yet, because of partisan delaying tactics by a handful of senators, John was unfairly denied the up or down vote that he deserves."
In a brief acceptance speech, Bolton, who has a long history of criticizing the United Nations, said he was "profoundly honored, indeed humbled by the confidence" the president had shown in him.
Bush had refused to give up on Bolton even though the Senate had twice voted to sustain a filibuster against him.
Bush Sidesteps Senate, Installs Bolton as U.N. Envoy
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 1, 2005; 11:33 AM
President Bush sidestepped the U.S. Senate on Monday and installed controversial nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, saying the post was "too important to leave vacant any longer."
Speaking at the White House, Bush said he was sending Bolton, a 56-year-old lawyer, to the United Nations with his "complete confidence."
President Bush, center, stands with John Bolton, left and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as he announces Bolton's installation as United States ambassador to the United Nations in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite -- AP)
Video
Bush Appoints Bolton as U.N. Ambassador
President Bush appoints John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday at the White House.
Monday, August 1, at 1 p.m. ET
Bush Appoints Bolton to U.N.
Brookings Institution scholar Sarah Binder discusses Bush's appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N.
Politics Trivia
President Bush has lost eight pounds since his last physical in 2004. To what does the president attribute his previous weight gain?
Big Macs
Doughnuts
Jelly Beans
M&M Chocolate
The appointment constituted what is known as a recess appointment. It ended a five-month impasse with Senate Democrats who had accused the conservative Bolton of twisting intelligence to suit a hawkish ideology and of abusing subordinates.
Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, the recess appointment will last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.
Speaking at a White House Roosevelt Room ceremony flanked by the mustachioed Bolton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush said that "a majority of U.S. senators agree that he is the right man for the job. Yet, because of partisan delaying tactics by a handful of senators, John was unfairly denied the up or down vote that he deserves."
In a brief acceptance speech, Bolton, who has a long history of criticizing the United Nations, said he was "profoundly honored, indeed humbled by the confidence" the president had shown in him.
Bush had refused to give up on Bolton even though the Senate had twice voted to sustain a filibuster against him.
Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net
White House Effort To Discredit Critic Examined in Detail
By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A01
The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case.
Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.
Karl Rove
Steele Fundraiser Draws Rove, Democratic Attacks
Bush Aide Learned Early of Leaks Probe
Unraveling the Twists and Turns of the Path to a Nominee
Democratic Booster Cuts Liberal Spending
Leak Riddle: Who's Playing Whom?
Politics Trivia
Since the Court was established in 1789, how many Supreme Court nominees submitted to the Senate were not confirmed?
2
13
27
36
In doing so, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, an assertion that was later disputed.
Most of the questioning of CIA and State Department officials took place in 2004, the sources said.
It remains unclear whether Fitzgerald uncovered any wrongdoing in this or any other portion of his nearly 18-month investigation. All that is known at this point are the names of some people he has interviewed, what questions he has asked and whom he has focused on.
Fitzgerald began his probe in December 2003 to determine whether any government official knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a CIA employee to the media. Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, has said his wife's career was ruined in retaliation for his public criticism of Bush. In a 2002 trip to Niger at the request of the CIA, Wilson found no evidence to support allegations that Iraq was seeking uranium from that African country and reported back to the agency in February 2002. But nearly a year later, Bush asserted in his State of the Union speech that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, attributing it to British, not U.S., intelligence.
Fitzgerald has said in court that he had completed most of his investigation at a time when he was pressing for New York Times reporter Judith Miller to testify about any conversations she had with a specific administration official about Plame during the week before Plame's identity was revealed.
Miller, who never wrote a story about the matter, is in jail for refusing to comply with a court order to testify. Court records show Fitzgerald is seeking information about communications she had with the Bush official between July 6 and July 13, 2003, when the White House was attempting to discredit Wilson and his allegations.
Fitzgerald appears to believe that Miller's conversations may help him get to the bottom of the leak and the damage-control campaign undertaken by senior Bush officials that week.
Using background conversations with at least three journalists and other means, Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility. They said that his 2002 trip to Niger was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but CIA officials say that is incorrect. One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.
Miller's role remains one of many mysteries in the leak probe. It is unclear whom, if anyone, she spoke to about Plame, and why she emerged as a central figure in the probe despite never having written a story about the case. Also murky is the role of Novak, who first publicly identified Plame in a syndicated column published July 14, 2003.
Lawyers have confirmed that Novak discussed Plame with White House senior adviser Karl Rove four or more days before the column identifying her ran. But the identity of another "administration" source cited in the column is still unknown. Rove's attorney has said Rove did not identify Plame to Novak.
Continue reading "Oh what a tangled web we weave........." »
Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net
White House Effort To Discredit Critic Examined in Detail
By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A01
The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case.
Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.
Karl Rove
Steele Fundraiser Draws Rove, Democratic Attacks
Bush Aide Learned Early of Leaks Probe
Unraveling the Twists and Turns of the Path to a Nominee
Democratic Booster Cuts Liberal Spending
Leak Riddle: Who's Playing Whom?
Politics Trivia
Since the Court was established in 1789, how many Supreme Court nominees submitted to the Senate were not confirmed?
2
13
27
36
In doing so, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, an assertion that was later disputed.
Most of the questioning of CIA and State Department officials took place in 2004, the sources said.
It remains unclear whether Fitzgerald uncovered any wrongdoing in this or any other portion of his nearly 18-month investigation. All that is known at this point are the names of some people he has interviewed, what questions he has asked and whom he has focused on.
Fitzgerald began his probe in December 2003 to determine whether any government official knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a CIA employee to the media. Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, has said his wife's career was ruined in retaliation for his public criticism of Bush. In a 2002 trip to Niger at the request of the CIA, Wilson found no evidence to support allegations that Iraq was seeking uranium from that African country and reported back to the agency in February 2002. But nearly a year later, Bush asserted in his State of the Union speech that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, attributing it to British, not U.S., intelligence.
Fitzgerald has said in court that he had completed most of his investigation at a time when he was pressing for New York Times reporter Judith Miller to testify about any conversations she had with a specific administration official about Plame during the week before Plame's identity was revealed.
Miller, who never wrote a story about the matter, is in jail for refusing to comply with a court order to testify. Court records show Fitzgerald is seeking information about communications she had with the Bush official between July 6 and July 13, 2003, when the White House was attempting to discredit Wilson and his allegations.
Fitzgerald appears to believe that Miller's conversations may help him get to the bottom of the leak and the damage-control campaign undertaken by senior Bush officials that week.
Using background conversations with at least three journalists and other means, Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility. They said that his 2002 trip to Niger was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but CIA officials say that is incorrect. One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.
Miller's role remains one of many mysteries in the leak probe. It is unclear whom, if anyone, she spoke to about Plame, and why she emerged as a central figure in the probe despite never having written a story about the case. Also murky is the role of Novak, who first publicly identified Plame in a syndicated column published July 14, 2003.
Lawyers have confirmed that Novak discussed Plame with White House senior adviser Karl Rove four or more days before the column identifying her ran. But the identity of another "administration" source cited in the column is still unknown. Rove's attorney has said Rove did not identify Plame to Novak.
Continue reading "Oh what a tangled web we weave........." »
Clash likely over Roberts documents
White House says it won't release memos
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | July 25, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The White House signaled yesterday that it does not intend to release documents produced by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. during his service in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, setting up a clash with Democrats who are insisting that internal memos prepared by Roberts be released for lawmakers to review.
Fred D. Thompson, the Bush administration's point person for shepherding Roberts's nomination through the Senate, said the administration feels strongly about the need to shield such documents from review to maintain candor in internal deliberations. He said the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege and added that the White House does not intend to waive that privilege.
Clash likely over Roberts documents
White House says it won't release memos
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | July 25, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The White House signaled yesterday that it does not intend to release documents produced by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. during his service in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, setting up a clash with Democrats who are insisting that internal memos prepared by Roberts be released for lawmakers to review.
Fred D. Thompson, the Bush administration's point person for shepherding Roberts's nomination through the Senate, said the administration feels strongly about the need to shield such documents from review to maintain candor in internal deliberations. He said the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege and added that the White House does not intend to waive that privilege.
Federalist Society Has Ties to White House, Supreme Court
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 25, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federalist Society has close ties to the Bush administration and top legal leaders, including two Supreme Court justices.
The group, formally called the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, was founded in 1982 as a debating society by students who believed professors at the top law schools were too liberal. Early advisers were Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Justice Antonin Scalia, a former law professor at the University of Chicago.
Spencer Abraham, the Bush administration's former energy secretary, was a founder of the Harvard Law School chapter.
The group is named after the "Federalist Papers," in which James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay argued for ratification of the Constitution.
Conservatives and libertarians mainly make up the 25,000 members. The group does not take positions on issues, but members have been promoting Bush's Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts.
Scalia regularly speaks and teaches at Federalist Society events. Justice Clarence Thomas, White House chief of staff Andy Card, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Solicitor General Theodore Olson have headlined meetings.
Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator guiding Roberts through the confirmation process, has been a Federalist Society speaker, as has Roberts.
Federalist Society Has Ties to White House, Supreme Court
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 25, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federalist Society has close ties to the Bush administration and top legal leaders, including two Supreme Court justices.
The group, formally called the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, was founded in 1982 as a debating society by students who believed professors at the top law schools were too liberal. Early advisers were Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Justice Antonin Scalia, a former law professor at the University of Chicago.
Spencer Abraham, the Bush administration's former energy secretary, was a founder of the Harvard Law School chapter.
The group is named after the "Federalist Papers," in which James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay argued for ratification of the Constitution.
Conservatives and libertarians mainly make up the 25,000 members. The group does not take positions on issues, but members have been promoting Bush's Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts.
Scalia regularly speaks and teaches at Federalist Society events. Justice Clarence Thomas, White House chief of staff Andy Card, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Solicitor General Theodore Olson have headlined meetings.
Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator guiding Roberts through the confirmation process, has been a Federalist Society speaker, as has Roberts.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee John Roberts declined Monday to say why he was listed in a leadership directory of the Federalist Society and the White House said he has no recollection of belonging to the conservative group.
The question of Roberts' membership in the society - an influential organization of conservative lawyers and judges formed in the early 1980s to combat what its members said was growing liberalism on the bench - emerged as a vexing issue at the start of another week of meetings for President Bush's nominee on Capitol Hill.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee John Roberts declined Monday to say why he was listed in a leadership directory of the Federalist Society and the White House said he has no recollection of belonging to the conservative group.
The question of Roberts' membership in the society - an influential organization of conservative lawyers and judges formed in the early 1980s to combat what its members said was growing liberalism on the bench - emerged as a vexing issue at the start of another week of meetings for President Bush's nominee on Capitol Hill.
Link to Cheney deepens ‘leak-gate’ scandal
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | July 19, 2005
THE NEWS that Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff was the second possible source in the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent to Time magazine elevates the scandal to a whole new level. It is bad enough for Karl Rove to be accused of being a leaker, since he is President Bush’s chief political strategist.
But if Time’s story holds, I. Lewis Libby’s involvement represents an even more insidious abuse of power. The Bush administration is being accused of leaking the name of Valerie Plame in retribution for a New York Times op-ed article written by her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson. Wilson wrote that he never found any evidence in a 2002 trip to Africa, contrary to claims made by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address, that Saddam Hussein was procuring uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.
Bush would invade Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that were never found. But Libby, Cheney, and the other influential right-wing hard-liners, such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith, saw their dreams come true. Back in the administration of the senior President Bush, Cheney was defense secretary and Libby and Wolfowitz were two of his aides who, after the first Gulf War left Saddam in power, drafted a document advocating ‘‘preemptive’’ war against possible threats.
They said the United States should be ‘‘postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated.’’
Such provocation was kept at bay when President Clinton beat Bush in 1992 and took office for eight years. But when the junior Bush became president in 2000, the hard right on foreign policy took the helm. They used the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 as an excuse for invading Iraq, even though President Bush’s own 9/11 Commission found no tie between Saddam and 9/11.
Libby was in the thick of whipping up fear over the thinnest of evidence. The level to which Libby and Cheney stooped to get their war was highlighted by the momentous presentation of Saddam’s ‘‘threat’’ before the United Nations Security Council by then Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell gave a presentation six weeks before the war where he said, ‘‘every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions.’’ Those assertions resulted in grudging acceptance of the war from many Democrats.
Virtually all of Powell’s solid sources fell apart when the United States turned Iraq upside down, killing thousands of Iraqi civilians in the process. He would have looked much worse had he listened to everything Libby and Cheney tried to feed him. It was Cheney’s staff who wrote the first draft of Powell’s UN speech. It was Libby who suggested, in strategy meetings at the White House, playing up every possible, conceivable threat of Saddam — with the emphasis on the word ‘‘conceive.’’
A US News and World Report story in the summer of 2003 quoted a senior administration official as saying Libby’s presentation ‘‘was over the top and ran the gamut from Al Qaeda to human rights to weapons of mass destruction. They were unsubstantiated assertions, in my view.’’
Powell, according to both US News and Vanity Fair, was so irritated by Libby’s hodgepodge of unsubstantiated facts that he threw documents into the air and said, ‘‘I’m not reading this. This is bull ...’’
Libby, whose nickname is Scooter, was particularly unhappy that Powell had thrown out sections of the presentation that would have attempted to link Al Qaeda to Saddam, including a discredited report that top 9/11 Al Qaeda airline hijacker Mohamed Atta had a meeting with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague. According to Vanity Fair, ‘‘Cheney’s office made one last ditch effort to persuade Powell to link Saddam and Al Qaeda and to slip the Prague story back into the speech. Only moments before Powell began speaking, Scooter Libby tried unsuccessfully to reach [Larry] Wilkerson by phone. Powell’s staff chief, by then inside the Security Council chamber, declined to take the call. ‘Scooter,’ said one State Department aide, ‘wasn’t happy.’’’
According to Vanity Fair, Cheney himself urged Powell to go ahead and stake his national popularity on the nonexistent evidence by saying to Powell, ‘‘Your poll numbers are in the 70s. You can afford to lose a few points.’’
America and Iraq would go on to lose more than a few points. Libby may end up as a symbol of a government so driven to ignore the truth it was willing to resort to dirty tricks to stop anyone from telling it.
Link to Cheney deepens ‘leak-gate’ scandal
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | July 19, 2005
THE NEWS that Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff was the second possible source in the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent to Time magazine elevates the scandal to a whole new level. It is bad enough for Karl Rove to be accused of being a leaker, since he is President Bush’s chief political strategist.
But if Time’s story holds, I. Lewis Libby’s involvement represents an even more insidious abuse of power. The Bush administration is being accused of leaking the name of Valerie Plame in retribution for a New York Times op-ed article written by her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson. Wilson wrote that he never found any evidence in a 2002 trip to Africa, contrary to claims made by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address, that Saddam Hussein was procuring uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.
Bush would invade Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that were never found. But Libby, Cheney, and the other influential right-wing hard-liners, such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith, saw their dreams come true. Back in the administration of the senior President Bush, Cheney was defense secretary and Libby and Wolfowitz were two of his aides who, after the first Gulf War left Saddam in power, drafted a document advocating ‘‘preemptive’’ war against possible threats.
They said the United States should be ‘‘postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated.’’
Such provocation was kept at bay when President Clinton beat Bush in 1992 and took office for eight years. But when the junior Bush became president in 2000, the hard right on foreign policy took the helm. They used the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 as an excuse for invading Iraq, even though President Bush’s own 9/11 Commission found no tie between Saddam and 9/11.
Libby was in the thick of whipping up fear over the thinnest of evidence. The level to which Libby and Cheney stooped to get their war was highlighted by the momentous presentation of Saddam’s ‘‘threat’’ before the United Nations Security Council by then Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell gave a presentation six weeks before the war where he said, ‘‘every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions.’’ Those assertions resulted in grudging acceptance of the war from many Democrats.
Virtually all of Powell’s solid sources fell apart when the United States turned Iraq upside down, killing thousands of Iraqi civilians in the process. He would have looked much worse had he listened to everything Libby and Cheney tried to feed him. It was Cheney’s staff who wrote the first draft of Powell’s UN speech. It was Libby who suggested, in strategy meetings at the White House, playing up every possible, conceivable threat of Saddam — with the emphasis on the word ‘‘conceive.’’
A US News and World Report story in the summer of 2003 quoted a senior administration official as saying Libby’s presentation ‘‘was over the top and ran the gamut from Al Qaeda to human rights to weapons of mass destruction. They were unsubstantiated assertions, in my view.’’
Powell, according to both US News and Vanity Fair, was so irritated by Libby’s hodgepodge of unsubstantiated facts that he threw documents into the air and said, ‘‘I’m not reading this. This is bull ...’’
Libby, whose nickname is Scooter, was particularly unhappy that Powell had thrown out sections of the presentation that would have attempted to link Al Qaeda to Saddam, including a discredited report that top 9/11 Al Qaeda airline hijacker Mohamed Atta had a meeting with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague. According to Vanity Fair, ‘‘Cheney’s office made one last ditch effort to persuade Powell to link Saddam and Al Qaeda and to slip the Prague story back into the speech. Only moments before Powell began speaking, Scooter Libby tried unsuccessfully to reach [Larry] Wilkerson by phone. Powell’s staff chief, by then inside the Security Council chamber, declined to take the call. ‘Scooter,’ said one State Department aide, ‘wasn’t happy.’’’
According to Vanity Fair, Cheney himself urged Powell to go ahead and stake his national popularity on the nonexistent evidence by saying to Powell, ‘‘Your poll numbers are in the 70s. You can afford to lose a few points.’’
America and Iraq would go on to lose more than a few points. Libby may end up as a symbol of a government so driven to ignore the truth it was willing to resort to dirty tricks to stop anyone from telling it.
Soldiers exonerated on obscenity photo
Taliban captive was blindfolded
By Robert Burns, Associated Press | July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Army investigators concluded that soldiers who photographed American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in captivity in Afghanistan with an obscenity written on his blindfold were guilty of <em>''barracks humor" but not intentional wrongdoing, according to documents released yesterday.
The investigators also found no evidence to support allegations that members of the 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., intentionally destroyed evidence or impeded a Justice Department investigation of the wartime treatment of Lindh, who denies having fought against US forces in Afghanistan.
Soldiers exonerated on obscenity photo
Taliban captive was blindfolded
By Robert Burns, Associated Press | July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Army investigators concluded that soldiers who photographed American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in captivity in Afghanistan with an obscenity written on his blindfold were guilty of <em>''barracks humor" but not intentional wrongdoing, according to documents released yesterday.
The investigators also found no evidence to support allegations that members of the 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., intentionally destroyed evidence or impeded a Justice Department investigation of the wartime treatment of Lindh, who denies having fought against US forces in Afghanistan.
Memo data disclosed in CIA leak probe
Could have been evidence for ID
By Barry Schweid, Associated Press | July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A State Department memo that has caught the attention of prosecutors describes a CIA officer's role in sending her husband to Africa and disputes administration contentions that Iraq was shopping for uranium, a retired department official said yesterday.
The classified memo was sent to Air Force One just after former US ambassador Joseph Wilson went public with his assertions that the Bush administration overstated the evidence that Iraq was interested in obtaining uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.
The memo has become a key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation because it could have been the way someone in the White House learned -- and then leaked -- the information that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and played a role in sending him on the mission.
The document was prepared in June 2003 at the direction of Carl W. Ford Jr., then head of the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research, for Marc Grossman, the retired official said. Grossman was the undersecretary of state who was in charge of the department while Secretary Colin L. Powell and his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, were traveling.
''It wasn't a Wilson-Wilson wife memo," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still underway. ''It was a memo on uranium in Niger and focused principally on our disagreement" with the White House.
Armitage called Ford after Wilson's op-ed piece in The New York Times and his TV appearance on July 6, 2003, in which he challenged the White House's contention that Iraq had purchased uranium yellowcake from Niger.
Armitage asked that Powell, who was traveling to Africa with Bush, be given an account of the Wilson trip, the former official said. The original June 2003 memo was readdressed to Powell and was sent to Powell on Air Force One the next day.
The memo said Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and suggested her husband go to Niger because he had contacts there and had served as an American diplomat in Africa; however, the official said the memo did not say she worked undercover for the spy agency nor did it identify her as Valerie Plame.
Memo data disclosed in CIA leak probe
Could have been evidence for ID
By Barry Schweid, Associated Press | July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A State Department memo that has caught the attention of prosecutors describes a CIA officer's role in sending her husband to Africa and disputes administration contentions that Iraq was shopping for uranium, a retired department official said yesterday.
The classified memo was sent to Air Force One just after former US ambassador Joseph Wilson went public with his assertions that the Bush administration overstated the evidence that Iraq was interested in obtaining uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.
The memo has become a key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation because it could have been the way someone in the White House learned -- and then leaked -- the information that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and played a role in sending him on the mission.
The document was prepared in June 2003 at the direction of Carl W. Ford Jr., then head of the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research, for Marc Grossman, the retired official said. Grossman was the undersecretary of state who was in charge of the department while Secretary Colin L. Powell and his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, were traveling.
''It wasn't a Wilson-Wilson wife memo," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still underway. ''It was a memo on uranium in Niger and focused principally on our disagreement" with the White House.
Armitage called Ford after Wilson's op-ed piece in The New York Times and his TV appearance on July 6, 2003, in which he challenged the White House's contention that Iraq had purchased uranium yellowcake from Niger.
Armitage asked that Powell, who was traveling to Africa with Bush, be given an account of the Wilson trip, the former official said. The original June 2003 memo was readdressed to Powell and was sent to Powell on Air Force One the next day.
The memo said Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and suggested her husband go to Niger because he had contacts there and had served as an American diplomat in Africa; however, the official said the memo did not say she worked undercover for the spy agency nor did it identify her as Valerie Plame.
US asks court for power to detain
Case on Illinois Muslim convert sparks debate
By Larry O'Dell, Associated Press | July 20, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. -- A government attorney argued yesterday that America is a battlefield and President Bush therefore has the authority to detain enemy combatants indefinitely in this country.
Clement, acting solicitor general of the United States, made the comments as a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit here is considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling that Jose Padilla should be charged with a crime or released. In 2002, Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and Muslim convert, was taken into custody by the military and has been held without trial ever since.
The government alleges that Padilla, an American citizen, trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and arrived in the United States in May 2002 with the intent to blow up apartment buildings.
The panel assigned to hear the arguments was Judge Michael Luttig of Alexandria, Va.,an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, and two appointees of former President Clinton: Judge Blane Michael of Charleston, W.Va., and Judge William B. Traxler Jr. of Greenville, S.C.
The judges were most concerned with how to handle Padilla in light of the Supreme Court's ruling last year on Yaser Esam Hamdi. Another American citizen, Hamdi was captured by the military with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and placed in a Navy brig in Norfolk. The Supreme Court ruled that his detention was lawful, but he was entitled to a hearing to challenge the allegations against him.
But moments after Clement began his oral argument, Luttig interrupted to say that ''arguably, Judge [Sandra Day] O'Connor in 'Hamdi' limited that law to the battlefield detention, did she not?" Padilla was picked up at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on a warrant from a federal court in New York, and only later turned over to the military.
''That's not how I would read the case," Clement responded.
Luttig repeatedly pressed Clement, even after the solicitor general noted that Padilla's alleged intentions as a soldier of al Qaeda -- to target civilians -- constituted ''unlawful combatancy" even if he were on a battlefield in uniform.
''Those accusations don't get you very far," Luttig replied, ''unless you're prepared to boldly say the United States is a battlefield in the war on terror."
Clement answered, ''I can say that, and I can say it boldly."
But Michael said that Padilla wasn't captured anywhere near a battlefield. ''You captured Padilla in a Manhattan jail cell," Michael said. ''What, in the laws of war, allows you to undertake a nonbattlefield capture and hold them for the duration? I don't think you cite anything."
Michael, addressing Clement's claim that America is a battlefield, then asked, ''to call the United States a battlefield, wouldn't you have needed a specific authorization from Congress? It's not up to us as a court to develop laws of war."
US asks court for power to detain
Case on Illinois Muslim convert sparks debate
By Larry O'Dell, Associated Press | July 20, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. -- A government attorney argued yesterday that America is a battlefield and President Bush therefore has the authority to detain enemy combatants indefinitely in this country.
Clement, acting solicitor general of the United States, made the comments as a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit here is considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling that Jose Padilla should be charged with a crime or released. In 2002, Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and Muslim convert, was taken into custody by the military and has been held without trial ever since.
The government alleges that Padilla, an American citizen, trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and arrived in the United States in May 2002 with the intent to blow up apartment buildings.
The panel assigned to hear the arguments was Judge Michael Luttig of Alexandria, Va.,an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, and two appointees of former President Clinton: Judge Blane Michael of Charleston, W.Va., and Judge William B. Traxler Jr. of Greenville, S.C.
The judges were most concerned with how to handle Padilla in light of the Supreme Court's ruling last year on Yaser Esam Hamdi. Another American citizen, Hamdi was captured by the military with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and placed in a Navy brig in Norfolk. The Supreme Court ruled that his detention was lawful, but he was entitled to a hearing to challenge the allegations against him.
But moments after Clement began his oral argument, Luttig interrupted to say that ''arguably, Judge [Sandra Day] O'Connor in 'Hamdi' limited that law to the battlefield detention, did she not?" Padilla was picked up at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on a warrant from a federal court in New York, and only later turned over to the military.
''That's not how I would read the case," Clement responded.
Luttig repeatedly pressed Clement, even after the solicitor general noted that Padilla's alleged intentions as a soldier of al Qaeda -- to target civilians -- constituted ''unlawful combatancy" even if he were on a battlefield in uniform.
''Those accusations don't get you very far," Luttig replied, ''unless you're prepared to boldly say the United States is a battlefield in the war on terror."
Clement answered, ''I can say that, and I can say it boldly."
But Michael said that Padilla wasn't captured anywhere near a battlefield. ''You captured Padilla in a Manhattan jail cell," Michael said. ''What, in the laws of war, allows you to undertake a nonbattlefield capture and hold them for the duration? I don't think you cite anything."
Michael, addressing Clement's claim that America is a battlefield, then asked, ''to call the United States a battlefield, wouldn't you have needed a specific authorization from Congress? It's not up to us as a court to develop laws of war."
Expansion of daylight saving time gets push
Lawmakers work to finalize energy bill
By Tom Doggett and Chris Baltimore, Reuters | July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A joint Senate-House committee working out the details of a broad US energy bill voted yesterday to expand US daylight saving time by two months to help reduce energy use.
Negotiators from both chambers are racing against the clock to put a final energy package on President Bush's desk by a self-imposed deadline of Aug. 1.
Among the conflicts to be resolved is the cost of energy production tax breaks, which totaled $8 billion in the House bill and $16 billion in the Senate bill, and legal protection for oil refiners that manufactured a fuel additive suspected of being a carcinogen.
Expansion of daylight saving time gets push
Lawmakers work to finalize energy bill
By Tom Doggett and Chris Baltimore, Reuters | July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A joint Senate-House committee working out the details of a broad US energy bill voted yesterday to expand US daylight saving time by two months to help reduce energy use.
Negotiators from both chambers are racing against the clock to put a final energy package on President Bush's desk by a self-imposed deadline of Aug. 1.
Among the conflicts to be resolved is the cost of energy production tax breaks, which totaled $8 billion in the House bill and $16 billion in the Senate bill, and legal protection for oil refiners that manufactured a fuel additive suspected of being a carcinogen.
Lions rescue, guard beaten Ethiopian girl
By Anthony Mitchell, Associated Press Writer | June 21, 2005
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia --A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.
The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.
She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said.
Lions rescue, guard beaten Ethiopian girl
By Anthony Mitchell, Associated Press Writer | June 21, 2005
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia --A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.
The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.
She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said.
Winn-Dixie to scale back business, cut 22,000 jobs
By Associated Press | June 22, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Bankrupt supermarket chain Winn-Dixie said yesterday it will cut 22,000 jobs, or 28 percent of its workforce, as it shutters 326 stores in an attempt to emerge from bankruptcy.
The company is closing 35 percent of its outlets under a proposed Chapter 11 reorganization plan. An additional 500 workers will lose their jobs at its Jacksonville headquarters.
Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. will cease operations in four states -- Tennessee, Virginia, and North and South Carolina -- and trim businesses in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It will exit the Atlanta market.
The company said it will try to sell six dairy plants, its pizza plant in Montgomery, Ala., and its Chek Beverage/Deep South Products plant in Fitzgerald, Ga.
Winn-Dixie to scale back business, cut 22,000 jobs
By Associated Press | June 22, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Bankrupt supermarket chain Winn-Dixie said yesterday it will cut 22,000 jobs, or 28 percent of its workforce, as it shutters 326 stores in an attempt to emerge from bankruptcy.
The company is closing 35 percent of its outlets under a proposed Chapter 11 reorganization plan. An additional 500 workers will lose their jobs at its Jacksonville headquarters.
Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. will cease operations in four states -- Tennessee, Virginia, and North and South Carolina -- and trim businesses in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It will exit the Atlanta market.
The company said it will try to sell six dairy plants, its pizza plant in Montgomery, Ala., and its Chek Beverage/Deep South Products plant in Fitzgerald, Ga.
GOP senator abandons bill to cut emissions
Key vote shifts after push from White House
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | June 22, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Attempts to require US industries to cut carbon dioxide emissions as a way to address global warming appear to be headed for defeat in the Senate after a key Republican withdrew his support amid White House lobbying to keep greenhouse gas control programs voluntary.
Breaking News Alert Senator Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, had indicated he would support a proposal to cap industrial carbon dioxide emissions, an attempt to address climate change. That left environmental groups hopeful that the Senate would defy the Bush administration and for the first time force companies to cut the emissions, which many scientists have tied to global warming.
But after meeting late last week with Vice President Dick Cheney -- and huddling Monday with about 10 GOP Senate colleagues -- Domenici opted out of supporting the amendment that was being prepared by his fellow New Mexico senator, Democrat Jeff Bingaman.
GOP senator abandons bill to cut emissions
Key vote shifts after push from White House
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | June 22, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Attempts to require US industries to cut carbon dioxide emissions as a way to address global warming appear to be headed for defeat in the Senate after a key Republican withdrew his support amid White House lobbying to keep greenhouse gas control programs voluntary.
Breaking News Alert Senator Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, had indicated he would support a proposal to cap industrial carbon dioxide emissions, an attempt to address climate change. That left environmental groups hopeful that the Senate would defy the Bush administration and for the first time force companies to cut the emissions, which many scientists have tied to global warming.
But after meeting late last week with Vice President Dick Cheney -- and huddling Monday with about 10 GOP Senate colleagues -- Domenici opted out of supporting the amendment that was being prepared by his fellow New Mexico senator, Democrat Jeff Bingaman.
FBI said to get access to Social Security files
Relaxing Its privacy rules at the request of the FBI, Social Security Administration has opened thousands of files to assist terrorism inquiries since 9-11-01 attacks. The New York Times reported today. Agency policies bar disclosure of information such as home address and medical data, but memos obtained through the Freedom of information /Act request said such data were released in response to " a life threating emergency
FBI said to get access to Social Security files
Relaxing Its privacy rules at the request of the FBI, Social Security Administration has opened thousands of files to assist terrorism inquiries since 9-11-01 attacks. The New York Times reported today. Agency policies bar disclosure of information such as home address and medical data, but memos obtained through the Freedom of information /Act request said such data were released in response to " a life threating emergency
Policy Shifts Felt After Bolton's Departure From State Dept.
By Peter Baker and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 20, 2005; Page A02
For years, a key U.S. program intended to keep Russian nuclear fuel out of terrorist hands has been frozen by an arcane legal dispute. As undersecretary of state, John R. Bolton was charged with fixing the problem, but critics complained he was the roadblock.
Now with Bolton no longer in the job, U.S. negotiators report a breakthrough with the Russians and predict a resolution will be sealed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international summit in Scotland next month, clearing the way to eliminate enough plutonium to fuel 8,000 nuclear bombs.
Policy Shifts Felt After Bolton's Departure From State Dept.
By Peter Baker and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 20, 2005; Page A02
For years, a key U.S. program intended to keep Russian nuclear fuel out of terrorist hands has been frozen by an arcane legal dispute. As undersecretary of state, John R. Bolton was charged with fixing the problem, but critics complained he was the roadblock.
Now with Bolton no longer in the job, U.S. negotiators report a breakthrough with the Russians and predict a resolution will be sealed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international summit in Scotland next month, clearing the way to eliminate enough plutonium to fuel 8,000 nuclear bombs.
Oxfam pays $1m tsunami aid duty
Oxfam says it abides by the laws of the countries it works in
British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work.
Paperwork had kept the 25 four-wheel drive vehicles idle in the capital, Colombo, for a month.
The Sri Lankan government told the BBC News website the aid had been duty-free until the end of April but was now needed to prevent "market distortions".
Nearly 31,000 people died in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck on 26 December.
Half a million were made homeless.
Bad roads
Oxfam told BBC News the 25 Indian-made Mahindra vehicles were essential in ensuring it could reach the poorest communities over rough terrain and bad roads.
Sri Lanka does not manufacture any automobiles so it was not possible to buy them locally
Oxfam spokesman
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A spokesman said: "Clearly Oxfam would have preferred not to pay this tax on the vehicles and we did everything we could to have the tax waived.
"However the government has turned down our request and the laws of the country dictate that we must now pay the normal import tax."
The spokesman said the incident would not affect the way Oxfam worked in Sri Lanka.
Britain's Daily Telegraph said Sri Lankan customs had charged $5,000 a day while the vehicles were processed.
Oxfam was given the choice of handing over the vehicles to the government, re-exporting them or paying the 300% import tax.
'Case-by-case'
Sri Lankan presidential spokesman, Harim Peiris, told the BBC that he could not comment on the individual case of Oxfam, but said that duties had been waived for the first four months after the tsunami.
Much of the Sri Lankan coast was devastated by the tsunami
Mr Peiris, who has a senior role in the government's tsunami relief effort, said that for the "medium-term reconstruction period" the finance ministry had decided the duty system had to be reintroduced.
He said this was in order to promote local procurement and prevent market distortions.
The Oxfam spokesman said the Indian vehicles were chosen because "Sri Lanka does not manufacture any automobiles so it was not possible to buy them locally".
Mr Peiris said duty waivers were still considered on a case-by-case basis, but that Oxfam had on this issue received an "unfavourable decision".
He said the delay was probably caused by "an evaluation and appeal process that takes time".
Some aid workers have expressed anger that reconstruction is being slowed by red tape and inefficiency.
But Mr Peiris said the government believed the relief and reconstruction programme was proceeding to "acceptable international standards".
Oxfam pays $1m tsunami aid duty
Oxfam says it abides by the laws of the countries it works in
British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work.
Paperwork had kept the 25 four-wheel drive vehicles idle in the capital, Colombo, for a month.
The Sri Lankan government told the BBC News website the aid had been duty-free until the end of April but was now needed to prevent "market distortions".
Nearly 31,000 people died in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck on 26 December.
Half a million were made homeless.
Bad roads
Oxfam told BBC News the 25 Indian-made Mahindra vehicles were essential in ensuring it could reach the poorest communities over rough terrain and bad roads.
Sri Lanka does not manufacture any automobiles so it was not possible to buy them locally
Oxfam spokesman
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A spokesman said: "Clearly Oxfam would have preferred not to pay this tax on the vehicles and we did everything we could to have the tax waived.
"However the government has turned down our request and the laws of the country dictate that we must now pay the normal import tax."
The spokesman said the incident would not affect the way Oxfam worked in Sri Lanka.
Britain's Daily Telegraph said Sri Lankan customs had charged $5,000 a day while the vehicles were processed.
Oxfam was given the choice of handing over the vehicles to the government, re-exporting them or paying the 300% import tax.
'Case-by-case'
Sri Lankan presidential spokesman, Harim Peiris, told the BBC that he could not comment on the individual case of Oxfam, but said that duties had been waived for the first four months after the tsunami.
Much of the Sri Lankan coast was devastated by the tsunami
Mr Peiris, who has a senior role in the government's tsunami relief effort, said that for the "medium-term reconstruction period" the finance ministry had decided the duty system had to be reintroduced.
He said this was in order to promote local procurement and prevent market distortions.
The Oxfam spokesman said the Indian vehicles were chosen because "Sri Lanka does not manufacture any automobiles so it was not possible to buy them locally".
Mr Peiris said duty waivers were still considered on a case-by-case basis, but that Oxfam had on this issue received an "unfavourable decision".
He said the delay was probably caused by "an evaluation and appeal process that takes time".
Some aid workers have expressed anger that reconstruction is being slowed by red tape and inefficiency.
But Mr Peiris said the government believed the relief and reconstruction programme was proceeding to "acceptable international standards".
Probe sought in Terri Schiavo 911 call
By Jackie Hallifax, Associated Press Writer | June 17, 2005
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that a prosecutor has agreed to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, citing an alleged time gap between when her husband found her and when he called 911.
Bush said his request for the probe was not meant to suggest wrongdoing by Michael Schiavo.
"It's a significant question that during this ordeal was never brought up," Bush told reporters.
Michael Schiavo's attorney has said his client called for help right away.
In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, the governor said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1990, and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.
Probe sought in Terri Schiavo 911 call
By Jackie Hallifax, Associated Press Writer | June 17, 2005
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that a prosecutor has agreed to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, citing an alleged time gap between when her husband found her and when he called 911.
Bush said his request for the probe was not meant to suggest wrongdoing by Michael Schiavo.
"It's a significant question that during this ordeal was never brought up," Bush told reporters.
Michael Schiavo's attorney has said his client called for help right away.
In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, the governor said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1990, and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.
Halliburton unit gets Guantanamo contract
June 17, 2005
WASHINGTON --A subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton has been awarded $30 million to build an improved 220-bed prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon announced.
Kellogg Brown and Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., is to build a two-story prison that includes day rooms, exercise areas, medical bays, air conditioning and a security control room, according to the Pentagon. It is to be completed by July 2006.
Congress previously approved the funding for the construction job. Some members, along with human rights groups, are now calling for Guantanamo to close because of reports of prisoner abuses there and because the foreign detainees are being held indefinitely with no charges filed.
"The future detention facility will be based on prison models in the U.S. and is designed to be safer for the long-term detention of detainees and the guards," according to a statement provided by a Pentagon spokesman. "It is also expected to require less manpower to operate."
The new prison building, called Detention Camp 6, will replace some of the older facilities at the Navy base, which officials say are not adequate for holding prisoners for the long term.
The job is part of a larger contract that could be worth up to $500 million through 2010, the Pentagon said. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Va., is the contracting agency.
About 520 prisoners from the Bush administration's war on terrorism are held at Guantanamo. Already, $110 million has been spent on construction there, and the prison costs about $95 million a year to operate.
Halliburton unit gets Guantanamo contract
June 17, 2005
WASHINGTON --A subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton has been awarded $30 million to build an improved 220-bed prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon announced.
Kellogg Brown and Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., is to build a two-story prison that includes day rooms, exercise areas, medical bays, air conditioning and a security control room, according to the Pentagon. It is to be completed by July 2006.
Congress previously approved the funding for the construction job. Some members, along with human rights groups, are now calling for Guantanamo to close because of reports of prisoner abuses there and because the foreign detainees are being held indefinitely with no charges filed.
"The future detention facility will be based on prison models in the U.S. and is designed to be safer for the long-term detention of detainees and the guards," according to a statement provided by a Pentagon spokesman. "It is also expected to require less manpower to operate."
The new prison building, called Detention Camp 6, will replace some of the older facilities at the Navy base, which officials say are not adequate for holding prisoners for the long term.
The job is part of a larger contract that could be worth up to $500 million through 2010, the Pentagon said. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Va., is the contracting agency.
About 520 prisoners from the Bush administration's war on terrorism are held at Guantanamo. Already, $110 million has been spent on construction there, and the prison costs about $95 million a year to operate.
House panel OK's cutting $100m of PBS budget
Appropriation bill needs full approval
By Richard Cowan, Reuters | June 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill yesterday that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October.
The funding cut was included in a massive, $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education, and labor programs that still must be passed by the full House and Senate.
Representative Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican who crafted the legislation, said 49 federal programs were being eliminated and other funding reduced because of tight spending limits.
Regula's original bill would have eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2008, but a Democratic amendment earmarked $400 million so that public broadcasting could use the money in the future. However, $79 million in cuts for new infrastructure programs would force delays in converting public TV stations to digital technology.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides federal funds to the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, a nonprofit organization operated by 348 public television stations in the United States.
Lee Sloan, a spokeswoman for PBS, said smaller public television stations that rely heavily on federal funds would be hardest hit by the cuts, if they become law. She noted that in past funding fights, the Senate has restored funds.
Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden, said he would try to add funding for public broadcasting on the House floor.
PBS, which made its mark with children's television programs like ''Sesame Street" and popular documentaries, has been targeted by congressional Republicans in the past for steep funding reductions.
House panel OK's cutting $100m of PBS budget
Appropriation bill needs full approval
By Richard Cowan, Reuters | June 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill yesterday that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October.
The funding cut was included in a massive, $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education, and labor programs that still must be passed by the full House and Senate.
Representative Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican who crafted the legislation, said 49 federal programs were being eliminated and other funding reduced because of tight spending limits.
Regula's original bill would have eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2008, but a Democratic amendment earmarked $400 million so that public broadcasting could use the money in the future. However, $79 million in cuts for new infrastructure programs would force delays in converting public TV stations to digital technology.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides federal funds to the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, a nonprofit organization operated by 348 public television stations in the United States.
Lee Sloan, a spokeswoman for PBS, said smaller public television stations that rely heavily on federal funds would be hardest hit by the cuts, if they become law. She noted that in past funding fights, the Senate has restored funds.
Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden, said he would try to add funding for public broadcasting on the House floor.
PBS, which made its mark with children's television programs like ''Sesame Street" and popular documentaries, has been targeted by congressional Republicans in the past for steep funding reductions.
In study, Boston area tallies highest rate of marijuana use
Tops 12 percent, US survey finds
By Kadesha M Thomas, Globe Correspondent | June 17, 2005
The Boston area is the nation's capital for marijuana use, according to a federal study that found that more than 12 percent of the area's youths and adults smoked pot. Public health officials and other observers chalked the high ranking up to the large population of college students and to relatively liberal attitudes toward marijuana in the region.
In study, Boston area tallies highest rate of marijuana use
Tops 12 percent, US survey finds
By Kadesha M Thomas, Globe Correspondent | June 17, 2005
The Boston area is the nation's capital for marijuana use, according to a federal study that found that more than 12 percent of the area's youths and adults smoked pot. Public health officials and other observers chalked the high ranking up to the large population of college students and to relatively liberal attitudes toward marijuana in the region.
The deaths of the six U.S. troops came Wednesday during insurgent attacks that killed 58 people, making it the deadliest day of violence in more than a month. At least 1,714 U.S. military members have died since the war began in 2003, according to an AP count.
The deaths of the six U.S. troops came Wednesday during insurgent attacks that killed 58 people, making it the deadliest day of violence in more than a month. At least 1,714 U.S. military members have died since the war began in 2003, according to an AP count.
Lawmakers Urge Bush Administration Not to Settle Tobacco Trial Weakly
By Hilary Roxe Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 16, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Democrats are voicing opposition to the terms of a likely Bush administration lawsuit settlement with the tobacco industry, contending cigarette makers would get off too easily.
They wrote a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Wednesday voicing outrage at a downsized request on penalties for the industry. The critics told Gonzales the Justice Department should not enter a settlement at this time based on "the unreasonably weak demands made by the government."
"Such a settlement would be contrary to the goal of exposing the tobacco companies' past misconduct and preventing future misconduct by the industry," the lawmakers wrote.
At the prompting of a smaller group of Democratic lawmakers, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility this week agreed to investigate whether political interference factored into a decision to shrink from roughly $130 billion to $10 billion the size of a smoking cessation program.
The New York Times, meanwhile, reported that senior Justice officials overruled government prosecutors and ordered them to slash the penalties sought against the industry.
As the nearly nine-month trial closed last week, government lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to require tobacco companies to pay for a $10 billion, five-year stop-smoking program.
One of the government's own witnesses had proposed a 25-year nationwide cessation program that would have cost the industry $130 billion.
In the May 30 memo to Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, prosecutors Sharon Y. Eubanks and Stephen D. Brody cautioned that politics would be seen as the motivation for the reduction and warned that the smaller penalty would weaken the government's position in any settlement talks, the Times reported in its Thursday editions.
Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden would not comment on the report.
Lawmakers Urge Bush Administration Not to Settle Tobacco Trial Weakly
By Hilary Roxe Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 16, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Democrats are voicing opposition to the terms of a likely Bush administration lawsuit settlement with the tobacco industry, contending cigarette makers would get off too easily.
They wrote a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Wednesday voicing outrage at a downsized request on penalties for the industry. The critics told Gonzales the Justice Department should not enter a settlement at this time based on "the unreasonably weak demands made by the government."
"Such a settlement would be contrary to the goal of exposing the tobacco companies' past misconduct and preventing future misconduct by the industry," the lawmakers wrote.
At the prompting of a smaller group of Democratic lawmakers, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility this week agreed to investigate whether political interference factored into a decision to shrink from roughly $130 billion to $10 billion the size of a smoking cessation program.
The New York Times, meanwhile, reported that senior Justice officials overruled government prosecutors and ordered them to slash the penalties sought against the industry.
As the nearly nine-month trial closed last week, government lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to require tobacco companies to pay for a $10 billion, five-year stop-smoking program.
One of the government's own witnesses had proposed a 25-year nationwide cessation program that would have cost the industry $130 billion.
In the May 30 memo to Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, prosecutors Sharon Y. Eubanks and Stephen D. Brody cautioned that politics would be seen as the motivation for the reduction and warned that the smaller penalty would weaken the government's position in any settlement talks, the Times reported in its Thursday editions.
Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden would not comment on the report.
Thousands of Non-Defense Contractors Owe Taxes
Debt Is More Than $3 Billion, GAO Says
By Griff Witte and Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 16, 2005; Page A01
Thousands of federal contractors working for civilian government agencies together owe more than $3 billion in unpaid taxes, according to a report to be released today by a Senate subcommittee.
In one case, the owner of a firm that provides security guards to the Department of Homeland Security transferred payroll taxes withheld from workers' paychecks to a foreign bank account instead of the government and used the money to build a house overseas.
IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson is scheduled to testify today. (Lawrence Jackson - AP)
The owner of another company, one that supplies health care services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services, piled up more than $18 million in unpaid payroll taxes while buying multimillion-dollar properties and luxury vehicles.
And one contractor that furnishes temporary workers to the Department of Housing and Urban Development has owed back taxes for nearly two decades, simply closing businesses and starting new ones when the bills get too high.
In all, 50 cases closely examined by auditors with the Government Accountability Office involved "abusive and potentially criminal activity." Even so, the contractors still got paid.
The report does not identify any of the roughly 33,000 contractors by name or characterize them by size or location.
Thousands of Non-Defense Contractors Owe Taxes
Debt Is More Than $3 Billion, GAO Says
By Griff Witte and Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 16, 2005; Page A01
Thousands of federal contractors working for civilian government agencies together owe more than $3 billion in unpaid taxes, according to a report to be released today by a Senate subcommittee.
In one case, the owner of a firm that provides security guards to the Department of Homeland Security transferred payroll taxes withheld from workers' paychecks to a foreign bank account instead of the government and used the money to build a house overseas.
IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson is scheduled to testify today. (Lawrence Jackson - AP)
The owner of another company, one that supplies health care services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services, piled up more than $18 million in unpaid payroll taxes while buying multimillion-dollar properties and luxury vehicles.
And one contractor that furnishes temporary workers to the Department of Housing and Urban Development has owed back taxes for nearly two decades, simply closing businesses and starting new ones when the bills get too high.
In all, 50 cases closely examined by auditors with the Government Accountability Office involved "abusive and potentially criminal activity." Even so, the contractors still got paid.
The report does not identify any of the roughly 33,000 contractors by name or characterize them by size or location.
Evangelical Republicans Trust States on Social Issues
Poll Finds Fewer Want Courts' Say
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005; Page A03
Evangelical Protestant Republicans are far more likely than other groupsto want courts to stay out of controversial social questions, suggesting that GOP criticism of "activist judges" resonates with the party's core constituency, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found.
Asked whether they trusted their state legislatures or state courts more to address the question of same-sex marriage, 69 percent of self-identified evangelical Protestant Republicans chose lawmakers. Nineteen percent backed the courts, and 11 percent said neither.
Post-ABC Poll
Poll Data With Trend (PDF) Results from a Washington Post-ABC News survey of 1,002 selected adults nationwide, conducted June 2-5.
Politics Trivia
Thursday's Trivia
Which of the following names for legislation is actually an acronym?
Hatch Act
Staggers Rail Act
Patriot Act
Volstead Act
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In contrast, a slim plurality of 45 percent nationwide preferred that legislatures deal with same-sex marriage, 40 percent favored the courts, and 11 percent said neither.
On the question of abortion, the country split evenly, 44 percent each for courts and state legislatures. But 66 percent of evangelical Protestant Republicans believed the issue should be left up to their state legislators, and 26 percent preferred the courts.
Separately, a poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that discontent among conservative Republicans and evangelical Protestants has fueled a significant drop in public support for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Overall, 57 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the court, down from 68 percent in Jan. 2001, the Pew poll found. Among conservative Republicans, there was a drop of 19 points, from 78 to 59 percent favorable to the court, and among evangelical Protestants, the decline was 22 points, from 73 to 51 percent favorable.
Those surveyed in the Post-ABC poll were responding to a question that sought to measure views of the courts after the Terri Schiavo case and the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision that sanctioned same-sex marriage in that state. These disputes have concerned not only policy but also who should make policy.
Judges are currently under fire from some conservatives who say they are usurping the lawmaking role of elected representatives.
President Bush has backed federal judicial nominees who, he says, will be "strict constructionists." A nomination to the Supreme Court by Bush is possible in the near future, because Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is ill with cancer.
A total of 1,002 randomly selected adults, including 113 self-described evangelical Protestant Republicans, were interviewed by telephone between June 2 and June 5 for the Post-ABC poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
For each of three issues -- same-sex marriage, abortion and the death penalty -- respondents were asked, "Who do you trust more to deal with the issue, your state legislature or your state courts?"
On the death penalty, GOP evangelicals had slightly more confidence in the courts but still favored legislatures by 57 percent to 40 percent. This was almost the reverse of the country as a whole, where the courts were more trusted than the legislatures by 53 percent to 40 percent.
Evangelical Republicans Trust States on Social Issues
Poll Finds Fewer Want Courts' Say
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005; Page A03
Evangelical Protestant Republicans are far more likely than other groupsto want courts to stay out of controversial social questions, suggesting that GOP criticism of "activist judges" resonates with the party's core constituency, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found.
Asked whether they trusted their state legislatures or state courts more to address the question of same-sex marriage, 69 percent of self-identified evangelical Protestant Republicans chose lawmakers. Nineteen percent backed the courts, and 11 percent said neither.
Post-ABC Poll
Poll Data With Trend (PDF) Results from a Washington Post-ABC News survey of 1,002 selected adults nationwide, conducted June 2-5.
Politics Trivia
Thursday's Trivia
Which of the following names for legislation is actually an acronym?
Hatch Act
Staggers Rail Act
Patriot Act
Volstead Act
Free E-mail Newsletters
Daily Politics News & Analysis
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Federal Insider
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Breaking News Alerts
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In contrast, a slim plurality of 45 percent nationwide preferred that legislatures deal with same-sex marriage, 40 percent favored the courts, and 11 percent said neither.
On the question of abortion, the country split evenly, 44 percent each for courts and state legislatures. But 66 percent of evangelical Protestant Republicans believed the issue should be left up to their state legislators, and 26 percent preferred the courts.
Separately, a poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that discontent among conservative Republicans and evangelical Protestants has fueled a significant drop in public support for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Overall, 57 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the court, down from 68 percent in Jan. 2001, the Pew poll found. Among conservative Republicans, there was a drop of 19 points, from 78 to 59 percent favorable to the court, and among evangelical Protestants, the decline was 22 points, from 73 to 51 percent favorable.
Those surveyed in the Post-ABC poll were responding to a question that sought to measure views of the courts after the Terri Schiavo case and the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision that sanctioned same-sex marriage in that state. These disputes have concerned not only policy but also who should make policy.
Judges are currently under fire from some conservatives who say they are usurping the lawmaking role of elected representatives.
President Bush has backed federal judicial nominees who, he says, will be "strict constructionists." A nomination to the Supreme Court by Bush is possible in the near future, because Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is ill with cancer.
A total of 1,002 randomly selected adults, including 113 self-described evangelical Protestant Republicans, were interviewed by telephone between June 2 and June 5 for the Post-ABC poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
For each of three issues -- same-sex marriage, abortion and the death penalty -- respondents were asked, "Who do you trust more to deal with the issue, your state legislature or your state courts?"
On the death penalty, GOP evangelicals had slightly more confidence in the courts but still favored legislatures by 57 percent to 40 percent. This was almost the reverse of the country as a whole, where the courts were more trusted than the legislatures by 53 percent to 40 percent.
Winner of $220.3 Million Powerball Jackpot Says He Wants to Be a Billionaire
By Christopher Smith Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 16, 2005
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A man who won a $220.3 million Powerball lottery jackpot - the second-largest single-ticket Powerball winning - plans to invest the money and become a billionaire.
Brad Duke, a 33-year-old regional fitness director for a health club chain, said he hopes to build a $1 billion portfolio within 15 years.
Winner of $220.3 Million Powerball Jackpot Says He Wants to Be a Billionaire
By Christopher Smith Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 16, 2005
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A man who won a $220.3 million Powerball lottery jackpot - the second-largest single-ticket Powerball winning - plans to invest the money and become a billionaire.
Brad Duke, a 33-year-old regional fitness director for a health club chain, said he hopes to build a $1 billion portfolio within 15 years.
Frist Says Autopsy Brings Schiavo Case to a Close
By Connie Cass Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 16, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon who had questioned Terri Schiavo's diagnosis during the intense national debate on whether to remove her feeding tube, said the autopsy documenting her severe brain damage brings "a very sad chapter to a close."
"She had devastating brain damage, and with that the chapter is closed," Frist said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Frist, R-Tenn., said he never made his own diagnosis but did argue there wasn't enough information about Schiavo's condition to justify allowing her husband to remove her feeding tube against her parents' wishes.
"I raised the question, 'Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?' I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not.
Frist Says Autopsy Brings Schiavo Case to a Close
By Connie Cass Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 16, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon who had questioned Terri Schiavo's diagnosis during the intense national debate on whether to remove her feeding tube, said the autopsy documenting her severe brain damage brings "a very sad chapter to a close."
"She had devastating brain damage, and with that the chapter is closed," Frist said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Frist, R-Tenn., said he never made his own diagnosis but did argue there wasn't enough information about Schiavo's condition to justify allowing her husband to remove her feeding tube against her parents' wishes.
"I raised the question, 'Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?' I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not.
Senate rejects better mileage for gas guzzlers
May 18, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday rejected a Democratic plan to require sport utility vehicles and minivans to become more fuel efficient and achieve the same gasoline mileage as passenger cars in six years.
Under the failed proposal, SUVs and other light trucks would have to meet the same 27.5 mile-per-gallon rule for passenger cars by 2011, up from a current 21 mpg for light trucks.
Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California tried to add the plan to a broad energy bill being debated by the committee. The panel voted against it, 15 to 7.
Supporters said closing the so-called "SUV loophole" would reduce U.S crude oil imports, cut down on polluting emissions spewed by vehicles and save consumers money at the pump.
Opponents said imposing a higher fuel standard would place further burdens on U.S. automakers that are already suffering financially, endangering thousands of high-paying jobs. They also said the government should not dictate what vehicles consumers buy.
"I think mothers and fathers can make those decisions themselves," said Republican George Allen of Virginia.
However, Feinstein pointed out that consumers are on waiting lists to buy more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles made by Japanese automakers, while U.S. companies are stuck with growing inventories of gas-guzzling SUVs.
"They (U.S. automakers) have essentially refused to listen to the marketplace," she said. "Toyota is going to eat their lunch."
Ford Motor Co and General Motors Corp. have seen demand for their once highly-profitable SUVS plunge in recent months as retail gasoline prices rose to record highs.
Chairman Pete Domenici of New Mexico said another provision in the bill would require the president to find ways to cut U.S. oil demand by 1 million barrels per day by 2015.
U.S. oil demand averages about 21 million barrrels per day, with imports accounting for 3 out of every 5 barrels consumed. Gasoline use makes up 40 percent of total oil demand.
Separately, Domenici said he expects lawmakers to offer an amendment to the energy bill to boost annual ethanol production possibly to 8 billion gallons. The corn-based additive, which has broad support among lawmakers from farm states, helps stretch U.S. gasoline supplies and makes fuel burn cleaner.
Energy legislation passed by the U.S. House recently would set an annual ethanol mandate of 5 billion gallons by 2012.
On Wednesday, the Senate committee approved provisions in the energy bill related to coal, hydrogen, and energy research and development. The bill would provide $200 million annually for nine years to promote clean coal technologies.
Senate rejects better mileage for gas guzzlers
May 18, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday rejected a Democratic plan to require sport utility vehicles and minivans to become more fuel efficient and achieve the same gasoline mileage as passenger cars in six years.
Under the failed proposal, SUVs and other light trucks would have to meet the same 27.5 mile-per-gallon rule for passenger cars by 2011, up from a current 21 mpg for light trucks.
Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California tried to add the plan to a broad energy bill being debated by the committee. The panel voted against it, 15 to 7.
Supporters said closing the so-called "SUV loophole" would reduce U.S crude oil imports, cut down on polluting emissions spewed by vehicles and save consumers money at the pump.
Opponents said imposing a higher fuel standard would place further burdens on U.S. automakers that are already suffering financially, endangering thousands of high-paying jobs. They also said the government should not dictate what vehicles consumers buy.
"I think mothers and fathers can make those decisions themselves," said Republican George Allen of Virginia.
However, Feinstein pointed out that consumers are on waiting lists to buy more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles made by Japanese automakers, while U.S. companies are stuck with growing inventories of gas-guzzling SUVs.
"They (U.S. automakers) have essentially refused to listen to the marketplace," she said. "Toyota is going to eat their lunch."
Ford Motor Co and General Motors Corp. have seen demand for their once highly-profitable SUVS plunge in recent months as retail gasoline prices rose to record highs.
Chairman Pete Domenici of New Mexico said another provision in the bill would require the president to find ways to cut U.S. oil demand by 1 million barrels per day by 2015.
U.S. oil demand averages about 21 million barrrels per day, with imports accounting for 3 out of every 5 barrels consumed. Gasoline use makes up 40 percent of total oil demand.
Separately, Domenici said he expects lawmakers to offer an amendment to the energy bill to boost annual ethanol production possibly to 8 billion gallons. The corn-based additive, which has broad support among lawmakers from farm states, helps stretch U.S. gasoline supplies and makes fuel burn cleaner.
Energy legislation passed by the U.S. House recently would set an annual ethanol mandate of 5 billion gallons by 2012.
On Wednesday, the Senate committee approved provisions in the energy bill related to coal, hydrogen, and energy research and development. The bill would provide $200 million annually for nine years to promote clean coal technologies.
Drunk Driving Defendant Sobs at Sentencing, Then Makes Nasty Comment to Victim's Daughter
The Associated Press
Published: May 19, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A drunk driver being sentenced for a fatal crash sobbed and expressed remorse on the witness stand - then made a nasty remark to the victim's daughter as he was leaving the courtroom.
Donald Hawkins, 32, of Chunchula, Ala., received the maximum 15-year prison sentence Wednesday for drunken driving manslaughter. He had pleaded guilty in the crash that killed Mary Archer, 64, in December 2003 when he ran a stop sign while speeding in a 35 mph zone.
Trembling on the stand, Hawkins talked about his "tragic mistake" and said he had stopped drinking.
But as he was turning to leave the courtroom after learning his sentence, Hawkins told one of the victim's daughters, "I hope this happens to one of your children."
Relatives were shocked by the comment from the handcuffed defendant.
Drunk Driving Defendant Sobs at Sentencing, Then Makes Nasty Comment to Victim's Daughter
The Associated Press
Published: May 19, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A drunk driver being sentenced for a fatal crash sobbed and expressed remorse on the witness stand - then made a nasty remark to the victim's daughter as he was leaving the courtroom.
Donald Hawkins, 32, of Chunchula, Ala., received the maximum 15-year prison sentence Wednesday for drunken driving manslaughter. He had pleaded guilty in the crash that killed Mary Archer, 64, in December 2003 when he ran a stop sign while speeding in a 35 mph zone.
Trembling on the stand, Hawkins talked about his "tragic mistake" and said he had stopped drinking.
But as he was turning to leave the courtroom after learning his sentence, Hawkins told one of the victim's daughters, "I hope this happens to one of your children."
Relatives were shocked by the comment from the handcuffed defendant.
Greenspan Builds Case for Limiting Fannie, Freddie Holdings
By Jeannine Aversa The Associated Press
Published: May 19, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan again pushed for limits on the multibillion-dollar mortgage holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying such restrictions would not hurt the thriving housing market.
Greenspan, who has been pressing Congress to limit the holdings of the two mortgage giants, warned on Thursday that their debt poses a risk to U.S. financial markets.
As Fannie and Freddie grow ever larger, their ability "to quickly correct a misjudgment in their complex hedging strategies becomes more difficult," Greenspan said. "We are thus highly dependent on the risk managers at Fannie and Freddie to do everything right."
Greenspan made his remarks in a speech delivered via satellite to a housing conference in Atlanta. A copy of the speech was distributed in Washington.
Congress is exploring various proposals to rein in Fannie Mae, the No. 1 U.S. buyer of home mortgages, and its rival, Freddie Mac, which ranks as the second-largest buyer. They were created by Congress to inject money into the home-loan market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages and bundle them into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
At the end of 1990, Fannie's and Freddie's combined portfolios amounted to $132 billion, Greenspan said. By 2003, their combined holdings came to $1.5 trillion.
"The assets required for Fannie and Freddie to achieve their mission are but a small fraction of the current level of their assets," Greenspan said. Thus if Congress were to limit the two companies' holdings so that they can achieve their mission, a substantial liquidation would be required over time, the Fed chief said.
He said this could be done fairly smoothly, without disruptions to the housing market. "The implementation of portfolio limits should pose no significant difficulties," Greenspan said.
Unwinding some of Fannie's and Freddie's holdings would not raise mortgage rates for homeowners because so many big banks and other lenders compete with them in the home-loan market, he said.
Greenspan said the Fed also sees little evidence to support the notion that the availability of fixed-rate mortgages is tied to the size of Fannie's and Freddie's portfolios. He also said it is "difficult to see" how the two companies' portfolios can influence home ownership.
Greenspan Builds Case for Limiting Fannie, Freddie Holdings
By Jeannine Aversa The Associated Press
Published: May 19, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan again pushed for limits on the multibillion-dollar mortgage holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying such restrictions would not hurt the thriving housing market.
Greenspan, who has been pressing Congress to limit the holdings of the two mortgage giants, warned on Thursday that their debt poses a risk to U.S. financial markets.
As Fannie and Freddie grow ever larger, their ability "to quickly correct a misjudgment in their complex hedging strategies becomes more difficult," Greenspan said. "We are thus highly dependent on the risk managers at Fannie and Freddie to do everything right."
Greenspan made his remarks in a speech delivered via satellite to a housing conference in Atlanta. A copy of the speech was distributed in Washington.
Congress is exploring various proposals to rein in Fannie Mae, the No. 1 U.S. buyer of home mortgages, and its rival, Freddie Mac, which ranks as the second-largest buyer. They were created by Congress to inject money into the home-loan market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages and bundle them into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
At the end of 1990, Fannie's and Freddie's combined portfolios amounted to $132 billion, Greenspan said. By 2003, their combined holdings came to $1.5 trillion.
"The assets required for Fannie and Freddie to achieve their mission are but a small fraction of the current level of their assets," Greenspan said. Thus if Congress were to limit the two companies' holdings so that they can achieve their mission, a substantial liquidation would be required over time, the Fed chief said.
He said this could be done fairly smoothly, without disruptions to the housing market. "The implementation of portfolio limits should pose no significant difficulties," Greenspan said.
Unwinding some of Fannie's and Freddie's holdings would not raise mortgage rates for homeowners because so many big banks and other lenders compete with them in the home-loan market, he said.
Greenspan said the Fed also sees little evidence to support the notion that the availability of fixed-rate mortgages is tied to the size of Fannie's and Freddie's portfolios. He also said it is "difficult to see" how the two companies' portfolios can influence home ownership.
Patriot Act renewal would expand FBI powers
Administrative subpoenas OK'd in draft version
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press | May 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury.
Much of the debate in Congress has concerned possibly limiting some of the powers in the antiterrorism law passed 45 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But the measure being written by Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters yesterday. The subpoenas would allow the agency to quickly obtain records, electronic data, or other evidence in terrorism investigations.
Under the proposal, recipients could challenge the subpoenas in court and the Bush administration would have to report to Congress twice a year on how it uses this investigatory power, the aides said.
The administration has sought this power for two years, but so far it has been rebuffed by lawmakers. It is far from certain that Congress will give the administration everything it wants this year.
Roberts's planned bill also would make it easier for prosecutors to use special court-approved warrants for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies in criminal cases, the committee aides said.
Eight expiring sections of the law that deal with foreign intelligence investigations would become permanent, they said. So, too, would a provision authorizing wiretapping of suspected terrorists who operate without clear ties to a particular terrorist network.
The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because Roberts has yet to make public the bill's contents.
Opponents of expanding the Patriot Act said Roberts' proposal would amount to an expansive wish list for the administration.
''While we're fighting to bring provisions . . . back into balance with the Bill of Rights, here we have the intelligence committee moving to give the government more power outside the judicial system to gain access to records of Americans," said former GOP Representative Bob Barr of Georgia, a critic of the law.
Patriot Act renewal would expand FBI powers
Administrative subpoenas OK'd in draft version
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press | May 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury.
Much of the debate in Congress has concerned possibly limiting some of the powers in the antiterrorism law passed 45 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But the measure being written by Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters yesterday. The subpoenas would allow the agency to quickly obtain records, electronic data, or other evidence in terrorism investigations.
Under the proposal, recipients could challenge the subpoenas in court and the Bush administration would have to report to Congress twice a year on how it uses this investigatory power, the aides said.
The administration has sought this power for two years, but so far it has been rebuffed by lawmakers. It is far from certain that Congress will give the administration everything it wants this year.
Roberts's planned bill also would make it easier for prosecutors to use special court-approved warrants for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies in criminal cases, the committee aides said.
Eight expiring sections of the law that deal with foreign intelligence investigations would become permanent, they said. So, too, would a provision authorizing wiretapping of suspected terrorists who operate without clear ties to a particular terrorist network.
The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because Roberts has yet to make public the bill's contents.
Opponents of expanding the Patriot Act said Roberts' proposal would amount to an expansive wish list for the administration.
''While we're fighting to bring provisions . . . back into balance with the Bill of Rights, here we have the intelligence committee moving to give the government more power outside the judicial system to gain access to records of Americans," said former GOP Representative Bob Barr of Georgia, a critic of the law.
May 01, 2005
The secret Downing Street memo
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY
DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY
Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.
John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
CDS said that military planners would brief CENTCOM on 1-2 August, Rumsfeld on 3 August and Bush on 4 August.
The two broad US options were:
(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72 hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait).
(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option.
The US saw the UK (and Kuwait) as essential, with basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus critical for either option. Turkey and other Gulf states were also important, but less vital. The three main options for UK involvement were:
(i) Basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus, plus three SF squadrons.
(ii) As above, with maritime and air assets in addition.
(iii) As above, plus a land contribution of up to 40,000, perhaps with a discrete role in Northern Iraq entering from Turkey, tying down two Iraqi divisions.
The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun "spikes of activity" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.
The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.
The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult. The situation might of course change.
The Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors. Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD. There were different strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would support regime change. The two key issues were whether the military plan worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan the space to work.
On the first, CDS said that we did not know yet if the US battleplan was workable. The military were continuing to ask lots of questions.
For instance, what were the consequences, if Saddam used WMD on day one, or if Baghdad did not collapse and urban warfighting began? You said that Saddam could also use his WMD on Kuwait. Or on Israel, added the Defence Secretary.
The Foreign Secretary thought the US would not go ahead with a military plan unless convinced that it was a winning strategy. On this, US and UK interests converged. But on the political strategy, there could be US/UK differences. Despite US resistance, we should explore discreetly the ultimatum. Saddam would continue to play hard-ball with the UN.
John Scarlett assessed that Saddam would allow the inspectors back in only when he thought the threat of military action was real.
The Defence Secretary said that if the Prime Minister wanted UK military involvement, he would need to decide this early. He cautioned that many in the US did not think it worth going down the ultimatum route. It would be important for the Prime Minister to set out the political context to Bush.
Conclusions:
(a) We should work on the assumption that the UK would take part in any military action. But we needed a fuller picture of US planning before we could take any firm decisions. CDS should tell the US military that we were considering a range of options.
(b) The Prime Minister would revert on the question of whether funds could be spent in preparation for this operation.
(c) CDS would send the Prime Minister full details of the proposed military campaign and possible UK contributions by the end of the week.
(d) The Foreign Secretary would send the Prime Minister the background on the UN inspectors, and discreetly work up the ultimatum to Saddam.
He would also send the Prime Minister advice on the positions of countries in the region especially Turkey, and of the key EU member states.
(e) John Scarlett would send the Prime Minister a full intelligence update.
(f) We must not ignore the legal issues: the Attorney-General would consider legal advice with FCO/MOD legal advisers.
(I have written separately to commission this follow-up work.)
MATTHEW RYCROFT
(Rycroft was a Downing Street foreign policy aide)
May 01, 2005
The secret Downing Street memo
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY
DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY
Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.
John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
CDS said that military planners would brief CENTCOM on 1-2 August, Rumsfeld on 3 August and Bush on 4 August.
The two broad US options were:
(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72 hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait).
(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option.
The US saw the UK (and Kuwait) as essential, with basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus critical for either option. Turkey and other Gulf states were also important, but less vital. The three main options for UK involvement were:
(i) Basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus, plus three SF squadrons.
(ii) As above, with maritime and air assets in addition.
(iii) As above, plus a land contribution of up to 40,000, perhaps with a discrete role in Northern Iraq entering from Turkey, tying down two Iraqi divisions.
The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun "spikes of activity" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.
The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.
The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult. The situation might of course change.
The Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors. Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD. There were different strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would support regime change. The two key issues were whether the military plan worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan the space to work.
On the first, CDS said that we did not know yet if the US battleplan was workable. The military were continuing to ask lots of questions.
For instance, what were the consequences, if Saddam used WMD on day one, or if Baghdad did not collapse and urban warfighting began? You said that Saddam could also use his WMD on Kuwait. Or on Israel, added the Defence Secretary.
The Foreign Secretary thought the US would not go ahead with a military plan unless convinced that it was a winning strategy. On this, US and UK interests converged. But on the political strategy, there could be US/UK differences. Despite US resistance, we should explore discreetly the ultimatum. Saddam would continue to play hard-ball with the UN.
John Scarlett assessed that Saddam would allow the inspectors back in only when he thought the threat of military action was real.
The Defence Secretary said that if the Prime Minister wanted UK military involvement, he would need to decide this early. He cautioned that many in the US did not think it worth going down the ultimatum route. It would be important for the Prime Minister to set out the political context to Bush.
Conclusions:
(a) We should work on the assumption that the UK would take part in any military action. But we needed a fuller picture of US planning before we could take any firm decisions. CDS should tell the US military that we were considering a range of options.
(b) The Prime Minister would revert on the question of whether funds could be spent in preparation for this operation.
(c) CDS would send the Prime Minister full details of the proposed military campaign and possible UK contributions by the end of the week.
(d) The Foreign Secretary would send the Prime Minister the background on the UN inspectors, and discreetly work up the ultimatum to Saddam.
He would also send the Prime Minister advice on the positions of countries in the region especially Turkey, and of the key EU member states.
(e) John Scarlett would send the Prime Minister a full intelligence update.
(f) We must not ignore the legal issues: the Attorney-General would consider legal advice with FCO/MOD legal advisers.
(I have written separately to commission this follow-up work.)
MATTHEW RYCROFT
(Rycroft was a Downing Street foreign policy aide)
Retirement's Unraveling Safety Net
Social Security Is Least of Newer Generations' Worries
By Dale Russakoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page A01
MIDDLE RIVER, Md. -- If it's a clear morning, you can count on seeing 80-year-old Junior K. Paugh strolling streets that tell his life story: Propeller Drive, Fuselage Avenue, Cockpit Street, Compass Road. He's been here more than 60 years, ever since aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin put him to work making seaplanes and bombers at the defense plant down the road. Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and Martin himself walked the factory floor, urging on workers as the nation went to war.
Out of that perilous time came Paugh's now predictable world. He never is short of money, thanks to Social Security and his company pension that will last as long as he does. Health care costs him next to nothing, thanks to Medicare and retiree health insurance. His Baltimore County home is long paid for, thanks in part to a below-market price of $4,400, a result of wartime subsidies for defense-related housing construction.
Social Security
Retirement's Unraveling Safety Net
GOP Battles Public Displays of Division on Social Security
Bush Refocuses on Domestic Priorities
GOP Battles Public Displays of Division on Social Security
Bush Pitches Plan to Hispanics
More Stories
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"I feel completely secure," says Paugh, no small triumph for the third of 13 children born to farmers in Depression-era Appalachia. The triumph is not only his but also the country's -- the fulfillment of a New Deal vision of cradle-to-grave security, underwritten by the federal government and large industrial employers.
That vision is being supplanted by one President Bush calls the Ownership Society, in which the burdens of economic security -- and, the president hopes, the rewards -- shift back to individuals. Social Security is only one aspect of the shift. The safety net big companies wove for Paugh's generation -- long-term employment, pension security, retiree health insurance -- has been giving way for so long that its unraveling is mere background accompaniment to Washington's noisy debate over Social Security. But in the lives of most middle-class families, it stays in the foreground, inseparable from the Social Security discussion.
This becomes clear in the company of Junior Paugh, his three children, all in their fifties, and five grandchildren, ages 18 to 35. Their three-generation journey has taken them from Appalachia to suburbia, from government relief to an assembly line to a management track at Sears. Yet, despite the apparent progress, their expectations are sinking: The grandchildren, all three generations agree, have it worse than their parents and grandparents -- most dramatically in their prospects for retirement, when all gains and losses come home to roost.
Until now, financial planners have likened retirement security to a three-legged stool: employee pensions, personal savings and Social Security.
For the Paugh grandchildren, the savings leg is effectively gone, reflecting a plunging personal savings rate nationally. In place of Junior Paugh's pension, they have 401(k) plans, under which they -- not employers -- bear the risk and responsibility of investing enough for retirement. And under Bush's Social Security proposal, their promised benefit could drop significantly.
This is a new order with new givens. Paugh and his co-workers came of age as Democrats who felt protected by their union, their party and their government. His grandchildren are all registered Republicans who feel largely on their own in a world full of risks and responsibilities, and no guarantees. They are willing to give Bush's Ownership Society a try, saying they have no hope that government or employers can or will protect them.
The president is counting on the Ownership Society to do for the Republican Party what the New Deal did for the Democrats -- that is, make it the nation's majority party. For now, it is easier to measure what has been lost in security than has been gained in opportunity. But the grandchildren's story is only beginning.
Retirement's Unraveling Safety Net
Social Security Is Least of Newer Generations' Worries
By Dale Russakoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page A01
MIDDLE RIVER, Md. -- If it's a clear morning, you can count on seeing 80-year-old Junior K. Paugh strolling streets that tell his life story: Propeller Drive, Fuselage Avenue, Cockpit Street, Compass Road. He's been here more than 60 years, ever since aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin put him to work making seaplanes and bombers at the defense plant down the road. Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and Martin himself walked the factory floor, urging on workers as the nation went to war.
Out of that perilous time came Paugh's now predictable world. He never is short of money, thanks to Social Security and his company pension that will last as long as he does. Health care costs him next to nothing, thanks to Medicare and retiree health insurance. His Baltimore County home is long paid for, thanks in part to a below-market price of $4,400, a result of wartime subsidies for defense-related housing construction.
Social Security
Retirement's Unraveling Safety Net
GOP Battles Public Displays of Division on Social Security
Bush Refocuses on Domestic Priorities
GOP Battles Public Displays of Division on Social Security
Bush Pitches Plan to Hispanics
More Stories
Free E-mail Newsletters
Daily Politics News & Analysis
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Federal Insider
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Breaking News Alerts
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
"I feel completely secure," says Paugh, no small triumph for the third of 13 children born to farmers in Depression-era Appalachia. The triumph is not only his but also the country's -- the fulfillment of a New Deal vision of cradle-to-grave security, underwritten by the federal government and large industrial employers.
That vision is being supplanted by one President Bush calls the Ownership Society, in which the burdens of economic security -- and, the president hopes, the rewards -- shift back to individuals. Social Security is only one aspect of the shift. The safety net big companies wove for Paugh's generation -- long-term employment, pension security, retiree health insurance -- has been giving way for so long that its unraveling is mere background accompaniment to Washington's noisy debate over Social Security. But in the lives of most middle-class families, it stays in the foreground, inseparable from the Social Security discussion.
This becomes clear in the company of Junior Paugh, his three children, all in their fifties, and five grandchildren, ages 18 to 35. Their three-generation journey has taken them from Appalachia to suburbia, from government relief to an assembly line to a management track at Sears. Yet, despite the apparent progress, their expectations are sinking: The grandchildren, all three generations agree, have it worse than their parents and grandparents -- most dramatically in their prospects for retirement, when all gains and losses come home to roost.
Until now, financial planners have likened retirement security to a three-legged stool: employee pensions, personal savings and Social Security.
For the Paugh grandchildren, the savings leg is effectively gone, reflecting a plunging personal savings rate nationally. In place of Junior Paugh's pension, they have 401(k) plans, under which they -- not employers -- bear the risk and responsibility of investing enough for retirement. And under Bush's Social Security proposal, their promised benefit could drop significantly.
This is a new order with new givens. Paugh and his co-workers came of age as Democrats who felt protected by their union, their party and their government. His grandchildren are all registered Republicans who feel largely on their own in a world full of risks and responsibilities, and no guarantees. They are willing to give Bush's Ownership Society a try, saying they have no hope that government or employers can or will protect them.
The president is counting on the Ownership Society to do for the Republican Party what the New Deal did for the Democrats -- that is, make it the nation's majority party. For now, it is easier to measure what has been lost in security than has been gained in opportunity. But the grandchildren's story is only beginning.
What Defeat? Rice Finesses Win-Win at OAS
By Al Kamen
Monday, May 16, 2005; Page A15
So let's see. The United States first backed former Salvadoran president Francisco Flores to be the new secretary general of the Organization of American States. Venezuela's left-wing demagogue Hugo Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro backed Chilean socialist and former interior minister Jose Miguel Insulza .
The Flores move went nowhere, so Washington then backed Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez . The lefties kept pushing Insulza. In a stunning vote last month, the 34-nation OAS met and deadlocked 17 to 17.
The Chileans accused Washington of strong-arming tiny Caribbean countries to switch sides to Derbez (something, of course, the United States would never, ever do). A senior Chilean official growled to a U.S. diplomat that the United States was "making a big mistake." Even though it was only a tie, a Venezuelan exulted, saying that "until now, the United States imposed its candidates."
And there was chatter among the delegates that a couple of votes -- maybe Paraguay and Panama -- were going to switch to Insulza, handing the United States a major diplomatic embarrassment.
Then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped in, did some nifty diplomacy and worked out a fine deal. If Insulza would take some indirect shots at Chavez and talk up democracy in Cuba, why then the United States would back him. Bingo! A unanimous vote for Insulza.
Now someone might look at this and say it appeared as though all this was pretty much a defeat for U.S. efforts. The folks they supported lost. The guy they opposed won.
Ah, but that would be, as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Roger Noriega explained in an April 30 e-mail to State Department officials, absolutely, completely, wrong.
"No matter how hard the NY Times, Chavez, and Castro try to say otherwise, Rice's brokering of a consensus in favor of Jose Miguel Insulza is a victory for the US," Noriega wrote.
The Insulza gambit was nothing short of brilliant. "When I told Paco [Francisco] Flores of our plan," Noriega said, "he said, 'Wow. That's great.' " (Paco apparently is easily impressed.)
So next election, if the candidate you oppose looks as though he might win, work out a way to support him, then declare victory. This is what is called a "win-win."
What Defeat? Rice Finesses Win-Win at OAS
By Al Kamen
Monday, May 16, 2005; Page A15
So let's see. The United States first backed former Salvadoran president Francisco Flores to be the new secretary general of the Organization of American States. Venezuela's left-wing demagogue Hugo Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro backed Chilean socialist and former interior minister Jose Miguel Insulza .
The Flores move went nowhere, so Washington then backed Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez . The lefties kept pushing Insulza. In a stunning vote last month, the 34-nation OAS met and deadlocked 17 to 17.
The Chileans accused Washington of strong-arming tiny Caribbean countries to switch sides to Derbez (something, of course, the United States would never, ever do). A senior Chilean official growled to a U.S. diplomat that the United States was "making a big mistake." Even though it was only a tie, a Venezuelan exulted, saying that "until now, the United States imposed its candidates."
And there was chatter among the delegates that a couple of votes -- maybe Paraguay and Panama -- were going to switch to Insulza, handing the United States a major diplomatic embarrassment.
Then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped in, did some nifty diplomacy and worked out a fine deal. If Insulza would take some indirect shots at Chavez and talk up democracy in Cuba, why then the United States would back him. Bingo! A unanimous vote for Insulza.
Now someone might look at this and say it appeared as though all this was pretty much a defeat for U.S. efforts. The folks they supported lost. The guy they opposed won.
Ah, but that would be, as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Roger Noriega explained in an April 30 e-mail to State Department officials, absolutely, completely, wrong.
"No matter how hard the NY Times, Chavez, and Castro try to say otherwise, Rice's brokering of a consensus in favor of Jose Miguel Insulza is a victory for the US," Noriega wrote.
The Insulza gambit was nothing short of brilliant. "When I told Paco [Francisco] Flores of our plan," Noriega said, "he said, 'Wow. That's great.' " (Paco apparently is easily impressed.)
So next election, if the candidate you oppose looks as though he might win, work out a way to support him, then declare victory. This is what is called a "win-win."
Report Critical of Rumsfeld Is Pulled After DOD Protest
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 16, 2005; Page A05
A government commission studying overseas military bases sent Congress a report that included criticism of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's strategy, then removed the document from the commission Web site after the Pentagon complained that it divulged classified information.
The congressionally appointed panel contends that the 262-page report is based only on public sources, and several commission officials say they believe the Defense Department was annoyed because their conclusions include harsh criticism of some elements of Rumsfeld's plan for streamlining the military.
An official involved in the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon's primary complaint appeared to be that the report specified Bulgaria and Romania as countries U.S. forces would rotate through for training, rather than using a more vague regional identification such as Eastern Europe.
The Overseas Basing Commission released a partial version of the report at a news conference on May 9, but now the panel has removed that version from its Web site because of the Pentagon's complaints.
Report Critical of Rumsfeld Is Pulled After DOD Protest
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 16, 2005; Page A05
A government commission studying overseas military bases sent Congress a report that included criticism of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's strategy, then removed the document from the commission Web site after the Pentagon complained that it divulged classified information.
The congressionally appointed panel contends that the 262-page report is based only on public sources, and several commission officials say they believe the Defense Department was annoyed because their conclusions include harsh criticism of some elements of Rumsfeld's plan for streamlining the military.
An official involved in the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon's primary complaint appeared to be that the report specified Bulgaria and Romania as countries U.S. forces would rotate through for training, rather than using a more vague regional identification such as Eastern Europe.
The Overseas Basing Commission released a partial version of the report at a news conference on May 9, but now the panel has removed that version from its Web site because of the Pentagon's complaints.
Judge reinstates pension of legislator who served time
Says panel waited too long to revoke
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | May 14, 2005
A former state representative who was convicted of federal conspiracy, bribery, and mail fraud charges in 1996 has had his $21,000-a-year state pension reinstated by a judge, who ruled that the state waited 15 days too long to notify Francis Woodward that the pension was being revoked.
Judge reinstates pension of legislator who served time
Says panel waited too long to revoke
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | May 14, 2005
A former state representative who was convicted of federal conspiracy, bribery, and mail fraud charges in 1996 has had his $21,000-a-year state pension reinstated by a judge, who ruled that the state waited 15 days too long to notify Francis Woodward that the pension was being revoked.
Critic of evangelicals relieved of Air Force post
Academy calls move a 'standard transition'
By T.R. Reid, Washington Post | May 14, 2005
DENVER -- An Air Force chaplain who protested that evangelical Christians were trying to ''subvert the system" by winning converts among cadets at the Air Force Academy was removed from administrative duties last week, just as the Pentagon began an in-depth study of alleged religious intolerance among cadets and commanders at the school.
''They fired me," said Captain MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran minister who was removed as executive officer of the chaplain unit May 4. ''They said I should be angry about these outside groups who reported on the strident evangelicalism at the academy. The problem is, I agreed with those reports."
But Lieutenant Colonel
Critic of evangelicals relieved of Air Force post
Academy calls move a 'standard transition'
By T.R. Reid, Washington Post | May 14, 2005
DENVER -- An Air Force chaplain who protested that evangelical Christians were trying to ''subvert the system" by winning converts among cadets at the Air Force Academy was removed from administrative duties last week, just as the Pentagon began an in-depth study of alleged religious intolerance among cadets and commanders at the school.
''They fired me," said Captain MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran minister who was removed as executive officer of the chaplain unit May 4. ''They said I should be angry about these outside groups who reported on the strident evangelicalism at the academy. The problem is, I agreed with those reports."
But Lieutenant Colonel
Ridge reveals clashes on alerts
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.
His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus.
Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.
"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "
Revising or scrapping the color-coded alert system is under review by new Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said "improvements and adjustments" may be announced within the next few months.
The threat level was last raised on a nationwide scale in December 2003, to orange from yellow — or "elevated" risk — where the alert level is now. In most cases, Ridge said Homeland Security officials didn't want to raise the level because they knew local governments and businesses would have to spend money putting temporary security upgrades in place.
"You have to use that tool of communication very sparingly," Ridge said at the forum, which was attended by seven other former department leaders.
The level is raised if a majority on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council favors it and President Bush concurs. Among those on the council with Ridge were Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller, CIA director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Ridge and Ashcroft publicly clashed over how to communicate threat information to the public. But Ridge has never before discussed internal dissention over the threat level.
Ridge reveals clashes on alerts
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.
His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus.
Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.
"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "
Revising or scrapping the color-coded alert system is under review by new Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said "improvements and adjustments" may be announced within the next few months.
The threat level was last raised on a nationwide scale in December 2003, to orange from yellow — or "elevated" risk — where the alert level is now. In most cases, Ridge said Homeland Security officials didn't want to raise the level because they knew local governments and businesses would have to spend money putting temporary security upgrades in place.
"You have to use that tool of communication very sparingly," Ridge said at the forum, which was attended by seven other former department leaders.
The level is raised if a majority on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council favors it and President Bush concurs. Among those on the council with Ridge were Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller, CIA director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Ridge and Ashcroft publicly clashed over how to communicate threat information to the public. But Ridge has never before discussed internal dissention over the threat level.
US real wages fall at fastest rate in 14 years
By Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: May 10 2005 17:59 | Last updated: May 11 2005 15:20
Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.
Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.
The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.
Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.
Many economists believe that in spite of the unexpectedly large rise in job creation of 274,000 in April, the uneven revival in the labour market since the 2001 recession has made it hard for workers to negotiate real improvements in living standards.
Even after last month's bumper gain in employment, there are 22,000 fewer private sector jobs than when the recession began in March 2001, a 0.02 per cent fall. At the same point in the recovery from the recession of the early 1990s, private sector employment was up 4.7 per cent.
Salaries stagnate as balance of power shifts to employers
A surfeit of workers and the threat of off-shoring are allowing companies to call the shots on wages.
Go there
“There is still little evidence that workers are gaining much traction in their negotiations,” said Paul Ashworth, US analyst at Capital Economics, the consultancy. “If this does not pick up, it raises the prospect of a sharper slowdown in consumer spending than we have been expecting.”
Economists are divided over the best source for measuring pay increases in the US, since the government releases three main measures. A gauge of average hourly earnings is released with the employment report. This rose by 0.3 per cent in both March and April and 0.1 per cent in February. Even with a slight rise in the hours employees are working, from 33.7 to 33.9, this suggests wages are struggling to keep pace with inflation. The gauge covers non-supervisory workers, about 80 per cent of the workforce.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures for personal income showed wages rising at close to 6 per cent in 2004 but slowing down since. This measure also showed wages rising by just 0.3 per cent in each of the past 2 months. This is a broader gauge and includes small businesses and professional partnerships, but it measures total corporate wage bill rather than wages per person.
The Employment Cost Index, seen by some as the most reliable measure, excludes overtime and professional partnerships.
US real wages fall at fastest rate in 14 years
By Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: May 10 2005 17:59 | Last updated: May 11 2005 15:20
Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.
Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.
The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.
Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.
Many economists believe that in spite of the unexpectedly large rise in job creation of 274,000 in April, the uneven revival in the labour market since the 2001 recession has made it hard for workers to negotiate real improvements in living standards.
Even after last month's bumper gain in employment, there are 22,000 fewer private sector jobs than when the recession began in March 2001, a 0.02 per cent fall. At the same point in the recovery from the recession of the early 1990s, private sector employment was up 4.7 per cent.
Salaries stagnate as balance of power shifts to employers
A surfeit of workers and the threat of off-shoring are allowing companies to call the shots on wages.
Go there
“There is still little evidence that workers are gaining much traction in their negotiations,” said Paul Ashworth, US analyst at Capital Economics, the consultancy. “If this does not pick up, it raises the prospect of a sharper slowdown in consumer spending than we have been expecting.”
Economists are divided over the best source for measuring pay increases in the US, since the government releases three main measures. A gauge of average hourly earnings is released with the employment report. This rose by 0.3 per cent in both March and April and 0.1 per cent in February. Even with a slight rise in the hours employees are working, from 33.7 to 33.9, this suggests wages are struggling to keep pace with inflation. The gauge covers non-supervisory workers, about 80 per cent of the workforce.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures for personal income showed wages rising at close to 6 per cent in 2004 but slowing down since. This measure also showed wages rising by just 0.3 per cent in each of the past 2 months. This is a broader gauge and includes small businesses and professional partnerships, but it measures total corporate wage bill rather than wages per person.
The Employment Cost Index, seen by some as the most reliable measure, excludes overtime and professional partnerships.
$82b in war spending is OK'd
Bill to fund Iraq, Afghanistan also alters rules in US
By Liz Sidoti, Associated Press | May 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Congress approved an additional $82 billion yesterday for Iraq and Afghanistan and for combating terrorism worldwide, boosting the cost of the global effort since 2001 to more than $300 billion.
The Senate approved the measure by a 100-0 vote yesterday. The House easily approved the measure last week. It now goes to President Bush for his signature, which is certain.
The fifth such emergency spending package Congress has taken up since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the bill includes sweeping immigration changes, a nearly tenfold increase in the onetime payment for families of troops killed in combat, and money to build a sprawling US embassy in Iraq.
Most of the money, $75.9 billion, is slated for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while $4.2 billion goes to foreign aid and other international relations programs.
The president sent Congress his spending proposal in February and the final bill -- a compromise between versions passed by the House and Senate -- looks largely like what he requested even though both legislative chambers, controlled by Republicans, had promised to fund only items that lawmakers deemed urgent.
Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the final bill ''a genuine compromise between the two bodies on legislation that is of utmost importance to our troops who are deployed in the war on terror and for our allies around the world." Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said the bill was ''absolutely critical to winning the war on terror."
Democrats used the opportunity to criticize the Bush administration for its Iraq policies and for skirting the normal budget process to pay for the wars. Many also assailed Republicans for tacking on immigration provisions.
The measure requires states to start issuing more-uniform driver's licenses and start verifying the citizenship or legal status of license applicants. It also toughens asylum laws, authorizes the completion of a fence across the California-Mexico border, and provides money to hire more border security agents.
The House had included most of the provisions in its version of the bill. The Senate did not, but agreed during negotiations to go along with the House.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, said the bill comes up short in at least two areas. ''We should have received much greater attention in this bill about our ability to succeed in Iraq," Reid said. And, he said, immigration rule changes should have been dealt with later.
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the immigration provisions ''were formulated behind closed doors by the House and Senate Republican leadership."
Overall, the measure reflects a desire by lawmakers to give the Pentagon what it needs while holding the line on State Department spending. Lawmakers provided roughly $1 billion more than the president had sought for defense and about $1.5 billion less than he wanted for international relations programs.
The legislation provides money for combat costs, including ammunition, armor for vehicles, weapons systems, and other equipment. The Army gets much of the defense money because that service is bearing the brunt of the fighting.
The bill also boosts the death benefit for survivors of troops killed in combat zones -- from $12,000 to $100,000. The increase would apply retroactively to families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan beginning on Oct. 7, 2001.
On the foreign affairs side, the measure provides $592 million for a secure diplomatic compound in Baghdad, $230 million for US allies in the war on terror, and $200 million in economic and infrastructure assistance to the Palestinian Authority. The bill also provides $907 million for expenses and aid related to the December tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had pressured lawmakers to pass the bill quickly, saying the Pentagon would run out of money for wars if it didn't get the money by last week. But the Pentagon diverted roughly $1 billion in funds from other accounts to pay for the war in anticipation of congressional delays.
$82b in war spending is OK'd
Bill to fund Iraq, Afghanistan also alters rules in US
By Liz Sidoti, Associated Press | May 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Congress approved an additional $82 billion yesterday for Iraq and Afghanistan and for combating terrorism worldwide, boosting the cost of the global effort since 2001 to more than $300 billion.
The Senate approved the measure by a 100-0 vote yesterday. The House easily approved the measure last week. It now goes to President Bush for his signature, which is certain.
The fifth such emergency spending package Congress has taken up since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the bill includes sweeping immigration changes, a nearly tenfold increase in the onetime payment for families of troops killed in combat, and money to build a sprawling US embassy in Iraq.
Most of the money, $75.9 billion, is slated for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while $4.2 billion goes to foreign aid and other international relations programs.
The president sent Congress his spending proposal in February and the final bill -- a compromise between versions passed by the House and Senate -- looks largely like what he requested even though both legislative chambers, controlled by Republicans, had promised to fund only items that lawmakers deemed urgent.
Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the final bill ''a genuine compromise between the two bodies on legislation that is of utmost importance to our troops who are deployed in the war on terror and for our allies around the world." Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said the bill was ''absolutely critical to winning the war on terror."
Democrats used the opportunity to criticize the Bush administration for its Iraq policies and for skirting the normal budget process to pay for the wars. Many also assailed Republicans for tacking on immigration provisions.
The measure requires states to start issuing more-uniform driver's licenses and start verifying the citizenship or legal status of license applicants. It also toughens asylum laws, authorizes the completion of a fence across the California-Mexico border, and provides money to hire more border security agents.
The House had included most of the provisions in its version of the bill. The Senate did not, but agreed during negotiations to go along with the House.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, said the bill comes up short in at least two areas. ''We should have received much greater attention in this bill about our ability to succeed in Iraq," Reid said. And, he said, immigration rule changes should have been dealt with later.
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the immigration provisions ''were formulated behind closed doors by the House and Senate Republican leadership."
Overall, the measure reflects a desire by lawmakers to give the Pentagon what it needs while holding the line on State Department spending. Lawmakers provided roughly $1 billion more than the president had sought for defense and about $1.5 billion less than he wanted for international relations programs.
The legislation provides money for combat costs, including ammunition, armor for vehicles, weapons systems, and other equipment. The Army gets much of the defense money because that service is bearing the brunt of the fighting.
The bill also boosts the death benefit for survivors of troops killed in combat zones -- from $12,000 to $100,000. The increase would apply retroactively to families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan beginning on Oct. 7, 2001.
On the foreign affairs side, the measure provides $592 million for a secure diplomatic compound in Baghdad, $230 million for US allies in the war on terror, and $200 million in economic and infrastructure assistance to the Palestinian Authority. The bill also provides $907 million for expenses and aid related to the December tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had pressured lawmakers to pass the bill quickly, saying the Pentagon would run out of money for wars if it didn't get the money by last week. But the Pentagon diverted roughly $1 billion in funds from other accounts to pay for the war in anticipation of congressional delays.
U.S. pays for care of illegal aliens
Treatment money for border states
By ROBERT PEAR
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said yesterday that it would start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants.
The money, totaling $1 billion, will be available for services provided from today through September 2008. Congress provided the money as part of the 2003 law that expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs, but the new payments have nothing to do with the Medicare program.
Members of Congress from border states had sought the money. They said treatment of illegal immigrants imposed a huge financial burden on many hospitals, which are required to provide emergency care to patients who need it, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay.
Under the new program, hospitals are supposed to ask patients for documents to substantiate payment claims. But Dr. Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said a hospital should not directly ask a patient "if he or she is an undocumented alien."
Instead, he said, hospitals can try to establish a patient's status by analyzing the answers to "indirect questions": Is the person eligible for Medicaid? (If so, payment is generally not available under the new program.) Has the person reported a foreign place of birth? Does the person have a border-crossing card like those issued to Mexican citizens? Does the person have a foreign passport, a foreign driver's license or a foreign identification card?
The Bush administration abandoned a proposal that would have required many hospitals to ask patients if they were U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.
"In no circumstances are hospitals required to ask people about their citizenship status," McClellan said yesterday.
Hospital executives and immigrant rights groups had said such questions would deter illegal immigrants from seeking care and could lead to serious public health problems by increasing the spread of communicable diseases.
Cecilia Munoz, a vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group, said the new requirements were an improvement over the original proposal but would still discourage some immigrants from seeking treatment.
"Hospitals will have to ask confusing, highly technical questions about immigration documents," Munoz said. "That will create a perception in the Latino community that you have to show your papers in order to get emergency care. That's a misperception, but it may be enough to deter some people from seeking care."
The new program is run by the Department of Health and Human Services. McClellan said the department would not provide information about illegal immigrants to law enforcement officials for use in "routine civil immigration proceedings." But in rare cases, he said, the information may be used in criminal investigations.
The largest allocations this fiscal year are going to California, which will receive $70.8 million; Texas, $46 million; Arizona, $45 million; New York, $12.3 million; Illinois, $10.3 million; Florida, $8.7 million; and New Mexico, $5.1 million.
U.S. pays for care of illegal aliens
Treatment money for border states
By ROBERT PEAR
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said yesterday that it would start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants.
The money, totaling $1 billion, will be available for services provided from today through September 2008. Congress provided the money as part of the 2003 law that expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs, but the new payments have nothing to do with the Medicare program.
Members of Congress from border states had sought the money. They said treatment of illegal immigrants imposed a huge financial burden on many hospitals, which are required to provide emergency care to patients who need it, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay.
Under the new program, hospitals are supposed to ask patients for documents to substantiate payment claims. But Dr. Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said a hospital should not directly ask a patient "if he or she is an undocumented alien."
Instead, he said, hospitals can try to establish a patient's status by analyzing the answers to "indirect questions": Is the person eligible for Medicaid? (If so, payment is generally not available under the new program.) Has the person reported a foreign place of birth? Does the person have a border-crossing card like those issued to Mexican citizens? Does the person have a foreign passport, a foreign driver's license or a foreign identification card?
The Bush administration abandoned a proposal that would have required many hospitals to ask patients if they were U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.
"In no circumstances are hospitals required to ask people about their citizenship status," McClellan said yesterday.
Hospital executives and immigrant rights groups had said such questions would deter illegal immigrants from seeking care and could lead to serious public health problems by increasing the spread of communicable diseases.
Cecilia Munoz, a vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group, said the new requirements were an improvement over the original proposal but would still discourage some immigrants from seeking treatment.
"Hospitals will have to ask confusing, highly technical questions about immigration documents," Munoz said. "That will create a perception in the Latino community that you have to show your papers in order to get emergency care. That's a misperception, but it may be enough to deter some people from seeking care."
The new program is run by the Department of Health and Human Services. McClellan said the department would not provide information about illegal immigrants to law enforcement officials for use in "routine civil immigration proceedings." But in rare cases, he said, the information may be used in criminal investigations.
The largest allocations this fiscal year are going to California, which will receive $70.8 million; Texas, $46 million; Arizona, $45 million; New York, $12.3 million; Illinois, $10.3 million; Florida, $8.7 million; and New Mexico, $5.1 million.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INVASION USA
Feds pay $5.8 billion to jail criminal aliens
Government study over past 3 years reveals burden borne by taxpayers
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The U.S. federal government spent $5.8 billion over the past three years to incarcerate criminal aliens – nonresidents who are in the country illegally or legally and convicted of a crime.
The report by the General Accounting Office – the investigative arm of Congress – shows the number of criminal aliens in federal prisons increased from about 42,000 at the end of 2001 to about 49,000 at the end of last year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INVASION USA
Feds pay $5.8 billion to jail criminal aliens
Government study over past 3 years reveals burden borne by taxpayers
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The U.S. federal government spent $5.8 billion over the past three years to incarcerate criminal aliens – nonresidents who are in the country illegally or legally and convicted of a crime.
The report by the General Accounting Office – the investigative arm of Congress – shows the number of criminal aliens in federal prisons increased from about 42,000 at the end of 2001 to about 49,000 at the end of last year.
Britain Considers Denying Healthcare Based on Age
A British ministry is proposing to deny medical treatment to patients based on age – a move seen as the "ultimate end” for universal health care.
A spokesperson for The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said that "if there is a justifiable clinical reason to not provide a treatment for certain age groups, not just older people, that will be O.K., if this treatment would not work or could not be offered.
"We have said there has to be clinical evidence when discriminating on grounds of age.”
Critics have raised concern that the policy could lead to the elderly being denied some services.
What’s happening in Britain – the rationing of medical care – and "what will happen here if the health care busybodies are able to force us into some sort of single- or third-party payer or nationalized system, is a convergence of demand crashing into finite supply,” reports Investor’s Business Daily.
Britain Considers Denying Healthcare Based on Age
A British ministry is proposing to deny medical treatment to patients based on age – a move seen as the "ultimate end” for universal health care.
A spokesperson for The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said that "if there is a justifiable clinical reason to not provide a treatment for certain age groups, not just older people, that will be O.K., if this treatment would not work or could not be offered.
"We have said there has to be clinical evidence when discriminating on grounds of age.”
Critics have raised concern that the policy could lead to the elderly being denied some services.
What’s happening in Britain – the rationing of medical care – and "what will happen here if the health care busybodies are able to force us into some sort of single- or third-party payer or nationalized system, is a convergence of demand crashing into finite supply,” reports Investor’s Business Daily.
By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2005, 12:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- To gain access to hundreds of HIV-infected foster children, federally funded researchers promised in writing to provide an independent advocate to safeguard the kids' well-being as they tested potent AIDS drugs. But most of the time, that special protection never materialized, an Associated Press review has found.
The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren't yet available in the marketplace.
The practice ensured that foster children -- mostly poor or minority -- received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown.
The research was conducted in at least seven states -- Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Colorado and Texas -- and involved more than four dozen different studies. The foster children ranged from infants to late teens, according to interviews and government records.
Several studies that enlisted foster children reported that patients suffered side effects such as rashes, vomiting and sharp drops in infection-fighting blood cells, and one reported a "disturbing" higher death rate among children who took higher doses of a drug, records show.
The government provided special protections for child wards in 1983. They required researchers and their oversight boards to appoint independent advocates for any foster child enrolled in a narrow class of studies that involved greater than minimal risk and lacked the promise of direct benefit.
Some foster agencies, including those in Illinois and New York, required researchers to sign a document agreeing to provide the protection regardless of risks and benefits.
However, researchers and foster agencies told AP that foster children in AIDS drug trials often weren't given such advocates even though research institutions many times promised in writing to do so.
Illinois officials believe none of their nearly 200 foster children in AIDS studies got independent monitors. New York City could find records showing 142 -- less than a third -- of the 465 foster children in AIDS drug trials got such monitors even though city policy required them. The city has asked an outside firm to investigate.
Likewise, research facilities including Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said they concluded they didn't provide advocates for foster kids.
Some foster children died during studies, but state or city agencies said they could find no records that any deaths were directly caused by experimental treatments.
Researchers typically secured permission to enroll foster children through city or state agencies. And they frequently exempted themselves from appointing advocates by concluding the research carried minimal risk and the child would benefit directly because the drugs already had been tried in adults.
"Our position is that advocates weren't needed," said Marilyn Castaldi, spokeswoman for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.
If they decline to appoint advocates under the federal law, researchers and their oversight boards must conclude that the experimental treatment affords the same or better risk-benefit possibilities than alternate treatments already in the marketplace. They also must abide by any additional protections required by state and local authorities.
Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said advocates should have been appointed for all foster children because researchers felt the pressure of a medical crisis and knew there was great uncertainty as to how children would react to AIDS medications that were often toxic for adults.
"It is exactly that set of circumstances that made it absolutely mandatory to get those kids those advocates," Caplan said. "It is inexcusable that they wouldn't have an advocate for each one of those children.
"When you have the most vulnerable subjects imaginable -- kids without parents -- you really do have to come in with someone independent, who doesn't have a dog in this fight," he said.
Those who made the decisions say the research gave foster kids access to drugs they otherwise couldn't get. And they say they protected the children's interest by carefully explaining risks and benefits to state guardians, foster parents and the children themselves.
"I understand the ethical dilemma surrounding the introduction of foster children into trials," said Dr. Mark Kline, a pediatric AIDS expert at Baylor College of Medicine. He enrolled some Texas foster kids in his studies, and doesn't recall appointing advocates for them.
"To say as a group that foster children should be excluded from clinical trials would have meant excluding these children from the best available therapies at the time," he said. "From an ethical perspective, I never thought that was a stand I could take."
Illinois officials directly credit the decision to enroll HIV-positive foster kids with bringing about a decline in deaths -- from 40 between 1989 and 1995 to only 19 since.
Some states declined to participate in medical experiments. Tennessee said its foster care rules generally prohibit enlisting children in such trials. California requires a judge's order. And Wisconsin "has absolutely never allowed, nor would we even consider, any clinical experiments with the children in our foster care system," spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said.
Officials estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of the 13,878 children enrolled in pediatric AIDS studies funded by NIH since the late 1980s were in foster care. More than two dozen Illinois foster children remain in studies today.
NIH, the government health research agency that funded the studies, did not track researchers to determine whether they appointed advocates. Instead, the decision was left to medical review boards made up of volunteers at each study site.
A recent Institute of Medicine study concluded those Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) were often overwhelmed, dominated by scientists and not focused enough on patient protections.
The U.S. Office for Human Research Protections, created to protect research participants after the notorious Tuskegee syphilis studies on black men in the 1930s, is investigating the use of foster children in AIDS research. The office declined to discuss the probe.
AP's review found that if children were old enough -- usually between 5 and 10 -- they also were educated about the risks and asked to consent. Sometimes, foster parents or biological parents were consulted; other times not.
Research and foster agencies declined to make foster parents or children in the drug trials available for interviews, or to provide information about individual drug dosages, side effects or deaths, citing medical privacy laws.
Other families who participated in the same drug trials told AP their children mostly benefited but parents needed to carefully monitor potential side effects. Foster children, they said, need the added protection of an independent advocate.
"If they did not fulfill that requirement, how can you be sure the community participant really got the benefit and the informed consent that is needed," said Michelle Lopez, a New Jersey woman whose daughter has participated in drug trials.
"I was very concerned about that because the argument we are getting is the kids are getting better and we are enhancing their lives, but none of these drugs save these kids lives," she said.
Many studies that enlisted foster children involved early Phase I and Phase II research -- the riskiest -- to determine side effects and safe dosages so children could begin taking adult "cocktails," the powerful drug combinations that suppress AIDS but can cause bad reactions like rashes and organ damage.
Some of those drugs were approved ultimately for children, such as stavudine and zidovudine. Other medicines were not.
Illinois officials confirmed two or three foster children were approved to participate in a mid-1990s study of dapsone. Researchers hoped the drug would prevent a pneumonia that afflicts AIDS patients.
Researchers reported some children had to be taken off the drug because of "serious toxicity," others developed rashes, and the rates of death and blood toxicity were significantly higher in children who took the medicine daily, rather than weekly.
At least 10 children died from a variety of causes, including four from blood poisoning, and researchers said they were unable to determine a safe, useful dosage. They said the deaths didn't appear to be "directly attributable" to dapsone but nonetheless were "disturbing."
"An unexpected finding in our study was that overall mortality while receiving the study drug was significantly higher in the daily dapsone group. This finding remains unexplained," the researchers concluded.
Another study involving foster children in the 1990s treated children with different combinations of adult antiretroviral drugs. Among 52 children, there were 26 moderate to severe reactions -- nearly all in infants. The side effects included rash, fever and a major drop in infection-fighting white blood cells.
New York City officials defend the decision to enlist foster children en masse, saying there was a crisis in the early 1990s and research provided the best treatment possibilities. Nonetheless, they are changing their policy so they no longer give blanket permission to enroll children in preapproved studies.
"We learned some things from our experience," said Elizabeth Roberts, assistant commissioner for child and family health at the Administration for Children's Services. "It is a more individualized review we will be conducting."
By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2005, 12:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- To gain access to hundreds of HIV-infected foster children, federally funded researchers promised in writing to provide an independent advocate to safeguard the kids' well-being as they tested potent AIDS drugs. But most of the time, that special protection never materialized, an Associated Press review has found.
The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren't yet available in the marketplace.
The practice ensured that foster children -- mostly poor or minority -- received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown.
The research was conducted in at least seven states -- Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Colorado and Texas -- and involved more than four dozen different studies. The foster children ranged from infants to late teens, according to interviews and government records.
Several studies that enlisted foster children reported that patients suffered side effects such as rashes, vomiting and sharp drops in infection-fighting blood cells, and one reported a "disturbing" higher death rate among children who took higher doses of a drug, records show.
The government provided special protections for child wards in 1983. They required researchers and their oversight boards to appoint independent advocates for any foster child enrolled in a narrow class of studies that involved greater than minimal risk and lacked the promise of direct benefit.
Some foster agencies, including those in Illinois and New York, required researchers to sign a document agreeing to provide the protection regardless of risks and benefits.
However, researchers and foster agencies told AP that foster children in AIDS drug trials often weren't given such advocates even though research institutions many times promised in writing to do so.
Illinois officials believe none of their nearly 200 foster children in AIDS studies got independent monitors. New York City could find records showing 142 -- less than a third -- of the 465 foster children in AIDS drug trials got such monitors even though city policy required them. The city has asked an outside firm to investigate.
Likewise, research facilities including Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said they concluded they didn't provide advocates for foster kids.
Some foster children died during studies, but state or city agencies said they could find no records that any deaths were directly caused by experimental treatments.
Researchers typically secured permission to enroll foster children through city or state agencies. And they frequently exempted themselves from appointing advocates by concluding the research carried minimal risk and the child would benefit directly because the drugs already had been tried in adults.
"Our position is that advocates weren't needed," said Marilyn Castaldi, spokeswoman for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.
If they decline to appoint advocates under the federal law, researchers and their oversight boards must conclude that the experimental treatment affords the same or better risk-benefit possibilities than alternate treatments already in the marketplace. They also must abide by any additional protections required by state and local authorities.
Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said advocates should have been appointed for all foster children because researchers felt the pressure of a medical crisis and knew there was great uncertainty as to how children would react to AIDS medications that were often toxic for adults.
"It is exactly that set of circumstances that made it absolutely mandatory to get those kids those advocates," Caplan said. "It is inexcusable that they wouldn't have an advocate for each one of those children.
"When you have the most vulnerable subjects imaginable -- kids without parents -- you really do have to come in with someone independent, who doesn't have a dog in this fight," he said.
Those who made the decisions say the research gave foster kids access to drugs they otherwise couldn't get. And they say they protected the children's interest by carefully explaining risks and benefits to state guardians, foster parents and the children themselves.
"I understand the ethical dilemma surrounding the introduction of foster children into trials," said Dr. Mark Kline, a pediatric AIDS expert at Baylor College of Medicine. He enrolled some Texas foster kids in his studies, and doesn't recall appointing advocates for them.
"To say as a group that foster children should be excluded from clinical trials would have meant excluding these children from the best available therapies at the time," he said. "From an ethical perspective, I never thought that was a stand I could take."
Illinois officials directly credit the decision to enroll HIV-positive foster kids with bringing about a decline in deaths -- from 40 between 1989 and 1995 to only 19 since.
Some states declined to participate in medical experiments. Tennessee said its foster care rules generally prohibit enlisting children in such trials. California requires a judge's order. And Wisconsin "has absolutely never allowed, nor would we even consider, any clinical experiments with the children in our foster care system," spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said.
Officials estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of the 13,878 children enrolled in pediatric AIDS studies funded by NIH since the late 1980s were in foster care. More than two dozen Illinois foster children remain in studies today.
NIH, the government health research agency that funded the studies, did not track researchers to determine whether they appointed advocates. Instead, the decision was left to medical review boards made up of volunteers at each study site.
A recent Institute of Medicine study concluded those Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) were often overwhelmed, dominated by scientists and not focused enough on patient protections.
The U.S. Office for Human Research Protections, created to protect research participants after the notorious Tuskegee syphilis studies on black men in the 1930s, is investigating the use of foster children in AIDS research. The office declined to discuss the probe.
AP's review found that if children were old enough -- usually between 5 and 10 -- they also were educated about the risks and asked to consent. Sometimes, foster parents or biological parents were consulted; other times not.
Research and foster agencies declined to make foster parents or children in the drug trials available for interviews, or to provide information about individual drug dosages, side effects or deaths, citing medical privacy laws.
Other families who participated in the same drug trials told AP their children mostly benefited but parents needed to carefully monitor potential side effects. Foster children, they said, need the added protection of an independent advocate.
"If they did not fulfill that requirement, how can you be sure the community participant really got the benefit and the informed consent that is needed," said Michelle Lopez, a New Jersey woman whose daughter has participated in drug trials.
"I was very concerned about that because the argument we are getting is the kids are getting better and we are enhancing their lives, but none of these drugs save these kids lives," she said.
Many studies that enlisted foster children involved early Phase I and Phase II research -- the riskiest -- to determine side effects and safe dosages so children could begin taking adult "cocktails," the powerful drug combinations that suppress AIDS but can cause bad reactions like rashes and organ damage.
Some of those drugs were approved ultimately for children, such as stavudine and zidovudine. Other medicines were not.
Illinois officials confirmed two or three foster children were approved to participate in a mid-1990s study of dapsone. Researchers hoped the drug would prevent a pneumonia that afflicts AIDS patients.
Researchers reported some children had to be taken off the drug because of "serious toxicity," others developed rashes, and the rates of death and blood toxicity were significantly higher in children who took the medicine daily, rather than weekly.
At least 10 children died from a variety of causes, including four from blood poisoning, and researchers said they were unable to determine a safe, useful dosage. They said the deaths didn't appear to be "directly attributable" to dapsone but nonetheless were "disturbing."
"An unexpected finding in our study was that overall mortality while receiving the study drug was significantly higher in the daily dapsone group. This finding remains unexplained," the researchers concluded.
Another study involving foster children in the 1990s treated children with different combinations of adult antiretroviral drugs. Among 52 children, there were 26 moderate to severe reactions -- nearly all in infants. The side effects included rash, fever and a major drop in infection-fighting white blood cells.
New York City officials defend the decision to enlist foster children en masse, saying there was a crisis in the early 1990s and research provided the best treatment possibilities. Nonetheless, they are changing their policy so they no longer give blanket permission to enroll children in preapproved studies.
"We learned some things from our experience," said Elizabeth Roberts, assistant commissioner for child and family health at the Administration for Children's Services. "It is a more individualized review we will be conducting."
Factory orders post unexpected rise in March
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Commerce Department Tuesday said new orders at U.S. factories advanced a modest 0.1% in March versus Wall Street forecasts for a 1.2% drop and a revised 0.5% decline in February.
Orders were helped by a solid rebound in demand for nondurable goods and an upward revision in the durable goods orders for March. The data was slightly more optimistic than the recent spate of weaker indications on U.S. economic growth, which has slowed amid soaring oil prices.
The small gain pushed total factory orders to $378.2 billion in March / The Commerce Department said it was the biggest rise since December and compared with a revised 0.5% decline in factory orders in February. That had initially been reported as a 0.2% gain.
Economists had expected orders to fall 1.2% following weaker readouts from purchasing manager surveys amid soaring oil prices, which have dented household budgets and expectations for future income.
Analysts believe the current "soft patch," the term Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan used to describe a similar slowdown last year, will be only temporary. But they caution that something unexpected such as further sharp increases in energy prices could make that forecast too optimistic.
Factory orders post unexpected rise in March
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Commerce Department Tuesday said new orders at U.S. factories advanced a modest 0.1% in March versus Wall Street forecasts for a 1.2% drop and a revised 0.5% decline in February.
Orders were helped by a solid rebound in demand for nondurable goods and an upward revision in the durable goods orders for March. The data was slightly more optimistic than the recent spate of weaker indications on U.S. economic growth, which has slowed amid soaring oil prices.
The small gain pushed total factory orders to $378.2 billion in March / The Commerce Department said it was the biggest rise since December and compared with a revised 0.5% decline in factory orders in February. That had initially been reported as a 0.2% gain.
Economists had expected orders to fall 1.2% following weaker readouts from purchasing manager surveys amid soaring oil prices, which have dented household budgets and expectations for future income.
Analysts believe the current "soft patch," the term Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan used to describe a similar slowdown last year, will be only temporary. But they caution that something unexpected such as further sharp increases in energy prices could make that forecast too optimistic.
Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases
By STEPHEN LABATON, LORNE MANLY
and ELIZABETH JENSEN
Published: May 2, 2005
ASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence.
Without the knowledge of his board, the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers."
In late March, on the recommendation of administration officials, Mr. Tomlinson hired the director of the White House Office of Global Communications as a senior staff member, corporation officials said. While she was still on the White House staff, she helped draft guidelines governing the work of two ombudsmen whom the corporation recently appointed to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts.
Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. And while a search firm has been retained to find a successor for Kathleen A. Cox, the corporation's president and chief executive, whose contract was not renewed last month, Mr. Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.
Mr. Tomlinson said that he was striving for balance and had no desire to impose a political point of view on programming, explaining that his efforts are intended to help public broadcasting distinguish itself in a 500-channel universe and gain financial and political support.
"My goal here is to see programming that satisfies a broad constituency," he said, adding, "I'm not after removing shows or tampering internally with shows."
But he has repeatedly criticized public television programs as too liberal overall, and said in the interview, "I frankly feel at PBS headquarters there is a tone deafness to issues of tone and balance."
Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases
By STEPHEN LABATON, LORNE MANLY
and ELIZABETH JENSEN
Published: May 2, 2005
ASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence.
Without the knowledge of his board, the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers."
In late March, on the recommendation of administration officials, Mr. Tomlinson hired the director of the White House Office of Global Communications as a senior staff member, corporation officials said. While she was still on the White House staff, she helped draft guidelines governing the work of two ombudsmen whom the corporation recently appointed to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts.
Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. And while a search firm has been retained to find a successor for Kathleen A. Cox, the corporation's president and chief executive, whose contract was not renewed last month, Mr. Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.
Mr. Tomlinson said that he was striving for balance and had no desire to impose a political point of view on programming, explaining that his efforts are intended to help public broadcasting distinguish itself in a 500-channel universe and gain financial and political support.
"My goal here is to see programming that satisfies a broad constituency," he said, adding, "I'm not after removing shows or tampering internally with shows."
But he has repeatedly criticized public television programs as too liberal overall, and said in the interview, "I frankly feel at PBS headquarters there is a tone deafness to issues of tone and balance."
DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.
"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.
Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."
DeLay's staff said he will turn over records -- including letters showing how his travel was arranged -- to the ethics committee, which is not currently functioning because of a dispute between the parties. The committee admonished DeLay three times last year for what it concluded was inappropriate official conduct.
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.
As reports about DeLay's travel with lobbyists mount, Republican leaders are attempting to shift attention to questionable activities of Democrats.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned on Sean Hannity's radio show last week that there are "four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats," whom he did not name.
DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.
"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.
Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."
DeLay's staff said he will turn over records -- including letters showing how his travel was arranged -- to the ethics committee, which is not currently functioning because of a dispute between the parties. The committee admonished DeLay three times last year for what it concluded was inappropriate official conduct.
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.
As reports about DeLay's travel with lobbyists mount, Republican leaders are attempting to shift attention to questionable activities of Democrats.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned on Sean Hannity's radio show last week that there are "four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats," whom he did not name.
DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.
"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.
Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."
DeLay's staff said he will turn over records -- including letters showing how his travel was arranged -- to the ethics committee, which is not currently functioning because of a dispute between the parties. The committee admonished DeLay three times last year for what it concluded was inappropriate official conduct.
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.
As reports about DeLay's travel with lobbyists mount, Republican leaders are attempting to shift attention to questionable activities of Democrats.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned on Sean Hannity's radio show last week that there are "four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats," whom he did not name.
Bush, Saudi Fail to Reach Deal to Lower Gas Prices
Abdullah Relays Country's Plan to Boost Capacity
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 -- President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand.
Bush has pressed the Saudis in recent weeks to help lower gasoline prices soon by increasing crude oil production, but Abdullah and his delegation responded here by explaining their long-term strategy to invest $50 billion over five years in a plan that would eventually increase the kingdom's oil production capacity by close to 50 percent.
President Bush, left, talks and greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, right, during his arrival at Bush's ranch in a Thursday, April 25, 2002 photo in Crawford, Texas. Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
"Clearly, the news that came out of the meeting today ought to be good news for the markets, and we would hope that and other factors would result in some positive news in terms of the price fronts," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said. "But as you know, these markets are complicated business."
The meeting at Bush's ranch came amid increasing concern about spiraling gasoline prices, which are helping to push the president's approval ratings to new lows. It also came as Saudi officials are seeking to further repair their relationship with the United States, which was badly damaged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 suspected terrorists were Saudi citizens.
Crude prices have been rising because increasing demand, particularly in the exploding economies of China and India, has pushed the world's ability to produce oil to its limits.
In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world's oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.
The price of crude oil has hovered around $55 a barrel in recent weeks, more than double the price two years ago. Gasoline in the United States averages $2.22 a gallon, and some analysts predict that it will go higher in the summer.
The price hikes, said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Abdullah, are a result of a confluence of factors, including increased demand, limited refinery capacity, a lack of spare production capacity and the fear permeating the market because of the ongoing violence in Iraq.
"There is no shortage of crude oil," he said. "It would not make a difference if we put an extra 1.5 [million] to 2 million barrels of oil on the market."
Some oil policy experts agreed there is relatively little Saudi Arabia can do in the short run to lower oil prices. The country is producing about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day -- close to its nearly 11 million-barrel capacity.
"They are scared to death about the effect of long-term high prices," said David E. Long, a specialist on the Saudis and a former diplomat, explaining that such prices increase incentives for investment in alternative forms of energy, ultimately curbing demand for crude oil.
"The crown prince understands that it's very important to make sure the price is reasonable," Bush told reporters before the meeting. "A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows that."
Bush also made another plea for passage of his energy bill, which was first proposed in 2001 and won House approval last week. Some supporters of the measure said that if it had been enacted several years ago, oil prices would not be at their current level. Opponents dispute that, saying the legislation will do nothing to bring down prices. Bush acknowledged last week that his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon.
The atmosphere surrounding the meeting between Bush and Abdullah was free of much of the tension that surrounded their last session here, which took place just seven months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush greeted Abdullah with a warm handshake and traditional kisses on both cheeks, before slowly leading the 81-year-old Saudi leader up a walkway lined with Texas bluebonnets and into the meeting in an office at his ranch.
After the session, which included lunch, the two nations issued a joint statement in which they pledged continued cooperation in the war on terrorism, promised to work together toward a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel and expressed support for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The statement also praised the steps being taken toward democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia and announced the formation of a joint committee, to be headed by the U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister, aimed at increasing educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two nations. The agreement also cited U.S. appreciation for the Saudi pledge to increase oil production.
"The fact is that we have in the international economy growth, we have new consumers -- large-scale consumers coming on," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters. "What the president is trying to do is make sure we have a long-term sustainable answer to this."
Bush, Saudi Fail to Reach Deal to Lower Gas Prices
Abdullah Relays Country's Plan to Boost Capacity
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 -- President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand.
Bush has pressed the Saudis in recent weeks to help lower gasoline prices soon by increasing crude oil production, but Abdullah and his delegation responded here by explaining their long-term strategy to invest $50 billion over five years in a plan that would eventually increase the kingdom's oil production capacity by close to 50 percent.
President Bush, left, talks and greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, right, during his arrival at Bush's ranch in a Thursday, April 25, 2002 photo in Crawford, Texas. Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
"Clearly, the news that came out of the meeting today ought to be good news for the markets, and we would hope that and other factors would result in some positive news in terms of the price fronts," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said. "But as you know, these markets are complicated business."
The meeting at Bush's ranch came amid increasing concern about spiraling gasoline prices, which are helping to push the president's approval ratings to new lows. It also came as Saudi officials are seeking to further repair their relationship with the United States, which was badly damaged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 suspected terrorists were Saudi citizens.
Crude prices have been rising because increasing demand, particularly in the exploding economies of China and India, has pushed the world's ability to produce oil to its limits.
In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world's oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.
The price of crude oil has hovered around $55 a barrel in recent weeks, more than double the price two years ago. Gasoline in the United States averages $2.22 a gallon, and some analysts predict that it will go higher in the summer.
The price hikes, said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Abdullah, are a result of a confluence of factors, including increased demand, limited refinery capacity, a lack of spare production capacity and the fear permeating the market because of the ongoing violence in Iraq.
"There is no shortage of crude oil," he said. "It would not make a difference if we put an extra 1.5 [million] to 2 million barrels of oil on the market."
Some oil policy experts agreed there is relatively little Saudi Arabia can do in the short run to lower oil prices. The country is producing about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day -- close to its nearly 11 million-barrel capacity.
"They are scared to death about the effect of long-term high prices," said David E. Long, a specialist on the Saudis and a former diplomat, explaining that such prices increase incentives for investment in alternative forms of energy, ultimately curbing demand for crude oil.
"The crown prince understands that it's very important to make sure the price is reasonable," Bush told reporters before the meeting. "A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows that."
Bush also made another plea for passage of his energy bill, which was first proposed in 2001 and won House approval last week. Some supporters of the measure said that if it had been enacted several years ago, oil prices would not be at their current level. Opponents dispute that, saying the legislation will do nothing to bring down prices. Bush acknowledged last week that his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon.
The atmosphere surrounding the meeting between Bush and Abdullah was free of much of the tension that surrounded their last session here, which took place just seven months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush greeted Abdullah with a warm handshake and traditional kisses on both cheeks, before slowly leading the 81-year-old Saudi leader up a walkway lined with Texas bluebonnets and into the meeting in an office at his ranch.
After the session, which included lunch, the two nations issued a joint statement in which they pledged continued cooperation in the war on terrorism, promised to work together toward a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel and expressed support for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The statement also praised the steps being taken toward democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia and announced the formation of a joint committee, to be headed by the U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister, aimed at increasing educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two nations. The agreement also cited U.S. appreciation for the Saudi pledge to increase oil production.
"The fact is that we have in the international economy growth, we have new consumers -- large-scale consumers coming on," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters. "What the president is trying to do is make sure we have a long-term sustainable answer to this."
Bush, Saudi Fail to Reach Deal to Lower Gas Prices
Abdullah Relays Country's Plan to Boost Capacity
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 -- President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand.
Bush has pressed the Saudis in recent weeks to help lower gasoline prices soon by increasing crude oil production, but Abdullah and his delegation responded here by explaining their long-term strategy to invest $50 billion over five years in a plan that would eventually increase the kingdom's oil production capacity by close to 50 percent.
President Bush, left, talks and greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, right, during his arrival at Bush's ranch in a Thursday, April 25, 2002 photo in Crawford, Texas. Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
"Clearly, the news that came out of the meeting today ought to be good news for the markets, and we would hope that and other factors would result in some positive news in terms of the price fronts," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said. "But as you know, these markets are complicated business."
The meeting at Bush's ranch came amid increasing concern about spiraling gasoline prices, which are helping to push the president's approval ratings to new lows. It also came as Saudi officials are seeking to further repair their relationship with the United States, which was badly damaged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 suspected terrorists were Saudi citizens.
Crude prices have been rising because increasing demand, particularly in the exploding economies of China and India, has pushed the world's ability to produce oil to its limits.
In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world's oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.
The price of crude oil has hovered around $55 a barrel in recent weeks, more than double the price two years ago. Gasoline in the United States averages $2.22 a gallon, and some analysts predict that it will go higher in the summer.
The price hikes, said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Abdullah, are a result of a confluence of factors, including increased demand, limited refinery capacity, a lack of spare production capacity and the fear permeating the market because of the ongoing violence in Iraq.
"There is no shortage of crude oil," he said. "It would not make a difference if we put an extra 1.5 [million] to 2 million barrels of oil on the market."
Some oil policy experts agreed there is relatively little Saudi Arabia can do in the short run to lower oil prices. The country is producing about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day -- close to its nearly 11 million-barrel capacity.
"They are scared to death about the effect of long-term high prices," said David E. Long, a specialist on the Saudis and a former diplomat, explaining that such prices increase incentives for investment in alternative forms of energy, ultimately curbing demand for crude oil.
"The crown prince understands that it's very important to make sure the price is reasonable," Bush told reporters before the meeting. "A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows that."
Bush also made another plea for passage of his energy bill, which was first proposed in 2001 and won House approval last week. Some supporters of the measure said that if it had been enacted several years ago, oil prices would not be at their current level. Opponents dispute that, saying the legislation will do nothing to bring down prices. Bush acknowledged last week that his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon.
The atmosphere surrounding the meeting between Bush and Abdullah was free of much of the tension that surrounded their last session here, which took place just seven months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush greeted Abdullah with a warm handshake and traditional kisses on both cheeks, before slowly leading the 81-year-old Saudi leader up a walkway lined with Texas bluebonnets and into the meeting in an office at his ranch.
After the session, which included lunch, the two nations issued a joint statement in which they pledged continued cooperation in the war on terrorism, promised to work together toward a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel and expressed support for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The statement also praised the steps being taken toward democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia and announced the formation of a joint committee, to be headed by the U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister, aimed at increasing educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two nations. The agreement also cited U.S. appreciation for the Saudi pledge to increase oil production.
"The fact is that we have in the international economy growth, we have new consumers -- large-scale consumers coming on," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters. "What the president is trying to do is make sure we have a long-term sustainable answer to this."
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site ( http://www.gpo.gov ), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics.
U.S. officials have held out the possibility that Syria worked in tandem with Hussein's government to hide weapons before the U.S.-led invasion. The survey group said it followed up on reports that a Syrian security officer had discussed collaboration with Iraq on weapons, but it was unable to complete that investigation. But Iraqi officials whom the group was able to interview "uniformly denied any knowledge of residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria," the report said.
The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.
Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."
In one of the addenda released yesterday, investigators addressed the risk that Iraqi scientists will share their knowledge or material with other countries, particularly Syria and Iran, given previous contacts, financial inducements and professional opportunities. The report concluded that the risk exists but said "there is only very limited reporting suggesting that this is actually taking place and no reports that indicate scientists were recruited to work in a WMD program."
As for the possibility that insurgents in Iraq will draw on the expertise of Iraqi scientists to develop unconventional weapons for use against the United States and its coalition forces, the report describes these efforts so far as being "limited and contained by coalition action." The survey group was aware of only one scientist assisting terrorists or insurgents. He helped them fashion chemical mortar munitions.
The report found that missing equipment, however, "could contribute to insurgent or terrorist production of chemical or biological agents."
In most cases the equipment appeared to have been randomly looted, but in selected cases it appeared "to be taken away carefully," Duelfer said in an interview yesterday. Overall, though, "it's like going to a demolition derby for car parts," said Duelfer. The right equipment "is hard to get."
Four military personnel assigned to the survey group's mission perished in the violence that engulfed Iraq, and five others were seriously wounded, in a mission that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No further work is planned, although teams are on hand to be dispatched when credible reports of weapons material are received in Iraq. The report says, however, that continued reports of banned arms in Iraq "are usually scams or misidentification of materials or activities." It predicts that such reports will continue.
Although new information may be forthcoming, Duelfer said in an accompanying letter that he has "confidence in the picture of events and programs covered by this report."
"If there were to be a surprise in the future," he added, "it most likely would be in the biological weapons area" because the size of those facilities can be so small.
Duelfer also recommended that the United States release some of the scientists and technocrats who are still being held captive in Iraq strictly because of their work on Iraq's weapons programs dating back to the Gulf War. "Many have been very cooperative and provided great assistance in understanding the WMD programs" and Iraq's intentions, and have exhausted their knowledge of these subjects, he wrote. "In my view, certain detainees are overdue for release."
Of 300 individuals on a "blacklist" developed by U.S. military and intelligence officials before the war, 105 have been detained. But the list, said the report, was flawed. "Some very despicable individuals who should have been listed were not, while many technocrats and even opponents of the Saddam regime made the list and hence found themselves either in jail or on the run."
The Pentagon's Whitman said that he was unaware of any scientists who had been released recently because of Duelfer's appeal and that the Defense Department routinely reviews detainees' status to see "whether or not they are a threat to the coalition and Iraqi security forces and whether or not they continue to have intelligence value."
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site ( http://www.gpo.gov ), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics.
U.S. officials have held out the possibility that Syria worked in tandem with Hussein's government to hide weapons before the U.S.-led invasion. The survey group said it followed up on reports that a Syrian security officer had discussed collaboration with Iraq on weapons, but it was unable to complete that investigation. But Iraqi officials whom the group was able to interview "uniformly denied any knowledge of residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria," the report said.
The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.
Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."
In one of the addenda released yesterday, investigators addressed the risk that Iraqi scientists will share their knowledge or material with other countries, particularly Syria and Iran, given previous contacts, financial inducements and professional opportunities. The report concluded that the risk exists but said "there is only very limited reporting suggesting that this is actually taking place and no reports that indicate scientists were recruited to work in a WMD program."
As for the possibility that insurgents in Iraq will draw on the expertise of Iraqi scientists to develop unconventional weapons for use against the United States and its coalition forces, the report describes these efforts so far as being "limited and contained by coalition action." The survey group was aware of only one scientist assisting terrorists or insurgents. He helped them fashion chemical mortar munitions.
The report found that missing equipment, however, "could contribute to insurgent or terrorist production of chemical or biological agents."
In most cases the equipment appeared to have been randomly looted, but in selected cases it appeared "to be taken away carefully," Duelfer said in an interview yesterday. Overall, though, "it's like going to a demolition derby for car parts," said Duelfer. The right equipment "is hard to get."
Four military personnel assigned to the survey group's mission perished in the violence that engulfed Iraq, and five others were seriously wounded, in a mission that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No further work is planned, although teams are on hand to be dispatched when credible reports of weapons material are received in Iraq. The report says, however, that continued reports of banned arms in Iraq "are usually scams or misidentification of materials or activities." It predicts that such reports will continue.
Although new information may be forthcoming, Duelfer said in an accompanying letter that he has "confidence in the picture of events and programs covered by this report."
"If there were to be a surprise in the future," he added, "it most likely would be in the biological weapons area" because the size of those facilities can be so small.
Duelfer also recommended that the United States release some of the scientists and technocrats who are still being held captive in Iraq strictly because of their work on Iraq's weapons programs dating back to the Gulf War. "Many have been very cooperative and provided great assistance in understanding the WMD programs" and Iraq's intentions, and have exhausted their knowledge of these subjects, he wrote. "In my view, certain detainees are overdue for release."
Of 300 individuals on a "blacklist" developed by U.S. military and intelligence officials before the war, 105 have been detained. But the list, said the report, was flawed. "Some very despicable individuals who should have been listed were not, while many technocrats and even opponents of the Saddam regime made the list and hence found themselves either in jail or on the run."
The Pentagon's Whitman said that he was unaware of any scientists who had been released recently because of Duelfer's appeal and that the Defense Department routinely reviews detainees' status to see "whether or not they are a threat to the coalition and Iraqi security forces and whether or not they continue to have intelligence value."
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site ( http://www.gpo.gov ), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics.
U.S. officials have held out the possibility that Syria worked in tandem with Hussein's government to hide weapons before the U.S.-led invasion. The survey group said it followed up on reports that a Syrian security officer had discussed collaboration with Iraq on weapons, but it was unable to complete that investigation. But Iraqi officials whom the group was able to interview "uniformly denied any knowledge of residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria," the report said.
The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.
Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."
In one of the addenda released yesterday, investigators addressed the risk that Iraqi scientists will share their knowledge or material with other countries, particularly Syria and Iran, given previous contacts, financial inducements and professional opportunities. The report concluded that the risk exists but said "there is only very limited reporting suggesting that this is actually taking place and no reports that indicate scientists were recruited to work in a WMD program."
As for the possibility that insurgents in Iraq will draw on the expertise of Iraqi scientists to develop unconventional weapons for use against the United States and its coalition forces, the report describes these efforts so far as being "limited and contained by coalition action." The survey group was aware of only one scientist assisting terrorists or insurgents. He helped them fashion chemical mortar munitions.
The report found that missing equipment, however, "could contribute to insurgent or terrorist production of chemical or biological agents."
In most cases the equipment appeared to have been randomly looted, but in selected cases it appeared "to be taken away carefully," Duelfer said in an interview yesterday. Overall, though, "it's like going to a demolition derby for car parts," said Duelfer. The right equipment "is hard to get."
Four military personnel assigned to the survey group's mission perished in the violence that engulfed Iraq, and five others were seriously wounded, in a mission that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No further work is planned, although teams are on hand to be dispatched when credible reports of weapons material are received in Iraq. The report says, however, that continued reports of banned arms in Iraq "are usually scams or misidentification of materials or activities." It predicts that such reports will continue.
Although new information may be forthcoming, Duelfer said in an accompanying letter that he has "confidence in the picture of events and programs covered by this report."
"If there were to be a surprise in the future," he added, "it most likely would be in the biological weapons area" because the size of those facilities can be so small.
Duelfer also recommended that the United States release some of the scientists and technocrats who are still being held captive in Iraq strictly because of their work on Iraq's weapons programs dating back to the Gulf War. "Many have been very cooperative and provided great assistance in understanding the WMD programs" and Iraq's intentions, and have exhausted their knowledge of these subjects, he wrote. "In my view, certain detainees are overdue for release."
Of 300 individuals on a "blacklist" developed by U.S. military and intelligence officials before the war, 105 have been detained. But the list, said the report, was flawed. "Some very despicable individuals who should have been listed were not, while many technocrats and even opponents of the Saddam regime made the list and hence found themselves either in jail or on the run."
The Pentagon's Whitman said that he was unaware of any scientists who had been released recently because of Duelfer's appeal and that the Defense Department routinely reviews detainees' status to see "whether or not they are a threat to the coalition and Iraqi security forces and whether or not they continue to have intelligence value."
Filibuster Rule Change Opposed
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.
The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them.
The poll also registered drops in key Bush performance ratings, growing pessimism about the economy and continuing concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
On the issue that has consumed the capital's political community this spring, four in 10 said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, under fire for alleged ethics violations, should resign his leadership post, while a third of the public said he should remain in his job. Among the 36 percent who said they have been following the allegations against DeLay, nearly two in three said DeLay should step down.
Taken together, the findings suggest that Bush is off to a difficult start in his second term, with Democrats far less willing to accommodate him and his agenda than his reelection victory last November may have foreshadowed. Beyond that, the survey highlights the divisions within the Republican Party, whether that involves Bush's signature Social Security proposal or the intersection of religion and politics that has become a defining characteristic of today's GOP.
A total of 1,007 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone April 21-24 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
The survey found that Bush's overall job approval rating stood at 47 percent, matching his all-time low in Post-ABC News polls. Half disapproved of the job he is doing as president.
On several other key measures of performance, Bush's standing with the public was at or near new lows, with less than half the public supporting the way the president is handling the economy, energy policy and Iraq. Four in 10 approved of Bush's handling of the economy, down six points since the start of the year. Slightly more than a third of the public approved of Bush's energy policies, and Americans were more inclined to blame the president rather than oil companies or other countries for soaring gasoline prices.
Just over four in 10 -- 42 percent -- endorsed the way the president is dealing with the situation in Iraq, a slight increase from the all-time low in March of 39 percent. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) said the United States has gotten bogged down there, and 39 percent said they are confident Iraq will have a stable, democratic government in a year.
Bush continues to get strong marks on his handling of the campaign against terrorism, with 56 percent supporting his actions, down five points since January. But the survey also found that the sluggish economy has eclipsed terrorism on the public's list of top priorities, fueling Bush's drop in the polls.
Filibuster Rule Change Opposed
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.
The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them.
The poll also registered drops in key Bush performance ratings, growing pessimism about the economy and continuing concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
On the issue that has consumed the capital's political community this spring, four in 10 said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, under fire for alleged ethics violations, should resign his leadership post, while a third of the public said he should remain in his job. Among the 36 percent who said they have been following the allegations against DeLay, nearly two in three said DeLay should step down.
Taken together, the findings suggest that Bush is off to a difficult start in his second term, with Democrats far less willing to accommodate him and his agenda than his reelection victory last November may have foreshadowed. Beyond that, the survey highlights the divisions within the Republican Party, whether that involves Bush's signature Social Security proposal or the intersection of religion and politics that has become a defining characteristic of today's GOP.
A total of 1,007 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone April 21-24 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
The survey found that Bush's overall job approval rating stood at 47 percent, matching his all-time low in Post-ABC News polls. Half disapproved of the job he is doing as president.
On several other key measures of performance, Bush's standing with the public was at or near new lows, with less than half the public supporting the way the president is handling the economy, energy policy and Iraq. Four in 10 approved of Bush's handling of the economy, down six points since the start of the year. Slightly more than a third of the public approved of Bush's energy policies, and Americans were more inclined to blame the president rather than oil companies or other countries for soaring gasoline prices.
Just over four in 10 -- 42 percent -- endorsed the way the president is dealing with the situation in Iraq, a slight increase from the all-time low in March of 39 percent. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) said the United States has gotten bogged down there, and 39 percent said they are confident Iraq will have a stable, democratic government in a year.
Bush continues to get strong marks on his handling of the campaign against terrorism, with 56 percent supporting his actions, down five points since January. But the survey also found that the sluggish economy has eclipsed terrorism on the public's list of top priorities, fueling Bush's drop in the polls.
Filibuster Rule Change Opposed
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.
The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them.
The poll also registered drops in key Bush performance ratings, growing pessimism about the economy and continuing concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
On the issue that has consumed the capital's political community this spring, four in 10 said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, under fire for alleged ethics violations, should resign his leadership post, while a third of the public said he should remain in his job. Among the 36 percent who said they have been following the allegations against DeLay, nearly two in three said DeLay should step down.
Taken together, the findings suggest that Bush is off to a difficult start in his second term, with Democrats far less willing to accommodate him and his agenda than his reelection victory last November may have foreshadowed. Beyond that, the survey highlights the divisions within the Republican Party, whether that involves Bush's signature Social Security proposal or the intersection of religion and politics that has become a defining characteristic of today's GOP.
A total of 1,007 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone April 21-24 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
The survey found that Bush's overall job approval rating stood at 47 percent, matching his all-time low in Post-ABC News polls. Half disapproved of the job he is doing as president.
On several other key measures of performance, Bush's standing with the public was at or near new lows, with less than half the public supporting the way the president is handling the economy, energy policy and Iraq. Four in 10 approved of Bush's handling of the economy, down six points since the start of the year. Slightly more than a third of the public approved of Bush's energy policies, and Americans were more inclined to blame the president rather than oil companies or other countries for soaring gasoline prices.
Just over four in 10 -- 42 percent -- endorsed the way the president is dealing with the situation in Iraq, a slight increase from the all-time low in March of 39 percent. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) said the United States has gotten bogged down there, and 39 percent said they are confident Iraq will have a stable, democratic government in a year.
Bush continues to get strong marks on his handling of the campaign against terrorism, with 56 percent supporting his actions, down five points since January. But the survey also found that the sluggish economy has eclipsed terrorism on the public's list of top priorities, fueling Bush's drop in the polls.
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.
Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world.
In other words, if BushCo doesn't like what comes out of their own hobbled agencies and their own funded studies, they do what any good dictatorship does: They annihilate it. Now that's good gummint!
Let's be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know -- that BushCo's brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism -- and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?
Let's put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don't hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They don't hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.
They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged "town hall" meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.
But here's the truly sad part, the hideous and depressing and soul-shredding part about all those young kids in the U.S. military right now, all those mostly undereducated, lower-middle-class kids, most of whom aren't even old enough to buy beer and many of whom have barely had sex and many who got sucked into the military vortex in an honest attempt to help pay for a college education so they could go out and not find a decent job in this miserable economy. The sad part is all those kids in the military who've been trained/brainwashed to believe they are serving in Iraq to protect America's freedom, to protect us from, well, something dark, and sinister, and deadly. When in fact, they're not. Not even close.
The truth is, we were never under threat from Iraq. There were never any WMDs, and Bush knew it. Our military is protecting nothing so much as our access to future stores of petroleum, nothing so much as helping set up a giant police station in Iraq to ensure surrounding nations don't get all uppity about just who controls the rights to those oil fields.
So let's get honest and just ask it outright: Is this a worthy use of the massive bloated machine that is the U.S. military? Of the largest and most advanced fighting force in the world? To protect the flow of oil to the most gluttonous and wasteful and least accountable developed nation on the planet? Is this worth so many young American lives?
You already know the answer. Ask any oil exec. Any government economist. Any BushCo war hawk or auto manufacturer or the leaders of any major manufacturing industry. Ask the president himself. They all say the same thing: You're goddamn right it is.
Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.
Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world.
In other words, if BushCo doesn't like what comes out of their own hobbled agencies and their own funded studies, they do what any good dictatorship does: They annihilate it. Now that's good gummint!
Let's be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know -- that BushCo's brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism -- and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?
Let's put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don't hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They don't hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.
They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged "town hall" meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.
But here's the truly sad part, the hideous and depressing and soul-shredding part about all those young kids in the U.S. military right now, all those mostly undereducated, lower-middle-class kids, most of whom aren't even old enough to buy beer and many of whom have barely had sex and many who got sucked into the military vortex in an honest attempt to help pay for a college education so they could go out and not find a decent job in this miserable economy. The sad part is all those kids in the military who've been trained/brainwashed to believe they are serving in Iraq to protect America's freedom, to protect us from, well, something dark, and sinister, and deadly. When in fact, they're not. Not even close.
The truth is, we were never under threat from Iraq. There were never any WMDs, and Bush knew it. Our military is protecting nothing so much as our access to future stores of petroleum, nothing so much as helping set up a giant police station in Iraq to ensure surrounding nations don't get all uppity about just who controls the rights to those oil fields.
So let's get honest and just ask it outright: Is this a worthy use of the massive bloated machine that is the U.S. military? Of the largest and most advanced fighting force in the world? To protect the flow of oil to the most gluttonous and wasteful and least accountable developed nation on the planet? Is this worth so many young American lives?
You already know the answer. Ask any oil exec. Any government economist. Any BushCo war hawk or auto manufacturer or the leaders of any major manufacturing industry. Ask the president himself. They all say the same thing: You're goddamn right it is.
Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.
Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world.
In other words, if BushCo doesn't like what comes out of their own hobbled agencies and their own funded studies, they do what any good dictatorship does: They annihilate it. Now that's good gummint!
Let's be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know -- that BushCo's brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism -- and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?
Let's put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don't hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They don't hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.
They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged "town hall" meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.
But here's the truly sad part, the hideous and depressing and soul-shredding part about all those young kids in the U.S. military right now, all those mostly undereducated, lower-middle-class kids, most of whom aren't even old enough to buy beer and many of whom have barely had sex and many who got sucked into the military vortex in an honest attempt to help pay for a college education so they could go out and not find a decent job in this miserable economy. The sad part is all those kids in the military who've been trained/brainwashed to believe they are serving in Iraq to protect America's freedom, to protect us from, well, something dark, and sinister, and deadly. When in fact, they're not. Not even close.
The truth is, we were never under threat from Iraq. There were never any WMDs, and Bush knew it. Our military is protecting nothing so much as our access to future stores of petroleum, nothing so much as helping set up a giant police station in Iraq to ensure surrounding nations don't get all uppity about just who controls the rights to those oil fields.
So let's get honest and just ask it outright: Is this a worthy use of the massive bloated machine that is the U.S. military? Of the largest and most advanced fighting force in the world? To protect the flow of oil to the most gluttonous and wasteful and least accountable developed nation on the planet? Is this worth so many young American lives?
You already know the answer. Ask any oil exec. Any government economist. Any BushCo war hawk or auto manufacturer or the leaders of any major manufacturing industry. Ask the president himself. They all say the same thing: You're goddamn right it is.
Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Creeping Specter of World Economic Slowdown
DEBKAfile Special Financial Analyst
April 21, 2005, 8:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
Sharp falls in equity markets around the globe, the $10 oil price drop from an all time high and the falling-off of US bond yields from 4.60 to 4.25% – all add up to a tremor rippling across world markets that is generated by fear of a slowdown in the making..
This fear is succored by a dangerous combination of factors: an expanding trade deficit, rocketing oil and commodities prices, a weak American labor market and, most of all, looming stagflation (inflation plus recession).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) heads gathered last weekend in Washington voiced concerns about growth, especially in the United States, under the burden of expensive oil and the soaring US trade deficit, which surged in February to the new all-time record of $61 billion. Finance ministers and central bankers from Europe, America and Japan, are deeply disturbed by high oil prices. Although oil fell back this week from its record $60 a barrel to below $50, a barrel still costs 50% more than it did two years ago. This poses a real threat to economic growth rates in developed countries led by America, Europe and Japan.
What world economic experts find most disturbing is the hint of stagflation in the United States posed by rising inflation (caused by spiraling prices of commodities and oil), unemployment and a weak labor market. The most serious aspect of stagflation is that it has no surefire economic cure.
US Federal Reserve heads have been combating inflationary pressures by periodically raising short-term interest rates. At the same time, consumers’ confidence is weak, as shown by the March retail sales figures (which gained only by 0.3% – about half the consensus). American labor market figures likewise show only a modest monthly growth of above 100,000 new jobs. This produces the very conditions which are making the markets so unhappy: inflationary pressure coupled with economic slowdown. Pushing interest rates up any further could further depress growth
Financial markets’ fast reactions
Equity markets around the globe tumbled during last week hitting 5-month lows. The Japanese stock market, a long-time favorite of DEBKAfile’s financial market analyst, sold off Monday, April 18 by 4% against the background of three weeks of violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Any damage to dynamic Japanese-Chinese trade relations now standing at $168 billion could send the slowly-recovering Japanese economy into a slump.
American equity markets declined sharply four days in a row - then perked up slightly.
As the season of quarterly reports approaches, investors worry that companies’ profits may be disappointing and not justify current share prices.
The bond market has tip-tilted in the last two weeks. American 10-year bond yields plummeted from a high of 4.65% to 4.20% during Tuesday April 19 trading. This reflects the altered expectations of continuing aggressive rises in interest rates – some even estimating the next hike on May 3 to hit 0.5% instead of 0.25% as heretofore.
These expectations have taken a knock from fears of a world economic slowdown. Investors therefore went back to the cozy safety of long-term bonds. Long term interest rates dropped sharply in consequence.
Foreign exchange markets still in two minds .
The US dollar slid again last week after the strong support levels of $1.27-1.28 per euro held steady. The week began with the dollar decline reflected in weakness in stock markets and the fall in long-term American bonds yield. Monday, April 18, the euro went up by 1.25% from $1.2880 to 1.3040 per euro. In contrast, currencies associated with global economic growth like the Australian dollar slumped on symptoms of slowdown against the American dollar and other currencies. Investors were drawn by their concerns for the stability of financial markets into the traditional safe havens of the Swiss franc and gold.
All financial markets have become more volatile of late, chasing like stampeding cattle from one attraction to another. One senior investor describes the markets as being “engulfed by wave upon wave of tsunamis.” This manifestation is caused largely by the heavy involvement of hedge funds in financial markets. The hedge funds are excessively leveraged, which means they are financed by as much as ten times (!) their capital value and make frequent acute turns - even in intraday trading.
Summing up
The world’s finance ministers and central bankers are seriously troubled by the American economy’s structural problems, high oil prices and signs of global economic slowdown. But speeches aside, public iterations of concern have not translated so far into action to address urgent problems. Any further crises, like for instance a real estate recession, would make it even harder to take such action.
We therefore predict a hard time for equity markets, a consolidation period and possibly more declines in the future. Bond and foreign exchange markets may remain volatile:
10-year bond yield should move between 4.00-4.40%. The dollar is still groping for a support level between $1.27-$1.28 per euro and resistance levels of $1.31-1.32 per euro.
Israeli markets
Contrary to most world markets, Israel’s economic figures continue to be good with the state budget in surplus and low inflation (The March consumer price index, CPI, was 0.2%.) Local capital markets enjoy strong buy recommendations from major foreign investment houses, like Merrill Lynch and Deustche Bank, which recently advised holdings in Israeli markets to be increased to above their weight in the emerging market index. This is one reason why the Tel Aviv stock exchange has consolidated lately between 630-660 points (on the Tel Aviv 25 index), and has emerged almost unhurt by the last sell-off in world equity markets. The crucial resistance level stands at 664 points (an all-time high).
Until last week, the Israeli foreign exchange market benefited from dollar strength around the world, surging to 4.40 shekels. But in the last few days, the falling dollar has restored trade to the narrow range of 4.37-4.40 shekel per dollar. Shrinking rate differentials between the dollar and the shekel support some dollar strength in the long term.
But it must be emphasized that all trends depend heavily on the security situation. Any resurgence of Palestinian terrorist attacks or clashes with Israeli troops before or during pullbacks could turn Israeli capital markets right round and point them in a negative direction.
Creeping Specter of World Economic Slowdown
DEBKAfile Special Financial Analyst
April 21, 2005, 8:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
Sharp falls in equity markets around the globe, the $10 oil price drop from an all time high and the falling-off of US bond yields from 4.60 to 4.25% – all add up to a tremor rippling across world markets that is generated by fear of a slowdown in the making..
This fear is succored by a dangerous combination of factors: an expanding trade deficit, rocketing oil and commodities prices, a weak American labor market and, most of all, looming stagflation (inflation plus recession).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) heads gathered last weekend in Washington voiced concerns about growth, especially in the United States, under the burden of expensive oil and the soaring US trade deficit, which surged in February to the new all-time record of $61 billion. Finance ministers and central bankers from Europe, America and Japan, are deeply disturbed by high oil prices. Although oil fell back this week from its record $60 a barrel to below $50, a barrel still costs 50% more than it did two years ago. This poses a real threat to economic growth rates in developed countries led by America, Europe and Japan.
What world economic experts find most disturbing is the hint of stagflation in the United States posed by rising inflation (caused by spiraling prices of commodities and oil), unemployment and a weak labor market. The most serious aspect of stagflation is that it has no surefire economic cure.
US Federal Reserve heads have been combating inflationary pressures by periodically raising short-term interest rates. At the same time, consumers’ confidence is weak, as shown by the March retail sales figures (which gained only by 0.3% – about half the consensus). American labor market figures likewise show only a modest monthly growth of above 100,000 new jobs. This produces the very conditions which are making the markets so unhappy: inflationary pressure coupled with economic slowdown. Pushing interest rates up any further could further depress growth
Financial markets’ fast reactions
Equity markets around the globe tumbled during last week hitting 5-month lows. The Japanese stock market, a long-time favorite of DEBKAfile’s financial market analyst, sold off Monday, April 18 by 4% against the background of three weeks of violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Any damage to dynamic Japanese-Chinese trade relations now standing at $168 billion could send the slowly-recovering Japanese economy into a slump.
American equity markets declined sharply four days in a row - then perked up slightly.
As the season of quarterly reports approaches, investors worry that companies’ profits may be disappointing and not justify current share prices.
The bond market has tip-tilted in the last two weeks. American 10-year bond yields plummeted from a high of 4.65% to 4.20% during Tuesday April 19 trading. This reflects the altered expectations of continuing aggressive rises in interest rates – some even estimating the next hike on May 3 to hit 0.5% instead of 0.25% as heretofore.
These expectations have taken a knock from fears of a world economic slowdown. Investors therefore went back to the cozy safety of long-term bonds. Long term interest rates dropped sharply in consequence.
Foreign exchange markets still in two minds .
The US dollar slid again last week after the strong support levels of $1.27-1.28 per euro held steady. The week began with the dollar decline reflected in weakness in stock markets and the fall in long-term American bonds yield. Monday, April 18, the euro went up by 1.25% from $1.2880 to 1.3040 per euro. In contrast, currencies associated with global economic growth like the Australian dollar slumped on symptoms of slowdown against the American dollar and other currencies. Investors were drawn by their concerns for the stability of financial markets into the traditional safe havens of the Swiss franc and gold.
All financial markets have become more volatile of late, chasing like stampeding cattle from one attraction to another. One senior investor describes the markets as being “engulfed by wave upon wave of tsunamis.” This manifestation is caused largely by the heavy involvement of hedge funds in financial markets. The hedge funds are excessively leveraged, which means they are financed by as much as ten times (!) their capital value and make frequent acute turns - even in intraday trading.
Summing up
The world’s finance ministers and central bankers are seriously troubled by the American economy’s structural problems, high oil prices and signs of global economic slowdown. But speeches aside, public iterations of concern have not translated so far into action to address urgent problems. Any further crises, like for instance a real estate recession, would make it even harder to take such action.
We therefore predict a hard time for equity markets, a consolidation period and possibly more declines in the future. Bond and foreign exchange markets may remain volatile:
10-year bond yield should move between 4.00-4.40%. The dollar is still groping for a support level between $1.27-$1.28 per euro and resistance levels of $1.31-1.32 per euro.
Israeli markets
Contrary to most world markets, Israel’s economic figures continue to be good with the state budget in surplus and low inflation (The March consumer price index, CPI, was 0.2%.) Local capital markets enjoy strong buy recommendations from major foreign investment houses, like Merrill Lynch and Deustche Bank, which recently advised holdings in Israeli markets to be increased to above their weight in the emerging market index. This is one reason why the Tel Aviv stock exchange has consolidated lately between 630-660 points (on the Tel Aviv 25 index), and has emerged almost unhurt by the last sell-off in world equity markets. The crucial resistance level stands at 664 points (an all-time high).
Until last week, the Israeli foreign exchange market benefited from dollar strength around the world, surging to 4.40 shekels. But in the last few days, the falling dollar has restored trade to the narrow range of 4.37-4.40 shekel per dollar. Shrinking rate differentials between the dollar and the shekel support some dollar strength in the long term.
But it must be emphasized that all trends depend heavily on the security situation. Any resurgence of Palestinian terrorist attacks or clashes with Israeli troops before or during pullbacks could turn Israeli capital markets right round and point them in a negative direction.
Creeping Specter of World Economic Slowdown
DEBKAfile Special Financial Analyst
April 21, 2005, 8:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
Sharp falls in equity markets around the globe, the $10 oil price drop from an all time high and the falling-off of US bond yields from 4.60 to 4.25% – all add up to a tremor rippling across world markets that is generated by fear of a slowdown in the making..
This fear is succored by a dangerous combination of factors: an expanding trade deficit, rocketing oil and commodities prices, a weak American labor market and, most of all, looming stagflation (inflation plus recession).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) heads gathered last weekend in Washington voiced concerns about growth, especially in the United States, under the burden of expensive oil and the soaring US trade deficit, which surged in February to the new all-time record of $61 billion. Finance ministers and central bankers from Europe, America and Japan, are deeply disturbed by high oil prices. Although oil fell back this week from its record $60 a barrel to below $50, a barrel still costs 50% more than it did two years ago. This poses a real threat to economic growth rates in developed countries led by America, Europe and Japan.
What world economic experts find most disturbing is the hint of stagflation in the United States posed by rising inflation (caused by spiraling prices of commodities and oil), unemployment and a weak labor market. The most serious aspect of stagflation is that it has no surefire economic cure.
US Federal Reserve heads have been combating inflationary pressures by periodically raising short-term interest rates. At the same time, consumers’ confidence is weak, as shown by the March retail sales figures (which gained only by 0.3% – about half the consensus). American labor market figures likewise show only a modest monthly growth of above 100,000 new jobs. This produces the very conditions which are making the markets so unhappy: inflationary pressure coupled with economic slowdown. Pushing interest rates up any further could further depress growth
Financial markets’ fast reactions
Equity markets around the globe tumbled during last week hitting 5-month lows. The Japanese stock market, a long-time favorite of DEBKAfile’s financial market analyst, sold off Monday, April 18 by 4% against the background of three weeks of violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Any damage to dynamic Japanese-Chinese trade relations now standing at $168 billion could send the slowly-recovering Japanese economy into a slump.
American equity markets declined sharply four days in a row - then perked up slightly.
As the season of quarterly reports approaches, investors worry that companies’ profits may be disappointing and not justify current share prices.
The bond market has tip-tilted in the last two weeks. American 10-year bond yields plummeted from a high of 4.65% to 4.20% during Tuesday April 19 trading. This reflects the altered expectations of continuing aggressive rises in interest rates – some even estimating the next hike on May 3 to hit 0.5% instead of 0.25% as heretofore.
These expectations have taken a knock from fears of a world economic slowdown. Investors therefore went back to the cozy safety of long-term bonds. Long term interest rates dropped sharply in consequence.
Foreign exchange markets still in two minds .
The US dollar slid again last week after the strong support levels of $1.27-1.28 per euro held steady. The week began with the dollar decline reflected in weakness in stock markets and the fall in long-term American bonds yield. Monday, April 18, the euro went up by 1.25% from $1.2880 to 1.3040 per euro. In contrast, currencies associated with global economic growth like the Australian dollar slumped on symptoms of slowdown against the American dollar and other currencies. Investors were drawn by their concerns for the stability of financial markets into the traditional safe havens of the Swiss franc and gold.
All financial markets have become more volatile of late, chasing like stampeding cattle from one attraction to another. One senior investor describes the markets as being “engulfed by wave upon wave of tsunamis.” This manifestation is caused largely by the heavy involvement of hedge funds in financial markets. The hedge funds are excessively leveraged, which means they are financed by as much as ten times (!) their capital value and make frequent acute turns - even in intraday trading.
Summing up
The world’s finance ministers and central bankers are seriously troubled by the American economy’s structural problems, high oil prices and signs of global economic slowdown. But speeches aside, public iterations of concern have not translated so far into action to address urgent problems. Any further crises, like for instance a real estate recession, would make it even harder to take such action.
We therefore predict a hard time for equity markets, a consolidation period and possibly more declines in the future. Bond and foreign exchange markets may remain volatile:
10-year bond yield should move between 4.00-4.40%. The dollar is still groping for a support level between $1.27-$1.28 per euro and resistance levels of $1.31-1.32 per euro.
Israeli markets
Contrary to most world markets, Israel’s economic figures continue to be good with the state budget in surplus and low inflation (The March consumer price index, CPI, was 0.2%.) Local capital markets enjoy strong buy recommendations from major foreign investment houses, like Merrill Lynch and Deustche Bank, which recently advised holdings in Israeli markets to be increased to above their weight in the emerging market index. This is one reason why the Tel Aviv stock exchange has consolidated lately between 630-660 points (on the Tel Aviv 25 index), and has emerged almost unhurt by the last sell-off in world equity markets. The crucial resistance level stands at 664 points (an all-time high).
Until last week, the Israeli foreign exchange market benefited from dollar strength around the world, surging to 4.40 shekels. But in the last few days, the falling dollar has restored trade to the narrow range of 4.37-4.40 shekel per dollar. Shrinking rate differentials between the dollar and the shekel support some dollar strength in the long term.
But it must be emphasized that all trends depend heavily on the security situation. Any resurgence of Palestinian terrorist attacks or clashes with Israeli troops before or during pullbacks could turn Israeli capital markets right round and point them in a negative direction.
Bush seeks funding for Iraq, Afghanistan
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush is pushing Congress to provide more money for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan — funds the Pentagon says it needs by the first week of May.
"I applaud the House and Senate for their strong support of my supplemental funding request for our troops serving on the front lines," Bush said Saturday in his radio address.
"This funding will help provide the weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment that our troops need to do their job," he said. "I urge Congress to come together to resolve their remaining differences, and send me a bill quickly."
House and Senate negotiators are expected to act soon to sort out differences between their versions of the $81 billion spending bill. Both versions would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
They give the president much of the money he requested, but the bills differ slightly over what part would fund military operations and how much would go toward foreign aid. Other issues to be resolved include immigration laws, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier.
Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, also prodded Congress to support cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled that is run by federal and state governments.
In February, Bush proposed $8.5 billion in Medicaid cuts over five years. But the Republican-controlled Congress, leery of making politically unpopular cuts, has not been much help.
Bush seeks funding for Iraq, Afghanistan
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush is pushing Congress to provide more money for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan — funds the Pentagon says it needs by the first week of May.
"I applaud the House and Senate for their strong support of my supplemental funding request for our troops serving on the front lines," Bush said Saturday in his radio address.
"This funding will help provide the weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment that our troops need to do their job," he said. "I urge Congress to come together to resolve their remaining differences, and send me a bill quickly."
House and Senate negotiators are expected to act soon to sort out differences between their versions of the $81 billion spending bill. Both versions would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
They give the president much of the money he requested, but the bills differ slightly over what part would fund military operations and how much would go toward foreign aid. Other issues to be resolved include immigration laws, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier.
Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, also prodded Congress to support cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled that is run by federal and state governments.
In February, Bush proposed $8.5 billion in Medicaid cuts over five years. But the Republican-controlled Congress, leery of making politically unpopular cuts, has not been much help.
Bush seeks funding for Iraq, Afghanistan
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush is pushing Congress to provide more money for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan — funds the Pentagon says it needs by the first week of May.
"I applaud the House and Senate for their strong support of my supplemental funding request for our troops serving on the front lines," Bush said Saturday in his radio address.
"This funding will help provide the weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment that our troops need to do their job," he said. "I urge Congress to come together to resolve their remaining differences, and send me a bill quickly."
House and Senate negotiators are expected to act soon to sort out differences between their versions of the $81 billion spending bill. Both versions would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
They give the president much of the money he requested, but the bills differ slightly over what part would fund military operations and how much would go toward foreign aid. Other issues to be resolved include immigration laws, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier.
Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, also prodded Congress to support cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled that is run by federal and state governments.
In February, Bush proposed $8.5 billion in Medicaid cuts over five years. But the Republican-controlled Congress, leery of making politically unpopular cuts, has not been much help.
$280b tobacco penalty blocked
Appeals court rejects US request
By Hilary Roxe, Associated Press | April 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An appeals court won't reconsider its decision barring the Justice Department from seeking $280 billion in a lawsuit against cigarette companies.
In a vote yesterday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split, 3 to 3, on whether to reconsider the case, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
Officials said the government has not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
''In the wake of the tied vote . . . the United States will carefully review its options and make a determination in the near future as to what course of action it will pursue," Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. said.
In the case -- filed in 1999 under a federal racketeering statute, RICO -- the government is alleging that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. A trial began in US District Court in September.
The Justice Department last month asked the full court to reconsider a panel's 2-to-1 decision that the government could not seek the huge penalty. The panel decided that the government was limited to ''forward-looking" remedies, and that ''disgorgement" -- seeking money allegedly earned through fraudulent means -- was not such a remedy.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler still could impose restrictions on the tobacco companies, such as limiting marketing or requiring the industry to finance public health campaigns or smoking cessation programs.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the decision puts the government in a ''rather untenable position."
''It lost the majority of its expected damages out of this case," he said. ''On the other hand, it can't simply pick up its marbles and go home."
The Justice Department has spent more than $135 million on the case, filed under the Clinton administration.
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the government to appeal the disgorgement decision and said the ruling ''has a significant impact on the government's ability to use the RICO law against major corporate wrongdoing in all industries."
Failing to appeal could also leave ''major questions about the remedies that are available to Judge Kessler," Corr said.
Representatives of the cigarette companies did not return phone calls or had no immediate comment on the effect of the decision.
The appeals court decision also could weaken the government's hand in any settlement talks with cigarette makers, Turley said.
''Disgorgement was the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," he said. ''I think that 800-pound gorilla is now a midsize chimpanzee."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Council for Tobacco Research-USA; and the Tobacco Institute.
Altria shares fell 22 cents to $63.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Reynolds American Inc., which owns Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson, lost 5 cents to $77.90, and Lorillard owner Loews Corp. fell 46 cents to $70.25.
$280b tobacco penalty blocked
Appeals court rejects US request
By Hilary Roxe, Associated Press | April 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An appeals court won't reconsider its decision barring the Justice Department from seeking $280 billion in a lawsuit against cigarette companies.
In a vote yesterday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split, 3 to 3, on whether to reconsider the case, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
Officials said the government has not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
''In the wake of the tied vote . . . the United States will carefully review its options and make a determination in the near future as to what course of action it will pursue," Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. said.
In the case -- filed in 1999 under a federal racketeering statute, RICO -- the government is alleging that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. A trial began in US District Court in September.
The Justice Department last month asked the full court to reconsider a panel's 2-to-1 decision that the government could not seek the huge penalty. The panel decided that the government was limited to ''forward-looking" remedies, and that ''disgorgement" -- seeking money allegedly earned through fraudulent means -- was not such a remedy.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler still could impose restrictions on the tobacco companies, such as limiting marketing or requiring the industry to finance public health campaigns or smoking cessation programs.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the decision puts the government in a ''rather untenable position."
''It lost the majority of its expected damages out of this case," he said. ''On the other hand, it can't simply pick up its marbles and go home."
The Justice Department has spent more than $135 million on the case, filed under the Clinton administration.
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the government to appeal the disgorgement decision and said the ruling ''has a significant impact on the government's ability to use the RICO law against major corporate wrongdoing in all industries."
Failing to appeal could also leave ''major questions about the remedies that are available to Judge Kessler," Corr said.
Representatives of the cigarette companies did not return phone calls or had no immediate comment on the effect of the decision.
The appeals court decision also could weaken the government's hand in any settlement talks with cigarette makers, Turley said.
''Disgorgement was the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," he said. ''I think that 800-pound gorilla is now a midsize chimpanzee."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Council for Tobacco Research-USA; and the Tobacco Institute.
Altria shares fell 22 cents to $63.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Reynolds American Inc., which owns Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson, lost 5 cents to $77.90, and Lorillard owner Loews Corp. fell 46 cents to $70.25.
$280b tobacco penalty blocked
Appeals court rejects US request
By Hilary Roxe, Associated Press | April 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An appeals court won't reconsider its decision barring the Justice Department from seeking $280 billion in a lawsuit against cigarette companies.
In a vote yesterday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split, 3 to 3, on whether to reconsider the case, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
Officials said the government has not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
''In the wake of the tied vote . . . the United States will carefully review its options and make a determination in the near future as to what course of action it will pursue," Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. said.
In the case -- filed in 1999 under a federal racketeering statute, RICO -- the government is alleging that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. A trial began in US District Court in September.
The Justice Department last month asked the full court to reconsider a panel's 2-to-1 decision that the government could not seek the huge penalty. The panel decided that the government was limited to ''forward-looking" remedies, and that ''disgorgement" -- seeking money allegedly earned through fraudulent means -- was not such a remedy.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler still could impose restrictions on the tobacco companies, such as limiting marketing or requiring the industry to finance public health campaigns or smoking cessation programs.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the decision puts the government in a ''rather untenable position."
''It lost the majority of its expected damages out of this case," he said. ''On the other hand, it can't simply pick up its marbles and go home."
The Justice Department has spent more than $135 million on the case, filed under the Clinton administration.
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the government to appeal the disgorgement decision and said the ruling ''has a significant impact on the government's ability to use the RICO law against major corporate wrongdoing in all industries."
Failing to appeal could also leave ''major questions about the remedies that are available to Judge Kessler," Corr said.
Representatives of the cigarette companies did not return phone calls or had no immediate comment on the effect of the decision.
The appeals court decision also could weaken the government's hand in any settlement talks with cigarette makers, Turley said.
''Disgorgement was the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," he said. ''I think that 800-pound gorilla is now a midsize chimpanzee."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Council for Tobacco Research-USA; and the Tobacco Institute.
Altria shares fell 22 cents to $63.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Reynolds American Inc., which owns Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson, lost 5 cents to $77.90, and Lorillard owner Loews Corp. fell 46 cents to $70.25.
Greenspan warns again about budget deficits
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday.
He said the danger is that deficits will keep rising as a percentage of total national output, and "unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
He issued a fresh call to policymakers to move swiftly to get the government's fiscal house in order.
"Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years," Greenspan said in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, .
Greenspan reiterated his call for some type of automatic government spending controls.
"In my judgment, the necessary choices will be especially difficult to implement without the restoration of a set of procedural restraints on the budget-making process," he said.
President Bush has pledged to cut the budget gap in half by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2005 budget shortfall will be around $400 billion, including money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Fed chief has long urged renewing so-called pay-go provisions that compel lawmakers to show how they will pay for any spending initiatives or tax cuts.
Greenspan said the approaching surge of retirees adds urgency to the need to deal with budget constraints in light of uncertainty about the scale of looming medical and retirement costs.
"These uncertainties — especially our inability to identify the upper bound of future demands for medical care — counsel significant prudence in policy-making," Greenspan said, adding that policymakers "need to err on the side of prudence when considering new budget initiatives."
He repeated that the United States may already be in a position where it cannot meet commitments made to the baby boom generation and urged benefit cuts, if needed, be made as soon as possible.
"If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later," he said.
Much of Greenspan's testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers and he stressed that steps to fix the problem are essential.
"As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken," the Fed chief said.
He only briefly touched on the economy's current performance, saying "activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace," an assessment he has made repeatedly this year.
His comments come as some private economists are concerned about the extent to which high energy prices will crimp economic activity.
Greenspan warns again about budget deficits
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday.
He said the danger is that deficits will keep rising as a percentage of total national output, and "unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
He issued a fresh call to policymakers to move swiftly to get the government's fiscal house in order.
"Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years," Greenspan said in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, .
Greenspan reiterated his call for some type of automatic government spending controls.
"In my judgment, the necessary choices will be especially difficult to implement without the restoration of a set of procedural restraints on the budget-making process," he said.
President Bush has pledged to cut the budget gap in half by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2005 budget shortfall will be around $400 billion, including money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Fed chief has long urged renewing so-called pay-go provisions that compel lawmakers to show how they will pay for any spending initiatives or tax cuts.
Greenspan said the approaching surge of retirees adds urgency to the need to deal with budget constraints in light of uncertainty about the scale of looming medical and retirement costs.
"These uncertainties — especially our inability to identify the upper bound of future demands for medical care — counsel significant prudence in policy-making," Greenspan said, adding that policymakers "need to err on the side of prudence when considering new budget initiatives."
He repeated that the United States may already be in a position where it cannot meet commitments made to the baby boom generation and urged benefit cuts, if needed, be made as soon as possible.
"If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later," he said.
Much of Greenspan's testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers and he stressed that steps to fix the problem are essential.
"As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken," the Fed chief said.
He only briefly touched on the economy's current performance, saying "activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace," an assessment he has made repeatedly this year.
His comments come as some private economists are concerned about the extent to which high energy prices will crimp economic activity.
Greenspan warns again about budget deficits
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday.
He said the danger is that deficits will keep rising as a percentage of total national output, and "unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
He issued a fresh call to policymakers to move swiftly to get the government's fiscal house in order.
"Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years," Greenspan said in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, .
Greenspan reiterated his call for some type of automatic government spending controls.
"In my judgment, the necessary choices will be especially difficult to implement without the restoration of a set of procedural restraints on the budget-making process," he said.
President Bush has pledged to cut the budget gap in half by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2005 budget shortfall will be around $400 billion, including money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Fed chief has long urged renewing so-called pay-go provisions that compel lawmakers to show how they will pay for any spending initiatives or tax cuts.
Greenspan said the approaching surge of retirees adds urgency to the need to deal with budget constraints in light of uncertainty about the scale of looming medical and retirement costs.
"These uncertainties — especially our inability to identify the upper bound of future demands for medical care — counsel significant prudence in policy-making," Greenspan said, adding that policymakers "need to err on the side of prudence when considering new budget initiatives."
He repeated that the United States may already be in a position where it cannot meet commitments made to the baby boom generation and urged benefit cuts, if needed, be made as soon as possible.
"If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later," he said.
Much of Greenspan's testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers and he stressed that steps to fix the problem are essential.
"As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken," the Fed chief said.
He only briefly touched on the economy's current performance, saying "activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace," an assessment he has made repeatedly this year.
His comments come as some private economists are concerned about the extent to which high energy prices will crimp economic activity.
Dozens of bodies discovered in two Iraq locations
BAGHDAD (AP) — The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
"We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said.
AFP/Getty Images
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi military forces had no report of any killings at the stadium.
Militant violence has surged in the past week, especially in Baghdad, with explosions often going off one after another in the morning. (Related video: Violence in Baghdad)
The first car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad where the notorious Abu Ghraib prison is located, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, said Hussam Abdulrazaq, an official at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near Bilat al-Shuhada police station in Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, a poor section of eastern Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding an unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
South of the city, one policeman was killed and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana AL-Furati.
On Tuesday night, an attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division. Seven Iraqi civilians also were wounded, an official at Al-Yarmouk Hospital said.
In the southern city of Basra, Abdulal al-Batat, a former aide to Saddam Hussein's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahimal-Hassan, was killed Tuesday by gunmen outside his home, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi.
Al-Hassan, who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam in 2003, was captured in Syria and turned over to Iraqi authorities in February.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the nation's most feared terror group, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.
The weeklong surge in violence comes as Shiite and Kurdish leaders try to form a Cabinet that will also include members of Iraq's Sunni minority, believed to form the backbone of the insurgency. Talibani told reporters that officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it regretted an incident in which a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric was briefly held at a checkpoint by American soldiers.
Fattah al-Sheik tearfully told parliament he had been handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint on his way to work. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck. The assembly demanded a U.S. apology and prosecution of the soldier involved.
A U.S. military statement said its initial investigation indicated that al-Sheik got into an altercation with a coalition translator at the checkpoint. U.S. soldiers tried to separate them and "briefly held on to the legislator," while preventing another member of al-Sheik's party from getting out of his car.
"We have the highest respect for all members of the Transitional National Assembly. Their safety and security is critically important," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst said in the statement. "We regret this incident occurred and are conducting a thorough investigation."
Al-Sheik's small party has been linked to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. On his way home after the session, gunmen fired on al-Sheik's convoy, but he escaped unharmed, police and his party said.
Dozens of bodies discovered in two Iraq locations
BAGHDAD (AP) — The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
"We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said.
AFP/Getty Images
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi military forces had no report of any killings at the stadium.
Militant violence has surged in the past week, especially in Baghdad, with explosions often going off one after another in the morning. (Related video: Violence in Baghdad)
The first car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad where the notorious Abu Ghraib prison is located, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, said Hussam Abdulrazaq, an official at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near Bilat al-Shuhada police station in Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, a poor section of eastern Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding an unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
South of the city, one policeman was killed and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana AL-Furati.
On Tuesday night, an attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division. Seven Iraqi civilians also were wounded, an official at Al-Yarmouk Hospital said.
In the southern city of Basra, Abdulal al-Batat, a former aide to Saddam Hussein's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahimal-Hassan, was killed Tuesday by gunmen outside his home, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi.
Al-Hassan, who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam in 2003, was captured in Syria and turned over to Iraqi authorities in February.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the nation's most feared terror group, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.
The weeklong surge in violence comes as Shiite and Kurdish leaders try to form a Cabinet that will also include members of Iraq's Sunni minority, believed to form the backbone of the insurgency. Talibani told reporters that officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it regretted an incident in which a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric was briefly held at a checkpoint by American soldiers.
Fattah al-Sheik tearfully told parliament he had been handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint on his way to work. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck. The assembly demanded a U.S. apology and prosecution of the soldier involved.
A U.S. military statement said its initial investigation indicated that al-Sheik got into an altercation with a coalition translator at the checkpoint. U.S. soldiers tried to separate them and "briefly held on to the legislator," while preventing another member of al-Sheik's party from getting out of his car.
"We have the highest respect for all members of the Transitional National Assembly. Their safety and security is critically important," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst said in the statement. "We regret this incident occurred and are conducting a thorough investigation."
Al-Sheik's small party has been linked to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. On his way home after the session, gunmen fired on al-Sheik's convoy, but he escaped unharmed, police and his party said.
Dozens of bodies discovered in two Iraq locations
BAGHDAD (AP) — The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
"We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said.
AFP/Getty Images
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi military forces had no report of any killings at the stadium.
Militant violence has surged in the past week, especially in Baghdad, with explosions often going off one after another in the morning. (Related video: Violence in Baghdad)
The first car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad where the notorious Abu Ghraib prison is located, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, said Hussam Abdulrazaq, an official at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near Bilat al-Shuhada police station in Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, a poor section of eastern Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding an unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
South of the city, one policeman was killed and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana AL-Furati.
On Tuesday night, an attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division. Seven Iraqi civilians also were wounded, an official at Al-Yarmouk Hospital said.
In the southern city of Basra, Abdulal al-Batat, a former aide to Saddam Hussein's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahimal-Hassan, was killed Tuesday by gunmen outside his home, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi.
Al-Hassan, who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam in 2003, was captured in Syria and turned over to Iraqi authorities in February.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the nation's most feared terror group, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.
The weeklong surge in violence comes as Shiite and Kurdish leaders try to form a Cabinet that will also include members of Iraq's Sunni minority, believed to form the backbone of the insurgency. Talibani told reporters that officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it regretted an incident in which a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric was briefly held at a checkpoint by American soldiers.
Fattah al-Sheik tearfully told parliament he had been handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint on his way to work. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck. The assembly demanded a U.S. apology and prosecution of the soldier involved.
A U.S. military statement said its initial investigation indicated that al-Sheik got into an altercation with a coalition translator at the checkpoint. U.S. soldiers tried to separate them and "briefly held on to the legislator," while preventing another member of al-Sheik's party from getting out of his car.
"We have the highest respect for all members of the Transitional National Assembly. Their safety and security is critically important," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst said in the statement. "We regret this incident occurred and are conducting a thorough investigation."
Al-Sheik's small party has been linked to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. On his way home after the session, gunmen fired on al-Sheik's convoy, but he escaped unharmed, police and his party said.
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04
John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.
Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.
Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton's supporters argue that his blunt style and hard-line views make him ideally suited to serve U.S. interests at the United Nations. His opponents argue that Bolton's demeanor and disdain for the United Nations will make it difficult for the White House to achieve its goals there.
Democrats on the foreign relations panel blocked a vote on Bolton last week and are hoping that new information might persuade Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) or others to vote against him.
A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.
Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a "serial abuser" who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford's testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.
But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.
"If there's nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition." But Hagel also said that he was "troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," including charges that Bolton had intimidated a member of Hagel's staff who had worked briefly under Bolton at the State Department's Nonproliferation Bureau.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. Ryu's immediate superiors investigated the charge and found it baseless. But Bolton wanted Ryu removed from his duties, officials said.
Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
Much of the debate about Bolton has centered on his management style, his staunch criticisms of the United Nations and his hard-line approaches on Iran and North Korea.
But testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving. Bolton's chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, is on loan to Bolton from the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC. Fleitz told Senate staff members during an April 7 interview that he goes back to the agency's headquarters from time to time and reports to supervisors there and to Bolton.
Neil Silver, who directs the Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Senate staff members earlier this month that his office was surprised when a CIA analysis on "China's commitment to proliferation" showed up for Bolton in 2002 without a request filed through his office. Silver assumed that Fleitz had heard about the analysis through associates at the CIA because its conclusions had not been agreed to within the intelligence community. Silver's office, which is supposed to provide policymakers with a complete picture of intelligence that could affect directives, attached an alternative view for Bolton to see.
That decision brought immediate complaints from Fleitz, who told Silver that it was "unprofessional" to circulate the dissent.
Thomas Fingar, who runs the State Department's intelligence bureau, which is the official liaison between the department and the rest of the intelligence community, told the Senate committee on April 8 that Fleitz had asked that a clearance request for controversial intelligence on Cuba be made through WINPAC.
Often those requests go through the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but it became public during last week's hearings that Bolton had clashed with the council officer in charge of Latin America.
Bolton came up against resistance from Fingar's bureau and, later, from the national intelligence officer on Latin America over a speech he gave in May 2002 suggesting that Cuba had a biological weapons program.
The former national intelligence officer told the committee that he received an abusive e-mail from Fleitz after he had raised objections with the Senate staff about the Cuba speech. The former officer and his boss then, Stuart Cohen, who ran the NIC in 2002, said Bolton tried to get the officer removed from his job after the incident.
Ford, who ran the State Department's intelligence bureau before Fingar, also said that Bolton had sought the removal of Christian Westermann, the bureau analyst who had also challenged the ambiguous intelligence Bolton wanted to make public about Cuba.
When Westermann shared his dissenting view about the intelligence, he was ordered to Bolton's office and berated, Ford and Westermann said. Ford and Silver said Bolton wanted Westermann removed from his job at the intelligence bureau. Bolton denied that he tried to have anyone fired but said that the national intelligence officer and Westermann had acted inappropriately.
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04
John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.
Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.
Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton's supporters argue that his blunt style and hard-line views make him ideally suited to serve U.S. interests at the United Nations. His opponents argue that Bolton's demeanor and disdain for the United Nations will make it difficult for the White House to achieve its goals there.
Democrats on the foreign relations panel blocked a vote on Bolton last week and are hoping that new information might persuade Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) or others to vote against him.
A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.
Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a "serial abuser" who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford's testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.
But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.
"If there's nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition." But Hagel also said that he was "troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," including charges that Bolton had intimidated a member of Hagel's staff who had worked briefly under Bolton at the State Department's Nonproliferation Bureau.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. Ryu's immediate superiors investigated the charge and found it baseless. But Bolton wanted Ryu removed from his duties, officials said.
Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
Much of the debate about Bolton has centered on his management style, his staunch criticisms of the United Nations and his hard-line approaches on Iran and North Korea.
But testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving. Bolton's chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, is on loan to Bolton from the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC. Fleitz told Senate staff members during an April 7 interview that he goes back to the agency's headquarters from time to time and reports to supervisors there and to Bolton.
Neil Silver, who directs the Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Senate staff members earlier this month that his office was surprised when a CIA analysis on "China's commitment to proliferation" showed up for Bolton in 2002 without a request filed through his office. Silver assumed that Fleitz had heard about the analysis through associates at the CIA because its conclusions had not been agreed to within the intelligence community. Silver's office, which is supposed to provide policymakers with a complete picture of intelligence that could affect directives, attached an alternative view for Bolton to see.
That decision brought immediate complaints from Fleitz, who told Silver that it was "unprofessional" to circulate the dissent.
Thomas Fingar, who runs the State Department's intelligence bureau, which is the official liaison between the department and the rest of the intelligence community, told the Senate committee on April 8 that Fleitz had asked that a clearance request for controversial intelligence on Cuba be made through WINPAC.
Often those requests go through the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but it became public during last week's hearings that Bolton had clashed with the council officer in charge of Latin America.
Bolton came up against resistance from Fingar's bureau and, later, from the national intelligence officer on Latin America over a speech he gave in May 2002 suggesting that Cuba had a biological weapons program.
The former national intelligence officer told the committee that he received an abusive e-mail from Fleitz after he had raised objections with the Senate staff about the Cuba speech. The former officer and his boss then, Stuart Cohen, who ran the NIC in 2002, said Bolton tried to get the officer removed from his job after the incident.
Ford, who ran the State Department's intelligence bureau before Fingar, also said that Bolton had sought the removal of Christian Westermann, the bureau analyst who had also challenged the ambiguous intelligence Bolton wanted to make public about Cuba.
When Westermann shared his dissenting view about the intelligence, he was ordered to Bolton's office and berated, Ford and Westermann said. Ford and Silver said Bolton wanted Westermann removed from his job at the intelligence bureau. Bolton denied that he tried to have anyone fired but said that the national intelligence officer and Westermann had acted inappropriately.
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04
John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.
Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.
Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton's supporters argue that his blunt style and hard-line views make him ideally suited to serve U.S. interests at the United Nations. His opponents argue that Bolton's demeanor and disdain for the United Nations will make it difficult for the White House to achieve its goals there.
Democrats on the foreign relations panel blocked a vote on Bolton last week and are hoping that new information might persuade Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) or others to vote against him.
A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.
Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a "serial abuser" who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford's testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.
But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.
"If there's nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition." But Hagel also said that he was "troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," including charges that Bolton had intimidated a member of Hagel's staff who had worked briefly under Bolton at the State Department's Nonproliferation Bureau.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. Ryu's immediate superiors investigated the charge and found it baseless. But Bolton wanted Ryu removed from his duties, officials said.
Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
Much of the debate about Bolton has centered on his management style, his staunch criticisms of the United Nations and his hard-line approaches on Iran and North Korea.
But testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving. Bolton's chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, is on loan to Bolton from the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC. Fleitz told Senate staff members during an April 7 interview that he goes back to the agency's headquarters from time to time and reports to supervisors there and to Bolton.
Neil Silver, who directs the Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Senate staff members earlier this month that his office was surprised when a CIA analysis on "China's commitment to proliferation" showed up for Bolton in 2002 without a request filed through his office. Silver assumed that Fleitz had heard about the analysis through associates at the CIA because its conclusions had not been agreed to within the intelligence community. Silver's office, which is supposed to provide policymakers with a complete picture of intelligence that could affect directives, attached an alternative view for Bolton to see.
That decision brought immediate complaints from Fleitz, who told Silver that it was "unprofessional" to circulate the dissent.
Thomas Fingar, who runs the State Department's intelligence bureau, which is the official liaison between the department and the rest of the intelligence community, told the Senate committee on April 8 that Fleitz had asked that a clearance request for controversial intelligence on Cuba be made through WINPAC.
Often those requests go through the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but it became public during last week's hearings that Bolton had clashed with the council officer in charge of Latin America.
Bolton came up against resistance from Fingar's bureau and, later, from the national intelligence officer on Latin America over a speech he gave in May 2002 suggesting that Cuba had a biological weapons program.
The former national intelligence officer told the committee that he received an abusive e-mail from Fleitz after he had raised objections with the Senate staff about the Cuba speech. The former officer and his boss then, Stuart Cohen, who ran the NIC in 2002, said Bolton tried to get the officer removed from his job after the incident.
Ford, who ran the State Department's intelligence bureau before Fingar, also said that Bolton had sought the removal of Christian Westermann, the bureau analyst who had also challenged the ambiguous intelligence Bolton wanted to make public about Cuba.
When Westermann shared his dissenting view about the intelligence, he was ordered to Bolton's office and berated, Ford and Westermann said. Ford and Silver said Bolton wanted Westermann removed from his job at the intelligence bureau. Bolton denied that he tried to have anyone fired but said that the national intelligence officer and Westermann had acted inappropriately.
Trade deficit hits all-time high in Feb.
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit, exacerbated by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in February.
The Commerce Department said the February imbalance was up 4.3% from the $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.
The monthly shortfall was greater than the median estimate of $59 billion from analysts. The unexpectedly large jump in the trade gap is likely to cause analysts to trim their estimates for first-quarter economic growth.
U.S. exports continued to be strong, exceeding $100 billion for the third consecutive month. Higher shipments of industrial supplies and materials and consumers goods more than offset declines in capital goods and autos.
Imports set records in several categories — including autos and auto parts, consumer goods and industrial supplies and materials — in a sign of strong U.S. demand.
A jump in average monthly crude oil import prices to $36.85 a barrel propelled the value of petroleum and product imports to the second highest level on record, despite the lowest volume of crude oil in a year.
Overall imports from China dipped to $17.0 billion in February, the lowest level since June, and the U.S. trade deficit with China also fell to $13.9 billion, the lowest since May.
However, in a sector causing political difficulties for the Bush administration, imports of clothing and textiles from the Asian manufacturing giant jumped 9.8% in February following the end of U.S. import quotas in January.
Total clothing and textile imports from China for the first two months of 2005 surged 62.4% from the same period last year.
American textile and clothing manufacturers are lobbying the administration to limit imports of Chinese textile and clothing goods to ward off a flood of products now that global quotas have expired.
Trade deficit hits all-time high in Feb.
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit, exacerbated by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in February.
The Commerce Department said the February imbalance was up 4.3% from the $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.
The monthly shortfall was greater than the median estimate of $59 billion from analysts. The unexpectedly large jump in the trade gap is likely to cause analysts to trim their estimates for first-quarter economic growth.
U.S. exports continued to be strong, exceeding $100 billion for the third consecutive month. Higher shipments of industrial supplies and materials and consumers goods more than offset declines in capital goods and autos.
Imports set records in several categories — including autos and auto parts, consumer goods and industrial supplies and materials — in a sign of strong U.S. demand.
A jump in average monthly crude oil import prices to $36.85 a barrel propelled the value of petroleum and product imports to the second highest level on record, despite the lowest volume of crude oil in a year.
Overall imports from China dipped to $17.0 billion in February, the lowest level since June, and the U.S. trade deficit with China also fell to $13.9 billion, the lowest since May.
However, in a sector causing political difficulties for the Bush administration, imports of clothing and textiles from the Asian manufacturing giant jumped 9.8% in February following the end of U.S. import quotas in January.
Total clothing and textile imports from China for the first two months of 2005 surged 62.4% from the same period last year.
American textile and clothing manufacturers are lobbying the administration to limit imports of Chinese textile and clothing goods to ward off a flood of products now that global quotas have expired.
Trade deficit hits all-time high in Feb.
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit, exacerbated by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in February.
The Commerce Department said the February imbalance was up 4.3% from the $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.
The monthly shortfall was greater than the median estimate of $59 billion from analysts. The unexpectedly large jump in the trade gap is likely to cause analysts to trim their estimates for first-quarter economic growth.
U.S. exports continued to be strong, exceeding $100 billion for the third consecutive month. Higher shipments of industrial supplies and materials and consumers goods more than offset declines in capital goods and autos.
Imports set records in several categories — including autos and auto parts, consumer goods and industrial supplies and materials — in a sign of strong U.S. demand.
A jump in average monthly crude oil import prices to $36.85 a barrel propelled the value of petroleum and product imports to the second highest level on record, despite the lowest volume of crude oil in a year.
Overall imports from China dipped to $17.0 billion in February, the lowest level since June, and the U.S. trade deficit with China also fell to $13.9 billion, the lowest since May.
However, in a sector causing political difficulties for the Bush administration, imports of clothing and textiles from the Asian manufacturing giant jumped 9.8% in February following the end of U.S. import quotas in January.
Total clothing and textile imports from China for the first two months of 2005 surged 62.4% from the same period last year.
American textile and clothing manufacturers are lobbying the administration to limit imports of Chinese textile and clothing goods to ward off a flood of products now that global quotas have expired.
Duracell battery plant in N.C. to be shut down
April 9, 2005
Gillette Co. disclosed it will close its Duracell battery factory in Lexington, N.C., costing 280 employees their jobs and resulting in about a 4-cent-a-share charge for 2005. The plant largely makes high-power lithium batteries, but declining sales of film-based cameras and the increasingly popularity of digital cameras powered by alkaline or rechargeable batteries has eaten into sales, the company said in a securities filing. Gillette said the closure will result in cash-related costs of $29 million, plus additional noncash asset-impairment related costs.
Duracell battery plant in N.C. to be shut down
April 9, 2005
Gillette Co. disclosed it will close its Duracell battery factory in Lexington, N.C., costing 280 employees their jobs and resulting in about a 4-cent-a-share charge for 2005. The plant largely makes high-power lithium batteries, but declining sales of film-based cameras and the increasingly popularity of digital cameras powered by alkaline or rechargeable batteries has eaten into sales, the company said in a securities filing. Gillette said the closure will result in cash-related costs of $29 million, plus additional noncash asset-impairment related costs.
Duracell battery plant in N.C. to be shut down
April 9, 2005
Gillette Co. disclosed it will close its Duracell battery factory in Lexington, N.C., costing 280 employees their jobs and resulting in about a 4-cent-a-share charge for 2005. The plant largely makes high-power lithium batteries, but declining sales of film-based cameras and the increasingly popularity of digital cameras powered by alkaline or rechargeable batteries has eaten into sales, the company said in a securities filing. Gillette said the closure will result in cash-related costs of $29 million, plus additional noncash asset-impairment related costs.
Cleanup fund is almost cleaned out
Money to redevelop brownfields sites could be depleted by year-end
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent | April 9, 2005
In downtown Worcester next month, construction will begin on a 122,000-square-foot laboratory that will rise on a site contaminated by a century of metal processing. With $700,000 in loans from the state Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, the developer, Gateway Park LLC, is cleaning up 11 acres where it plans to build an approximately $100 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.
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''We couldn't have gone forward without the fund's assistance," said Craig Blais, vice president of the Worcester Business Development Corp., a private, nonprofit agency that is developing the project in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Last year in Boston, on a site where factories produced lead paint and then computer parts, the new 125-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel opened, the first phase of the $140 million Crosstown Center project. Early on, a $50,000 brownfields fund loan was used to determine the project's feasibility and to secure financing.
''The loan was critical in defining costs and reassuring lenders," said developer Kirk Sykes.
But new projects seeking loans from the brownfields fund, which are used to assess the extent of contamination and begin cleanup, may find the coffers depleted. Janet Hookailo, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state authority that manages the fund, said, ''At our current rate of activity, we think the fund could possibly run out by the end of 2005."
Senator Mark C. Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, has filed a bill that, if passed, could provide an infusion of $30 million by July 1, when fiscal year 2006 begins.
''There's a shortage of land for development, especially in older cities, because sites are environmentally unsafe," Montigny said. ''Restoring the fund to assist more commercial and residential development helps municipalities keep tax revenues balanced, reuses land, and is a major jobs-creation initiative."
Since the fund was established in 1999 with $30 million, it has provided loans and grants to help redevelop contaminated sites statewide that might otherwise be abandoned or endanger public health. But Montigny anticipates a struggle to pass his funding bill.
''We're just emerging from a fiscal crisis that saw billions in cuts, so there are legitimate competing interests," he said. ''I sense some resistance from the Romney administration; I hope I'm wrong."
The administration's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs considers the fund a success, said spokeswoman Corbie Kump.
''We'd like to see it re-funded but we can't say when," she said. ''There's about $3.1 million left, enough to continue operating for one more year."
For developers, ''The fund is about reducing risk," said David Begelfer, chief executive of the state chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Developers are increasingly attracted to previously used sites because of the scarcity of build-able land, especially in urban areas.
But risks abound. Before investing, a developer must know the extent of the contamination, and the cleanup cost.
''If you find too many unanticipated environmental problems it can kill a project financially," said Sykes.
Cleanup fund is almost cleaned out
Money to redevelop brownfields sites could be depleted by year-end
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent | April 9, 2005
In downtown Worcester next month, construction will begin on a 122,000-square-foot laboratory that will rise on a site contaminated by a century of metal processing. With $700,000 in loans from the state Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, the developer, Gateway Park LLC, is cleaning up 11 acres where it plans to build an approximately $100 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.
ADVERTISEMENT
''We couldn't have gone forward without the fund's assistance," said Craig Blais, vice president of the Worcester Business Development Corp., a private, nonprofit agency that is developing the project in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Last year in Boston, on a site where factories produced lead paint and then computer parts, the new 125-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel opened, the first phase of the $140 million Crosstown Center project. Early on, a $50,000 brownfields fund loan was used to determine the project's feasibility and to secure financing.
''The loan was critical in defining costs and reassuring lenders," said developer Kirk Sykes.
But new projects seeking loans from the brownfields fund, which are used to assess the extent of contamination and begin cleanup, may find the coffers depleted. Janet Hookailo, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state authority that manages the fund, said, ''At our current rate of activity, we think the fund could possibly run out by the end of 2005."
Senator Mark C. Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, has filed a bill that, if passed, could provide an infusion of $30 million by July 1, when fiscal year 2006 begins.
''There's a shortage of land for development, especially in older cities, because sites are environmentally unsafe," Montigny said. ''Restoring the fund to assist more commercial and residential development helps municipalities keep tax revenues balanced, reuses land, and is a major jobs-creation initiative."
Since the fund was established in 1999 with $30 million, it has provided loans and grants to help redevelop contaminated sites statewide that might otherwise be abandoned or endanger public health. But Montigny anticipates a struggle to pass his funding bill.
''We're just emerging from a fiscal crisis that saw billions in cuts, so there are legitimate competing interests," he said. ''I sense some resistance from the Romney administration; I hope I'm wrong."
The administration's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs considers the fund a success, said spokeswoman Corbie Kump.
''We'd like to see it re-funded but we can't say when," she said. ''There's about $3.1 million left, enough to continue operating for one more year."
For developers, ''The fund is about reducing risk," said David Begelfer, chief executive of the state chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Developers are increasingly attracted to previously used sites because of the scarcity of build-able land, especially in urban areas.
But risks abound. Before investing, a developer must know the extent of the contamination, and the cleanup cost.
''If you find too many unanticipated environmental problems it can kill a project financially," said Sykes.
Cleanup fund is almost cleaned out
Money to redevelop brownfields sites could be depleted by year-end
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent | April 9, 2005
In downtown Worcester next month, construction will begin on a 122,000-square-foot laboratory that will rise on a site contaminated by a century of metal processing. With $700,000 in loans from the state Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, the developer, Gateway Park LLC, is cleaning up 11 acres where it plans to build an approximately $100 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.
ADVERTISEMENT
''We couldn't have gone forward without the fund's assistance," said Craig Blais, vice president of the Worcester Business Development Corp., a private, nonprofit agency that is developing the project in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Last year in Boston, on a site where factories produced lead paint and then computer parts, the new 125-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel opened, the first phase of the $140 million Crosstown Center project. Early on, a $50,000 brownfields fund loan was used to determine the project's feasibility and to secure financing.
''The loan was critical in defining costs and reassuring lenders," said developer Kirk Sykes.
But new projects seeking loans from the brownfields fund, which are used to assess the extent of contamination and begin cleanup, may find the coffers depleted. Janet Hookailo, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state authority that manages the fund, said, ''At our current rate of activity, we think the fund could possibly run out by the end of 2005."
Senator Mark C. Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, has filed a bill that, if passed, could provide an infusion of $30 million by July 1, when fiscal year 2006 begins.
''There's a shortage of land for development, especially in older cities, because sites are environmentally unsafe," Montigny said. ''Restoring the fund to assist more commercial and residential development helps municipalities keep tax revenues balanced, reuses land, and is a major jobs-creation initiative."
Since the fund was established in 1999 with $30 million, it has provided loans and grants to help redevelop contaminated sites statewide that might otherwise be abandoned or endanger public health. But Montigny anticipates a struggle to pass his funding bill.
''We're just emerging from a fiscal crisis that saw billions in cuts, so there are legitimate competing interests," he said. ''I sense some resistance from the Romney administration; I hope I'm wrong."
The administration's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs considers the fund a success, said spokeswoman Corbie Kump.
''We'd like to see it re-funded but we can't say when," she said. ''There's about $3.1 million left, enough to continue operating for one more year."
For developers, ''The fund is about reducing risk," said David Begelfer, chief executive of the state chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Developers are increasingly attracted to previously used sites because of the scarcity of build-able land, especially in urban areas.
But risks abound. Before investing, a developer must know the extent of the contamination, and the cleanup cost.
''If you find too many unanticipated environmental problems it can kill a project financially," said Sykes.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
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Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
The strategy session of more than 200 conservative activist leaders, in the works since February, was organized by a multifaith roster that included Protestant evangelicals such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and home school activist Michael Farris, Catholics such as former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn, and Jews such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who runs the group Toward Tradition.
While conservatives have long accused liberal judges of making, rather than interpreting, laws, Massachusetts' adoption of gay marriage last year and Schiavo's death last week have magnified their fury. Whereas before they complained about ''judicial arrogance," speakers this week accused courts of ''gang violence" and waging ''unholy war" -- and drew applause when they called for the removal of judges who believe that interpretations of the US Constitution should change with the times. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the situation ''a crisis."
Just five months ago, religious conservatives were a critical voting bloc for President Bush. Since then, they have become increasingly restless, first over the White House's reluctance to pursue a constitutional ban on gay marriage because of fears over a shortage of votes in Congress, and now over the failure of President Bush and Governor Bush to save Schiavo's life.
''Jeb Bush should have issued an executive order and brought her into state custody. He had the authority," said former chief justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who has become a celebrity of the right since being ousted for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
ADVERTISEMENT
Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
The strategy session of more than 200 conservative activist leaders, in the works since February, was organized by a multifaith roster that included Protestant evangelicals such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and home school activist Michael Farris, Catholics such as former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn, and Jews such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who runs the group Toward Tradition.
While conservatives have long accused liberal judges of making, rather than interpreting, laws, Massachusetts' adoption of gay marriage last year and Schiavo's death last week have magnified their fury. Whereas before they complained about ''judicial arrogance," speakers this week accused courts of ''gang violence" and waging ''unholy war" -- and drew applause when they called for the removal of judges who believe that interpretations of the US Constitution should change with the times. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the situation ''a crisis."
Just five months ago, religious conservatives were a critical voting bloc for President Bush. Since then, they have become increasingly restless, first over the White House's reluctance to pursue a constitutional ban on gay marriage because of fears over a shortage of votes in Congress, and now over the failure of President Bush and Governor Bush to save Schiavo's life.
''Jeb Bush should have issued an executive order and brought her into state custody. He had the authority," said former chief justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who has become a celebrity of the right since being ousted for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
ADVERTISEMENT
Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
The strategy session of more than 200 conservative activist leaders, in the works since February, was organized by a multifaith roster that included Protestant evangelicals such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and home school activist Michael Farris, Catholics such as former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn, and Jews such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who runs the group Toward Tradition.
While conservatives have long accused liberal judges of making, rather than interpreting, laws, Massachusetts' adoption of gay marriage last year and Schiavo's death last week have magnified their fury. Whereas before they complained about ''judicial arrogance," speakers this week accused courts of ''gang violence" and waging ''unholy war" -- and drew applause when they called for the removal of judges who believe that interpretations of the US Constitution should change with the times. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the situation ''a crisis."
Just five months ago, religious conservatives were a critical voting bloc for President Bush. Since then, they have become increasingly restless, first over the White House's reluctance to pursue a constitutional ban on gay marriage because of fears over a shortage of votes in Congress, and now over the failure of President Bush and Governor Bush to save Schiavo's life.
''Jeb Bush should have issued an executive order and brought her into state custody. He had the authority," said former chief justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who has become a celebrity of the right since being ousted for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
Officials Fail To Track Lobbying, Report Says
Research Group Cites Billions Spent, but Spotty Regulation
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page E01
Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported. Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998.
At the same time, the center said, enforcement of lobbying regulations has been lax. The center estimated that at least 14,000 disclosure documents required under a 10-year-old lobbying law were not filed over the period, including documents that should have come from 49 of the nation's 50 largest lobbying firms.
"Neither the House nor Senate offices responsible for keeping records on K Street's activities have audit or investigative powers," said Roberta Baskin, the center's executive director. "It is impossible, for example, to determine how many lobbyists there actually are in Washington."
The center's report gives only a partial picture of the size and scope of contemporary lobbying. It tallied the spending of registered lobbyists who directly contacted lawmakers and administration officials. That calculation, while accurate as far as it goes, leaves out the faster-growing and probably larger forms of indirect lobbying such as stirring up local contacts from the "grass roots" and buying newspaper, radio and TV ads.
Nevertheless, the report begins to quantify what lawmakers and lobbyists have long suspected: Lobbying is growing very rapidly and largely in the shadows.
The market for lobbyists is so robust that former members of Congress now routinely become lobbyists when they retire or are defeated -- a career change that was rare as recently as 20 years ago. The center estimated that about 250 former members of Congress and heads of federal agencies are registered to lobby, as are more than 2,000 other former senior government officials.
Total spending by registered lobbyists from 1998 through mid-2004 was $13 billion. The more than $5.4 billion in projected spending on lobbying in 2003 and 2004 was about twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office -- the people who are lobbied most often -- according to the center.
The center extrapolated 2004 lobbying expenditures based on mid-year filings, which are the latest that are fully available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more on lobbying than any other group over the six-year period, $193 million, the center said. Altria Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., General Electric Co. and Edison Electric Institute each laid out more than $100 million over the same period.
State and local governments and universities were also big spenders on lobbying. From 1998 to mid-2004 those groups spent almost $600 million, the center said. Every state and six U.S. territories hired lobbyists, as did 300 universities.
The nation's top lobbying firms included three law firms, Patton Boggs LLP, Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. and WPP Group PLC, which own several lobbying firms, were No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of lobbying firms, the center said.
The economics of influence peddling suggest that lobbying will probably continue to expand rapidly because it often pays off. Since 1998, for example, Lockheed Martin Corp. spent roughly $89 million on lobbying and received $94 billion in government contracts.
"That's more than a thousand percent return on its investment," Baskin said, a higher profit than can be found in almost any other realm.
The center attributed the increase in lobbying to legislative gridlock, which has forced interests to push harder to get what they want, to frequent turnover among congressional leaders, which has necessitated extra attentiveness by lobbying groups, and to the growing evidence that "money talks" in legislation and regulation.
At the same time, the center bemoaned the state of lobbying disclosure. Over the six-year period, nearly 300 individuals, companies and associations lobbied without first registering as is required by law, the report said. More than 2,000 registrations were filed late. Of the 250 top lobbying firms, 210 failed to file one or more necessary documents. At least one in five companies that lobby failed to file required forms.
Baskin blamed part of that problem on the government's lack of staff to oversee disclosure rules. The Senate Office of Public Records employs 11 people and the House equivalent employs fewer than 35 people, the center reported. By contrast, the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, has 391 employees.
Officials Fail To Track Lobbying, Report Says
Research Group Cites Billions Spent, but Spotty Regulation
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page E01
Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported. Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998.
At the same time, the center said, enforcement of lobbying regulations has been lax. The center estimated that at least 14,000 disclosure documents required under a 10-year-old lobbying law were not filed over the period, including documents that should have come from 49 of the nation's 50 largest lobbying firms.
"Neither the House nor Senate offices responsible for keeping records on K Street's activities have audit or investigative powers," said Roberta Baskin, the center's executive director. "It is impossible, for example, to determine how many lobbyists there actually are in Washington."
The center's report gives only a partial picture of the size and scope of contemporary lobbying. It tallied the spending of registered lobbyists who directly contacted lawmakers and administration officials. That calculation, while accurate as far as it goes, leaves out the faster-growing and probably larger forms of indirect lobbying such as stirring up local contacts from the "grass roots" and buying newspaper, radio and TV ads.
Nevertheless, the report begins to quantify what lawmakers and lobbyists have long suspected: Lobbying is growing very rapidly and largely in the shadows.
The market for lobbyists is so robust that former members of Congress now routinely become lobbyists when they retire or are defeated -- a career change that was rare as recently as 20 years ago. The center estimated that about 250 former members of Congress and heads of federal agencies are registered to lobby, as are more than 2,000 other former senior government officials.
Total spending by registered lobbyists from 1998 through mid-2004 was $13 billion. The more than $5.4 billion in projected spending on lobbying in 2003 and 2004 was about twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office -- the people who are lobbied most often -- according to the center.
The center extrapolated 2004 lobbying expenditures based on mid-year filings, which are the latest that are fully available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more on lobbying than any other group over the six-year period, $193 million, the center said. Altria Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., General Electric Co. and Edison Electric Institute each laid out more than $100 million over the same period.
State and local governments and universities were also big spenders on lobbying. From 1998 to mid-2004 those groups spent almost $600 million, the center said. Every state and six U.S. territories hired lobbyists, as did 300 universities.
The nation's top lobbying firms included three law firms, Patton Boggs LLP, Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. and WPP Group PLC, which own several lobbying firms, were No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of lobbying firms, the center said.
The economics of influence peddling suggest that lobbying will probably continue to expand rapidly because it often pays off. Since 1998, for example, Lockheed Martin Corp. spent roughly $89 million on lobbying and received $94 billion in government contracts.
"That's more than a thousand percent return on its investment," Baskin said, a higher profit than can be found in almost any other realm.
The center attributed the increase in lobbying to legislative gridlock, which has forced interests to push harder to get what they want, to frequent turnover among congressional leaders, which has necessitated extra attentiveness by lobbying groups, and to the growing evidence that "money talks" in legislation and regulation.
At the same time, the center bemoaned the state of lobbying disclosure. Over the six-year period, nearly 300 individuals, companies and associations lobbied without first registering as is required by law, the report said. More than 2,000 registrations were filed late. Of the 250 top lobbying firms, 210 failed to file one or more necessary documents. At least one in five companies that lobby failed to file required forms.
Baskin blamed part of that problem on the government's lack of staff to oversee disclosure rules. The Senate Office of Public Records employs 11 people and the House equivalent employs fewer than 35 people, the center reported. By contrast, the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, has 391 employees.
Officials Fail To Track Lobbying, Report Says
Research Group Cites Billions Spent, but Spotty Regulation
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page E01
Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported. Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998.
At the same time, the center said, enforcement of lobbying regulations has been lax. The center estimated that at least 14,000 disclosure documents required under a 10-year-old lobbying law were not filed over the period, including documents that should have come from 49 of the nation's 50 largest lobbying firms.
"Neither the House nor Senate offices responsible for keeping records on K Street's activities have audit or investigative powers," said Roberta Baskin, the center's executive director. "It is impossible, for example, to determine how many lobbyists there actually are in Washington."
The center's report gives only a partial picture of the size and scope of contemporary lobbying. It tallied the spending of registered lobbyists who directly contacted lawmakers and administration officials. That calculation, while accurate as far as it goes, leaves out the faster-growing and probably larger forms of indirect lobbying such as stirring up local contacts from the "grass roots" and buying newspaper, radio and TV ads.
Nevertheless, the report begins to quantify what lawmakers and lobbyists have long suspected: Lobbying is growing very rapidly and largely in the shadows.
The market for lobbyists is so robust that former members of Congress now routinely become lobbyists when they retire or are defeated -- a career change that was rare as recently as 20 years ago. The center estimated that about 250 former members of Congress and heads of federal agencies are registered to lobby, as are more than 2,000 other former senior government officials.
Total spending by registered lobbyists from 1998 through mid-2004 was $13 billion. The more than $5.4 billion in projected spending on lobbying in 2003 and 2004 was about twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office -- the people who are lobbied most often -- according to the center.
The center extrapolated 2004 lobbying expenditures based on mid-year filings, which are the latest that are fully available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more on lobbying than any other group over the six-year period, $193 million, the center said. Altria Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., General Electric Co. and Edison Electric Institute each laid out more than $100 million over the same period.
State and local governments and universities were also big spenders on lobbying. From 1998 to mid-2004 those groups spent almost $600 million, the center said. Every state and six U.S. territories hired lobbyists, as did 300 universities.
The nation's top lobbying firms included three law firms, Patton Boggs LLP, Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. and WPP Group PLC, which own several lobbying firms, were No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of lobbying firms, the center said.
The economics of influence peddling suggest that lobbying will probably continue to expand rapidly because it often pays off. Since 1998, for example, Lockheed Martin Corp. spent roughly $89 million on lobbying and received $94 billion in government contracts.
"That's more than a thousand percent return on its investment," Baskin said, a higher profit than can be found in almost any other realm.
The center attributed the increase in lobbying to legislative gridlock, which has forced interests to push harder to get what they want, to frequent turnover among congressional leaders, which has necessitated extra attentiveness by lobbying groups, and to the growing evidence that "money talks" in legislation and regulation.
At the same time, the center bemoaned the state of lobbying disclosure. Over the six-year period, nearly 300 individuals, companies and associations lobbied without first registering as is required by law, the report said. More than 2,000 registrations were filed late. Of the 250 top lobbying firms, 210 failed to file one or more necessary documents. At least one in five companies that lobby failed to file required forms.
Baskin blamed part of that problem on the government's lack of staff to oversee disclosure rules. The Senate Office of Public Records employs 11 people and the House equivalent employs fewer than 35 people, the center reported. By contrast, the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, has 391 employees.
An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A01
GHARAF, Iraq -- Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!"
Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square. Some of the marchers wore the funeral shawls of prospective martyrs. Others were dressed in newly pressed camouflage. Together, their boots beat the pavement like a drum as they goose-stepped or double-timed in place.
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
• Talabani Offers Amnesty to Insurgents
• Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Over their heads flew the Iraqi flag, banners of Shiite Muslim saints and a portrait of their leader, Moqtada Sadr -- symbols of their militia, the Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year but now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
"At your service, Sadr! At your service, Moqtada!" the men chanted in formation. "We hear a voice calling us!"
"The tanks do not terrify us," others joined in. "We're resisting! We're resisting!"
The military parade this week lasted an hour, long enough for 700 men brandishing swords, machetes and not a few guns to pass a viewing stand of turbaned clerics and townspeople gathered in front of low-slung brick buildings.
It was also long enough for the militiamen to deliver the message that has distinguished their organization from Iraq's other Shiite groups -- implacable hostility toward the U.S. occupation. They delivered it far beyond the purview of the U.S. military, in one of the many towns and cities in southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army has emerged as kingmaker, and where the lines between authority and lawlessness are still ambiguous.
Iraq's most prominent religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, stepped between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military in Najaf last August, ending fighting that destroyed parts of Iraq's most sacred Shiite city. Since then, an uneasy truce has held there and in Karbala, another holy city, and in the vast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.
U.S. military officials say they believe the toll they inflicted during last year's fighting sapped the young cleric's support. While still a threat, the militia is less so than when it first took up arms in April 2004, the officials say.
"We believe Moqtada's militia is generally marginalized, and there is little to be gained from taking a military role," said Lt. Col. Bob Taylor, chief intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad. "But it could still be a threat."
Beyond Baghdad, though, Iraqis see a new boldness in the militia in cities like Nasiriyah, Basra and Amarah, all south of the capital and all patrolled by foreign forces allied with the United States.
In Basra, the Mahdi Army is widely viewed as the force that can put more armed men in the street than any other. Amarah remains its stronghold. In Nasiriyah, it has struck an alliance with the secular police chief, who views the group as a counterweight to other militias.
"The silent majority is not with him, but the majority of active people are," said Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mudarrassi, a cleric in Karbala, referring to Sadr. "If you count the ballot boxes, the balance is with the moderates. If you count those in the streets, it's the opposite."
The enduring appeal of Sadr's militia speaks to the forces still shaping Iraq: nationalism, religion and guns.
An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A01
GHARAF, Iraq -- Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!"
Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square. Some of the marchers wore the funeral shawls of prospective martyrs. Others were dressed in newly pressed camouflage. Together, their boots beat the pavement like a drum as they goose-stepped or double-timed in place.
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
• Talabani Offers Amnesty to Insurgents
• Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Over their heads flew the Iraqi flag, banners of Shiite Muslim saints and a portrait of their leader, Moqtada Sadr -- symbols of their militia, the Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year but now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
"At your service, Sadr! At your service, Moqtada!" the men chanted in formation. "We hear a voice calling us!"
"The tanks do not terrify us," others joined in. "We're resisting! We're resisting!"
The military parade this week lasted an hour, long enough for 700 men brandishing swords, machetes and not a few guns to pass a viewing stand of turbaned clerics and townspeople gathered in front of low-slung brick buildings.
It was also long enough for the militiamen to deliver the message that has distinguished their organization from Iraq's other Shiite groups -- implacable hostility toward the U.S. occupation. They delivered it far beyond the purview of the U.S. military, in one of the many towns and cities in southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army has emerged as kingmaker, and where the lines between authority and lawlessness are still ambiguous.
Iraq's most prominent religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, stepped between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military in Najaf last August, ending fighting that destroyed parts of Iraq's most sacred Shiite city. Since then, an uneasy truce has held there and in Karbala, another holy city, and in the vast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.
U.S. military officials say they believe the toll they inflicted during last year's fighting sapped the young cleric's support. While still a threat, the militia is less so than when it first took up arms in April 2004, the officials say.
"We believe Moqtada's militia is generally marginalized, and there is little to be gained from taking a military role," said Lt. Col. Bob Taylor, chief intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad. "But it could still be a threat."
Beyond Baghdad, though, Iraqis see a new boldness in the militia in cities like Nasiriyah, Basra and Amarah, all south of the capital and all patrolled by foreign forces allied with the United States.
In Basra, the Mahdi Army is widely viewed as the force that can put more armed men in the street than any other. Amarah remains its stronghold. In Nasiriyah, it has struck an alliance with the secular police chief, who views the group as a counterweight to other militias.
"The silent majority is not with him, but the majority of active people are," said Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mudarrassi, a cleric in Karbala, referring to Sadr. "If you count the ballot boxes, the balance is with the moderates. If you count those in the streets, it's the opposite."
The enduring appeal of Sadr's militia speaks to the forces still shaping Iraq: nationalism, religion and guns.
An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A01
GHARAF, Iraq -- Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!"
Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square. Some of the marchers wore the funeral shawls of prospective martyrs. Others were dressed in newly pressed camouflage. Together, their boots beat the pavement like a drum as they goose-stepped or double-timed in place.
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
• Talabani Offers Amnesty to Insurgents
• Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Over their heads flew the Iraqi flag, banners of Shiite Muslim saints and a portrait of their leader, Moqtada Sadr -- symbols of their militia, the Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year but now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
"At your service, Sadr! At your service, Moqtada!" the men chanted in formation. "We hear a voice calling us!"
"The tanks do not terrify us," others joined in. "We're resisting! We're resisting!"
The military parade this week lasted an hour, long enough for 700 men brandishing swords, machetes and not a few guns to pass a viewing stand of turbaned clerics and townspeople gathered in front of low-slung brick buildings.
It was also long enough for the militiamen to deliver the message that has distinguished their organization from Iraq's other Shiite groups -- implacable hostility toward the U.S. occupation. They delivered it far beyond the purview of the U.S. military, in one of the many towns and cities in southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army has emerged as kingmaker, and where the lines between authority and lawlessness are still ambiguous.
Iraq's most prominent religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, stepped between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military in Najaf last August, ending fighting that destroyed parts of Iraq's most sacred Shiite city. Since then, an uneasy truce has held there and in Karbala, another holy city, and in the vast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.
U.S. military officials say they believe the toll they inflicted during last year's fighting sapped the young cleric's support. While still a threat, the militia is less so than when it first took up arms in April 2004, the officials say.
"We believe Moqtada's militia is generally marginalized, and there is little to be gained from taking a military role," said Lt. Col. Bob Taylor, chief intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad. "But it could still be a threat."
Beyond Baghdad, though, Iraqis see a new boldness in the militia in cities like Nasiriyah, Basra and Amarah, all south of the capital and all patrolled by foreign forces allied with the United States.
In Basra, the Mahdi Army is widely viewed as the force that can put more armed men in the street than any other. Amarah remains its stronghold. In Nasiriyah, it has struck an alliance with the secular police chief, who views the group as a counterweight to other militias.
"The silent majority is not with him, but the majority of active people are," said Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mudarrassi, a cleric in Karbala, referring to Sadr. "If you count the ballot boxes, the balance is with the moderates. If you count those in the streets, it's the opposite."
The enduring appeal of Sadr's militia speaks to the forces still shaping Iraq: nationalism, religion and guns.
Lenders too big, Greenspan warns
More controls urged for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals.
The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.
Proposed legislation would set up a regulatory agency with power to compel the companies to sell any assets deemed not to be in line with their mission of making homeownership more widely available. The measures would not limit the size of the companies' portfolios, which together have grown to $1.5 trillion. They also have issued $1.8 trillion in debt.
''Without restrictions on the size of [their] balance sheets, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership," Greenspan said. Portfolio restrictions would not affect mortgage rates, because so many big banks and other lenders compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.
While the companies' stock prices have fallen as a result of the accounting turmoil, Greenspan said that ''mortgage markets have functioned well." Senator Charles Schumer, disputed that notion. ''It almost defies belief that mortgage rates won't go up," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress created the companies to inject money into the home-loan market, keeping mortgage rates lower. The companies buy mortgages from banks and bundle the loans into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
Regulators last year accused Fannie Mae of manipulating earnings to meet Wall Street targets. The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, a correction that could reach $11 billion. In 2003, Freddie Mac was found to have misstated earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.
Lenders too big, Greenspan warns
More controls urged for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals.
The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.
Proposed legislation would set up a regulatory agency with power to compel the companies to sell any assets deemed not to be in line with their mission of making homeownership more widely available. The measures would not limit the size of the companies' portfolios, which together have grown to $1.5 trillion. They also have issued $1.8 trillion in debt.
''Without restrictions on the size of [their] balance sheets, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership," Greenspan said. Portfolio restrictions would not affect mortgage rates, because so many big banks and other lenders compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.
While the companies' stock prices have fallen as a result of the accounting turmoil, Greenspan said that ''mortgage markets have functioned well." Senator Charles Schumer, disputed that notion. ''It almost defies belief that mortgage rates won't go up," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress created the companies to inject money into the home-loan market, keeping mortgage rates lower. The companies buy mortgages from banks and bundle the loans into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
Regulators last year accused Fannie Mae of manipulating earnings to meet Wall Street targets. The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, a correction that could reach $11 billion. In 2003, Freddie Mac was found to have misstated earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.
Lenders too big, Greenspan warns
More controls urged for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals.
The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.
Proposed legislation would set up a regulatory agency with power to compel the companies to sell any assets deemed not to be in line with their mission of making homeownership more widely available. The measures would not limit the size of the companies' portfolios, which together have grown to $1.5 trillion. They also have issued $1.8 trillion in debt.
''Without restrictions on the size of [their] balance sheets, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership," Greenspan said. Portfolio restrictions would not affect mortgage rates, because so many big banks and other lenders compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.
While the companies' stock prices have fallen as a result of the accounting turmoil, Greenspan said that ''mortgage markets have functioned well." Senator Charles Schumer, disputed that notion. ''It almost defies belief that mortgage rates won't go up," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress created the companies to inject money into the home-loan market, keeping mortgage rates lower. The companies buy mortgages from banks and bundle the loans into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
Regulators last year accused Fannie Mae of manipulating earnings to meet Wall Street targets. The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, a correction that could reach $11 billion. In 2003, Freddie Mac was found to have misstated earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.
CDC criticizes US plan to destroy nerve agent
Says byproduct may retain traces
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The US Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The plan ''has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
US Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, one of several lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.
The Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2½ years.
The VX -- a liquid that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.
The VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.
The CDC report is critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct that would not be harmful to humans but could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant is capable of treating traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.
CDC criticizes US plan to destroy nerve agent
Says byproduct may retain traces
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The US Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The plan ''has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
US Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, one of several lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.
The Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2½ years.
The VX -- a liquid that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.
The VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.
The CDC report is critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct that would not be harmful to humans but could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant is capable of treating traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.
CDC criticizes US plan to destroy nerve agent
Says byproduct may retain traces
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The US Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The plan ''has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
US Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, one of several lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.
The Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2½ years.
The VX -- a liquid that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.
The VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.
The CDC report is critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct that would not be harmful to humans but could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant is capable of treating traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.
Between this and the Burger case, I think I'll start watching the Michael Jackson trial !!
Disillusioned in the Heartland
On Thursday afternoon, March 31, within hours of the death of Terry Schiavo, the FBI approached an entirely surprised Georgia Rucker in the forgotten little town of Herington, Kan., an hour or so southwest of Topeka.
The agents asked Rucker for the keys to a cracker box of a house she was trying to sell on South Second Street. They told her they were searching for possible explosives. Naturally, she obliged. Unconcerned by what they might find, Rucker went and had her hair done while she waited for them to finish. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be anything there," she told a reporter from the Daily Union in nearby Junction City.
Rucker was wrong. The FBI soon called in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuated the immediate neighborhood, and cordoned off a three-block area. They worked through the night and into the next day. As Rucker learned, this is the house in which Terry Nichols lived at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI on the scene would not confirm that its agents found anything, ABC News and others were told by Oklahoma City's FBI office that explosive devices had indeed been found. The news spin, at least what little surfaced in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed for not having found this old material 10 years prior.
As has happened all too often in the past, however, seeming FBI incompetence provides a cover for a much more troubling story. The story, as high-level forensic economist Stephen Dresch relates it, revolves around an extraordinary figure, Gregory Scarpa Jr., a convicted mobster now serving hard time at the federal super max in Florence, Colo.
Readers may remember Scarpa from multiple Emmy-winner Peter Lance's book, "Cover-Up." As Lance relates, Scarpa cooperated with the Justice Department in the summer of 1996 by scheming to rout the calls of jailmate Ramzi Yousef through to the FBI. Unfortunately for the United States, Yousef often used two obscure languages that the FBI could not translate quickly enough, if at all.
[A letter I received two weeks ago from a purported NSA insider identified the key language as Baluchi, Yousef's native tongue. Again, reportedly, Yousef's final transmission on the subject translated as follows, "What had to be done has been done, TWA 800 (last two words unintelligible)."]
What is undeniable is that the day after TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, Yousef asked for a mistrial, citing the now prejudicial environment post-explosion. He was denied. By allowing him to communicate overseas, however, the Justice Department may well have unwittingly assisted Yousef in his effort to destroy that ill-fated plane.
No one doubts that his allies were capable of it. Indeed, Yousef had bombed a plane in the Philippines, killing a passenger and almost blowing the plane out of the air. He also served as the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and was convicted for the same. His uncle, Khalid Shiekh Muhammad, with whom he communicated from his New York jail, was the mastermind of 9-11.
Possibly to silence him, the Justice Department cut Scarpa no slack for his help with Yousef and deep-sixed him in Colorado for 40 years, a severe sentence for a non-lethal RICO charge. On March 1, 2005, Scarpa called Dresch, who was consulting with an attorney on a related case. Scarpa informed Dresch that an unnamed inmate had made him aware of a cache of explosives to be used in an act of domestic terrorism, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19.
Dresch surmised, correctly as it turned out, that the inmate was Terry Nichols, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, and he immediately contacted the FBI by both phone and fax, as well as Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt with whom Dresch had been working on an FBI-related matter. The FBI visited Scarpa at the prison on March 3, two days later. Having been burned once, this time Scarpa insisted on a written cooperation agreement before he talked.
The following day, an FBI polygraph expert flew in from D.C. and administered what Dresch's own expert calls an "absurdly flawed examination." The FBI expert claimed that Scarpa was lying. Scarpa immediately called Dresch's associate and insisted that she and Dresch visit him.
It should be noted that the FBI's current chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, was the Clinton Justice official who oversaw Scarpa's work with Yousef. To thicken the plot, it was also Caproni who illegally ordered the FBI to take the TWA Flight 800 investigation away from the National Transportation Safety Board and who arranged the prosecution of James and Elizabeth Sanders for James' reporting on the TWA Flight 800 investigation. The absurdly compromised Caproni has any number of reasons for keeping Scarpa out of the light.
On March 10, Dresch and his associate met with Scarpa for seven hours. He gave them a letter from Nichols that provided a highly detailed description of the cached bomb making material – nitromethane, blasting caps, kine-pak, etc. Nichols had told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow up to the Oklahoma City blast.
Nichols' apparent goal in sharing this information was to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, a reported FBI informant named Roger Moore. Nichols also wanted to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material, presumably in a sting gone awry. Nichols was certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material.
No longer trusting the FBI, Dresch worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Together, they improvised an arrangement for Scarpa, and on March 11, Dresch laid out the offer. Scarpa relented and provided Dresch with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the cache within it.
Dresch went to Herington the following day and found the house to be vacant and for sale. His well-connected contact had not followed through, however, on retrieving the material and giving Scarpa credit where due. Only later did the contact claim that his people were surveilling the site waiting for someone to retrieve the material. It would take nearly three more weeks, the day of Schiavo's death, for the FBI to go in.
On Saturday, I called Jeff Lanza, the FBI public affairs officer on the scene, whom I have met on at least a few occasions. I left a message, asking him to confirm whether the Scarpa information led to the activity at Nichols' former home. His office paged him. Two days later he has yet to get back to me.
Lanza, however, made a point of telling the Junction City paper, as paraphrased, "that the FBI did not receive a tip leading them to search ... but rather had received the information during an investigation." But either Lanza or Gary Johnson of the FBI's Oklahoma City office is not on message. "Johnson," writes ABC News, "said the discovery was prompted by a recent tip."
In any case, when I visited the house on Saturday morning, there were neither media, nor police, anywhere to be seen. The Scarpa story is one that many people don't want told – Valerie Caproni, chief among them. And from the looks of things, they may be succeeding.
Between this and the Burger case, I think I'll start watching the Michael Jackson trial !!
Disillusioned in the Heartland
On Thursday afternoon, March 31, within hours of the death of Terry Schiavo, the FBI approached an entirely surprised Georgia Rucker in the forgotten little town of Herington, Kan., an hour or so southwest of Topeka.
The agents asked Rucker for the keys to a cracker box of a house she was trying to sell on South Second Street. They told her they were searching for possible explosives. Naturally, she obliged. Unconcerned by what they might find, Rucker went and had her hair done while she waited for them to finish. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be anything there," she told a reporter from the Daily Union in nearby Junction City.
Rucker was wrong. The FBI soon called in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuated the immediate neighborhood, and cordoned off a three-block area. They worked through the night and into the next day. As Rucker learned, this is the house in which Terry Nichols lived at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI on the scene would not confirm that its agents found anything, ABC News and others were told by Oklahoma City's FBI office that explosive devices had indeed been found. The news spin, at least what little surfaced in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed for not having found this old material 10 years prior.
As has happened all too often in the past, however, seeming FBI incompetence provides a cover for a much more troubling story. The story, as high-level forensic economist Stephen Dresch relates it, revolves around an extraordinary figure, Gregory Scarpa Jr., a convicted mobster now serving hard time at the federal super max in Florence, Colo.
Readers may remember Scarpa from multiple Emmy-winner Peter Lance's book, "Cover-Up." As Lance relates, Scarpa cooperated with the Justice Department in the summer of 1996 by scheming to rout the calls of jailmate Ramzi Yousef through to the FBI. Unfortunately for the United States, Yousef often used two obscure languages that the FBI could not translate quickly enough, if at all.
[A letter I received two weeks ago from a purported NSA insider identified the key language as Baluchi, Yousef's native tongue. Again, reportedly, Yousef's final transmission on the subject translated as follows, "What had to be done has been done, TWA 800 (last two words unintelligible)."]
What is undeniable is that the day after TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, Yousef asked for a mistrial, citing the now prejudicial environment post-explosion. He was denied. By allowing him to communicate overseas, however, the Justice Department may well have unwittingly assisted Yousef in his effort to destroy that ill-fated plane.
No one doubts that his allies were capable of it. Indeed, Yousef had bombed a plane in the Philippines, killing a passenger and almost blowing the plane out of the air. He also served as the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and was convicted for the same. His uncle, Khalid Shiekh Muhammad, with whom he communicated from his New York jail, was the mastermind of 9-11.
Possibly to silence him, the Justice Department cut Scarpa no slack for his help with Yousef and deep-sixed him in Colorado for 40 years, a severe sentence for a non-lethal RICO charge. On March 1, 2005, Scarpa called Dresch, who was consulting with an attorney on a related case. Scarpa informed Dresch that an unnamed inmate had made him aware of a cache of explosives to be used in an act of domestic terrorism, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19.
Dresch surmised, correctly as it turned out, that the inmate was Terry Nichols, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, and he immediately contacted the FBI by both phone and fax, as well as Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt with whom Dresch had been working on an FBI-related matter. The FBI visited Scarpa at the prison on March 3, two days later. Having been burned once, this time Scarpa insisted on a written cooperation agreement before he talked.
The following day, an FBI polygraph expert flew in from D.C. and administered what Dresch's own expert calls an "absurdly flawed examination." The FBI expert claimed that Scarpa was lying. Scarpa immediately called Dresch's associate and insisted that she and Dresch visit him.
It should be noted that the FBI's current chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, was the Clinton Justice official who oversaw Scarpa's work with Yousef. To thicken the plot, it was also Caproni who illegally ordered the FBI to take the TWA Flight 800 investigation away from the National Transportation Safety Board and who arranged the prosecution of James and Elizabeth Sanders for James' reporting on the TWA Flight 800 investigation. The absurdly compromised Caproni has any number of reasons for keeping Scarpa out of the light.
On March 10, Dresch and his associate met with Scarpa for seven hours. He gave them a letter from Nichols that provided a highly detailed description of the cached bomb making material – nitromethane, blasting caps, kine-pak, etc. Nichols had told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow up to the Oklahoma City blast.
Nichols' apparent goal in sharing this information was to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, a reported FBI informant named Roger Moore. Nichols also wanted to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material, presumably in a sting gone awry. Nichols was certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material.
No longer trusting the FBI, Dresch worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Together, they improvised an arrangement for Scarpa, and on March 11, Dresch laid out the offer. Scarpa relented and provided Dresch with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the cache within it.
Dresch went to Herington the following day and found the house to be vacant and for sale. His well-connected contact had not followed through, however, on retrieving the material and giving Scarpa credit where due. Only later did the contact claim that his people were surveilling the site waiting for someone to retrieve the material. It would take nearly three more weeks, the day of Schiavo's death, for the FBI to go in.
On Saturday, I called Jeff Lanza, the FBI public affairs officer on the scene, whom I have met on at least a few occasions. I left a message, asking him to confirm whether the Scarpa information led to the activity at Nichols' former home. His office paged him. Two days later he has yet to get back to me.
Lanza, however, made a point of telling the Junction City paper, as paraphrased, "that the FBI did not receive a tip leading them to search ... but rather had received the information during an investigation." But either Lanza or Gary Johnson of the FBI's Oklahoma City office is not on message. "Johnson," writes ABC News, "said the discovery was prompted by a recent tip."
In any case, when I visited the house on Saturday morning, there were neither media, nor police, anywhere to be seen. The Scarpa story is one that many people don't want told – Valerie Caproni, chief among them. And from the looks of things, they may be succeeding.
Between this and the Burger case, I think I'll start watching the Michael Jackson trial !!
Disillusioned in the Heartland
On Thursday afternoon, March 31, within hours of the death of Terry Schiavo, the FBI approached an entirely surprised Georgia Rucker in the forgotten little town of Herington, Kan., an hour or so southwest of Topeka.
The agents asked Rucker for the keys to a cracker box of a house she was trying to sell on South Second Street. They told her they were searching for possible explosives. Naturally, she obliged. Unconcerned by what they might find, Rucker went and had her hair done while she waited for them to finish. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be anything there," she told a reporter from the Daily Union in nearby Junction City.
Rucker was wrong. The FBI soon called in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuated the immediate neighborhood, and cordoned off a three-block area. They worked through the night and into the next day. As Rucker learned, this is the house in which Terry Nichols lived at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI on the scene would not confirm that its agents found anything, ABC News and others were told by Oklahoma City's FBI office that explosive devices had indeed been found. The news spin, at least what little surfaced in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed for not having found this old material 10 years prior.
As has happened all too often in the past, however, seeming FBI incompetence provides a cover for a much more troubling story. The story, as high-level forensic economist Stephen Dresch relates it, revolves around an extraordinary figure, Gregory Scarpa Jr., a convicted mobster now serving hard time at the federal super max in Florence, Colo.
Readers may remember Scarpa from multiple Emmy-winner Peter Lance's book, "Cover-Up." As Lance relates, Scarpa cooperated with the Justice Department in the summer of 1996 by scheming to rout the calls of jailmate Ramzi Yousef through to the FBI. Unfortunately for the United States, Yousef often used two obscure languages that the FBI could not translate quickly enough, if at all.
[A letter I received two weeks ago from a purported NSA insider identified the key language as Baluchi, Yousef's native tongue. Again, reportedly, Yousef's final transmission on the subject translated as follows, "What had to be done has been done, TWA 800 (last two words unintelligible)."]
What is undeniable is that the day after TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, Yousef asked for a mistrial, citing the now prejudicial environment post-explosion. He was denied. By allowing him to communicate overseas, however, the Justice Department may well have unwittingly assisted Yousef in his effort to destroy that ill-fated plane.
No one doubts that his allies were capable of it. Indeed, Yousef had bombed a plane in the Philippines, killing a passenger and almost blowing the plane out of the air. He also served as the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and was convicted for the same. His uncle, Khalid Shiekh Muhammad, with whom he communicated from his New York jail, was the mastermind of 9-11.
Possibly to silence him, the Justice Department cut Scarpa no slack for his help with Yousef and deep-sixed him in Colorado for 40 years, a severe sentence for a non-lethal RICO charge. On March 1, 2005, Scarpa called Dresch, who was consulting with an attorney on a related case. Scarpa informed Dresch that an unnamed inmate had made him aware of a cache of explosives to be used in an act of domestic terrorism, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19.
Dresch surmised, correctly as it turned out, that the inmate was Terry Nichols, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, and he immediately contacted the FBI by both phone and fax, as well as Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt with whom Dresch had been working on an FBI-related matter. The FBI visited Scarpa at the prison on March 3, two days later. Having been burned once, this time Scarpa insisted on a written cooperation agreement before he talked.
The following day, an FBI polygraph expert flew in from D.C. and administered what Dresch's own expert calls an "absurdly flawed examination." The FBI expert claimed that Scarpa was lying. Scarpa immediately called Dresch's associate and insisted that she and Dresch visit him.
It should be noted that the FBI's current chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, was the Clinton Justice official who oversaw Scarpa's work with Yousef. To thicken the plot, it was also Caproni who illegally ordered the FBI to take the TWA Flight 800 investigation away from the National Transportation Safety Board and who arranged the prosecution of James and Elizabeth Sanders for James' reporting on the TWA Flight 800 investigation. The absurdly compromised Caproni has any number of reasons for keeping Scarpa out of the light.
On March 10, Dresch and his associate met with Scarpa for seven hours. He gave them a letter from Nichols that provided a highly detailed description of the cached bomb making material – nitromethane, blasting caps, kine-pak, etc. Nichols had told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow up to the Oklahoma City blast.
Nichols' apparent goal in sharing this information was to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, a reported FBI informant named Roger Moore. Nichols also wanted to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material, presumably in a sting gone awry. Nichols was certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material.
No longer trusting the FBI, Dresch worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Together, they improvised an arrangement for Scarpa, and on March 11, Dresch laid out the offer. Scarpa relented and provided Dresch with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the cache within it.
Dresch went to Herington the following day and found the house to be vacant and for sale. His well-connected contact had not followed through, however, on retrieving the material and giving Scarpa credit where due. Only later did the contact claim that his people were surveilling the site waiting for someone to retrieve the material. It would take nearly three more weeks, the day of Schiavo's death, for the FBI to go in.
On Saturday, I called Jeff Lanza, the FBI public affairs officer on the scene, whom I have met on at least a few occasions. I left a message, asking him to confirm whether the Scarpa information led to the activity at Nichols' former home. His office paged him. Two days later he has yet to get back to me.
Lanza, however, made a point of telling the Junction City paper, as paraphrased, "that the FBI did not receive a tip leading them to search ... but rather had received the information during an investigation." But either Lanza or Gary Johnson of the FBI's Oklahoma City office is not on message. "Johnson," writes ABC News, "said the discovery was prompted by a recent tip."
In any case, when I visited the house on Saturday morning, there were neither media, nor police, anywhere to be seen. The Scarpa story is one that many people don't want told – Valerie Caproni, chief among them. And from the looks of things, they may be succeeding.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, left, shown with Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)
_____Flow Chart_____
• Anatomy of a Trip: Details on how money flowed from a Russian oil company, through lobbyists to a nonprofit organization that covered the expenses of Tom DeLay's 1997 trip to Russia.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, left, shown with Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)
_____Flow Chart_____
• Anatomy of a Trip: Details on how money flowed from a Russian oil company, through lobbyists to a nonprofit organization that covered the expenses of Tom DeLay's 1997 trip to Russia.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, left, shown with Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)
_____Flow Chart_____
• Anatomy of a Trip: Details on how money flowed from a Russian oil company, through lobbyists to a nonprofit organization that covered the expenses of Tom DeLay's 1997 trip to Russia.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks
Trophy Donations Raise Questions in Congress
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A01
GERING, Neb. -- The ibex head was jammed next to the moose, whose velvety antlers brushed against a rare red lechwe and an African bongo. Below them were several preserved bobcats, and at the far end of the storage container stood endangered leopards, frozen in lifelike mid-prowl.
In all, there were more than 800 big-game and exotic animals piled into an old railroad car behind the Wyobraska Wildlife Museum, a modest and lightly visited facility here, far from any population center. It was just one of four large containers packed with animal mounts and skins -- trophies shot on expedition or safari to places such as South Africa, Mongolia and game-hunting parks in Texas.
Some of the 3,000 mounts in storage at the museum. (Humane Society Of The United States)
Most of the animals are destined for auction, often at bargain-basement prices, but they're in Gering largely because they remain surprisingly valuable to one group in particular -- the hunters who shot them and had them preserved.
Often appraised for many times their market value, the trophies can yield hefty income tax deductions if nonprofit organizations agree to accept them as charitable gifts. And the Wyobraska museum and others have been more than willing.
According to critics in Congress, top officials at natural history museums and animal rights advocates, this form of charitable giving allows wealthy hunters to go on big-game expeditions essentially at taxpayers' expense -- an arrangement so blatant that one animal trophy appraiser advertises his services under the headline: "Hunt for Free." The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say.
Nobody knows how many trophy mounts are donated yearly to nonprofit collections, or how much tax revenue is being lost to the charitable deductions. But at the Wyobraska museum, the floodgates are open wide.
Records show that in 2000, Wyobraska took in mounts worth $1.4 million. In 2004, the museum's curator said, the value of donations grew to more than $5 million, even though display rooms and storage containers were already overflowing. The entire stuffed menagerie of 800 animals in the rail car out back arrived just last year.
Big-game hunters, whose interests are actively promoted in Washington by the politically powerful Safari Club International, have been quietly donating animal mounts to nonprofit groups for years. The public benefits, hunting advocates say, because visitors get to see animals they would otherwise never encounter. The Safari Club also says revenue from big-game hunting gives nations an incentive to encourage conservation.
Whether the public is being served or fleeced by donations such as these will be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. Its chairman, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating possible abuses in how art and other "non-cash donations" are appraised and donated to nonprofits, and he sees trophy animals as a prime example.
"The phoniness of this kind of donation calls out for congressional action," said Grassley, after learning about the flow of mounts to Wyobraska and other museums, adding that the issue is "in the Finance Committee's cross hairs."
What makes charitable giving so popular with big-game hunters is that their trophies are being appraised at top dollar, often using a donor-friendly "cost of replacement" method that estimates how much a hunter would have to pay to track down the same quarry again.
But the Internal Revenue Service allows this approach only when no market exists to establish a fair market price, and the tax agency has taken the position that there is such a market in big-game trophies. Officials note, for instance, that the Lolli Brothers auction company in Macon, Mo., holds four large taxidermy auctions a year, selling thousands of big-game trophy mounts to businesses and sportsmen. Auctioneer Jim Lolli said the mounts have become something of a commodity, and winning bids are generally 10 to 20 percent of the appraised values.
"A hunter or a museum will tell me the value of an elk is appraised at $10,000, and I'll have to tell them they'll be lucky to get $1,000," Lolli said. "But they have that paper with the big appraisal, so it takes some convincing."
One of the more active appraisers is Robert Bruce Duncan, founder of the Chicago Appraisers Association. According to Wyobraska museum curator Mike Boone, almost all the animals given to his museum in 2004 came via Duncan, who both values the mounts and arranges the donation.
Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks
Trophy Donations Raise Questions in Congress
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A01
GERING, Neb. -- The ibex head was jammed next to the moose, whose velvety antlers brushed against a rare red lechwe and an African bongo. Below them were several preserved bobcats, and at the far end of the storage container stood endangered leopards, frozen in lifelike mid-prowl.
In all, there were more than 800 big-game and exotic animals piled into an old railroad car behind the Wyobraska Wildlife Museum, a modest and lightly visited facility here, far from any population center. It was just one of four large containers packed with animal mounts and skins -- trophies shot on expedition or safari to places such as South Africa, Mongolia and game-hunting parks in Texas.
Some of the 3,000 mounts in storage at the museum. (Humane Society Of The United States)
Most of the animals are destined for auction, often at bargain-basement prices, but they're in Gering largely because they remain surprisingly valuable to one group in particular -- the hunters who shot them and had them preserved.
Often appraised for many times their market value, the trophies can yield hefty income tax deductions if nonprofit organizations agree to accept them as charitable gifts. And the Wyobraska museum and others have been more than willing.
According to critics in Congress, top officials at natural history museums and animal rights advocates, this form of charitable giving allows wealthy hunters to go on big-game expeditions essentially at taxpayers' expense -- an arrangement so blatant that one animal trophy appraiser advertises his services under the headline: "Hunt for Free." The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say.
Nobody knows how many trophy mounts are donated yearly to nonprofit collections, or how much tax revenue is being lost to the charitable deductions. But at the Wyobraska museum, the floodgates are open wide.
Records show that in 2000, Wyobraska took in mounts worth $1.4 million. In 2004, the museum's curator said, the value of donations grew to more than $5 million, even though display rooms and storage containers were already overflowing. The entire stuffed menagerie of 800 animals in the rail car out back arrived just last year.
Big-game hunters, whose interests are actively promoted in Washington by the politically powerful Safari Club International, have been quietly donating animal mounts to nonprofit groups for years. The public benefits, hunting advocates say, because visitors get to see animals they would otherwise never encounter. The Safari Club also says revenue from big-game hunting gives nations an incentive to encourage conservation.
Whether the public is being served or fleeced by donations such as these will be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. Its chairman, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating possible abuses in how art and other "non-cash donations" are appraised and donated to nonprofits, and he sees trophy animals as a prime example.
"The phoniness of this kind of donation calls out for congressional action," said Grassley, after learning about the flow of mounts to Wyobraska and other museums, adding that the issue is "in the Finance Committee's cross hairs."
What makes charitable giving so popular with big-game hunters is that their trophies are being appraised at top dollar, often using a donor-friendly "cost of replacement" method that estimates how much a hunter would have to pay to track down the same quarry again.
But the Internal Revenue Service allows this approach only when no market exists to establish a fair market price, and the tax agency has taken the position that there is such a market in big-game trophies. Officials note, for instance, that the Lolli Brothers auction company in Macon, Mo., holds four large taxidermy auctions a year, selling thousands of big-game trophy mounts to businesses and sportsmen. Auctioneer Jim Lolli said the mounts have become something of a commodity, and winning bids are generally 10 to 20 percent of the appraised values.
"A hunter or a museum will tell me the value of an elk is appraised at $10,000, and I'll have to tell them they'll be lucky to get $1,000," Lolli said. "But they have that paper with the big appraisal, so it takes some convincing."
One of the more active appraisers is Robert Bruce Duncan, founder of the Chicago Appraisers Association. According to Wyobraska museum curator Mike Boone, almost all the animals given to his museum in 2004 came via Duncan, who both values the mounts and arranges the donation.
Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks
Trophy Donations Raise Questions in Congress
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A01
GERING, Neb. -- The ibex head was jammed next to the moose, whose velvety antlers brushed against a rare red lechwe and an African bongo. Below them were several preserved bobcats, and at the far end of the storage container stood endangered leopards, frozen in lifelike mid-prowl.
In all, there were more than 800 big-game and exotic animals piled into an old railroad car behind the Wyobraska Wildlife Museum, a modest and lightly visited facility here, far from any population center. It was just one of four large containers packed with animal mounts and skins -- trophies shot on expedition or safari to places such as South Africa, Mongolia and game-hunting parks in Texas.
Some of the 3,000 mounts in storage at the museum. (Humane Society Of The United States)
Most of the animals are destined for auction, often at bargain-basement prices, but they're in Gering largely because they remain surprisingly valuable to one group in particular -- the hunters who shot them and had them preserved.
Often appraised for many times their market value, the trophies can yield hefty income tax deductions if nonprofit organizations agree to accept them as charitable gifts. And the Wyobraska museum and others have been more than willing.
According to critics in Congress, top officials at natural history museums and animal rights advocates, this form of charitable giving allows wealthy hunters to go on big-game expeditions essentially at taxpayers' expense -- an arrangement so blatant that one animal trophy appraiser advertises his services under the headline: "Hunt for Free." The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say.
Nobody knows how many trophy mounts are donated yearly to nonprofit collections, or how much tax revenue is being lost to the charitable deductions. But at the Wyobraska museum, the floodgates are open wide.
Records show that in 2000, Wyobraska took in mounts worth $1.4 million. In 2004, the museum's curator said, the value of donations grew to more than $5 million, even though display rooms and storage containers were already overflowing. The entire stuffed menagerie of 800 animals in the rail car out back arrived just last year.
Big-game hunters, whose interests are actively promoted in Washington by the politically powerful Safari Club International, have been quietly donating animal mounts to nonprofit groups for years. The public benefits, hunting advocates say, because visitors get to see animals they would otherwise never encounter. The Safari Club also says revenue from big-game hunting gives nations an incentive to encourage conservation.
Whether the public is being served or fleeced by donations such as these will be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. Its chairman, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating possible abuses in how art and other "non-cash donations" are appraised and donated to nonprofits, and he sees trophy animals as a prime example.
"The phoniness of this kind of donation calls out for congressional action," said Grassley, after learning about the flow of mounts to Wyobraska and other museums, adding that the issue is "in the Finance Committee's cross hairs."
What makes charitable giving so popular with big-game hunters is that their trophies are being appraised at top dollar, often using a donor-friendly "cost of replacement" method that estimates how much a hunter would have to pay to track down the same quarry again.
But the Internal Revenue Service allows this approach only when no market exists to establish a fair market price, and the tax agency has taken the position that there is such a market in big-game trophies. Officials note, for instance, that the Lolli Brothers auction company in Macon, Mo., holds four large taxidermy auctions a year, selling thousands of big-game trophy mounts to businesses and sportsmen. Auctioneer Jim Lolli said the mounts have become something of a commodity, and winning bids are generally 10 to 20 percent of the appraised values.
"A hunter or a museum will tell me the value of an elk is appraised at $10,000, and I'll have to tell them they'll be lucky to get $1,000," Lolli said. "But they have that paper with the big appraisal, so it takes some convincing."
One of the more active appraisers is Robert Bruce Duncan, founder of the Chicago Appraisers Association. According to Wyobraska museum curator Mike Boone, almost all the animals given to his museum in 2004 came via Duncan, who both values the mounts and arranges the donation.
Popped car hood brings jail
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two men traveling on Interstate 380 ended up in jail because the hood of their car popped open.
The men were heading south of I-380 on Tuesday when the hood open and covered the windshield, the Linn County sheriff's office said.
Instead of pulling over to fix the problem, the men stuck their heads out the windows so they could see the road and kept going at about 55 mph, officials said.
Two Linn County deputies on patrol took note, and pulled them over.
They arrested the driver, Travis Williams, 25, of Cedar Rapids, on suspicion of driving under suspension, and no proof of insurance. The passenger, Brandon Calmese, 27, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested on a parole violation warrant from Illinois.
Both men were taken to jail. Williams was released Thursday afternoon. Calmese remained in jail on the Illinois warrant.
"It's a little bit hard to drive with the hood of the car laid over the window," Sheriff Don Zeller said.
Popped car hood brings jail
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two men traveling on Interstate 380 ended up in jail because the hood of their car popped open.
The men were heading south of I-380 on Tuesday when the hood open and covered the windshield, the Linn County sheriff's office said.
Instead of pulling over to fix the problem, the men stuck their heads out the windows so they could see the road and kept going at about 55 mph, officials said.
Two Linn County deputies on patrol took note, and pulled them over.
They arrested the driver, Travis Williams, 25, of Cedar Rapids, on suspicion of driving under suspension, and no proof of insurance. The passenger, Brandon Calmese, 27, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested on a parole violation warrant from Illinois.
Both men were taken to jail. Williams was released Thursday afternoon. Calmese remained in jail on the Illinois warrant.
"It's a little bit hard to drive with the hood of the car laid over the window," Sheriff Don Zeller said.
Popped car hood brings jail
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two men traveling on Interstate 380 ended up in jail because the hood of their car popped open.
The men were heading south of I-380 on Tuesday when the hood open and covered the windshield, the Linn County sheriff's office said.
Instead of pulling over to fix the problem, the men stuck their heads out the windows so they could see the road and kept going at about 55 mph, officials said.
Two Linn County deputies on patrol took note, and pulled them over.
They arrested the driver, Travis Williams, 25, of Cedar Rapids, on suspicion of driving under suspension, and no proof of insurance. The passenger, Brandon Calmese, 27, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested on a parole violation warrant from Illinois.
Both men were taken to jail. Williams was released Thursday afternoon. Calmese remained in jail on the Illinois warrant.
"It's a little bit hard to drive with the hood of the car laid over the window," Sheriff Don Zeller said.
Court approves additional investment in US Airways
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved plans by a second regional airline to invest $125 million in bankrupt US Airways, moving the carrier closer to obtaining the financing it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
The court also extended until May 31 a deadline for US Airways to file a reorganization plan.
Under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday, Republic Airways Holding, which operates regional carriers Chautauqua and Republic airlines, would get at least a 19% share in the reorganized company in return for its investment.
The transaction ensures that US Airways would use Republic for some of its regional flights under the US Airways Express banner.
US Airways can also obtain an additional $110 million under the deal by selling some of its regional jets to Republic and by selling flight slots — 113 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and 24 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
But US Airways would reserve the right to lease those slots back from Republic, and also has the option to buy them back at a later date.
US Airways reached a similar deal in February with an affiliate of regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines, in which US Airways received $125 million in return for a promise to use Air Wisconsin as a regional carrier.
When US Airways filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year — its second filing in two years — it estimated it would need $250 million in new financing to successfully emerge.
The company now estimates it will need $350 million, and its deal with Republic is contingent on finding another investor to provide the remaining $100 million.
Court approves additional investment in US Airways
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved plans by a second regional airline to invest $125 million in bankrupt US Airways, moving the carrier closer to obtaining the financing it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
The court also extended until May 31 a deadline for US Airways to file a reorganization plan.
Under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday, Republic Airways Holding, which operates regional carriers Chautauqua and Republic airlines, would get at least a 19% share in the reorganized company in return for its investment.
The transaction ensures that US Airways would use Republic for some of its regional flights under the US Airways Express banner.
US Airways can also obtain an additional $110 million under the deal by selling some of its regional jets to Republic and by selling flight slots — 113 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and 24 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
But US Airways would reserve the right to lease those slots back from Republic, and also has the option to buy them back at a later date.
US Airways reached a similar deal in February with an affiliate of regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines, in which US Airways received $125 million in return for a promise to use Air Wisconsin as a regional carrier.
When US Airways filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year — its second filing in two years — it estimated it would need $250 million in new financing to successfully emerge.
The company now estimates it will need $350 million, and its deal with Republic is contingent on finding another investor to provide the remaining $100 million.
Court approves additional investment in US Airways
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved plans by a second regional airline to invest $125 million in bankrupt US Airways, moving the carrier closer to obtaining the financing it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
The court also extended until May 31 a deadline for US Airways to file a reorganization plan.
Under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday, Republic Airways Holding, which operates regional carriers Chautauqua and Republic airlines, would get at least a 19% share in the reorganized company in return for its investment.
The transaction ensures that US Airways would use Republic for some of its regional flights under the US Airways Express banner.
US Airways can also obtain an additional $110 million under the deal by selling some of its regional jets to Republic and by selling flight slots — 113 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and 24 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
But US Airways would reserve the right to lease those slots back from Republic, and also has the option to buy them back at a later date.
US Airways reached a similar deal in February with an affiliate of regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines, in which US Airways received $125 million in return for a promise to use Air Wisconsin as a regional carrier.
When US Airways filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year — its second filing in two years — it estimated it would need $250 million in new financing to successfully emerge.
The company now estimates it will need $350 million, and its deal with Republic is contingent on finding another investor to provide the remaining $100 million.
Medicare Monthly Premium Rising To $89.20 in 2006
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
Medicare payments to physicians jumped 15 percent last year, an unexpectedly large increase that prompted Bush administration officials yesterday to announce that monthly premiums for America's seniors will rise to $89.20 in 2006, $1.50 more than initially projected.
The unusually sharp spike was caused primarily by lengthier office visits, more complex imaging such as MRI scans and doctors administering more lab tests and treatments in their offices instead of at a hospital.
"There's no question many of these things can help prevent complications of serious chronic diseases and keep patients out of the hospital," said Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But he expressed concern that that is not the case in every instance.
The CMS laid out the costs in a letter yesterday to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient services, were $66.60 last year and rose to $78.20 for 2005. In its March 23 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees projected an increase of $9.50 a month, but it now will be $11.
Medicare Monthly Premium Rising To $89.20 in 2006
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
Medicare payments to physicians jumped 15 percent last year, an unexpectedly large increase that prompted Bush administration officials yesterday to announce that monthly premiums for America's seniors will rise to $89.20 in 2006, $1.50 more than initially projected.
The unusually sharp spike was caused primarily by lengthier office visits, more complex imaging such as MRI scans and doctors administering more lab tests and treatments in their offices instead of at a hospital.
"There's no question many of these things can help prevent complications of serious chronic diseases and keep patients out of the hospital," said Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But he expressed concern that that is not the case in every instance.
The CMS laid out the costs in a letter yesterday to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient services, were $66.60 last year and rose to $78.20 for 2005. In its March 23 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees projected an increase of $9.50 a month, but it now will be $11.
Medicare Monthly Premium Rising To $89.20 in 2006
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
Medicare payments to physicians jumped 15 percent last year, an unexpectedly large increase that prompted Bush administration officials yesterday to announce that monthly premiums for America's seniors will rise to $89.20 in 2006, $1.50 more than initially projected.
The unusually sharp spike was caused primarily by lengthier office visits, more complex imaging such as MRI scans and doctors administering more lab tests and treatments in their offices instead of at a hospital.
"There's no question many of these things can help prevent complications of serious chronic diseases and keep patients out of the hospital," said Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But he expressed concern that that is not the case in every instance.
The CMS laid out the costs in a letter yesterday to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient services, were $66.60 last year and rose to $78.20 for 2005. In its March 23 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees projected an increase of $9.50 a month, but it now will be $11.
President Nominates Cheney's Son-in-Law
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.
Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department.
President Nominates Cheney's Son-in-Law
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.
Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department.
President Nominates Cheney's Son-in-Law
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.
Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department.
First quarter one of worst for stocks
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY
What many investors had hoped would be another year of revival for stocks is shaping up to be one that most would like to forget.
All three major indexes are deep in the red for 2005 and on Thursday closed out one of Wall Street's worst first quarters in years.
First quarter one of worst for stocks
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY
What many investors had hoped would be another year of revival for stocks is shaping up to be one that most would like to forget.
All three major indexes are deep in the red for 2005 and on Thursday closed out one of Wall Street's worst first quarters in years.
First quarter one of worst for stocks
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY
What many investors had hoped would be another year of revival for stocks is shaping up to be one that most would like to forget.
All three major indexes are deep in the red for 2005 and on Thursday closed out one of Wall Street's worst first quarters in years.
March job gains weakest in eight months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Employers created 110,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in eight months, as the number of manufacturing jobs contracted and retailers shed workers, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The surprisingly weak March jobs number was barely half the 220,000 that economists had forecast. In addition, it followed downwardly revised new-job totals of 243,000 in February and 124,000 in January instead of 262,000 and 132,000, respectively, as the government had previously reported.
The unemployment rate, however, which is calculated from a separate survey, declined to 5.2% from 5.4%.
The last month in which there were fewer new jobs was July last year, when only 83,000 were created.
March job gains weakest in eight months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Employers created 110,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in eight months, as the number of manufacturing jobs contracted and retailers shed workers, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The surprisingly weak March jobs number was barely half the 220,000 that economists had forecast. In addition, it followed downwardly revised new-job totals of 243,000 in February and 124,000 in January instead of 262,000 and 132,000, respectively, as the government had previously reported.
The unemployment rate, however, which is calculated from a separate survey, declined to 5.2% from 5.4%.
The last month in which there were fewer new jobs was July last year, when only 83,000 were created.
March job gains weakest in eight months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Employers created 110,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in eight months, as the number of manufacturing jobs contracted and retailers shed workers, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The surprisingly weak March jobs number was barely half the 220,000 that economists had forecast. In addition, it followed downwardly revised new-job totals of 243,000 in February and 124,000 in January instead of 262,000 and 132,000, respectively, as the government had previously reported.
The unemployment rate, however, which is calculated from a separate survey, declined to 5.2% from 5.4%.
The last month in which there were fewer new jobs was July last year, when only 83,000 were created.
Last year, Sierra Club members voted in record numbers to defeat a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups hoping to use the Club's democratic processes to push their own anti-immigration agenda. Now, these groups have forced an anti-immigrant measure onto the 2005 Sierra Club ballot that would require the Club to advocate for new restrictions on immigration into the U.S.—a policy that will do nothing to protect the global environment but will cripple the Sierra Club at a time when all progressives need them to be powerfully focused on righting the environmental wrongs of the current administration.
Why are we getting involved? Groundswell Sierra, a network of Sierra Club members and former staff, asked us to tell the hundreds of thousands of Club members in the MoveOn community, many of whom are in the dark because by-laws keep Club staff from discussing this issue. It's such a serious threat to the progressive movement we felt we needed to pass it on.
If right-wing anti-immigrant groups succeed in their stealth drive to change the Club's agenda, it would drive a wedge between environmental groups and millions of Americans, including Latinos who have led the environmental justice movement and are an important part of the progressive community. It would be a serious setback for the larger progressive coalition, and make the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization, much less effective in blocking President Bush's anti-environmental agenda.
These outside groups are also running stealth candidates for the board of directors without declaring their true anti-immigrant agenda. But a decisive defeat could end their efforts to take over the Sierra Club.
Please pass this on to your Sierra Club member friends.
Who's behind the attempt get the Sierra Club to oppose immigration? Some supporters are environmentalists who believe that ending immigration will reduce environmental damage (though world-renowned scientists Anne and Paul Ehrlich, who wrote the seminal book The Population Bomb, disagree and oppose this takeover). But much of the impetus comes from long time, extreme-right immigration opponents who've adopted a strategy of "greenwashing" their arguments to gain mainstream support for denying immigrants basic human rights like health care or education.
Opponents of the anti-immigrant measure and board candidates include Robert Kennedy, Jr., former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner, and every living current or former Sierra Club president.
During last year's fight, the New York Times editorialized, "Adding such a toxic issue as immigration to the Sierra Club's agenda would simply divert the organization from its primary responsibility, which is to keep real environmental problems in the public consciousness."1 Robert Redford wrote, "Blaming immigrants will not solve any of our environmental problems. Refocusing the Sierra Club on stopping President Bush will... America needs the same Sierra Club that kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed and flooded, that helped create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, that is working tirelessly to stop the Bush administration from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, back at full strength and on the front lines in the fight against Bush and his administration. It's a fight we won't win without the Club
Last year, Sierra Club members voted in record numbers to defeat a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups hoping to use the Club's democratic processes to push their own anti-immigration agenda. Now, these groups have forced an anti-immigrant measure onto the 2005 Sierra Club ballot that would require the Club to advocate for new restrictions on immigration into the U.S.—a policy that will do nothing to protect the global environment but will cripple the Sierra Club at a time when all progressives need them to be powerfully focused on righting the environmental wrongs of the current administration.
Why are we getting involved? Groundswell Sierra, a network of Sierra Club members and former staff, asked us to tell the hundreds of thousands of Club members in the MoveOn community, many of whom are in the dark because by-laws keep Club staff from discussing this issue. It's such a serious threat to the progressive movement we felt we needed to pass it on.
If right-wing anti-immigrant groups succeed in their stealth drive to change the Club's agenda, it would drive a wedge between environmental groups and millions of Americans, including Latinos who have led the environmental justice movement and are an important part of the progressive community. It would be a serious setback for the larger progressive coalition, and make the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization, much less effective in blocking President Bush's anti-environmental agenda.
These outside groups are also running stealth candidates for the board of directors without declaring their true anti-immigrant agenda. But a decisive defeat could end their efforts to take over the Sierra Club.
Please pass this on to your Sierra Club member friends.
Who's behind the attempt get the Sierra Club to oppose immigration? Some supporters are environmentalists who believe that ending immigration will reduce environmental damage (though world-renowned scientists Anne and Paul Ehrlich, who wrote the seminal book The Population Bomb, disagree and oppose this takeover). But much of the impetus comes from long time, extreme-right immigration opponents who've adopted a strategy of "greenwashing" their arguments to gain mainstream support for denying immigrants basic human rights like health care or education.
Opponents of the anti-immigrant measure and board candidates include Robert Kennedy, Jr., former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner, and every living current or former Sierra Club president.
During last year's fight, the New York Times editorialized, "Adding such a toxic issue as immigration to the Sierra Club's agenda would simply divert the organization from its primary responsibility, which is to keep real environmental problems in the public consciousness."1 Robert Redford wrote, "Blaming immigrants will not solve any of our environmental problems. Refocusing the Sierra Club on stopping President Bush will... America needs the same Sierra Club that kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed and flooded, that helped create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, that is working tirelessly to stop the Bush administration from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, back at full strength and on the front lines in the fight against Bush and his administration. It's a fight we won't win without the Club
Last year, Sierra Club members voted in record numbers to defeat a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups hoping to use the Club's democratic processes to push their own anti-immigration agenda. Now, these groups have forced an anti-immigrant measure onto the 2005 Sierra Club ballot that would require the Club to advocate for new restrictions on immigration into the U.S.—a policy that will do nothing to protect the global environment but will cripple the Sierra Club at a time when all progressives need them to be powerfully focused on righting the environmental wrongs of the current administration.
Why are we getting involved? Groundswell Sierra, a network of Sierra Club members and former staff, asked us to tell the hundreds of thousands of Club members in the MoveOn community, many of whom are in the dark because by-laws keep Club staff from discussing this issue. It's such a serious threat to the progressive movement we felt we needed to pass it on.
If right-wing anti-immigrant groups succeed in their stealth drive to change the Club's agenda, it would drive a wedge between environmental groups and millions of Americans, including Latinos who have led the environmental justice movement and are an important part of the progressive community. It would be a serious setback for the larger progressive coalition, and make the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization, much less effective in blocking President Bush's anti-environmental agenda.
These outside groups are also running stealth candidates for the board of directors without declaring their true anti-immigrant agenda. But a decisive defeat could end their efforts to take over the Sierra Club.
Please pass this on to your Sierra Club member friends.
Who's behind the attempt get the Sierra Club to oppose immigration? Some supporters are environmentalists who believe that ending immigration will reduce environmental damage (though world-renowned scientists Anne and Paul Ehrlich, who wrote the seminal book The Population Bomb, disagree and oppose this takeover). But much of the impetus comes from long time, extreme-right immigration opponents who've adopted a strategy of "greenwashing" their arguments to gain mainstream support for denying immigrants basic human rights like health care or education.
Opponents of the anti-immigrant measure and board candidates include Robert Kennedy, Jr., former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner, and every living current or former Sierra Club president.
During last year's fight, the New York Times editorialized, "Adding such a toxic issue as immigration to the Sierra Club's agenda would simply divert the organization from its primary responsibility, which is to keep real environmental problems in the public consciousness."1 Robert Redford wrote, "Blaming immigrants will not solve any of our environmental problems. Refocusing the Sierra Club on stopping President Bush will... America needs the same Sierra Club that kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed and flooded, that helped create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, that is working tirelessly to stop the Bush administration from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, back at full strength and on the front lines in the fight against Bush and his administration. It's a fight we won't win without the Club
Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday March 30, 2005
The Guardian
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.
The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.
Article continues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.
The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
· Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what today's report, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was time to check the accounts.
"That is what this assessment has done, and it is a sobering statement with much more red than black on the balance sheet," the scientists warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean's large predators - tuna, swordfish and sharks - has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.
The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.
Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change, could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.
A growing proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting advanced technology. But nature, the scientists warn, is not something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural spaces is not just a luxury.
"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of nature to the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers."
Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday March 30, 2005
The Guardian
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.
The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.
Article continues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.
The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
· Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what today's report, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was time to check the accounts.
"That is what this assessment has done, and it is a sobering statement with much more red than black on the balance sheet," the scientists warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean's large predators - tuna, swordfish and sharks - has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.
The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.
Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change, could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.
A growing proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting advanced technology. But nature, the scientists warn, is not something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural spaces is not just a luxury.
"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of nature to the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers."
Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday March 30, 2005
The Guardian
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.
The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.
Article continues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.
The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
· Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what today's report, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was time to check the accounts.
"That is what this assessment has done, and it is a sobering statement with much more red than black on the balance sheet," the scientists warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean's large predators - tuna, swordfish and sharks - has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.
The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.
Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change, could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.
A growing proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting advanced technology. But nature, the scientists warn, is not something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural spaces is not just a luxury.
"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of nature to the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers."
March 31, 2005 NY Times
Judge Blocks Rule Allowing Companies to Cut Benefits When Retirees Reach
Medicare Age
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, March 30 - A federal district judge on Wednesday blocked a Bush
administration rule that would have allowed employers to reduce or eliminate
health benefits for retirees when they reach age 65 and become eligible for
Medicare.
Ten million retirees could have had benefits cut under the rule, which was
adopted last April by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The judge, Anita B. Brody of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia,
struck down the rule and issued a permanent injunction that prohibits
federal officials from enforcing it.
The rule "is contrary to Congressional intent and the plain language of the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act," the 1967 law that bans most forms of
age discrimination in the workplace, Judge Brody wrote.
The erosion of retiree health benefits is an explosive political issue.
Before issuing the rule, the commission was deluged with letters opposing
it.
The rule would have created an explicit exemption to the age discrimination
law, allowing employers to reduce health benefits for retirees when they
became eligible for Medicare. Under the rule, Judge Brody said, employers
could have given older retirees "health benefits that are inferior" to those
given retirees younger than 65.
The commission argued that employers were more likely to continue providing
health benefits to retirees under 65 if they were allowed to reduce or
eliminate benefits for those 65 and older.
AARP, the main plaintiff in the case, rejected that argument. It said the
rule would accelerate the erosion of retiree health benefits, a trend that
has been evident for more than a decade.
Christopher G. Mackaronis, a Washington lawyer for AARP, said Wednesday:
"The rule was an example of executive arrogance. Federal agencies have no
authority to rewrite laws passed by Congress. The rule was adopted in April
2004, but officials tucked it in their back pocket while they courted older
voters last year. After the election, they moved forward with the
regulation."
The rule, written by the commission, was reviewed and cleared by other
agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cari M. Dominguez, the chairwoman of the commission, said her agency would
ask the Justice Department to appeal the ruling to the United States Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia.
The appeals court ruled on the same legal issue five years ago, in a case
involving retirees who had worked for Erie County, Pa. Judge Brody closely
followed the precedent laid down by the appeals court.
The commission's rule would allow employers to engage in "the exact same
behavior" prohibited in the Erie County case, Judge Brody said. In that
case, the appeals court found that Congress had intended the age
discrimination law to apply "when an employer reduces health benefits based
on Medicare eligibility."
In the district court, the commission argued that it had the power to exempt
certain conduct from the age discrimination law as long as the exemption was
reasonable, "necessary and proper in the public interest."
Judge Brody rejected that contention. The commission, she said, was trying
to "issue a blanket exemption for illegal behavior," not confined to a few
individual cases. "An administrative agency, including the E.E.O.C., may not
issue regulations, rules or exemptions that go against the intent of
Congress," she added.
The law clearly forbids employers to discriminate on the basis of age in
setting pay and employee benefits, Judge Brody said. And the law, as
interpreted by the appeals court, "prohibits the practice of coordinating
retiree benefits with Medicare eligibility," she said.
No law requires employers to provide health benefits to workers or retirees.
Employers can legally provide benefits to active workers and not to
retirees. Many employers have eliminated retiree health benefits. But, Judge
Brody said, if an employer provides benefits to retirees, it cannot
discriminate among them on the basis of age.
Lawyers said the ruling would apply to companies that give health benefits
to early retirees and want to reduce coverage when the retirees reach 65 and
become eligible for Medicare. Employer-provided health benefits do not
duplicate Medicare. Rather, they help retirees pay medical expenses not
covered by Medicare. Those expenses could include co-payments and
deductibles and prescription drug costs, beyond what Medicare might pay.
Michele Pollak, a lawyer at AARP, said, "It is less expensive for employers
to purchase a health plan that supplements Medicare than it is to purchase
health benefits for younger retirees not eligible for Medicare."
The American Benefits Council, a trade group for large employers, and the HR
Policy Association, which represents human resource executives at 250 large
companies, said they were disappointed with Judge Brody's decision.
Daniel V. Yager, senior vice president of the association, said the ruling
was "a major setback for many employers that are trying to maintain
employer-provided benefits for pre-65 retirees."
March 31, 2005 NY Times
Judge Blocks Rule Allowing Companies to Cut Benefits When Retirees Reach
Medicare Age
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, March 30 - A federal district judge on Wednesday blocked a Bush
administration rule that would have allowed employers to reduce or eliminate
health benefits for retirees when they reach age 65 and become eligible for
Medicare.
Ten million retirees could have had benefits cut under the rule, which was
adopted last April by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The judge, Anita B. Brody of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia,
struck down the rule and issued a permanent injunction that prohibits
federal officials from enforcing it.
The rule "is contrary to Congressional intent and the plain language of the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act," the 1967 law that bans most forms of
age discrimination in the workplace, Judge Brody wrote.
The erosion of retiree health benefits is an explosive political issue.
Before issuing the rule, the commission was deluged with letters opposing
it.
The rule would have created an explicit exemption to the age discrimination
law, allowing employers to reduce health benefits for retirees when they
became eligible for Medicare. Under the rule, Judge Brody said, employers
could have given older retirees "health benefits that are inferior" to those
given retirees younger than 65.
The commission argued that employers were more likely to continue providing
health benefits to retirees under 65 if they were allowed to reduce or
eliminate benefits for those 65 and older.
AARP, the main plaintiff in the case, rejected that argument. It said the
rule would accelerate the erosion of retiree health benefits, a trend that
has been evident for more than a decade.
Christopher G. Mackaronis, a Washington lawyer for AARP, said Wednesday:
"The rule was an example of executive arrogance. Federal agencies have no
authority to rewrite laws passed by Congress. The rule was adopted in April
2004, but officials tucked it in their back pocket while they courted older
voters last year. After the election, they moved forward with the
regulation."
The rule, written by the commission, was reviewed and cleared by other
agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cari M. Dominguez, the chairwoman of the commission, said her agency would
ask the Justice Department to appeal the ruling to the United States Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia.
The appeals court ruled on the same legal issue five years ago, in a case
involving retirees who had worked for Erie County, Pa. Judge Brody closely
followed the precedent laid down by the appeals court.
The commission's rule would allow employers to engage in "the exact same
behavior" prohibited in the Erie County case, Judge Brody said. In that
case, the appeals court found that Congress had intended the age
discrimination law to apply "when an employer reduces health benefits based
on Medicare eligibility."
In the district court, the commission argued that it had the power to exempt
certain conduct from the age discrimination law as long as the exemption was
reasonable, "necessary and proper in the public interest."
Judge Brody rejected that contention. The commission, she said, was trying
to "issue a blanket exemption for illegal behavior," not confined to a few
individual cases. "An administrative agency, including the E.E.O.C., may not
issue regulations, rules or exemptions that go against the intent of
Congress," she added.
The law clearly forbids employers to discriminate on the basis of age in
setting pay and employee benefits, Judge Brody said. And the law, as
interpreted by the appeals court, "prohibits the practice of coordinating
retiree benefits with Medicare eligibility," she said.
No law requires employers to provide health benefits to workers or retirees.
Employers can legally provide benefits to active workers and not to
retirees. Many employers have eliminated retiree health benefits. But, Judge
Brody said, if an employer provides benefits to retirees, it cannot
discriminate among them on the basis of age.
Lawyers said the ruling would apply to companies that give health benefits
to early retirees and want to reduce coverage when the retirees reach 65 and
become eligible for Medicare. Employer-provided health benefits do not
duplicate Medicare. Rather, they help retirees pay medical expenses not
covered by Medicare. Those expenses could include co-payments and
deductibles and prescription drug costs, beyond what Medicare might pay.
Michele Pollak, a lawyer at AARP, said, "It is less expensive for employers
to purchase a health plan that supplements Medicare than it is to purchase
health benefits for younger retirees not eligible for Medicare."
The American Benefits Council, a trade group for large employers, and the HR
Policy Association, which represents human resource executives at 250 large
companies, said they were disappointed with Judge Brody's decision.
Daniel V. Yager, senior vice president of the association, said the ruling
was "a major setback for many employers that are trying to maintain
employer-provided benefits for pre-65 retirees."
March 31, 2005 NY Times
Judge Blocks Rule Allowing Companies to Cut Benefits When Retirees Reach
Medicare Age
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, March 30 - A federal district judge on Wednesday blocked a Bush
administration rule that would have allowed employers to reduce or eliminate
health benefits for retirees when they reach age 65 and become eligible for
Medicare.
Ten million retirees could have had benefits cut under the rule, which was
adopted last April by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The judge, Anita B. Brody of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia,
struck down the rule and issued a permanent injunction that prohibits
federal officials from enforcing it.
The rule "is contrary to Congressional intent and the plain language of the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act," the 1967 law that bans most forms of
age discrimination in the workplace, Judge Brody wrote.
The erosion of retiree health benefits is an explosive political issue.
Before issuing the rule, the commission was deluged with letters opposing
it.
The rule would have created an explicit exemption to the age discrimination
law, allowing employers to reduce health benefits for retirees when they
became eligible for Medicare. Under the rule, Judge Brody said, employers
could have given older retirees "health benefits that are inferior" to those
given retirees younger than 65.
The commission argued that employers were more likely to continue providing
health benefits to retirees under 65 if they were allowed to reduce or
eliminate benefits for those 65 and older.
AARP, the main plaintiff in the case, rejected that argument. It said the
rule would accelerate the erosion of retiree health benefits, a trend that
has been evident for more than a decade.
Christopher G. Mackaronis, a Washington lawyer for AARP, said Wednesday:
"The rule was an example of executive arrogance. Federal agencies have no
authority to rewrite laws passed by Congress. The rule was adopted in April
2004, but officials tucked it in their back pocket while they courted older
voters last year. After the election, they moved forward with the
regulation."
The rule, written by the commission, was reviewed and cleared by other
agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cari M. Dominguez, the chairwoman of the commission, said her agency would
ask the Justice Department to appeal the ruling to the United States Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia.
The appeals court ruled on the same legal issue five years ago, in a case
involving retirees who had worked for Erie County, Pa. Judge Brody closely
followed the precedent laid down by the appeals court.
The commission's rule would allow employers to engage in "the exact same
behavior" prohibited in the Erie County case, Judge Brody said. In that
case, the appeals court found that Congress had intended the age
discrimination law to apply "when an employer reduces health benefits based
on Medicare eligibility."
In the district court, the commission argued that it had the power to exempt
certain conduct from the age discrimination law as long as the exemption was
reasonable, "necessary and proper in the public interest."
Judge Brody rejected that contention. The commission, she said, was trying
to "issue a blanket exemption for illegal behavior," not confined to a few
individual cases. "An administrative agency, including the E.E.O.C., may not
issue regulations, rules or exemptions that go against the intent of
Congress," she added.
The law clearly forbids employers to discriminate on the basis of age in
setting pay and employee benefits, Judge Brody said. And the law, as
interpreted by the appeals court, "prohibits the practice of coordinating
retiree benefits with Medicare eligibility," she said.
No law requires employers to provide health benefits to workers or retirees.
Employers can legally provide benefits to active workers and not to
retirees. Many employers have eliminated retiree health benefits. But, Judge
Brody said, if an employer provides benefits to retirees, it cannot
discriminate among them on the basis of age.
Lawyers said the ruling would apply to companies that give health benefits
to early retirees and want to reduce coverage when the retirees reach 65 and
become eligible for Medicare. Employer-provided health benefits do not
duplicate Medicare. Rather, they help retirees pay medical expenses not
covered by Medicare. Those expenses could include co-payments and
deductibles and prescription drug costs, beyond what Medicare might pay.
Michele Pollak, a lawyer at AARP, said, "It is less expensive for employers
to purchase a health plan that supplements Medicare than it is to purchase
health benefits for younger retirees not eligible for Medicare."
The American Benefits Council, a trade group for large employers, and the HR
Policy Association, which represents human resource executives at 250 large
companies, said they were disappointed with Judge Brody's decision.
Daniel V. Yager, senior vice president of the association, said the ruling
was "a major setback for many employers that are trying to maintain
employer-provided benefits for pre-65 retirees."
THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE
DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads
Family of the lawmaker involved in the Schiavo case decided in '88 to let his comatose father die.
By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writers
CANYON LAKE, Texas — A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.
The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family members keeping vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman — Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.
Then, freshly reelected to a third term in the House, the 41-year-old DeLay waited, all but helpless, for the verdict of doctors.
Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary.
And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing the tube.
In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.
"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, recalled in an interview last week. "There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.
When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."
On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."
"The situation faced by the congressman's family was entirely different than Terri Schiavo's," said a spokesman for the majority leader, who declined requests for an interview.
"The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him," said Dan Allen, DeLay's press aide.
There were also these similarities: Both stricken patients were severely brain-damaged. Both were incapable of surviving without medical assistance. Both were said to have expressed a desire to be spared from being kept alive by artificial means. And neither of them had a living will.
This previously unpublished account of the majority leader's personal brush with life-ending decisions was assembled from court files, medical records and interviews with family members.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a pleasant late afternoon in the Hill Country of Texas on Nov. 17, 1988.
At Charles and Maxine DeLay's home, set on a limestone bluff of cedars and live oaks, it also was a moment of triumph. Charles and his brother, Jerry DeLay, two avid tinkerers, had just finished work on a new backyard tram — an elevator-like device that would carry family and friends down a 200-foot slope to the blue-green waters of Canyon Lake.
The two men called for their wives to hop aboard. Charles pushed the button and the maiden run began. Within seconds, a horrific screeching noise echoed across the still lake — "a sickening sound," said a neighbor. The tram was in trouble.
Maxine, seated up front in the four-passenger trolley, said her husband repeatedly tried to engage the emergency brake, but the rail car kept picking up speed. Halfway down the bank, it was free-wheeling, according to accident investigators.
Moments later, it jumped the track and slammed into a tree, scattering passengers and debris in all directions.
"It was awful, just awful," recalled Karl Braddick, now 86, the DeLays' neighbor at the time. "I came running over, and it was a terrible sight."
He called for emergency help. Rescue workers had trouble bringing the injured victims up the steep terrain. Jerry's wife, JoAnne, suffered broken bones and a shattered elbow. Charles, who had been thrown head-first into a tree, was in grave condition.
"He was all but gone," said Braddick, gesturing at the spot of the accident as he offered a visitor a ride down to the lake in his own tram. "He would have been better off if he'd died right there and then."
But Charles DeLay hung on. In the ambulance on his way to a hospital in New Braunfels 15 miles away, he tried to speak.
"He wasn't making any sense; it was mainly just cuss words," recalled Maxine with a faint, fond smile.
Four hours later, he was airlifted by helicopter to the Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston. Admission records show he arrived with multiple injuries, including broken ribs and a brain hemorrhage.
Tom DeLay flew to his father's bedside, where, along with his two brothers and a sister, they joined their mother. In the weeks that followed, the congressman made repeated trips back from Washington, his family said. Maxine seldom left her husband's side.
"Mama stayed at the hospital with him all the time. Oh, it was terrible for everyone," said Alvina "Vi" Skogen, a former sister-in-law of the congressman. Neighbor Braddick visited the hospital and said it seemed very clear to everyone that there was little prospect of recovery.
"He had no consciousness that I could see," Braddick said. "He did a bit of moaning and groaning, I guess, but you could see there was no way he was coming back."
Maxine DeLay agreed that she was never aware of any consciousness on her husband's part during the long days of her bedside vigil — with one possible exception.
"Whenever Randy walked into the room, his heart, his pulse rate, would go up a little bit," she said of their son, Randall, the congressman's younger brother, who lives near Houston.
Doctors conducted a series of tests, including scans of his head, face, neck and abdomen. They checked for lung damage and performed a tracheostomy to assist his breathing. But they could not prevent steady deterioration.
Then, infections complicated the senior DeLay's fight for life. Finally, his organs began to fail. His family and physicians confronted the dreaded choice so many other Americans have faced: to make heroic efforts or to let the end come.
"Daddy did not want to be a vegetable," said Skogen, one of his daughters-in-law at the time. "There was no decision for the family to make. He made it for them."
The preliminary decision to withhold dialysis and other treatments fell to Maxine along with Randall and her daughter Tena — and "Tom went along." He raised no objection, said the congressman's mother.
Family members said they prayed.
Jerry DeLay "felt terribly about the accident" that injured his brother, said his wife, JoAnne. "He prayed that, if [Charles] couldn't have quality of life, that God would take him — and that is exactly what he did."
Charles Ray DeLay died at 3:17 a.m., according to his death certificate, 27 days after plummeting down the hillside.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The family then turned to lawyers.
In 1990, the DeLays filed suit against Midcap Bearing Corp. of San Antonio and Lovejoy Inc. of Illinois, the distributor and maker of a coupling that the family said had failed and caused the tram to hurtle out of control.
The family's wrongful death lawsuit accused the companies of negligence and sought actual and punitive damages. Lawyers for the companies denied the allegations and countersued the surviving designer of the tram system, Jerry DeLay.
The case thrust Rep. DeLay into unfamiliar territory — the front page of a civil complaint as a plaintiff. He is an outspoken defender of business against what he calls the crippling effects of "predatory, self-serving litigation."
The DeLay family litigation sought unspecified compensation for, among other things, the dead father's "physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and trauma," and the mother's grief, sorrow and loss of companionship.
Their lawsuit also alleged violations of the Texas product liability law.
The DeLay case moved slowly through the Texas judicial system, accumulating more than 500 pages of motions, affidavits and disclosures over nearly three years. Among the affidavits was one filed by the congressman, but family members said he had little direct involvement in the lawsuit, leaving that to his brother Randall, an attorney.
Rep. DeLay, who since has taken a leading role promoting tort reform, wants to rein in trial lawyers to protect American businesses from what he calls "frivolous, parasitic lawsuits" that raise insurance premiums and "kill jobs."
Last September, he expressed less than warm sentiment for attorneys when he took the floor of the House to condemn trial lawyers who, he said, "get fat off the pain" of plaintiffs and off "the hard work" of defendants.
Aides for DeLay defended his role as a plaintiff in the family lawsuit, saying he did not follow the legal case and was not aware of its final outcome.
The case was resolved in 1993 with payment of an undisclosed sum, said to be about $250,000, according to sources familiar with the out-of-court settlement. DeLay signed over his share of any proceeds to his mother, said his aides.
Three years later, DeLay cosponsored a bill specifically designed to override state laws on product liability such as the one cited in his family's lawsuit. The legislation provided sweeping exemptions for product sellers.
The 1996 bill was vetoed by President Clinton, who said he objected to the DeLay-backed measure because it "tilts against American families and would deprive them of the ability to recover fully when they are injured by a defective product."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After her husband's death, Maxine DeLay scrapped the mangled tram at the bottom of the hill and sold the family's lake house.
Today, she lives alone in a Houston senior citizen residence. Like much of the country, she is following news developments in the Schiavo case and her son's prominent role.
She acknowledged questions comparing her family's decision in 1988 to the Schiavo conflict with a slight smile. "It's certainly interesting, isn't it?"
She had a new hairdo for Easter and puffed on a cigarette outside her assisted-living residence as she sat back comparing the cases.
Like her son, she believed there might be hope for Terri Schiavo's recovery. That's what made her family's experience different, she said. Charles had no hope.
"There was no chance he was ever coming back," she said.
THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE
DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads
Family of the lawmaker involved in the Schiavo case decided in '88 to let his comatose father die.
By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writers
CANYON LAKE, Texas — A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.
The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family members keeping vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman — Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.
Then, freshly reelected to a third term in the House, the 41-year-old DeLay waited, all but helpless, for the verdict of doctors.
Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary.
And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing the tube.
In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.
"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, recalled in an interview last week. "There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.
When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."
On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."
"The situation faced by the congressman's family was entirely different than Terri Schiavo's," said a spokesman for the majority leader, who declined requests for an interview.
"The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him," said Dan Allen, DeLay's press aide.
There were also these similarities: Both stricken patients were severely brain-damaged. Both were incapable of surviving without medical assistance. Both were said to have expressed a desire to be spared from being kept alive by artificial means. And neither of them had a living will.
This previously unpublished account of the majority leader's personal brush with life-ending decisions was assembled from court files, medical records and interviews with family members.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a pleasant late afternoon in the Hill Country of Texas on Nov. 17, 1988.
At Charles and Maxine DeLay's home, set on a limestone bluff of cedars and live oaks, it also was a moment of triumph. Charles and his brother, Jerry DeLay, two avid tinkerers, had just finished work on a new backyard tram — an elevator-like device that would carry family and friends down a 200-foot slope to the blue-green waters of Canyon Lake.
The two men called for their wives to hop aboard. Charles pushed the button and the maiden run began. Within seconds, a horrific screeching noise echoed across the still lake — "a sickening sound," said a neighbor. The tram was in trouble.
Maxine, seated up front in the four-passenger trolley, said her husband repeatedly tried to engage the emergency brake, but the rail car kept picking up speed. Halfway down the bank, it was free-wheeling, according to accident investigators.
Moments later, it jumped the track and slammed into a tree, scattering passengers and debris in all directions.
"It was awful, just awful," recalled Karl Braddick, now 86, the DeLays' neighbor at the time. "I came running over, and it was a terrible sight."
He called for emergency help. Rescue workers had trouble bringing the injured victims up the steep terrain. Jerry's wife, JoAnne, suffered broken bones and a shattered elbow. Charles, who had been thrown head-first into a tree, was in grave condition.
"He was all but gone," said Braddick, gesturing at the spot of the accident as he offered a visitor a ride down to the lake in his own tram. "He would have been better off if he'd died right there and then."
But Charles DeLay hung on. In the ambulance on his way to a hospital in New Braunfels 15 miles away, he tried to speak.
"He wasn't making any sense; it was mainly just cuss words," recalled Maxine with a faint, fond smile.
Four hours later, he was airlifted by helicopter to the Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston. Admission records show he arrived with multiple injuries, including broken ribs and a brain hemorrhage.
Tom DeLay flew to his father's bedside, where, along with his two brothers and a sister, they joined their mother. In the weeks that followed, the congressman made repeated trips back from Washington, his family said. Maxine seldom left her husband's side.
"Mama stayed at the hospital with him all the time. Oh, it was terrible for everyone," said Alvina "Vi" Skogen, a former sister-in-law of the congressman. Neighbor Braddick visited the hospital and said it seemed very clear to everyone that there was little prospect of recovery.
"He had no consciousness that I could see," Braddick said. "He did a bit of moaning and groaning, I guess, but you could see there was no way he was coming back."
Maxine DeLay agreed that she was never aware of any consciousness on her husband's part during the long days of her bedside vigil — with one possible exception.
"Whenever Randy walked into the room, his heart, his pulse rate, would go up a little bit," she said of their son, Randall, the congressman's younger brother, who lives near Houston.
Doctors conducted a series of tests, including scans of his head, face, neck and abdomen. They checked for lung damage and performed a tracheostomy to assist his breathing. But they could not prevent steady deterioration.
Then, infections complicated the senior DeLay's fight for life. Finally, his organs began to fail. His family and physicians confronted the dreaded choice so many other Americans have faced: to make heroic efforts or to let the end come.
"Daddy did not want to be a vegetable," said Skogen, one of his daughters-in-law at the time. "There was no decision for the family to make. He made it for them."
The preliminary decision to withhold dialysis and other treatments fell to Maxine along with Randall and her daughter Tena — and "Tom went along." He raised no objection, said the congressman's mother.
Family members said they prayed.
Jerry DeLay "felt terribly about the accident" that injured his brother, said his wife, JoAnne. "He prayed that, if [Charles] couldn't have quality of life, that God would take him — and that is exactly what he did."
Charles Ray DeLay died at 3:17 a.m., according to his death certificate, 27 days after plummeting down the hillside.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The family then turned to lawyers.
In 1990, the DeLays filed suit against Midcap Bearing Corp. of San Antonio and Lovejoy Inc. of Illinois, the distributor and maker of a coupling that the family said had failed and caused the tram to hurtle out of control.
The family's wrongful death lawsuit accused the companies of negligence and sought actual and punitive damages. Lawyers for the companies denied the allegations and countersued the surviving designer of the tram system, Jerry DeLay.
The case thrust Rep. DeLay into unfamiliar territory — the front page of a civil complaint as a plaintiff. He is an outspoken defender of business against what he calls the crippling effects of "predatory, self-serving litigation."
The DeLay family litigation sought unspecified compensation for, among other things, the dead father's "physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and trauma," and the mother's grief, sorrow and loss of companionship.
Their lawsuit also alleged violations of the Texas product liability law.
The DeLay case moved slowly through the Texas judicial system, accumulating more than 500 pages of motions, affidavits and disclosures over nearly three years. Among the affidavits was one filed by the congressman, but family members said he had little direct involvement in the lawsuit, leaving that to his brother Randall, an attorney.
Rep. DeLay, who since has taken a leading role promoting tort reform, wants to rein in trial lawyers to protect American businesses from what he calls "frivolous, parasitic lawsuits" that raise insurance premiums and "kill jobs."
Last September, he expressed less than warm sentiment for attorneys when he took the floor of the House to condemn trial lawyers who, he said, "get fat off the pain" of plaintiffs and off "the hard work" of defendants.
Aides for DeLay defended his role as a plaintiff in the family lawsuit, saying he did not follow the legal case and was not aware of its final outcome.
The case was resolved in 1993 with payment of an undisclosed sum, said to be about $250,000, according to sources familiar with the out-of-court settlement. DeLay signed over his share of any proceeds to his mother, said his aides.
Three years later, DeLay cosponsored a bill specifically designed to override state laws on product liability such as the one cited in his family's lawsuit. The legislation provided sweeping exemptions for product sellers.
The 1996 bill was vetoed by President Clinton, who said he objected to the DeLay-backed measure because it "tilts against American families and would deprive them of the ability to recover fully when they are injured by a defective product."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After her husband's death, Maxine DeLay scrapped the mangled tram at the bottom of the hill and sold the family's lake house.
Today, she lives alone in a Houston senior citizen residence. Like much of the country, she is following news developments in the Schiavo case and her son's prominent role.
She acknowledged questions comparing her family's decision in 1988 to the Schiavo conflict with a slight smile. "It's certainly interesting, isn't it?"
She had a new hairdo for Easter and puffed on a cigarette outside her assisted-living residence as she sat back comparing the cases.
Like her son, she believed there might be hope for Terri Schiavo's recovery. That's what made her family's experience different, she said. Charles had no hope.
"There was no chance he was ever coming back," she said.
THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE
DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads
Family of the lawmaker involved in the Schiavo case decided in '88 to let his comatose father die.
By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writers
CANYON LAKE, Texas — A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.
The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family members keeping vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman — Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.
Then, freshly reelected to a third term in the House, the 41-year-old DeLay waited, all but helpless, for the verdict of doctors.
Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary.
And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing the tube.
In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.
"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, recalled in an interview last week. "There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.
When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."
On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."
"The situation faced by the congressman's family was entirely different than Terri Schiavo's," said a spokesman for the majority leader, who declined requests for an interview.
"The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him," said Dan Allen, DeLay's press aide.
There were also these similarities: Both stricken patients were severely brain-damaged. Both were incapable of surviving without medical assistance. Both were said to have expressed a desire to be spared from being kept alive by artificial means. And neither of them had a living will.
This previously unpublished account of the majority leader's personal brush with life-ending decisions was assembled from court files, medical records and interviews with family members.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a pleasant late afternoon in the Hill Country of Texas on Nov. 17, 1988.
At Charles and Maxine DeLay's home, set on a limestone bluff of cedars and live oaks, it also was a moment of triumph. Charles and his brother, Jerry DeLay, two avid tinkerers, had just finished work on a new backyard tram — an elevator-like device that would carry family and friends down a 200-foot slope to the blue-green waters of Canyon Lake.
The two men called for their wives to hop aboard. Charles pushed the button and the maiden run began. Within seconds, a horrific screeching noise echoed across the still lake — "a sickening sound," said a neighbor. The tram was in trouble.
Maxine, seated up front in the four-passenger trolley, said her husband repeatedly tried to engage the emergency brake, but the rail car kept picking up speed. Halfway down the bank, it was free-wheeling, according to accident investigators.
Moments later, it jumped the track and slammed into a tree, scattering passengers and debris in all directions.
"It was awful, just awful," recalled Karl Braddick, now 86, the DeLays' neighbor at the time. "I came running over, and it was a terrible sight."
He called for emergency help. Rescue workers had trouble bringing the injured victims up the steep terrain. Jerry's wife, JoAnne, suffered broken bones and a shattered elbow. Charles, who had been thrown head-first into a tree, was in grave condition.
"He was all but gone," said Braddick, gesturing at the spot of the accident as he offered a visitor a ride down to the lake in his own tram. "He would have been better off if he'd died right there and then."
But Charles DeLay hung on. In the ambulance on his way to a hospital in New Braunfels 15 miles away, he tried to speak.
"He wasn't making any sense; it was mainly just cuss words," recalled Maxine with a faint, fond smile.
Four hours later, he was airlifted by helicopter to the Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston. Admission records show he arrived with multiple injuries, including broken ribs and a brain hemorrhage.
Tom DeLay flew to his father's bedside, where, along with his two brothers and a sister, they joined their mother. In the weeks that followed, the congressman made repeated trips back from Washington, his family said. Maxine seldom left her husband's side.
"Mama stayed at the hospital with him all the time. Oh, it was terrible for everyone," said Alvina "Vi" Skogen, a former sister-in-law of the congressman. Neighbor Braddick visited the hospital and said it seemed very clear to everyone that there was little prospect of recovery.
"He had no consciousness that I could see," Braddick said. "He did a bit of moaning and groaning, I guess, but you could see there was no way he was coming back."
Maxine DeLay agreed that she was never aware of any consciousness on her husband's part during the long days of her bedside vigil — with one possible exception.
"Whenever Randy walked into the room, his heart, his pulse rate, would go up a little bit," she said of their son, Randall, the congressman's younger brother, who lives near Houston.
Doctors conducted a series of tests, including scans of his head, face, neck and abdomen. They checked for lung damage and performed a tracheostomy to assist his breathing. But they could not prevent steady deterioration.
Then, infections complicated the senior DeLay's fight for life. Finally, his organs began to fail. His family and physicians confronted the dreaded choice so many other Americans have faced: to make heroic efforts or to let the end come.
"Daddy did not want to be a vegetable," said Skogen, one of his daughters-in-law at the time. "There was no decision for the family to make. He made it for them."
The preliminary decision to withhold dialysis and other treatments fell to Maxine along with Randall and her daughter Tena — and "Tom went along." He raised no objection, said the congressman's mother.
Family members said they prayed.
Jerry DeLay "felt terribly about the accident" that injured his brother, said his wife, JoAnne. "He prayed that, if [Charles] couldn't have quality of life, that God would take him — and that is exactly what he did."
Charles Ray DeLay died at 3:17 a.m., according to his death certificate, 27 days after plummeting down the hillside.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The family then turned to lawyers.
In 1990, the DeLays filed suit against Midcap Bearing Corp. of San Antonio and Lovejoy Inc. of Illinois, the distributor and maker of a coupling that the family said had failed and caused the tram to hurtle out of control.
The family's wrongful death lawsuit accused the companies of negligence and sought actual and punitive damages. Lawyers for the companies denied the allegations and countersued the surviving designer of the tram system, Jerry DeLay.
The case thrust Rep. DeLay into unfamiliar territory — the front page of a civil complaint as a plaintiff. He is an outspoken defender of business against what he calls the crippling effects of "predatory, self-serving litigation."
The DeLay family litigation sought unspecified compensation for, among other things, the dead father's "physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and trauma," and the mother's grief, sorrow and loss of companionship.
Their lawsuit also alleged violations of the Texas product liability law.
The DeLay case moved slowly through the Texas judicial system, accumulating more than 500 pages of motions, affidavits and disclosures over nearly three years. Among the affidavits was one filed by the congressman, but family members said he had little direct involvement in the lawsuit, leaving that to his brother Randall, an attorney.
Rep. DeLay, who since has taken a leading role promoting tort reform, wants to rein in trial lawyers to protect American businesses from what he calls "frivolous, parasitic lawsuits" that raise insurance premiums and "kill jobs."
Last September, he expressed less than warm sentiment for attorneys when he took the floor of the House to condemn trial lawyers who, he said, "get fat off the pain" of plaintiffs and off "the hard work" of defendants.
Aides for DeLay defended his role as a plaintiff in the family lawsuit, saying he did not follow the legal case and was not aware of its final outcome.
The case was resolved in 1993 with payment of an undisclosed sum, said to be about $250,000, according to sources familiar with the out-of-court settlement. DeLay signed over his share of any proceeds to his mother, said his aides.
Three years later, DeLay cosponsored a bill specifically designed to override state laws on product liability such as the one cited in his family's lawsuit. The legislation provided sweeping exemptions for product sellers.
The 1996 bill was vetoed by President Clinton, who said he objected to the DeLay-backed measure because it "tilts against American families and would deprive them of the ability to recover fully when they are injured by a defective product."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After her husband's death, Maxine DeLay scrapped the mangled tram at the bottom of the hill and sold the family's lake house.
Today, she lives alone in a Houston senior citizen residence. Like much of the country, she is following news developments in the Schiavo case and her son's prominent role.
She acknowledged questions comparing her family's decision in 1988 to the Schiavo conflict with a slight smile. "It's certainly interesting, isn't it?"
She had a new hairdo for Easter and puffed on a cigarette outside her assisted-living residence as she sat back comparing the cases.
Like her son, she believed there might be hope for Terri Schiavo's recovery. That's what made her family's experience different, she said. Charles had no hope.
"There was no chance he was ever coming back," she said.
Opposition exile alleges more Iran uranium enrichment
Says facility used laser technology; cites new project
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | March 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A member of an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran's government has just completed a secret underground facility to enrich uranium using laser technology, and began a second, secret construction project at the same site earlier this month.
Opposition exile alleges more Iran uranium enrichment
Says facility used laser technology; cites new project
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | March 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A member of an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran's government has just completed a secret underground facility to enrich uranium using laser technology, and began a second, secret construction project at the same site earlier this month.
Opposition exile alleges more Iran uranium enrichment
Says facility used laser technology; cites new project
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | March 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A member of an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran's government has just completed a secret underground facility to enrich uranium using laser technology, and began a second, secret construction project at the same site earlier this month.
Deadly day in Iraq as political talks continue
Negotiations seek role for Sunnis in government
By Mariam Fam, Associated Press | March 26, 2005
BAGHDAD -- Insurgents reasserted themselves in a spasm of deadly attacks after days of reported setbacks, killing 17 Iraqi security officers in four separate car bombings, gunning down five Iraqi women working for American troops, and assassinating a senior Iraqi military official, authorities said yesterday.
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In an effort to counter support for the insurgency among minority Sunni Arabs, the interim government's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, said negotiators had intensified efforts to include the Sunnis in the still-to-be-formed government. But the effort has caused delays in agreeing on a new leadership, prompting public frustration.
''It is not acceptable that two months on from the elections, that Iraq does not have a transitional government yet," Saleh said. ''We are under pressure, and we have to respond to public sentiment and have a government established as soon as possible."
As negotiations dragged on, insurgents bent on stopping the creation of a new leadership intensified attacks on Iraqi security forces, whose success is seen as key to an eventual US withdrawal.
There were several new reports of violence:
Twin suicide car bombings yesterday in Iskandriyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, targeted an Iraqi army convoy and police barracks, killing four police officers, two civilians, and an Iraqi soldier, police said. Eight other members of the security forces and 15 civilians were injured.
Another suicide car bombing yesterday targeted an Iraqi convoy south of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding four others, police said.
Late Thursday at a checkpoint in the central city of Ramadi, a white sedan was blown up, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 14 people -- including two US Army soldiers, nine Iraqi security officers, and three civilians -- the US military said. In an Internet posting, the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility.
In Baghdad yesterday, unknown gunmen assassinated Colonel Salman Muhammad Hassan -- who helped lead an Iraqi Army division based in the southern city of Basra -- and wounded two of his sons as they left a relative's funeral in Baghdad, security officials said.
In Baghdad on Thursday, five women who worked as translators for the US military were gunned down by insurgents as they returned home from work, police Captain Ahmed Aboud said.
Deadly day in Iraq as political talks continue
Negotiations seek role for Sunnis in government
By Mariam Fam, Associated Press | March 26, 2005
BAGHDAD -- Insurgents reasserted themselves in a spasm of deadly attacks after days of reported setbacks, killing 17 Iraqi security officers in four separate car bombings, gunning down five Iraqi women working for American troops, and assassinating a senior Iraqi military official, authorities said yesterday.
ADVERTISEMENT
In an effort to counter support for the insurgency among minority Sunni Arabs, the interim government's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, said negotiators had intensified efforts to include the Sunnis in the still-to-be-formed government. But the effort has caused delays in agreeing on a new leadership, prompting public frustration.
''It is not acceptable that two months on from the elections, that Iraq does not have a transitional government yet," Saleh said. ''We are under pressure, and we have to respond to public sentiment and have a government established as soon as possible."
As negotiations dragged on, insurgents bent on stopping the creation of a new leadership intensified attacks on Iraqi security forces, whose success is seen as key to an eventual US withdrawal.
There were several new reports of violence:
Twin suicide car bombings yesterday in Iskandriyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, targeted an Iraqi army convoy and police barracks, killing four police officers, two civilians, and an Iraqi soldier, police said. Eight other members of the security forces and 15 civilians were injured.
Another suicide car bombing yesterday targeted an Iraqi convoy south of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding four others, police said.
Late Thursday at a checkpoint in the central city of Ramadi, a white sedan was blown up, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 14 people -- including two US Army soldiers, nine Iraqi security officers, and three civilians -- the US military said. In an Internet posting, the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility.
In Baghdad yesterday, unknown gunmen assassinated Colonel Salman Muhammad Hassan -- who helped lead an Iraqi Army division based in the southern city of Basra -- and wounded two of his sons as they left a relative's funeral in Baghdad, security officials said.
In Baghdad on Thursday, five women who worked as translators for the US military were gunned down by insurgents as they returned home from work, police Captain Ahmed Aboud said.
Deadly day in Iraq as political talks continue
Negotiations seek role for Sunnis in government
By Mariam Fam, Associated Press | March 26, 2005
BAGHDAD -- Insurgents reasserted themselves in a spasm of deadly attacks after days of reported setbacks, killing 17 Iraqi security officers in four separate car bombings, gunning down five Iraqi women working for American troops, and assassinating a senior Iraqi military official, authorities said yesterday.
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In an effort to counter support for the insurgency among minority Sunni Arabs, the interim government's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, said negotiators had intensified efforts to include the Sunnis in the still-to-be-formed government. But the effort has caused delays in agreeing on a new leadership, prompting public frustration.
''It is not acceptable that two months on from the elections, that Iraq does not have a transitional government yet," Saleh said. ''We are under pressure, and we have to respond to public sentiment and have a government established as soon as possible."
As negotiations dragged on, insurgents bent on stopping the creation of a new leadership intensified attacks on Iraqi security forces, whose success is seen as key to an eventual US withdrawal.
There were several new reports of violence:
Twin suicide car bombings yesterday in Iskandriyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, targeted an Iraqi army convoy and police barracks, killing four police officers, two civilians, and an Iraqi soldier, police said. Eight other members of the security forces and 15 civilians were injured.
Another suicide car bombing yesterday targeted an Iraqi convoy south of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding four others, police said.
Late Thursday at a checkpoint in the central city of Ramadi, a white sedan was blown up, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 14 people -- including two US Army soldiers, nine Iraqi security officers, and three civilians -- the US military said. In an Internet posting, the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility.
In Baghdad yesterday, unknown gunmen assassinated Colonel Salman Muhammad Hassan -- who helped lead an Iraqi Army division based in the southern city of Basra -- and wounded two of his sons as they left a relative's funeral in Baghdad, security officials said.
In Baghdad on Thursday, five women who worked as translators for the US military were gunned down by insurgents as they returned home from work, police Captain Ahmed Aboud said.
Bush: U.S. to Sell F-16s to Pakistan
Reversal, Decried by India, Is Coupled With Fighter-Jet Promise to New Delhi
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A01
CRAWFORD, Tex., March 25 -- President Bush rewarded a key ally in the war on terrorism Friday by authorizing the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, a move that reversed 15 years of policy begun under his father and that India warned would destabilize the volatile region.
The United States barred the sale of F-16s to Pakistan in 1990 out of concern over its then-undeclared nuclear weapons program, but Bush has forged a close relationship with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf since Sept. 11, 2001, and considers his help crucial in the battle against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization.
_____Rice Interview_____
• Audio: In an interview with the Washington Post, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed concerns about the sale of F-16s to Pakistan.
_____India - Pakistan Talks_____
• India Protests Possible Sale Of Fighter Jets to Pakistan (The Washington Post, Mar 17, 2005)
• Avalanches Kill 225 in Kashmir (The Washington Post, Feb 24, 2005)
• Deal to Run Buses In Kashmir Bolsters India-Pakistan Talks (The Washington Post, Feb 17, 2005)
• Special Report: India - Pakistan
• Primer: The Conflict in Kashmir
__ Tsunami in South Asia __
Casualty Map
Track the path of destruction in an animated map and view updated casualty reports.
• How to Help Victims
_____ Rebuilding Weligama _____
The Post's Dobbs
writes of his own experiences and efforts to help rebuild a Sri Lanka community.
_____ On the Scene _____
• Photo Gallery: Return to School
• Photo Gallery: Tsunami Aftermath
• Satellite Images: Banda Aceh
• 'Like a Scene From the Bible'
The Post's Michael Dobbs describes his experience in Sri Lanka.
• Transcript: A First Person Account
• Video: Dobbs Recounts Experience
• More Tsunami Coverage
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
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Pakistan initially wants to buy about two dozen aircraft, but Bush administration officials said there would be no limits on how many it could eventually purchase. The administration tried to balance the sale by announcing simultaneously that it would allow U.S. firms the right to provide India the next generation of sophisticated, multirole combat aircraft, including upgraded F-16 and F-18 warplanes, as well as develop broader cooperation in military command and control, early-warning detection, and missile defense systems.
"What we are trying to do is solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan, at a time when we have good relations with both of them -- something most people didn't think could be done -- and at a time when they have improving relationships with one another," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview at The Washington Post.
"If you look at it in terms of the region," she added, "what we are trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that is good for Pakistan is bad for India, and vice versa."
Critics in Washington assailed the decision, saying the administration would effectively supply both sides in a new arms race in one of the world's most dangerous hot spots, even as it rewards an authoritarian government in Islamabad in conflict with Bush's stated commitment to promote democracy around the globe.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complained that selling F-16s to Pakistan would shift the balance of power in South Asia. "We're greatly disappointed to hear the news," said Gautam Bambawale, minister for press affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington. "This is probably going to have negative consequences for Indian security and the security environment" of the region, Bambawale said.
Bush called Singh to explain the decision Friday morning from his ranch here, where he is taking an Easter break
Bush: U.S. to Sell F-16s to Pakistan
Reversal, Decried by India, Is Coupled With Fighter-Jet Promise to New Delhi
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A01
CRAWFORD, Tex., March 25 -- President Bush rewarded a key ally in the war on terrorism Friday by authorizing the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, a move that reversed 15 years of policy begun under his father and that India warned would destabilize the volatile region.
The United States barred the sale of F-16s to Pakistan in 1990 out of concern over its then-undeclared nuclear weapons program, but Bush has forged a close relationship with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf since Sept. 11, 2001, and considers his help crucial in the battle against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization.
_____Rice Interview_____
• Audio: In an interview with the Washington Post, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed concerns about the sale of F-16s to Pakistan.
_____India - Pakistan Talks_____
• India Protests Possible Sale Of Fighter Jets to Pakistan (The Washington Post, Mar 17, 2005)
• Avalanches Kill 225 in Kashmir (The Washington Post, Feb 24, 2005)
• Deal to Run Buses In Kashmir Bolsters India-Pakistan Talks (The Washington Post, Feb 17, 2005)
• Special Report: India - Pakistan
• Primer: The Conflict in Kashmir
__ Tsunami in South Asia __
Casualty Map
Track the path of destruction in an animated map and view updated casualty reports.
• How to Help Victims
_____ Rebuilding Weligama _____
The Post's Dobbs
writes of his own experiences and efforts to help rebuild a Sri Lanka community.
_____ On the Scene _____
• Photo Gallery: Return to School
• Photo Gallery: Tsunami Aftermath
• Satellite Images: Banda Aceh
• 'Like a Scene From the Bible'
The Post's Michael Dobbs describes his experience in Sri Lanka.
• Transcript: A First Person Account
• Video: Dobbs Recounts Experience
• More Tsunami Coverage
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Today's Headlines & Columnists
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Breaking News Alerts
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Pakistan initially wants to buy about two dozen aircraft, but Bush administration officials said there would be no limits on how many it could eventually purchase. The administration tried to balance the sale by announcing simultaneously that it would allow U.S. firms the right to provide India the next generation of sophisticated, multirole combat aircraft, including upgraded F-16 and F-18 warplanes, as well as develop broader cooperation in military command and control, early-warning detection, and missile defense systems.
"What we are trying to do is solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan, at a time when we have good relations with both of them -- something most people didn't think could be done -- and at a time when they have improving relationships with one another," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview at The Washington Post.
"If you look at it in terms of the region," she added, "what we are trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that is good for Pakistan is bad for India, and vice versa."
Critics in Washington assailed the decision, saying the administration would effectively supply both sides in a new arms race in one of the world's most dangerous hot spots, even as it rewards an authoritarian government in Islamabad in conflict with Bush's stated commitment to promote democracy around the globe.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complained that selling F-16s to Pakistan would shift the balance of power in South Asia. "We're greatly disappointed to hear the news," said Gautam Bambawale, minister for press affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington. "This is probably going to have negative consequences for Indian security and the security environment" of the region, Bambawale said.
Bush called Singh to explain the decision Friday morning from his ranch here, where he is taking an Easter break
Bush: U.S. to Sell F-16s to Pakistan
Reversal, Decried by India, Is Coupled With Fighter-Jet Promise to New Delhi
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A01
CRAWFORD, Tex., March 25 -- President Bush rewarded a key ally in the war on terrorism Friday by authorizing the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, a move that reversed 15 years of policy begun under his father and that India warned would destabilize the volatile region.
The United States barred the sale of F-16s to Pakistan in 1990 out of concern over its then-undeclared nuclear weapons program, but Bush has forged a close relationship with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf since Sept. 11, 2001, and considers his help crucial in the battle against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization.
_____Rice Interview_____
• Audio: In an interview with the Washington Post, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed concerns about the sale of F-16s to Pakistan.
_____India - Pakistan Talks_____
• India Protests Possible Sale Of Fighter Jets to Pakistan (The Washington Post, Mar 17, 2005)
• Avalanches Kill 225 in Kashmir (The Washington Post, Feb 24, 2005)
• Deal to Run Buses In Kashmir Bolsters India-Pakistan Talks (The Washington Post, Feb 17, 2005)
• Special Report: India - Pakistan
• Primer: The Conflict in Kashmir
__ Tsunami in South Asia __
Casualty Map
Track the path of destruction in an animated map and view updated casualty reports.
• How to Help Victims
_____ Rebuilding Weligama _____
The Post's Dobbs
writes of his own experiences and efforts to help rebuild a Sri Lanka community.
_____ On the Scene _____
• Photo Gallery: Return to School
• Photo Gallery: Tsunami Aftermath
• Satellite Images: Banda Aceh
• 'Like a Scene From the Bible'
The Post's Michael Dobbs describes his experience in Sri Lanka.
• Transcript: A First Person Account
• Video: Dobbs Recounts Experience
• More Tsunami Coverage
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Today's Headlines & Columnists
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Breaking News Alerts
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Pakistan initially wants to buy about two dozen aircraft, but Bush administration officials said there would be no limits on how many it could eventually purchase. The administration tried to balance the sale by announcing simultaneously that it would allow U.S. firms the right to provide India the next generation of sophisticated, multirole combat aircraft, including upgraded F-16 and F-18 warplanes, as well as develop broader cooperation in military command and control, early-warning detection, and missile defense systems.
"What we are trying to do is solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan, at a time when we have good relations with both of them -- something most people didn't think could be done -- and at a time when they have improving relationships with one another," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview at The Washington Post.
"If you look at it in terms of the region," she added, "what we are trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that is good for Pakistan is bad for India, and vice versa."
Critics in Washington assailed the decision, saying the administration would effectively supply both sides in a new arms race in one of the world's most dangerous hot spots, even as it rewards an authoritarian government in Islamabad in conflict with Bush's stated commitment to promote democracy around the globe.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complained that selling F-16s to Pakistan would shift the balance of power in South Asia. "We're greatly disappointed to hear the news," said Gautam Bambawale, minister for press affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington. "This is probably going to have negative consequences for Indian security and the security environment" of the region, Bambawale said.
Bush called Singh to explain the decision Friday morning from his ranch here, where he is taking an Easter break
March 16, 2005
Life-Support Stopped for 6-Month-Old in Houston
Yesterday Sun Hudson, the nearly 6-month-old at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, diagnosed and slowly dying with a rare form of dwarfism (thanatophoric dysplasia), was taken off the ventilator that was keeping him alive. A Houston court authorized the hospital's action, and Sun died shortly thereafter. Today's Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News have most of the details.
Both papers report that this is the first time in the United States a court has allowed life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn from a pediatric patient over the objections of the child's parent. (The Dallas paper quotes John Paris, a bioethicist at Boston College, as its source.) If true, the unique Texas statute under which this saga was played out contributed in no small way to the outcome. As one of the laws co-authors (along with a roomful of other drafters, in 1999) let me explain.
Continue reading "when W. was Gov. of TEXAS....thanks Mike S." »
March 16, 2005
Life-Support Stopped for 6-Month-Old in Houston
Yesterday Sun Hudson, the nearly 6-month-old at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, diagnosed and slowly dying with a rare form of dwarfism (thanatophoric dysplasia), was taken off the ventilator that was keeping him alive. A Houston court authorized the hospital's action, and Sun died shortly thereafter. Today's Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News have most of the details.
Both papers report that this is the first time in the United States a court has allowed life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn from a pediatric patient over the objections of the child's parent. (The Dallas paper quotes John Paris, a bioethicist at Boston College, as its source.) If true, the unique Texas statute under which this saga was played out contributed in no small way to the outcome. As one of the laws co-authors (along with a roomful of other drafters, in 1999) let me explain.
Continue reading "when W. was Gov. of TEXAS....thanks Mike S." »
March 16, 2005
Life-Support Stopped for 6-Month-Old in Houston
Yesterday Sun Hudson, the nearly 6-month-old at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, diagnosed and slowly dying with a rare form of dwarfism (thanatophoric dysplasia), was taken off the ventilator that was keeping him alive. A Houston court authorized the hospital's action, and Sun died shortly thereafter. Today's Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News have most of the details.
Both papers report that this is the first time in the United States a court has allowed life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn from a pediatric patient over the objections of the child's parent. (The Dallas paper quotes John Paris, a bioethicist at Boston College, as its source.) If true, the unique Texas statute under which this saga was played out contributed in no small way to the outcome. As one of the laws co-authors (along with a roomful of other drafters, in 1999) let me explain.
Continue reading "when W. was Gov. of TEXAS....thanks Mike S." »
Rumsfeld discusses rise of postwar insurgency
By Siobhan McDonough, Associated Press | March 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq would not be so high if the US-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Rumsfeld told ''Fox News Sunday" that if the United States had been able to get its Fourth Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkey, more of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime would have been captured or killed, diminishing the insurgency.
US forces had to enter Iraq from the south, so by the time Baghdad was taken, much of Hussein's military and intelligence services had dissipated into the northern cities, Rumsfeld said. ''They're still, in a number of instances, still active," he said.
As Iraqi security forces develop, Rumsfeld said, they will take increasing responsibility, and the insurgency will diminish over time. He estimated current Iraqi security forces at over 145,000.
US forces in Iraq are being reduced from 153,000 to 137,000 or 140,000, Rumsfeld said, although it's possible more security will have to be put into place when elections take place next year.
Rumsfeld told ABC's ''This Week" that at least 30 projects are underway to reduce stress on US forces. For example, he said, a new national security personnel system allows for the use of fewer military people in civilian posts, and the Pentagon is rebalancing the active force with the reserve component. ''So far, we've only used in Iraq and Afghanistan something like 40 percent of the Guard and Reserve," he said. ''It's not like everything's been used up."
On Fox, Rumsfeld defended his ''old Europe" characterization of nations such as France and Germany that opposed US policy in Iraq.
''That's not haunting me," he said. ''I don't think it was a stunning comment, and it certainly wasn't in any way denigrating anything."
Rumsfeld discusses rise of postwar insurgency
By Siobhan McDonough, Associated Press | March 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq would not be so high if the US-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Rumsfeld told ''Fox News Sunday" that if the United States had been able to get its Fourth Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkey, more of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime would have been captured or killed, diminishing the insurgency.
US forces had to enter Iraq from the south, so by the time Baghdad was taken, much of Hussein's military and intelligence services had dissipated into the northern cities, Rumsfeld said. ''They're still, in a number of instances, still active," he said.
As Iraqi security forces develop, Rumsfeld said, they will take increasing responsibility, and the insurgency will diminish over time. He estimated current Iraqi security forces at over 145,000.
US forces in Iraq are being reduced from 153,000 to 137,000 or 140,000, Rumsfeld said, although it's possible more security will have to be put into place when elections take place next year.
Rumsfeld told ABC's ''This Week" that at least 30 projects are underway to reduce stress on US forces. For example, he said, a new national security personnel system allows for the use of fewer military people in civilian posts, and the Pentagon is rebalancing the active force with the reserve component. ''So far, we've only used in Iraq and Afghanistan something like 40 percent of the Guard and Reserve," he said. ''It's not like everything's been used up."
On Fox, Rumsfeld defended his ''old Europe" characterization of nations such as France and Germany that opposed US policy in Iraq.
''That's not haunting me," he said. ''I don't think it was a stunning comment, and it certainly wasn't in any way denigrating anything."
Rumsfeld discusses rise of postwar insurgency
By Siobhan McDonough, Associated Press | March 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq would not be so high if the US-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Rumsfeld told ''Fox News Sunday" that if the United States had been able to get its Fourth Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkey, more of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime would have been captured or killed, diminishing the insurgency.
US forces had to enter Iraq from the south, so by the time Baghdad was taken, much of Hussein's military and intelligence services had dissipated into the northern cities, Rumsfeld said. ''They're still, in a number of instances, still active," he said.
As Iraqi security forces develop, Rumsfeld said, they will take increasing responsibility, and the insurgency will diminish over time. He estimated current Iraqi security forces at over 145,000.
US forces in Iraq are being reduced from 153,000 to 137,000 or 140,000, Rumsfeld said, although it's possible more security will have to be put into place when elections take place next year.
Rumsfeld told ABC's ''This Week" that at least 30 projects are underway to reduce stress on US forces. For example, he said, a new national security personnel system allows for the use of fewer military people in civilian posts, and the Pentagon is rebalancing the active force with the reserve component. ''So far, we've only used in Iraq and Afghanistan something like 40 percent of the Guard and Reserve," he said. ''It's not like everything's been used up."
On Fox, Rumsfeld defended his ''old Europe" characterization of nations such as France and Germany that opposed US policy in Iraq.
''That's not haunting me," he said. ''I don't think it was a stunning comment, and it certainly wasn't in any way denigrating anything."
Iraq anniversary marked by more fighting
From staff and wire reports
BAGHDAD — The start of the third year of U.S. military operations in Iraq is being marked by continuing violence by insurgents, with a new round of attacks Monday leaving Iraqi civilians and soldiers dead.
An Iraqi police commando stands guard Monday over Jordan's embassy in Baghdad.
By Karim Kadim, AP
Insurgent attacks across Iraq on Monday left seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers dead. In the deadliest attack Monday on civilians, a roadside bomb killed four women and three children in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, police Capt. Falah al-Muhmadawi said.
An Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 160 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell landed on his camp, while another soldier died and four others were wounded when an Iraqi army vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in western Baghdad, a Defense Ministry official said.
In Baghdad's Amiriyah neighborhood, gunmen in two speeding cars fired on an Iraq army foot patrol, killing another soldier and wounding a third, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.
Nearby, the head of the Kazimiyah neighborhood police force, Col. Mou'yad Farhan, escaped unhurt when gunmen opened fire on his car, police said. His driver, however, was seriously injured and hospitalized.
In Samarra, an explosives-laden pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber went off prematurely near a hospital, wounding about a dozen civilians and damaging homes, police 1st Lt. Qassem Mohammed said.
Sunday, in one of the largest battles since the elections Jan. 30, insurgents attacked coalition forces Sunday southeast of Baghdad. The resulting clashes left 26 insurgents dead and six American soldiers wounded, U.S. Central Command said. Seven insurgents also were wounded in the fighting, Central Command said in a statement. A U.S. convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area when it was attacked.
After the attack, troops recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault weapons, more than 2,900 rounds of ammunition and 40 hand grenades from the insurgents.
The six soldiers were treated at a coalition medical facility, Central Command said.
Elsewhere on Sunday:
• A U.S. soldier was killed Sunday and two were injured near the insurgent stronghold of Tikrit.
• In Mosul, a senior police officer in charge of a local anti-corruption commission was killed when a suicide bomber detonated inside a government compound. The attack injured three other Iraqis.
• In Samarra, insurgents killed an Iraqi policeman as he walked to work, and then attacked policemen who went to recover his body. Three assailants were arrested, police Lt. Qassim Mohammed said.
• In the southern city of Basra, attackers targeted a police patrol with a roadside bomb. They killed one civilian and injured a policeman, police Col. Karim al-Zeidi said.
• In Baghdad, U.S. forces arrested eight terrorism suspects. Three had Iraqi police badges, but only one of those badges was registered in police records, according to the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
U.S. soldiers acting on a tip raided a house in Baghdad on Sunday and arrested a foreign terrorism suspect who had several passports, a pistol and $200, the Army said. The suspect was not identified.
Also Sunday, neighbors Iraq and Jordan announced they were temporarily recalling their top diplomats from each other's capitals in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan was failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq.
The diplomatic dispute erupted as a Jordanian court sentenced Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to a 15-year prison term in absentia. Zarqawi's whereabouts are unknown. His group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing that killed the anti-corruption official in Mosul.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said an investigation into the death of an Italian intelligence officer shot by U.S. forces in Iraq will be completed soon.
"It will not take forever," he told Fox News Sunday.
On March 4, U.S. forces shot at a car carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, a hostage who had been released by her Iraqi captors. Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who engineered the release, was killed. Sgrena and another Italian intelligence agent were injured.
Iraq anniversary marked by more fighting
From staff and wire reports
BAGHDAD — The start of the third year of U.S. military operations in Iraq is being marked by continuing violence by insurgents, with a new round of attacks Monday leaving Iraqi civilians and soldiers dead.
An Iraqi police commando stands guard Monday over Jordan's embassy in Baghdad.
By Karim Kadim, AP
Insurgent attacks across Iraq on Monday left seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers dead. In the deadliest attack Monday on civilians, a roadside bomb killed four women and three children in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, police Capt. Falah al-Muhmadawi said.
An Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 160 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell landed on his camp, while another soldier died and four others were wounded when an Iraqi army vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in western Baghdad, a Defense Ministry official said.
In Baghdad's Amiriyah neighborhood, gunmen in two speeding cars fired on an Iraq army foot patrol, killing another soldier and wounding a third, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.
Nearby, the head of the Kazimiyah neighborhood police force, Col. Mou'yad Farhan, escaped unhurt when gunmen opened fire on his car, police said. His driver, however, was seriously injured and hospitalized.
In Samarra, an explosives-laden pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber went off prematurely near a hospital, wounding about a dozen civilians and damaging homes, police 1st Lt. Qassem Mohammed said.
Sunday, in one of the largest battles since the elections Jan. 30, insurgents attacked coalition forces Sunday southeast of Baghdad. The resulting clashes left 26 insurgents dead and six American soldiers wounded, U.S. Central Command said. Seven insurgents also were wounded in the fighting, Central Command said in a statement. A U.S. convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area when it was attacked.
After the attack, troops recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault weapons, more than 2,900 rounds of ammunition and 40 hand grenades from the insurgents.
The six soldiers were treated at a coalition medical facility, Central Command said.
Elsewhere on Sunday:
• A U.S. soldier was killed Sunday and two were injured near the insurgent stronghold of Tikrit.
• In Mosul, a senior police officer in charge of a local anti-corruption commission was killed when a suicide bomber detonated inside a government compound. The attack injured three other Iraqis.
• In Samarra, insurgents killed an Iraqi policeman as he walked to work, and then attacked policemen who went to recover his body. Three assailants were arrested, police Lt. Qassim Mohammed said.
• In the southern city of Basra, attackers targeted a police patrol with a roadside bomb. They killed one civilian and injured a policeman, police Col. Karim al-Zeidi said.
• In Baghdad, U.S. forces arrested eight terrorism suspects. Three had Iraqi police badges, but only one of those badges was registered in police records, according to the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
U.S. soldiers acting on a tip raided a house in Baghdad on Sunday and arrested a foreign terrorism suspect who had several passports, a pistol and $200, the Army said. The suspect was not identified.
Also Sunday, neighbors Iraq and Jordan announced they were temporarily recalling their top diplomats from each other's capitals in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan was failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq.
The diplomatic dispute erupted as a Jordanian court sentenced Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to a 15-year prison term in absentia. Zarqawi's whereabouts are unknown. His group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing that killed the anti-corruption official in Mosul.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said an investigation into the death of an Italian intelligence officer shot by U.S. forces in Iraq will be completed soon.
"It will not take forever," he told Fox News Sunday.
On March 4, U.S. forces shot at a car carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, a hostage who had been released by her Iraqi captors. Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who engineered the release, was killed. Sgrena and another Italian intelligence agent were injured.
Iraq anniversary marked by more fighting
From staff and wire reports
BAGHDAD — The start of the third year of U.S. military operations in Iraq is being marked by continuing violence by insurgents, with a new round of attacks Monday leaving Iraqi civilians and soldiers dead.
An Iraqi police commando stands guard Monday over Jordan's embassy in Baghdad.
By Karim Kadim, AP
Insurgent attacks across Iraq on Monday left seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers dead. In the deadliest attack Monday on civilians, a roadside bomb killed four women and three children in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, police Capt. Falah al-Muhmadawi said.
An Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 160 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell landed on his camp, while another soldier died and four others were wounded when an Iraqi army vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in western Baghdad, a Defense Ministry official said.
In Baghdad's Amiriyah neighborhood, gunmen in two speeding cars fired on an Iraq army foot patrol, killing another soldier and wounding a third, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.
Nearby, the head of the Kazimiyah neighborhood police force, Col. Mou'yad Farhan, escaped unhurt when gunmen opened fire on his car, police said. His driver, however, was seriously injured and hospitalized.
In Samarra, an explosives-laden pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber went off prematurely near a hospital, wounding about a dozen civilians and damaging homes, police 1st Lt. Qassem Mohammed said.
Sunday, in one of the largest battles since the elections Jan. 30, insurgents attacked coalition forces Sunday southeast of Baghdad. The resulting clashes left 26 insurgents dead and six American soldiers wounded, U.S. Central Command said. Seven insurgents also were wounded in the fighting, Central Command said in a statement. A U.S. convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area when it was attacked.
After the attack, troops recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault weapons, more than 2,900 rounds of ammunition and 40 hand grenades from the insurgents.
The six soldiers were treated at a coalition medical facility, Central Command said.
Elsewhere on Sunday:
• A U.S. soldier was killed Sunday and two were injured near the insurgent stronghold of Tikrit.
• In Mosul, a senior police officer in charge of a local anti-corruption commission was killed when a suicide bomber detonated inside a government compound. The attack injured three other Iraqis.
• In Samarra, insurgents killed an Iraqi policeman as he walked to work, and then attacked policemen who went to recover his body. Three assailants were arrested, police Lt. Qassim Mohammed said.
• In the southern city of Basra, attackers targeted a police patrol with a roadside bomb. They killed one civilian and injured a policeman, police Col. Karim al-Zeidi said.
• In Baghdad, U.S. forces arrested eight terrorism suspects. Three had Iraqi police badges, but only one of those badges was registered in police records, according to the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
U.S. soldiers acting on a tip raided a house in Baghdad on Sunday and arrested a foreign terrorism suspect who had several passports, a pistol and $200, the Army said. The suspect was not identified.
Also Sunday, neighbors Iraq and Jordan announced they were temporarily recalling their top diplomats from each other's capitals in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan was failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq.
The diplomatic dispute erupted as a Jordanian court sentenced Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to a 15-year prison term in absentia. Zarqawi's whereabouts are unknown. His group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing that killed the anti-corruption official in Mosul.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said an investigation into the death of an Italian intelligence officer shot by U.S. forces in Iraq will be completed soon.
"It will not take forever," he told Fox News Sunday.
On March 4, U.S. forces shot at a car carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, a hostage who had been released by her Iraqi captors. Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who engineered the release, was killed. Sgrena and another Italian intelligence agent were injured.
Former Conn. governor gets year in prison for corruption
By Matt Apuzzo and John Christoffersen, Associated Press | March 19, 2005
NEW HAVEN -- John G. Rowland, the charismatic former governor who once boldly predicted that a federal corruption investigation would never touch him, was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison.
''I am ashamed to be here today, and I accept full responsibility for my actions," Rowland told US District Judge Peter C. Dorsey.
Rowland, 47, pleaded guilty in December to a corruption charge, admitting that he had accepted more than $100,000 in chartered trips to Las Vegas, Vermont vacations, and repairs to his lakeside cottage. He resigned from office July 1 in the midst of an impeachment probe.
The three-term Republican governor told Dorsey that he had lost sight of his ethical judgment and developed a ''sense of entitlement and even arrogance."
''I let my pride get in my way," he said.
Dorsey sentenced Rowland to a year plus one day in prison, four months of home confinement, and three years of supervised release. He ordered Rowland to report to prison on April 1 at Fort Devens in Ayre, Mass.
Former Conn. governor gets year in prison for corruption
By Matt Apuzzo and John Christoffersen, Associated Press | March 19, 2005
NEW HAVEN -- John G. Rowland, the charismatic former governor who once boldly predicted that a federal corruption investigation would never touch him, was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison.
''I am ashamed to be here today, and I accept full responsibility for my actions," Rowland told US District Judge Peter C. Dorsey.
Rowland, 47, pleaded guilty in December to a corruption charge, admitting that he had accepted more than $100,000 in chartered trips to Las Vegas, Vermont vacations, and repairs to his lakeside cottage. He resigned from office July 1 in the midst of an impeachment probe.
The three-term Republican governor told Dorsey that he had lost sight of his ethical judgment and developed a ''sense of entitlement and even arrogance."
''I let my pride get in my way," he said.
Dorsey sentenced Rowland to a year plus one day in prison, four months of home confinement, and three years of supervised release. He ordered Rowland to report to prison on April 1 at Fort Devens in Ayre, Mass.
Former Conn. governor gets year in prison for corruption
By Matt Apuzzo and John Christoffersen, Associated Press | March 19, 2005
NEW HAVEN -- John G. Rowland, the charismatic former governor who once boldly predicted that a federal corruption investigation would never touch him, was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison.
''I am ashamed to be here today, and I accept full responsibility for my actions," Rowland told US District Judge Peter C. Dorsey.
Rowland, 47, pleaded guilty in December to a corruption charge, admitting that he had accepted more than $100,000 in chartered trips to Las Vegas, Vermont vacations, and repairs to his lakeside cottage. He resigned from office July 1 in the midst of an impeachment probe.
The three-term Republican governor told Dorsey that he had lost sight of his ethical judgment and developed a ''sense of entitlement and even arrogance."
''I let my pride get in my way," he said.
Dorsey sentenced Rowland to a year plus one day in prison, four months of home confinement, and three years of supervised release. He ordered Rowland to report to prison on April 1 at Fort Devens in Ayre, Mass.
Bushes make pitch to Fla. seniors
President trying to win over GOP on Social Security
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 19, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- His mother and brother at his side, President Bush yesterday traveled to the retiree haven of Florida to seek to assuage seniors' fears over the possibility of their Social Security benefits being cut.
Barbara Bush gamely played her role, appealing to the crowd as a fellow senior citizen. With the president and Governor Jeb Bush of Florida sharing the stage, she pronounced herself concerned about what Social Security will look like for her 17 grandchildren.
''We want to know: Is someone going to do something about it?" she said at Pensacola Junior College. ''That's the whole reason [I'm here] -- other than seeing my boys."
Yet Barbara Bush's appearance with the president also speaks to the political reality that is threatening to sink Bush's plan. Six weeks after he laid out his goals for Social Security in his State of the Union address, the president remains on the defensive.
He has barely started working with Congress to craft a bill, because he is still trying to convince people that Social Security faces funding challenges that require swift action. Democrats, meanwhile, are united in their opposition to private accounts and benefit cuts, and they are aligned with powerful labor unions and the AARP.
Yesterday Bush spent far more time assuring seniors that their benefits wouldn't be cut, one reason he included his mother in the events, than he did touting personal accounts, the centerpiece of his plan. He praised Social Security as ''one of our greatest institutions" and thanked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for creating it.
At events in Pensacola and Orlando, Bush spoke in front of signs that read ''Keeping Our Promise to Seniors." Gone were the banners used by the White House at previous events: ''Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century."
Bushes make pitch to Fla. seniors
President trying to win over GOP on Social Security
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 19, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- His mother and brother at his side, President Bush yesterday traveled to the retiree haven of Florida to seek to assuage seniors' fears over the possibility of their Social Security benefits being cut.
Barbara Bush gamely played her role, appealing to the crowd as a fellow senior citizen. With the president and Governor Jeb Bush of Florida sharing the stage, she pronounced herself concerned about what Social Security will look like for her 17 grandchildren.
''We want to know: Is someone going to do something about it?" she said at Pensacola Junior College. ''That's the whole reason [I'm here] -- other than seeing my boys."
Yet Barbara Bush's appearance with the president also speaks to the political reality that is threatening to sink Bush's plan. Six weeks after he laid out his goals for Social Security in his State of the Union address, the president remains on the defensive.
He has barely started working with Congress to craft a bill, because he is still trying to convince people that Social Security faces funding challenges that require swift action. Democrats, meanwhile, are united in their opposition to private accounts and benefit cuts, and they are aligned with powerful labor unions and the AARP.
Yesterday Bush spent far more time assuring seniors that their benefits wouldn't be cut, one reason he included his mother in the events, than he did touting personal accounts, the centerpiece of his plan. He praised Social Security as ''one of our greatest institutions" and thanked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for creating it.
At events in Pensacola and Orlando, Bush spoke in front of signs that read ''Keeping Our Promise to Seniors." Gone were the banners used by the White House at previous events: ''Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century."
Bushes make pitch to Fla. seniors
President trying to win over GOP on Social Security
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 19, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- His mother and brother at his side, President Bush yesterday traveled to the retiree haven of Florida to seek to assuage seniors' fears over the possibility of their Social Security benefits being cut.
Barbara Bush gamely played her role, appealing to the crowd as a fellow senior citizen. With the president and Governor Jeb Bush of Florida sharing the stage, she pronounced herself concerned about what Social Security will look like for her 17 grandchildren.
''We want to know: Is someone going to do something about it?" she said at Pensacola Junior College. ''That's the whole reason [I'm here] -- other than seeing my boys."
Yet Barbara Bush's appearance with the president also speaks to the political reality that is threatening to sink Bush's plan. Six weeks after he laid out his goals for Social Security in his State of the Union address, the president remains on the defensive.
He has barely started working with Congress to craft a bill, because he is still trying to convince people that Social Security faces funding challenges that require swift action. Democrats, meanwhile, are united in their opposition to private accounts and benefit cuts, and they are aligned with powerful labor unions and the AARP.
Yesterday Bush spent far more time assuring seniors that their benefits wouldn't be cut, one reason he included his mother in the events, than he did touting personal accounts, the centerpiece of his plan. He praised Social Security as ''one of our greatest institutions" and thanked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for creating it.
At events in Pensacola and Orlando, Bush spoke in front of signs that read ''Keeping Our Promise to Seniors." Gone were the banners used by the White House at previous events: ''Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century."
The pro-Bush group Progress for America released a new TV ad highlighting Social Security’s long-term fiscal deficit by telling voters that the system will go bankrupt “sooner than you think.”
But the ad fails to mention that the system isn't projected to go "bankrupt" for another 37 years, when the Trust Fund is exhausted. And even then, neutral experts agree Social Security could still pay between 70 and 80 percent of currently scheduled benefits.
The group also takes aim at “National Democrats” for having no plan to address the system's financial shortfall. It’s quite true that Congressional Democrats have not endorsed a specific plan, but neither has President Bush.
The pro-Bush group Progress for America released a new TV ad highlighting Social Security’s long-term fiscal deficit by telling voters that the system will go bankrupt “sooner than you think.”
But the ad fails to mention that the system isn't projected to go "bankrupt" for another 37 years, when the Trust Fund is exhausted. And even then, neutral experts agree Social Security could still pay between 70 and 80 percent of currently scheduled benefits.
The group also takes aim at “National Democrats” for having no plan to address the system's financial shortfall. It’s quite true that Congressional Democrats have not endorsed a specific plan, but neither has President Bush.
The pro-Bush group Progress for America released a new TV ad highlighting Social Security’s long-term fiscal deficit by telling voters that the system will go bankrupt “sooner than you think.”
But the ad fails to mention that the system isn't projected to go "bankrupt" for another 37 years, when the Trust Fund is exhausted. And even then, neutral experts agree Social Security could still pay between 70 and 80 percent of currently scheduled benefits.
The group also takes aim at “National Democrats” for having no plan to address the system's financial shortfall. It’s quite true that Congressional Democrats have not endorsed a specific plan, but neither has President Bush.
Agency's Reorganization Results in Accusations, Employees Leaving
By Stephen Barr
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page B02
A contentious reorganization has snarled operations at the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency created by Congress to protect workplace rights of federal employees.
As part of the reorganization, 12 employees -- lawyers and investigators -- were ordered in January to take jobs in three field offices. Since the order was given, 10 of those handed transfer orders have left the agency and two other employees have resigned, according to watchdog groups.
Agency's Reorganization Results in Accusations, Employees Leaving
By Stephen Barr
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page B02
A contentious reorganization has snarled operations at the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency created by Congress to protect workplace rights of federal employees.
As part of the reorganization, 12 employees -- lawyers and investigators -- were ordered in January to take jobs in three field offices. Since the order was given, 10 of those handed transfer orders have left the agency and two other employees have resigned, according to watchdog groups.
Agency's Reorganization Results in Accusations, Employees Leaving
By Stephen Barr
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page B02
A contentious reorganization has snarled operations at the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency created by Congress to protect workplace rights of federal employees.
As part of the reorganization, 12 employees -- lawyers and investigators -- were ordered in January to take jobs in three field offices. Since the order was given, 10 of those handed transfer orders have left the agency and two other employees have resigned, according to watchdog groups.
No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict
Thu Mar 17, 3:50 PM ET Science - Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported on Thursday.
Sea levels will rise more than they have already risen, worsening the damage caused by extreme high tides and storm surges, and droughts, heat waves and storms will become more severe, the climate experts predicted.
That makes immediate action to slow global warming even more vital, the teams at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado report in the journal Science.
"Even if we stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, the climate will continue to warm, and there will be proportionately even more sea level rise," said the NCAR's Gerald Meehl, who led one of the two studies.
"The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future."
Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the U.S. economy.
Meehl's team ran two computer simulations of climate change -- complex programs, he said, that took months to run on supercomputers.
Those models included as many variables as the researchers could think of, such as human carbon emissions, other pollution, current temperatures and their rate of change, emissions from volcanoes, changes in solar radiation and shifts in the ozone layer.
"Then we ran for the 21st century three different scenarios," Meehl said in a telephone interview.
One scenario assumed human production of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases stabilized in 2000 and ran the model to the year 2100.
"We found that just based on the ingredients that have already been put into the atmosphere in the 20th century, we already are committed to another half a degree (0.5 degree C or 0.9 degree F) of global warming," Meehl said.
"That's about what we saw in the 20th century. We are already committed to as much climate change in the 21st century as we saw in the 20th century."
That would mean more extreme weather and a rise in sea levels, not even accounting for melting ice, Meehl said.
Experts say sea levels have risen 4 inches already over the past century and could rise between 4 and 40 inches More in the next century.
If completely melted, the Greenland ice sheet would add 25 feet to overall sea level and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise it by 16 feet -- enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and New York City's Manhattan island.
In a second study in Science, the NCAR's Tom Wigley said he used a much simpler climate model to make a similar prediction.
He found it may not be possible to reduce emissions enough to stop the sea from rising. Even if all emissions stopped now, he calculated, changes were under way that would lead to a rise in sea levels of 4 inches per century.
No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict
Thu Mar 17, 3:50 PM ET Science - Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported on Thursday.
Sea levels will rise more than they have already risen, worsening the damage caused by extreme high tides and storm surges, and droughts, heat waves and storms will become more severe, the climate experts predicted.
That makes immediate action to slow global warming even more vital, the teams at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado report in the journal Science.
"Even if we stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, the climate will continue to warm, and there will be proportionately even more sea level rise," said the NCAR's Gerald Meehl, who led one of the two studies.
"The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future."
Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the U.S. economy.
Meehl's team ran two computer simulations of climate change -- complex programs, he said, that took months to run on supercomputers.
Those models included as many variables as the researchers could think of, such as human carbon emissions, other pollution, current temperatures and their rate of change, emissions from volcanoes, changes in solar radiation and shifts in the ozone layer.
"Then we ran for the 21st century three different scenarios," Meehl said in a telephone interview.
One scenario assumed human production of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases stabilized in 2000 and ran the model to the year 2100.
"We found that just based on the ingredients that have already been put into the atmosphere in the 20th century, we already are committed to another half a degree (0.5 degree C or 0.9 degree F) of global warming," Meehl said.
"That's about what we saw in the 20th century. We are already committed to as much climate change in the 21st century as we saw in the 20th century."
That would mean more extreme weather and a rise in sea levels, not even accounting for melting ice, Meehl said.
Experts say sea levels have risen 4 inches already over the past century and could rise between 4 and 40 inches More in the next century.
If completely melted, the Greenland ice sheet would add 25 feet to overall sea level and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise it by 16 feet -- enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and New York City's Manhattan island.
In a second study in Science, the NCAR's Tom Wigley said he used a much simpler climate model to make a similar prediction.
He found it may not be possible to reduce emissions enough to stop the sea from rising. Even if all emissions stopped now, he calculated, changes were under way that would lead to a rise in sea levels of 4 inches per century.
No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict
Thu Mar 17, 3:50 PM ET Science - Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported on Thursday.
Sea levels will rise more than they have already risen, worsening the damage caused by extreme high tides and storm surges, and droughts, heat waves and storms will become more severe, the climate experts predicted.
That makes immediate action to slow global warming even more vital, the teams at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado report in the journal Science.
"Even if we stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, the climate will continue to warm, and there will be proportionately even more sea level rise," said the NCAR's Gerald Meehl, who led one of the two studies.
"The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future."
Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the U.S. economy.
Meehl's team ran two computer simulations of climate change -- complex programs, he said, that took months to run on supercomputers.
Those models included as many variables as the researchers could think of, such as human carbon emissions, other pollution, current temperatures and their rate of change, emissions from volcanoes, changes in solar radiation and shifts in the ozone layer.
"Then we ran for the 21st century three different scenarios," Meehl said in a telephone interview.
One scenario assumed human production of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases stabilized in 2000 and ran the model to the year 2100.
"We found that just based on the ingredients that have already been put into the atmosphere in the 20th century, we already are committed to another half a degree (0.5 degree C or 0.9 degree F) of global warming," Meehl said.
"That's about what we saw in the 20th century. We are already committed to as much climate change in the 21st century as we saw in the 20th century."
That would mean more extreme weather and a rise in sea levels, not even accounting for melting ice, Meehl said.
Experts say sea levels have risen 4 inches already over the past century and could rise between 4 and 40 inches More in the next century.
If completely melted, the Greenland ice sheet would add 25 feet to overall sea level and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise it by 16 feet -- enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and New York City's Manhattan island.
In a second study in Science, the NCAR's Tom Wigley said he used a much simpler climate model to make a similar prediction.
He found it may not be possible to reduce emissions enough to stop the sea from rising. Even if all emissions stopped now, he calculated, changes were under way that would lead to a rise in sea levels of 4 inches per century.
Funding Scarce for Export of Democracy
Outside Mideast, U.S. Effort Lags
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A01
In the weeks after a popular uprising toppled a corrupt government in Ukraine, President Bush hailed the so-called Orange Revolution as proof that democracy was on the march and promised $60 million to help secure it in Kiev. But Republican congressional allies balked and slashed it this week to $33.7 million.
The shrinking financial commitment to Ukrainian democracy highlights a broader gap between rhetoric and resources among budget writers in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill as the president vows to devote his second term to "ending tyranny in our world," according to budget documents, congressional critics and democracy advocates.
Friday's Question:
When was baseball granted an exemption from the country's antitrust laws?
1876
1922
1930
1951
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The administration has pumped substantial new funds into promoting democracy in Muslim countries but virtually nowhere else in the world. The administration has cut budgets for groups struggling to build civil society and democratic institutions in Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia, even as Moscow has pulled back from democracy and governments in China, Burma, Uzbekistan and elsewhere remain among the most repressive in the world.
Funding for the National Endowment for Democracy has remained flat for the past two years except in the Middle East, while separate democracy-building programs have been slashed by 38 percent in Eastern Europe and 46 percent in the former Soviet Union during Bush's presidency. The venerable beacons of American-style democracy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, are receiving no sizable increases.
Lorne W. Craner, who until recently was assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said the shifting priorities are a logical byproduct of the post-Sept. 11 world, in which fostering democracy in Muslim communities came to be seen as a means to combat terrorism.
"People in other regions for two or three years after 9/11 said, 'You're not giving us as much attention as we deserve,' and I think that was a fair critique and the reason was we were creating a whole new policy for the Middle East," Craner said. "A lot of people's time was taken up by the Middle East that, but for 9/11, would have gone to other areas. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. Certainly I would say we needed to pay more attention to the Middle East."
The focus on Iraq, he added, will be critical to setting a role model for other regions as well. "If Iraq doesn't work," he said, "a lot of people are going to say, 'Is that what you mean by democracy?' "
But others took issue with the selective aid. "The president is not putting his money where his mouth is," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch. While giving Bush credit for investing in democracy in the Middle East, he added, "There are just big country-by-country, region-by-region differences when it comes to the administration's commitment to democracy promotion."
"There are a number of countries that aren't getting much democracy aid," said Thomas Carothers, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's project on democracy and the rule of law. Carothers pointed to mass arrests of protesters seeking restoration of democracy in Nepal this week. "There are places like that where we're losing because they're on the edge of the world and people aren't paying attention."
Among groups that will lose out is the Asia Foundation, which works to reform legal codes, foster civil society and promote women's rights in places such as Indonesia, where it is credited with helping the transition from decades of dictatorship. The Bush budget for the 2006 fiscal year cuts the foundation's grant from $13 million to $10 million. "Any cut at that level would be very difficult for our program," said Nancy Yuan, a foundation vice president.
Also facing cuts is the Eurasia Foundation, which has been told that the final installment of a $25 million grant to set up a U.S.-European-Russian democracy program in Russia may be delayed despite President Vladimir Putin's moves to clamp down on political opposition. "We can't give up," said Charles William Maynes, president of the Eurasia Foundation. "It would be disastrous if we do."
The International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the main U.S. agencies that teach political activists how to conduct fair elections, devote about half of their budgets to Iraq and the Middle East, according Craner, who is now IRI president.
Measuring how much Washington spends on democracy promotion is difficult because the money is scattered among programs and much of it is embedded in grants by the U.S. Agency for International Development. But recent trends have been clear. USAID spending on democracy and governance programs alone shot up from $671 million in 2002 to $1.2 billion in 2004, but almost all of that increase was devoted to Iraq and Afghanistan. Without those two countries, the USAID democracy spending in 2004 was $685 million, virtually unchanged from two years earlier.
Funding Scarce for Export of Democracy
Outside Mideast, U.S. Effort Lags
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A01
In the weeks after a popular uprising toppled a corrupt government in Ukraine, President Bush hailed the so-called Orange Revolution as proof that democracy was on the march and promised $60 million to help secure it in Kiev. But Republican congressional allies balked and slashed it this week to $33.7 million.
The shrinking financial commitment to Ukrainian democracy highlights a broader gap between rhetoric and resources among budget writers in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill as the president vows to devote his second term to "ending tyranny in our world," according to budget documents, congressional critics and democracy advocates.
Friday's Question:
When was baseball granted an exemption from the country's antitrust laws?
1876
1922
1930
1951
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• Post Your Comments
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Daily Politics News & Analysis
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The administration has pumped substantial new funds into promoting democracy in Muslim countries but virtually nowhere else in the world. The administration has cut budgets for groups struggling to build civil society and democratic institutions in Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia, even as Moscow has pulled back from democracy and governments in China, Burma, Uzbekistan and elsewhere remain among the most repressive in the world.
Funding for the National Endowment for Democracy has remained flat for the past two years except in the Middle East, while separate democracy-building programs have been slashed by 38 percent in Eastern Europe and 46 percent in the former Soviet Union during Bush's presidency. The venerable beacons of American-style democracy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, are receiving no sizable increases.
Lorne W. Craner, who until recently was assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said the shifting priorities are a logical byproduct of the post-Sept. 11 world, in which fostering democracy in Muslim communities came to be seen as a means to combat terrorism.
"People in other regions for two or three years after 9/11 said, 'You're not giving us as much attention as we deserve,' and I think that was a fair critique and the reason was we were creating a whole new policy for the Middle East," Craner said. "A lot of people's time was taken up by the Middle East that, but for 9/11, would have gone to other areas. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. Certainly I would say we needed to pay more attention to the Middle East."
The focus on Iraq, he added, will be critical to setting a role model for other regions as well. "If Iraq doesn't work," he said, "a lot of people are going to say, 'Is that what you mean by democracy?' "
But others took issue with the selective aid. "The president is not putting his money where his mouth is," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch. While giving Bush credit for investing in democracy in the Middle East, he added, "There are just big country-by-country, region-by-region differences when it comes to the administration's commitment to democracy promotion."
"There are a number of countries that aren't getting much democracy aid," said Thomas Carothers, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's project on democracy and the rule of law. Carothers pointed to mass arrests of protesters seeking restoration of democracy in Nepal this week. "There are places like that where we're losing because they're on the edge of the world and people aren't paying attention."
Among groups that will lose out is the Asia Foundation, which works to reform legal codes, foster civil society and promote women's rights in places such as Indonesia, where it is credited with helping the transition from decades of dictatorship. The Bush budget for the 2006 fiscal year cuts the foundation's grant from $13 million to $10 million. "Any cut at that level would be very difficult for our program," said Nancy Yuan, a foundation vice president.
Also facing cuts is the Eurasia Foundation, which has been told that the final installment of a $25 million grant to set up a U.S.-European-Russian democracy program in Russia may be delayed despite President Vladimir Putin's moves to clamp down on political opposition. "We can't give up," said Charles William Maynes, president of the Eurasia Foundation. "It would be disastrous if we do."
The International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the main U.S. agencies that teach political activists how to conduct fair elections, devote about half of their budgets to Iraq and the Middle East, according Craner, who is now IRI president.
Measuring how much Washington spends on democracy promotion is difficult because the money is scattered among programs and much of it is embedded in grants by the U.S. Agency for International Development. But recent trends have been clear. USAID spending on democracy and governance programs alone shot up from $671 million in 2002 to $1.2 billion in 2004, but almost all of that increase was devoted to Iraq and Afghanistan. Without those two countries, the USAID democracy spending in 2004 was $685 million, virtually unchanged from two years earlier.
Funding Scarce for Export of Democracy
Outside Mideast, U.S. Effort Lags
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A01
In the weeks after a popular uprising toppled a corrupt government in Ukraine, President Bush hailed the so-called Orange Revolution as proof that democracy was on the march and promised $60 million to help secure it in Kiev. But Republican congressional allies balked and slashed it this week to $33.7 million.
The shrinking financial commitment to Ukrainian democracy highlights a broader gap between rhetoric and resources among budget writers in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill as the president vows to devote his second term to "ending tyranny in our world," according to budget documents, congressional critics and democracy advocates.
Friday's Question:
When was baseball granted an exemption from the country's antitrust laws?
1876
1922
1930
1951
_____Message Boards_____
• Post Your Comments
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Daily Politics News & Analysis
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
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The administration has pumped substantial new funds into promoting democracy in Muslim countries but virtually nowhere else in the world. The administration has cut budgets for groups struggling to build civil society and democratic institutions in Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia, even as Moscow has pulled back from democracy and governments in China, Burma, Uzbekistan and elsewhere remain among the most repressive in the world.
Funding for the National Endowment for Democracy has remained flat for the past two years except in the Middle East, while separate democracy-building programs have been slashed by 38 percent in Eastern Europe and 46 percent in the former Soviet Union during Bush's presidency. The venerable beacons of American-style democracy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, are receiving no sizable increases.
Lorne W. Craner, who until recently was assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said the shifting priorities are a logical byproduct of the post-Sept. 11 world, in which fostering democracy in Muslim communities came to be seen as a means to combat terrorism.
"People in other regions for two or three years after 9/11 said, 'You're not giving us as much attention as we deserve,' and I think that was a fair critique and the reason was we were creating a whole new policy for the Middle East," Craner said. "A lot of people's time was taken up by the Middle East that, but for 9/11, would have gone to other areas. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. Certainly I would say we needed to pay more attention to the Middle East."
The focus on Iraq, he added, will be critical to setting a role model for other regions as well. "If Iraq doesn't work," he said, "a lot of people are going to say, 'Is that what you mean by democracy?' "
But others took issue with the selective aid. "The president is not putting his money where his mouth is," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch. While giving Bush credit for investing in democracy in the Middle East, he added, "There are just big country-by-country, region-by-region differences when it comes to the administration's commitment to democracy promotion."
"There are a number of countries that aren't getting much democracy aid," said Thomas Carothers, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's project on democracy and the rule of law. Carothers pointed to mass arrests of protesters seeking restoration of democracy in Nepal this week. "There are places like that where we're losing because they're on the edge of the world and people aren't paying attention."
Among groups that will lose out is the Asia Foundation, which works to reform legal codes, foster civil society and promote women's rights in places such as Indonesia, where it is credited with helping the transition from decades of dictatorship. The Bush budget for the 2006 fiscal year cuts the foundation's grant from $13 million to $10 million. "Any cut at that level would be very difficult for our program," said Nancy Yuan, a foundation vice president.
Also facing cuts is the Eurasia Foundation, which has been told that the final installment of a $25 million grant to set up a U.S.-European-Russian democracy program in Russia may be delayed despite President Vladimir Putin's moves to clamp down on political opposition. "We can't give up," said Charles William Maynes, president of the Eurasia Foundation. "It would be disastrous if we do."
The International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the main U.S. agencies that teach political activists how to conduct fair elections, devote about half of their budgets to Iraq and the Middle East, according Craner, who is now IRI president.
Measuring how much Washington spends on democracy promotion is difficult because the money is scattered among programs and much of it is embedded in grants by the U.S. Agency for International Development. But recent trends have been clear. USAID spending on democracy and governance programs alone shot up from $671 million in 2002 to $1.2 billion in 2004, but almost all of that increase was devoted to Iraq and Afghanistan. Without those two countries, the USAID democracy spending in 2004 was $685 million, virtually unchanged from two years earlier.
Afghan Crime Wave Breeds Nostalgia for Taliban
Child Abductions in Kandahar Crystallize Discontent With Governing Ex-Warlords
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A01
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- "We are savage, cruel people," the kidnappers warned in a note sent to Abdul Qader, demanding $15,000 to spare the life of his son Mohammed, 11. The construction contractor quickly borrowed the money and left it at the agreed spot. But the next morning, a shopkeeper found the boy's bruised corpse lying in a muddy street.
A wave of crime in this southern Afghan city -- including Mohammed's killing two months ago and a bombing Thursday that killed at least five people -- has evoked a growing local nostalgia for the Taliban era of 1996 to 2001, when the extremist Islamic militia imposed law and order by draconian means.
Afghans gather outside a hospital in Kandahar, where a roadside bomb killed five people and injured more than 30. (Noor Khan -- AP)
Residents reached their boiling point last week, after a second kidnapped boy was killed. Hundreds of men poured into the streets, demanding that President Hamid Karzai fire the provincial governor and police chief. Some threw rocks at military vehicles and chanted, "Down with the warlords!" Witnesses recalled some adding, "Bring back the Taliban!"
Both provincial officials are former militia leaders -- commonly called warlords in Afghanistan -- whose fighters reportedly preyed on residents before they were driven out by the Taliban. They regained power, like a number of other current officials, by joining the U.S.-led military forces that defeated the Taliban in late 2001.
In response to the protest, Karzai dispatched a top security aide to Kandahar and promises were made to bolster the local police force with reinforcements from the capital. There were also reports that Karzai might transfer the police chief to another province. But residents are demanding more action by Karzai, who was elected in October after making campaign pledges to remove the warlords from power.
"We don't want any more promises on paper," said a landowner and tribal leader who, like many residents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the government. "We want Mr. Karzai to keep his word."
The Kandaharis' complaints echo those of Afghans across the country. Last Monday, demonstrators in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif called for the resignation of Gen. Attah Mohammad, the strongman who governs their province, complaining that he had stolen people's land.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy group, charged last week that numerous former warlords, who hold many provincial governorships and top police jobs, "have been implicated in widespread rape of women and children, murder, illegal detention, forced displacement, human trafficking and forced marriage." There are also allegations that some militia leaders and civilian officials are involved in drug trafficking.
The rising discontent in Kandahar could prove particularly problematic for Karzai, who was born here and has drawn much support from the region's Pashtun ethnic group to which he belongs. Many Kandaharis, once alienated by the harsh rule of the Taliban, say their early support for Karzai is now giving way to a grudging nostalgia for the Taliban era.
At that time, many said, a person could walk around the city carrying quantities of cash and drive roads long after dark without fear. Today holdups are common, few people venture out after sunset, and many are haunted by a sense of vulnerability.
Nazar Khan, who sells television sets in a bazaar, said that as a teenager, he hated the Taliban for banning music and forcing him to listen in secret to his favorite singers. "But at least under the Taliban we had security," Khan said.
Because of the kidnappings, Khan now drives his four older children to school and takes them to his stall afterward to keep a close watch on them. The 2-year-old stays with him all day.
Afghan Crime Wave Breeds Nostalgia for Taliban
Child Abductions in Kandahar Crystallize Discontent With Governing Ex-Warlords
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A01
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- "We are savage, cruel people," the kidnappers warned in a note sent to Abdul Qader, demanding $15,000 to spare the life of his son Mohammed, 11. The construction contractor quickly borrowed the money and left it at the agreed spot. But the next morning, a shopkeeper found the boy's bruised corpse lying in a muddy street.
A wave of crime in this southern Afghan city -- including Mohammed's killing two months ago and a bombing Thursday that killed at least five people -- has evoked a growing local nostalgia for the Taliban era of 1996 to 2001, when the extremist Islamic militia imposed law and order by draconian means.
Afghans gather outside a hospital in Kandahar, where a roadside bomb killed five people and injured more than 30. (Noor Khan -- AP)
Residents reached their boiling point last week, after a second kidnapped boy was killed. Hundreds of men poured into the streets, demanding that President Hamid Karzai fire the provincial governor and police chief. Some threw rocks at military vehicles and chanted, "Down with the warlords!" Witnesses recalled some adding, "Bring back the Taliban!"
Both provincial officials are former militia leaders -- commonly called warlords in Afghanistan -- whose fighters reportedly preyed on residents before they were driven out by the Taliban. They regained power, like a number of other current officials, by joining the U.S.-led military forces that defeated the Taliban in late 2001.
In response to the protest, Karzai dispatched a top security aide to Kandahar and promises were made to bolster the local police force with reinforcements from the capital. There were also reports that Karzai might transfer the police chief to another province. But residents are demanding more action by Karzai, who was elected in October after making campaign pledges to remove the warlords from power.
"We don't want any more promises on paper," said a landowner and tribal leader who, like many residents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the government. "We want Mr. Karzai to keep his word."
The Kandaharis' complaints echo those of Afghans across the country. Last Monday, demonstrators in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif called for the resignation of Gen. Attah Mohammad, the strongman who governs their province, complaining that he had stolen people's land.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy group, charged last week that numerous former warlords, who hold many provincial governorships and top police jobs, "have been implicated in widespread rape of women and children, murder, illegal detention, forced displacement, human trafficking and forced marriage." There are also allegations that some militia leaders and civilian officials are involved in drug trafficking.
The rising discontent in Kandahar could prove particularly problematic for Karzai, who was born here and has drawn much support from the region's Pashtun ethnic group to which he belongs. Many Kandaharis, once alienated by the harsh rule of the Taliban, say their early support for Karzai is now giving way to a grudging nostalgia for the Taliban era.
At that time, many said, a person could walk around the city carrying quantities of cash and drive roads long after dark without fear. Today holdups are common, few people venture out after sunset, and many are haunted by a sense of vulnerability.
Nazar Khan, who sells television sets in a bazaar, said that as a teenager, he hated the Taliban for banning music and forcing him to listen in secret to his favorite singers. "But at least under the Taliban we had security," Khan said.
Because of the kidnappings, Khan now drives his four older children to school and takes them to his stall afterward to keep a close watch on them. The 2-year-old stays with him all day.
Afghan Crime Wave Breeds Nostalgia for Taliban
Child Abductions in Kandahar Crystallize Discontent With Governing Ex-Warlords
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A01
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- "We are savage, cruel people," the kidnappers warned in a note sent to Abdul Qader, demanding $15,000 to spare the life of his son Mohammed, 11. The construction contractor quickly borrowed the money and left it at the agreed spot. But the next morning, a shopkeeper found the boy's bruised corpse lying in a muddy street.
A wave of crime in this southern Afghan city -- including Mohammed's killing two months ago and a bombing Thursday that killed at least five people -- has evoked a growing local nostalgia for the Taliban era of 1996 to 2001, when the extremist Islamic militia imposed law and order by draconian means.
Afghans gather outside a hospital in Kandahar, where a roadside bomb killed five people and injured more than 30. (Noor Khan -- AP)
Residents reached their boiling point last week, after a second kidnapped boy was killed. Hundreds of men poured into the streets, demanding that President Hamid Karzai fire the provincial governor and police chief. Some threw rocks at military vehicles and chanted, "Down with the warlords!" Witnesses recalled some adding, "Bring back the Taliban!"
Both provincial officials are former militia leaders -- commonly called warlords in Afghanistan -- whose fighters reportedly preyed on residents before they were driven out by the Taliban. They regained power, like a number of other current officials, by joining the U.S.-led military forces that defeated the Taliban in late 2001.
In response to the protest, Karzai dispatched a top security aide to Kandahar and promises were made to bolster the local police force with reinforcements from the capital. There were also reports that Karzai might transfer the police chief to another province. But residents are demanding more action by Karzai, who was elected in October after making campaign pledges to remove the warlords from power.
"We don't want any more promises on paper," said a landowner and tribal leader who, like many residents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the government. "We want Mr. Karzai to keep his word."
The Kandaharis' complaints echo those of Afghans across the country. Last Monday, demonstrators in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif called for the resignation of Gen. Attah Mohammad, the strongman who governs their province, complaining that he had stolen people's land.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy group, charged last week that numerous former warlords, who hold many provincial governorships and top police jobs, "have been implicated in widespread rape of women and children, murder, illegal detention, forced displacement, human trafficking and forced marriage." There are also allegations that some militia leaders and civilian officials are involved in drug trafficking.
The rising discontent in Kandahar could prove particularly problematic for Karzai, who was born here and has drawn much support from the region's Pashtun ethnic group to which he belongs. Many Kandaharis, once alienated by the harsh rule of the Taliban, say their early support for Karzai is now giving way to a grudging nostalgia for the Taliban era.
At that time, many said, a person could walk around the city carrying quantities of cash and drive roads long after dark without fear. Today holdups are common, few people venture out after sunset, and many are haunted by a sense of vulnerability.
Nazar Khan, who sells television sets in a bazaar, said that as a teenager, he hated the Taliban for banning music and forcing him to listen in secret to his favorite singers. "But at least under the Taliban we had security," Khan said.
Because of the kidnappings, Khan now drives his four older children to school and takes them to his stall afterward to keep a close watch on them. The 2-year-old stays with him all day.
House Approves War Funding
$81.4 Billion Exceeds Combat Request, Trims Other Plans
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 17, 2005; Page A23
The House yesterday overwhelmingly approved an emergency war spending bill giving President Bush most, but not all, of the aid he is seeking for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and to help tsunami victims in the Indian Ocean region.
The $81.4 billion bill passed 388 to 43, a rare landslide in an otherwise bitterly divided chamber. Bush applauded the House "for its strong bipartisan support for our troops and for our strategy to win the war on terror."
House Approves War Funding
$81.4 Billion Exceeds Combat Request, Trims Other Plans
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 17, 2005; Page A23
The House yesterday overwhelmingly approved an emergency war spending bill giving President Bush most, but not all, of the aid he is seeking for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and to help tsunami victims in the Indian Ocean region.
The $81.4 billion bill passed 388 to 43, a rare landslide in an otherwise bitterly divided chamber. Bush applauded the House "for its strong bipartisan support for our troops and for our strategy to win the war on terror."
House Approves War Funding
$81.4 Billion Exceeds Combat Request, Trims Other Plans
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 17, 2005; Page A23
The House yesterday overwhelmingly approved an emergency war spending bill giving President Bush most, but not all, of the aid he is seeking for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and to help tsunami victims in the Indian Ocean region.
The $81.4 billion bill passed 388 to 43, a rare landslide in an otherwise bitterly divided chamber. Bush applauded the House "for its strong bipartisan support for our troops and for our strategy to win the war on terror."
Senators Aim to Shield Medicaid From $15 Billion in Budget Cuts
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A05
A bipartisan coalition of senators is poised to restore $15 billion of Medicaid savings targeted in the Senate's 2006 budget blueprint, a move that could unravel much of President Bush's efforts to slow the explosive growth of entitlement spending, lawmakers said.
The budget resolution under debate in the Senate would effectively cut domestic spending under Congress's discretion over the next three years, while ordering $32 billion in entitlement savings over the next five years, from agriculture subsidies and Medicaid to housing and student loans. GOP leaders have framed the debate as the first real test of the party's budget-cutting mettle in the face of record budget deficits.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and allies intend to protect the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant from budget cuts. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
But Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said he has a majority of the Senate, including at least half a dozen Republicans, behind an amendment that would delete budget language instructing the Senate Finance Committee to produce $15 billion in savings from entitlement programs under its jurisdiction, primarily from Medicaid. The current language in the budget would protect such legislation from a filibuster, allowing entitlement cuts to pass with a simple, 51-vote Senate majority.
Instead of ordering Medicaid cuts, Smith's amendment would establish a commission that would work with governors and the White House on a package of Medicaid changes for fiscal 2007.
If it passes, Smith's amendment would reduce by half the amount of entitlement savings requested in this year's Senate budget. And it may be the first of several amendments that would temper budget cuts in agriculture, community development and other popular programs. The vote could come as early as today.
"If this is the way we are going to approach these entitlement programs, then shame on us," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).
But supporters of Smith's efforts say the GOP leadership is asking its rank and file to walk a political plank, voting for cuts to popular spending programs even as they reserve room to extend expiring tax breaks aimed largely at the affluent, especially the capital gains and dividends rate reductions that are set to expire in 2008.
"It's all an issue of fairness and balance, and expanding responsibility to both sides of the ledger," spending and taxes, said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine). As it is now written, a vote for the budget will be "difficult, when you're thinking about who [the tax cuts] will benefit versus who Medicaid benefits," she added.
The Medicaid cuts are proving particularly sensitive, given the trouble state governments are already having financing the primary health insurance program for the poor.
"I've seen my state already without these cuts have to eliminate dental care and eye care," said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a co-sponsor of Smith's Medicaid amendment. "So this [budget] would be devastating for the state of Ohio and the poor in Ohio."
But the Medicaid cut may only be the first cut to be dropped. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), with the backing of 57 senators, will try to protect the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant from White House efforts to sharply cut its funding and shift it to the Commerce Department. The amendment could restore nearly $2 billion in cuts to community development that Bush has requested. Farm-state senators will also try to strip out budget language ordering $2.8 billion in cuts to agriculture subsidies.
If those cuts are removed, House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) suggested the House and Senate may not be able to reach an agreement on a budget that sets bottom-line limits for spending and tax cuts next year.
"It's very disappointing to us what's going on over there," Nussle told reporters yesterday.
"I hate to be a naysayer about this at all, but I'm not sure how we get a conference with the Senate with where they're at. Last year, they were at least, I think, trying. This year, I think they almost gave up before they started the process," Nussle said.
Nussle has problems of his own. The House budget blueprint could come to a vote as early as today, but a group of House conservatives are threatening to balk unless they are given new budget rules that ensure the spending cuts are adhered to.
Most Republicans see the passage of a tough budget as necessary, given the hand-wringing within the party over a federal deficit that reached $412 billion in 2004.
"We're going to have to show some guts around here and make some tough choices," said Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
At the same time, GOP leaders appear to have beaten back efforts to reimpose budget rules requiring that future tax cuts be paid for by equal proportions of spending cuts and revenue increases.
Senators Aim to Shield Medicaid From $15 Billion in Budget Cuts
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A05
A bipartisan coalition of senators is poised to restore $15 billion of Medicaid savings targeted in the Senate's 2006 budget blueprint, a move that could unravel much of President Bush's efforts to slow the explosive growth of entitlement spending, lawmakers said.
The budget resolution under debate in the Senate would effectively cut domestic spending under Congress's discretion over the next three years, while ordering $32 billion in entitlement savings over the next five years, from agriculture subsidies and Medicaid to housing and student loans. GOP leaders have framed the debate as the first real test of the party's budget-cutting mettle in the face of record budget deficits.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and allies intend to protect the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant from budget cuts. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
But Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said he has a majority of the Senate, including at least half a dozen Republicans, behind an amendment that would delete budget language instructing the Senate Finance Committee to produce $15 billion in savings from entitlement programs under its jurisdiction, primarily from Medicaid. The current language in the budget would protect such legislation from a filibuster, allowing entitlement cuts to pass with a simple, 51-vote Senate majority.
Instead of ordering Medicaid cuts, Smith's amendment would establish a commission that would work with governors and the White House on a package of Medicaid changes for fiscal 2007.
If it passes, Smith's amendment would reduce by half the amount of entitlement savings requested in this year's Senate budget. And it may be the first of several amendments that would temper budget cuts in agriculture, community development and other popular programs. The vote could come as early as today.
"If this is the way we are going to approach these entitlement programs, then shame on us," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).
But supporters of Smith's efforts say the GOP leadership is asking its rank and file to walk a political plank, voting for cuts to popular spending programs even as they reserve room to extend expiring tax breaks aimed largely at the affluent, especially the capital gains and dividends rate reductions that are set to expire in 2008.
"It's all an issue of fairness and balance, and expanding responsibility to both sides of the ledger," spending and taxes, said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine). As it is now written, a vote for the budget will be "difficult, when you're thinking about who [the tax cuts] will benefit versus who Medicaid benefits," she added.
The Medicaid cuts are proving particularly sensitive, given the trouble state governments are already having financing the primary health insurance program for the poor.
"I've seen my state already without these cuts have to eliminate dental care and eye care," said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a co-sponsor of Smith's Medicaid amendment. "So this [budget] would be devastating for the state of Ohio and the poor in Ohio."
But the Medicaid cut may only be the first cut to be dropped. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), with the backing of 57 senators, will try to protect the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant from White House efforts to sharply cut its funding and shift it to the Commerce Department. The amendment could restore nearly $2 billion in cuts to community development that Bush has requested. Farm-state senators will also try to strip out budget language ordering $2.8 billion in cuts to agriculture subsidies.
If those cuts are removed, House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) suggested the House and Senate may not be able to reach an agreement on a budget that sets bottom-line limits for spending and tax cuts next year.
"It's very disappointing to us what's going on over there," Nussle told reporters yesterday.
"I hate to be a naysayer about this at all, but I'm not sure how we get a conference with the Senate with where they're at. Last year, they were at least, I think, trying. This year, I think they almost gave up before they started the process," Nussle said.
Nussle has problems of his own. The House budget blueprint could come to a vote as early as today, but a group of House conservatives are threatening to balk unless they are given new budget rules that ensure the spending cuts are adhered to.
Most Republicans see the passage of a tough budget as necessary, given the hand-wringing within the party over a federal deficit that reached $412 billion in 2004.
"We're going to have to show some guts around here and make some tough choices," said Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
At the same time, GOP leaders appear to have beaten back efforts to reimpose budget rules requiring that future tax cuts be paid for by equal proportions of spending cuts and revenue increases.
Senators Aim to Shield Medicaid From $15 Billion in Budget Cuts
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A05
A bipartisan coalition of senators is poised to restore $15 billion of Medicaid savings targeted in the Senate's 2006 budget blueprint, a move that could unravel much of President Bush's efforts to slow the explosive growth of entitlement spending, lawmakers said.
The budget resolution under debate in the Senate would effectively cut domestic spending under Congress's discretion over the next three years, while ordering $32 billion in entitlement savings over the next five years, from agriculture subsidies and Medicaid to housing and student loans. GOP leaders have framed the debate as the first real test of the party's budget-cutting mettle in the face of record budget deficits.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and allies intend to protect the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant from budget cuts. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
But Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said he has a majority of the Senate, including at least half a dozen Republicans, behind an amendment that would delete budget language instructing the Senate Finance Committee to produce $15 billion in savings from entitlement programs under its jurisdiction, primarily from Medicaid. The current language in the budget would protect such legislation from a filibuster, allowing entitlement cuts to pass with a simple, 51-vote Senate majority.
Instead of ordering Medicaid cuts, Smith's amendment would establish a commission that would work with governors and the White House on a package of Medicaid changes for fiscal 2007.
If it passes, Smith's amendment would reduce by half the amount of entitlement savings requested in this year's Senate budget. And it may be the first of several amendments that would temper budget cuts in agriculture, community development and other popular programs. The vote could come as early as today.
"If this is the way we are going to approach these entitlement programs, then shame on us," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).
But supporters of Smith's efforts say the GOP leadership is asking its rank and file to walk a political plank, voting for cuts to popular spending programs even as they reserve room to extend expiring tax breaks aimed largely at the affluent, especially the capital gains and dividends rate reductions that are set to expire in 2008.
"It's all an issue of fairness and balance, and expanding responsibility to both sides of the ledger," spending and taxes, said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine). As it is now written, a vote for the budget will be "difficult, when you're thinking about who [the tax cuts] will benefit versus who Medicaid benefits," she added.
The Medicaid cuts are proving particularly sensitive, given the trouble state governments are already having financing the primary health insurance program for the poor.
"I've seen my state already without these cuts have to eliminate dental care and eye care," said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a co-sponsor of Smith's Medicaid amendment. "So this [budget] would be devastating for the state of Ohio and the poor in Ohio."
But the Medicaid cut may only be the first cut to be dropped. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), with the backing of 57 senators, will try to protect the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant from White House efforts to sharply cut its funding and shift it to the Commerce Department. The amendment could restore nearly $2 billion in cuts to community development that Bush has requested. Farm-state senators will also try to strip out budget language ordering $2.8 billion in cuts to agriculture subsidies.
If those cuts are removed, House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) suggested the House and Senate may not be able to reach an agreement on a budget that sets bottom-line limits for spending and tax cuts next year.
"It's very disappointing to us what's going on over there," Nussle told reporters yesterday.
"I hate to be a naysayer about this at all, but I'm not sure how we get a conference with the Senate with where they're at. Last year, they were at least, I think, trying. This year, I think they almost gave up before they started the process," Nussle said.
Nussle has problems of his own. The House budget blueprint could come to a vote as early as today, but a group of House conservatives are threatening to balk unless they are given new budget rules that ensure the spending cuts are adhered to.
Most Republicans see the passage of a tough budget as necessary, given the hand-wringing within the party over a federal deficit that reached $412 billion in 2004.
"We're going to have to show some guts around here and make some tough choices," said Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
At the same time, GOP leaders appear to have beaten back efforts to reimpose budget rules requiring that future tax cuts be paid for by equal proportions of spending cuts and revenue increases.
DeLay Defends Trip and Vote, Attacks Critics
GOP Leader Offers To See Ethics Panel
By Mike Allen and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A01
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday launched a defense of his travel arrangements and relationships with lobbyists, offering to appear before the ethics committee to answer questions and charging that his critics were relying on "fiction and innuendo."
DeLay's efforts at political damage control followed a recent spate of news reports raising ethical questions about his fundraising and overseas travel paid for by special interests.
A larger-than-life Rep. Tom DeLay is projected on a screen at a national Republican tax summit that the House majority leader addressed as he worked to shore up support among conservatives. (Jason Reed -- Reuters)
_____Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)_____
• DeLay Ethics Allegations Now Cause of GOP Concern (The Washington Post, Mar 14, 2005)
• Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip (The Washington Post, Mar 12, 2005)
• DeLay Treated for Irregular Heartbeat (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2005)
• House Ethics Panel in Gridlock (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2005)
• S. Korean Group Sponsored DeLay Trip (The Washington Post, Mar 10, 2005)
• Prosecutor Balks When Asked If DeLay Is Target of Tex. Probe (The Washington Post, Mar 6, 2005)
• DeLay Moves To Protect His Political Base Back in Texas (The Washington Post, Mar 3, 2005)
• Texas Trial Begins Against Treasurer of DeLay Group (The Washington Post, Mar 1, 2005)
How did House Majority Leader Tom DeLay earn his nickname, "The Hammer"?
For his ability to hammer out GOP majorities
For forcing Newt Gingrich from power
For his dogged pursuit of Clinton scandals
For his tactics raising money from lobbyists
DeLay also moved to shore up his support with conservatives, one of his most important constituencies, with an afternoon speech to a tax summit of the National Republican Congressional Committee and an evening appearance at an $8 million fundraiser featuring President Bush. DeLay also told leaders that he wants Congress to find a way to help Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Floridian whose feeding tube is scheduled to be removed Friday.
Speaking at a weekly session with reporters, DeLay alternated between attacks on the news media and attacks on Democrats. "With all the partisan politics of personal destruction that the Democrats have announced and have carried through on, I have yet to be found breaking any House rules," he said. "It is very unfortunate that the Democrats have no agenda. All they can do is try to tear down the House and burn it down in order to gain power."
The Washington Post reported last weekend that an Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay voted against legislation opposed by the tribe and the company. The group said it paid for the trip, and the group and DeLay said he did not know about the gambling money.
The Post also recently reported that an organization that had registered as a foreign agent picked up the cost of DeLay's trip to South Korea. DeLay and the policy group have said that he did not know of the registration. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel funds from registered lobbyists. They also require lawmakers to report the original source of funds and prohibit them from taking gifts of any kind from foreign agents.
Last year, the House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times for official conduct, including asking federal aviation officials to track an airplane involved in a Texas political spat and for conduct that suggested political donations might influence legislative action. The committee found that DeLay had not violated a specific House rule. Nonetheless, the committee told him in one of the rebukes that it was "clearly necessary for you to temper your future action."
DeLay Defends Trip and Vote, Attacks Critics
GOP Leader Offers To See Ethics Panel
By Mike Allen and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A01
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday launched a defense of his travel arrangements and relationships with lobbyists, offering to appear before the ethics committee to answer questions and charging that his critics were relying on "fiction and innuendo."
DeLay's efforts at political damage control followed a recent spate of news reports raising ethical questions about his fundraising and overseas travel paid for by special interests.
A larger-than-life Rep. Tom DeLay is projected on a screen at a national Republican tax summit that the House majority leader addressed as he worked to shore up support among conservatives. (Jason Reed -- Reuters)
_____Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)_____
• DeLay Ethics Allegations Now Cause of GOP Concern (The Washington Post, Mar 14, 2005)
• Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip (The Washington Post, Mar 12, 2005)
• DeLay Treated for Irregular Heartbeat (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2005)
• House Ethics Panel in Gridlock (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2005)
• S. Korean Group Sponsored DeLay Trip (The Washington Post, Mar 10, 2005)
• Prosecutor Balks When Asked If DeLay Is Target of Tex. Probe (The Washington Post, Mar 6, 2005)
• DeLay Moves To Protect His Political Base Back in Texas (The Washington Post, Mar 3, 2005)
• Texas Trial Begins Against Treasurer of DeLay Group (The Washington Post, Mar 1, 2005)
How did House Majority Leader Tom DeLay earn his nickname, "The Hammer"?
For his ability to hammer out GOP majorities
For forcing Newt Gingrich from power
For his dogged pursuit of Clinton scandals
For his tactics raising money from lobbyists
DeLay also moved to shore up his support with conservatives, one of his most important constituencies, with an afternoon speech to a tax summit of the National Republican Congressional Committee and an evening appearance at an $8 million fundraiser featuring President Bush. DeLay also told leaders that he wants Congress to find a way to help Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Floridian whose feeding tube is scheduled to be removed Friday.
Speaking at a weekly session with reporters, DeLay alternated between attacks on the news media and attacks on Democrats. "With all the partisan politics of personal destruction that the Democrats have announced and have carried through on, I have yet to be found breaking any House rules," he said. "It is very unfortunate that the Democrats have no agenda. All they can do is try to tear down the House and burn it down in order to gain power."
The Washington Post reported last weekend that an Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay voted against legislation opposed by the tribe and the company. The group said it paid for the trip, and the group and DeLay said he did not know about the gambling money.
The Post also recently reported that an organization that had registered as a foreign agent picked up the cost of DeLay's trip to South Korea. DeLay and the policy group have said that he did not know of the registration. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel funds from registered lobbyists. They also require lawmakers to report the original source of funds and prohibit them from taking gifts of any kind from foreign agents.
Last year, the House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times for official conduct, including asking federal aviation officials to track an airplane involved in a Texas political spat and for conduct that suggested political donations might influence legislative action. The committee found that DeLay had not violated a specific House rule. Nonetheless, the committee told him in one of the rebukes that it was "clearly necessary for you to temper your future action."
DeLay Defends Trip and Vote, Attacks Critics
GOP Leader Offers To See Ethics Panel
By Mike Allen and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A01
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday launched a defense of his travel arrangements and relationships with lobbyists, offering to appear before the ethics committee to answer questions and charging that his critics were relying on "fiction and innuendo."
DeLay's efforts at political damage control followed a recent spate of news reports raising ethical questions about his fundraising and overseas travel paid for by special interests.
A larger-than-life Rep. Tom DeLay is projected on a screen at a national Republican tax summit that the House majority leader addressed as he worked to shore up support among conservatives. (Jason Reed -- Reuters)
_____Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)_____
• DeLay Ethics Allegations Now Cause of GOP Concern (The Washington Post, Mar 14, 2005)
• Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip (The Washington Post, Mar 12, 2005)
• DeLay Treated for Irregular Heartbeat (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2005)
• House Ethics Panel in Gridlock (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2005)
• S. Korean Group Sponsored DeLay Trip (The Washington Post, Mar 10, 2005)
• Prosecutor Balks When Asked If DeLay Is Target of Tex. Probe (The Washington Post, Mar 6, 2005)
• DeLay Moves To Protect His Political Base Back in Texas (The Washington Post, Mar 3, 2005)
• Texas Trial Begins Against Treasurer of DeLay Group (The Washington Post, Mar 1, 2005)
How did House Majority Leader Tom DeLay earn his nickname, "The Hammer"?
For his ability to hammer out GOP majorities
For forcing Newt Gingrich from power
For his dogged pursuit of Clinton scandals
For his tactics raising money from lobbyists
DeLay also moved to shore up his support with conservatives, one of his most important constituencies, with an afternoon speech to a tax summit of the National Republican Congressional Committee and an evening appearance at an $8 million fundraiser featuring President Bush. DeLay also told leaders that he wants Congress to find a way to help Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Floridian whose feeding tube is scheduled to be removed Friday.
Speaking at a weekly session with reporters, DeLay alternated between attacks on the news media and attacks on Democrats. "With all the partisan politics of personal destruction that the Democrats have announced and have carried through on, I have yet to be found breaking any House rules," he said. "It is very unfortunate that the Democrats have no agenda. All they can do is try to tear down the House and burn it down in order to gain power."
The Washington Post reported last weekend that an Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay voted against legislation opposed by the tribe and the company. The group said it paid for the trip, and the group and DeLay said he did not know about the gambling money.
The Post also recently reported that an organization that had registered as a foreign agent picked up the cost of DeLay's trip to South Korea. DeLay and the policy group have said that he did not know of the registration. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel funds from registered lobbyists. They also require lawmakers to report the original source of funds and prohibit them from taking gifts of any kind from foreign agents.
Last year, the House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times for official conduct, including asking federal aviation officials to track an airplane involved in a Texas political spat and for conduct that suggested political donations might influence legislative action. The committee found that DeLay had not violated a specific House rule. Nonetheless, the committee told him in one of the rebukes that it was "clearly necessary for you to temper your future action."
New Iraqi Parliament Meets for First Time
Explosions Rattle Windows During Meeting
By Caryle Murphy, John Ward Anderson and Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; 9:48 AM
BAGHDAD, March 16 -- Amid tight security and the sound of explosions, Iraq's new parliament met for the first time Wednesday as Iraqi politicians and citizens alike urged lawmakers to stop bickering, form a new government and tackle the country's numerous problems, particularly the violent insurgency.
The source of the blasts, which apparently came from mortars, was under investigation by the U.S. military. The explosions rattled windows in the auditorium inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where lawmakers gathered at 11 a.m. (3 a.m. EST) for the first meeting of a freely elected parliament in Iraq in almost 50 years.
New Iraqi Parliament Meets for First Time
Explosions Rattle Windows During Meeting
By Caryle Murphy, John Ward Anderson and Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; 9:48 AM
BAGHDAD, March 16 -- Amid tight security and the sound of explosions, Iraq's new parliament met for the first time Wednesday as Iraqi politicians and citizens alike urged lawmakers to stop bickering, form a new government and tackle the country's numerous problems, particularly the violent insurgency.
The source of the blasts, which apparently came from mortars, was under investigation by the U.S. military. The explosions rattled windows in the auditorium inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where lawmakers gathered at 11 a.m. (3 a.m. EST) for the first meeting of a freely elected parliament in Iraq in almost 50 years.
New Iraqi Parliament Meets for First Time
Explosions Rattle Windows During Meeting
By Caryle Murphy, John Ward Anderson and Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; 9:48 AM
BAGHDAD, March 16 -- Amid tight security and the sound of explosions, Iraq's new parliament met for the first time Wednesday as Iraqi politicians and citizens alike urged lawmakers to stop bickering, form a new government and tackle the country's numerous problems, particularly the violent insurgency.
The source of the blasts, which apparently came from mortars, was under investigation by the U.S. military. The explosions rattled windows in the auditorium inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where lawmakers gathered at 11 a.m. (3 a.m. EST) for the first meeting of a freely elected parliament in Iraq in almost 50 years.
GM warns of loss because of poor North American sales
From wire reports
DETROIT — General Motors (GM) sharply lowered its earnings guidance Wednesday, citing lower North American sales and production volumes and a tougher pricing environment.
The world's biggest automaker said it expects a first-quarter loss of about $1.50 a share, compared with a previous target of break-even or better. It expects income of $1 to $2 a share for the full year, down from its previous guidance of $4 to $5.
David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research, said he expects others in the auto industry to have similar problems. "This will not be the only company where you're going to see this kind of comment," he said.
Higher fuel and raw material prices, such as steel, were creating a "perfect storm with a confluence of a large number of factors that are causing severe pressure across the entire industry" and particularly hurting companies like GM, he added.
GM warns of loss because of poor North American sales
From wire reports
DETROIT — General Motors (GM) sharply lowered its earnings guidance Wednesday, citing lower North American sales and production volumes and a tougher pricing environment.
The world's biggest automaker said it expects a first-quarter loss of about $1.50 a share, compared with a previous target of break-even or better. It expects income of $1 to $2 a share for the full year, down from its previous guidance of $4 to $5.
David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research, said he expects others in the auto industry to have similar problems. "This will not be the only company where you're going to see this kind of comment," he said.
Higher fuel and raw material prices, such as steel, were creating a "perfect storm with a confluence of a large number of factors that are causing severe pressure across the entire industry" and particularly hurting companies like GM, he added.
GM warns of loss because of poor North American sales
From wire reports
DETROIT — General Motors (GM) sharply lowered its earnings guidance Wednesday, citing lower North American sales and production volumes and a tougher pricing environment.
The world's biggest automaker said it expects a first-quarter loss of about $1.50 a share, compared with a previous target of break-even or better. It expects income of $1 to $2 a share for the full year, down from its previous guidance of $4 to $5.
David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research, said he expects others in the auto industry to have similar problems. "This will not be the only company where you're going to see this kind of comment," he said.
Higher fuel and raw material prices, such as steel, were creating a "perfect storm with a confluence of a large number of factors that are causing severe pressure across the entire industry" and particularly hurting companies like GM, he added.
Trade deficit hits record $665.9B in 2004
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States deficit in the broadest measure of international trade soared to an all-time high of $665.9 billion in 2004, showing in stark terms the speed with which the country is becoming indebted to the rest of the world.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the shortfall in the current account was 25.5% higher than the previous record, the $530.7 billion deficit set in 2003. The department also noted that the deficit was worsening as the year ended with the shortfall in the fourth quarter hitting a record $187.9 billion, up 13.3% from the third quarter deficit.
The Bush administration contends the soaring trade deficits reflect a U.S. economy that is growing faster than the rest of the world, pushing up imports and dampening demand for U.S. exports. But private economists are worried that the huge level of resources being transferred into the hands of foreigners will eventually result in lower U.S. living standards.
Trade deficit hits record $665.9B in 2004
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States deficit in the broadest measure of international trade soared to an all-time high of $665.9 billion in 2004, showing in stark terms the speed with which the country is becoming indebted to the rest of the world.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the shortfall in the current account was 25.5% higher than the previous record, the $530.7 billion deficit set in 2003. The department also noted that the deficit was worsening as the year ended with the shortfall in the fourth quarter hitting a record $187.9 billion, up 13.3% from the third quarter deficit.
The Bush administration contends the soaring trade deficits reflect a U.S. economy that is growing faster than the rest of the world, pushing up imports and dampening demand for U.S. exports. But private economists are worried that the huge level of resources being transferred into the hands of foreigners will eventually result in lower U.S. living standards.
Trade deficit hits record $665.9B in 2004
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States deficit in the broadest measure of international trade soared to an all-time high of $665.9 billion in 2004, showing in stark terms the speed with which the country is becoming indebted to the rest of the world.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the shortfall in the current account was 25.5% higher than the previous record, the $530.7 billion deficit set in 2003. The department also noted that the deficit was worsening as the year ended with the shortfall in the fourth quarter hitting a record $187.9 billion, up 13.3% from the third quarter deficit.
The Bush administration contends the soaring trade deficits reflect a U.S. economy that is growing faster than the rest of the world, pushing up imports and dampening demand for U.S. exports. But private economists are worried that the huge level of resources being transferred into the hands of foreigners will eventually result in lower U.S. living standards.
Italy will begin Iraq troop withdrawal in September
ROME (AP) — Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that Italy will start withdrawing its 3,000 troops in Iraq in September, Italian news agencies reported.
"Already in September we will begin a progressive reduction of the number of our soldiers in Iraq," Berlusconi was quoted as saying during a taping of a state TV talk show.
Withdrawing Italian troops "will depend on the capability of the Iraqi government to give itself structures for acceptable security,"
Italy will begin Iraq troop withdrawal in September
ROME (AP) — Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that Italy will start withdrawing its 3,000 troops in Iraq in September, Italian news agencies reported.
"Already in September we will begin a progressive reduction of the number of our soldiers in Iraq," Berlusconi was quoted as saying during a taping of a state TV talk show.
Withdrawing Italian troops "will depend on the capability of the Iraqi government to give itself structures for acceptable security,"
Italy will begin Iraq troop withdrawal in September
ROME (AP) — Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that Italy will start withdrawing its 3,000 troops in Iraq in September, Italian news agencies reported.
"Already in September we will begin a progressive reduction of the number of our soldiers in Iraq," Berlusconi was quoted as saying during a taping of a state TV talk show.
Withdrawing Italian troops "will depend on the capability of the Iraqi government to give itself structures for acceptable security,"
Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton's Costs in Iraq
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A04
Pentagon auditors found more than $100 million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.
The audit faulted Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. for providing cost data that did not match its accounting records, and for failing to negotiate lower prices for fuel from a Kuwaiti supplier. The audit also described as "illogical" a case in which KBR reported it had purchased liquefied gas for $82,100, and then spent $27.5 million to transport it.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), above, pressed the administration to publicize all the audits and to recover contract overcharges.
19 states across the country are considering proposals that would
The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which produced the audit, had reported in December 2003 that Halliburton may have overcharged the government by up to $61 million by buying more expensive fuel from Kuwait rather than from Turkey.
The audit summary, written in October 2004 but withheld from public release, covers one out of 10 sections from a $2.5 billion contract under which Halliburton was tapped to deliver fuel, fight oil well fires and repair oil facilities in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in the spring of 2003. Of the $2.5 billion, approximately $1.6 billion came from Iraqi oil proceeds and the rest was funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton's Costs in Iraq
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A04
Pentagon auditors found more than $100 million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.
The audit faulted Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. for providing cost data that did not match its accounting records, and for failing to negotiate lower prices for fuel from a Kuwaiti supplier. The audit also described as "illogical" a case in which KBR reported it had purchased liquefied gas for $82,100, and then spent $27.5 million to transport it.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), above, pressed the administration to publicize all the audits and to recover contract overcharges.
19 states across the country are considering proposals that would
The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which produced the audit, had reported in December 2003 that Halliburton may have overcharged the government by up to $61 million by buying more expensive fuel from Kuwait rather than from Turkey.
The audit summary, written in October 2004 but withheld from public release, covers one out of 10 sections from a $2.5 billion contract under which Halliburton was tapped to deliver fuel, fight oil well fires and repair oil facilities in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in the spring of 2003. Of the $2.5 billion, approximately $1.6 billion came from Iraqi oil proceeds and the rest was funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton's Costs in Iraq
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A04
Pentagon auditors found more than $100 million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.
The audit faulted Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. for providing cost data that did not match its accounting records, and for failing to negotiate lower prices for fuel from a Kuwaiti supplier. The audit also described as "illogical" a case in which KBR reported it had purchased liquefied gas for $82,100, and then spent $27.5 million to transport it.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), above, pressed the administration to publicize all the audits and to recover contract overcharges.
19 states across the country are considering proposals that would
The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which produced the audit, had reported in December 2003 that Halliburton may have overcharged the government by up to $61 million by buying more expensive fuel from Kuwait rather than from Turkey.
The audit summary, written in October 2004 but withheld from public release, covers one out of 10 sections from a $2.5 billion contract under which Halliburton was tapped to deliver fuel, fight oil well fires and repair oil facilities in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in the spring of 2003. Of the $2.5 billion, approximately $1.6 billion came from Iraqi oil proceeds and the rest was funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Scalia Showing His Softer Side
Justice Moves Into Public Eye With Possible Sights Set on Chief Job
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A02
Antonin Scalia was about 12 minutes into the latest phase of his recent charm offensive yesterday when he briefly returned to type.
The famously acerbic Supreme Court justice was making a nuanced point about his disagreement with the notion of "substantive due process" when he paused and frowned at some photographers in the aisle. "Could we stop the cameras?" he directed. "I thought I announced a couple of shots at the beginning is fine, but click, click, click, click, click."
The very private Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia allowed cameras during his speech at the Woodrow Wilson center. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
Still, it was a kinder, gentler Scalia who took questions from scholars at the Woodrow Wilson center. The extraordinarily private justice has in the past banned cameras from his speeches and was moved to apologize after reporters' tapes were confiscated at one lecture. He does not allow his speeches to be posted on the Supreme Court's Web site along with the other justices' addresses.
But lately Scalia has been stepping, squinting and blinking, into the public glare. In January, he consented to a televised debate at American University with his ideological opposite on the court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer. And there he was in a lecture hall yesterday with two rows of reporters and five television cameras.
One possibility for Scalia's conversion: a looming vacancy in the office of chief justice. The current officeholder, William H. Rehnquist, is gravely ill, and President Bush is on record praising Scalia as one of his favorite jurists. So it might be shrewd for Scalia to be pursuing a bit of image polishing in advance of a hypothetical confirmation hearing.
Toward that end, Scalia's Wilson talk was part demystification, part stump speech. "I am not a strict constructionist," he began, correcting the introduction by the center's director, Lee H. Hamilton. He also disclosed that the term "judicial activism" -- a favorite epithet of conservatives for liberal judges -- "is overused."
Scalia made the case that his "originalist" jurisprudence should be welcome to all -- even liberals.
Scalia Showing His Softer Side
Justice Moves Into Public Eye With Possible Sights Set on Chief Job
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A02
Antonin Scalia was about 12 minutes into the latest phase of his recent charm offensive yesterday when he briefly returned to type.
The famously acerbic Supreme Court justice was making a nuanced point about his disagreement with the notion of "substantive due process" when he paused and frowned at some photographers in the aisle. "Could we stop the cameras?" he directed. "I thought I announced a couple of shots at the beginning is fine, but click, click, click, click, click."
The very private Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia allowed cameras during his speech at the Woodrow Wilson center. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
Still, it was a kinder, gentler Scalia who took questions from scholars at the Woodrow Wilson center. The extraordinarily private justice has in the past banned cameras from his speeches and was moved to apologize after reporters' tapes were confiscated at one lecture. He does not allow his speeches to be posted on the Supreme Court's Web site along with the other justices' addresses.
But lately Scalia has been stepping, squinting and blinking, into the public glare. In January, he consented to a televised debate at American University with his ideological opposite on the court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer. And there he was in a lecture hall yesterday with two rows of reporters and five television cameras.
One possibility for Scalia's conversion: a looming vacancy in the office of chief justice. The current officeholder, William H. Rehnquist, is gravely ill, and President Bush is on record praising Scalia as one of his favorite jurists. So it might be shrewd for Scalia to be pursuing a bit of image polishing in advance of a hypothetical confirmation hearing.
Toward that end, Scalia's Wilson talk was part demystification, part stump speech. "I am not a strict constructionist," he began, correcting the introduction by the center's director, Lee H. Hamilton. He also disclosed that the term "judicial activism" -- a favorite epithet of conservatives for liberal judges -- "is overused."
Scalia made the case that his "originalist" jurisprudence should be welcome to all -- even liberals.
Scalia Showing His Softer Side
Justice Moves Into Public Eye With Possible Sights Set on Chief Job
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A02
Antonin Scalia was about 12 minutes into the latest phase of his recent charm offensive yesterday when he briefly returned to type.
The famously acerbic Supreme Court justice was making a nuanced point about his disagreement with the notion of "substantive due process" when he paused and frowned at some photographers in the aisle. "Could we stop the cameras?" he directed. "I thought I announced a couple of shots at the beginning is fine, but click, click, click, click, click."
The very private Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia allowed cameras during his speech at the Woodrow Wilson center. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
Still, it was a kinder, gentler Scalia who took questions from scholars at the Woodrow Wilson center. The extraordinarily private justice has in the past banned cameras from his speeches and was moved to apologize after reporters' tapes were confiscated at one lecture. He does not allow his speeches to be posted on the Supreme Court's Web site along with the other justices' addresses.
But lately Scalia has been stepping, squinting and blinking, into the public glare. In January, he consented to a televised debate at American University with his ideological opposite on the court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer. And there he was in a lecture hall yesterday with two rows of reporters and five television cameras.
One possibility for Scalia's conversion: a looming vacancy in the office of chief justice. The current officeholder, William H. Rehnquist, is gravely ill, and President Bush is on record praising Scalia as one of his favorite jurists. So it might be shrewd for Scalia to be pursuing a bit of image polishing in advance of a hypothetical confirmation hearing.
Toward that end, Scalia's Wilson talk was part demystification, part stump speech. "I am not a strict constructionist," he began, correcting the introduction by the center's director, Lee H. Hamilton. He also disclosed that the term "judicial activism" -- a favorite epithet of conservatives for liberal judges -- "is overused."
Scalia made the case that his "originalist" jurisprudence should be welcome to all -- even liberals.
Mercury Emissions To Be Traded
EPA Criticized On Pollution Rule
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A01
The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a rule today to reduce mercury emissions from power plants through a cap-and-trade system that allows some power plants to make deep pollution cuts while others make none.
The rule sets broad national limits on mercury emissions that enable power companies to decide which plants will receive pollution controls -- meaning that even as many states reduce their emissions, some could see increases in emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin.
The rule is certain to be contested in court by environmental groups, which charge that it places the financial interests of power companies over public health and violates existing law on how the government must deal with dangerous substances.
Mercury is the third major pollutant produced by coal-fired power plants and other industries that the government has sought to limit because of accumulating evidence of their devastating effects on health. The EPA issued a rule last week to control the smog and soot produced by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
The agency plans to offer a full justification for its approach today but defended it in broad terms yesterday.
Mercury Emissions To Be Traded
EPA Criticized On Pollution Rule
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A01
The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a rule today to reduce mercury emissions from power plants through a cap-and-trade system that allows some power plants to make deep pollution cuts while others make none.
The rule sets broad national limits on mercury emissions that enable power companies to decide which plants will receive pollution controls -- meaning that even as many states reduce their emissions, some could see increases in emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin.
The rule is certain to be contested in court by environmental groups, which charge that it places the financial interests of power companies over public health and violates existing law on how the government must deal with dangerous substances.
Mercury is the third major pollutant produced by coal-fired power plants and other industries that the government has sought to limit because of accumulating evidence of their devastating effects on health. The EPA issued a rule last week to control the smog and soot produced by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
The agency plans to offer a full justification for its approach today but defended it in broad terms yesterday.
Mercury Emissions To Be Traded
EPA Criticized On Pollution Rule
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A01
The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a rule today to reduce mercury emissions from power plants through a cap-and-trade system that allows some power plants to make deep pollution cuts while others make none.
The rule sets broad national limits on mercury emissions that enable power companies to decide which plants will receive pollution controls -- meaning that even as many states reduce their emissions, some could see increases in emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin.
The rule is certain to be contested in court by environmental groups, which charge that it places the financial interests of power companies over public health and violates existing law on how the government must deal with dangerous substances.
Mercury is the third major pollutant produced by coal-fired power plants and other industries that the government has sought to limit because of accumulating evidence of their devastating effects on health. The EPA issued a rule last week to control the smog and soot produced by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
The agency plans to offer a full justification for its approach today but defended it in broad terms yesterday.
Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos
GAO Called Tapes Illegal Propaganda
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A21
The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them.
That message, in memos sent Friday to federal agency heads and general counsels, contradicts a Feb. 17 memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories -- designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing -- violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.
OMB's Joshua B. Bolten: Justice, not GAO, interprets law.
Tuesday's Question:
19 states across the country are considering proposals that would require school classes to question the science behind evolution. In what state did a school board recently mandate "intelligent design" be taught along with evolution?
Georgia
Kansas
Pennslyvania
Washington
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But Joshua B. Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Steven G. Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, said in memos last week that the administration disagrees with the GAO's ruling. And, in any case, they wrote, the department's Office of Legal Counsel, not the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, provides binding legal interpretations for federal agencies to follow.
The legal counsel's office "does not agree with GAO that the covert propaganda prohibition applies simply because an agency's role in producing and disseminating information is undisclosed or 'covert,' regardless of whether the content of the message is 'propaganda,' " Bradbury wrote.
Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos
GAO Called Tapes Illegal Propaganda
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A21
The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them.
That message, in memos sent Friday to federal agency heads and general counsels, contradicts a Feb. 17 memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories -- designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing -- violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.
OMB's Joshua B. Bolten: Justice, not GAO, interprets law.
Tuesday's Question:
19 states across the country are considering proposals that would require school classes to question the science behind evolution. In what state did a school board recently mandate "intelligent design" be taught along with evolution?
Georgia
Kansas
Pennslyvania
Washington
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But Joshua B. Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Steven G. Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, said in memos last week that the administration disagrees with the GAO's ruling. And, in any case, they wrote, the department's Office of Legal Counsel, not the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, provides binding legal interpretations for federal agencies to follow.
The legal counsel's office "does not agree with GAO that the covert propaganda prohibition applies simply because an agency's role in producing and disseminating information is undisclosed or 'covert,' regardless of whether the content of the message is 'propaganda,' " Bradbury wrote.
Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos
GAO Called Tapes Illegal Propaganda
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A21
The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them.
That message, in memos sent Friday to federal agency heads and general counsels, contradicts a Feb. 17 memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories -- designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing -- violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.
OMB's Joshua B. Bolten: Justice, not GAO, interprets law.
Tuesday's Question:
19 states across the country are considering proposals that would require school classes to question the science behind evolution. In what state did a school board recently mandate "intelligent design" be taught along with evolution?
Georgia
Kansas
Pennslyvania
Washington
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Daily Politics News & Analysis
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Campaign Report
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Federal Insider
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Breaking News Alerts
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
But Joshua B. Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Steven G. Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, said in memos last week that the administration disagrees with the GAO's ruling. And, in any case, they wrote, the department's Office of Legal Counsel, not the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, provides binding legal interpretations for federal agencies to follow.
The legal counsel's office "does not agree with GAO that the covert propaganda prohibition applies simply because an agency's role in producing and disseminating information is undisclosed or 'covert,' regardless of whether the content of the message is 'propaganda,' " Bradbury wrote.
Big Dig consultant: Tunnels may be unsafe
BOSTON (AP) — The independent engineering specialist who led an investigation into leaks at the $14.6 billion Big Dig project says he can no longer vouch for the safety of its tunnels.
"I am now unable to express an opinion as to the safety of the I-93 portion of the Central Artery," Jack Lemley wrote in the March 9 letter to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, a copy of which was obtained by The Boston Globe.
The project — formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project — buried Interstate 93 underneath downtown Boston and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport.
Lemley told lawmakers in November that there was no public safety risk to people driving through the tunnels.
In the latest letter, he said new information has surfaced that more than 40 large sections of tunnel wall contain construction defects and that fireproofing material has been damaged by leaks.
He also wrote that project officials have blocked him from obtaining records and data related to the new problems. Lemley added that his change in position also was driven by the apparent lack of any formal plan by Big Dig officials to address the leak problems.
Big Dig consultant: Tunnels may be unsafe
BOSTON (AP) — The independent engineering specialist who led an investigation into leaks at the $14.6 billion Big Dig project says he can no longer vouch for the safety of its tunnels.
"I am now unable to express an opinion as to the safety of the I-93 portion of the Central Artery," Jack Lemley wrote in the March 9 letter to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, a copy of which was obtained by The Boston Globe.
The project — formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project — buried Interstate 93 underneath downtown Boston and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport.
Lemley told lawmakers in November that there was no public safety risk to people driving through the tunnels.
In the latest letter, he said new information has surfaced that more than 40 large sections of tunnel wall contain construction defects and that fireproofing material has been damaged by leaks.
He also wrote that project officials have blocked him from obtaining records and data related to the new problems. Lemley added that his change in position also was driven by the apparent lack of any formal plan by Big Dig officials to address the leak problems.
Big Dig consultant: Tunnels may be unsafe
BOSTON (AP) — The independent engineering specialist who led an investigation into leaks at the $14.6 billion Big Dig project says he can no longer vouch for the safety of its tunnels.
"I am now unable to express an opinion as to the safety of the I-93 portion of the Central Artery," Jack Lemley wrote in the March 9 letter to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, a copy of which was obtained by The Boston Globe.
The project — formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project — buried Interstate 93 underneath downtown Boston and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport.
Lemley told lawmakers in November that there was no public safety risk to people driving through the tunnels.
In the latest letter, he said new information has surfaced that more than 40 large sections of tunnel wall contain construction defects and that fireproofing material has been damaged by leaks.
He also wrote that project officials have blocked him from obtaining records and data related to the new problems. Lemley added that his change in position also was driven by the apparent lack of any formal plan by Big Dig officials to address the leak problems.
Russian man lives normal life with a still heart
03/12/2005 17:52
The man's heart stopped beating after a heart attack, but the man did not die
Nikolai Mikhalnichuk, a resident of the Russian city of Saratov, is a unique man. He is the only person in Russia, who lives with a still heart.
The story started several years ago, when Nikolai's relationship with his wife, Lydia, started worsening. Lydia was coming home late, Nikolai was answering dead phone calls: he realized that she was having a love affair. One day Lydia said that she wanted to leave him.
Nikolai was crushed with the news - he had a heart attack at night. He felt sharp pain in the chest, and it took him great efforts to call an ambulance. When doctors looked at the cardiogram, they were surprised to see that the graphic waves on the paper did not look like usual ones - Nikolai's diagram was much smaller.
When doctors examined Nikolai's heart through blood vessels, they were shocked to find out that the man's heart was not beating, although the vessels continued pumping his blood. Nikolai's body was functioning on the base of absolutely unknown rules.
Numerous additional medical examinations could only prove the previous result: the man's heart was not beating. When doctors were checking Nikolai out of the hospital, they told him about the remarkable peculiarity of his cardiovascular system. At present moment Nikolai visits a local cardio-center once in a month to have his unique heart examined.
"When doctors told me about my heart, I was shocked. I was afraid to walk and even to breath. I was panicking all the time: I thought that blood would stop flowing through my body and I would just die. Then I got used to it. Now I can even forget about it at times," Nikolai said.
When Nikolai's ex-wife learnt about what happened, she came to see her ex-husband at the hospital. "I did not let her come in. It all happened to me because of her. I don't want to see her," the man said.
Nikolai met a girl six months after that. "I was afraid to touch her - what if I died because of that. That was the only idea in my head because I thought that any emotional stress, positive or negative, would be deadly to me. But then I just thought that such a life would not be good for me and I decided to live my life to the utmost, like before."
Vitali Levitski, a professor of the Institute of Cardiology said that Nikolai Mikhalnichuk became the third person in the world, who could live with a still heart. "Two other individuals like Nikolai live in Brazil and Japan. Blood vessels of the human heart are elastic and strong enough to pump blood. That is why Nikolai is still living, breathing and moving. His heart is alive; one may say that it is sleeping. Such a unique incident occurred as a result of his stress. A strong emotional experience results in a powerful hormone action, which affects the heart and vessels first and foremost," the professor said.
The phenomenon of a still heart was discovered for the first time in the 1950s in Vienna, Austria. Scientists found "sleeping" parts of the heart tissue with seven members of the experiment to test a new cardiograph model. The seven patients said that they had had a very strong emotional stress before. However, those seven individuals had stillness of only certain parts of their hearts. Nikolai is definitely a unique individual, because his entire heart muscle went to a standstill. If he did not have extra-strong elastic vessels, he would not be able to live.
"This man can live a normal life for many years. He is not allowed to do any extreme sports, but simple physical exercises and moderate sex will be only good for him," professor Levitski said.
A 27-year-old pregnant woman, named only as Anna, was taken to the clinic of the Moscow Medical Institute. The young woman was a unique patient in the clinic, because she had had her uterus removed two years before she got pregnant. The fetus was growing in the woman's abdominal cavity - the baby was born with the help of Cesarean section.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, about five percent of people live with only one kidney, 3.3% have only one lung, and 1.9% of people have no stomach. About 0.3% of men are born with only one testicle. Doctors believe that such a physical defect can cause only aesthetical discomfort, whereas such men can have children and have no problems with sexual potency.
Russian man lives normal life with a still heart
03/12/2005 17:52
The man's heart stopped beating after a heart attack, but the man did not die
Nikolai Mikhalnichuk, a resident of the Russian city of Saratov, is a unique man. He is the only person in Russia, who lives with a still heart.
The story started several years ago, when Nikolai's relationship with his wife, Lydia, started worsening. Lydia was coming home late, Nikolai was answering dead phone calls: he realized that she was having a love affair. One day Lydia said that she wanted to leave him.
Nikolai was crushed with the news - he had a heart attack at night. He felt sharp pain in the chest, and it took him great efforts to call an ambulance. When doctors looked at the cardiogram, they were surprised to see that the graphic waves on the paper did not look like usual ones - Nikolai's diagram was much smaller.
When doctors examined Nikolai's heart through blood vessels, they were shocked to find out that the man's heart was not beating, although the vessels continued pumping his blood. Nikolai's body was functioning on the base of absolutely unknown rules.
Numerous additional medical examinations could only prove the previous result: the man's heart was not beating. When doctors were checking Nikolai out of the hospital, they told him about the remarkable peculiarity of his cardiovascular system. At present moment Nikolai visits a local cardio-center once in a month to have his unique heart examined.
"When doctors told me about my heart, I was shocked. I was afraid to walk and even to breath. I was panicking all the time: I thought that blood would stop flowing through my body and I would just die. Then I got used to it. Now I can even forget about it at times," Nikolai said.
When Nikolai's ex-wife learnt about what happened, she came to see her ex-husband at the hospital. "I did not let her come in. It all happened to me because of her. I don't want to see her," the man said.
Nikolai met a girl six months after that. "I was afraid to touch her - what if I died because of that. That was the only idea in my head because I thought that any emotional stress, positive or negative, would be deadly to me. But then I just thought that such a life would not be good for me and I decided to live my life to the utmost, like before."
Vitali Levitski, a professor of the Institute of Cardiology said that Nikolai Mikhalnichuk became the third person in the world, who could live with a still heart. "Two other individuals like Nikolai live in Brazil and Japan. Blood vessels of the human heart are elastic and strong enough to pump blood. That is why Nikolai is still living, breathing and moving. His heart is alive; one may say that it is sleeping. Such a unique incident occurred as a result of his stress. A strong emotional experience results in a powerful hormone action, which affects the heart and vessels first and foremost," the professor said.
The phenomenon of a still heart was discovered for the first time in the 1950s in Vienna, Austria. Scientists found "sleeping" parts of the heart tissue with seven members of the experiment to test a new cardiograph model. The seven patients said that they had had a very strong emotional stress before. However, those seven individuals had stillness of only certain parts of their hearts. Nikolai is definitely a unique individual, because his entire heart muscle went to a standstill. If he did not have extra-strong elastic vessels, he would not be able to live.
"This man can live a normal life for many years. He is not allowed to do any extreme sports, but simple physical exercises and moderate sex will be only good for him," professor Levitski said.
A 27-year-old pregnant woman, named only as Anna, was taken to the clinic of the Moscow Medical Institute. The young woman was a unique patient in the clinic, because she had had her uterus removed two years before she got pregnant. The fetus was growing in the woman's abdominal cavity - the baby was born with the help of Cesarean section.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, about five percent of people live with only one kidney, 3.3% have only one lung, and 1.9% of people have no stomach. About 0.3% of men are born with only one testicle. Doctors believe that such a physical defect can cause only aesthetical discomfort, whereas such men can have children and have no problems with sexual potency.
Russian man lives normal life with a still heart
03/12/2005 17:52
The man's heart stopped beating after a heart attack, but the man did not die
Nikolai Mikhalnichuk, a resident of the Russian city of Saratov, is a unique man. He is the only person in Russia, who lives with a still heart.
The story started several years ago, when Nikolai's relationship with his wife, Lydia, started worsening. Lydia was coming home late, Nikolai was answering dead phone calls: he realized that she was having a love affair. One day Lydia said that she wanted to leave him.
Nikolai was crushed with the news - he had a heart attack at night. He felt sharp pain in the chest, and it took him great efforts to call an ambulance. When doctors looked at the cardiogram, they were surprised to see that the graphic waves on the paper did not look like usual ones - Nikolai's diagram was much smaller.
When doctors examined Nikolai's heart through blood vessels, they were shocked to find out that the man's heart was not beating, although the vessels continued pumping his blood. Nikolai's body was functioning on the base of absolutely unknown rules.
Numerous additional medical examinations could only prove the previous result: the man's heart was not beating. When doctors were checking Nikolai out of the hospital, they told him about the remarkable peculiarity of his cardiovascular system. At present moment Nikolai visits a local cardio-center once in a month to have his unique heart examined.
"When doctors told me about my heart, I was shocked. I was afraid to walk and even to breath. I was panicking all the time: I thought that blood would stop flowing through my body and I would just die. Then I got used to it. Now I can even forget about it at times," Nikolai said.
When Nikolai's ex-wife learnt about what happened, she came to see her ex-husband at the hospital. "I did not let her come in. It all happened to me because of her. I don't want to see her," the man said.
Nikolai met a girl six months after that. "I was afraid to touch her - what if I died because of that. That was the only idea in my head because I thought that any emotional stress, positive or negative, would be deadly to me. But then I just thought that such a life would not be good for me and I decided to live my life to the utmost, like before."
Vitali Levitski, a professor of the Institute of Cardiology said that Nikolai Mikhalnichuk became the third person in the world, who could live with a still heart. "Two other individuals like Nikolai live in Brazil and Japan. Blood vessels of the human heart are elastic and strong enough to pump blood. That is why Nikolai is still living, breathing and moving. His heart is alive; one may say that it is sleeping. Such a unique incident occurred as a result of his stress. A strong emotional experience results in a powerful hormone action, which affects the heart and vessels first and foremost," the professor said.
The phenomenon of a still heart was discovered for the first time in the 1950s in Vienna, Austria. Scientists found "sleeping" parts of the heart tissue with seven members of the experiment to test a new cardiograph model. The seven patients said that they had had a very strong emotional stress before. However, those seven individuals had stillness of only certain parts of their hearts. Nikolai is definitely a unique individual, because his entire heart muscle went to a standstill. If he did not have extra-strong elastic vessels, he would not be able to live.
"This man can live a normal life for many years. He is not allowed to do any extreme sports, but simple physical exercises and moderate sex will be only good for him," professor Levitski said.
A 27-year-old pregnant woman, named only as Anna, was taken to the clinic of the Moscow Medical Institute. The young woman was a unique patient in the clinic, because she had had her uterus removed two years before she got pregnant. The fetus was growing in the woman's abdominal cavity - the baby was born with the help of Cesarean section.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, about five percent of people live with only one kidney, 3.3% have only one lung, and 1.9% of people have no stomach. About 0.3% of men are born with only one testicle. Doctors believe that such a physical defect can cause only aesthetical discomfort, whereas such men can have children and have no problems with sexual potency.
Karen Hughes To Work on The World's View of U.S.
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A03
Former White House counselor Karen P. Hughes will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world, where anti-Americanism has fueled extremist groups and terrorism, a senior administration official said yesterday.
Hughes, 48, who has been one of President Bush's closest advisers since his tenure as Texas governor, plans to return to Washington soon to rejoin the president's team after a three-year absence and set up shop at the State Department, where she will work with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reinvigorate the campaign for hearts and minds overseas.
Karen Hughes will work from the State Department.
Hughes will take over an operation that has been criticized as lackluster by many analysts and, privately, even by some administration officials, despite its mission of waging a war of ideas against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist organizations. The last undersecretary for public diplomacy, Margaret Tutwiler, left last summer after less than a year on the job. The post has remained vacant since.
Tutwiler was at the White House yesterday and has been advising Hughes about the job. Hughes, who left her White House job in the summer of 2002 to return to Texas with her family, did not return telephone or e-mail messages.
Karen Hughes To Work on The World's View of U.S.
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A03
Former White House counselor Karen P. Hughes will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world, where anti-Americanism has fueled extremist groups and terrorism, a senior administration official said yesterday.
Hughes, 48, who has been one of President Bush's closest advisers since his tenure as Texas governor, plans to return to Washington soon to rejoin the president's team after a three-year absence and set up shop at the State Department, where she will work with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reinvigorate the campaign for hearts and minds overseas.
Karen Hughes will work from the State Department.
Hughes will take over an operation that has been criticized as lackluster by many analysts and, privately, even by some administration officials, despite its mission of waging a war of ideas against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist organizations. The last undersecretary for public diplomacy, Margaret Tutwiler, left last summer after less than a year on the job. The post has remained vacant since.
Tutwiler was at the White House yesterday and has been advising Hughes about the job. Hughes, who left her White House job in the summer of 2002 to return to Texas with her family, did not return telephone or e-mail messages.
Karen Hughes To Work on The World's View of U.S.
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A03
Former White House counselor Karen P. Hughes will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world, where anti-Americanism has fueled extremist groups and terrorism, a senior administration official said yesterday.
Hughes, 48, who has been one of President Bush's closest advisers since his tenure as Texas governor, plans to return to Washington soon to rejoin the president's team after a three-year absence and set up shop at the State Department, where she will work with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reinvigorate the campaign for hearts and minds overseas.
Karen Hughes will work from the State Department.
Hughes will take over an operation that has been criticized as lackluster by many analysts and, privately, even by some administration officials, despite its mission of waging a war of ideas against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist organizations. The last undersecretary for public diplomacy, Margaret Tutwiler, left last summer after less than a year on the job. The post has remained vacant since.
Tutwiler was at the White House yesterday and has been advising Hughes about the job. Hughes, who left her White House job in the summer of 2002 to return to Texas with her family, did not return telephone or e-mail messages.
Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip
Later in 2000, Lawmaker's Vote Helped Defeat Regulatory Measure
By James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A01
An Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a Washington public policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay helped kill legislation opposed by the tribe and the company.
The sponsor of the week-long trip listed in DeLay's financial disclosures was the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research, but a person involved in arranging DeLay's travel said that lobbyist Jack Abramoff suggested the trip and then arranged for The dates on the checks coincided with the day DeLay left on the trip, May 25, 2000, according to grants documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The Choctaw and eLottery each sent a check for $25,000, according to the documents. They now say that they were unaware the money was being used to finance DeLay's travels.
Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip
Later in 2000, Lawmaker's Vote Helped Defeat Regulatory Measure
By James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A01
An Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a Washington public policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay helped kill legislation opposed by the tribe and the company.
The sponsor of the week-long trip listed in DeLay's financial disclosures was the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research, but a person involved in arranging DeLay's travel said that lobbyist Jack Abramoff suggested the trip and then arranged for The dates on the checks coincided with the day DeLay left on the trip, May 25, 2000, according to grants documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The Choctaw and eLottery each sent a check for $25,000, according to the documents. They now say that they were unaware the money was being used to finance DeLay's travels.
Gambling Interests Funded DeLay Trip
Later in 2000, Lawmaker's Vote Helped Defeat Regulatory Measure
By James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A01
An Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a Washington public policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay helped kill legislation opposed by the tribe and the company.
The sponsor of the week-long trip listed in DeLay's financial disclosures was the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research, but a person involved in arranging DeLay's travel said that lobbyist Jack Abramoff suggested the trip and then arranged for The dates on the checks coincided with the day DeLay left on the trip, May 25, 2000, according to grants documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The Choctaw and eLottery each sent a check for $25,000, according to the documents. They now say that they were unaware the money was being used to finance DeLay's travels.
Disabled Veteran Mistakenly Declared Dead
By Associated Press
March 9, 2005, 9:11 PM EST
MANAHAWKIN, N.J. -- A disabled veteran who went to his mailbox expecting his monthly disability check instead found a letter from the federal government telling him he was dead. For David Baruk, 33, it was quite a shock.
"I had just spent a month in the hospital. And now I was dead. It just brought tears to my eyes," Baruk told the Asbury Park Press for Wednesday's newspapers.
Baruk, a U.S. Army veteran, received a medical discharge in 1991 after treatment for a knee injury led to a series of complications.
Eventually deemed 100 percent disabled, he gets a check for $839 each month. But instead of a check, last month he got a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Feb. 9 letter was addressed to the "Representative of the Estate of David S. Baruk."
"We are sorry to learn of the death of David S. Baruk and wish to express our sympathy," it read. "Any checks received after the date of death or any monies that were electronically deposited in a bank account after the date of death should be returned."
Disabled Veteran Mistakenly Declared Dead
By Associated Press
March 9, 2005, 9:11 PM EST
MANAHAWKIN, N.J. -- A disabled veteran who went to his mailbox expecting his monthly disability check instead found a letter from the federal government telling him he was dead. For David Baruk, 33, it was quite a shock.
"I had just spent a month in the hospital. And now I was dead. It just brought tears to my eyes," Baruk told the Asbury Park Press for Wednesday's newspapers.
Baruk, a U.S. Army veteran, received a medical discharge in 1991 after treatment for a knee injury led to a series of complications.
Eventually deemed 100 percent disabled, he gets a check for $839 each month. But instead of a check, last month he got a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Feb. 9 letter was addressed to the "Representative of the Estate of David S. Baruk."
"We are sorry to learn of the death of David S. Baruk and wish to express our sympathy," it read. "Any checks received after the date of death or any monies that were electronically deposited in a bank account after the date of death should be returned."
Disabled Veteran Mistakenly Declared Dead
By Associated Press
March 9, 2005, 9:11 PM EST
MANAHAWKIN, N.J. -- A disabled veteran who went to his mailbox expecting his monthly disability check instead found a letter from the federal government telling him he was dead. For David Baruk, 33, it was quite a shock.
"I had just spent a month in the hospital. And now I was dead. It just brought tears to my eyes," Baruk told the Asbury Park Press for Wednesday's newspapers.
Baruk, a U.S. Army veteran, received a medical discharge in 1991 after treatment for a knee injury led to a series of complications.
Eventually deemed 100 percent disabled, he gets a check for $839 each month. But instead of a check, last month he got a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Feb. 9 letter was addressed to the "Representative of the Estate of David S. Baruk."
"We are sorry to learn of the death of David S. Baruk and wish to express our sympathy," it read. "Any checks received after the date of death or any monies that were electronically deposited in a bank account after the date of death should be returned."
Far more than 70,000 believed dead in Darfur
March 10, 2005
Far more people have died in Sudan's ravaged Darfur region than the 70,000 reported since last year, and many of those deaths were from preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea, the UN humanitarian chief said yesterday. Getting an accurate count of the dead from Darfur's two-year conflict has been extremely difficult because of the size and remoteness of much of the region. The UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said the 70,000 figure was released when there were 1 million internally displaced people in Darfur, but that number has now doubled to some 2 million. As the number of people who have fled increases, the number who die of malnutrition or a host of other reasons also goes up, he said. (AP)
Far more than 70,000 believed dead in Darfur
March 10, 2005
Far more people have died in Sudan's ravaged Darfur region than the 70,000 reported since last year, and many of those deaths were from preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea, the UN humanitarian chief said yesterday. Getting an accurate count of the dead from Darfur's two-year conflict has been extremely difficult because of the size and remoteness of much of the region. The UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said the 70,000 figure was released when there were 1 million internally displaced people in Darfur, but that number has now doubled to some 2 million. As the number of people who have fled increases, the number who die of malnutrition or a host of other reasons also goes up, he said. (AP)
Far more than 70,000 believed dead in Darfur
March 10, 2005
Far more people have died in Sudan's ravaged Darfur region than the 70,000 reported since last year, and many of those deaths were from preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea, the UN humanitarian chief said yesterday. Getting an accurate count of the dead from Darfur's two-year conflict has been extremely difficult because of the size and remoteness of much of the region. The UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said the 70,000 figure was released when there were 1 million internally displaced people in Darfur, but that number has now doubled to some 2 million. As the number of people who have fled increases, the number who die of malnutrition or a host of other reasons also goes up, he said. (AP)
Defense review has a go-it-alone tone
Alliances are said to be discouraged
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | March 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has outlined the main priorities for the Pentagon's 2005 defense review, including a focus on protecting the American homeland and discouraging any other nation from building a military to rival the United States, but his marching orders place little emphasis on military alliances, according to defense officials.
Top Pentagon officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they believe Rumsfeld's priorities reflect the military thinking of the Bush administration amid the Iraq war: that the United States cannot count on other nations to help battle Islamic extremists, stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, or prevent the rise of rival powers, particularly the People's Republic of China.
''The parameters of the study suggest that this administration has abandoned the Clinton administration focus on coalition warfare and is more or less planning to go it alone," said a Pentagon adviser who has been briefed on Rumsfeld's memo outlining priorities for the review. ''They want to train locals to deal with their own terrorists, but they do not plan to rely on allies in military operations."
The memo, unclassified portions of which were viewed by the Globe, has circulated among top brass since March 1. Some senior military leaders have said that Rumsfeld is trying to dictate the findings of the review rather than just establish its terms. One senior officer contended that the study is being conducted from the ''top down."
''They already know what they want to do and are saying go do it," the officer said.
Defense review has a go-it-alone tone
Alliances are said to be discouraged
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | March 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has outlined the main priorities for the Pentagon's 2005 defense review, including a focus on protecting the American homeland and discouraging any other nation from building a military to rival the United States, but his marching orders place little emphasis on military alliances, according to defense officials.
Top Pentagon officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they believe Rumsfeld's priorities reflect the military thinking of the Bush administration amid the Iraq war: that the United States cannot count on other nations to help battle Islamic extremists, stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, or prevent the rise of rival powers, particularly the People's Republic of China.
''The parameters of the study suggest that this administration has abandoned the Clinton administration focus on coalition warfare and is more or less planning to go it alone," said a Pentagon adviser who has been briefed on Rumsfeld's memo outlining priorities for the review. ''They want to train locals to deal with their own terrorists, but they do not plan to rely on allies in military operations."
The memo, unclassified portions of which were viewed by the Globe, has circulated among top brass since March 1. Some senior military leaders have said that Rumsfeld is trying to dictate the findings of the review rather than just establish its terms. One senior officer contended that the study is being conducted from the ''top down."
''They already know what they want to do and are saying go do it," the officer said.
Defense review has a go-it-alone tone
Alliances are said to be discouraged
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | March 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has outlined the main priorities for the Pentagon's 2005 defense review, including a focus on protecting the American homeland and discouraging any other nation from building a military to rival the United States, but his marching orders place little emphasis on military alliances, according to defense officials.
Top Pentagon officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they believe Rumsfeld's priorities reflect the military thinking of the Bush administration amid the Iraq war: that the United States cannot count on other nations to help battle Islamic extremists, stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, or prevent the rise of rival powers, particularly the People's Republic of China.
''The parameters of the study suggest that this administration has abandoned the Clinton administration focus on coalition warfare and is more or less planning to go it alone," said a Pentagon adviser who has been briefed on Rumsfeld's memo outlining priorities for the review. ''They want to train locals to deal with their own terrorists, but they do not plan to rely on allies in military operations."
The memo, unclassified portions of which were viewed by the Globe, has circulated among top brass since March 1. Some senior military leaders have said that Rumsfeld is trying to dictate the findings of the review rather than just establish its terms. One senior officer contended that the study is being conducted from the ''top down."
''They already know what they want to do and are saying go do it," the officer said.
Another whitewash in Iraq?
March 10, 2005
THE INCIDENT in which Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was wounded and her rescuer, Nicola Calipari, killed (Page A10, March 8) seems to be following a familiar scenario. The US military claims that the car was speeding, warnings were given, and they fired into the engine block to stop it. We are told that nobody knew that Sgrena had been rescued and taken to the airport.
Sgrena, the driver, and a wounded intelligence officer tell a different story. They claim that the appropriate authorities had been notified, that it was raining -- which limited travel on the bad roads to 30 miles per hour; they had passed several checkpoints where they were identified by US military; and that there was no checkpoint when they were shot, about 700 meters from the airport. A bright light was shone on the car, and 400 or more rounds were fired at them. When an investigation was called for by the Italian government, the military has ''lost" the evidence -- the car.
So far, I've heard ''witnesses" trotted out to testify that the Baghdad airport road is very dangerous and used by insurgents, which supposedly excuses our military firing indiscriminately at anything that moves.
The predictable outcome will be that there will be a halfhearted ''investigation" following which a low-level grunt will receive a court-martial or a slap on the wrist. The media will then conveniently forget the whole thing.
BEN ADAMS
Another whitewash in Iraq?
March 10, 2005
THE INCIDENT in which Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was wounded and her rescuer, Nicola Calipari, killed (Page A10, March 8) seems to be following a familiar scenario. The US military claims that the car was speeding, warnings were given, and they fired into the engine block to stop it. We are told that nobody knew that Sgrena had been rescued and taken to the airport.
Sgrena, the driver, and a wounded intelligence officer tell a different story. They claim that the appropriate authorities had been notified, that it was raining -- which limited travel on the bad roads to 30 miles per hour; they had passed several checkpoints where they were identified by US military; and that there was no checkpoint when they were shot, about 700 meters from the airport. A bright light was shone on the car, and 400 or more rounds were fired at them. When an investigation was called for by the Italian government, the military has ''lost" the evidence -- the car.
So far, I've heard ''witnesses" trotted out to testify that the Baghdad airport road is very dangerous and used by insurgents, which supposedly excuses our military firing indiscriminately at anything that moves.
The predictable outcome will be that there will be a halfhearted ''investigation" following which a low-level grunt will receive a court-martial or a slap on the wrist. The media will then conveniently forget the whole thing.
BEN ADAMS
Another whitewash in Iraq?
March 10, 2005
THE INCIDENT in which Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was wounded and her rescuer, Nicola Calipari, killed (Page A10, March 8) seems to be following a familiar scenario. The US military claims that the car was speeding, warnings were given, and they fired into the engine block to stop it. We are told that nobody knew that Sgrena had been rescued and taken to the airport.
Sgrena, the driver, and a wounded intelligence officer tell a different story. They claim that the appropriate authorities had been notified, that it was raining -- which limited travel on the bad roads to 30 miles per hour; they had passed several checkpoints where they were identified by US military; and that there was no checkpoint when they were shot, about 700 meters from the airport. A bright light was shone on the car, and 400 or more rounds were fired at them. When an investigation was called for by the Italian government, the military has ''lost" the evidence -- the car.
So far, I've heard ''witnesses" trotted out to testify that the Baghdad airport road is very dangerous and used by insurgents, which supposedly excuses our military firing indiscriminately at anything that moves.
The predictable outcome will be that there will be a halfhearted ''investigation" following which a low-level grunt will receive a court-martial or a slap on the wrist. The media will then conveniently forget the whole thing.
BEN ADAMS
Tomorrow, March 10th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nomination of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals—the second highest court in the land. Myers is the first of 20 judicial nominees Bush has re-submitted in his second term. All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by Senate Democrats (as compared to the 204 judges they accepted) because these nominees consistently sided with corporate special-interests over the rights of ordinary Americans.
This time, Bush is ready to fight dirty to force these nominees through. Dick Cheney has even threatened to use a parliamentary trick to eliminate the centuries-old rule requiring judges to have broad support in the Senate. This would effectively silence all 44 Democratic senators and the 173 million Americans they represent—the majority of the country.
With the first crucial vote on the first judge in less than a day, we're launching a national campaign to let our senators know that we out here in America are counting on them to hold the line on all 20 of Bush's rejected, corporate judges, and beat back his dirty parliamentary tricks.
The first phase is this national petition that we will hand deliver to your senators before the confirmation votes for the 20 judges. And tomorrow, MoveOn members will host over 1000 house meetings to create local plans to save the judiciary. The courts we have for the next 30 years may depend on your efforts in the next few weeks.
Please sign today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
To ram his nominees through, Bush is hoping to use a parliamentary trick the Republicans refer to as the "nuclear option." For 200 years, if enough senators strongly objected to a federal judge, they could use a filibuster to force more debate until all their concerns were addressed. That's how Democrats blocked the worst of these 20 nominees last term. Actually changing the rule would require a 2/3 vote of the Senate—and Bush doesn't have near that level of support.
So instead, Vice President Cheney has threatened to abuse his authority as President of the Senate, and just declare that the right to filibuster judges is null and void. If Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can twist enough arms to get 50 senators to support the ruling, the filibuster is history. For the first time ever, one party would have complete control over judicial nominations, all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Both parties in the Senate were given the power to approve or reject judicial nominations because—above all else—judges must be trusted by Americans on all sides to rule fairly. So why does Bush refuse to send a few replacement nominees both parties can agree on? Why is he so intent on smashing Democratic resistance to these and all future nominees? Because while his presidency will be over in 4 years, the judges he appoints will be on the bench for the rest of their lives. This is Bush's big push to lock in his hard-right, corporate-friendly ideology for decades to come—and that is exactly why we must not back down now.
The whole plot is set into motion tomorrow, with the committee vote on William Myers. We must draw the line here, by stopping Bush's 20 repeat nominees and standing up to the "nuclear option."
Please sign the petition today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
Thanks for all that you do,
--Ben Brandzel, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
P.S. Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan judges re-nominated by President Bush.
William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry. [1] He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with potential profit. [2] In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip mined. [3]
Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability. [4] His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence. [5]
William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money for their healthcare system as a result. [6] He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled. [7]
Notes:
[1] "Unfit to Judge," Community Rights Council, 4/2/04.
[2] "Myers Troubling Legal Philosophy," People for the American Way.
[3] "Environmental Group Calls on Senate to Block Myers Nomination: Ethical Problems and Anti-Environmental Activism Make Him Unfit for Judgeship," Friends of the Earth, 2/5/05.
[4] "Federal Judge Terrence Boyle Unfit for Promotion to Appeals Court," People for the American Way, 2/23/05.
[5] "Eastern District of North Carolina Terrence Boyle Nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," Alliance for Justice.
[6] Eric Fleischauer, "Pryor Called a Tobacco Sellout," Decatur Daily News, 10/30/02.
[7] Ann Woolner, "Bush Judicial Candidate Shows How Things Change," Bloomberg News, 5/16/03.
Tomorrow, March 10th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nomination of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals—the second highest court in the land. Myers is the first of 20 judicial nominees Bush has re-submitted in his second term. All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by Senate Democrats (as compared to the 204 judges they accepted) because these nominees consistently sided with corporate special-interests over the rights of ordinary Americans.
This time, Bush is ready to fight dirty to force these nominees through. Dick Cheney has even threatened to use a parliamentary trick to eliminate the centuries-old rule requiring judges to have broad support in the Senate. This would effectively silence all 44 Democratic senators and the 173 million Americans they represent—the majority of the country.
With the first crucial vote on the first judge in less than a day, we're launching a national campaign to let our senators know that we out here in America are counting on them to hold the line on all 20 of Bush's rejected, corporate judges, and beat back his dirty parliamentary tricks.
The first phase is this national petition that we will hand deliver to your senators before the confirmation votes for the 20 judges. And tomorrow, MoveOn members will host over 1000 house meetings to create local plans to save the judiciary. The courts we have for the next 30 years may depend on your efforts in the next few weeks.
Please sign today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
To ram his nominees through, Bush is hoping to use a parliamentary trick the Republicans refer to as the "nuclear option." For 200 years, if enough senators strongly objected to a federal judge, they could use a filibuster to force more debate until all their concerns were addressed. That's how Democrats blocked the worst of these 20 nominees last term. Actually changing the rule would require a 2/3 vote of the Senate—and Bush doesn't have near that level of support.
So instead, Vice President Cheney has threatened to abuse his authority as President of the Senate, and just declare that the right to filibuster judges is null and void. If Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can twist enough arms to get 50 senators to support the ruling, the filibuster is history. For the first time ever, one party would have complete control over judicial nominations, all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Both parties in the Senate were given the power to approve or reject judicial nominations because—above all else—judges must be trusted by Americans on all sides to rule fairly. So why does Bush refuse to send a few replacement nominees both parties can agree on? Why is he so intent on smashing Democratic resistance to these and all future nominees? Because while his presidency will be over in 4 years, the judges he appoints will be on the bench for the rest of their lives. This is Bush's big push to lock in his hard-right, corporate-friendly ideology for decades to come—and that is exactly why we must not back down now.
The whole plot is set into motion tomorrow, with the committee vote on William Myers. We must draw the line here, by stopping Bush's 20 repeat nominees and standing up to the "nuclear option."
Please sign the petition today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
Thanks for all that you do,
--Ben Brandzel, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
P.S. Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan judges re-nominated by President Bush.
William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry. [1] He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with potential profit. [2] In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip mined. [3]
Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability. [4] His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence. [5]
William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money for their healthcare system as a result. [6] He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled. [7]
Notes:
[1] "Unfit to Judge," Community Rights Council, 4/2/04.
[2] "Myers Troubling Legal Philosophy," People for the American Way.
[3] "Environmental Group Calls on Senate to Block Myers Nomination: Ethical Problems and Anti-Environmental Activism Make Him Unfit for Judgeship," Friends of the Earth, 2/5/05.
[4] "Federal Judge Terrence Boyle Unfit for Promotion to Appeals Court," People for the American Way, 2/23/05.
[5] "Eastern District of North Carolina Terrence Boyle Nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," Alliance for Justice.
[6] Eric Fleischauer, "Pryor Called a Tobacco Sellout," Decatur Daily News, 10/30/02.
[7] Ann Woolner, "Bush Judicial Candidate Shows How Things Change," Bloomberg News, 5/16/03.
Tomorrow, March 10th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nomination of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals—the second highest court in the land. Myers is the first of 20 judicial nominees Bush has re-submitted in his second term. All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by Senate Democrats (as compared to the 204 judges they accepted) because these nominees consistently sided with corporate special-interests over the rights of ordinary Americans.
This time, Bush is ready to fight dirty to force these nominees through. Dick Cheney has even threatened to use a parliamentary trick to eliminate the centuries-old rule requiring judges to have broad support in the Senate. This would effectively silence all 44 Democratic senators and the 173 million Americans they represent—the majority of the country.
With the first crucial vote on the first judge in less than a day, we're launching a national campaign to let our senators know that we out here in America are counting on them to hold the line on all 20 of Bush's rejected, corporate judges, and beat back his dirty parliamentary tricks.
The first phase is this national petition that we will hand deliver to your senators before the confirmation votes for the 20 judges. And tomorrow, MoveOn members will host over 1000 house meetings to create local plans to save the judiciary. The courts we have for the next 30 years may depend on your efforts in the next few weeks.
Please sign today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
To ram his nominees through, Bush is hoping to use a parliamentary trick the Republicans refer to as the "nuclear option." For 200 years, if enough senators strongly objected to a federal judge, they could use a filibuster to force more debate until all their concerns were addressed. That's how Democrats blocked the worst of these 20 nominees last term. Actually changing the rule would require a 2/3 vote of the Senate—and Bush doesn't have near that level of support.
So instead, Vice President Cheney has threatened to abuse his authority as President of the Senate, and just declare that the right to filibuster judges is null and void. If Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can twist enough arms to get 50 senators to support the ruling, the filibuster is history. For the first time ever, one party would have complete control over judicial nominations, all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Both parties in the Senate were given the power to approve or reject judicial nominations because—above all else—judges must be trusted by Americans on all sides to rule fairly. So why does Bush refuse to send a few replacement nominees both parties can agree on? Why is he so intent on smashing Democratic resistance to these and all future nominees? Because while his presidency will be over in 4 years, the judges he appoints will be on the bench for the rest of their lives. This is Bush's big push to lock in his hard-right, corporate-friendly ideology for decades to come—and that is exactly why we must not back down now.
The whole plot is set into motion tomorrow, with the committee vote on William Myers. We must draw the line here, by stopping Bush's 20 repeat nominees and standing up to the "nuclear option."
Please sign the petition today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
Thanks for all that you do,
--Ben Brandzel, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
P.S. Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan judges re-nominated by President Bush.
William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry. [1] He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with potential profit. [2] In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip mined. [3]
Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability. [4] His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence. [5]
William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money for their healthcare system as a result. [6] He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled. [7]
Notes:
[1] "Unfit to Judge," Community Rights Council, 4/2/04.
[2] "Myers Troubling Legal Philosophy," People for the American Way.
[3] "Environmental Group Calls on Senate to Block Myers Nomination: Ethical Problems and Anti-Environmental Activism Make Him Unfit for Judgeship," Friends of the Earth, 2/5/05.
[4] "Federal Judge Terrence Boyle Unfit for Promotion to Appeals Court," People for the American Way, 2/23/05.
[5] "Eastern District of North Carolina Terrence Boyle Nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," Alliance for Justice.
[6] Eric Fleischauer, "Pryor Called a Tobacco Sellout," Decatur Daily News, 10/30/02.
[7] Ann Woolner, "Bush Judicial Candidate Shows How Things Change," Bloomberg News, 5/16/03.
New Orleans installs surveillance cameras
By Mary Foster, Associated Press | March 9, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The man marched down the street in daylight, armed with a paintball rifle that had been converted to shoot with lethal force. He then blasted a newly installed camera in hopes of ridding the drug-ridden neighborhood of police surveillance.
But the shooter's image was saved on the camera's hard drive.
''All it did was get him arrested," said New Orleans' chief technology officer, Greg Meffert, with a chuckle. ''The camera immediately notified the police and tracked him until he was caught." And when they got him, they found he was wanted on a murder warrant.
The arrest was the first success story from a new crime-fighting system of cameras that New Orleans is installing citywide.
The bulletproof cameras can monitor an eight-block area, communicate with the authorities, and provide evidence in court. Police hope the system will catch criminals in the act and serve as a deterrent in a city long plagued by drugs and murders.
Civil libertarians are calling it Big Brother in the Big Easy, expressing concern about an invasion of privacy and the potential for misuse by police.
New Orleans installs surveillance cameras
By Mary Foster, Associated Press | March 9, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The man marched down the street in daylight, armed with a paintball rifle that had been converted to shoot with lethal force. He then blasted a newly installed camera in hopes of ridding the drug-ridden neighborhood of police surveillance.
But the shooter's image was saved on the camera's hard drive.
''All it did was get him arrested," said New Orleans' chief technology officer, Greg Meffert, with a chuckle. ''The camera immediately notified the police and tracked him until he was caught." And when they got him, they found he was wanted on a murder warrant.
The arrest was the first success story from a new crime-fighting system of cameras that New Orleans is installing citywide.
The bulletproof cameras can monitor an eight-block area, communicate with the authorities, and provide evidence in court. Police hope the system will catch criminals in the act and serve as a deterrent in a city long plagued by drugs and murders.
Civil libertarians are calling it Big Brother in the Big Easy, expressing concern about an invasion of privacy and the potential for misuse by police.
New Orleans installs surveillance cameras
By Mary Foster, Associated Press | March 9, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The man marched down the street in daylight, armed with a paintball rifle that had been converted to shoot with lethal force. He then blasted a newly installed camera in hopes of ridding the drug-ridden neighborhood of police surveillance.
But the shooter's image was saved on the camera's hard drive.
''All it did was get him arrested," said New Orleans' chief technology officer, Greg Meffert, with a chuckle. ''The camera immediately notified the police and tracked him until he was caught." And when they got him, they found he was wanted on a murder warrant.
The arrest was the first success story from a new crime-fighting system of cameras that New Orleans is installing citywide.
The bulletproof cameras can monitor an eight-block area, communicate with the authorities, and provide evidence in court. Police hope the system will catch criminals in the act and serve as a deterrent in a city long plagued by drugs and murders.
Civil libertarians are calling it Big Brother in the Big Easy, expressing concern about an invasion of privacy and the potential for misuse by police.
Dollar at lowest in 2 months
By Associated Press | March 9, 2005
BERLIN -- The US dollar dropped to a two-month low yesterday against the euro, which rose above $1.33 as markets looked ahead to US trade data later in the week.
The euro bought $1.3342 in late New York trading, up from $1.3200 late Monday and the highest level since early January.
The dollar also fell to 104.71 Japanese yen from 105.17 yen late Monday; to 1.1611 Swiss francs from 1.1760; and to 1.2132 Canadian dollars from 1.2291. The British pound rose to $1.9281 from $1.9133.
The dollar had bounced back Monday after dropping at the end of last week to $1.3232 on data that showed the US jobless rate up in February.
Since Friday's payrolls report ''was not that great, there is not a lot of support left over now for the dollar," Peter Frank, senior foreign exchange strategist at ABN Amro in Chicago, told Dow Jones News-wires.
''The dollar needs a lot of very good news from the cyclical side to offset the trade deficit," he said.
''That's certainly waned recently."
Dollar at lowest in 2 months
By Associated Press | March 9, 2005
BERLIN -- The US dollar dropped to a two-month low yesterday against the euro, which rose above $1.33 as markets looked ahead to US trade data later in the week.
The euro bought $1.3342 in late New York trading, up from $1.3200 late Monday and the highest level since early January.
The dollar also fell to 104.71 Japanese yen from 105.17 yen late Monday; to 1.1611 Swiss francs from 1.1760; and to 1.2132 Canadian dollars from 1.2291. The British pound rose to $1.9281 from $1.9133.
The dollar had bounced back Monday after dropping at the end of last week to $1.3232 on data that showed the US jobless rate up in February.
Since Friday's payrolls report ''was not that great, there is not a lot of support left over now for the dollar," Peter Frank, senior foreign exchange strategist at ABN Amro in Chicago, told Dow Jones News-wires.
''The dollar needs a lot of very good news from the cyclical side to offset the trade deficit," he said.
''That's certainly waned recently."
Dollar at lowest in 2 months
By Associated Press | March 9, 2005
BERLIN -- The US dollar dropped to a two-month low yesterday against the euro, which rose above $1.33 as markets looked ahead to US trade data later in the week.
The euro bought $1.3342 in late New York trading, up from $1.3200 late Monday and the highest level since early January.
The dollar also fell to 104.71 Japanese yen from 105.17 yen late Monday; to 1.1611 Swiss francs from 1.1760; and to 1.2132 Canadian dollars from 1.2291. The British pound rose to $1.9281 from $1.9133.
The dollar had bounced back Monday after dropping at the end of last week to $1.3232 on data that showed the US jobless rate up in February.
Since Friday's payrolls report ''was not that great, there is not a lot of support left over now for the dollar," Peter Frank, senior foreign exchange strategist at ABN Amro in Chicago, told Dow Jones News-wires.
''The dollar needs a lot of very good news from the cyclical side to offset the trade deficit," he said.
''That's certainly waned recently."
Abortion rights supporters lose a key vote in Senate
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday defeated an effort to stop those who commit abortion-clinic violence from ducking legal judgments through bankruptcy, a setback for abortion rights groups and a display of the increased might of the Republican majority after last year's elections.
A similar measure was part of a bankruptcy bill the Senate passed in 2003, and opposition from House Republican leaders was the only thing that kept it from becoming law then. But Republicans picked up four Senate seats in November and the amendment failed in the Senate, 53-46, in a vote that advocates on both sides consider a harbinger for the prospects of other abortion-related matters in Congress.
''The culture of the Senate probably has changed somewhat to the right on that issue," said Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who used the abortion issue to help defeat Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, last year. ''Clearly, with the freshman class that came in this year, you gained a number of prolife votes."
The stronger GOP majority could boost several initiatives designed to make abortion rarer.
Abortion rights supporters lose a key vote in Senate
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday defeated an effort to stop those who commit abortion-clinic violence from ducking legal judgments through bankruptcy, a setback for abortion rights groups and a display of the increased might of the Republican majority after last year's elections.
A similar measure was part of a bankruptcy bill the Senate passed in 2003, and opposition from House Republican leaders was the only thing that kept it from becoming law then. But Republicans picked up four Senate seats in November and the amendment failed in the Senate, 53-46, in a vote that advocates on both sides consider a harbinger for the prospects of other abortion-related matters in Congress.
''The culture of the Senate probably has changed somewhat to the right on that issue," said Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who used the abortion issue to help defeat Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, last year. ''Clearly, with the freshman class that came in this year, you gained a number of prolife votes."
The stronger GOP majority could boost several initiatives designed to make abortion rarer.
Abortion rights supporters lose a key vote in Senate
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday defeated an effort to stop those who commit abortion-clinic violence from ducking legal judgments through bankruptcy, a setback for abortion rights groups and a display of the increased might of the Republican majority after last year's elections.
A similar measure was part of a bankruptcy bill the Senate passed in 2003, and opposition from House Republican leaders was the only thing that kept it from becoming law then. But Republicans picked up four Senate seats in November and the amendment failed in the Senate, 53-46, in a vote that advocates on both sides consider a harbinger for the prospects of other abortion-related matters in Congress.
''The culture of the Senate probably has changed somewhat to the right on that issue," said Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who used the abortion issue to help defeat Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, last year. ''Clearly, with the freshman class that came in this year, you gained a number of prolife votes."
The stronger GOP majority could boost several initiatives designed to make abortion rarer.
Tobacco CEO quits Dana-Farber board
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | March 8, 2005
Weeks after the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute quietly appointed a tobacco company chief executive to its board of trustees, the executive resigned from the board yesterday, after inquiries by the Globe.
On Jan. 25, the cancer center appointed Bennett S. Le- Bow, chairman and chief executive of Vector Group Ltd. of Miami, the nation's fifth largest cigarette maker, to its board of trustees. Dana-Farber's Feb. 23 newsletter, which announced the appointment, described LeBow as a businessman and philanthropist, but did not mention LeBow's lengthy tobacco industry career.
Yesterday afternoon, after the Globe asked about the appointment, Dana-Farber announced that LeBow had resigned.
"Mr. Lebow, not wishing to be a distraction to our work, has offered to resign this new appointment, and his resignation has been accepted by our board," said a statement released by Dana-Farber's president, Dr. Edward J. Benz Jr. "We did not intend his appointment to in any way be construed as an endorsement of the tobacco industry or tobacco consumption.
We have led and continue to lead major research and outreach efforts in smoking cessation and cancer prevention."
Tobacco CEO quits Dana-Farber board
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | March 8, 2005
Weeks after the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute quietly appointed a tobacco company chief executive to its board of trustees, the executive resigned from the board yesterday, after inquiries by the Globe.
On Jan. 25, the cancer center appointed Bennett S. Le- Bow, chairman and chief executive of Vector Group Ltd. of Miami, the nation's fifth largest cigarette maker, to its board of trustees. Dana-Farber's Feb. 23 newsletter, which announced the appointment, described LeBow as a businessman and philanthropist, but did not mention LeBow's lengthy tobacco industry career.
Yesterday afternoon, after the Globe asked about the appointment, Dana-Farber announced that LeBow had resigned.
"Mr. Lebow, not wishing to be a distraction to our work, has offered to resign this new appointment, and his resignation has been accepted by our board," said a statement released by Dana-Farber's president, Dr. Edward J. Benz Jr. "We did not intend his appointment to in any way be construed as an endorsement of the tobacco industry or tobacco consumption.
We have led and continue to lead major research and outreach efforts in smoking cessation and cancer prevention."
Tobacco CEO quits Dana-Farber board
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | March 8, 2005
Weeks after the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute quietly appointed a tobacco company chief executive to its board of trustees, the executive resigned from the board yesterday, after inquiries by the Globe.
On Jan. 25, the cancer center appointed Bennett S. Le- Bow, chairman and chief executive of Vector Group Ltd. of Miami, the nation's fifth largest cigarette maker, to its board of trustees. Dana-Farber's Feb. 23 newsletter, which announced the appointment, described LeBow as a businessman and philanthropist, but did not mention LeBow's lengthy tobacco industry career.
Yesterday afternoon, after the Globe asked about the appointment, Dana-Farber announced that LeBow had resigned.
"Mr. Lebow, not wishing to be a distraction to our work, has offered to resign this new appointment, and his resignation has been accepted by our board," said a statement released by Dana-Farber's president, Dr. Edward J. Benz Jr. "We did not intend his appointment to in any way be construed as an endorsement of the tobacco industry or tobacco consumption.
We have led and continue to lead major research and outreach efforts in smoking cessation and cancer prevention."
Freed hostage recalls US shooting
Says troops not justified in firing on car
By Robin Pomeroy, Reuters | March 6, 2005
ROME -- An Italian journalist who was freed by Iraqi militants Friday said yesterday that US forces had sprayed her car with bullets as it neared safety in Iraq, wounding her and killing the man who had secured her release.
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US soldiers opened fire as the car carrying the reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, approached the Baghdad airport after she was released by the militants who had held her captive for more than a month.
The US military has said the car carrying Sgrena was speeding, and added that the military had not been told that the car would be passing through its checkpoint in western Baghdad.
Sgrena disputed key parts of the military's account in an interview yesterday.
In comments reported by the news agency ANSA, Sgrena told investigating magistrates in Rome that the car was not traveling fast and that there was no real checkpoint.
''The firing was not justified by the speed of our car," she was quoted as saying. She added only that it was traveling at a ''regular" speed.
''It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol which shot as soon as it had lit us up with a spotlight," she said. ''We had no idea where the shots were coming from."
Sgrena, 56, arrived in Rome yesterday and seemed to be in pain as she was helped off a government plane. Sgrena was clutching a plaid blanket and was attached to a drip.
Sgrena was taken by ambulance to a military hospital in Rome, a day after undergoing surgery at a US military hospital in Iraq to remove shrapnel from her shoulder. Doctors examined her and said late yesterday that another operation was not needed.
''We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians, but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out; we were hit by a barrage of bullets," she told RAI television by telephone.
Nicola Calipari, a secret service agent who had worked for her release, was telling her about what had been going on in Italy since her capture when the shooting started.
''He leaned over me, probably to protect me, and then he slumped down, and I saw he was dead," Sgrena said.
Doctors said Sgrena was in stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to her left shoulder that fractured a bone and bruised one lung. Another passenger was wounded.
Sgrena, who was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4, was met at the Rome airport by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite opposition at home, has demanded an explanation from the United States for the shooting and has received assurances from President Bush that it would be investigated.
In Baghdad, US Colonel Bob Potter said coalition forces were ''aggressively investigating the incident."
Amid the conflicting accounts of how the accident occurred, the Italian government demanded answers yesterday as Sgrena returned to Rome.
The shooting in Baghdad has stoked antiwar sentiment in Italy, where the public was widely opposed to the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to help US-led efforts to secure the country from a violent insurgency.
About 100 demonstrators outside the US Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and a banner read, ''USA, war criminals." A few dozen communist demonstrators at the US Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, ''Shame on you, Bush."
The Italian government awarded Calipari, the slain agent, a medal of valor yesterday. Calipari, 50, was the brother of a priest who serves on a Vatican advisory body, Vatican radio reported, and Pope John Paul II sent a message of condolence to the agent's family.
Italy said two other agents were wounded. One was seriously injured and remained hospitalized in Iraq, while the other returned on Sgrena's flight, Italian state television said. Calipari's body was flown back to Italy late yesterday.
Freed hostage recalls US shooting
Says troops not justified in firing on car
By Robin Pomeroy, Reuters | March 6, 2005
ROME -- An Italian journalist who was freed by Iraqi militants Friday said yesterday that US forces had sprayed her car with bullets as it neared safety in Iraq, wounding her and killing the man who had secured her release.
ADVERTISEMENT
US soldiers opened fire as the car carrying the reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, approached the Baghdad airport after she was released by the militants who had held her captive for more than a month.
The US military has said the car carrying Sgrena was speeding, and added that the military had not been told that the car would be passing through its checkpoint in western Baghdad.
Sgrena disputed key parts of the military's account in an interview yesterday.
In comments reported by the news agency ANSA, Sgrena told investigating magistrates in Rome that the car was not traveling fast and that there was no real checkpoint.
''The firing was not justified by the speed of our car," she was quoted as saying. She added only that it was traveling at a ''regular" speed.
''It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol which shot as soon as it had lit us up with a spotlight," she said. ''We had no idea where the shots were coming from."
Sgrena, 56, arrived in Rome yesterday and seemed to be in pain as she was helped off a government plane. Sgrena was clutching a plaid blanket and was attached to a drip.
Sgrena was taken by ambulance to a military hospital in Rome, a day after undergoing surgery at a US military hospital in Iraq to remove shrapnel from her shoulder. Doctors examined her and said late yesterday that another operation was not needed.
''We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians, but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out; we were hit by a barrage of bullets," she told RAI television by telephone.
Nicola Calipari, a secret service agent who had worked for her release, was telling her about what had been going on in Italy since her capture when the shooting started.
''He leaned over me, probably to protect me, and then he slumped down, and I saw he was dead," Sgrena said.
Doctors said Sgrena was in stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to her left shoulder that fractured a bone and bruised one lung. Another passenger was wounded.
Sgrena, who was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4, was met at the Rome airport by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite opposition at home, has demanded an explanation from the United States for the shooting and has received assurances from President Bush that it would be investigated.
In Baghdad, US Colonel Bob Potter said coalition forces were ''aggressively investigating the incident."
Amid the conflicting accounts of how the accident occurred, the Italian government demanded answers yesterday as Sgrena returned to Rome.
The shooting in Baghdad has stoked antiwar sentiment in Italy, where the public was widely opposed to the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to help US-led efforts to secure the country from a violent insurgency.
About 100 demonstrators outside the US Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and a banner read, ''USA, war criminals." A few dozen communist demonstrators at the US Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, ''Shame on you, Bush."
The Italian government awarded Calipari, the slain agent, a medal of valor yesterday. Calipari, 50, was the brother of a priest who serves on a Vatican advisory body, Vatican radio reported, and Pope John Paul II sent a message of condolence to the agent's family.
Italy said two other agents were wounded. One was seriously injured and remained hospitalized in Iraq, while the other returned on Sgrena's flight, Italian state television said. Calipari's body was flown back to Italy late yesterday.
Freed hostage recalls US shooting
Says troops not justified in firing on car
By Robin Pomeroy, Reuters | March 6, 2005
ROME -- An Italian journalist who was freed by Iraqi militants Friday said yesterday that US forces had sprayed her car with bullets as it neared safety in Iraq, wounding her and killing the man who had secured her release.
ADVERTISEMENT
US soldiers opened fire as the car carrying the reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, approached the Baghdad airport after she was released by the militants who had held her captive for more than a month.
The US military has said the car carrying Sgrena was speeding, and added that the military had not been told that the car would be passing through its checkpoint in western Baghdad.
Sgrena disputed key parts of the military's account in an interview yesterday.
In comments reported by the news agency ANSA, Sgrena told investigating magistrates in Rome that the car was not traveling fast and that there was no real checkpoint.
''The firing was not justified by the speed of our car," she was quoted as saying. She added only that it was traveling at a ''regular" speed.
''It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol which shot as soon as it had lit us up with a spotlight," she said. ''We had no idea where the shots were coming from."
Sgrena, 56, arrived in Rome yesterday and seemed to be in pain as she was helped off a government plane. Sgrena was clutching a plaid blanket and was attached to a drip.
Sgrena was taken by ambulance to a military hospital in Rome, a day after undergoing surgery at a US military hospital in Iraq to remove shrapnel from her shoulder. Doctors examined her and said late yesterday that another operation was not needed.
''We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians, but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out; we were hit by a barrage of bullets," she told RAI television by telephone.
Nicola Calipari, a secret service agent who had worked for her release, was telling her about what had been going on in Italy since her capture when the shooting started.
''He leaned over me, probably to protect me, and then he slumped down, and I saw he was dead," Sgrena said.
Doctors said Sgrena was in stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to her left shoulder that fractured a bone and bruised one lung. Another passenger was wounded.
Sgrena, who was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4, was met at the Rome airport by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite opposition at home, has demanded an explanation from the United States for the shooting and has received assurances from President Bush that it would be investigated.
In Baghdad, US Colonel Bob Potter said coalition forces were ''aggressively investigating the incident."
Amid the conflicting accounts of how the accident occurred, the Italian government demanded answers yesterday as Sgrena returned to Rome.
The shooting in Baghdad has stoked antiwar sentiment in Italy, where the public was widely opposed to the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to help US-led efforts to secure the country from a violent insurgency.
About 100 demonstrators outside the US Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and a banner read, ''USA, war criminals." A few dozen communist demonstrators at the US Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, ''Shame on you, Bush."
The Italian government awarded Calipari, the slain agent, a medal of valor yesterday. Calipari, 50, was the brother of a priest who serves on a Vatican advisory body, Vatican radio reported, and Pope John Paul II sent a message of condolence to the agent's family.
Italy said two other agents were wounded. One was seriously injured and remained hospitalized in Iraq, while the other returned on Sgrena's flight, Italian state television said. Calipari's body was flown back to Italy late yesterday.
An Afghan prison stirs doubts on CIA
A man's death brings inquiry
By Dana Priest, Washington Post | March 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In November 2002, a new CIA case officer in charge of a secret prison just north of Kabul allegedly ordered guards to strip an uncooperative Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor, and leave him there overnight without blankets, according to four US government officials who have been made aware of the case.
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The Afghan guards, paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision in an abandoned warehouse code-named the Salt Pit, dragged their captive around on the concrete floor, bruising and scraping his skin, before putting him in his cell, two of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
As night fell, so did the temperature. And by morning, the Afghan man had frozen to death.
After a quick autopsy by a CIA medic -- ''hypothermia" was listed as the cause of death -- the guards buried the man, who was in his 20s, in an unmarked and unacknowledged cemetery used by Afghan forces, officials said. The captive's family has never been notified; his remains have never been returned for burial.
He is on no one's registry of captives, not even as a ''ghost detainee," the term for CIA captives held in military prisons but not registered on the books, they said.
''He just disappeared from the face of the earth," said a US government official with knowledge of the case.
The CIA case officer, meanwhile, has been promoted, two of the officials said, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the matter. The case is under investigation by the CIA inspector general's office.
An Afghan prison stirs doubts on CIA
A man's death brings inquiry
By Dana Priest, Washington Post | March 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In November 2002, a new CIA case officer in charge of a secret prison just north of Kabul allegedly ordered guards to strip an uncooperative Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor, and leave him there overnight without blankets, according to four US government officials who have been made aware of the case.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Afghan guards, paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision in an abandoned warehouse code-named the Salt Pit, dragged their captive around on the concrete floor, bruising and scraping his skin, before putting him in his cell, two of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
As night fell, so did the temperature. And by morning, the Afghan man had frozen to death.
After a quick autopsy by a CIA medic -- ''hypothermia" was listed as the cause of death -- the guards buried the man, who was in his 20s, in an unmarked and unacknowledged cemetery used by Afghan forces, officials said. The captive's family has never been notified; his remains have never been returned for burial.
He is on no one's registry of captives, not even as a ''ghost detainee," the term for CIA captives held in military prisons but not registered on the books, they said.
''He just disappeared from the face of the earth," said a US government official with knowledge of the case.
The CIA case officer, meanwhile, has been promoted, two of the officials said, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the matter. The case is under investigation by the CIA inspector general's office.
An Afghan prison stirs doubts on CIA
A man's death brings inquiry
By Dana Priest, Washington Post | March 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In November 2002, a new CIA case officer in charge of a secret prison just north of Kabul allegedly ordered guards to strip an uncooperative Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor, and leave him there overnight without blankets, according to four US government officials who have been made aware of the case.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Afghan guards, paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision in an abandoned warehouse code-named the Salt Pit, dragged their captive around on the concrete floor, bruising and scraping his skin, before putting him in his cell, two of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
As night fell, so did the temperature. And by morning, the Afghan man had frozen to death.
After a quick autopsy by a CIA medic -- ''hypothermia" was listed as the cause of death -- the guards buried the man, who was in his 20s, in an unmarked and unacknowledged cemetery used by Afghan forces, officials said. The captive's family has never been notified; his remains have never been returned for burial.
He is on no one's registry of captives, not even as a ''ghost detainee," the term for CIA captives held in military prisons but not registered on the books, they said.
''He just disappeared from the face of the earth," said a US government official with knowledge of the case.
The CIA case officer, meanwhile, has been promoted, two of the officials said, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the matter. The case is under investigation by the CIA inspector general's office.
March 5, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C.
More than three years after a pro-US government was installed, Afghanistan has been unable to contain opium poppy production and is ''on the verge of becoming a narcotics state," a federal report said yesterday. The area devoted to poppy cultivation last year was 206,700 hectares, more than triple the 2003 figure. It produced 4,950 metric tons of opium. The report also said Colombia is the source of more than 90 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin in the United States. (AP)
March 5, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C.
More than three years after a pro-US government was installed, Afghanistan has been unable to contain opium poppy production and is ''on the verge of becoming a narcotics state," a federal report said yesterday. The area devoted to poppy cultivation last year was 206,700 hectares, more than triple the 2003 figure. It produced 4,950 metric tons of opium. The report also said Colombia is the source of more than 90 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin in the United States. (AP)
March 5, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C.
More than three years after a pro-US government was installed, Afghanistan has been unable to contain opium poppy production and is ''on the verge of becoming a narcotics state," a federal report said yesterday. The area devoted to poppy cultivation last year was 206,700 hectares, more than triple the 2003 figure. It produced 4,950 metric tons of opium. The report also said Colombia is the source of more than 90 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin in the United States. (AP)
Narcissus Is Now Greek AND Roman
By Al Kamen
Friday, March 4, 2005; Page A19
The media blew it once again last week, focusing on President Bush's fence-mending trip to Europe. There were countless stories about yet another presidential visit across the pond where world leaders said things they surely didn't mean.
The big news was not in Brussels or Bratislava, but in Rome, where real history was made with the dedication of the Mel Sembler Building. This lovely, ornate building in the heart of the Eternal City had been put up for sale a couple of years ago by an Italian insurance company. U.S. Embassy officials jumped at the chance to consolidate outlying offices in a more secure location near the embassy.
And who better to negotiate the $83.5 million deal than the ambassador himself, a wealthy former shopping center developer in St. Petersburg, Fla., and former Republican National Committee finance chairman who gave the GOP boatloads of money over the years?
And this would be . . . yes, Mel Sembler. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush rewarded Sembler with a fine ambassadorship in Australia. But the money kept coming in, and Sembler got the RNC post in 1997. So by 2000, something much better than Canberra was only fitting. Only one of the great ones -- say, Rome -- would do.
But how is it the building came to be named for a sitting ambassador? This is something that apparently has never happened in U.S. diplomatic history, no matter how meritorious the diplomat. Not even for such folks as Llewellyn Thompson or Charles "Chip" Bohlen, both ambassadors to Moscow during the darkest days of the Cold War.
Well, turns out that in December, Congress passed a bill saying the annex "shall hereafter be known and designated as the 'Mel Sembler Building.' " Who did this? None other than Sembler's pal, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who was then chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. We know this from watching the stirring video of the Feb. 22 dedication -- available on the embassy Web site.
"I spoke to President Bush just a few days ago," Young said, "and told him that I was coming here to be with you and what we were going to do today."
Bush thought this unusual. "And he said," Young recalled, " 'We don't do that, do we? We don't name buildings for ambassadors where they have served.' And I said, 'Mr. President, I introduced the bill and you signed it.' " (Don't blame Bush for not noticing one line tucked into the omnibus appropriations bill.) Young and Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) flew to Rome for the ribbon-cutting.
Young proudly gave Sembler a copy of the legislation, adding that the historic move came about not "because of some bureaucratic decision but by an act of Congress." Couldn't have happened any other way. The bureaucrats would have known better.
And he presented Sembler with a large bronze plaque to be affixed to the Mel Sembler Building.
But there was more. If you go, as you should, to the Web site to look at the stunning photo display, you'll come to a gorgeous photo (shown above) of the frescoed ceiling of the C.W. Bill Young Conference Center right there in the Mel Sembler Building. And there are a couple of fine bronze plaques naming the center that go on the walls there.
And so it is only fitting that, despite this being only early March, the coveted In the Loop Narcissism Run Amok Award for 2005 goes to Sembler and Young for their efforts to establish an excellent new trend in American diplomacy. (Hey! How about Palais Korologos in Brussels? Palacio Argyros in Madrid?) On the other hand, if Sembler had paid for the building . . .
Narcissus Is Now Greek AND Roman
By Al Kamen
Friday, March 4, 2005; Page A19
The media blew it once again last week, focusing on President Bush's fence-mending trip to Europe. There were countless stories about yet another presidential visit across the pond where world leaders said things they surely didn't mean.
The big news was not in Brussels or Bratislava, but in Rome, where real history was made with the dedication of the Mel Sembler Building. This lovely, ornate building in the heart of the Eternal City had been put up for sale a couple of years ago by an Italian insurance company. U.S. Embassy officials jumped at the chance to consolidate outlying offices in a more secure location near the embassy.
And who better to negotiate the $83.5 million deal than the ambassador himself, a wealthy former shopping center developer in St. Petersburg, Fla., and former Republican National Committee finance chairman who gave the GOP boatloads of money over the years?
And this would be . . . yes, Mel Sembler. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush rewarded Sembler with a fine ambassadorship in Australia. But the money kept coming in, and Sembler got the RNC post in 1997. So by 2000, something much better than Canberra was only fitting. Only one of the great ones -- say, Rome -- would do.
But how is it the building came to be named for a sitting ambassador? This is something that apparently has never happened in U.S. diplomatic history, no matter how meritorious the diplomat. Not even for such folks as Llewellyn Thompson or Charles "Chip" Bohlen, both ambassadors to Moscow during the darkest days of the Cold War.
Well, turns out that in December, Congress passed a bill saying the annex "shall hereafter be known and designated as the 'Mel Sembler Building.' " Who did this? None other than Sembler's pal, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who was then chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. We know this from watching the stirring video of the Feb. 22 dedication -- available on the embassy Web site.
"I spoke to President Bush just a few days ago," Young said, "and told him that I was coming here to be with you and what we were going to do today."
Bush thought this unusual. "And he said," Young recalled, " 'We don't do that, do we? We don't name buildings for ambassadors where they have served.' And I said, 'Mr. President, I introduced the bill and you signed it.' " (Don't blame Bush for not noticing one line tucked into the omnibus appropriations bill.) Young and Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) flew to Rome for the ribbon-cutting.
Young proudly gave Sembler a copy of the legislation, adding that the historic move came about not "because of some bureaucratic decision but by an act of Congress." Couldn't have happened any other way. The bureaucrats would have known better.
And he presented Sembler with a large bronze plaque to be affixed to the Mel Sembler Building.
But there was more. If you go, as you should, to the Web site to look at the stunning photo display, you'll come to a gorgeous photo (shown above) of the frescoed ceiling of the C.W. Bill Young Conference Center right there in the Mel Sembler Building. And there are a couple of fine bronze plaques naming the center that go on the walls there.
And so it is only fitting that, despite this being only early March, the coveted In the Loop Narcissism Run Amok Award for 2005 goes to Sembler and Young for their efforts to establish an excellent new trend in American diplomacy. (Hey! How about Palais Korologos in Brussels? Palacio Argyros in Madrid?) On the other hand, if Sembler had paid for the building . . .
Narcissus Is Now Greek AND Roman
By Al Kamen
Friday, March 4, 2005; Page A19
The media blew it once again last week, focusing on President Bush's fence-mending trip to Europe. There were countless stories about yet another presidential visit across the pond where world leaders said things they surely didn't mean.
The big news was not in Brussels or Bratislava, but in Rome, where real history was made with the dedication of the Mel Sembler Building. This lovely, ornate building in the heart of the Eternal City had been put up for sale a couple of years ago by an Italian insurance company. U.S. Embassy officials jumped at the chance to consolidate outlying offices in a more secure location near the embassy.
And who better to negotiate the $83.5 million deal than the ambassador himself, a wealthy former shopping center developer in St. Petersburg, Fla., and former Republican National Committee finance chairman who gave the GOP boatloads of money over the years?
And this would be . . . yes, Mel Sembler. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush rewarded Sembler with a fine ambassadorship in Australia. But the money kept coming in, and Sembler got the RNC post in 1997. So by 2000, something much better than Canberra was only fitting. Only one of the great ones -- say, Rome -- would do.
But how is it the building came to be named for a sitting ambassador? This is something that apparently has never happened in U.S. diplomatic history, no matter how meritorious the diplomat. Not even for such folks as Llewellyn Thompson or Charles "Chip" Bohlen, both ambassadors to Moscow during the darkest days of the Cold War.
Well, turns out that in December, Congress passed a bill saying the annex "shall hereafter be known and designated as the 'Mel Sembler Building.' " Who did this? None other than Sembler's pal, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who was then chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. We know this from watching the stirring video of the Feb. 22 dedication -- available on the embassy Web site.
"I spoke to President Bush just a few days ago," Young said, "and told him that I was coming here to be with you and what we were going to do today."
Bush thought this unusual. "And he said," Young recalled, " 'We don't do that, do we? We don't name buildings for ambassadors where they have served.' And I said, 'Mr. President, I introduced the bill and you signed it.' " (Don't blame Bush for not noticing one line tucked into the omnibus appropriations bill.) Young and Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) flew to Rome for the ribbon-cutting.
Young proudly gave Sembler a copy of the legislation, adding that the historic move came about not "because of some bureaucratic decision but by an act of Congress." Couldn't have happened any other way. The bureaucrats would have known better.
And he presented Sembler with a large bronze plaque to be affixed to the Mel Sembler Building.
But there was more. If you go, as you should, to the Web site to look at the stunning photo display, you'll come to a gorgeous photo (shown above) of the frescoed ceiling of the C.W. Bill Young Conference Center right there in the Mel Sembler Building. And there are a couple of fine bronze plaques naming the center that go on the walls there.
And so it is only fitting that, despite this being only early March, the coveted In the Loop Narcissism Run Amok Award for 2005 goes to Sembler and Young for their efforts to establish an excellent new trend in American diplomacy. (Hey! How about Palais Korologos in Brussels? Palacio Argyros in Madrid?) On the other hand, if Sembler had paid for the building . . .
What's house arrest like on a 153-acre estate?
BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Martha Stewart's home in the horse country of northern Westchester County, where she has opted to serve part of her stock-scandal sentence, offers 153 acres to roam — but she may not be able to enjoy the full extent of her spread.
If Stewart, who is free while appealing her conviction, receives a court-ordered electronic bracelet, she won't be able to stroll too far from her main residence, said Chris Stanton, chief U.S. probation officer in Manhattan.
The bracelet's range is "nowhere near 153 acres," Stanton said.
What's house arrest like on a 153-acre estate?
BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Martha Stewart's home in the horse country of northern Westchester County, where she has opted to serve part of her stock-scandal sentence, offers 153 acres to roam — but she may not be able to enjoy the full extent of her spread.
If Stewart, who is free while appealing her conviction, receives a court-ordered electronic bracelet, she won't be able to stroll too far from her main residence, said Chris Stanton, chief U.S. probation officer in Manhattan.
The bracelet's range is "nowhere near 153 acres," Stanton said.
What's house arrest like on a 153-acre estate?
BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Martha Stewart's home in the horse country of northern Westchester County, where she has opted to serve part of her stock-scandal sentence, offers 153 acres to roam — but she may not be able to enjoy the full extent of her spread.
If Stewart, who is free while appealing her conviction, receives a court-ordered electronic bracelet, she won't be able to stroll too far from her main residence, said Chris Stanton, chief U.S. probation officer in Manhattan.
The bracelet's range is "nowhere near 153 acres," Stanton said.
Martha Stewart leaves prison
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Martha Stewart, released after five months in a West Virginia prison, landed at Westchester County Airport shortly after 2 a.m. Friday and was whisked away by a motorcade of two cars bound for her estate in Katonah.
Martha Stewart leaves prison
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Martha Stewart, released after five months in a West Virginia prison, landed at Westchester County Airport shortly after 2 a.m. Friday and was whisked away by a motorcade of two cars bound for her estate in Katonah.
Martha Stewart leaves prison
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Martha Stewart, released after five months in a West Virginia prison, landed at Westchester County Airport shortly after 2 a.m. Friday and was whisked away by a motorcade of two cars bound for her estate in Katonah.
Rove-Gannon Connection?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005
Karl Rove (Photo: AP)
Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
(CBS) Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."
Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.
But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.
GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.
Continue reading "Gay boys in bondage.....Thanks goes to Susan D." »
Rove-Gannon Connection?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005
Karl Rove (Photo: AP)
Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
(CBS) Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."
Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.
But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.
GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.
Continue reading "Gay boys in bondage.....Thanks goes to Susan D." »
Rove-Gannon Connection?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005
Karl Rove (Photo: AP)
Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
(CBS) Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."
Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.
But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.
GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.
Continue reading "Gay boys in bondage.....Thanks goes to Susan D." »
Shiites pick al-Jaafari as Iraq PM nominee
BAGHDAD (AP) — Interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen as the Shiite ticket's candidate for prime minister Tuesday after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid, senior alliance officials said.
Al-Jaafari speaks to the media after meeting with Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in Baghdad Monday.
By Wathiq Khuzaie, AP
Al-Jaafari's selection means he likely will lead Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years. But first he has to be approved by a coalition that likely will include the Kurds, and then he must be approved by a majority of the newly elected National Assembly. (Related video: Al-Jaafari gets the nod)
Pressure from within the ranks of the United Iraqi Alliance, which won Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 election, forced the withdrawal of Chalabi, a one-time Pentagon favorite, said Hussein al-Moussawi from the Shiite Political Council, an umbrella group for 38 Shiite parties.
Meanwhile, two explosions echoed through Baghdad at midday. A plume of black smoke rose from the Green Zone, where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located.
Police Capt. Muthanna Hassan said one of the blasts was a car bomb that exploded as an Iraqi special forces convoy passed by, killing two soldiers and wounding 20 others. It was not clear what caused the other blast.
In western Baghdad, masked gunmen hurled explosives into a Shiite mosque in the Ghazaliyah neighborhood, police Capt. Sa'ad Jawad Kadhim said. The explosives failed to detonate and guards opened fire on the attackers, killing one and forcing the rest to flee, Kadhim said.
Also in Baghdad, police foiled a suicide bombing, arresting a Sudanese man who tried to detonate an explosives-laden belt inside the Adnan Khair Allah hospital, Interior Ministry Capt. Ahmed Ismael said.
It was apparently the second suicide mission involving a Sudanese. At least one man believed to be of Sudanese origin carried out a suicide bombing Saturday in Baghdad, part of a wave of violence that killed 55 people on Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
Also in the capital, a U.S. military convoy was hit in a roadside bomb attack in the southern neighborhood of Doura, police Lt. Haitham Abdul Razak said.
U.S. troops exchanged fire with gunmen in Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital. One Iraqi was killed in a mortar strike there, said Dr. Aala al-Deen Mohammed.
Al-Jaafari said dealing with insurgents and re-establishing security would be the first task of his government if he becomes prime minister. "The security situation is the first matter we will address," he said.
Some of Chalabi's aides, including Qaisar Witwit, suggested he was being offered the post of deputy prime minister in charge of economic and security affairs. When asked about such a deal, Chalabi said simply, "We will see."
Chalabi said he dropped out of the race "for the unity of the alliance." He would not say if he had been offered a post in the new government.
Until Chalabi agreed to withdraw, the 140 members of the alliance had planned to decide between the two in a secret ballot Tuesday.
The decision came after three days of round-the-clock negotiations by senior members of the clergy-backed alliance, which emerged from the election with a 140-seat majority in the 275-member National Assembly, or parliament.
The office of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, confirmed that Chalabi had withdrawn his bid to be prime minister.
"Chalabi announced his withdrawal and everyone agreed on al-Jaafari. Then Chalabi declared his support to al-Jaafari," said Haytham al Husaini, a top al-Hakim aide.
SCIRI, the main group making up the alliance, tried for days to persuade Chalabi to quit the race, some of its senior officials said.
Al-Jaafari's only other likely opponent for the post would be interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who was nominated for the job by his group. The Iraqi List got only 14% of the vote — or 40 seats — in the election.
Al-Jaafari would not say if he had approached Allawi with an offer so that he would drop out.
"Whether someone is a member of the alliance or not doesn't mean they don't have the opportunity to play a role in this new government," al-Jaafari said.
The United Iraqi Alliance took 48% of the vote last month but needs to form a coalition with smaller parties to form the new government.
Kurdish parties, who won 26%, have indicated in the past they would support the Shiite candidate for prime minister in return for support for their candidate for the presidency.
The assembly must approve candidates for president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. The president and vice presidents, in turn, will nominate a prime minister, who must be approved by a simple majority of the assembly.
The assembly also will draft a constitution.
A date for the parliament's opening has not been set.
The conservative Al-Jaafari, a 58-year-old family doctor, is the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa Party, which waged a bloody campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime in the late 1970s. Saddam crushed the campaign in 1982 and Dawa based itself in Iran.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, he said calling for the immediate withdrawal of coalition troops would be a "mistake," given the lack of security in Iraq.
The secular Chalabi is a former exile leader who heavily promoted the idea that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He later fell out with some key members of the Bush administration over allegations that he passed secrets to Iran.
Shiites pick al-Jaafari as Iraq PM nominee
BAGHDAD (AP) — Interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen as the Shiite ticket's candidate for prime minister Tuesday after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid, senior alliance officials said.
Al-Jaafari speaks to the media after meeting with Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in Baghdad Monday.
By Wathiq Khuzaie, AP
Al-Jaafari's selection means he likely will lead Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years. But first he has to be approved by a coalition that likely will include the Kurds, and then he must be approved by a majority of the newly elected National Assembly. (Related video: Al-Jaafari gets the nod)
Pressure from within the ranks of the United Iraqi Alliance, which won Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 election, forced the withdrawal of Chalabi, a one-time Pentagon favorite, said Hussein al-Moussawi from the Shiite Political Council, an umbrella group for 38 Shiite parties.
Meanwhile, two explosions echoed through Baghdad at midday. A plume of black smoke rose from the Green Zone, where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located.
Police Capt. Muthanna Hassan said one of the blasts was a car bomb that exploded as an Iraqi special forces convoy passed by, killing two soldiers and wounding 20 others. It was not clear what caused the other blast.
In western Baghdad, masked gunmen hurled explosives into a Shiite mosque in the Ghazaliyah neighborhood, police Capt. Sa'ad Jawad Kadhim said. The explosives failed to detonate and guards opened fire on the attackers, killing one and forcing the rest to flee, Kadhim said.
Also in Baghdad, police foiled a suicide bombing, arresting a Sudanese man who tried to detonate an explosives-laden belt inside the Adnan Khair Allah hospital, Interior Ministry Capt. Ahmed Ismael said.
It was apparently the second suicide mission involving a Sudanese. At least one man believed to be of Sudanese origin carried out a suicide bombing Saturday in Baghdad, part of a wave of violence that killed 55 people on Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
Also in the capital, a U.S. military convoy was hit in a roadside bomb attack in the southern neighborhood of Doura, police Lt. Haitham Abdul Razak said.
U.S. troops exchanged fire with gunmen in Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital. One Iraqi was killed in a mortar strike there, said Dr. Aala al-Deen Mohammed.
Al-Jaafari said dealing with insurgents and re-establishing security would be the first task of his government if he becomes prime minister. "The security situation is the first matter we will address," he said.
Some of Chalabi's aides, including Qaisar Witwit, suggested he was being offered the post of deputy prime minister in charge of economic and security affairs. When asked about such a deal, Chalabi said simply, "We will see."
Chalabi said he dropped out of the race "for the unity of the alliance." He would not say if he had been offered a post in the new government.
Until Chalabi agreed to withdraw, the 140 members of the alliance had planned to decide between the two in a secret ballot Tuesday.
The decision came after three days of round-the-clock negotiations by senior members of the clergy-backed alliance, which emerged from the election with a 140-seat majority in the 275-member National Assembly, or parliament.
The office of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, confirmed that Chalabi had withdrawn his bid to be prime minister.
"Chalabi announced his withdrawal and everyone agreed on al-Jaafari. Then Chalabi declared his support to al-Jaafari," said Haytham al Husaini, a top al-Hakim aide.
SCIRI, the main group making up the alliance, tried for days to persuade Chalabi to quit the race, some of its senior officials said.
Al-Jaafari's only other likely opponent for the post would be interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who was nominated for the job by his group. The Iraqi List got only 14% of the vote — or 40 seats — in the election.
Al-Jaafari would not say if he had approached Allawi with an offer so that he would drop out.
"Whether someone is a member of the alliance or not doesn't mean they don't have the opportunity to play a role in this new government," al-Jaafari said.
The United Iraqi Alliance took 48% of the vote last month but needs to form a coalition with smaller parties to form the new government.
Kurdish parties, who won 26%, have indicated in the past they would support the Shiite candidate for prime minister in return for support for their candidate for the presidency.
The assembly must approve candidates for president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. The president and vice presidents, in turn, will nominate a prime minister, who must be approved by a simple majority of the assembly.
The assembly also will draft a constitution.
A date for the parliament's opening has not been set.
The conservative Al-Jaafari, a 58-year-old family doctor, is the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa Party, which waged a bloody campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime in the late 1970s. Saddam crushed the campaign in 1982 and Dawa based itself in Iran.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, he said calling for the immediate withdrawal of coalition troops would be a "mistake," given the lack of security in Iraq.
The secular Chalabi is a former exile leader who heavily promoted the idea that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He later fell out with some key members of the Bush administration over allegations that he passed secrets to Iran.
Shiites pick al-Jaafari as Iraq PM nominee
BAGHDAD (AP) — Interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen as the Shiite ticket's candidate for prime minister Tuesday after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid, senior alliance officials said.
Al-Jaafari speaks to the media after meeting with Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in Baghdad Monday.
By Wathiq Khuzaie, AP
Al-Jaafari's selection means he likely will lead Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years. But first he has to be approved by a coalition that likely will include the Kurds, and then he must be approved by a majority of the newly elected National Assembly. (Related video: Al-Jaafari gets the nod)
Pressure from within the ranks of the United Iraqi Alliance, which won Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 election, forced the withdrawal of Chalabi, a one-time Pentagon favorite, said Hussein al-Moussawi from the Shiite Political Council, an umbrella group for 38 Shiite parties.
Meanwhile, two explosions echoed through Baghdad at midday. A plume of black smoke rose from the Green Zone, where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located.
Police Capt. Muthanna Hassan said one of the blasts was a car bomb that exploded as an Iraqi special forces convoy passed by, killing two soldiers and wounding 20 others. It was not clear what caused the other blast.
In western Baghdad, masked gunmen hurled explosives into a Shiite mosque in the Ghazaliyah neighborhood, police Capt. Sa'ad Jawad Kadhim said. The explosives failed to detonate and guards opened fire on the attackers, killing one and forcing the rest to flee, Kadhim said.
Also in Baghdad, police foiled a suicide bombing, arresting a Sudanese man who tried to detonate an explosives-laden belt inside the Adnan Khair Allah hospital, Interior Ministry Capt. Ahmed Ismael said.
It was apparently the second suicide mission involving a Sudanese. At least one man believed to be of Sudanese origin carried out a suicide bombing Saturday in Baghdad, part of a wave of violence that killed 55 people on Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
Also in the capital, a U.S. military convoy was hit in a roadside bomb attack in the southern neighborhood of Doura, police Lt. Haitham Abdul Razak said.
U.S. troops exchanged fire with gunmen in Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital. One Iraqi was killed in a mortar strike there, said Dr. Aala al-Deen Mohammed.
Al-Jaafari said dealing with insurgents and re-establishing security would be the first task of his government if he becomes prime minister. "The security situation is the first matter we will address," he said.
Some of Chalabi's aides, including Qaisar Witwit, suggested he was being offered the post of deputy prime minister in charge of economic and security affairs. When asked about such a deal, Chalabi said simply, "We will see."
Chalabi said he dropped out of the race "for the unity of the alliance." He would not say if he had been offered a post in the new government.
Until Chalabi agreed to withdraw, the 140 members of the alliance had planned to decide between the two in a secret ballot Tuesday.
The decision came after three days of round-the-clock negotiations by senior members of the clergy-backed alliance, which emerged from the election with a 140-seat majority in the 275-member National Assembly, or parliament.
The office of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, confirmed that Chalabi had withdrawn his bid to be prime minister.
"Chalabi announced his withdrawal and everyone agreed on al-Jaafari. Then Chalabi declared his support to al-Jaafari," said Haytham al Husaini, a top al-Hakim aide.
SCIRI, the main group making up the alliance, tried for days to persuade Chalabi to quit the race, some of its senior officials said.
Al-Jaafari's only other likely opponent for the post would be interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who was nominated for the job by his group. The Iraqi List got only 14% of the vote — or 40 seats — in the election.
Al-Jaafari would not say if he had approached Allawi with an offer so that he would drop out.
"Whether someone is a member of the alliance or not doesn't mean they don't have the opportunity to play a role in this new government," al-Jaafari said.
The United Iraqi Alliance took 48% of the vote last month but needs to form a coalition with smaller parties to form the new government.
Kurdish parties, who won 26%, have indicated in the past they would support the Shiite candidate for prime minister in return for support for their candidate for the presidency.
The assembly must approve candidates for president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. The president and vice presidents, in turn, will nominate a prime minister, who must be approved by a simple majority of the assembly.
The assembly also will draft a constitution.
A date for the parliament's opening has not been set.
The conservative Al-Jaafari, a 58-year-old family doctor, is the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa Party, which waged a bloody campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime in the late 1970s. Saddam crushed the campaign in 1982 and Dawa based itself in Iran.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, he said calling for the immediate withdrawal of coalition troops would be a "mistake," given the lack of security in Iraq.
The secular Chalabi is a former exile leader who heavily promoted the idea that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He later fell out with some key members of the Bush administration over allegations that he passed secrets to Iran.
George W. ( wake and bake ) Bush
George W. ( wake and bake ) Bush
George W. ( wake and bake ) Bush
Army Having Difficulty Meeting Goals In Recruiting
Fewer Enlistees Are in Pipeline; Many Being Rushed Into Service
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 21, 2005; Page A01
The active-duty Army is in danger of failing to meet its recruiting goals, and is beginning to suffer from manpower strains like those that have dropped the National Guard and Reserves below full strength, according to Army figures and interviews with senior officers .
For the first time since 2001, the Army began the fiscal year in October with only 18.4 percent of the year's target of 80,000 active-duty recruits already in the pipeline. That amounts to less than half of last year's figure and falls well below the Army's goal of 25 percent.
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Army is rushing incoming recruits into training as quickly as it can. Compared with last year, it has cut by 50 percent the average number of days between the time a recruit signs up and enters boot camp. It is adding more than 800 active-duty recruiters to the 5,201 who were on the job last year, as attracting each enlistee requires more effort and monetary incentives.
Driving the manpower crunch is the Army's goal of boosting the number of combat brigades needed to rotate into Iraq and handle other global contingencies. Yet Army officials see worrisome signs that young American men and women -- and their parents -- are growing wary of military service, largely because of the Iraq conflict.
"Very frankly, in a couple of places our recruiting pool is getting soft," said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's personnel chief. "We're hearing things like, 'Well, let's wait and see how this thing settles out in Iraq,' " he said in an interview. "For the active duty for '05 it's going to be tough to meet our goal, but I think we can. I think the telling year for us is going to be '06."
Other senior military officers have voiced similar concerns in recent days. "I anticipate that fiscal year '05 will be very challenging for both active and reserve component recruiting," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House Appropriations subcommittee Feb. 17. The Marine Corps fell short of its monthly recruiting quota in January for the first time in nearly a decade.
Because the Army is the main U.S. military ground force, its ability to draw recruits is critical to the nation's preparedness to fight current and future wars. The Army can sustain its ranks through retaining more experienced soldiers -- and indeed retention in 2004 was 107 percent -- but if too few young recruits sign up, the force will begin to age. Moreover, higher retention in the active-duty Army translates into a dwindling stream of recruits for the already troubled Army Guard and Reserve.
Army Having Difficulty Meeting Goals In Recruiting
Fewer Enlistees Are in Pipeline; Many Being Rushed Into Service
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 21, 2005; Page A01
The active-duty Army is in danger of failing to meet its recruiting goals, and is beginning to suffer from manpower strains like those that have dropped the National Guard and Reserves below full strength, according to Army figures and interviews with senior officers .
For the first time since 2001, the Army began the fiscal year in October with only 18.4 percent of the year's target of 80,000 active-duty recruits already in the pipeline. That amounts to less than half of last year's figure and falls well below the Army's goal of 25 percent.
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Army is rushing incoming recruits into training as quickly as it can. Compared with last year, it has cut by 50 percent the average number of days between the time a recruit signs up and enters boot camp. It is adding more than 800 active-duty recruiters to the 5,201 who were on the job last year, as attracting each enlistee requires more effort and monetary incentives.
Driving the manpower crunch is the Army's goal of boosting the number of combat brigades needed to rotate into Iraq and handle other global contingencies. Yet Army officials see worrisome signs that young American men and women -- and their parents -- are growing wary of military service, largely because of the Iraq conflict.
"Very frankly, in a couple of places our recruiting pool is getting soft," said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's personnel chief. "We're hearing things like, 'Well, let's wait and see how this thing settles out in Iraq,' " he said in an interview. "For the active duty for '05 it's going to be tough to meet our goal, but I think we can. I think the telling year for us is going to be '06."
Other senior military officers have voiced similar concerns in recent days. "I anticipate that fiscal year '05 will be very challenging for both active and reserve component recruiting," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House Appropriations subcommittee Feb. 17. The Marine Corps fell short of its monthly recruiting quota in January for the first time in nearly a decade.
Because the Army is the main U.S. military ground force, its ability to draw recruits is critical to the nation's preparedness to fight current and future wars. The Army can sustain its ranks through retaining more experienced soldiers -- and indeed retention in 2004 was 107 percent -- but if too few young recruits sign up, the force will begin to age. Moreover, higher retention in the active-duty Army translates into a dwindling stream of recruits for the already troubled Army Guard and Reserve.
Army Having Difficulty Meeting Goals In Recruiting
Fewer Enlistees Are in Pipeline; Many Being Rushed Into Service
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 21, 2005; Page A01
The active-duty Army is in danger of failing to meet its recruiting goals, and is beginning to suffer from manpower strains like those that have dropped the National Guard and Reserves below full strength, according to Army figures and interviews with senior officers .
For the first time since 2001, the Army began the fiscal year in October with only 18.4 percent of the year's target of 80,000 active-duty recruits already in the pipeline. That amounts to less than half of last year's figure and falls well below the Army's goal of 25 percent.
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Army is rushing incoming recruits into training as quickly as it can. Compared with last year, it has cut by 50 percent the average number of days between the time a recruit signs up and enters boot camp. It is adding more than 800 active-duty recruiters to the 5,201 who were on the job last year, as attracting each enlistee requires more effort and monetary incentives.
Driving the manpower crunch is the Army's goal of boosting the number of combat brigades needed to rotate into Iraq and handle other global contingencies. Yet Army officials see worrisome signs that young American men and women -- and their parents -- are growing wary of military service, largely because of the Iraq conflict.
"Very frankly, in a couple of places our recruiting pool is getting soft," said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's personnel chief. "We're hearing things like, 'Well, let's wait and see how this thing settles out in Iraq,' " he said in an interview. "For the active duty for '05 it's going to be tough to meet our goal, but I think we can. I think the telling year for us is going to be '06."
Other senior military officers have voiced similar concerns in recent days. "I anticipate that fiscal year '05 will be very challenging for both active and reserve component recruiting," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House Appropriations subcommittee Feb. 17. The Marine Corps fell short of its monthly recruiting quota in January for the first time in nearly a decade.
Because the Army is the main U.S. military ground force, its ability to draw recruits is critical to the nation's preparedness to fight current and future wars. The Army can sustain its ranks through retaining more experienced soldiers -- and indeed retention in 2004 was 107 percent -- but if too few young recruits sign up, the force will begin to age. Moreover, higher retention in the active-duty Army translates into a dwindling stream of recruits for the already troubled Army Guard and Reserve.
Hunter S. Thompson Dies at 67
'Fear and Loathing' Writer Apparently Committed Suicide
By Martin Weil and Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 21, 2005; Page A04
Hunter S. Thompson, whose life and writing, vivid and quirky reflections of each other, made him one of the principal symbols of the American counterculture, shot and killed himself yesterday at his home near Aspen.
Thompson, 67, was celebrated as a practitioner of an outraged form of personal journalism, offering off-beat ideas and observations in a style that was wildly and vividly his own and that brought him cult-like status and widespread recognition.
Hunter S. Thompson
His books on politics and society were regarded as groundbreaking among journalists and other students of current affairs in their irreverence and often angry insights.
Among those for which he was famed are "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." He rode for almost a year with the Hell's Angels motorcycle outfit for research on another book. In all he wrote at least a dozen.
Jonathan Yardley, writing last year in The Washington Post, called him "a genuinely unique figure in American journalism," citing his comic writing and social criticism.
Thompson, often seen wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, showed up frequently as Uncle Duke in "Doonesbury," the Garry Trudeau comic strip.
Part of what created his image of outlaw independence and defiance of norms and conventions was his claim to intimate familiarity with a variety of drugs and mind altering chemicals.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they've always worked for me," he once wrote.
Pitkin County, Colo., Sheriff Bob Braudis said in a brief telephone interview that Thompson was alone in his kitchen of his Woody Creek home when he shot himself with a handgun. His wife was at a gym, Braudis said.
The sheriff said Thompson had seemed "still on top of his game."
But Braudis's wife, Louisa Davidson, said "he was not going to age gracefully, he was going to go out with a bang. He was tormented."
Thompson was known for a style that he described as "gonzo journalism," a form of "new journalism." It was based on the idea that fidelity to fact did not always blaze the way to truth.
Instead, "gonzo journalism" and its practitioners suggested that a deeper truth could be found in the ambiguous zones between fact and fiction.
"Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long," Thompson told interviewers in a characteristic pronouncement on both institutions.
"You can't be objective about Nixon," he said. "How can you be objective about Clinton?"
Among the writers and works he cited as major influences were most of the classic American authors, including Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, many or most read early in life. He also named the Biblical book of Revelation.
He was born in Louisville, and after a wild youth entered the Air Force, according to one account, as part of a parole agreement.
His writing career is traced to the 1950s, when he contributed to a base newspaper while in the Air Force.
He later wrote unpublished fiction, reported for the mainstream media from Latin America, and made his name with his Hell's Angels article in Harper's magazine.
His star rose while he worked for Rolling Stone magazine, where the "Fear and Loathing" books first appeared.
His beat, he once said was "the death of the American dream." Interviewers later suggested to him that he in a way embodied that dream. They said he exploded in profanity, but conceded that perhaps he did.
White House raps author for secret tapes
By Knight Ridder | February 21, 2005
NEW YORK -- The White House lashed out yesterday at the Bush family friend who secretly tape-recorded the future president discussing issues such as drug use and gay rights.
Even though aides insisted there was little damaging information on the tapes, they made no effort to hide the fact that President Bush felt betrayed by conservative author Doug Wead.
"These were casual conversations with someone whom the president considered, or believed to be, a friend," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.
Wead said he made the tapes, from 1998 to 2000, for a book because he believed Bush would become a "pivotal figure in history."
"I had a choice to either write propaganda about the Bushes or write accurately and fairly based on what I knew," Wead told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Wead said his publisher insisted on listening to the tapes to confirm anonymous sources he cited in his new book, "The Raising of a President." The New York Times then got wind of the tapes, Wead said, and it "all became unraveled."
The tapes were made as Bush considered a run for the White House.
White House raps author for secret tapes
By Knight Ridder | February 21, 2005
NEW YORK -- The White House lashed out yesterday at the Bush family friend who secretly tape-recorded the future president discussing issues such as drug use and gay rights.
Even though aides insisted there was little damaging information on the tapes, they made no effort to hide the fact that President Bush felt betrayed by conservative author Doug Wead.
"These were casual conversations with someone whom the president considered, or believed to be, a friend," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.
Wead said he made the tapes, from 1998 to 2000, for a book because he believed Bush would become a "pivotal figure in history."
"I had a choice to either write propaganda about the Bushes or write accurately and fairly based on what I knew," Wead told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Wead said his publisher insisted on listening to the tapes to confirm anonymous sources he cited in his new book, "The Raising of a President." The New York Times then got wind of the tapes, Wead said, and it "all became unraveled."
The tapes were made as Bush considered a run for the White House.
Hunter S. Thompson Dies at 67
'Fear and Loathing' Writer Apparently Committed Suicide
By Martin Weil and Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 21, 2005; Page A04
Hunter S. Thompson, whose life and writing, vivid and quirky reflections of each other, made him one of the principal symbols of the American counterculture, shot and killed himself yesterday at his home near Aspen.
Thompson, 67, was celebrated as a practitioner of an outraged form of personal journalism, offering off-beat ideas and observations in a style that was wildly and vividly his own and that brought him cult-like status and widespread recognition.
Hunter S. Thompson
His books on politics and society were regarded as groundbreaking among journalists and other students of current affairs in their irreverence and often angry insights.
Among those for which he was famed are "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." He rode for almost a year with the Hell's Angels motorcycle outfit for research on another book. In all he wrote at least a dozen.
Jonathan Yardley, writing last year in The Washington Post, called him "a genuinely unique figure in American journalism," citing his comic writing and social criticism.
Thompson, often seen wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, showed up frequently as Uncle Duke in "Doonesbury," the Garry Trudeau comic strip.
Part of what created his image of outlaw independence and defiance of norms and conventions was his claim to intimate familiarity with a variety of drugs and mind altering chemicals.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they've always worked for me," he once wrote.
Pitkin County, Colo., Sheriff Bob Braudis said in a brief telephone interview that Thompson was alone in his kitchen of his Woody Creek home when he shot himself with a handgun. His wife was at a gym, Braudis said.
The sheriff said Thompson had seemed "still on top of his game."
But Braudis's wife, Louisa Davidson, said "he was not going to age gracefully, he was going to go out with a bang. He was tormented."
Thompson was known for a style that he described as "gonzo journalism," a form of "new journalism." It was based on the idea that fidelity to fact did not always blaze the way to truth.
Instead, "gonzo journalism" and its practitioners suggested that a deeper truth could be found in the ambiguous zones between fact and fiction.
"Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long," Thompson told interviewers in a characteristic pronouncement on both institutions.
"You can't be objective about Nixon," he said. "How can you be objective about Clinton?"
Among the writers and works he cited as major influences were most of the classic American authors, including Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, many or most read early in life. He also named the Biblical book of Revelation.
He was born in Louisville, and after a wild youth entered the Air Force, according to one account, as part of a parole agreement.
His writing career is traced to the 1950s, when he contributed to a base newspaper while in the Air Force.
He later wrote unpublished fiction, reported for the mainstream media from Latin America, and made his name with his Hell's Angels article in Harper's magazine.
His star rose while he worked for Rolling Stone magazine, where the "Fear and Loathing" books first appeared.
His beat, he once said was "the death of the American dream." Interviewers later suggested to him that he in a way embodied that dream. They said he exploded in profanity, but conceded that perhaps he did.
White House raps author for secret tapes
By Knight Ridder | February 21, 2005
NEW YORK -- The White House lashed out yesterday at the Bush family friend who secretly tape-recorded the future president discussing issues such as drug use and gay rights.
Even though aides insisted there was little damaging information on the tapes, they made no effort to hide the fact that President Bush felt betrayed by conservative author Doug Wead.
"These were casual conversations with someone whom the president considered, or believed to be, a friend," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.
Wead said he made the tapes, from 1998 to 2000, for a book because he believed Bush would become a "pivotal figure in history."
"I had a choice to either write propaganda about the Bushes or write accurately and fairly based on what I knew," Wead told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Wead said his publisher insisted on listening to the tapes to confirm anonymous sources he cited in his new book, "The Raising of a President." The New York Times then got wind of the tapes, Wead said, and it "all became unraveled."
The tapes were made as Bush considered a run for the White House.
Hunter S. Thompson Dies at 67
'Fear and Loathing' Writer Apparently Committed Suicide
By Martin Weil and Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 21, 2005; Page A04
Hunter S. Thompson, whose life and writing, vivid and quirky reflections of each other, made him one of the principal symbols of the American counterculture, shot and killed himself yesterday at his home near Aspen.
Thompson, 67, was celebrated as a practitioner of an outraged form of personal journalism, offering off-beat ideas and observations in a style that was wildly and vividly his own and that brought him cult-like status and widespread recognition.
Hunter S. Thompson
His books on politics and society were regarded as groundbreaking among journalists and other students of current affairs in their irreverence and often angry insights.
Among those for which he was famed are "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." He rode for almost a year with the Hell's Angels motorcycle outfit for research on another book. In all he wrote at least a dozen.
Jonathan Yardley, writing last year in The Washington Post, called him "a genuinely unique figure in American journalism," citing his comic writing and social criticism.
Thompson, often seen wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, showed up frequently as Uncle Duke in "Doonesbury," the Garry Trudeau comic strip.
Part of what created his image of outlaw independence and defiance of norms and conventions was his claim to intimate familiarity with a variety of drugs and mind altering chemicals.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they've always worked for me," he once wrote.
Pitkin County, Colo., Sheriff Bob Braudis said in a brief telephone interview that Thompson was alone in his kitchen of his Woody Creek home when he shot himself with a handgun. His wife was at a gym, Braudis said.
The sheriff said Thompson had seemed "still on top of his game."
But Braudis's wife, Louisa Davidson, said "he was not going to age gracefully, he was going to go out with a bang. He was tormented."
Thompson was known for a style that he described as "gonzo journalism," a form of "new journalism." It was based on the idea that fidelity to fact did not always blaze the way to truth.
Instead, "gonzo journalism" and its practitioners suggested that a deeper truth could be found in the ambiguous zones between fact and fiction.
"Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long," Thompson told interviewers in a characteristic pronouncement on both institutions.
"You can't be objective about Nixon," he said. "How can you be objective about Clinton?"
Among the writers and works he cited as major influences were most of the classic American authors, including Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, many or most read early in life. He also named the Biblical book of Revelation.
He was born in Louisville, and after a wild youth entered the Air Force, according to one account, as part of a parole agreement.
His writing career is traced to the 1950s, when he contributed to a base newspaper while in the Air Force.
He later wrote unpublished fiction, reported for the mainstream media from Latin America, and made his name with his Hell's Angels article in Harper's magazine.
His star rose while he worked for Rolling Stone magazine, where the "Fear and Loathing" books first appeared.
His beat, he once said was "the death of the American dream." Interviewers later suggested to him that he in a way embodied that dream. They said he exploded in profanity, but conceded that perhaps he did.
FDA panel favors keeping painkillers on the market
WASHINGTON (AP) — The popular painkillers Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx all pose a risk of heart trouble, but should be available to those who need them, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
FDA panel favors keeping painkillers on the market
WASHINGTON (AP) — The popular painkillers Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx all pose a risk of heart trouble, but should be available to those who need them, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
FDA panel favors keeping painkillers on the market
WASHINGTON (AP) — The popular painkillers Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx all pose a risk of heart trouble, but should be available to those who need them, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs
Gulf War pilots tortured by Iraqis fight the Bush administration in trying to collect compensation.
By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.
The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Continue reading "glad to see W. do everything he can to help the vets" »
White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs
Gulf War pilots tortured by Iraqis fight the Bush administration in trying to collect compensation.
By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.
The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Continue reading "glad to see W. do everything he can to help the vets" »
White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs
Gulf War pilots tortured by Iraqis fight the Bush administration in trying to collect compensation.
By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.
The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Continue reading "glad to see W. do everything he can to help the vets" »
Charges Laid After Motel Shooting
Josh Pringle
Sunday, February 13, 2005
A 37-year-old Quebec man faces several charges following a bizarre shooting at a south Ottawa motel Saturday morning.
A Sudbury man was shot in the groin by a bullet that came through the ceiling of his room from the floor above.
Mario Ethier is charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, possession of a restricted weapon, possession weapon dangerous, mischief and breach of probation.
Ottawa police said there is no connection between the accused and the victim.
Charges Laid After Motel Shooting
Josh Pringle
Sunday, February 13, 2005
A 37-year-old Quebec man faces several charges following a bizarre shooting at a south Ottawa motel Saturday morning.
A Sudbury man was shot in the groin by a bullet that came through the ceiling of his room from the floor above.
Mario Ethier is charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, possession of a restricted weapon, possession weapon dangerous, mischief and breach of probation.
Ottawa police said there is no connection between the accused and the victim.
Charges Laid After Motel Shooting
Josh Pringle
Sunday, February 13, 2005
A 37-year-old Quebec man faces several charges following a bizarre shooting at a south Ottawa motel Saturday morning.
A Sudbury man was shot in the groin by a bullet that came through the ceiling of his room from the floor above.
Mario Ethier is charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, possession of a restricted weapon, possession weapon dangerous, mischief and breach of probation.
Ottawa police said there is no connection between the accused and the victim.
Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 6:48 p.m. EST
Rove Met With Saudis After 9/11
When a 2003 congressional panel issued a report on the roots of the 9/11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 perpetrators were Saudis, containing 28 superclassified pages that described evidence of possible Saudi funding for two of the hijackers, the Saudis descended on the capital, eager to dispute the charges and reassure George W. Bush and his administration.
One of the meetings was on July 29, according to lobbying records reviewed by Newsweek. The Saudis' leading Washington fixer, Adel Al-Jubeir, met with Karl Rove to, among other things, "give a status briefing on the Kingdom's reform efforts and war against terrorism."
Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 6:48 p.m. EST
Rove Met With Saudis After 9/11
When a 2003 congressional panel issued a report on the roots of the 9/11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 perpetrators were Saudis, containing 28 superclassified pages that described evidence of possible Saudi funding for two of the hijackers, the Saudis descended on the capital, eager to dispute the charges and reassure George W. Bush and his administration.
One of the meetings was on July 29, according to lobbying records reviewed by Newsweek. The Saudis' leading Washington fixer, Adel Al-Jubeir, met with Karl Rove to, among other things, "give a status briefing on the Kingdom's reform efforts and war against terrorism."
Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 6:48 p.m. EST
Rove Met With Saudis After 9/11
When a 2003 congressional panel issued a report on the roots of the 9/11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 perpetrators were Saudis, containing 28 superclassified pages that described evidence of possible Saudi funding for two of the hijackers, the Saudis descended on the capital, eager to dispute the charges and reassure George W. Bush and his administration.
One of the meetings was on July 29, according to lobbying records reviewed by Newsweek. The Saudis' leading Washington fixer, Adel Al-Jubeir, met with Karl Rove to, among other things, "give a status briefing on the Kingdom's reform efforts and war against terrorism."
Reporter Accepted Money From Candidate
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By Associated Press
February 14, 2005, 5:33 PM EST
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A reporter and columnist for a black Kansas City newspaper accepted $1,500 from the congressional campaign of the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, the former mayor elected to the House in November.
Eric Wesson reported on the campaign for The Call and also wrote editorials that praised Cleaver, who is black, and criticized his Democratic primary rival and later his Republican opponent.
Kansas City's alternative weekly newspaper, The Pitch, reported on the payment in October. The Washington Post ran the story Monday in the wake of news that three conservative columnists were paid by the federal government to promote Bush administration policies.
Both papers said Cleaver's campaign paid $1,500 last summer to One Goal Consultants, a company that Wesson owns, according to state records.
Wesson on Monday declined to comment to The Associated Press. He told The Post he wrote scripts for Cleaver's phone banks and did "other miscellaneous things" for the campaign.
"It had nothing to do with the job I do for The Call," Wesson said. "The Call has always written articles favorable to African-American candidates. We're an advocacy newspaper."
Cleaver issued a statement Monday saying his campaign would not have other such arrangements with reporters.
"I am committed to upholding the highest ethical standards," he said.
The Call has endorsed Cleaver for every political office he has sought in his 30-year political career, which included two terms as the city's first black mayor.
Reporter Accepted Money From Candidate
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By Associated Press
February 14, 2005, 5:33 PM EST
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A reporter and columnist for a black Kansas City newspaper accepted $1,500 from the congressional campaign of the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, the former mayor elected to the House in November.
Eric Wesson reported on the campaign for The Call and also wrote editorials that praised Cleaver, who is black, and criticized his Democratic primary rival and later his Republican opponent.
Kansas City's alternative weekly newspaper, The Pitch, reported on the payment in October. The Washington Post ran the story Monday in the wake of news that three conservative columnists were paid by the federal government to promote Bush administration policies.
Both papers said Cleaver's campaign paid $1,500 last summer to One Goal Consultants, a company that Wesson owns, according to state records.
Wesson on Monday declined to comment to The Associated Press. He told The Post he wrote scripts for Cleaver's phone banks and did "other miscellaneous things" for the campaign.
"It had nothing to do with the job I do for The Call," Wesson said. "The Call has always written articles favorable to African-American candidates. We're an advocacy newspaper."
Cleaver issued a statement Monday saying his campaign would not have other such arrangements with reporters.
"I am committed to upholding the highest ethical standards," he said.
The Call has endorsed Cleaver for every political office he has sought in his 30-year political career, which included two terms as the city's first black mayor.
Reporter Accepted Money From Candidate
Email this story
Printer friendly format
By Associated Press
February 14, 2005, 5:33 PM EST
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A reporter and columnist for a black Kansas City newspaper accepted $1,500 from the congressional campaign of the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, the former mayor elected to the House in November.
Eric Wesson reported on the campaign for The Call and also wrote editorials that praised Cleaver, who is black, and criticized his Democratic primary rival and later his Republican opponent.
Kansas City's alternative weekly newspaper, The Pitch, reported on the payment in October. The Washington Post ran the story Monday in the wake of news that three conservative columnists were paid by the federal government to promote Bush administration policies.
Both papers said Cleaver's campaign paid $1,500 last summer to One Goal Consultants, a company that Wesson owns, according to state records.
Wesson on Monday declined to comment to The Associated Press. He told The Post he wrote scripts for Cleaver's phone banks and did "other miscellaneous things" for the campaign.
"It had nothing to do with the job I do for The Call," Wesson said. "The Call has always written articles favorable to African-American candidates. We're an advocacy newspaper."
Cleaver issued a statement Monday saying his campaign would not have other such arrangements with reporters.
"I am committed to upholding the highest ethical standards," he said.
The Call has endorsed Cleaver for every political office he has sought in his 30-year political career, which included two terms as the city's first black mayor.
Kentucky Senate Seat Held Up in Dispute
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By MARK R. CHELLGREN
Associated Press Writer
February 14, 2005, 2:00 PM EST
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The brass plaque on the desk in the Kentucky Capitol reads, "Dana Seum Stephenson -- Senator." Each day, the clerk calls the roll, "Sen. Seum Stephenson."
The seat is empty and no one answers.
Stephenson is a senator in name only, under a court order that forbids her to attend any legislative session, vote or take a salary. Three months after the election, questions about Stephenson's residency have left her working-class district in Louisville without a senator.
Over the past few weeks, her fellow Republicans have been scorned for trying to seat her despite the questions, and one GOP senator has quit the party in protest and declared himself an independent.
The dispute -- which will be heard by the Kentucky Supreme Court at a date to be determined -- started on Nov. 1, the day before the election, when Democrat Virginia Woodward went to court to claim that Stephenson, her Republican opponent in the state Senate race, did not meet the requirement in the Kentucky Constitution that says candidates must be a resident of the state for six years before the election.
The next day, Stephenson beat Woodward by about 1,000 votes, according to unofficial returns.
Once the lawsuit made its way before a judge, the evidence was substantial that Stephenson, 32, lived in Indiana from 1997 to 2001. She bought a house, moved in, and enrolled at an Indiana university to pursue a master's degree. She paid in-state tuition. She voted in Indiana in the 1998 and 2000 elections. She got an Indiana driver's license in 1997 and kept it until 2001. She was purged from Kentucky's voter rolls in 1998 for failing to vote and did not re-register until 2001.
Stephenson countered that she always owned property in Kentucky, too, and intended to make her home there and never left her teaching position at a Louisville high school.
A judge was unconvinced and directed election officials to count only Woodward's votes. While the courts continually sided with Woodward, the political process took a different tack.
Stephenson appealed directly to the Senate to seat her, where her fellow Republicans -- including her lawmaker father -- hold the majority.
A randomly drawn special committee had a majority of Democrats, which concluded Stephenson was not qualified. But when the matter got to the full Senate, Republicans overruled the recommendation and voted largely along party lines to seat Stephenson.
Senate President David Williams said the Senate alone is empowered to determine the qualifications of its members. Williams said, for example, that despite the constitutional requirement that a senator be 30 years old, the Senate could vote to seat a 23-year-old.
"If 20 people in this body voted that someone was 30 years old, no court in the land could overturn that," Williams said.
Stephenson was seated, but within a week, a judge did intervene, ordering that Stephenson could not take any official action as a senator.
Williams' comments drew a firestorm.
"Rather than clarify the legal issue for us, Williams acts as Senate Mad Hatter with his signature Cheshire Cat demeanor. Dana Seum Stephenson plays a disingenuous Queen of Hearts and the members of the Queen's court (better known as the Senate Republican caucus) would have us believe that residency as a citizen means only physically residing," one letter writer said in The Courier-Journal.
Republican Sen. Bob Leeper said the partisan display was so egregious that he quit the party. (It was Leeper's switch from Democrat to Republican five years ago that gave the GOP its first-ever majority in the Kentucky Senate.)
With Leeper's change and the empty seat, there are 21 Republicans, 15 Democrats and an independent in the 38-member Senate. The switch and the empty seat may be especially damaging to the GOP because it takes 23 votes to pass tax or spending legislation in the current session.
Woodward said she has received overwhelming support in her quest and it has only increased since the Senate's actions and Williams' comments. "They are appalled that anyone would state that, with the right amount of votes, they could make 23 into 30," she said.
For her part, Stephenson did not return repeated calls for an interview. Except for a brief appearance in the gallery a few weeks ago, she has stayed away from Frankfort.
"There's no reason to upset the judges and go to jail," she said then.
Kentucky Senate Seat Held Up in Dispute
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By MARK R. CHELLGREN
Associated Press Writer
February 14, 2005, 2:00 PM EST
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The brass plaque on the desk in the Kentucky Capitol reads, "Dana Seum Stephenson -- Senator." Each day, the clerk calls the roll, "Sen. Seum Stephenson."
The seat is empty and no one answers.
Stephenson is a senator in name only, under a court order that forbids her to attend any legislative session, vote or take a salary. Three months after the election, questions about Stephenson's residency have left her working-class district in Louisville without a senator.
Over the past few weeks, her fellow Republicans have been scorned for trying to seat her despite the questions, and one GOP senator has quit the party in protest and declared himself an independent.
The dispute -- which will be heard by the Kentucky Supreme Court at a date to be determined -- started on Nov. 1, the day before the election, when Democrat Virginia Woodward went to court to claim that Stephenson, her Republican opponent in the state Senate race, did not meet the requirement in the Kentucky Constitution that says candidates must be a resident of the state for six years before the election.
The next day, Stephenson beat Woodward by about 1,000 votes, according to unofficial returns.
Once the lawsuit made its way before a judge, the evidence was substantial that Stephenson, 32, lived in Indiana from 1997 to 2001. She bought a house, moved in, and enrolled at an Indiana university to pursue a master's degree. She paid in-state tuition. She voted in Indiana in the 1998 and 2000 elections. She got an Indiana driver's license in 1997 and kept it until 2001. She was purged from Kentucky's voter rolls in 1998 for failing to vote and did not re-register until 2001.
Stephenson countered that she always owned property in Kentucky, too, and intended to make her home there and never left her teaching position at a Louisville high school.
A judge was unconvinced and directed election officials to count only Woodward's votes. While the courts continually sided with Woodward, the political process took a different tack.
Stephenson appealed directly to the Senate to seat her, where her fellow Republicans -- including her lawmaker father -- hold the majority.
A randomly drawn special committee had a majority of Democrats, which concluded Stephenson was not qualified. But when the matter got to the full Senate, Republicans overruled the recommendation and voted largely along party lines to seat Stephenson.
Senate President David Williams said the Senate alone is empowered to determine the qualifications of its members. Williams said, for example, that despite the constitutional requirement that a senator be 30 years old, the Senate could vote to seat a 23-year-old.
"If 20 people in this body voted that someone was 30 years old, no court in the land could overturn that," Williams said.
Stephenson was seated, but within a week, a judge did intervene, ordering that Stephenson could not take any official action as a senator.
Williams' comments drew a firestorm.
"Rather than clarify the legal issue for us, Williams acts as Senate Mad Hatter with his signature Cheshire Cat demeanor. Dana Seum Stephenson plays a disingenuous Queen of Hearts and the members of the Queen's court (better known as the Senate Republican caucus) would have us believe that residency as a citizen means only physically residing," one letter writer said in The Courier-Journal.
Republican Sen. Bob Leeper said the partisan display was so egregious that he quit the party. (It was Leeper's switch from Democrat to Republican five years ago that gave the GOP its first-ever majority in the Kentucky Senate.)
With Leeper's change and the empty seat, there are 21 Republicans, 15 Democrats and an independent in the 38-member Senate. The switch and the empty seat may be especially damaging to the GOP because it takes 23 votes to pass tax or spending legislation in the current session.
Woodward said she has received overwhelming support in her quest and it has only increased since the Senate's actions and Williams' comments. "They are appalled that anyone would state that, with the right amount of votes, they could make 23 into 30," she said.
For her part, Stephenson did not return repeated calls for an interview. Except for a brief appearance in the gallery a few weeks ago, she has stayed away from Frankfort.
"There's no reason to upset the judges and go to jail," she said then.
Kentucky Senate Seat Held Up in Dispute
Email this story
Printer friendly format
By MARK R. CHELLGREN
Associated Press Writer
February 14, 2005, 2:00 PM EST
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The brass plaque on the desk in the Kentucky Capitol reads, "Dana Seum Stephenson -- Senator." Each day, the clerk calls the roll, "Sen. Seum Stephenson."
The seat is empty and no one answers.
Stephenson is a senator in name only, under a court order that forbids her to attend any legislative session, vote or take a salary. Three months after the election, questions about Stephenson's residency have left her working-class district in Louisville without a senator.
Over the past few weeks, her fellow Republicans have been scorned for trying to seat her despite the questions, and one GOP senator has quit the party in protest and declared himself an independent.
The dispute -- which will be heard by the Kentucky Supreme Court at a date to be determined -- started on Nov. 1, the day before the election, when Democrat Virginia Woodward went to court to claim that Stephenson, her Republican opponent in the state Senate race, did not meet the requirement in the Kentucky Constitution that says candidates must be a resident of the state for six years before the election.
The next day, Stephenson beat Woodward by about 1,000 votes, according to unofficial returns.
Once the lawsuit made its way before a judge, the evidence was substantial that Stephenson, 32, lived in Indiana from 1997 to 2001. She bought a house, moved in, and enrolled at an Indiana university to pursue a master's degree. She paid in-state tuition. She voted in Indiana in the 1998 and 2000 elections. She got an Indiana driver's license in 1997 and kept it until 2001. She was purged from Kentucky's voter rolls in 1998 for failing to vote and did not re-register until 2001.
Stephenson countered that she always owned property in Kentucky, too, and intended to make her home there and never left her teaching position at a Louisville high school.
A judge was unconvinced and directed election officials to count only Woodward's votes. While the courts continually sided with Woodward, the political process took a different tack.
Stephenson appealed directly to the Senate to seat her, where her fellow Republicans -- including her lawmaker father -- hold the majority.
A randomly drawn special committee had a majority of Democrats, which concluded Stephenson was not qualified. But when the matter got to the full Senate, Republicans overruled the recommendation and voted largely along party lines to seat Stephenson.
Senate President David Williams said the Senate alone is empowered to determine the qualifications of its members. Williams said, for example, that despite the constitutional requirement that a senator be 30 years old, the Senate could vote to seat a 23-year-old.
"If 20 people in this body voted that someone was 30 years old, no court in the land could overturn that," Williams said.
Stephenson was seated, but within a week, a judge did intervene, ordering that Stephenson could not take any official action as a senator.
Williams' comments drew a firestorm.
"Rather than clarify the legal issue for us, Williams acts as Senate Mad Hatter with his signature Cheshire Cat demeanor. Dana Seum Stephenson plays a disingenuous Queen of Hearts and the members of the Queen's court (better known as the Senate Republican caucus) would have us believe that residency as a citizen means only physically residing," one letter writer said in The Courier-Journal.
Republican Sen. Bob Leeper said the partisan display was so egregious that he quit the party. (It was Leeper's switch from Democrat to Republican five years ago that gave the GOP its first-ever majority in the Kentucky Senate.)
With Leeper's change and the empty seat, there are 21 Republicans, 15 Democrats and an independent in the 38-member Senate. The switch and the empty seat may be especially damaging to the GOP because it takes 23 votes to pass tax or spending legislation in the current session.
Woodward said she has received overwhelming support in her quest and it has only increased since the Senate's actions and Williams' comments. "They are appalled that anyone would state that, with the right amount of votes, they could make 23 into 30," she said.
For her part, Stephenson did not return repeated calls for an interview. Except for a brief appearance in the gallery a few weeks ago, she has stayed away from Frankfort.
"There's no reason to upset the judges and go to jail," she said then.
U.S.: Taliban Ready for Reconciliation
WHABy STEPHEN GRAHAM
Associated Press Writer
February 14, 2005, 4:19 PM EST
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Senior Taliban members have agreed to join a reconciliation process to be announced soon by the Afghan government, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Monday.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said there had been a "positive response" to overtures from American and Afghan officials, which have intensified in recent months.
"Quite a number of people associated with the Taliban have taken advantage of it already and are living in their areas, they've come in and some senior members have also come in," Khalilzad said at a news conference.
He declined to give details about the reconciliation program, but said there would likely be an announcement from the Afghan government in coming days.
Khalilzad and the U.S. military are pressing President Hamid Karzai to reach out to "non-criminal" Taliban, many of whom are believed to have taken refuge in neighboring Pakistan after a U.S. bombing campaign ousted the former militia following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Officials hope such a program can help defuse the stubborn insurgency, which is hampering badly needed reconstruction and continues launching attacks against American soldiers.
American commanders and Afghan officials insist that many followers of the former ruling Taliban are growing disillusioned, but they have yet to produce evidence that figures with real influence among militant groups are ready to support the U.S.-backed government.
It also remains unclear how the offer to former Taliban relates to another proposed national reconciliation program which the United Nations and the main Afghan human rights group say should include the prosecution of war criminals from the country's long wars.
U.S.: Taliban Ready for Reconciliation
WHABy STEPHEN GRAHAM
Associated Press Writer
February 14, 2005, 4:19 PM EST
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Senior Taliban members have agreed to join a reconciliation process to be announced soon by the Afghan government, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Monday.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said there had been a "positive response" to overtures from American and Afghan officials, which have intensified in recent months.
"Quite a number of people associated with the Taliban have taken advantage of it already and are living in their areas, they've come in and some senior members have also come in," Khalilzad said at a news conference.
He declined to give details about the reconciliation program, but said there would likely be an announcement from the Afghan government in coming days.
Khalilzad and the U.S. military are pressing President Hamid Karzai to reach out to "non-criminal" Taliban, many of whom are believed to have taken refuge in neighboring Pakistan after a U.S. bombing campaign ousted the former militia following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Officials hope such a program can help defuse the stubborn insurgency, which is hampering badly needed reconstruction and continues launching attacks against American soldiers.
American commanders and Afghan officials insist that many followers of the former ruling Taliban are growing disillusioned, but they have yet to produce evidence that figures with real influence among militant groups are ready to support the U.S.-backed government.
It also remains unclear how the offer to former Taliban relates to another proposed national reconciliation program which the United Nations and the main Afghan human rights group say should include the prosecution of war criminals from the country's long wars.
U.S.: Taliban Ready for Reconciliation
WHABy STEPHEN GRAHAM
Associated Press Writer
February 14, 2005, 4:19 PM EST
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Senior Taliban members have agreed to join a reconciliation process to be announced soon by the Afghan government, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Monday.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said there had been a "positive response" to overtures from American and Afghan officials, which have intensified in recent months.
"Quite a number of people associated with the Taliban have taken advantage of it already and are living in their areas, they've come in and some senior members have also come in," Khalilzad said at a news conference.
He declined to give details about the reconciliation program, but said there would likely be an announcement from the Afghan government in coming days.
Khalilzad and the U.S. military are pressing President Hamid Karzai to reach out to "non-criminal" Taliban, many of whom are believed to have taken refuge in neighboring Pakistan after a U.S. bombing campaign ousted the former militia following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Officials hope such a program can help defuse the stubborn insurgency, which is hampering badly needed reconstruction and continues launching attacks against American soldiers.
American commanders and Afghan officials insist that many followers of the former ruling Taliban are growing disillusioned, but they have yet to produce evidence that figures with real influence among militant groups are ready to support the U.S.-backed government.
It also remains unclear how the offer to former Taliban relates to another proposed national reconciliation program which the United Nations and the main Afghan human rights group say should include the prosecution of war criminals from the country's long wars.
No Exit for British in Poor Corner of Iraq
Despite Progress, Old Scores Still Unsettled and Local Problems Unresolved
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page A01
QURNAH, Iraq -- The election is over here in the backcountry, and by local accounts, it was a grand success. The Marsh Arabs dressed in festive robes to vote. The Iraqi police and guardsmen were at their proudest. No one got shot, or even shot at -- unusual here.
Far from the bombs and politics in Baghdad, this remote bit of Iraq is now fairly quiet. But one day this week, Capt. Alexander Spry and the men of his Welsh Guards company were out on patrol, just as they were before the Jan. 30 vote. Jolting along a rutted dirt road cloaked in dust, past a squalid strip of mud huts perched on a canal levee, they had guns and waves at the ready. Either might be needed.
In Amarah, British troops who often sort out tribal rivalries and oversee reconstruction projects also continue to patrol the streets. (Ghaith Abdul-ahad -- Getty Images)
___ Postwar Iraq ___
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British officers such as Spry say they still have much to do before foreign military forces can leave Iraq. The narrow task that brought them here -- to help topple Saddam Hussein -- has been accomplished, but the approximately 175,000 troops from 29 foreign countries find themselves wrapped in the suffocating embrace of local problems and ancient grievances left to them to solve.
They sort out tribal rivalries, arrest car thieves, spot crooked contractors, hire men to clean sewers, and restore order to gasoline lines. At the same time, they are trying to train the Iraqis who will replace them and to reconstruct where there was little construction to begin with -- all while keeping the peace.
"We've made good progress, and there's more to be made," said Lt. Col. Ben Bathurst, who leads about 1,000 soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, in Maysan province.
Although he insisted that "we're not going to be here forever," Bathurst acknowledged that the British army's departure was nowhere in sight. When the Welsh Guards leave in a few months, another British unit will take over, and the British are moving into a nearby area as Dutch troops withdraw.
Whenever local officials complain about the troops, "I've found the best way to combat that is to say, 'Okay, we'll pull out tomorrow. Then what will you do?' " The question silences critics, Bathurst said.
The situation in Maysan, the poorest of Iraq's 18 provinces, illustrates how difficult it will be for the United States and its allies to extricate themselves from Iraq no matter how successful January's election turns out to have been or how much progress is made against the insurgency.
Tucked away in southeastern Iraq, Maysan would seem a likely place for an army to come and go quickly. It is poor and rural. Vast stretches have no schools, electricity or running water.
Here in the ancestral home of the Marsh Arabs, who for perhaps 5,000 years have relied on the vast wetlands here for fish, fowl and rice, Spry and his convoy of bristling Land Rovers are aliens as they patrol a 12-mile strip of huts along a canal. The small, square homes are made of mud and straw. A door is often a piece of sheet metal propped against the opening. Smiling, strong women and squealing children emerge to greet the patrol.
There has not been much violence here since a flare-up in August that officers say was the "most intense fighting the British Army has been in since the Falklands War" in the early 1980s. All the local politicians say the British should stay.
"The coalition forces are like a doctor. When the patient has recovered, the doctor can leave," said Hashim Shawki, the local head of a major Shiite Muslim party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The biggest question is who would replace British forces as the authority here. Two British companies live with the Iraqi National Guard, and the Welsh Guards work daily to train guardsmen and police. The British speak optimistically and say the Iraqi security forces are coming along.
But there is no timetable for a handover of security duties. The 6,000 police officers and 1,800 guardsmen are wary rivals, their ranks stocked by members of competing militias. The new provincial council is expected to side with the National Guard against the police. The governor of the province was arrested for allegedly ordering the slaying of a local police chief. He was released, but suspicions and hard feelings remain.
No Exit for British in Poor Corner of Iraq
Despite Progress, Old Scores Still Unsettled and Local Problems Unresolved
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page A01
QURNAH, Iraq -- The election is over here in the backcountry, and by local accounts, it was a grand success. The Marsh Arabs dressed in festive robes to vote. The Iraqi police and guardsmen were at their proudest. No one got shot, or even shot at -- unusual here.
Far from the bombs and politics in Baghdad, this remote bit of Iraq is now fairly quiet. But one day this week, Capt. Alexander Spry and the men of his Welsh Guards company were out on patrol, just as they were before the Jan. 30 vote. Jolting along a rutted dirt road cloaked in dust, past a squalid strip of mud huts perched on a canal levee, they had guns and waves at the ready. Either might be needed.
In Amarah, British troops who often sort out tribal rivalries and oversee reconstruction projects also continue to patrol the streets. (Ghaith Abdul-ahad -- Getty Images)
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• Suicide Car Bomb Kills At Least 17 South of Baghdad
• No Exit for British in Poor Corner of Iraq
• CNN's Jordan Resigns Over Iraq Remarks
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
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Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
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British officers such as Spry say they still have much to do before foreign military forces can leave Iraq. The narrow task that brought them here -- to help topple Saddam Hussein -- has been accomplished, but the approximately 175,000 troops from 29 foreign countries find themselves wrapped in the suffocating embrace of local problems and ancient grievances left to them to solve.
They sort out tribal rivalries, arrest car thieves, spot crooked contractors, hire men to clean sewers, and restore order to gasoline lines. At the same time, they are trying to train the Iraqis who will replace them and to reconstruct where there was little construction to begin with -- all while keeping the peace.
"We've made good progress, and there's more to be made," said Lt. Col. Ben Bathurst, who leads about 1,000 soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, in Maysan province.
Although he insisted that "we're not going to be here forever," Bathurst acknowledged that the British army's departure was nowhere in sight. When the Welsh Guards leave in a few months, another British unit will take over, and the British are moving into a nearby area as Dutch troops withdraw.
Whenever local officials complain about the troops, "I've found the best way to combat that is to say, 'Okay, we'll pull out tomorrow. Then what will you do?' " The question silences critics, Bathurst said.
The situation in Maysan, the poorest of Iraq's 18 provinces, illustrates how difficult it will be for the United States and its allies to extricate themselves from Iraq no matter how successful January's election turns out to have been or how much progress is made against the insurgency.
Tucked away in southeastern Iraq, Maysan would seem a likely place for an army to come and go quickly. It is poor and rural. Vast stretches have no schools, electricity or running water.
Here in the ancestral home of the Marsh Arabs, who for perhaps 5,000 years have relied on the vast wetlands here for fish, fowl and rice, Spry and his convoy of bristling Land Rovers are aliens as they patrol a 12-mile strip of huts along a canal. The small, square homes are made of mud and straw. A door is often a piece of sheet metal propped against the opening. Smiling, strong women and squealing children emerge to greet the patrol.
There has not been much violence here since a flare-up in August that officers say was the "most intense fighting the British Army has been in since the Falklands War" in the early 1980s. All the local politicians say the British should stay.
"The coalition forces are like a doctor. When the patient has recovered, the doctor can leave," said Hashim Shawki, the local head of a major Shiite Muslim party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The biggest question is who would replace British forces as the authority here. Two British companies live with the Iraqi National Guard, and the Welsh Guards work daily to train guardsmen and police. The British speak optimistically and say the Iraqi security forces are coming along.
But there is no timetable for a handover of security duties. The 6,000 police officers and 1,800 guardsmen are wary rivals, their ranks stocked by members of competing militias. The new provincial council is expected to side with the National Guard against the police. The governor of the province was arrested for allegedly ordering the slaying of a local police chief. He was released, but suspicions and hard feelings remain.
No Exit for British in Poor Corner of Iraq
Despite Progress, Old Scores Still Unsettled and Local Problems Unresolved
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page A01
QURNAH, Iraq -- The election is over here in the backcountry, and by local accounts, it was a grand success. The Marsh Arabs dressed in festive robes to vote. The Iraqi police and guardsmen were at their proudest. No one got shot, or even shot at -- unusual here.
Far from the bombs and politics in Baghdad, this remote bit of Iraq is now fairly quiet. But one day this week, Capt. Alexander Spry and the men of his Welsh Guards company were out on patrol, just as they were before the Jan. 30 vote. Jolting along a rutted dirt road cloaked in dust, past a squalid strip of mud huts perched on a canal levee, they had guns and waves at the ready. Either might be needed.
In Amarah, British troops who often sort out tribal rivalries and oversee reconstruction projects also continue to patrol the streets. (Ghaith Abdul-ahad -- Getty Images)
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• Suicide Car Bomb Kills At Least 17 South of Baghdad
• No Exit for British in Poor Corner of Iraq
• CNN's Jordan Resigns Over Iraq Remarks
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Today's Headlines & Columnists
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See a Sample | Sign Up Now
British officers such as Spry say they still have much to do before foreign military forces can leave Iraq. The narrow task that brought them here -- to help topple Saddam Hussein -- has been accomplished, but the approximately 175,000 troops from 29 foreign countries find themselves wrapped in the suffocating embrace of local problems and ancient grievances left to them to solve.
They sort out tribal rivalries, arrest car thieves, spot crooked contractors, hire men to clean sewers, and restore order to gasoline lines. At the same time, they are trying to train the Iraqis who will replace them and to reconstruct where there was little construction to begin with -- all while keeping the peace.
"We've made good progress, and there's more to be made," said Lt. Col. Ben Bathurst, who leads about 1,000 soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, in Maysan province.
Although he insisted that "we're not going to be here forever," Bathurst acknowledged that the British army's departure was nowhere in sight. When the Welsh Guards leave in a few months, another British unit will take over, and the British are moving into a nearby area as Dutch troops withdraw.
Whenever local officials complain about the troops, "I've found the best way to combat that is to say, 'Okay, we'll pull out tomorrow. Then what will you do?' " The question silences critics, Bathurst said.
The situation in Maysan, the poorest of Iraq's 18 provinces, illustrates how difficult it will be for the United States and its allies to extricate themselves from Iraq no matter how successful January's election turns out to have been or how much progress is made against the insurgency.
Tucked away in southeastern Iraq, Maysan would seem a likely place for an army to come and go quickly. It is poor and rural. Vast stretches have no schools, electricity or running water.
Here in the ancestral home of the Marsh Arabs, who for perhaps 5,000 years have relied on the vast wetlands here for fish, fowl and rice, Spry and his convoy of bristling Land Rovers are aliens as they patrol a 12-mile strip of huts along a canal. The small, square homes are made of mud and straw. A door is often a piece of sheet metal propped against the opening. Smiling, strong women and squealing children emerge to greet the patrol.
There has not been much violence here since a flare-up in August that officers say was the "most intense fighting the British Army has been in since the Falklands War" in the early 1980s. All the local politicians say the British should stay.
"The coalition forces are like a doctor. When the patient has recovered, the doctor can leave," said Hashim Shawki, the local head of a major Shiite Muslim party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The biggest question is who would replace British forces as the authority here. Two British companies live with the Iraqi National Guard, and the Welsh Guards work daily to train guardsmen and police. The British speak optimistically and say the Iraqi security forces are coming along.
But there is no timetable for a handover of security duties. The 6,000 police officers and 1,800 guardsmen are wary rivals, their ranks stocked by members of competing militias. The new provincial council is expected to side with the National Guard against the police. The governor of the province was arrested for allegedly ordering the slaying of a local police chief. He was released, but suspicions and hard feelings remain.
Memo warned of Al Qaeda
Clarke wrote to Rice of threat in January 2001
By JoAnne Allen, Reuters | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that Al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
ADVERTISEMENT
The newly released memo, dated Jan. 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office -- was an essential feature of last year's hearings into intelligence failures before the attacks in New York and Washington. A copy of the document was posted on the National Security Archive website yesterday.
The memo, from former counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke to Condoleezza Rice, who was national security adviser at the time, had been described during the hearings, but its full contents had not been disclosed.
Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration, had requested an immediate meeting of top national security officials as soon as possible after Bush took office to discuss combating Al Qaeda. He described the network as a threat with broad reach.
''Al Qaeda affects centrally our policies on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, North Africa, and the [Gulf Arab states]. Leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia see Al Qaeda as a direct threat to them," Clarke wrote.
''The strength of the network of organizations limits the scope of support friendly Arab regimes can give to a range of US policies, including Iraq policy and the [Israeli-Palestinian] peace process. We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge Al Qaeda poses."
The memo also warned of overestimating the stability of moderate regional allies threatened by Al Qaeda.
It recommended that the new administration urgently discuss the Al Qaeda network, including the magnitude of the threat it posed and strategy for dealing with it.
Rice has maintained that she never received any specific warning of an attack by the terrorist organization run by Osama bin Laden. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday the newly released document does not alter the administration's view that it had no specific information on a potential attack and that it was not offered a concrete plan to avert an attack.
The document was declassified April 7, 2004, a day before Rice's testimony before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. It was released recently by the National Security Council to the National Security Archive, a private library of declassified US documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The meeting on Al Qaeda requested by Clarke did not take place until Sept. 4, 2001.
Memo warned of Al Qaeda
Clarke wrote to Rice of threat in January 2001
By JoAnne Allen, Reuters | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that Al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
ADVERTISEMENT
The newly released memo, dated Jan. 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office -- was an essential feature of last year's hearings into intelligence failures before the attacks in New York and Washington. A copy of the document was posted on the National Security Archive website yesterday.
The memo, from former counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke to Condoleezza Rice, who was national security adviser at the time, had been described during the hearings, but its full contents had not been disclosed.
Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration, had requested an immediate meeting of top national security officials as soon as possible after Bush took office to discuss combating Al Qaeda. He described the network as a threat with broad reach.
''Al Qaeda affects centrally our policies on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, North Africa, and the [Gulf Arab states]. Leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia see Al Qaeda as a direct threat to them," Clarke wrote.
''The strength of the network of organizations limits the scope of support friendly Arab regimes can give to a range of US policies, including Iraq policy and the [Israeli-Palestinian] peace process. We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge Al Qaeda poses."
The memo also warned of overestimating the stability of moderate regional allies threatened by Al Qaeda.
It recommended that the new administration urgently discuss the Al Qaeda network, including the magnitude of the threat it posed and strategy for dealing with it.
Rice has maintained that she never received any specific warning of an attack by the terrorist organization run by Osama bin Laden. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday the newly released document does not alter the administration's view that it had no specific information on a potential attack and that it was not offered a concrete plan to avert an attack.
The document was declassified April 7, 2004, a day before Rice's testimony before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. It was released recently by the National Security Council to the National Security Archive, a private library of declassified US documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The meeting on Al Qaeda requested by Clarke did not take place until Sept. 4, 2001.
Memo warned of Al Qaeda
Clarke wrote to Rice of threat in January 2001
By JoAnne Allen, Reuters | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that Al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
ADVERTISEMENT
The newly released memo, dated Jan. 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office -- was an essential feature of last year's hearings into intelligence failures before the attacks in New York and Washington. A copy of the document was posted on the National Security Archive website yesterday.
The memo, from former counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke to Condoleezza Rice, who was national security adviser at the time, had been described during the hearings, but its full contents had not been disclosed.
Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration, had requested an immediate meeting of top national security officials as soon as possible after Bush took office to discuss combating Al Qaeda. He described the network as a threat with broad reach.
''Al Qaeda affects centrally our policies on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, North Africa, and the [Gulf Arab states]. Leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia see Al Qaeda as a direct threat to them," Clarke wrote.
''The strength of the network of organizations limits the scope of support friendly Arab regimes can give to a range of US policies, including Iraq policy and the [Israeli-Palestinian] peace process. We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge Al Qaeda poses."
The memo also warned of overestimating the stability of moderate regional allies threatened by Al Qaeda.
It recommended that the new administration urgently discuss the Al Qaeda network, including the magnitude of the threat it posed and strategy for dealing with it.
Rice has maintained that she never received any specific warning of an attack by the terrorist organization run by Osama bin Laden. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday the newly released document does not alter the administration's view that it had no specific information on a potential attack and that it was not offered a concrete plan to avert an attack.
The document was declassified April 7, 2004, a day before Rice's testimony before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. It was released recently by the National Security Council to the National Security Archive, a private library of declassified US documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The meeting on Al Qaeda requested by Clarke did not take place until Sept. 4, 2001.
Bush vows to preserve drug benefit
Says he'd veto any effort to scale back Medicare plan
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Seeking to avoid a distracting fight over Medicare while he tries to focus his political ammunition on Social Security, President Bush yesterday promised to veto any attempt to scale back the Medicare prescription drug program before it goes into effect next year.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bush's fellow Republicans have been threatening to cut the benefit out of fear of its growing cost. Though White House budget chief Joshua Bolten on Wednesday told lawmakers that the administration would be willing to work with Congress on cost-control measures, Bush sought to shut the door on such talk yesterday.
''I signed Medicare reform proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto," Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for new Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. ''For decades we promised America's seniors that we can do better, and we finally did. Now we must keep our word."
On Tuesday, the White House revealed that the medication benefit is expected to cost at least $724 billion over the next 10 years, even though Congress approved it in 2003 expecting the cost to be $400 billion. Republicans in the House and Senate responded by saying they would try to reduce spending through options such as limiting enrollment, reducing the number of available drugs, or raising copayments.
Despite Bush's threat, some Republicans said they would move forward with proposals to limit costs. Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said Bush's calls for fiscal responsibility demand that the prescription drug benefit be subject to scrutiny.
''I can't imagine that he would veto something and cause us to spend more money, not less," said Flake, who is pushing a measure that would make the benefit available only to low-income seniors. ''I just don't think that the president wants his first veto to be on a bill that makes the Congress finally fiscally responsible."
Bush vows to preserve drug benefit
Says he'd veto any effort to scale back Medicare plan
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Seeking to avoid a distracting fight over Medicare while he tries to focus his political ammunition on Social Security, President Bush yesterday promised to veto any attempt to scale back the Medicare prescription drug program before it goes into effect next year.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bush's fellow Republicans have been threatening to cut the benefit out of fear of its growing cost. Though White House budget chief Joshua Bolten on Wednesday told lawmakers that the administration would be willing to work with Congress on cost-control measures, Bush sought to shut the door on such talk yesterday.
''I signed Medicare reform proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto," Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for new Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. ''For decades we promised America's seniors that we can do better, and we finally did. Now we must keep our word."
On Tuesday, the White House revealed that the medication benefit is expected to cost at least $724 billion over the next 10 years, even though Congress approved it in 2003 expecting the cost to be $400 billion. Republicans in the House and Senate responded by saying they would try to reduce spending through options such as limiting enrollment, reducing the number of available drugs, or raising copayments.
Despite Bush's threat, some Republicans said they would move forward with proposals to limit costs. Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said Bush's calls for fiscal responsibility demand that the prescription drug benefit be subject to scrutiny.
''I can't imagine that he would veto something and cause us to spend more money, not less," said Flake, who is pushing a measure that would make the benefit available only to low-income seniors. ''I just don't think that the president wants his first veto to be on a bill that makes the Congress finally fiscally responsible."
Bush vows to preserve drug benefit
Says he'd veto any effort to scale back Medicare plan
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Seeking to avoid a distracting fight over Medicare while he tries to focus his political ammunition on Social Security, President Bush yesterday promised to veto any attempt to scale back the Medicare prescription drug program before it goes into effect next year.
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Bush's fellow Republicans have been threatening to cut the benefit out of fear of its growing cost. Though White House budget chief Joshua Bolten on Wednesday told lawmakers that the administration would be willing to work with Congress on cost-control measures, Bush sought to shut the door on such talk yesterday.
''I signed Medicare reform proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto," Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for new Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. ''For decades we promised America's seniors that we can do better, and we finally did. Now we must keep our word."
On Tuesday, the White House revealed that the medication benefit is expected to cost at least $724 billion over the next 10 years, even though Congress approved it in 2003 expecting the cost to be $400 billion. Republicans in the House and Senate responded by saying they would try to reduce spending through options such as limiting enrollment, reducing the number of available drugs, or raising copayments.
Despite Bush's threat, some Republicans said they would move forward with proposals to limit costs. Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said Bush's calls for fiscal responsibility demand that the prescription drug benefit be subject to scrutiny.
''I can't imagine that he would veto something and cause us to spend more money, not less," said Flake, who is pushing a measure that would make the benefit available only to low-income seniors. ''I just don't think that the president wants his first veto to be on a bill that makes the Congress finally fiscally responsible."
Bush cuts hit Democratic states, analysis finds
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts and other traditionally Democratic states would see their share of federal grant money shrink under President Bush's 2006 budget, compared to Republican states in the South and West, according to a Globe analysis of funding projections compiled by the White House budget office.
Critics and defenders of the president's $2.6 trillion budget say they do not believe the budget proposal represents a deliberate attack on states that voted for Democrat John F. Kerry, but rather that Bush's budget priorities tend to hurt those states that rely more on the health, community development, and housing programs that are targeted for reductions.
The result is that the highest percentage increases in state and local grant money would go to Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona, and Missouri, while New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Vermont would be among the states with the smallest increases. Massachusetts -- with a projected 1.9 percent increase -- is tied for 35th, while liberal-leaning California and Washington state (along with conservative-leaning North Dakota) would see a reduction in federal grants next year.
With the proposal to eliminate or reduce funding for home-heating assistance, the Northeast would be especially hard hit by the president's budget-cutting, said Senator Jon Corzine, Democrat of New Jersey.
''People will ask me whether I think it's political or not," Corzine said. ''I think it's just the philosophy of this administration not to have the government involved."
Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, said that while the budget may not have been designed to hurt Democratic-leaning ''blue" states, ''they can do it without trying," because many of the budget cuts tend to hit urbanized areas. ''It's not just red state/blue state, but blue communities within the red states," he said. ''Their ideology reflects that."
Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said much of the trend is due to demographics. ''It's not a reflection of any political decision, by and large, because these tend to be mandatory [funding] programs," such as Medicaid, he said. Kolton and independent budget analysts also noted that the funding projections do not include Bush's proposed cuts in farm assistance, a highly controversial idea that -- if approved by Congress -- would probably hit rural, Republican-voting states with large grain farms the hardest.
But representatives of Northeastern states note that the funding projections also do not include the proposed elimination of Amtrak funding -- which they say could hurt the Northeast where the train service is most popular -- or increases in defense spending, which tend to favor the South and West because of the large number of military bases in those regions. In all, they say, the budget heavily favors Republican-leaning ''red" states, which constitute 19 of the top 25 states to receive the biggest percentage increases.
Bush cuts hit Democratic states, analysis finds
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts and other traditionally Democratic states would see their share of federal grant money shrink under President Bush's 2006 budget, compared to Republican states in the South and West, according to a Globe analysis of funding projections compiled by the White House budget office.
Critics and defenders of the president's $2.6 trillion budget say they do not believe the budget proposal represents a deliberate attack on states that voted for Democrat John F. Kerry, but rather that Bush's budget priorities tend to hurt those states that rely more on the health, community development, and housing programs that are targeted for reductions.
The result is that the highest percentage increases in state and local grant money would go to Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona, and Missouri, while New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Vermont would be among the states with the smallest increases. Massachusetts -- with a projected 1.9 percent increase -- is tied for 35th, while liberal-leaning California and Washington state (along with conservative-leaning North Dakota) would see a reduction in federal grants next year.
With the proposal to eliminate or reduce funding for home-heating assistance, the Northeast would be especially hard hit by the president's budget-cutting, said Senator Jon Corzine, Democrat of New Jersey.
''People will ask me whether I think it's political or not," Corzine said. ''I think it's just the philosophy of this administration not to have the government involved."
Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, said that while the budget may not have been designed to hurt Democratic-leaning ''blue" states, ''they can do it without trying," because many of the budget cuts tend to hit urbanized areas. ''It's not just red state/blue state, but blue communities within the red states," he said. ''Their ideology reflects that."
Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said much of the trend is due to demographics. ''It's not a reflection of any political decision, by and large, because these tend to be mandatory [funding] programs," such as Medicaid, he said. Kolton and independent budget analysts also noted that the funding projections do not include Bush's proposed cuts in farm assistance, a highly controversial idea that -- if approved by Congress -- would probably hit rural, Republican-voting states with large grain farms the hardest.
But representatives of Northeastern states note that the funding projections also do not include the proposed elimination of Amtrak funding -- which they say could hurt the Northeast where the train service is most popular -- or increases in defense spending, which tend to favor the South and West because of the large number of military bases in those regions. In all, they say, the budget heavily favors Republican-leaning ''red" states, which constitute 19 of the top 25 states to receive the biggest percentage increases.
Bush cuts hit Democratic states, analysis finds
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | February 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts and other traditionally Democratic states would see their share of federal grant money shrink under President Bush's 2006 budget, compared to Republican states in the South and West, according to a Globe analysis of funding projections compiled by the White House budget office.
Critics and defenders of the president's $2.6 trillion budget say they do not believe the budget proposal represents a deliberate attack on states that voted for Democrat John F. Kerry, but rather that Bush's budget priorities tend to hurt those states that rely more on the health, community development, and housing programs that are targeted for reductions.
The result is that the highest percentage increases in state and local grant money would go to Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona, and Missouri, while New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Vermont would be among the states with the smallest increases. Massachusetts -- with a projected 1.9 percent increase -- is tied for 35th, while liberal-leaning California and Washington state (along with conservative-leaning North Dakota) would see a reduction in federal grants next year.
With the proposal to eliminate or reduce funding for home-heating assistance, the Northeast would be especially hard hit by the president's budget-cutting, said Senator Jon Corzine, Democrat of New Jersey.
''People will ask me whether I think it's political or not," Corzine said. ''I think it's just the philosophy of this administration not to have the government involved."
Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, said that while the budget may not have been designed to hurt Democratic-leaning ''blue" states, ''they can do it without trying," because many of the budget cuts tend to hit urbanized areas. ''It's not just red state/blue state, but blue communities within the red states," he said. ''Their ideology reflects that."
Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said much of the trend is due to demographics. ''It's not a reflection of any political decision, by and large, because these tend to be mandatory [funding] programs," such as Medicaid, he said. Kolton and independent budget analysts also noted that the funding projections do not include Bush's proposed cuts in farm assistance, a highly controversial idea that -- if approved by Congress -- would probably hit rural, Republican-voting states with large grain farms the hardest.
But representatives of Northeastern states note that the funding projections also do not include the proposed elimination of Amtrak funding -- which they say could hurt the Northeast where the train service is most popular -- or increases in defense spending, which tend to favor the South and West because of the large number of military bases in those regions. In all, they say, the budget heavily favors Republican-leaning ''red" states, which constitute 19 of the top 25 states to receive the biggest percentage increases.
This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fell on
> the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic
> juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a
> creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other
> involves a groundhog."
This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fell on
> the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic
> juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a
> creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other
> involves a groundhog."
This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fell on
> the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic
> juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a
> creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other
> involves a groundhog."
Letter From Democrats Asks Rumsfeld About Differing Raises
By Stephen Barr
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page B02
Three Democrats have asked the Pentagon to explain why political appointees in some parts of the Defense Department are receiving slightly higher pay raises than their career counterparts in the executive ranks.
FULL ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY BELOW
Letter From Democrats Asks Rumsfeld About Differing Raises
By Stephen Barr
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page B02
Three Democrats have asked the Pentagon to explain why political appointees in some parts of the Defense Department are receiving slightly higher pay raises than their career counterparts in the executive ranks.
FULL ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY BELOW
Letter From Democrats Asks Rumsfeld About Differing Raises
By Stephen Barr
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page B02
Three Democrats have asked the Pentagon to explain why political appointees in some parts of the Defense Department are receiving slightly higher pay raises than their career counterparts in the executive ranks.
FULL ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY BELOW
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page A04
$400 Million for War Allies
The $80 billion war-funding request that President Bush plans to send Congress next week will include $400 million to help nations that have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Poland, a staunch ally in Iraq, is earmarked to receive one-fourth of the money.
The White House announced the fund, dubbed the "solidarity initiative," after Bush's meeting yesterday with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
"These funds . . . reflect the principle that an investment in a partner in freedom today will help ensure that America will stand united with stronger partners in the future," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement. "This assistance will support nations that have deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other partners promoting freedom around the world."
Poland has taken command of a multinational security force in central Iraq that is made up of about 6,000 troops -- among them more than 2,400 Polish soldiers. Polish officials say that a reduction this month will leave them with about 1,700 troops in Iraq.
"Poland has been a fantastic ally because the president and the people of Poland love freedom," Bush said in announcing that Poland is earmarked to receive $100 million.
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page A04
$400 Million for War Allies
The $80 billion war-funding request that President Bush plans to send Congress next week will include $400 million to help nations that have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Poland, a staunch ally in Iraq, is earmarked to receive one-fourth of the money.
The White House announced the fund, dubbed the "solidarity initiative," after Bush's meeting yesterday with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
"These funds . . . reflect the principle that an investment in a partner in freedom today will help ensure that America will stand united with stronger partners in the future," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement. "This assistance will support nations that have deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other partners promoting freedom around the world."
Poland has taken command of a multinational security force in central Iraq that is made up of about 6,000 troops -- among them more than 2,400 Polish soldiers. Polish officials say that a reduction this month will leave them with about 1,700 troops in Iraq.
"Poland has been a fantastic ally because the president and the people of Poland love freedom," Bush said in announcing that Poland is earmarked to receive $100 million.
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page A04
$400 Million for War Allies
The $80 billion war-funding request that President Bush plans to send Congress next week will include $400 million to help nations that have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Poland, a staunch ally in Iraq, is earmarked to receive one-fourth of the money.
The White House announced the fund, dubbed the "solidarity initiative," after Bush's meeting yesterday with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
"These funds . . . reflect the principle that an investment in a partner in freedom today will help ensure that America will stand united with stronger partners in the future," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement. "This assistance will support nations that have deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other partners promoting freedom around the world."
Poland has taken command of a multinational security force in central Iraq that is made up of about 6,000 troops -- among them more than 2,400 Polish soldiers. Polish officials say that a reduction this month will leave them with about 1,700 troops in Iraq.
"Poland has been a fantastic ally because the president and the people of Poland love freedom," Bush said in announcing that Poland is earmarked to receive $100 million.
Senate OKs Limit on Class Action Lawsuits
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 10, 2005; 11:06 PM
WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a measure Thursday to help shield businesses from major class action lawsuits like the ones that have been brought against tobacco companies, giving President Bush the first legislative victory of his second term.
Under the legislation, long sought by big business, large multistate class action lawsuits could no longer be heard in small state courts. Such courts have handed out multimillion-dollar verdicts
Instead, the cases would be heard by federal judges, who have not proven as open to those type of lawsuits.
The Senate passed the bill 72-26. It now goes to the House.
"We look forward to this legislation coming to the House floor next week so we can send it to President Bush, who has made its enactment a top priority," said a statement from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, House Judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and House Agriculture chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
"The Senate has taken a critical step toward granting families, consumers and employers relief from the heavy burden of lawsuit abuse," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Now it's time for the House to finish the job and take back our civil justice system from plaintiffs' lawyers seeking jackpot justice."
The Association of Trial Lawyers of America said insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and other companies had financed the push to get the legislation through the Senate. "Every American's legal rights are diminished by this anti-consumer legislation," said association president Todd A. Smith said.
Bush and other bill supporters - who have pushed for the legislation for almost six years - say it is needed because greedy lawyers have taken advantage of the state system by filing frivolous lawsuits in state courts where they know they can get big verdicts.
Senators who back the bill say lawyers make more money from such cases than do the actual victims, and that lawyers sometimes threaten companies with class action lawsuits just to get quick financial settlements. Regular people, they assure, will not lose their day in court.
Opponents say Bush and other bill supporters are trying to help businesses escape proper judgments for their wrongdoing - and also to hurt the trial lawyers who litigate the cases, some of whom are big Democratic contributors.
"Are there bad lawyers that bring meritless cases? Sure there are, and we should crack down on them," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a former trial lawyer. "But this bill is not about punishing bad lawyers. It is about hurting consumers and helping corporations avoid liability for misconduct."
Eight Democrats were sponsors of the bill, leaving the rest with no way to block it.
Bush and other supporters say the bill, which would send most multistate class action lawsuits to federal court instead of allowing them to be heard in state courts, is needed because lawyers try to file lawsuits in friendly jurisdictions where they are most likely to get large payouts.
The bill's aim "is to make sure when companies are called on the carpet, when they are involved in a class action litigation, they're in a court, in a courthouse with a judge where the companies have a fair shake, where the odds, the decks aren't stacked against them," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.
Senate OKs Limit on Class Action Lawsuits
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 10, 2005; 11:06 PM
WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a measure Thursday to help shield businesses from major class action lawsuits like the ones that have been brought against tobacco companies, giving President Bush the first legislative victory of his second term.
Under the legislation, long sought by big business, large multistate class action lawsuits could no longer be heard in small state courts. Such courts have handed out multimillion-dollar verdicts
Instead, the cases would be heard by federal judges, who have not proven as open to those type of lawsuits.
The Senate passed the bill 72-26. It now goes to the House.
"We look forward to this legislation coming to the House floor next week so we can send it to President Bush, who has made its enactment a top priority," said a statement from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, House Judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and House Agriculture chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
"The Senate has taken a critical step toward granting families, consumers and employers relief from the heavy burden of lawsuit abuse," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Now it's time for the House to finish the job and take back our civil justice system from plaintiffs' lawyers seeking jackpot justice."
The Association of Trial Lawyers of America said insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and other companies had financed the push to get the legislation through the Senate. "Every American's legal rights are diminished by this anti-consumer legislation," said association president Todd A. Smith said.
Bush and other bill supporters - who have pushed for the legislation for almost six years - say it is needed because greedy lawyers have taken advantage of the state system by filing frivolous lawsuits in state courts where they know they can get big verdicts.
Senators who back the bill say lawyers make more money from such cases than do the actual victims, and that lawyers sometimes threaten companies with class action lawsuits just to get quick financial settlements. Regular people, they assure, will not lose their day in court.
Opponents say Bush and other bill supporters are trying to help businesses escape proper judgments for their wrongdoing - and also to hurt the trial lawyers who litigate the cases, some of whom are big Democratic contributors.
"Are there bad lawyers that bring meritless cases? Sure there are, and we should crack down on them," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a former trial lawyer. "But this bill is not about punishing bad lawyers. It is about hurting consumers and helping corporations avoid liability for misconduct."
Eight Democrats were sponsors of the bill, leaving the rest with no way to block it.
Bush and other supporters say the bill, which would send most multistate class action lawsuits to federal court instead of allowing them to be heard in state courts, is needed because lawyers try to file lawsuits in friendly jurisdictions where they are most likely to get large payouts.
The bill's aim "is to make sure when companies are called on the carpet, when they are involved in a class action litigation, they're in a court, in a courthouse with a judge where the companies have a fair shake, where the odds, the decks aren't stacked against them," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.
Senate OKs Limit on Class Action Lawsuits
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 10, 2005; 11:06 PM
WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a measure Thursday to help shield businesses from major class action lawsuits like the ones that have been brought against tobacco companies, giving President Bush the first legislative victory of his second term.
Under the legislation, long sought by big business, large multistate class action lawsuits could no longer be heard in small state courts. Such courts have handed out multimillion-dollar verdicts
Instead, the cases would be heard by federal judges, who have not proven as open to those type of lawsuits.
The Senate passed the bill 72-26. It now goes to the House.
"We look forward to this legislation coming to the House floor next week so we can send it to President Bush, who has made its enactment a top priority," said a statement from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, House Judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and House Agriculture chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
"The Senate has taken a critical step toward granting families, consumers and employers relief from the heavy burden of lawsuit abuse," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Now it's time for the House to finish the job and take back our civil justice system from plaintiffs' lawyers seeking jackpot justice."
The Association of Trial Lawyers of America said insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and other companies had financed the push to get the legislation through the Senate. "Every American's legal rights are diminished by this anti-consumer legislation," said association president Todd A. Smith said.
Bush and other bill supporters - who have pushed for the legislation for almost six years - say it is needed because greedy lawyers have taken advantage of the state system by filing frivolous lawsuits in state courts where they know they can get big verdicts.
Senators who back the bill say lawyers make more money from such cases than do the actual victims, and that lawyers sometimes threaten companies with class action lawsuits just to get quick financial settlements. Regular people, they assure, will not lose their day in court.
Opponents say Bush and other bill supporters are trying to help businesses escape proper judgments for their wrongdoing - and also to hurt the trial lawyers who litigate the cases, some of whom are big Democratic contributors.
"Are there bad lawyers that bring meritless cases? Sure there are, and we should crack down on them," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a former trial lawyer. "But this bill is not about punishing bad lawyers. It is about hurting consumers and helping corporations avoid liability for misconduct."
Eight Democrats were sponsors of the bill, leaving the rest with no way to block it.
Bush and other supporters say the bill, which would send most multistate class action lawsuits to federal court instead of allowing them to be heard in state courts, is needed because lawyers try to file lawsuits in friendly jurisdictions where they are most likely to get large payouts.
The bill's aim "is to make sure when companies are called on the carpet, when they are involved in a class action litigation, they're in a court, in a courthouse with a judge where the companies have a fair shake, where the odds, the decks aren't stacked against them," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.
Halliburton delays telling government about missing radioactive material
Thursday February 10, 2005
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) A Halliburton Co. shipment of radioactive material went missing in October but the company didn't alert government authorities until this week, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Thursday.
The material two sources of the element americium, used in oil well exploration was found intact Wednesday in Boston after an intense search by federal authorities. NRC and Halliburton officials say the public never was in danger.
The americium was being shipped from Russia to Houston, according to a report filed with the NRC by Halliburton.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Halliburton did not notify the agency about the missing material until Tuesday. Depending on the material, government rules require notification either immediately or within 30 days.
``The focus through today was on trying to find the material,'' Sheehan said. ``We're going to be pressing them why the notification was not more timely.''
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall blamed the company's shipper, saying it never alerted the Texas-based energy company that the material was missing until Tuesday. Halliburton then immediately contacted the NRC, she said.
She said Halliburton contacted the shipping company ``multiple times'' about the shipment and was told it was en route to Houston. She declined to identify the company on grounds that Halliburton did not want its shipments targeted.
Hall said the material was encased in a double-walled stainless steel cylinder, locked in a steel transport container designed to protect workers.
``All of this was found intact, and we have no information that leads us to believe that the public or environment were in danger,'' Hall said.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a frequent critic of the NRC, said the incident highlights inadequate security measures covering radioactive materials. The americium is classified as having the potential to permanently injure a person who fails to handle it properly, he said.
Markey said the lag time in reporting the disappearance of dangerous materials leaves open the possibility they could fall into the hands of terrorists without the government's knowledge.
According to the NRC report, the americium was imported from Russia by Halliburton Energy Services. The shipment went through Amsterdam, Netherlands, to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Oct. 9.
The NRC report indicates the material was trucked to Massachusetts after a Boston label was inadvertently placed on the package at the freight company's Newark, N.J., facility.
Homeland Security Department officials and the FBI began a search after the materials were reported missing. The americium was found at a freight facility in Boston.
Halliburton delays telling government about missing radioactive material
Thursday February 10, 2005
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) A Halliburton Co. shipment of radioactive material went missing in October but the company didn't alert government authorities until this week, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Thursday.
The material two sources of the element americium, used in oil well exploration was found intact Wednesday in Boston after an intense search by federal authorities. NRC and Halliburton officials say the public never was in danger.
The americium was being shipped from Russia to Houston, according to a report filed with the NRC by Halliburton.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Halliburton did not notify the agency about the missing material until Tuesday. Depending on the material, government rules require notification either immediately or within 30 days.
``The focus through today was on trying to find the material,'' Sheehan said. ``We're going to be pressing them why the notification was not more timely.''
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall blamed the company's shipper, saying it never alerted the Texas-based energy company that the material was missing until Tuesday. Halliburton then immediately contacted the NRC, she said.
She said Halliburton contacted the shipping company ``multiple times'' about the shipment and was told it was en route to Houston. She declined to identify the company on grounds that Halliburton did not want its shipments targeted.
Hall said the material was encased in a double-walled stainless steel cylinder, locked in a steel transport container designed to protect workers.
``All of this was found intact, and we have no information that leads us to believe that the public or environment were in danger,'' Hall said.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a frequent critic of the NRC, said the incident highlights inadequate security measures covering radioactive materials. The americium is classified as having the potential to permanently injure a person who fails to handle it properly, he said.
Markey said the lag time in reporting the disappearance of dangerous materials leaves open the possibility they could fall into the hands of terrorists without the government's knowledge.
According to the NRC report, the americium was imported from Russia by Halliburton Energy Services. The shipment went through Amsterdam, Netherlands, to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Oct. 9.
The NRC report indicates the material was trucked to Massachusetts after a Boston label was inadvertently placed on the package at the freight company's Newark, N.J., facility.
Homeland Security Department officials and the FBI began a search after the materials were reported missing. The americium was found at a freight facility in Boston.
Halliburton delays telling government about missing radioactive material
Thursday February 10, 2005
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) A Halliburton Co. shipment of radioactive material went missing in October but the company didn't alert government authorities until this week, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Thursday.
The material two sources of the element americium, used in oil well exploration was found intact Wednesday in Boston after an intense search by federal authorities. NRC and Halliburton officials say the public never was in danger.
The americium was being shipped from Russia to Houston, according to a report filed with the NRC by Halliburton.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Halliburton did not notify the agency about the missing material until Tuesday. Depending on the material, government rules require notification either immediately or within 30 days.
``The focus through today was on trying to find the material,'' Sheehan said. ``We're going to be pressing them why the notification was not more timely.''
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall blamed the company's shipper, saying it never alerted the Texas-based energy company that the material was missing until Tuesday. Halliburton then immediately contacted the NRC, she said.
She said Halliburton contacted the shipping company ``multiple times'' about the shipment and was told it was en route to Houston. She declined to identify the company on grounds that Halliburton did not want its shipments targeted.
Hall said the material was encased in a double-walled stainless steel cylinder, locked in a steel transport container designed to protect workers.
``All of this was found intact, and we have no information that leads us to believe that the public or environment were in danger,'' Hall said.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a frequent critic of the NRC, said the incident highlights inadequate security measures covering radioactive materials. The americium is classified as having the potential to permanently injure a person who fails to handle it properly, he said.
Markey said the lag time in reporting the disappearance of dangerous materials leaves open the possibility they could fall into the hands of terrorists without the government's knowledge.
According to the NRC report, the americium was imported from Russia by Halliburton Energy Services. The shipment went through Amsterdam, Netherlands, to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Oct. 9.
The NRC report indicates the material was trucked to Massachusetts after a Boston label was inadvertently placed on the package at the freight company's Newark, N.J., facility.
Homeland Security Department officials and the FBI began a search after the materials were reported missing. The americium was found at a freight facility in Boston.
Despite Dec. dip, trade gap up 24% in 2004 to record
The Associated Press
The U.S. trade deficit soared to a record of $617.7 billion last year as Americans' appetite for all things foreign from crude oil to imported cars hit all-time highs. The United States even rang up a deficit in farm goods as imports of wine, cheese and other food products hit a record.
The Commerce Department reported that the deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record, an imbalance of $496.5 billion in 2003. The U.S. deficit with China also set a record of $162 billion, up 30.5% from last year and the largest imbalance ever recorded with a single country.
The sharp worsening of America's performance in trade was certain to spark new political criticism of President Bush's economic policies. Democrats contend that the administration has not done enough to crack down on unfair foreign trade practices. These include China's currency policy, which U.S. manufacturers believe has deliberatively undervalued the yuan by as much as 40%, giving Chinese companies a huge competitive advantage over U.S. firms.
Despite Dec. dip, trade gap up 24% in 2004 to record
The Associated Press
The U.S. trade deficit soared to a record of $617.7 billion last year as Americans' appetite for all things foreign from crude oil to imported cars hit all-time highs. The United States even rang up a deficit in farm goods as imports of wine, cheese and other food products hit a record.
The Commerce Department reported that the deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record, an imbalance of $496.5 billion in 2003. The U.S. deficit with China also set a record of $162 billion, up 30.5% from last year and the largest imbalance ever recorded with a single country.
The sharp worsening of America's performance in trade was certain to spark new political criticism of President Bush's economic policies. Democrats contend that the administration has not done enough to crack down on unfair foreign trade practices. These include China's currency policy, which U.S. manufacturers believe has deliberatively undervalued the yuan by as much as 40%, giving Chinese companies a huge competitive advantage over U.S. firms.
Despite Dec. dip, trade gap up 24% in 2004 to record
The Associated Press
The U.S. trade deficit soared to a record of $617.7 billion last year as Americans' appetite for all things foreign from crude oil to imported cars hit all-time highs. The United States even rang up a deficit in farm goods as imports of wine, cheese and other food products hit a record.
The Commerce Department reported that the deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record, an imbalance of $496.5 billion in 2003. The U.S. deficit with China also set a record of $162 billion, up 30.5% from last year and the largest imbalance ever recorded with a single country.
The sharp worsening of America's performance in trade was certain to spark new political criticism of President Bush's economic policies. Democrats contend that the administration has not done enough to crack down on unfair foreign trade practices. These include China's currency policy, which U.S. manufacturers believe has deliberatively undervalued the yuan by as much as 40%, giving Chinese companies a huge competitive advantage over U.S. firms.
No-shows rankle panel reviewing '04 election
By Associated Press | February 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Starting on a sour note, lawmakers holding the first congressional review of the 2004 vote were upset by the absence of top election officials from Ohio and Florida, states with many balloting complaints.
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Representative Bob Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee, said he would hold hearings away from Washington and continue to seek testimony from Ohio's secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, and Florida's Glenda Hood.
''I am disappointed that they are not here," said Ney, Republican of Ohio. ''We can have disagreements, but you can't run and you can't hide."
Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said ''the arrogance of these secretaries of state to not be here today is an affront."
Blackwell was in the capital, where he led a meeting of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. He said he had agreed to attend that meeting before the House committee asked him to appear.
''I don't know why there would be any hand-wringing or foot-stomping. The Ohio story is probably the most widely told story in the country," Blackwell said. He said a representative from Ohio would go before the committee, which oversees election issues.
Hood had a previously scheduled speech before the British-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida yesterday, which the committee was told about, spokeswoman Jenny Nash said. Hood ''welcomes any opportunity to discuss Florida's success," Nash said.
The hearing was intended to examine the successes and failures of a law passed after Florida's disputed voting in the 2000 presidential election.
No-shows rankle panel reviewing '04 election
By Associated Press | February 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Starting on a sour note, lawmakers holding the first congressional review of the 2004 vote were upset by the absence of top election officials from Ohio and Florida, states with many balloting complaints.
ADVERTISEMENT
Representative Bob Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee, said he would hold hearings away from Washington and continue to seek testimony from Ohio's secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, and Florida's Glenda Hood.
''I am disappointed that they are not here," said Ney, Republican of Ohio. ''We can have disagreements, but you can't run and you can't hide."
Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said ''the arrogance of these secretaries of state to not be here today is an affront."
Blackwell was in the capital, where he led a meeting of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. He said he had agreed to attend that meeting before the House committee asked him to appear.
''I don't know why there would be any hand-wringing or foot-stomping. The Ohio story is probably the most widely told story in the country," Blackwell said. He said a representative from Ohio would go before the committee, which oversees election issues.
Hood had a previously scheduled speech before the British-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida yesterday, which the committee was told about, spokeswoman Jenny Nash said. Hood ''welcomes any opportunity to discuss Florida's success," Nash said.
The hearing was intended to examine the successes and failures of a law passed after Florida's disputed voting in the 2000 presidential election.
No-shows rankle panel reviewing '04 election
By Associated Press | February 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Starting on a sour note, lawmakers holding the first congressional review of the 2004 vote were upset by the absence of top election officials from Ohio and Florida, states with many balloting complaints.
ADVERTISEMENT
Representative Bob Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee, said he would hold hearings away from Washington and continue to seek testimony from Ohio's secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, and Florida's Glenda Hood.
''I am disappointed that they are not here," said Ney, Republican of Ohio. ''We can have disagreements, but you can't run and you can't hide."
Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said ''the arrogance of these secretaries of state to not be here today is an affront."
Blackwell was in the capital, where he led a meeting of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. He said he had agreed to attend that meeting before the House committee asked him to appear.
''I don't know why there would be any hand-wringing or foot-stomping. The Ohio story is probably the most widely told story in the country," Blackwell said. He said a representative from Ohio would go before the committee, which oversees election issues.
Hood had a previously scheduled speech before the British-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida yesterday, which the committee was told about, spokeswoman Jenny Nash said. Hood ''welcomes any opportunity to discuss Florida's success," Nash said.
The hearing was intended to examine the successes and failures of a law passed after Florida's disputed voting in the 2000 presidential election.
Now if only the rednecks would read this!
Bush press pal quits
over gay prostie link
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Jim Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, on the web
WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
On his TalonNews Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
Now if only the rednecks would read this!
Bush press pal quits
over gay prostie link
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Jim Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, on the web
WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
On his TalonNews Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
Now if only the rednecks would read this!
Bush press pal quits
over gay prostie link
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Jim Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, on the web
WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
On his TalonNews Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
Rice: NATO shouldn't be world's policeman
BRUSSELS (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Iran cannot delay indefinitely accountability for a suspected nuclear weapons program, even as she said NATO should not play policeman to the world.
Condoleezza Rice addresses the media at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, saying the U.S. has set "no deadline, no timeline" for Tehran to act.
By Yves logghe, AP
Nearing the end of a European tour that included visits to both old and new members of the expanding NATO, Rice talked in a speech and interview of her perceptions of the role the alliance should play in the global issues of the 21st century.
Her latest comments on the nuclear problem in Iran were anything but theoretical.
Rice warned the government of Tehran that the United States would not accept foot-dragging by the rulers of Iran as they consider various diplomatic overtures that European nations have made to resolve the nuclear question.
"The Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really, that the Europeans are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms," she said in an interview with Fox News, released Wednesday.
"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians," she said in a strong reiteration U.S. policy that the issue of Iran's nuclear program should be taken before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
"We have believed all along that Iran ought to be referred to the Security Council and then a variety of steps are available to the international community," she said in the interview taped in Paris and released after her arrival here.
"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the Europeans are not going to be a kind of waystation where they are allowed to continue their activities; that there's going to be an end to this and that they are going to end up in the Security Council," she said.
Britain, France and Germany are in talks with the Iranian regime, but the United States kept its distance from that effort and the Europeans has been reluctant to take the matter to the United Nations before making further efforts at a deal.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference with Rice Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the other European participants are committed to letting the diplomacy run its course.
He said he had asked Rice for American "support and confidence."
Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must not use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons project.
Earlier Tuesday, Rice said in a speech that NATO can be a bulwark for freedom without playing world enforcer.
"How NATO's role will evolve, I think, is still an open question, but we need to be open to new roles that NATO might play," she said.
Alliance officials said in advance of her trip to Belgium that Rice's NATO visit would focus on preparations for a visit by President Bush on Feb. 22, when he will hold a summit with leaders of the other 25 allied nations.
Rice: NATO shouldn't be world's policeman
BRUSSELS (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Iran cannot delay indefinitely accountability for a suspected nuclear weapons program, even as she said NATO should not play policeman to the world.
Condoleezza Rice addresses the media at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, saying the U.S. has set "no deadline, no timeline" for Tehran to act.
By Yves logghe, AP
Nearing the end of a European tour that included visits to both old and new members of the expanding NATO, Rice talked in a speech and interview of her perceptions of the role the alliance should play in the global issues of the 21st century.
Her latest comments on the nuclear problem in Iran were anything but theoretical.
Rice warned the government of Tehran that the United States would not accept foot-dragging by the rulers of Iran as they consider various diplomatic overtures that European nations have made to resolve the nuclear question.
"The Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really, that the Europeans are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms," she said in an interview with Fox News, released Wednesday.
"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians," she said in a strong reiteration U.S. policy that the issue of Iran's nuclear program should be taken before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
"We have believed all along that Iran ought to be referred to the Security Council and then a variety of steps are available to the international community," she said in the interview taped in Paris and released after her arrival here.
"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the Europeans are not going to be a kind of waystation where they are allowed to continue their activities; that there's going to be an end to this and that they are going to end up in the Security Council," she said.
Britain, France and Germany are in talks with the Iranian regime, but the United States kept its distance from that effort and the Europeans has been reluctant to take the matter to the United Nations before making further efforts at a deal.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference with Rice Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the other European participants are committed to letting the diplomacy run its course.
He said he had asked Rice for American "support and confidence."
Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must not use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons project.
Earlier Tuesday, Rice said in a speech that NATO can be a bulwark for freedom without playing world enforcer.
"How NATO's role will evolve, I think, is still an open question, but we need to be open to new roles that NATO might play," she said.
Alliance officials said in advance of her trip to Belgium that Rice's NATO visit would focus on preparations for a visit by President Bush on Feb. 22, when he will hold a summit with leaders of the other 25 allied nations.
Rice: NATO shouldn't be world's policeman
BRUSSELS (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Iran cannot delay indefinitely accountability for a suspected nuclear weapons program, even as she said NATO should not play policeman to the world.
Condoleezza Rice addresses the media at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, saying the U.S. has set "no deadline, no timeline" for Tehran to act.
By Yves logghe, AP
Nearing the end of a European tour that included visits to both old and new members of the expanding NATO, Rice talked in a speech and interview of her perceptions of the role the alliance should play in the global issues of the 21st century.
Her latest comments on the nuclear problem in Iran were anything but theoretical.
Rice warned the government of Tehran that the United States would not accept foot-dragging by the rulers of Iran as they consider various diplomatic overtures that European nations have made to resolve the nuclear question.
"The Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really, that the Europeans are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms," she said in an interview with Fox News, released Wednesday.
"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians," she said in a strong reiteration U.S. policy that the issue of Iran's nuclear program should be taken before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
"We have believed all along that Iran ought to be referred to the Security Council and then a variety of steps are available to the international community," she said in the interview taped in Paris and released after her arrival here.
"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the Europeans are not going to be a kind of waystation where they are allowed to continue their activities; that there's going to be an end to this and that they are going to end up in the Security Council," she said.
Britain, France and Germany are in talks with the Iranian regime, but the United States kept its distance from that effort and the Europeans has been reluctant to take the matter to the United Nations before making further efforts at a deal.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference with Rice Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the other European participants are committed to letting the diplomacy run its course.
He said he had asked Rice for American "support and confidence."
Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must not use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons project.
Earlier Tuesday, Rice said in a speech that NATO can be a bulwark for freedom without playing world enforcer.
"How NATO's role will evolve, I think, is still an open question, but we need to be open to new roles that NATO might play," she said.
Alliance officials said in advance of her trip to Belgium that Rice's NATO visit would focus on preparations for a visit by President Bush on Feb. 22, when he will hold a summit with leaders of the other 25 allied nations.
W.R. Grace Shares Fall After Indictment
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By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer
February 8, 2005, 4:40 PM EST
MISSOULA, Mont. -- Shares of W.R. Grace and Co. sank more than 8 percent Tuesday in the wake of a federal indictment that charged the chemicals and building materials supplier and seven of its executives knew a mine was releasing cancer-causing asbestos into the air and tried to hide the danger from workers and townspeople.
The federal grand jury handing down the indictment Monday said top Grace executives and managers kept secret numerous studies spelling out the risk the asbestos posed to its customers, employees and Libby residents.
Grace shares fell 95 cents, or 8.3 percent, to close at $10.50 in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares had traded as high as $15.49 in November.
A newspaper study linked nearly 200 deaths to asbestos from the vermiculite mine in the small town of Libby, about 130 miles northwest of Missoula near the Canadian border. More than 1,200 became ill over the 30 years that Grace operated the mine.
According to the indictment, Grace -- knowing the risks -- provided vermiculite for a junior high school running track and as a base for an ice rink, and sold or leased some of its contaminated properties for homes and businesses, baseball fields, even city use.
The indictment, unsealed Monday, also accused Grace and Alan Stringer, former manager of the now-closed mine, of trying to obstruct efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the extent of the asbestos contamination beginning in 1999, when a study by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer linked the nearly 200 deaths and hundreds of illnesses to the mine.
The newspaper's study was based on interviews with doctors in several states.
The EPA, which has never disputed the findings of the study, has since declared the area a Superfund site and has spent more than $55 million on cleanup so far.
"A human and environmental tragedy has occurred in Libby. This prosecution seeks to hold Grace and some of its executives responsible for the misconduct alleged in this indictment," said Bill Mercer, the U.S. attorney for Montana.
Columbia, Md.-based Grace said in a statement it "categorically denies any criminal wrongdoing."
"We are surprised by the government's methods and disappointed by its determination to bring these allegations," the company said. "And though court rules prohibit us from commenting on the merits of the government's charges, we look forward to setting the record straight in a court of law."
Also named in the indictment were Henry Eschenbach, former health official for a Grace subsidiary; Jack Wolter, a former executive for Grace's construction products division; William McCaig, former general manager of the Libby mine; Robert Bettacchi, a senior vice president of Grace; O. Mario Favorito, chief legal counsel for Grace; and Robert Walsh, former Grace vice president.
The company could face a fine of up to $280 million, twice the amount of after-tax profits the government alleges W.R. Grace made from the mine, according to the Justice Department. Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2001 after it was overwhelmed by asbestos-related lawsuits.
Stringer could be sentenced to as many as 70 years in prison, while Wolter and Bettacchi each face up to 55 years. The other defendants could get five years.
"This wasn't something that happened to us. This was something that was done to us," said Les Skramstad, 68, a former miner who was diagnosed with the chronic lung disease asbestosis nine years ago.
Skramstad, who attended Monday's news conference, said he worked in the mine for 2 1/2 years and believes he brought asbestos fibers home with him. His wife and two children also suffer from asbestosis.
"They should have to pay," Skramstad said of the defendants. "They will never have to pay like we did, because it won't cost them their lives."
Grace bought the mining operation, which once supplied more than 80 percent of the world's vermiculite, in 1963 and shut it down in 1990. According to the indictment, the company knew of lung problems among its employees as early as 1976.
Grace executives also had access to reports or studies warning of the dangers of asbestos vermiculite exposure throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, the indictment alleged. Yet Grace officials told the EPA in 1983 they knew of nothing to indicate their products posed a substantial threat to human health, according to the indictment.
W.R. Grace Shares Fall After Indictment
Email this story
Printer friendly format
By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer
February 8, 2005, 4:40 PM EST
MISSOULA, Mont. -- Shares of W.R. Grace and Co. sank more than 8 percent Tuesday in the wake of a federal indictment that charged the chemicals and building materials supplier and seven of its executives knew a mine was releasing cancer-causing asbestos into the air and tried to hide the danger from workers and townspeople.
The federal grand jury handing down the indictment Monday said top Grace executives and managers kept secret numerous studies spelling out the risk the asbestos posed to its customers, employees and Libby residents.
Grace shares fell 95 cents, or 8.3 percent, to close at $10.50 in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares had traded as high as $15.49 in November.
A newspaper study linked nearly 200 deaths to asbestos from the vermiculite mine in the small town of Libby, about 130 miles northwest of Missoula near the Canadian border. More than 1,200 became ill over the 30 years that Grace operated the mine.
According to the indictment, Grace -- knowing the risks -- provided vermiculite for a junior high school running track and as a base for an ice rink, and sold or leased some of its contaminated properties for homes and businesses, baseball fields, even city use.
The indictment, unsealed Monday, also accused Grace and Alan Stringer, former manager of the now-closed mine, of trying to obstruct efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the extent of the asbestos contamination beginning in 1999, when a study by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer linked the nearly 200 deaths and hundreds of illnesses to the mine.
The newspaper's study was based on interviews with doctors in several states.
The EPA, which has never disputed the findings of the study, has since declared the area a Superfund site and has spent more than $55 million on cleanup so far.
"A human and environmental tragedy has occurred in Libby. This prosecution seeks to hold Grace and some of its executives responsible for the misconduct alleged in this indictment," said Bill Mercer, the U.S. attorney for Montana.
Columbia, Md.-based Grace said in a statement it "categorically denies any criminal wrongdoing."
"We are surprised by the government's methods and disappointed by its determination to bring these allegations," the company said. "And though court rules prohibit us from commenting on the merits of the government's charges, we look forward to setting the record straight in a court of law."
Also named in the indictment were Henry Eschenbach, former health official for a Grace subsidiary; Jack Wolter, a former executive for Grace's construction products division; William McCaig, former general manager of the Libby mine; Robert Bettacchi, a senior vice president of Grace; O. Mario Favorito, chief legal counsel for Grace; and Robert Walsh, former Grace vice president.
The company could face a fine of up to $280 million, twice the amount of after-tax profits the government alleges W.R. Grace made from the mine, according to the Justice Department. Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2001 after it was overwhelmed by asbestos-related lawsuits.
Stringer could be sentenced to as many as 70 years in prison, while Wolter and Bettacchi each face up to 55 years. The other defendants could get five years.
"This wasn't something that happened to us. This was something that was done to us," said Les Skramstad, 68, a former miner who was diagnosed with the chronic lung disease asbestosis nine years ago.
Skramstad, who attended Monday's news conference, said he worked in the mine for 2 1/2 years and believes he brought asbestos fibers home with him. His wife and two children also suffer from asbestosis.
"They should have to pay," Skramstad said of the defendants. "They will never have to pay like we did, because it won't cost them their lives."
Grace bought the mining operation, which once supplied more than 80 percent of the world's vermiculite, in 1963 and shut it down in 1990. According to the indictment, the company knew of lung problems among its employees as early as 1976.
Grace executives also had access to reports or studies warning of the dangers of asbestos vermiculite exposure throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, the indictment alleged. Yet Grace officials told the EPA in 1983 they knew of nothing to indicate their products posed a substantial threat to human health, according to the indictment.
W.R. Grace Shares Fall After Indictment
Email this story
Printer friendly format
By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer
February 8, 2005, 4:40 PM EST
MISSOULA, Mont. -- Shares of W.R. Grace and Co. sank more than 8 percent Tuesday in the wake of a federal indictment that charged the chemicals and building materials supplier and seven of its executives knew a mine was releasing cancer-causing asbestos into the air and tried to hide the danger from workers and townspeople.
The federal grand jury handing down the indictment Monday said top Grace executives and managers kept secret numerous studies spelling out the risk the asbestos posed to its customers, employees and Libby residents.
Grace shares fell 95 cents, or 8.3 percent, to close at $10.50 in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares had traded as high as $15.49 in November.
A newspaper study linked nearly 200 deaths to asbestos from the vermiculite mine in the small town of Libby, about 130 miles northwest of Missoula near the Canadian border. More than 1,200 became ill over the 30 years that Grace operated the mine.
According to the indictment, Grace -- knowing the risks -- provided vermiculite for a junior high school running track and as a base for an ice rink, and sold or leased some of its contaminated properties for homes and businesses, baseball fields, even city use.
The indictment, unsealed Monday, also accused Grace and Alan Stringer, former manager of the now-closed mine, of trying to obstruct efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the extent of the asbestos contamination beginning in 1999, when a study by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer linked the nearly 200 deaths and hundreds of illnesses to the mine.
The newspaper's study was based on interviews with doctors in several states.
The EPA, which has never disputed the findings of the study, has since declared the area a Superfund site and has spent more than $55 million on cleanup so far.
"A human and environmental tragedy has occurred in Libby. This prosecution seeks to hold Grace and some of its executives responsible for the misconduct alleged in this indictment," said Bill Mercer, the U.S. attorney for Montana.
Columbia, Md.-based Grace said in a statement it "categorically denies any criminal wrongdoing."
"We are surprised by the government's methods and disappointed by its determination to bring these allegations," the company said. "And though court rules prohibit us from commenting on the merits of the government's charges, we look forward to setting the record straight in a court of law."
Also named in the indictment were Henry Eschenbach, former health official for a Grace subsidiary; Jack Wolter, a former executive for Grace's construction products division; William McCaig, former general manager of the Libby mine; Robert Bettacchi, a senior vice president of Grace; O. Mario Favorito, chief legal counsel for Grace; and Robert Walsh, former Grace vice president.
The company could face a fine of up to $280 million, twice the amount of after-tax profits the government alleges W.R. Grace made from the mine, according to the Justice Department. Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2001 after it was overwhelmed by asbestos-related lawsuits.
Stringer could be sentenced to as many as 70 years in prison, while Wolter and Bettacchi each face up to 55 years. The other defendants could get five years.
"This wasn't something that happened to us. This was something that was done to us," said Les Skramstad, 68, a former miner who was diagnosed with the chronic lung disease asbestosis nine years ago.
Skramstad, who attended Monday's news conference, said he worked in the mine for 2 1/2 years and believes he brought asbestos fibers home with him. His wife and two children also suffer from asbestosis.
"They should have to pay," Skramstad said of the defendants. "They will never have to pay like we did, because it won't cost them their lives."
Grace bought the mining operation, which once supplied more than 80 percent of the world's vermiculite, in 1963 and shut it down in 1990. According to the indictment, the company knew of lung problems among its employees as early as 1976.
Grace executives also had access to reports or studies warning of the dangers of asbestos vermiculite exposure throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, the indictment alleged. Yet Grace officials told the EPA in 1983 they knew of nothing to indicate their products posed a substantial threat to human health, according to the indictment.
Bush: Congress must bring discipline to federal spending
DETROIT (AP) — President Bush said Tuesday that Congress must bring discipline to the federal budget and cut failing or unnecessary programs even if they have laudable goals.
"Spending discipline requires difficult choices," President Bush told a Detroit audience.
By Luke Frazza, AFP
"It is essential that those who spend the money in Washington adhere to this principle — a taxpayer dollar ought to be spent wisely or not spent at all," Bush told the Detroit Economic Club.
Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget Monday that drastically cuts or eliminates 150 federal programs, including subsidies paid to farmers, health programs for poor people and veterans and spending on the environment and education. (Related story: Budget gets Dem heat on Hill)
Bush said every program on the chopping block is failing to meet its goals, duplicates other available services or is not an essential priority for the federal government. Bush singled out farm subsidies, which he said are providing government checks of up to $360,000 a year to individual farmers.
"I think that no farmer should get $250,000 a year in subsidy," Bush said. He said cutting the subsidies will save taxpayers $1.2 billion over the next decade.
Bush also cited Even Start, a 16-year-old literacy program for poor families. Bush said everyone wants poor people to learn to read, but three evaluations have made it clear that Even Start is not working.
"Congress needs to join with me to bring real spending discipline to the federal budget," Bush said to applause from automotive executives and others Michigan leaders jammed wall-to-wall at tables in a large room at Cobo Hall. "Spending discipline requires difficult choices. Every government program was created with good intentions, but not all are matching good intentions with good results."
Bush's slimmed-down budget proposal is just one of the conservative fiscal policies he plans to push in his second term as he tries to continue expanding the economy and improve the slowly recovering job market. Bush also wants tax cuts, deregulation, free trade and more modern training for the work force.
Questions about the health of the jobs market dogged Bush throughout his first term and was a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign. Ultimately the jobs situation and the economy wasn't enough of a concern to deny Bush a second term, although it contributed to his loss in the hard-hit swing state of Michigan.
Employment figures released last week provided a reprieve to the White House. While the addition of 146,000 jobs was small, it gave Bush a net gain of 119,000 jobs during his first term and allowed him to escape being the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs on his watch.
"We have overcome a series of challenges to our economy," McClellan told reporters Monday. "We must continue to act to build upon the results we have achieved."
Bush has offered a budget proposal for next year that would boost spending on the military and homeland security but cut many other programs. Many of the programs Bush wants to cut are popular in Congress, which still has to approve his plan.
Gus Faucher, a senior economist at Economy.com, said Bush's plan to keep spending below the rate of inflation for programs outside of defense and homeland security is a change from the first term, when he oversaw large increases in federal spending.
"In that sense he has not been conservative at all," Faucher said.
Bush: Congress must bring discipline to federal spending
DETROIT (AP) — President Bush said Tuesday that Congress must bring discipline to the federal budget and cut failing or unnecessary programs even if they have laudable goals.
"Spending discipline requires difficult choices," President Bush told a Detroit audience.
By Luke Frazza, AFP
"It is essential that those who spend the money in Washington adhere to this principle — a taxpayer dollar ought to be spent wisely or not spent at all," Bush told the Detroit Economic Club.
Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget Monday that drastically cuts or eliminates 150 federal programs, including subsidies paid to farmers, health programs for poor people and veterans and spending on the environment and education. (Related story: Budget gets Dem heat on Hill)
Bush said every program on the chopping block is failing to meet its goals, duplicates other available services or is not an essential priority for the federal government. Bush singled out farm subsidies, which he said are providing government checks of up to $360,000 a year to individual farmers.
"I think that no farmer should get $250,000 a year in subsidy," Bush said. He said cutting the subsidies will save taxpayers $1.2 billion over the next decade.
Bush also cited Even Start, a 16-year-old literacy program for poor families. Bush said everyone wants poor people to learn to read, but three evaluations have made it clear that Even Start is not working.
"Congress needs to join with me to bring real spending discipline to the federal budget," Bush said to applause from automotive executives and others Michigan leaders jammed wall-to-wall at tables in a large room at Cobo Hall. "Spending discipline requires difficult choices. Every government program was created with good intentions, but not all are matching good intentions with good results."
Bush's slimmed-down budget proposal is just one of the conservative fiscal policies he plans to push in his second term as he tries to continue expanding the economy and improve the slowly recovering job market. Bush also wants tax cuts, deregulation, free trade and more modern training for the work force.
Questions about the health of the jobs market dogged Bush throughout his first term and was a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign. Ultimately the jobs situation and the economy wasn't enough of a concern to deny Bush a second term, although it contributed to his loss in the hard-hit swing state of Michigan.
Employment figures released last week provided a reprieve to the White House. While the addition of 146,000 jobs was small, it gave Bush a net gain of 119,000 jobs during his first term and allowed him to escape being the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs on his watch.
"We have overcome a series of challenges to our economy," McClellan told reporters Monday. "We must continue to act to build upon the results we have achieved."
Bush has offered a budget proposal for next year that would boost spending on the military and homeland security but cut many other programs. Many of the programs Bush wants to cut are popular in Congress, which still has to approve his plan.
Gus Faucher, a senior economist at Economy.com, said Bush's plan to keep spending below the rate of inflation for programs outside of defense and homeland security is a change from the first term, when he oversaw large increases in federal spending.
"In that sense he has not been conservative at all," Faucher said.
Bush: Congress must bring discipline to federal spending
DETROIT (AP) — President Bush said Tuesday that Congress must bring discipline to the federal budget and cut failing or unnecessary programs even if they have laudable goals.
"Spending discipline requires difficult choices," President Bush told a Detroit audience.
By Luke Frazza, AFP
"It is essential that those who spend the money in Washington adhere to this principle — a taxpayer dollar ought to be spent wisely or not spent at all," Bush told the Detroit Economic Club.
Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget Monday that drastically cuts or eliminates 150 federal programs, including subsidies paid to farmers, health programs for poor people and veterans and spending on the environment and education. (Related story: Budget gets Dem heat on Hill)
Bush said every program on the chopping block is failing to meet its goals, duplicates other available services or is not an essential priority for the federal government. Bush singled out farm subsidies, which he said are providing government checks of up to $360,000 a year to individual farmers.
"I think that no farmer should get $250,000 a year in subsidy," Bush said. He said cutting the subsidies will save taxpayers $1.2 billion over the next decade.
Bush also cited Even Start, a 16-year-old literacy program for poor families. Bush said everyone wants poor people to learn to read, but three evaluations have made it clear that Even Start is not working.
"Congress needs to join with me to bring real spending discipline to the federal budget," Bush said to applause from automotive executives and others Michigan leaders jammed wall-to-wall at tables in a large room at Cobo Hall. "Spending discipline requires difficult choices. Every government program was created with good intentions, but not all are matching good intentions with good results."
Bush's slimmed-down budget proposal is just one of the conservative fiscal policies he plans to push in his second term as he tries to continue expanding the economy and improve the slowly recovering job market. Bush also wants tax cuts, deregulation, free trade and more modern training for the work force.
Questions about the health of the jobs market dogged Bush throughout his first term and was a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign. Ultimately the jobs situation and the economy wasn't enough of a concern to deny Bush a second term, although it contributed to his loss in the hard-hit swing state of Michigan.
Employment figures released last week provided a reprieve to the White House. While the addition of 146,000 jobs was small, it gave Bush a net gain of 119,000 jobs during his first term and allowed him to escape being the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs on his watch.
"We have overcome a series of challenges to our economy," McClellan told reporters Monday. "We must continue to act to build upon the results we have achieved."
Bush has offered a budget proposal for next year that would boost spending on the military and homeland security but cut many other programs. Many of the programs Bush wants to cut are popular in Congress, which still has to approve his plan.
Gus Faucher, a senior economist at Economy.com, said Bush's plan to keep spending below the rate of inflation for programs outside of defense and homeland security is a change from the first term, when he oversaw large increases in federal spending.
"In that sense he has not been conservative at all," Faucher said.
Rice tells Europe to move past conflicts
PARIS (AP) — Trying to mend fences with Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday "it is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past" that alienated longtime allies over the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"America has everything to gain" from having a stronger Europe as a partner, Rice told the group.
By Jack Guez, AFP
France was the most vocal opponent of President Bush's handling of the war with Iraq, and the new secretary of state deliberately chose Paris for the major address of her first official tour of Europe. (Video: Rice visits the Vatican)
But Rice did not back down from Bush's pledge to spread freedom across the globe and added a challenge to Europeans.
"America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda and Europe must stand ready to work with America," she said in a speech at Paris's Institute of Political Studies.
"After all, history will surely judge us not by our old disagreements, but by our new achievements," she said.
Science Politique, known in France as Sciences Po, is a school of political science that has been at the center of recent debate over America's reach and power. Some 500 students and intellectuals were attending and Rice was to take questions from the audience.
Following her speech, Rice answered a series of questions, ranging from Iraq's effort to establish a democracy to the development of biological weapons. She told the students and guests that the Iraqis would now engage in a political process to form a government that was not at odds with religion.
"What we must understand there is no inherent conflict between Islam and democracy," she said.
Rice also explained why she chose Paris considering the rift over Iraq between the two nations. "This is a deep broad and active relationship that is very effective on world peace," she said. "When we disagree, we still disagree as friends."
In her speech, Rice said the founders of both the French and U.S. republics were inspired by the same values — freedom, democracy and human dignity — and by each other. History has shown that revolutions striving for freedom can start in mundane ways but need outside help, she said.
"In my own experience, a black woman named Rosa Parks was just tired one day of being told to sit in the back of the bus," Rice said. "So she refused to move, and she launched a revolution for freedom in the American South."
Similar was the power of Lech Walesa and his labor strike in Poland, Afghans and Iraqis who recently voted after years of repression and ordinary men and women who helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989.
"Yet that day of freedom in November 1989 could never have happened without the full support of the free nations of the West," she said.
"Time and again in our shared history, Americans and Europeans have enjoyed our greatest successes for ourselves and for others, when we refused to accept an unacceptable status quo, but instead put our values to work for the cause of freedom.
Rice said, "America has everything to gain" from having a stronger Europe as a partner.
"It is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past," Rice said. "It is time to open a new chapter in our relationship, and a new chapter in our alliance."
Rice said the United States and Europe should move beyond "a partnership based on common threats" and focus instead on a partnership based upon "common opportunities, beyond the trans-Atlantic community."
Earlier in Rome, Rice said she is optimistic about the chances for Israel and the Palestinians to reach accommodation, in part because of a new thirst for peace throughout the Middle East. She cautioned that "there is still a long road ahead."
"There seems to be a will in the Middle East because people want to live in a different kind of Middle East," Rice said.
She commented after a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini in which they discussed Iraq, the Middle East other issues.
Their meeting came hours before Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared that their people would stop all military or violent activity, pledging to break the four-year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.
Fresh from meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the prior two days, Rice reiterated that success at Tuesday's summit and beyond will depend in part on help and commitment from other Middle Eastern countries the international community in general.
She had harsh words for one neighbor of Israel.
"Syria has been unhelpful in a number of ways," Rice said, adding that Syria knows it must clamp down on terrorism before relations with the United States and the rest of the world can improve.
"I would hope Syria would not want to be isolated and would not want to have bad relations with the United States. ... I would hope Syria would react in a more positive way.
Rice tells Europe to move past conflicts
PARIS (AP) — Trying to mend fences with Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday "it is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past" that alienated longtime allies over the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"America has everything to gain" from having a stronger Europe as a partner, Rice told the group.
By Jack Guez, AFP
France was the most vocal opponent of President Bush's handling of the war with Iraq, and the new secretary of state deliberately chose Paris for the major address of her first official tour of Europe. (Video: Rice visits the Vatican)
But Rice did not back down from Bush's pledge to spread freedom across the globe and added a challenge to Europeans.
"America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda and Europe must stand ready to work with America," she said in a speech at Paris's Institute of Political Studies.
"After all, history will surely judge us not by our old disagreements, but by our new achievements," she said.
Science Politique, known in France as Sciences Po, is a school of political science that has been at the center of recent debate over America's reach and power. Some 500 students and intellectuals were attending and Rice was to take questions from the audience.
Following her speech, Rice answered a series of questions, ranging from Iraq's effort to establish a democracy to the development of biological weapons. She told the students and guests that the Iraqis would now engage in a political process to form a government that was not at odds with religion.
"What we must understand there is no inherent conflict between Islam and democracy," she said.
Rice also explained why she chose Paris considering the rift over Iraq between the two nations. "This is a deep broad and active relationship that is very effective on world peace," she said. "When we disagree, we still disagree as friends."
In her speech, Rice said the founders of both the French and U.S. republics were inspired by the same values — freedom, democracy and human dignity — and by each other. History has shown that revolutions striving for freedom can start in mundane ways but need outside help, she said.
"In my own experience, a black woman named Rosa Parks was just tired one day of being told to sit in the back of the bus," Rice said. "So she refused to move, and she launched a revolution for freedom in the American South."
Similar was the power of Lech Walesa and his labor strike in Poland, Afghans and Iraqis who recently voted after years of repression and ordinary men and women who helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989.
"Yet that day of freedom in November 1989 could never have happened without the full support of the free nations of the West," she said.
"Time and again in our shared history, Americans and Europeans have enjoyed our greatest successes for ourselves and for others, when we refused to accept an unacceptable status quo, but instead put our values to work for the cause of freedom.
Rice said, "America has everything to gain" from having a stronger Europe as a partner.
"It is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past," Rice said. "It is time to open a new chapter in our relationship, and a new chapter in our alliance."
Rice said the United States and Europe should move beyond "a partnership based on common threats" and focus instead on a partnership based upon "common opportunities, beyond the trans-Atlantic community."
Earlier in Rome, Rice said she is optimistic about the chances for Israel and the Palestinians to reach accommodation, in part because of a new thirst for peace throughout the Middle East. She cautioned that "there is still a long road ahead."
"There seems to be a will in the Middle East because people want to live in a different kind of Middle East," Rice said.
She commented after a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini in which they discussed Iraq, the Middle East other issues.
Their meeting came hours before Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared that their people would stop all military or violent activity, pledging to break the four-year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.
Fresh from meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the prior two days, Rice reiterated that success at Tuesday's summit and beyond will depend in part on help and commitment from other Middle Eastern countries the international community in general.
She had harsh words for one neighbor of Israel.
"Syria has been unhelpful in a number of ways," Rice said, adding that Syria knows it must clamp down on terrorism before relations with the United States and the rest of the world can improve.
"I would hope Syria would not want to be isolated and would not want to have bad relations with the United States. ... I would hope Syria would react in a more positive way.
Rice tells Europe to move past conflicts
PARIS (AP) — Trying to mend fences with Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday "it is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past" that alienated longtime allies over the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"America has everything to gain" from having a stronger Europe as a partner, Rice told the group.
By Jack Guez, AFP
France was the most vocal opponent of President Bush's handling of the war with Iraq, and the new secretary of state deliberately chose Paris for the major address of her first official tour of Europe. (Video: Rice visits the Vatican)
But Rice did not back down from Bush's pledge to spread freedom across the globe and added a challenge to Europeans.
"America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda and Europe must stand ready to work with America," she said in a speech at Paris's Institute of Political Studies.
"After all, history will surely judge us not by our old disagreements, but by our new achievements," she said.
Science Politique, known in France as Sciences Po, is a school of political science that has been at the center of recent debate over America's reach and power. Some 500 students and intellectuals were attending and Rice was to take questions from the audience.
Following her speech, Rice answered a series of questions, ranging from Iraq's effort to establish a democracy to the development of biological weapons. She told the students and guests that the Iraqis would now engage in a political process to form a government that was not at odds with religion.
"What we must understand there is no inherent conflict between Islam and democracy," she said.
Rice also explained why she chose Paris considering the rift over Iraq between the two nations. "This is a deep broad and active relationship that is very effective on world peace," she said. "When we disagree, we still disagree as friends."
In her speech, Rice said the founders of both the French and U.S. republics were inspired by the same values — freedom, democracy and human dignity — and by each other. History has shown that revolutions striving for freedom can start in mundane ways but need outside help, she said.
"In my own experience, a black woman named Rosa Parks was just tired one day of being told to sit in the back of the bus," Rice said. "So she refused to move, and she launched a revolution for freedom in the American South."
Similar was the power of Lech Walesa and his labor strike in Poland, Afghans and Iraqis who recently voted after years of repression and ordinary men and women who helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989.
"Yet that day of freedom in November 1989 could never have happened without the full support of the free nations of the West," she said.
"Time and again in our shared history, Americans and Europeans have enjoyed our greatest successes for ourselves and for others, when we refused to accept an unacceptable status quo, but instead put our values to work for the cause of freedom.
Rice said, "America has everything to gain" from having a stronger Europe as a partner.
"It is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past," Rice said. "It is time to open a new chapter in our relationship, and a new chapter in our alliance."
Rice said the United States and Europe should move beyond "a partnership based on common threats" and focus instead on a partnership based upon "common opportunities, beyond the trans-Atlantic community."
Earlier in Rome, Rice said she is optimistic about the chances for Israel and the Palestinians to reach accommodation, in part because of a new thirst for peace throughout the Middle East. She cautioned that "there is still a long road ahead."
"There seems to be a will in the Middle East because people want to live in a different kind of Middle East," Rice said.
She commented after a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini in which they discussed Iraq, the Middle East other issues.
Their meeting came hours before Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared that their people would stop all military or violent activity, pledging to break the four-year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.
Fresh from meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the prior two days, Rice reiterated that success at Tuesday's summit and beyond will depend in part on help and commitment from other Middle Eastern countries the international community in general.
She had harsh words for one neighbor of Israel.
"Syria has been unhelpful in a number of ways," Rice said, adding that Syria knows it must clamp down on terrorism before relations with the United States and the rest of the world can improve.
"I would hope Syria would not want to be isolated and would not want to have bad relations with the United States. ... I would hope Syria would react in a more positive way.
Key expenses are omitted, analysts say
By Rick Klein and Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | February 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's budget proposal does not include some of his biggest spending and tax-cutting priorities, and includes no money for future expenses for the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. If all costs were included, Bush would fall well short of his campaign pledge to halve the federal budget deficit within five years, according to independent budget analysts.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bush is asking for $81 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq, but his budget plan does not anticipate any future expenses because the administration considers the costs of active military operations to be separate from the main Pentagon budget.
RELATED CONTENT:
GLOBE GRAPHIC: Deficits compared
Bush spending plan hits social programs
Bush's plan stresses security
In addition, Bush does not include the transition costs for his plan to partially privatize Social Security for younger workers, a priority that would cost at least $754 billion in its first five years. Also missing from the budget are the $1.6 trillion over 10 years it would cost to make his tax cuts permanent, and the $642 billion, 10-year cost of changing the alternative minimum tax so that it will not affect middle-class taxpayers.
While the budget's supporting documents say Bush would put the nation on track to slice the deficit by 55 percent by 2009, that is only because of a series of ''scorekeeping gimmicks," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates fiscal responsibility.
''It's easier to achieve your goal if you leave stuff out," Bixby said. ''I do give the president credit for presenting some hard choices on entitlements. But this isn't a realistic budget because of what it leaves out and what it ignores."
In addition, White House officials yesterday for the first time recast the deficit in terms of its relationship to the gross domestic product, a calculation that makes it easier for the administration to seem to meet its pledge by assuming steady economic growth. Joshua Bolten, director of the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget, said the deficit -- now 3.5 percent of GDP -- will be at 1.5 percent of GDP by 2009.
Bolten said Bush is not backing off his pledge to reduce the deficit in actual numbers, but merely offering an alternate measure that indicates the extent of his fiscal restraint.
Bolten and other Bush supporters noted that the $2.57 trillion budget he submitted to Congress yesterday is the most austere of his presidency, with the ax falling on education programs, farm subsidies, and housing grants.
''It's a budget which I think takes an appropriate approach to how we manage our fiscal house here in Washington," said Senate Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire. ''This budget is a very restrained budget."
But the biggest areas of government spending -- including Social Security, Defense, and Medicare -- would continue to rise rapidly under Bush's plan. The federal budget deficit is set to rise again this year, to $427 billion from last fiscal year's record high of $412 billion.
Key expenses are omitted, analysts say
By Rick Klein and Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | February 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's budget proposal does not include some of his biggest spending and tax-cutting priorities, and includes no money for future expenses for the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. If all costs were included, Bush would fall well short of his campaign pledge to halve the federal budget deficit within five years, according to independent budget analysts.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bush is asking for $81 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq, but his budget plan does not anticipate any future expenses because the administration considers the costs of active military operations to be separate from the main Pentagon budget.
RELATED CONTENT:
GLOBE GRAPHIC: Deficits compared
Bush spending plan hits social programs
Bush's plan stresses security
In addition, Bush does not include the transition costs for his plan to partially privatize Social Security for younger workers, a priority that would cost at least $754 billion in its first five years. Also missing from the budget are the $1.6 trillion over 10 years it would cost to make his tax cuts permanent, and the $642 billion, 10-year cost of changing the alternative minimum tax so that it will not affect middle-class taxpayers.
While the budget's supporting documents say Bush would put the nation on track to slice the deficit by 55 percent by 2009, that is only because of a series of ''scorekeeping gimmicks," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates fiscal responsibility.
''It's easier to achieve your goal if you leave stuff out," Bixby said. ''I do give the president credit for presenting some hard choices on entitlements. But this isn't a realistic budget because of what it leaves out and what it ignores."
In addition, White House officials yesterday for the first time recast the deficit in terms of its relationship to the gross domestic product, a calculation that makes it easier for the administration to seem to meet its pledge by assuming steady economic growth. Joshua Bolten, director of the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget, said the deficit -- now 3.5 percent of GDP -- will be at 1.5 percent of GDP by 2009.
Bolten said Bush is not backing off his pledge to reduce the deficit in actual numbers, but merely offering an alternate measure that indicates the extent of his fiscal restraint.
Bolten and other Bush supporters noted that the $2.57 trillion budget he submitted to Congress yesterday is the most austere of his presidency, with the ax falling on education programs, farm subsidies, and housing grants.
''It's a budget which I think takes an appropriate approach to how we manage our fiscal house here in Washington," said Senate Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire. ''This budget is a very restrained budget."
But the biggest areas of government spending -- including Social Security, Defense, and Medicare -- would continue to rise rapidly under Bush's plan. The federal budget deficit is set to rise again this year, to $427 billion from last fiscal year's record high of $412 billion.
Key expenses are omitted, analysts say
By Rick Klein and Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | February 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's budget proposal does not include some of his biggest spending and tax-cutting priorities, and includes no money for future expenses for the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. If all costs were included, Bush would fall well short of his campaign pledge to halve the federal budget deficit within five years, according to independent budget analysts.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bush is asking for $81 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq, but his budget plan does not anticipate any future expenses because the administration considers the costs of active military operations to be separate from the main Pentagon budget.
RELATED CONTENT:
GLOBE GRAPHIC: Deficits compared
Bush spending plan hits social programs
Bush's plan stresses security
In addition, Bush does not include the transition costs for his plan to partially privatize Social Security for younger workers, a priority that would cost at least $754 billion in its first five years. Also missing from the budget are the $1.6 trillion over 10 years it would cost to make his tax cuts permanent, and the $642 billion, 10-year cost of changing the alternative minimum tax so that it will not affect middle-class taxpayers.
While the budget's supporting documents say Bush would put the nation on track to slice the deficit by 55 percent by 2009, that is only because of a series of ''scorekeeping gimmicks," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates fiscal responsibility.
''It's easier to achieve your goal if you leave stuff out," Bixby said. ''I do give the president credit for presenting some hard choices on entitlements. But this isn't a realistic budget because of what it leaves out and what it ignores."
In addition, White House officials yesterday for the first time recast the deficit in terms of its relationship to the gross domestic product, a calculation that makes it easier for the administration to seem to meet its pledge by assuming steady economic growth. Joshua Bolten, director of the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget, said the deficit -- now 3.5 percent of GDP -- will be at 1.5 percent of GDP by 2009.
Bolten said Bush is not backing off his pledge to reduce the deficit in actual numbers, but merely offering an alternate measure that indicates the extent of his fiscal restraint.
Bolten and other Bush supporters noted that the $2.57 trillion budget he submitted to Congress yesterday is the most austere of his presidency, with the ax falling on education programs, farm subsidies, and housing grants.
''It's a budget which I think takes an appropriate approach to how we manage our fiscal house here in Washington," said Senate Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire. ''This budget is a very restrained budget."
But the biggest areas of government spending -- including Social Security, Defense, and Medicare -- would continue to rise rapidly under Bush's plan. The federal budget deficit is set to rise again this year, to $427 billion from last fiscal year's record high of $412 billion.
A daily look at U.S. military deaths in Iraq
The Associated Press
As of Sunday, at least 1,448 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,105 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include four military civilians.
A daily look at U.S. military deaths in Iraq
The Associated Press
As of Sunday, at least 1,448 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,105 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include four military civilians.
A daily look at U.S. military deaths in Iraq
The Associated Press
As of Sunday, at least 1,448 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,105 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include four military civilians.
Bush shows highest ratings in a year
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Americans give President Bush his highest job-approval rating in more than a year and show cautious optimism about Iraq in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken shortly after historic Iraqi elections.
According to the poll, health care, education and the economy were the top domestic items considered 'extremely important' for Americans.
Win McNamee, Getty Images
In reversals from a month ago, majorities now say that going to war in Iraq was not a mistake, that things are going well there and that it's likely democracy will be established in Iraq. (Related item: Poll results)
Bush's approval rating of 57% is his highest since he reached 59% in January 2004, shortly after U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein.
Bush shows highest ratings in a year
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Americans give President Bush his highest job-approval rating in more than a year and show cautious optimism about Iraq in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken shortly after historic Iraqi elections.
According to the poll, health care, education and the economy were the top domestic items considered 'extremely important' for Americans.
Win McNamee, Getty Images
In reversals from a month ago, majorities now say that going to war in Iraq was not a mistake, that things are going well there and that it's likely democracy will be established in Iraq. (Related item: Poll results)
Bush's approval rating of 57% is his highest since he reached 59% in January 2004, shortly after U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein.
Bush shows highest ratings in a year
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Americans give President Bush his highest job-approval rating in more than a year and show cautious optimism about Iraq in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken shortly after historic Iraqi elections.
According to the poll, health care, education and the economy were the top domestic items considered 'extremely important' for Americans.
Win McNamee, Getty Images
In reversals from a month ago, majorities now say that going to war in Iraq was not a mistake, that things are going well there and that it's likely democracy will be established in Iraq. (Related item: Poll results)
Bush's approval rating of 57% is his highest since he reached 59% in January 2004, shortly after U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein.
Bush sends $2.57 trillion budget proposal to Congress
House minority leader calls plan a 'hoax'
Monday, February 7, 2005 Posted: 1:42 PM EST (1842 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that would eliminate or vastly scale back 150 government programs while cutting the deficit to $390 billion for 2006
The spending proposal -- the most austere of Bush's presidency -- will spark months of debate in Congress, where lawmakers will fight to protect their favored programs.
Outside defense, homeland security and the government's huge mandatory programs such as Social Security, Bush proposes cutting spending for the rest of government by 0.5 percent, the first such proposed cut since the Reagan administration.
Of 23 major government agencies, 12 would see their budget authority reduced next year, including cuts of 9.6 percent at Agriculture, 5.6 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency, 6.7 percent at Transportation and 11.5 percent at Housing and Urban Development.
Aside from defense and homeland security, favored Bush programs included a new $1.5 billion high school performance program, expanded Pell Grants for low-income college students and more support for community health clinics.
"It's budget that sets priorities," Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet. "It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a budget that's a lean budget."
Bush acknowledged that it would be difficult to eliminate popular programs but he said programs must prove their worth. "I'm very optimistic."
Joshua Bolten, Bush's budget director, said, "Are we going to get everything we asked for? No." But he predicted Congress would likely accept the administration's broad priorities. He said he entered the upcoming congressional budget battle with a "happy spirit."
House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California called Bush's budget "a hoax on the American people. The two issues that dominated the president's State of the Union address -- Iraq and Social Security -- are nowhere to be found in this budget."
Bush's budget proposal does not reflect the costs for overhauling Social Security by allowing younger workers to set up private investment accounts. Aides said accurate cost estimates could not be made since the plan is still being developed.
Bolten said the administration would soon be coming forward with a supplemental request for an additional $81 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that request was reflected in the overall spending projections in Bush's budget for the current year and into 2006.
But he said including further additional spending for Iraq and Afghanistan "wouldn't be responsible" because it would represent guesses on what will be needed. Bolten also said that even if transition costs for Social Security had been included, the president would still be able to meet his goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009 as a percentage of the total economy.
Bush's 2006 spending plan, for the budget year that will begin October 1, counts on a healthy economy to boost revenues by 6.1 percent to $2.18 trillion. Spending, meanwhile, would grow by 3.5 percent to $2.57 trillion.
The spending document projects that the deficit will hit a record -- in terms of dollars -- $427 billion this year, the third straight year that the red ink in dollar terms has set a record. Bush projects that the deficit will fall to $390 billion in 2006 and gradually decline to $233 billion in 2009 and $207 billion in 2010.
In his budget message to Congress, Bush said, "In order to sustain our economic expansion, we must continue pro-growth policies and enforce even greater spending restraint across the federal government."
Democrats complained that Bush was resorting to draconian cuts that would hurt the needy in order to protect his first term tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy.
"This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut Social Security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities, and its huge deficits are fiscally irresponsible."
Democrats also contended that the budget masked the costs of some Bush initiatives such as making his first-term tax cuts permanent by only making deficit projections through 2010. The budget puts the cost of making Bush's tax cuts permanent at $1.1 trillion through 2015 but does not show how that would impact the deficit at that time.
"This budget paints a misleading picture by providing no deficit figures after 2010 and by omitting the full long-term costs of the president's policies on Social Security privatization, taxes and operations in Iraq," said Rep. John Spratt, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Bush's budget proposed increasing military spending by 4.8 percent to $419.3 billion in 2006. However, even with the increase a number of major weapons programs, including Bush's missile defense system and the B-2 stealth bomber, would see cuts from this year's levels.
Bush's proposal would trim $5.7 billion over the next decade from government support programs for farmers, which would represent cuts to farmers growing a wide range of cuts from cotton and rice to corn, soybeans and wheat.
Overall, the administration projected saving $8.2 billion in agriculture programs over the next decade including trimming food stamp payments to the poor by $1.1 billion.
Other programs set for reductions include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy Department; several health programs under the Health and Human Services Department and federal subsidies for Amtrak.
About one-third of the programs subject to elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.
In all, the president proposed $137 billion less over the next 10 years than previously forecast for mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Administration makes for health care. The administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.
Many of the spending cuts in the plan are repeats of efforts the administration has proposed and Congress has rejected previously.
Bush sends $2.57 trillion budget proposal to Congress
House minority leader calls plan a 'hoax'
Monday, February 7, 2005 Posted: 1:42 PM EST (1842 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that would eliminate or vastly scale back 150 government programs while cutting the deficit to $390 billion for 2006
The spending proposal -- the most austere of Bush's presidency -- will spark months of debate in Congress, where lawmakers will fight to protect their favored programs.
Outside defense, homeland security and the government's huge mandatory programs such as Social Security, Bush proposes cutting spending for the rest of government by 0.5 percent, the first such proposed cut since the Reagan administration.
Of 23 major government agencies, 12 would see their budget authority reduced next year, including cuts of 9.6 percent at Agriculture, 5.6 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency, 6.7 percent at Transportation and 11.5 percent at Housing and Urban Development.
Aside from defense and homeland security, favored Bush programs included a new $1.5 billion high school performance program, expanded Pell Grants for low-income college students and more support for community health clinics.
"It's budget that sets priorities," Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet. "It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a budget that's a lean budget."
Bush acknowledged that it would be difficult to eliminate popular programs but he said programs must prove their worth. "I'm very optimistic."
Joshua Bolten, Bush's budget director, said, "Are we going to get everything we asked for? No." But he predicted Congress would likely accept the administration's broad priorities. He said he entered the upcoming congressional budget battle with a "happy spirit."
House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California called Bush's budget "a hoax on the American people. The two issues that dominated the president's State of the Union address -- Iraq and Social Security -- are nowhere to be found in this budget."
Bush's budget proposal does not reflect the costs for overhauling Social Security by allowing younger workers to set up private investment accounts. Aides said accurate cost estimates could not be made since the plan is still being developed.
Bolten said the administration would soon be coming forward with a supplemental request for an additional $81 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that request was reflected in the overall spending projections in Bush's budget for the current year and into 2006.
But he said including further additional spending for Iraq and Afghanistan "wouldn't be responsible" because it would represent guesses on what will be needed. Bolten also said that even if transition costs for Social Security had been included, the president would still be able to meet his goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009 as a percentage of the total economy.
Bush's 2006 spending plan, for the budget year that will begin October 1, counts on a healthy economy to boost revenues by 6.1 percent to $2.18 trillion. Spending, meanwhile, would grow by 3.5 percent to $2.57 trillion.
The spending document projects that the deficit will hit a record -- in terms of dollars -- $427 billion this year, the third straight year that the red ink in dollar terms has set a record. Bush projects that the deficit will fall to $390 billion in 2006 and gradually decline to $233 billion in 2009 and $207 billion in 2010.
In his budget message to Congress, Bush said, "In order to sustain our economic expansion, we must continue pro-growth policies and enforce even greater spending restraint across the federal government."
Democrats complained that Bush was resorting to draconian cuts that would hurt the needy in order to protect his first term tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy.
"This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut Social Security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities, and its huge deficits are fiscally irresponsible."
Democrats also contended that the budget masked the costs of some Bush initiatives such as making his first-term tax cuts permanent by only making deficit projections through 2010. The budget puts the cost of making Bush's tax cuts permanent at $1.1 trillion through 2015 but does not show how that would impact the deficit at that time.
"This budget paints a misleading picture by providing no deficit figures after 2010 and by omitting the full long-term costs of the president's policies on Social Security privatization, taxes and operations in Iraq," said Rep. John Spratt, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Bush's budget proposed increasing military spending by 4.8 percent to $419.3 billion in 2006. However, even with the increase a number of major weapons programs, including Bush's missile defense system and the B-2 stealth bomber, would see cuts from this year's levels.
Bush's proposal would trim $5.7 billion over the next decade from government support programs for farmers, which would represent cuts to farmers growing a wide range of cuts from cotton and rice to corn, soybeans and wheat.
Overall, the administration projected saving $8.2 billion in agriculture programs over the next decade including trimming food stamp payments to the poor by $1.1 billion.
Other programs set for reductions include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy Department; several health programs under the Health and Human Services Department and federal subsidies for Amtrak.
About one-third of the programs subject to elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.
In all, the president proposed $137 billion less over the next 10 years than previously forecast for mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Administration makes for health care. The administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.
Many of the spending cuts in the plan are repeats of efforts the administration has proposed and Congress has rejected previously.
Bush sends $2.57 trillion budget proposal to Congress
House minority leader calls plan a 'hoax'
Monday, February 7, 2005 Posted: 1:42 PM EST (1842 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that would eliminate or vastly scale back 150 government programs while cutting the deficit to $390 billion for 2006
The spending proposal -- the most austere of Bush's presidency -- will spark months of debate in Congress, where lawmakers will fight to protect their favored programs.
Outside defense, homeland security and the government's huge mandatory programs such as Social Security, Bush proposes cutting spending for the rest of government by 0.5 percent, the first such proposed cut since the Reagan administration.
Of 23 major government agencies, 12 would see their budget authority reduced next year, including cuts of 9.6 percent at Agriculture, 5.6 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency, 6.7 percent at Transportation and 11.5 percent at Housing and Urban Development.
Aside from defense and homeland security, favored Bush programs included a new $1.5 billion high school performance program, expanded Pell Grants for low-income college students and more support for community health clinics.
"It's budget that sets priorities," Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet. "It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a budget that's a lean budget."
Bush acknowledged that it would be difficult to eliminate popular programs but he said programs must prove their worth. "I'm very optimistic."
Joshua Bolten, Bush's budget director, said, "Are we going to get everything we asked for? No." But he predicted Congress would likely accept the administration's broad priorities. He said he entered the upcoming congressional budget battle with a "happy spirit."
House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California called Bush's budget "a hoax on the American people. The two issues that dominated the president's State of the Union address -- Iraq and Social Security -- are nowhere to be found in this budget."
Bush's budget proposal does not reflect the costs for overhauling Social Security by allowing younger workers to set up private investment accounts. Aides said accurate cost estimates could not be made since the plan is still being developed.
Bolten said the administration would soon be coming forward with a supplemental request for an additional $81 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that request was reflected in the overall spending projections in Bush's budget for the current year and into 2006.
But he said including further additional spending for Iraq and Afghanistan "wouldn't be responsible" because it would represent guesses on what will be needed. Bolten also said that even if transition costs for Social Security had been included, the president would still be able to meet his goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009 as a percentage of the total economy.
Bush's 2006 spending plan, for the budget year that will begin October 1, counts on a healthy economy to boost revenues by 6.1 percent to $2.18 trillion. Spending, meanwhile, would grow by 3.5 percent to $2.57 trillion.
The spending document projects that the deficit will hit a record -- in terms of dollars -- $427 billion this year, the third straight year that the red ink in dollar terms has set a record. Bush projects that the deficit will fall to $390 billion in 2006 and gradually decline to $233 billion in 2009 and $207 billion in 2010.
In his budget message to Congress, Bush said, "In order to sustain our economic expansion, we must continue pro-growth policies and enforce even greater spending restraint across the federal government."
Democrats complained that Bush was resorting to draconian cuts that would hurt the needy in order to protect his first term tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy.
"This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut Social Security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities, and its huge deficits are fiscally irresponsible."
Democrats also contended that the budget masked the costs of some Bush initiatives such as making his first-term tax cuts permanent by only making deficit projections through 2010. The budget puts the cost of making Bush's tax cuts permanent at $1.1 trillion through 2015 but does not show how that would impact the deficit at that time.
"This budget paints a misleading picture by providing no deficit figures after 2010 and by omitting the full long-term costs of the president's policies on Social Security privatization, taxes and operations in Iraq," said Rep. John Spratt, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Bush's budget proposed increasing military spending by 4.8 percent to $419.3 billion in 2006. However, even with the increase a number of major weapons programs, including Bush's missile defense system and the B-2 stealth bomber, would see cuts from this year's levels.
Bush's proposal would trim $5.7 billion over the next decade from government support programs for farmers, which would represent cuts to farmers growing a wide range of cuts from cotton and rice to corn, soybeans and wheat.
Overall, the administration projected saving $8.2 billion in agriculture programs over the next decade including trimming food stamp payments to the poor by $1.1 billion.
Other programs set for reductions include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy Department; several health programs under the Health and Human Services Department and federal subsidies for Amtrak.
About one-third of the programs subject to elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.
In all, the president proposed $137 billion less over the next 10 years than previously forecast for mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Administration makes for health care. The administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.
Many of the spending cuts in the plan are repeats of efforts the administration has proposed and Congress has rejected previously.
Navy to cut orders; job losses seen
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | February 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Navy has dramatically scaled back plans for new warships and submarines in a move expected to lead to major job losses in one of New England's largest manufacturing sectors, according to senior Pentagon officials and naval specialists.
In a revamping of military priorities amid rising federal deficits, the Navy is poised to unveil plans today to slash by up to half its planned orders for vessels that were to be built at shipyards in Bath, Maine, and Groton, Conn., that employ a combined 18,000 people.
The Navy planned to buy two new destroyers and submarines per year well into the next decade that are constructed in New England by Bath Iron Works and Groton's Electric Boat Co. Now the Navy plans to buy only one DDX destroyer and one Virginia-class submarine per year.
"One or more of these shipyards may effectively go away," said Ronald O'Rourke, a shipbuilding specialist at the Congressional Research Service, suggesting that the shipbuilding industry at large could go through a significant contraction. "The yard that is most at risk is Bath Iron Works."
Both Bath, which employs about 6,400 workers, and Electric Boat, which employs about 8,750 people in Groton and 2,100 more in Quonset Point, R.I., are owned by General Dynamics, the Falls Church, Va., defense company.
"Both Bath and Electric Boat will go into a lower production," said a senior General Dynamics official who declined to be named before the new plan is made public. "There will be a lack of work."
Officials at Bath Iron Works declined to comment until the budget is released.
President Bush's federal budget for fiscal year 2006, to be sent to Congress today, will call for a 4.8 percent increase in overall annual defense spending to roughly $419 billion, officials said.
But due to the war in Iraq and the battle against terrorism, the armed forces have traded some prized weapon systems -- particularly in the Navy and Air Force -- in order to allocate tens of billions of dollars more to the Army and Marine Corps
Navy to cut orders; job losses seen
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | February 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Navy has dramatically scaled back plans for new warships and submarines in a move expected to lead to major job losses in one of New England's largest manufacturing sectors, according to senior Pentagon officials and naval specialists.
In a revamping of military priorities amid rising federal deficits, the Navy is poised to unveil plans today to slash by up to half its planned orders for vessels that were to be built at shipyards in Bath, Maine, and Groton, Conn., that employ a combined 18,000 people.
The Navy planned to buy two new destroyers and submarines per year well into the next decade that are constructed in New England by Bath Iron Works and Groton's Electric Boat Co. Now the Navy plans to buy only one DDX destroyer and one Virginia-class submarine per year.
"One or more of these shipyards may effectively go away," said Ronald O'Rourke, a shipbuilding specialist at the Congressional Research Service, suggesting that the shipbuilding industry at large could go through a significant contraction. "The yard that is most at risk is Bath Iron Works."
Both Bath, which employs about 6,400 workers, and Electric Boat, which employs about 8,750 people in Groton and 2,100 more in Quonset Point, R.I., are owned by General Dynamics, the Falls Church, Va., defense company.
"Both Bath and Electric Boat will go into a lower production," said a senior General Dynamics official who declined to be named before the new plan is made public. "There will be a lack of work."
Officials at Bath Iron Works declined to comment until the budget is released.
President Bush's federal budget for fiscal year 2006, to be sent to Congress today, will call for a 4.8 percent increase in overall annual defense spending to roughly $419 billion, officials said.
But due to the war in Iraq and the battle against terrorism, the armed forces have traded some prized weapon systems -- particularly in the Navy and Air Force -- in order to allocate tens of billions of dollars more to the Army and Marine Corps
Navy to cut orders; job losses seen
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | February 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Navy has dramatically scaled back plans for new warships and submarines in a move expected to lead to major job losses in one of New England's largest manufacturing sectors, according to senior Pentagon officials and naval specialists.
In a revamping of military priorities amid rising federal deficits, the Navy is poised to unveil plans today to slash by up to half its planned orders for vessels that were to be built at shipyards in Bath, Maine, and Groton, Conn., that employ a combined 18,000 people.
The Navy planned to buy two new destroyers and submarines per year well into the next decade that are constructed in New England by Bath Iron Works and Groton's Electric Boat Co. Now the Navy plans to buy only one DDX destroyer and one Virginia-class submarine per year.
"One or more of these shipyards may effectively go away," said Ronald O'Rourke, a shipbuilding specialist at the Congressional Research Service, suggesting that the shipbuilding industry at large could go through a significant contraction. "The yard that is most at risk is Bath Iron Works."
Both Bath, which employs about 6,400 workers, and Electric Boat, which employs about 8,750 people in Groton and 2,100 more in Quonset Point, R.I., are owned by General Dynamics, the Falls Church, Va., defense company.
"Both Bath and Electric Boat will go into a lower production," said a senior General Dynamics official who declined to be named before the new plan is made public. "There will be a lack of work."
Officials at Bath Iron Works declined to comment until the budget is released.
President Bush's federal budget for fiscal year 2006, to be sent to Congress today, will call for a 4.8 percent increase in overall annual defense spending to roughly $419 billion, officials said.
But due to the war in Iraq and the battle against terrorism, the armed forces have traded some prized weapon systems -- particularly in the Navy and Air Force -- in order to allocate tens of billions of dollars more to the Army and Marine Corps
Classic case of blaming the victim
February 7, 2005
IN THE article "Some see a lesson in NYC slaying" (Page A6, Feb. 4), I found myself reading this account with more and more incredulity with each line of the report. This young actress, a woman with a promising acting career, is cruelly murdered by a thug with a gun, and these politically correct people heap blame upon her because "the (suspect) felt he wasn't getting the respect he was due" and "when a gun is in the hands of a desperate person with low self-esteem, they're going to react that way."
So the causes of this tragedy are this thug's low self-esteem and the victim's failure to offer him the respectful words or submissive attitude that would shore up his low self-esteem.
What absolute rot!
The cause of this tragedy was a thug on the street with a dangerous weapon who was never taught respect for human life, that stealing is wrong, and that killing someone is very wrong.
Classic case of blaming the victim
February 7, 2005
IN THE article "Some see a lesson in NYC slaying" (Page A6, Feb. 4), I found myself reading this account with more and more incredulity with each line of the report. This young actress, a woman with a promising acting career, is cruelly murdered by a thug with a gun, and these politically correct people heap blame upon her because "the (suspect) felt he wasn't getting the respect he was due" and "when a gun is in the hands of a desperate person with low self-esteem, they're going to react that way."
So the causes of this tragedy are this thug's low self-esteem and the victim's failure to offer him the respectful words or submissive attitude that would shore up his low self-esteem.
What absolute rot!
The cause of this tragedy was a thug on the street with a dangerous weapon who was never taught respect for human life, that stealing is wrong, and that killing someone is very wrong.
Classic case of blaming the victim
February 7, 2005
IN THE article "Some see a lesson in NYC slaying" (Page A6, Feb. 4), I found myself reading this account with more and more incredulity with each line of the report. This young actress, a woman with a promising acting career, is cruelly murdered by a thug with a gun, and these politically correct people heap blame upon her because "the (suspect) felt he wasn't getting the respect he was due" and "when a gun is in the hands of a desperate person with low self-esteem, they're going to react that way."
So the causes of this tragedy are this thug's low self-esteem and the victim's failure to offer him the respectful words or submissive attitude that would shore up his low self-esteem.
What absolute rot!
The cause of this tragedy was a thug on the street with a dangerous weapon who was never taught respect for human life, that stealing is wrong, and that killing someone is very wrong.
Cheney defends cuts in programs
Battle expected for budget trims
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press | February 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended the administration's budget plan against Democratic criticism that President Bush is seeking steep cuts in scores of federal programs because he is unwilling to roll back first-term tax cuts.
ADVERTISEMENT
The $2.5 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2006 will be submitted to Congress today.
The plan was shaping up as the most austere ever submitted by Bush. It tries to restrain spending across a wide swath of government, including popular farm subsidies, environmental protection, American Indian schools, and Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor and disabled.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney said the plan will increase the military and homeland security budgets but keep overall spending below next year's expected 2.3 percent inflation rate, in part by eliminating or cutting back on some 150 other programs. "This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here," Cheney said.
"It is a fair, reasonable, responsible, serious piece of effort," he said. "It's not something we have done with a meat ax, nor are we suddenly turning our backs on the most needy people in our society."
The budget's submission will set off months of intense debate. Lawmakers from both parties can be expected to vigorously fight to protect their favorite programs. Opponents have called for at least a partial rollback of Bush's tax cuts, saying they primarily have benefited the wealthy.
The president, who campaigned for reelection on a pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009, is targeting 150 government programs for either outright elimination or sharp cutbacks. During his first term, record federal budget surpluses were replaced by record budget deficits.
The new federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1. For the current year, Bush is estimating the budget deficit will reach a record $427 billion. That compares with last year's $412 billion deficit and is the third straight year the Bush administration will have set, in dollar terms, a deficit record.
The five-year projections in the budget will show the deficit declining to about $230 billion in 2009, when a new president takes office.
However, those projections do not take into account some big-ticket items: the military costs incurred in Iraq and Afghanistan, the price of making Bush's first term tax cuts permanent, or the transition costs for his No. 1 domestic priority, overhauling Social Security.
Senator Kent Conrad, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said Bush's budget "talks about the next five years of reducing deficits, but what that hides is what happens after that five-year window. The cost of everything he advocates explodes."
The administration is expected today to provide estimates of the government borrowing that will be needed for its proposal to allow younger workers to set up private savings accounts. Cheney would not confirm estimates that the overhaul could cost $4.5 trillion in additional government borrowing over 20 years.
Bush's budget will restrain the growth in discretionary programs to less than 2.3 percent. But because defense and homeland security are set for increases above that amount, other programs will see cuts or gains below inflation.
One of the biggest battles is certain to occur in the area of payments and other assistance to farmers, which the administration wants to trim by $587 million in 2006 and by $5.7 billion over the next decade. Those payments go to farmers growing a wide range of crops.
The budget will double the copayment paid by many veterans for prescription drugs and require some to pay a fee of $250 a year to get government health services, The New York Times reported in today's editions. Other programs set for cuts include the Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, and a number of health programs under the Health and Human Services Department.
The administration also will seek to restrain growth in mandatory spending, primarily by trimming costs in Medicaid.
Cheney defends cuts in programs
Battle expected for budget trims
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press | February 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended the administration's budget plan against Democratic criticism that President Bush is seeking steep cuts in scores of federal programs because he is unwilling to roll back first-term tax cuts.
ADVERTISEMENT
The $2.5 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2006 will be submitted to Congress today.
The plan was shaping up as the most austere ever submitted by Bush. It tries to restrain spending across a wide swath of government, including popular farm subsidies, environmental protection, American Indian schools, and Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor and disabled.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney said the plan will increase the military and homeland security budgets but keep overall spending below next year's expected 2.3 percent inflation rate, in part by eliminating or cutting back on some 150 other programs. "This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here," Cheney said.
"It is a fair, reasonable, responsible, serious piece of effort," he said. "It's not something we have done with a meat ax, nor are we suddenly turning our backs on the most needy people in our society."
The budget's submission will set off months of intense debate. Lawmakers from both parties can be expected to vigorously fight to protect their favorite programs. Opponents have called for at least a partial rollback of Bush's tax cuts, saying they primarily have benefited the wealthy.
The president, who campaigned for reelection on a pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009, is targeting 150 government programs for either outright elimination or sharp cutbacks. During his first term, record federal budget surpluses were replaced by record budget deficits.
The new federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1. For the current year, Bush is estimating the budget deficit will reach a record $427 billion. That compares with last year's $412 billion deficit and is the third straight year the Bush administration will have set, in dollar terms, a deficit record.
The five-year projections in the budget will show the deficit declining to about $230 billion in 2009, when a new president takes office.
However, those projections do not take into account some big-ticket items: the military costs incurred in Iraq and Afghanistan, the price of making Bush's first term tax cuts permanent, or the transition costs for his No. 1 domestic priority, overhauling Social Security.
Senator Kent Conrad, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said Bush's budget "talks about the next five years of reducing deficits, but what that hides is what happens after that five-year window. The cost of everything he advocates explodes."
The administration is expected today to provide estimates of the government borrowing that will be needed for its proposal to allow younger workers to set up private savings accounts. Cheney would not confirm estimates that the overhaul could cost $4.5 trillion in additional government borrowing over 20 years.
Bush's budget will restrain the growth in discretionary programs to less than 2.3 percent. But because defense and homeland security are set for increases above that amount, other programs will see cuts or gains below inflation.
One of the biggest battles is certain to occur in the area of payments and other assistance to farmers, which the administration wants to trim by $587 million in 2006 and by $5.7 billion over the next decade. Those payments go to farmers growing a wide range of crops.
The budget will double the copayment paid by many veterans for prescription drugs and require some to pay a fee of $250 a year to get government health services, The New York Times reported in today's editions. Other programs set for cuts include the Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, and a number of health programs under the Health and Human Services Department.
The administration also will seek to restrain growth in mandatory spending, primarily by trimming costs in Medicaid.
Cheney defends cuts in programs
Battle expected for budget trims
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press | February 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended the administration's budget plan against Democratic criticism that President Bush is seeking steep cuts in scores of federal programs because he is unwilling to roll back first-term tax cuts.
ADVERTISEMENT
The $2.5 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2006 will be submitted to Congress today.
The plan was shaping up as the most austere ever submitted by Bush. It tries to restrain spending across a wide swath of government, including popular farm subsidies, environmental protection, American Indian schools, and Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor and disabled.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney said the plan will increase the military and homeland security budgets but keep overall spending below next year's expected 2.3 percent inflation rate, in part by eliminating or cutting back on some 150 other programs. "This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here," Cheney said.
"It is a fair, reasonable, responsible, serious piece of effort," he said. "It's not something we have done with a meat ax, nor are we suddenly turning our backs on the most needy people in our society."
The budget's submission will set off months of intense debate. Lawmakers from both parties can be expected to vigorously fight to protect their favorite programs. Opponents have called for at least a partial rollback of Bush's tax cuts, saying they primarily have benefited the wealthy.
The president, who campaigned for reelection on a pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009, is targeting 150 government programs for either outright elimination or sharp cutbacks. During his first term, record federal budget surpluses were replaced by record budget deficits.
The new federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1. For the current year, Bush is estimating the budget deficit will reach a record $427 billion. That compares with last year's $412 billion deficit and is the third straight year the Bush administration will have set, in dollar terms, a deficit record.
The five-year projections in the budget will show the deficit declining to about $230 billion in 2009, when a new president takes office.
However, those projections do not take into account some big-ticket items: the military costs incurred in Iraq and Afghanistan, the price of making Bush's first term tax cuts permanent, or the transition costs for his No. 1 domestic priority, overhauling Social Security.
Senator Kent Conrad, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said Bush's budget "talks about the next five years of reducing deficits, but what that hides is what happens after that five-year window. The cost of everything he advocates explodes."
The administration is expected today to provide estimates of the government borrowing that will be needed for its proposal to allow younger workers to set up private savings accounts. Cheney would not confirm estimates that the overhaul could cost $4.5 trillion in additional government borrowing over 20 years.
Bush's budget will restrain the growth in discretionary programs to less than 2.3 percent. But because defense and homeland security are set for increases above that amount, other programs will see cuts or gains below inflation.
One of the biggest battles is certain to occur in the area of payments and other assistance to farmers, which the administration wants to trim by $587 million in 2006 and by $5.7 billion over the next decade. Those payments go to farmers growing a wide range of crops.
The budget will double the copayment paid by many veterans for prescription drugs and require some to pay a fee of $250 a year to get government health services, The New York Times reported in today's editions. Other programs set for cuts include the Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, and a number of health programs under the Health and Human Services Department.
The administration also will seek to restrain growth in mandatory spending, primarily by trimming costs in Medicaid.
DYNASTY
Patriots beat Eagles for third Super Bowl victory in four years
DYNASTY
Patriots beat Eagles for third Super Bowl victory in four years
DYNASTY
Patriots beat Eagles for third Super Bowl victory in four years
Max Schmeling, 99; boxer from Germany fought Louis
By Roy Kammerer, Associated Press | February 5, 2005
BERLIN -- Max Schmeling wanted to be a heavyweight champion, not a symbol of Nazi supremacy.
He thrilled Germany by knocking out Joe Louis, but there was another side to the fighter that Hitler tried to portray as an Aryan superman.
Schmeling, who fought Louis in two of the most politically charged sporting events ever as the world moved toward war in the late 1930s, once hid two Jewish boys in his apartment from Nazis and later reportedly helped some Jewish friends escape death camps.
He said he feared only one thing in a long life that ended Wednesday at the age of 99.
"I don't want anyone to say I was a good athlete, but worth nothing as a human being -- I couldn't bear that," Mr. Schmeling said in 1993.
The German had nothing to fear in the end. Tributes poured in across his homeland, where he remained an idol known for his generosity long after his fights with Louis sparked a propaganda war between the Nazi government and the United States.
President Horst Koehler of Germany, on a state visit to Israel, lauded Mr. Schmeling as a "great example in sport" and for "his humanity." Formula One champion Michael Schumacher called Schmeling "a man of firm principles."
Over the years, Mr. Schmeling gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the elderly and poor through the Max Schmeling Foundation. He treasured his friendship with Louis and quietly gave the down-and-out American money. He also paid for Louis's funeral in 1981.
Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali's former business manager, said he talked to Ali yesterday. Kilroy said Ali told him: "Max Schmeling had a lot of class. He had a lot of respect for Joe Louis in the ring and out of the ring. I'm sure he's in heaven now. He and Joe are talking about their old fights."
Mr. Schmeling took many young athletes under his wing during the final decades of his life, among them heavyweight fighters Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine.
"A friend and mentor to us has died. He meant a lot to us," said Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion. "He sent us faxes by victories and comforted us in defeats. Max Schmeling showed us the way to America."
Mr. Schmeling was buried yesterday next to his wife, Anny Ondra, in Hollenstedt at a ceremony attended by a small circle of friends. The Rev. Olaf Koenitz said it was Schmeling's wish to be buried privately.
Mr. Schmeling's extraordinary career will be remembered for his bouts with Louis, which produced a lasting bond between the boxers despite a charged atmosphere when they fought.
Born Sept. 28, 1905, of humble origins in a small town in the state of Brandenburg, Mr. Schmeling became interested in boxing after seeing a film about the sport.
Max Schmeling, 99; boxer from Germany fought Louis
By Roy Kammerer, Associated Press | February 5, 2005
BERLIN -- Max Schmeling wanted to be a heavyweight champion, not a symbol of Nazi supremacy.
He thrilled Germany by knocking out Joe Louis, but there was another side to the fighter that Hitler tried to portray as an Aryan superman.
Schmeling, who fought Louis in two of the most politically charged sporting events ever as the world moved toward war in the late 1930s, once hid two Jewish boys in his apartment from Nazis and later reportedly helped some Jewish friends escape death camps.
He said he feared only one thing in a long life that ended Wednesday at the age of 99.
"I don't want anyone to say I was a good athlete, but worth nothing as a human being -- I couldn't bear that," Mr. Schmeling said in 1993.
The German had nothing to fear in the end. Tributes poured in across his homeland, where he remained an idol known for his generosity long after his fights with Louis sparked a propaganda war between the Nazi government and the United States.
President Horst Koehler of Germany, on a state visit to Israel, lauded Mr. Schmeling as a "great example in sport" and for "his humanity." Formula One champion Michael Schumacher called Schmeling "a man of firm principles."
Over the years, Mr. Schmeling gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the elderly and poor through the Max Schmeling Foundation. He treasured his friendship with Louis and quietly gave the down-and-out American money. He also paid for Louis's funeral in 1981.
Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali's former business manager, said he talked to Ali yesterday. Kilroy said Ali told him: "Max Schmeling had a lot of class. He had a lot of respect for Joe Louis in the ring and out of the ring. I'm sure he's in heaven now. He and Joe are talking about their old fights."
Mr. Schmeling took many young athletes under his wing during the final decades of his life, among them heavyweight fighters Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine.
"A friend and mentor to us has died. He meant a lot to us," said Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion. "He sent us faxes by victories and comforted us in defeats. Max Schmeling showed us the way to America."
Mr. Schmeling was buried yesterday next to his wife, Anny Ondra, in Hollenstedt at a ceremony attended by a small circle of friends. The Rev. Olaf Koenitz said it was Schmeling's wish to be buried privately.
Mr. Schmeling's extraordinary career will be remembered for his bouts with Louis, which produced a lasting bond between the boxers despite a charged atmosphere when they fought.
Born Sept. 28, 1905, of humble origins in a small town in the state of Brandenburg, Mr. Schmeling became interested in boxing after seeing a film about the sport.
Max Schmeling, 99; boxer from Germany fought Louis
By Roy Kammerer, Associated Press | February 5, 2005
BERLIN -- Max Schmeling wanted to be a heavyweight champion, not a symbol of Nazi supremacy.
He thrilled Germany by knocking out Joe Louis, but there was another side to the fighter that Hitler tried to portray as an Aryan superman.
Schmeling, who fought Louis in two of the most politically charged sporting events ever as the world moved toward war in the late 1930s, once hid two Jewish boys in his apartment from Nazis and later reportedly helped some Jewish friends escape death camps.
He said he feared only one thing in a long life that ended Wednesday at the age of 99.
"I don't want anyone to say I was a good athlete, but worth nothing as a human being -- I couldn't bear that," Mr. Schmeling said in 1993.
The German had nothing to fear in the end. Tributes poured in across his homeland, where he remained an idol known for his generosity long after his fights with Louis sparked a propaganda war between the Nazi government and the United States.
President Horst Koehler of Germany, on a state visit to Israel, lauded Mr. Schmeling as a "great example in sport" and for "his humanity." Formula One champion Michael Schumacher called Schmeling "a man of firm principles."
Over the years, Mr. Schmeling gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the elderly and poor through the Max Schmeling Foundation. He treasured his friendship with Louis and quietly gave the down-and-out American money. He also paid for Louis's funeral in 1981.
Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali's former business manager, said he talked to Ali yesterday. Kilroy said Ali told him: "Max Schmeling had a lot of class. He had a lot of respect for Joe Louis in the ring and out of the ring. I'm sure he's in heaven now. He and Joe are talking about their old fights."
Mr. Schmeling took many young athletes under his wing during the final decades of his life, among them heavyweight fighters Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine.
"A friend and mentor to us has died. He meant a lot to us," said Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion. "He sent us faxes by victories and comforted us in defeats. Max Schmeling showed us the way to America."
Mr. Schmeling was buried yesterday next to his wife, Anny Ondra, in Hollenstedt at a ceremony attended by a small circle of friends. The Rev. Olaf Koenitz said it was Schmeling's wish to be buried privately.
Mr. Schmeling's extraordinary career will be remembered for his bouts with Louis, which produced a lasting bond between the boxers despite a charged atmosphere when they fought.
Born Sept. 28, 1905, of humble origins in a small town in the state of Brandenburg, Mr. Schmeling became interested in boxing after seeing a film about the sport.
Wilkerson is backed for national post
Late entry in pursuit of Democrats' vice chair
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | February 5, 2005
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a rising star in state politics until her federal conviction on tax-evasion charges, is making a late bid to become a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, lining up endorsements from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, and other leading Massachusetts Democrats.
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Wilkerson, who joined the competition for one of four such positions in the last several weeks, faces an uphill fight to win the contest, scheduled to take place next Saturday, when the 447 party delegates meet to elect new national leadership for the Democratic Party. Four other women, including the current national deputy party chairwoman and the number two executive of the AFL-CIO, are running for two contested seats.
"I am doing very well; I am surprised I am doing this well," Wilkerson said yesterday from her Roxbury district office, where she was contacting delegates to seek support. "I got to be close to the halfway mark to getting to enough votes for victory."
Wilkerson, the only African-American in the state Senate, said she has been able to gain quick traction in the contest because of the backing she is getting from "the power of the delegation" from Massachusetts.
She also cited her legislative record as a supporter of labor and equal justice, issues that are important to Democrats.
In the race for chairman, to be decided the same day, former Vermont governor Howard Dean has emerged recently as the heavy favorite to succeed Terry McAuliffe. Kennedy said yesterday he expects Dean to win.
Party leaders said yesterday that Wilkerson's late entry into the race caught the Massachusetts Democratic establishment by surprise, but many of them, who have not committed their votes to others, have rallied around her candidacy. Besides Menino, Kennedy, and Kerry, she has picked up the endorsements of state party chairman Philip W. Johnston and US Representatives Barney Frank of Newton, James P. McGovern of Worcester, and Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston.
But her last-minute decision to try to win the part-time, nonpaying post is only one obstacle she must clear as she competes in the party's national scene. Her criminal record has been raised, in what one party official said is a whispering campaign. When party delegates from Eastern states met in New York last weekend, her legal problems circulated among the Democratic activists.
Wilkerson, a Democrat who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, served six months under house arrest after she pleaded guilty to four federal tax charges in December 1997. She owed about $200,000 in back taxes. She was incarcerated for 30 days in June 1998, after she violated her original sentence by attending late-night Senate sessions.
"She made a mistake several years ago, and she paid the price," Johnston said. "Since then, she's established herself as a forceful state legislator and is widely respected."
Wilkerson said she confronts the issue head-on. "It is not an issue I can hide," Wilkerson said. "I talk to people about what happened. I tell them truth. I don't dodge that."
Wilkerson faces tough competition from well-connected Democrats. They include the current deputy party chairwoman, Susan W. Turnbull, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, the AFL-CIO's executive vice president since 1995.
Also, the Reverend Al Sharpton, is lobbying heavily for his close political ally, Marjorie Harris.
Wilkerson said Sharpton has reacted negatively to her candidacy, speaking sharply on the phone and in person at last weekend's party meeting in New York. She said she has known Sharpton for years and has helped him in Boston when he visited the city.
`
Wilkerson is backed for national post
Late entry in pursuit of Democrats' vice chair
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | February 5, 2005
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a rising star in state politics until her federal conviction on tax-evasion charges, is making a late bid to become a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, lining up endorsements from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, and other leading Massachusetts Democrats.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wilkerson, who joined the competition for one of four such positions in the last several weeks, faces an uphill fight to win the contest, scheduled to take place next Saturday, when the 447 party delegates meet to elect new national leadership for the Democratic Party. Four other women, including the current national deputy party chairwoman and the number two executive of the AFL-CIO, are running for two contested seats.
"I am doing very well; I am surprised I am doing this well," Wilkerson said yesterday from her Roxbury district office, where she was contacting delegates to seek support. "I got to be close to the halfway mark to getting to enough votes for victory."
Wilkerson, the only African-American in the state Senate, said she has been able to gain quick traction in the contest because of the backing she is getting from "the power of the delegation" from Massachusetts.
She also cited her legislative record as a supporter of labor and equal justice, issues that are important to Democrats.
In the race for chairman, to be decided the same day, former Vermont governor Howard Dean has emerged recently as the heavy favorite to succeed Terry McAuliffe. Kennedy said yesterday he expects Dean to win.
Party leaders said yesterday that Wilkerson's late entry into the race caught the Massachusetts Democratic establishment by surprise, but many of them, who have not committed their votes to others, have rallied around her candidacy. Besides Menino, Kennedy, and Kerry, she has picked up the endorsements of state party chairman Philip W. Johnston and US Representatives Barney Frank of Newton, James P. McGovern of Worcester, and Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston.
But her last-minute decision to try to win the part-time, nonpaying post is only one obstacle she must clear as she competes in the party's national scene. Her criminal record has been raised, in what one party official said is a whispering campaign. When party delegates from Eastern states met in New York last weekend, her legal problems circulated among the Democratic activists.
Wilkerson, a Democrat who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, served six months under house arrest after she pleaded guilty to four federal tax charges in December 1997. She owed about $200,000 in back taxes. She was incarcerated for 30 days in June 1998, after she violated her original sentence by attending late-night Senate sessions.
"She made a mistake several years ago, and she paid the price," Johnston said. "Since then, she's established herself as a forceful state legislator and is widely respected."
Wilkerson said she confronts the issue head-on. "It is not an issue I can hide," Wilkerson said. "I talk to people about what happened. I tell them truth. I don't dodge that."
Wilkerson faces tough competition from well-connected Democrats. They include the current deputy party chairwoman, Susan W. Turnbull, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, the AFL-CIO's executive vice president since 1995.
Also, the Reverend Al Sharpton, is lobbying heavily for his close political ally, Marjorie Harris.
Wilkerson said Sharpton has reacted negatively to her candidacy, speaking sharply on the phone and in person at last weekend's party meeting in New York. She said she has known Sharpton for years and has helped him in Boston when he visited the city.
`
Wilkerson is backed for national post
Late entry in pursuit of Democrats' vice chair
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | February 5, 2005
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a rising star in state politics until her federal conviction on tax-evasion charges, is making a late bid to become a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, lining up endorsements from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, and other leading Massachusetts Democrats.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wilkerson, who joined the competition for one of four such positions in the last several weeks, faces an uphill fight to win the contest, scheduled to take place next Saturday, when the 447 party delegates meet to elect new national leadership for the Democratic Party. Four other women, including the current national deputy party chairwoman and the number two executive of the AFL-CIO, are running for two contested seats.
"I am doing very well; I am surprised I am doing this well," Wilkerson said yesterday from her Roxbury district office, where she was contacting delegates to seek support. "I got to be close to the halfway mark to getting to enough votes for victory."
Wilkerson, the only African-American in the state Senate, said she has been able to gain quick traction in the contest because of the backing she is getting from "the power of the delegation" from Massachusetts.
She also cited her legislative record as a supporter of labor and equal justice, issues that are important to Democrats.
In the race for chairman, to be decided the same day, former Vermont governor Howard Dean has emerged recently as the heavy favorite to succeed Terry McAuliffe. Kennedy said yesterday he expects Dean to win.
Party leaders said yesterday that Wilkerson's late entry into the race caught the Massachusetts Democratic establishment by surprise, but many of them, who have not committed their votes to others, have rallied around her candidacy. Besides Menino, Kennedy, and Kerry, she has picked up the endorsements of state party chairman Philip W. Johnston and US Representatives Barney Frank of Newton, James P. McGovern of Worcester, and Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston.
But her last-minute decision to try to win the part-time, nonpaying post is only one obstacle she must clear as she competes in the party's national scene. Her criminal record has been raised, in what one party official said is a whispering campaign. When party delegates from Eastern states met in New York last weekend, her legal problems circulated among the Democratic activists.
Wilkerson, a Democrat who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, served six months under house arrest after she pleaded guilty to four federal tax charges in December 1997. She owed about $200,000 in back taxes. She was incarcerated for 30 days in June 1998, after she violated her original sentence by attending late-night Senate sessions.
"She made a mistake several years ago, and she paid the price," Johnston said. "Since then, she's established herself as a forceful state legislator and is widely respected."
Wilkerson said she confronts the issue head-on. "It is not an issue I can hide," Wilkerson said. "I talk to people about what happened. I tell them truth. I don't dodge that."
Wilkerson faces tough competition from well-connected Democrats. They include the current deputy party chairwoman, Susan W. Turnbull, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, the AFL-CIO's executive vice president since 1995.
Also, the Reverend Al Sharpton, is lobbying heavily for his close political ally, Marjorie Harris.
Wilkerson said Sharpton has reacted negatively to her candidacy, speaking sharply on the phone and in person at last weekend's party meeting in New York. She said she has known Sharpton for years and has helped him in Boston when he visited the city.
`
146,000 jobs added in Jan.; Q4 payrolls revised lower
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — Employers added 146,000 new jobs in January and hiring in the previous three months was revised lower, the government said on Friday in an unexpectedly weak report on the job market, but a drop in job-seekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years.
The 146,000 gain in payrolls in January — while the most since October — still fell short of economists' forecasts for a more robust gain of about 200,000 for the month.
January's increase in hiring came after a downwardly revised 133,000 gain in December. The Labor Department also cut its estimate of jobs created in October and November, trimming a total of 59,000 jobs over the fourth quarter of 2004
146,000 jobs added in Jan.; Q4 payrolls revised lower
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — Employers added 146,000 new jobs in January and hiring in the previous three months was revised lower, the government said on Friday in an unexpectedly weak report on the job market, but a drop in job-seekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years.
The 146,000 gain in payrolls in January — while the most since October — still fell short of economists' forecasts for a more robust gain of about 200,000 for the month.
January's increase in hiring came after a downwardly revised 133,000 gain in December. The Labor Department also cut its estimate of jobs created in October and November, trimming a total of 59,000 jobs over the fourth quarter of 2004
146,000 jobs added in Jan.; Q4 payrolls revised lower
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — Employers added 146,000 new jobs in January and hiring in the previous three months was revised lower, the government said on Friday in an unexpectedly weak report on the job market, but a drop in job-seekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years.
The 146,000 gain in payrolls in January — while the most since October — still fell short of economists' forecasts for a more robust gain of about 200,000 for the month.
January's increase in hiring came after a downwardly revised 133,000 gain in December. The Labor Department also cut its estimate of jobs created in October and November, trimming a total of 59,000 jobs over the fourth quarter of 2004
Sitter Who Disrobed Found Guilty Of Lesser Charge
By DAVID SOMMER dsommer@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 3, 2005
CLEARWATER - A 23-year-old woman's anguished admission that she stripped off her clothes to satisfy a 4-year-old's curiosity, but did so without erotic intent, apparently persuaded jurors not to find her guilty of a sex crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Instead, a four-man, two- woman panel found Sarah Slicker guilty of lewd and lascivious exhibition in front of a child, a less serious crime that could spare the St. Petersburg woman a prison term.
Slicker will be spending time behind bars, however.
Circuit Judge Brandt Downey ordered her jailed pending a Feb. 25 sentencing hearing at which he will decide whether Slicker's crime qualifies for a mandatory 30-month prison term.
If it does not, the judge is free to chose anything from time served up to 15 years.
Testifying in her own defense, Slicker told jurors that the stress of working as a nanny for 60 or more hours a week, caring for children from three different families, caused a lapse in judgment that led her to disrobe at the request of a 4-year-old boy.
``I was exhausted, mentally and physically,'' Slicker said, appearing to stifle a sob.
``I'm not trying to excuse what happened,'' she said. ``I know I shouldn't have been naked on the couch. I'm not disputing that ... I knew afterward it was a terrible thing to have done.''
The pair had been watching a James Bond movie that Slicker said the boy's father had approved of but that she found inappropriate, she told the jury. She said she disrobed at the boy's command.
``Everything was a struggle with him,'' she said. ``I didn't say anything. I just did it.''
Sitter Who Disrobed Found Guilty Of Lesser Charge
By DAVID SOMMER dsommer@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 3, 2005
CLEARWATER - A 23-year-old woman's anguished admission that she stripped off her clothes to satisfy a 4-year-old's curiosity, but did so without erotic intent, apparently persuaded jurors not to find her guilty of a sex crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Instead, a four-man, two- woman panel found Sarah Slicker guilty of lewd and lascivious exhibition in front of a child, a less serious crime that could spare the St. Petersburg woman a prison term.
Slicker will be spending time behind bars, however.
Circuit Judge Brandt Downey ordered her jailed pending a Feb. 25 sentencing hearing at which he will decide whether Slicker's crime qualifies for a mandatory 30-month prison term.
If it does not, the judge is free to chose anything from time served up to 15 years.
Testifying in her own defense, Slicker told jurors that the stress of working as a nanny for 60 or more hours a week, caring for children from three different families, caused a lapse in judgment that led her to disrobe at the request of a 4-year-old boy.
``I was exhausted, mentally and physically,'' Slicker said, appearing to stifle a sob.
``I'm not trying to excuse what happened,'' she said. ``I know I shouldn't have been naked on the couch. I'm not disputing that ... I knew afterward it was a terrible thing to have done.''
The pair had been watching a James Bond movie that Slicker said the boy's father had approved of but that she found inappropriate, she told the jury. She said she disrobed at the boy's command.
``Everything was a struggle with him,'' she said. ``I didn't say anything. I just did it.''
Sitter Who Disrobed Found Guilty Of Lesser Charge
By DAVID SOMMER dsommer@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 3, 2005
CLEARWATER - A 23-year-old woman's anguished admission that she stripped off her clothes to satisfy a 4-year-old's curiosity, but did so without erotic intent, apparently persuaded jurors not to find her guilty of a sex crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Instead, a four-man, two- woman panel found Sarah Slicker guilty of lewd and lascivious exhibition in front of a child, a less serious crime that could spare the St. Petersburg woman a prison term.
Slicker will be spending time behind bars, however.
Circuit Judge Brandt Downey ordered her jailed pending a Feb. 25 sentencing hearing at which he will decide whether Slicker's crime qualifies for a mandatory 30-month prison term.
If it does not, the judge is free to chose anything from time served up to 15 years.
Testifying in her own defense, Slicker told jurors that the stress of working as a nanny for 60 or more hours a week, caring for children from three different families, caused a lapse in judgment that led her to disrobe at the request of a 4-year-old boy.
``I was exhausted, mentally and physically,'' Slicker said, appearing to stifle a sob.
``I'm not trying to excuse what happened,'' she said. ``I know I shouldn't have been naked on the couch. I'm not disputing that ... I knew afterward it was a terrible thing to have done.''
The pair had been watching a James Bond movie that Slicker said the boy's father had approved of but that she found inappropriate, she told the jury. She said she disrobed at the boy's command.
``Everything was a struggle with him,'' she said. ``I didn't say anything. I just did it.''
Rice says US won't join Iran talks
Ayatollah blasts Bush's speech
By Robin Wright, Washington Post | February 4, 2005
LONDON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the United States would rebuff European efforts to bring it into negotiations with Iran aimed at preventing the Islamic state from developing nuclear weapons.
Rice says US won't join Iran talks
Ayatollah blasts Bush's speech
By Robin Wright, Washington Post | February 4, 2005
LONDON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the United States would rebuff European efforts to bring it into negotiations with Iran aimed at preventing the Islamic state from developing nuclear weapons.
Rice says US won't join Iran talks
Ayatollah blasts Bush's speech
By Robin Wright, Washington Post | February 4, 2005
LONDON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the United States would rebuff European efforts to bring it into negotiations with Iran aimed at preventing the Islamic state from developing nuclear weapons.
Report says EPA limits on mercury inadequate
By Associated Press | February 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration overlooked health effects and sided with the electric industry in developing rules for cutting toxic mercury pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general said yesterday.
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The agency fell short of its own requirements and presidential orders by ''not fully analyzing the cost-benefit of regulatory alternatives and not fully assessing the rule's impact on children's health," the agency's internal watchdog said in a 54-page report.
The report by Nikki L. Tinsley said the EPA based its mercury pollution limits on an analysis submitted by Western Energy Supply & Transmission Associates, a research and advocacy group representing 17 coal-fired utilities in eight Western states.
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set the limits based on the most advanced pollution controls used by industry. Tinsley said agency workers were instructed by ''EPA senior management" to develop a standard compared with other regulations and a White House legislative plan, ''instead of basing the standard on an unbiased determination" of the limits.
In response to the report, EPA officials said it was ''not true" that the administration proposed mercury pollution standards without following requirements of the law.
Mercury from power plants settles in waterways and accumulates in fish. The toxic metal can cause neurological and developmental problems, particularly in fetuses and young children. It also is being studied for risks associated with cardiovascular diseases.
Senator Jim Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont, and six Democratic senators asked Tinsley in April to investigate how the EPA put together the mercury rule it proposed in December 2003.
''This is one of the most disturbing examples I've seen of an administration allowing spin and junk science to endanger the health of our children," said Senator John F. Kerry. ''I have always thought this proposal to allow more mercury in our environment is wrong and should be scrapped. This administration, which refuses to listen to sound science, must now listen to their own Inspector General and do what's right by American families."
The Food and Drug Administration has warned that high levels of mercury in some fish, including albacore tuna, can pose a hazard for children and for women pregnant or nursing.
The EPA estimates that about 8 percent of American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to put a fetus at risk.
According to the inspector general's report, the EPA has ''wide latitude" in deciding which pollution data it uses and does not want its regulation to encourage utilities to switch from coal to natural gas.The pending regulation envisions a 70 percent cut in mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants by 2018, from the current 48 tons a year to 15 tons.
Report says EPA limits on mercury inadequate
By Associated Press | February 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration overlooked health effects and sided with the electric industry in developing rules for cutting toxic mercury pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general said yesterday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The agency fell short of its own requirements and presidential orders by ''not fully analyzing the cost-benefit of regulatory alternatives and not fully assessing the rule's impact on children's health," the agency's internal watchdog said in a 54-page report.
The report by Nikki L. Tinsley said the EPA based its mercury pollution limits on an analysis submitted by Western Energy Supply & Transmission Associates, a research and advocacy group representing 17 coal-fired utilities in eight Western states.
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set the limits based on the most advanced pollution controls used by industry. Tinsley said agency workers were instructed by ''EPA senior management" to develop a standard compared with other regulations and a White House legislative plan, ''instead of basing the standard on an unbiased determination" of the limits.
In response to the report, EPA officials said it was ''not true" that the administration proposed mercury pollution standards without following requirements of the law.
Mercury from power plants settles in waterways and accumulates in fish. The toxic metal can cause neurological and developmental problems, particularly in fetuses and young children. It also is being studied for risks associated with cardiovascular diseases.
Senator Jim Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont, and six Democratic senators asked Tinsley in April to investigate how the EPA put together the mercury rule it proposed in December 2003.
''This is one of the most disturbing examples I've seen of an administration allowing spin and junk science to endanger the health of our children," said Senator John F. Kerry. ''I have always thought this proposal to allow more mercury in our environment is wrong and should be scrapped. This administration, which refuses to listen to sound science, must now listen to their own Inspector General and do what's right by American families."
The Food and Drug Administration has warned that high levels of mercury in some fish, including albacore tuna, can pose a hazard for children and for women pregnant or nursing.
The EPA estimates that about 8 percent of American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to put a fetus at risk.
According to the inspector general's report, the EPA has ''wide latitude" in deciding which pollution data it uses and does not want its regulation to encourage utilities to switch from coal to natural gas.The pending regulation envisions a 70 percent cut in mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants by 2018, from the current 48 tons a year to 15 tons.
Report says EPA limits on mercury inadequate
By Associated Press | February 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration overlooked health effects and sided with the electric industry in developing rules for cutting toxic mercury pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general said yesterday.
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The agency fell short of its own requirements and presidential orders by ''not fully analyzing the cost-benefit of regulatory alternatives and not fully assessing the rule's impact on children's health," the agency's internal watchdog said in a 54-page report.
The report by Nikki L. Tinsley said the EPA based its mercury pollution limits on an analysis submitted by Western Energy Supply & Transmission Associates, a research and advocacy group representing 17 coal-fired utilities in eight Western states.
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set the limits based on the most advanced pollution controls used by industry. Tinsley said agency workers were instructed by ''EPA senior management" to develop a standard compared with other regulations and a White House legislative plan, ''instead of basing the standard on an unbiased determination" of the limits.
In response to the report, EPA officials said it was ''not true" that the administration proposed mercury pollution standards without following requirements of the law.
Mercury from power plants settles in waterways and accumulates in fish. The toxic metal can cause neurological and developmental problems, particularly in fetuses and young children. It also is being studied for risks associated with cardiovascular diseases.
Senator Jim Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont, and six Democratic senators asked Tinsley in April to investigate how the EPA put together the mercury rule it proposed in December 2003.
''This is one of the most disturbing examples I've seen of an administration allowing spin and junk science to endanger the health of our children," said Senator John F. Kerry. ''I have always thought this proposal to allow more mercury in our environment is wrong and should be scrapped. This administration, which refuses to listen to sound science, must now listen to their own Inspector General and do what's right by American families."
The Food and Drug Administration has warned that high levels of mercury in some fish, including albacore tuna, can pose a hazard for children and for women pregnant or nursing.
The EPA estimates that about 8 percent of American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to put a fetus at risk.
According to the inspector general's report, the EPA has ''wide latitude" in deciding which pollution data it uses and does not want its regulation to encourage utilities to switch from coal to natural gas.The pending regulation envisions a 70 percent cut in mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants by 2018, from the current 48 tons a year to 15 tons.
Iraqi vote count so far shows cleric-backed Shi'ite list in lead
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
BAGHDAD -- As a post-election calm gave way to a burst of deadly attacks, Iraqi election officials yesterday released partial results in the ballot for a new national legislature that showed a slate of cleric-backed Shi'ite Muslim parties taking a strong lead.
The partial results from six provinces, including Baghdad and five heavily Shi'ite areas in the south, showed overwhelming majorities for the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition that is led by parties that back a strong role for Islam in politics and claims the support of Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The figures, while preliminary and accounting for only about 10 percent of the country's polling stations, left a top official of one of the leading Islamist parties so confident that he said the slate's leaders would try to prevent US-backed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi from keeping his job.
"He's had his chance," said Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, deputy to the leader of the Da'wa Party, interim Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari, who is a contender for the prime minister's slot. "We're here to give other people a chance."
The figures were released as violence surged in Iraq for the first time since the election on Sunday. News reports cited incidents that claimed at least 23 lives, including those of two US Marines killed in action in Anbar Province west of Baghdad. Twelve army recruits were killed south of Kirkuk after rebels ordered them off a bus and ordered two others to warn people not to sign up.
US and Iraqi officials had cautioned that it would be harder for Iraqi forces to cope with the day-to-day insurgency than it was on election day, when car traffic was shut down across the country.
Sh'ite parties have called for a harsher crackdown on insurgents and criticized Allawi for bringing in former members of the ousted Ba'ath Party to run the security forces.
According to the incomplete results, the Shi'ite-backed Alliance was outpolling the closest contender, Allawi's Iraqi List, by about 5 to 1 in five southern Shi'ite provinces that include the cities of Nasiriyah, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniya, and Samawa. In what election officials called "mixed" areas of Baghdad and the surrounding province, the Alliance was leading Allawi's list by 350,069 votes to 140,364.
A lopsided victory for the Shi'ite Alliance, many of whose leaders have strong ties to Iran, could further alienate Sunni Muslims, whose turnout was much lower because of violence in areas plagued by the Sunni-led insurgency and because of calls for a boycott by some Sunni clerics.
It was too soon to project national results from the partial findings, which included a total of 1.6 million votes counted from about 10 percent of the nation's polling stations. The votes counted so far represent about 25 percent of the polling stations in Baghdad and 45 to 70 percent of polling stations in the other five provinces. No heavily Kurdish or Sunni Muslim provinces were included.
Iraqi vote count so far shows cleric-backed Shi'ite list in lead
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
BAGHDAD -- As a post-election calm gave way to a burst of deadly attacks, Iraqi election officials yesterday released partial results in the ballot for a new national legislature that showed a slate of cleric-backed Shi'ite Muslim parties taking a strong lead.
The partial results from six provinces, including Baghdad and five heavily Shi'ite areas in the south, showed overwhelming majorities for the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition that is led by parties that back a strong role for Islam in politics and claims the support of Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The figures, while preliminary and accounting for only about 10 percent of the country's polling stations, left a top official of one of the leading Islamist parties so confident that he said the slate's leaders would try to prevent US-backed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi from keeping his job.
"He's had his chance," said Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, deputy to the leader of the Da'wa Party, interim Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari, who is a contender for the prime minister's slot. "We're here to give other people a chance."
The figures were released as violence surged in Iraq for the first time since the election on Sunday. News reports cited incidents that claimed at least 23 lives, including those of two US Marines killed in action in Anbar Province west of Baghdad. Twelve army recruits were killed south of Kirkuk after rebels ordered them off a bus and ordered two others to warn people not to sign up.
US and Iraqi officials had cautioned that it would be harder for Iraqi forces to cope with the day-to-day insurgency than it was on election day, when car traffic was shut down across the country.
Sh'ite parties have called for a harsher crackdown on insurgents and criticized Allawi for bringing in former members of the ousted Ba'ath Party to run the security forces.
According to the incomplete results, the Shi'ite-backed Alliance was outpolling the closest contender, Allawi's Iraqi List, by about 5 to 1 in five southern Shi'ite provinces that include the cities of Nasiriyah, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniya, and Samawa. In what election officials called "mixed" areas of Baghdad and the surrounding province, the Alliance was leading Allawi's list by 350,069 votes to 140,364.
A lopsided victory for the Shi'ite Alliance, many of whose leaders have strong ties to Iran, could further alienate Sunni Muslims, whose turnout was much lower because of violence in areas plagued by the Sunni-led insurgency and because of calls for a boycott by some Sunni clerics.
It was too soon to project national results from the partial findings, which included a total of 1.6 million votes counted from about 10 percent of the nation's polling stations. The votes counted so far represent about 25 percent of the polling stations in Baghdad and 45 to 70 percent of polling stations in the other five provinces. No heavily Kurdish or Sunni Muslim provinces were included.
Iraqi vote count so far shows cleric-backed Shi'ite list in lead
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
BAGHDAD -- As a post-election calm gave way to a burst of deadly attacks, Iraqi election officials yesterday released partial results in the ballot for a new national legislature that showed a slate of cleric-backed Shi'ite Muslim parties taking a strong lead.
The partial results from six provinces, including Baghdad and five heavily Shi'ite areas in the south, showed overwhelming majorities for the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition that is led by parties that back a strong role for Islam in politics and claims the support of Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The figures, while preliminary and accounting for only about 10 percent of the country's polling stations, left a top official of one of the leading Islamist parties so confident that he said the slate's leaders would try to prevent US-backed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi from keeping his job.
"He's had his chance," said Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, deputy to the leader of the Da'wa Party, interim Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari, who is a contender for the prime minister's slot. "We're here to give other people a chance."
The figures were released as violence surged in Iraq for the first time since the election on Sunday. News reports cited incidents that claimed at least 23 lives, including those of two US Marines killed in action in Anbar Province west of Baghdad. Twelve army recruits were killed south of Kirkuk after rebels ordered them off a bus and ordered two others to warn people not to sign up.
US and Iraqi officials had cautioned that it would be harder for Iraqi forces to cope with the day-to-day insurgency than it was on election day, when car traffic was shut down across the country.
Sh'ite parties have called for a harsher crackdown on insurgents and criticized Allawi for bringing in former members of the ousted Ba'ath Party to run the security forces.
According to the incomplete results, the Shi'ite-backed Alliance was outpolling the closest contender, Allawi's Iraqi List, by about 5 to 1 in five southern Shi'ite provinces that include the cities of Nasiriyah, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniya, and Samawa. In what election officials called "mixed" areas of Baghdad and the surrounding province, the Alliance was leading Allawi's list by 350,069 votes to 140,364.
A lopsided victory for the Shi'ite Alliance, many of whose leaders have strong ties to Iran, could further alienate Sunni Muslims, whose turnout was much lower because of violence in areas plagued by the Sunni-led insurgency and because of calls for a boycott by some Sunni clerics.
It was too soon to project national results from the partial findings, which included a total of 1.6 million votes counted from about 10 percent of the nation's polling stations. The votes counted so far represent about 25 percent of the polling stations in Baghdad and 45 to 70 percent of polling stations in the other five provinces. No heavily Kurdish or Sunni Muslim provinces were included.
Delta will close Hub center, cut 353 jobs
Airline aims to push more to book online
By Keith Reed, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
Delta Air Lines plans to close its Boston reservations call center Sept. 1, a move that will eliminate about 353 positions.
The airline, which next month will move into the newly renovated Terminal A at Logan International Airport, notified workers at the East Boston center of the closing this week, said Benet J. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta airline.
Delta is closing a similar reservations center in Los Angeles at the same time, Wilson said, eliminating a total of 750 telephone sales jobs at both centers. All of the workers will be offered other positions with the airline, she said, although it is too soon to tell how many will accept other jobs or whether those jobs would require them to move. Delta will keep open nine other call centers around the country.
Coming off of four straight years of heavy losses, airlines are trying to push customers away from booking over the telephone or in ticket offices, which cost carriers more because they have to pay workers to staff them.
Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant and a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., said airlines have been somewhat successful in getting passengers to book online, but they still have a long way to go.
"They are more successful than they were five years ago," he said. "There'll be a time when most of the bookings will be done directly with the airlines, and they're certainly pushing the online fares the most."
To encourage more passengers to book online, many airlines, including Delta, have started to impose fees on tickets booked over the phone. Delta began charging $5 for telephone bookings in December. American Airlines, US Airways, and United Airlines have similar fees. Continental Airlines has begun allowing travelers to pay with personal checks when booking flights on its website, or to ask the carrier to bill them.
"Airlines continue to search for ways to reduce their distribution costs," said Mark Cestari, vice president of marketing at SmarterTravel.com, a Boston website that tracks travel trends.
Some airlines are also tacking on a fee if passengers request a paper ticket, as opposed to an electronic ticket sent by e-mail. Some carriers are considering doing away with paper tickets completely, he added.
Delta posted a $5.2 billion loss in 2004, one of eight major airlines that, combined, lost more than $9 billion last year. The airline's decision to close its reservation call centers is part of its plan to cut annual operating costs by $5 billion by 2006.
Saying the airline needed drastic changes to become profitable and to avoid bankruptcy, Delta chief executive Gerald Grinstein laid out a cost-cutting plan in September. Under the plan, Delta closed its hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in January, cutting hundreds of daily flights.
All Delta workers, including Grinstein and other senior executives, took a 10 percent pay cut effective Jan. 1, and after months of contentious negotiations the pilots union agreed in December to $1 billion in salary and benefit givebacks.
Delta will close Hub center, cut 353 jobs
Airline aims to push more to book online
By Keith Reed, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
Delta Air Lines plans to close its Boston reservations call center Sept. 1, a move that will eliminate about 353 positions.
The airline, which next month will move into the newly renovated Terminal A at Logan International Airport, notified workers at the East Boston center of the closing this week, said Benet J. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta airline.
Delta is closing a similar reservations center in Los Angeles at the same time, Wilson said, eliminating a total of 750 telephone sales jobs at both centers. All of the workers will be offered other positions with the airline, she said, although it is too soon to tell how many will accept other jobs or whether those jobs would require them to move. Delta will keep open nine other call centers around the country.
Coming off of four straight years of heavy losses, airlines are trying to push customers away from booking over the telephone or in ticket offices, which cost carriers more because they have to pay workers to staff them.
Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant and a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., said airlines have been somewhat successful in getting passengers to book online, but they still have a long way to go.
"They are more successful than they were five years ago," he said. "There'll be a time when most of the bookings will be done directly with the airlines, and they're certainly pushing the online fares the most."
To encourage more passengers to book online, many airlines, including Delta, have started to impose fees on tickets booked over the phone. Delta began charging $5 for telephone bookings in December. American Airlines, US Airways, and United Airlines have similar fees. Continental Airlines has begun allowing travelers to pay with personal checks when booking flights on its website, or to ask the carrier to bill them.
"Airlines continue to search for ways to reduce their distribution costs," said Mark Cestari, vice president of marketing at SmarterTravel.com, a Boston website that tracks travel trends.
Some airlines are also tacking on a fee if passengers request a paper ticket, as opposed to an electronic ticket sent by e-mail. Some carriers are considering doing away with paper tickets completely, he added.
Delta posted a $5.2 billion loss in 2004, one of eight major airlines that, combined, lost more than $9 billion last year. The airline's decision to close its reservation call centers is part of its plan to cut annual operating costs by $5 billion by 2006.
Saying the airline needed drastic changes to become profitable and to avoid bankruptcy, Delta chief executive Gerald Grinstein laid out a cost-cutting plan in September. Under the plan, Delta closed its hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in January, cutting hundreds of daily flights.
All Delta workers, including Grinstein and other senior executives, took a 10 percent pay cut effective Jan. 1, and after months of contentious negotiations the pilots union agreed in December to $1 billion in salary and benefit givebacks.
Delta will close Hub center, cut 353 jobs
Airline aims to push more to book online
By Keith Reed, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
Delta Air Lines plans to close its Boston reservations call center Sept. 1, a move that will eliminate about 353 positions.
The airline, which next month will move into the newly renovated Terminal A at Logan International Airport, notified workers at the East Boston center of the closing this week, said Benet J. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta airline.
Delta is closing a similar reservations center in Los Angeles at the same time, Wilson said, eliminating a total of 750 telephone sales jobs at both centers. All of the workers will be offered other positions with the airline, she said, although it is too soon to tell how many will accept other jobs or whether those jobs would require them to move. Delta will keep open nine other call centers around the country.
Coming off of four straight years of heavy losses, airlines are trying to push customers away from booking over the telephone or in ticket offices, which cost carriers more because they have to pay workers to staff them.
Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant and a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., said airlines have been somewhat successful in getting passengers to book online, but they still have a long way to go.
"They are more successful than they were five years ago," he said. "There'll be a time when most of the bookings will be done directly with the airlines, and they're certainly pushing the online fares the most."
To encourage more passengers to book online, many airlines, including Delta, have started to impose fees on tickets booked over the phone. Delta began charging $5 for telephone bookings in December. American Airlines, US Airways, and United Airlines have similar fees. Continental Airlines has begun allowing travelers to pay with personal checks when booking flights on its website, or to ask the carrier to bill them.
"Airlines continue to search for ways to reduce their distribution costs," said Mark Cestari, vice president of marketing at SmarterTravel.com, a Boston website that tracks travel trends.
Some airlines are also tacking on a fee if passengers request a paper ticket, as opposed to an electronic ticket sent by e-mail. Some carriers are considering doing away with paper tickets completely, he added.
Delta posted a $5.2 billion loss in 2004, one of eight major airlines that, combined, lost more than $9 billion last year. The airline's decision to close its reservation call centers is part of its plan to cut annual operating costs by $5 billion by 2006.
Saying the airline needed drastic changes to become profitable and to avoid bankruptcy, Delta chief executive Gerald Grinstein laid out a cost-cutting plan in September. Under the plan, Delta closed its hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in January, cutting hundreds of daily flights.
All Delta workers, including Grinstein and other senior executives, took a 10 percent pay cut effective Jan. 1, and after months of contentious negotiations the pilots union agreed in December to $1 billion in salary and benefit givebacks.
Deficits were conspicuous omissions
February 4, 2005
THE PRESIDENT'S State of the Union Address swept under the rug two of the country's most threatening problems: the federal budget deficit and the trade deficit. Both of these have grown by leaps and bounds under Bush's stewardship, and together they increasingly threaten our economic well-being.
The federal budget yielded large surpluses under President Clinton's tenure and has descended into huge deficits in recent years -- $412 billion last year -- with no real improvement in sight.
The annual trade deficit has grown despite the steep decline in the dollar compared to the euro and the yen -- a development that is supposed to shrink this deficit rapidly.
We finance these deficits by borrowing abroad -- in China, Taiwan, Japan, and elsewhere. Foreign lenders are becoming increasingly reluctant to continue lending to us. When they stop lending altogether and even start flooding the market with the mountains of US Treasury securities in their hands, the dollar will decline more precipitously, and the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates, throwing large numbers of businesses and individuals into bankruptcy.
This is not a pretty prospect, and the president ignored it.
Deficits were conspicuous omissions
February 4, 2005
THE PRESIDENT'S State of the Union Address swept under the rug two of the country's most threatening problems: the federal budget deficit and the trade deficit. Both of these have grown by leaps and bounds under Bush's stewardship, and together they increasingly threaten our economic well-being.
The federal budget yielded large surpluses under President Clinton's tenure and has descended into huge deficits in recent years -- $412 billion last year -- with no real improvement in sight.
The annual trade deficit has grown despite the steep decline in the dollar compared to the euro and the yen -- a development that is supposed to shrink this deficit rapidly.
We finance these deficits by borrowing abroad -- in China, Taiwan, Japan, and elsewhere. Foreign lenders are becoming increasingly reluctant to continue lending to us. When they stop lending altogether and even start flooding the market with the mountains of US Treasury securities in their hands, the dollar will decline more precipitously, and the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates, throwing large numbers of businesses and individuals into bankruptcy.
This is not a pretty prospect, and the president ignored it.
Deficits were conspicuous omissions
February 4, 2005
THE PRESIDENT'S State of the Union Address swept under the rug two of the country's most threatening problems: the federal budget deficit and the trade deficit. Both of these have grown by leaps and bounds under Bush's stewardship, and together they increasingly threaten our economic well-being.
The federal budget yielded large surpluses under President Clinton's tenure and has descended into huge deficits in recent years -- $412 billion last year -- with no real improvement in sight.
The annual trade deficit has grown despite the steep decline in the dollar compared to the euro and the yen -- a development that is supposed to shrink this deficit rapidly.
We finance these deficits by borrowing abroad -- in China, Taiwan, Japan, and elsewhere. Foreign lenders are becoming increasingly reluctant to continue lending to us. When they stop lending altogether and even start flooding the market with the mountains of US Treasury securities in their hands, the dollar will decline more precipitously, and the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates, throwing large numbers of businesses and individuals into bankruptcy.
This is not a pretty prospect, and the president ignored it.
Bush's Iranian finesse
February 4, 2005
IN HIS State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Bush was tantalizingly vague on a subject that is sure to rise to the top of his foreign policy agenda -- the threats and opportunities emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran. That vagueness may reflect a shrewd effort to avoid showing the administration's hand on Iran before it is forced to do so. Still, there are dangers in Bush's ambiguity.
His rhetoric was markedly less inflammatory than it was four years ago, when he included Tehran's religious dictatorship with Saddam Hussein's regime and North Korea in an ''axis of evil" that would not be tolerated. Yet today Iran's rulers are resisting the entreaties of negotiators from France, Germany, and Great Britain who have been offering incentives to persuade Iran to abjure development of nuclear weapons. . For that reason, Iran casts a more threatening shadow than it did in 2001, when Bush consigned Iran to his confused and confusing axis of evil.
Nonetheless, Bush's rhetorical restraint suits the needs of the moment. Notwithstanding dark hints from Vice President Dick Cheney about surgical strikes, perhaps by Israel, against nuclear sites in Iran, there are no sound military options for eliminating Tehran's nuclear weapons program. So Bush was smart to say, ''We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing."
There is a fundamental flaw, however, in the administration's passive acceptance of the Europeans' negotiations with Iran. The Europeans as well as the Iranians have been arguing that, if a deal is to be struck, it must include Washington. Only the Americans can deliver the security assurances Tehran wants, the lifting of economic sanctions, and accession to the World Trade Organization.
So Bush will have to decide, sooner rather than later, whether to engage with a regime that is rooted in hostility to America and has made a mockery of democracy and human rights. If he opts for engagement -- for cutting a deal that rewards the mullahs for ending their nuclear weapons program -- he may eliminate a grave threat to regional stability and world peace. Such an achievement would be worthwhile, but would have its price.
Wednesday night, Bush addressed the Iranian people directly, saying, ''As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." These words will become an empty promise if Bush chooses to approve a transaction that strengthens the position of the regime in return for its verifiable commitment to foreswear nuclear weapons. Bush should not be making promises he is unlikely to keep.
Bush's Iranian finesse
February 4, 2005
IN HIS State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Bush was tantalizingly vague on a subject that is sure to rise to the top of his foreign policy agenda -- the threats and opportunities emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran. That vagueness may reflect a shrewd effort to avoid showing the administration's hand on Iran before it is forced to do so. Still, there are dangers in Bush's ambiguity.
His rhetoric was markedly less inflammatory than it was four years ago, when he included Tehran's religious dictatorship with Saddam Hussein's regime and North Korea in an ''axis of evil" that would not be tolerated. Yet today Iran's rulers are resisting the entreaties of negotiators from France, Germany, and Great Britain who have been offering incentives to persuade Iran to abjure development of nuclear weapons. . For that reason, Iran casts a more threatening shadow than it did in 2001, when Bush consigned Iran to his confused and confusing axis of evil.
Nonetheless, Bush's rhetorical restraint suits the needs of the moment. Notwithstanding dark hints from Vice President Dick Cheney about surgical strikes, perhaps by Israel, against nuclear sites in Iran, there are no sound military options for eliminating Tehran's nuclear weapons program. So Bush was smart to say, ''We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing."
There is a fundamental flaw, however, in the administration's passive acceptance of the Europeans' negotiations with Iran. The Europeans as well as the Iranians have been arguing that, if a deal is to be struck, it must include Washington. Only the Americans can deliver the security assurances Tehran wants, the lifting of economic sanctions, and accession to the World Trade Organization.
So Bush will have to decide, sooner rather than later, whether to engage with a regime that is rooted in hostility to America and has made a mockery of democracy and human rights. If he opts for engagement -- for cutting a deal that rewards the mullahs for ending their nuclear weapons program -- he may eliminate a grave threat to regional stability and world peace. Such an achievement would be worthwhile, but would have its price.
Wednesday night, Bush addressed the Iranian people directly, saying, ''As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." These words will become an empty promise if Bush chooses to approve a transaction that strengthens the position of the regime in return for its verifiable commitment to foreswear nuclear weapons. Bush should not be making promises he is unlikely to keep.
Bush's Iranian finesse
February 4, 2005
IN HIS State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Bush was tantalizingly vague on a subject that is sure to rise to the top of his foreign policy agenda -- the threats and opportunities emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran. That vagueness may reflect a shrewd effort to avoid showing the administration's hand on Iran before it is forced to do so. Still, there are dangers in Bush's ambiguity.
His rhetoric was markedly less inflammatory than it was four years ago, when he included Tehran's religious dictatorship with Saddam Hussein's regime and North Korea in an ''axis of evil" that would not be tolerated. Yet today Iran's rulers are resisting the entreaties of negotiators from France, Germany, and Great Britain who have been offering incentives to persuade Iran to abjure development of nuclear weapons. . For that reason, Iran casts a more threatening shadow than it did in 2001, when Bush consigned Iran to his confused and confusing axis of evil.
Nonetheless, Bush's rhetorical restraint suits the needs of the moment. Notwithstanding dark hints from Vice President Dick Cheney about surgical strikes, perhaps by Israel, against nuclear sites in Iran, there are no sound military options for eliminating Tehran's nuclear weapons program. So Bush was smart to say, ''We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing."
There is a fundamental flaw, however, in the administration's passive acceptance of the Europeans' negotiations with Iran. The Europeans as well as the Iranians have been arguing that, if a deal is to be struck, it must include Washington. Only the Americans can deliver the security assurances Tehran wants, the lifting of economic sanctions, and accession to the World Trade Organization.
So Bush will have to decide, sooner rather than later, whether to engage with a regime that is rooted in hostility to America and has made a mockery of democracy and human rights. If he opts for engagement -- for cutting a deal that rewards the mullahs for ending their nuclear weapons program -- he may eliminate a grave threat to regional stability and world peace. Such an achievement would be worthwhile, but would have its price.
Wednesday night, Bush addressed the Iranian people directly, saying, ''As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." These words will become an empty promise if Bush chooses to approve a transaction that strengthens the position of the regime in return for its verifiable commitment to foreswear nuclear weapons. Bush should not be making promises he is unlikely to keep.
Bush plan holds promise for Wall St.
Only a few big players would benefit initially, but as accounts grow more firms could gain
By Andrew Caffrey, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
President Bush's plan to create private investment accounts to augment Social Security would initially benefit a few large players in the money management industry, such as Boston's State Street Corp. But down the road, the sheer sum of money flowing into these accounts could become a boon for other firms, industry officials and analysts said yesterday.
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Thus far, Wall Street has been supportive of the concept of private investment accounts, which would bring millions of new customers into the investing business, but has kept a low profile in the debate because of its political sensitivity and lack of specifics.
The president is proposing to allow Americans under age 55 to invest a small portion of their payroll taxes into index funds, which are popular because of their extraordinary low costs and simplicity. The president would also let workers invest in a government securities fund and a so-called lifestyle fund, which becomes more conservative as workers near retirement.
Unlike actively managed funds, where professionals choose the investments, index funds automatically adjust their holdings to mimic major market indexes such as the Standard & Poor's 500.
Because the profit margins on index funds are so thin, companies have to accrue massive pools of assets -- billions and billions of dollars -- to make much money.
Bush's proposal would direct ''a modest amount of low-margin business to the low-margin players," said Robert Pozen, the chairman of MFS Investment Management in Boston. Pozen served on Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security and is a longtime expert on Social Security.
Bush plan holds promise for Wall St.
Only a few big players would benefit initially, but as accounts grow more firms could gain
By Andrew Caffrey, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
President Bush's plan to create private investment accounts to augment Social Security would initially benefit a few large players in the money management industry, such as Boston's State Street Corp. But down the road, the sheer sum of money flowing into these accounts could become a boon for other firms, industry officials and analysts said yesterday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thus far, Wall Street has been supportive of the concept of private investment accounts, which would bring millions of new customers into the investing business, but has kept a low profile in the debate because of its political sensitivity and lack of specifics.
The president is proposing to allow Americans under age 55 to invest a small portion of their payroll taxes into index funds, which are popular because of their extraordinary low costs and simplicity. The president would also let workers invest in a government securities fund and a so-called lifestyle fund, which becomes more conservative as workers near retirement.
Unlike actively managed funds, where professionals choose the investments, index funds automatically adjust their holdings to mimic major market indexes such as the Standard & Poor's 500.
Because the profit margins on index funds are so thin, companies have to accrue massive pools of assets -- billions and billions of dollars -- to make much money.
Bush's proposal would direct ''a modest amount of low-margin business to the low-margin players," said Robert Pozen, the chairman of MFS Investment Management in Boston. Pozen served on Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security and is a longtime expert on Social Security.
Bush plan holds promise for Wall St.
Only a few big players would benefit initially, but as accounts grow more firms could gain
By Andrew Caffrey, Globe Staff | February 4, 2005
President Bush's plan to create private investment accounts to augment Social Security would initially benefit a few large players in the money management industry, such as Boston's State Street Corp. But down the road, the sheer sum of money flowing into these accounts could become a boon for other firms, industry officials and analysts said yesterday.
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Thus far, Wall Street has been supportive of the concept of private investment accounts, which would bring millions of new customers into the investing business, but has kept a low profile in the debate because of its political sensitivity and lack of specifics.
The president is proposing to allow Americans under age 55 to invest a small portion of their payroll taxes into index funds, which are popular because of their extraordinary low costs and simplicity. The president would also let workers invest in a government securities fund and a so-called lifestyle fund, which becomes more conservative as workers near retirement.
Unlike actively managed funds, where professionals choose the investments, index funds automatically adjust their holdings to mimic major market indexes such as the Standard & Poor's 500.
Because the profit margins on index funds are so thin, companies have to accrue massive pools of assets -- billions and billions of dollars -- to make much money.
Bush's proposal would direct ''a modest amount of low-margin business to the low-margin players," said Robert Pozen, the chairman of MFS Investment Management in Boston. Pozen served on Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security and is a longtime expert on Social Security.
Army says it won't withhold payments to Halliburton
Decision made despite problems found in audits
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post | February 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In a departure from normal policy, the Army said yesterday that it will not withhold future payments to Halliburton Co., despite audit reports last summer that said the giant logistical contractor had not properly accounted for a wide array of work in Iraq and Kuwait.
ADVERTISEMENT
The decision was made months after Army auditors recommended withholding 15 percent of payments, about $60 million a month, from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc., or KBR, the largest government contractor in Iraq.
Acquisition regulations require the withholding in cases where work has not been "definitized" -- the process in which companies negotiate the final terms, conditions, and costs of work orders with the government.
Army officials sought a waiver of the requirement to "ensure we're continuing our contract operations in the theater . . . and to maintain our responsibility to the taxpayers," said Dan Carlson, a spokesman for the Army Field Support Command. Contracting officials can still withhold up to 15 percent in payments on a case-by-case basis, he said.
The decision was praised by Halliburton and derided by critics of the Bush administration, who said it underscores claims that the company has received special treatment. Halliburton became a political lightning rod during the presidential campaign last year because Vice President Dick Cheney served as the company's chief executive from 1995 to 2000 and KBR received no-bid contracts during the war.
The government has set aside $9.3 billion to pay KBR for troop support in the Middle East, Carlson said. KBR won the contract through competitive bidding. It has been paid almost $6.4 billion for work that includes base camp operations, supply convoys, sanitation, and fitness centers, the spokesman said. KBR also received a no-bid contract to repair Iraq's oil fields.
Democrats said senior Pentagon officials have ignored audit reports documenting allegations that Halliburton overcharged the government and mismanaged tax dollars. Critics said the Pentagon has given the company special treatment by twice waiving deadlines for imposing the 15 percent withholding.
Yesterday, Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, said, "This action is incomprehensible."
"Once again, the Bush administration is putting Halliburton's interests above those of the taxpayers," he said in a statement.
Halliburton spokeswoman Beverly Scippa said the Army's decision "means that KBR will be able to continue working closely with the Army Field Support Command . . . while still providing the same great level of support to the soldiers in the field."
"What is important to note is that the top priority has always been making sure that the troops get taken care of," she said.
The withholding of payments to KBR because of "definitization" questions was supposed to have begun last summer, about the time an audit report found that $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait had not been adequately accounted for. An official overseeing the logistics support contract chose to defer the decision to avoid any impact on troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.
At the end of November, Army officials formally asked to waive the 15 percent withholding rule. That request was forwarded to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. The final decision was made by Deidre Lee, the Pentagon director of acquisition and procurement policy, Army spokesman Carlson said.
Halliburton still faces questions from auditors about work in Iraq, including whether KBR overcharged for gasoline while on contract to help rebuild Iraqi oil fields. Under that contract, KBR did about $2.5 billion of work. KBR won a competitive bid for part of a contract to continue repairing Iraq's oil fields.
The Justice Department is investigating older allegations about profiteering in the Balkans and other activity in Nigeria and Iran.
Late last year, Halliburton announced some good news, saying that the Defense Contract Management Agency had approved its systems for estimating costs on the logistics support work.
KBR and several other Halliburton subsidiaries are emerging from bankruptcy proceedings related to asbestos litigation.
Company officials said recently that they will try to sell KBR.
Army says it won't withhold payments to Halliburton
Decision made despite problems found in audits
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post | February 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In a departure from normal policy, the Army said yesterday that it will not withhold future payments to Halliburton Co., despite audit reports last summer that said the giant logistical contractor had not properly accounted for a wide array of work in Iraq and Kuwait.
ADVERTISEMENT
The decision was made months after Army auditors recommended withholding 15 percent of payments, about $60 million a month, from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc., or KBR, the largest government contractor in Iraq.
Acquisition regulations require the withholding in cases where work has not been "definitized" -- the process in which companies negotiate the final terms, conditions, and costs of work orders with the government.
Army officials sought a waiver of the requirement to "ensure we're continuing our contract operations in the theater . . . and to maintain our responsibility to the taxpayers," said Dan Carlson, a spokesman for the Army Field Support Command. Contracting officials can still withhold up to 15 percent in payments on a case-by-case basis, he said.
The decision was praised by Halliburton and derided by critics of the Bush administration, who said it underscores claims that the company has received special treatment. Halliburton became a political lightning rod during the presidential campaign last year because Vice President Dick Cheney served as the company's chief executive from 1995 to 2000 and KBR received no-bid contracts during the war.
The government has set aside $9.3 billion to pay KBR for troop support in the Middle East, Carlson said. KBR won the contract through competitive bidding. It has been paid almost $6.4 billion for work that includes base camp operations, supply convoys, sanitation, and fitness centers, the spokesman said. KBR also received a no-bid contract to repair Iraq's oil fields.
Democrats said senior Pentagon officials have ignored audit reports documenting allegations that Halliburton overcharged the government and mismanaged tax dollars. Critics said the Pentagon has given the company special treatment by twice waiving deadlines for imposing the 15 percent withholding.
Yesterday, Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, said, "This action is incomprehensible."
"Once again, the Bush administration is putting Halliburton's interests above those of the taxpayers," he said in a statement.
Halliburton spokeswoman Beverly Scippa said the Army's decision "means that KBR will be able to continue working closely with the Army Field Support Command . . . while still providing the same great level of support to the soldiers in the field."
"What is important to note is that the top priority has always been making sure that the troops get taken care of," she said.
The withholding of payments to KBR because of "definitization" questions was supposed to have begun last summer, about the time an audit report found that $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait had not been adequately accounted for. An official overseeing the logistics support contract chose to defer the decision to avoid any impact on troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.
At the end of November, Army officials formally asked to waive the 15 percent withholding rule. That request was forwarded to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. The final decision was made by Deidre Lee, the Pentagon director of acquisition and procurement policy, Army spokesman Carlson said.
Halliburton still faces questions from auditors about work in Iraq, including whether KBR overcharged for gasoline while on contract to help rebuild Iraqi oil fields. Under that contract, KBR did about $2.5 billion of work. KBR won a competitive bid for part of a contract to continue repairing Iraq's oil fields.
The Justice Department is investigating older allegations about profiteering in the Balkans and other activity in Nigeria and Iran.
Late last year, Halliburton announced some good news, saying that the Defense Contract Management Agency had approved its systems for estimating costs on the logistics support work.
KBR and several other Halliburton subsidiaries are emerging from bankruptcy proceedings related to asbestos litigation.
Company officials said recently that they will try to sell KBR.
Army says it won't withhold payments to Halliburton
Decision made despite problems found in audits
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post | February 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In a departure from normal policy, the Army said yesterday that it will not withhold future payments to Halliburton Co., despite audit reports last summer that said the giant logistical contractor had not properly accounted for a wide array of work in Iraq and Kuwait.
ADVERTISEMENT
The decision was made months after Army auditors recommended withholding 15 percent of payments, about $60 million a month, from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc., or KBR, the largest government contractor in Iraq.
Acquisition regulations require the withholding in cases where work has not been "definitized" -- the process in which companies negotiate the final terms, conditions, and costs of work orders with the government.
Army officials sought a waiver of the requirement to "ensure we're continuing our contract operations in the theater . . . and to maintain our responsibility to the taxpayers," said Dan Carlson, a spokesman for the Army Field Support Command. Contracting officials can still withhold up to 15 percent in payments on a case-by-case basis, he said.
The decision was praised by Halliburton and derided by critics of the Bush administration, who said it underscores claims that the company has received special treatment. Halliburton became a political lightning rod during the presidential campaign last year because Vice President Dick Cheney served as the company's chief executive from 1995 to 2000 and KBR received no-bid contracts during the war.
The government has set aside $9.3 billion to pay KBR for troop support in the Middle East, Carlson said. KBR won the contract through competitive bidding. It has been paid almost $6.4 billion for work that includes base camp operations, supply convoys, sanitation, and fitness centers, the spokesman said. KBR also received a no-bid contract to repair Iraq's oil fields.
Democrats said senior Pentagon officials have ignored audit reports documenting allegations that Halliburton overcharged the government and mismanaged tax dollars. Critics said the Pentagon has given the company special treatment by twice waiving deadlines for imposing the 15 percent withholding.
Yesterday, Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, said, "This action is incomprehensible."
"Once again, the Bush administration is putting Halliburton's interests above those of the taxpayers," he said in a statement.
Halliburton spokeswoman Beverly Scippa said the Army's decision "means that KBR will be able to continue working closely with the Army Field Support Command . . . while still providing the same great level of support to the soldiers in the field."
"What is important to note is that the top priority has always been making sure that the troops get taken care of," she said.
The withholding of payments to KBR because of "definitization" questions was supposed to have begun last summer, about the time an audit report found that $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait had not been adequately accounted for. An official overseeing the logistics support contract chose to defer the decision to avoid any impact on troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.
At the end of November, Army officials formally asked to waive the 15 percent withholding rule. That request was forwarded to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. The final decision was made by Deidre Lee, the Pentagon director of acquisition and procurement policy, Army spokesman Carlson said.
Halliburton still faces questions from auditors about work in Iraq, including whether KBR overcharged for gasoline while on contract to help rebuild Iraqi oil fields. Under that contract, KBR did about $2.5 billion of work. KBR won a competitive bid for part of a contract to continue repairing Iraq's oil fields.
The Justice Department is investigating older allegations about profiteering in the Balkans and other activity in Nigeria and Iran.
Late last year, Halliburton announced some good news, saying that the Defense Contract Management Agency had approved its systems for estimating costs on the logistics support work.
KBR and several other Halliburton subsidiaries are emerging from bankruptcy proceedings related to asbestos litigation.
Company officials said recently that they will try to sell KBR.
Donors to DeLay Fund Put on Ethics Panel
Wed Feb 2, 2005 7:39 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two donors to U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay's defense fund were named on Wednesday to the House ethics committee, which twice last year admonished the Texas Republican.
In a shake-up of the bipartisan panel that critics called part of a purge and a "shutdown" of ethics enforcement, Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, also replaced the ethics chairman, Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican, with Washington state Republican Doc Hastings, who was already on the panel.
Hefley's term as chairman was up. Though it could have been extended, Hastert decided to replace him for the 109th Congress, which began last month.
Hastert appointed to the panel Republican Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma. Both have donated to a defense fund DeLay created in 2000 after Democrats filed a civil racketeering suit -- later dismissed with the agreement of both sides -- over his fund-raising network.
Smith donated $10,000 and Cole donated $5,000, according to the government-watchdog group Public Citizen.
The ethics committee last year admonished DeLay in two separate reports, on a total of three matters: a 2002 fund-raiser that it said gave the appearance of donors getting special access; enlisting the help of a federal agency in a Texas political spat, and offering a political favor to a member in an effort to win passage of the Medicare drug bill.
Three of DeLay's associates were indicted by a Texas grand jury in September in connection with illegal fund raising. The prosecutor has said the investigation is not finished. DeLay has said he is confident he will not be indicted.
PURGE
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "By ousting Mr. Hefley as chairman ... and replacing him with a party loyalist, the Republican leadership is sending a chilling message. It is further evidence that there is a purge under way of any Republican who does not precisely toe the party line."
Craig Holman of Congress Watch, a citizen's watchdog group, added: "This is clearly an attempt by Tom DeLay and the House Republican leadership to shut down House ethics enforcement."
Republicans rejected such criticism and said it was time to replace Hefley
Donors to DeLay Fund Put on Ethics Panel
Wed Feb 2, 2005 7:39 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two donors to U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay's defense fund were named on Wednesday to the House ethics committee, which twice last year admonished the Texas Republican.
In a shake-up of the bipartisan panel that critics called part of a purge and a "shutdown" of ethics enforcement, Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, also replaced the ethics chairman, Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican, with Washington state Republican Doc Hastings, who was already on the panel.
Hefley's term as chairman was up. Though it could have been extended, Hastert decided to replace him for the 109th Congress, which began last month.
Hastert appointed to the panel Republican Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma. Both have donated to a defense fund DeLay created in 2000 after Democrats filed a civil racketeering suit -- later dismissed with the agreement of both sides -- over his fund-raising network.
Smith donated $10,000 and Cole donated $5,000, according to the government-watchdog group Public Citizen.
The ethics committee last year admonished DeLay in two separate reports, on a total of three matters: a 2002 fund-raiser that it said gave the appearance of donors getting special access; enlisting the help of a federal agency in a Texas political spat, and offering a political favor to a member in an effort to win passage of the Medicare drug bill.
Three of DeLay's associates were indicted by a Texas grand jury in September in connection with illegal fund raising. The prosecutor has said the investigation is not finished. DeLay has said he is confident he will not be indicted.
PURGE
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "By ousting Mr. Hefley as chairman ... and replacing him with a party loyalist, the Republican leadership is sending a chilling message. It is further evidence that there is a purge under way of any Republican who does not precisely toe the party line."
Craig Holman of Congress Watch, a citizen's watchdog group, added: "This is clearly an attempt by Tom DeLay and the House Republican leadership to shut down House ethics enforcement."
Republicans rejected such criticism and said it was time to replace Hefley
Donors to DeLay Fund Put on Ethics Panel
Wed Feb 2, 2005 7:39 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two donors to U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay's defense fund were named on Wednesday to the House ethics committee, which twice last year admonished the Texas Republican.
In a shake-up of the bipartisan panel that critics called part of a purge and a "shutdown" of ethics enforcement, Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, also replaced the ethics chairman, Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican, with Washington state Republican Doc Hastings, who was already on the panel.
Hefley's term as chairman was up. Though it could have been extended, Hastert decided to replace him for the 109th Congress, which began last month.
Hastert appointed to the panel Republican Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma. Both have donated to a defense fund DeLay created in 2000 after Democrats filed a civil racketeering suit -- later dismissed with the agreement of both sides -- over his fund-raising network.
Smith donated $10,000 and Cole donated $5,000, according to the government-watchdog group Public Citizen.
The ethics committee last year admonished DeLay in two separate reports, on a total of three matters: a 2002 fund-raiser that it said gave the appearance of donors getting special access; enlisting the help of a federal agency in a Texas political spat, and offering a political favor to a member in an effort to win passage of the Medicare drug bill.
Three of DeLay's associates were indicted by a Texas grand jury in September in connection with illegal fund raising. The prosecutor has said the investigation is not finished. DeLay has said he is confident he will not be indicted.
PURGE
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "By ousting Mr. Hefley as chairman ... and replacing him with a party loyalist, the Republican leadership is sending a chilling message. It is further evidence that there is a purge under way of any Republican who does not precisely toe the party line."
Craig Holman of Congress Watch, a citizen's watchdog group, added: "This is clearly an attempt by Tom DeLay and the House Republican leadership to shut down House ethics enforcement."
Republicans rejected such criticism and said it was time to replace Hefley
Animated Frog's Genitals -- Okay for TV?
LONDON (Reuters) - Despite complaints from 60 people,
Britain's advertising regulators said Wednesday there is
nothing inappropriate about the genitals of an animated frog
whose high-pitched squeals are sold as a mobile phone ringtone.
Television adverts of the motorcycle-riding Crazy Frog, who
is drawn with a broad smile and a tiny penis, run frequently on
British television, amusing, baffling and annoying viewers.
"While unusual for an animated model of this type to be
shown with genitalia, no sexual or inappropriate references
were made about its anatomy," the UK's Advertising Standards
Authority said.
Twenty-two people complained they were worried children
might see the advertising, which also promotes screen savers
and mobile videos. Five parents said they were embarrassed by
questions their children had asked.
Other viewers simply found the commercial annoying and
thought it was shown too often.
"We appreciate that the frequent broadcast of the same, or
similar commercials can be annoying to some viewers," the ASA
said. "However, it is for the advertiser and broadcaster to
decide how often a particular advertisement is shown."
Because the ads contain a text number to place an order,
they are barred from being shown during children's programs,
and the ASA said there were no reports of children being
concerned by the advert.
Animated Frog's Genitals -- Okay for TV?
LONDON (Reuters) - Despite complaints from 60 people,
Britain's advertising regulators said Wednesday there is
nothing inappropriate about the genitals of an animated frog
whose high-pitched squeals are sold as a mobile phone ringtone.
Television adverts of the motorcycle-riding Crazy Frog, who
is drawn with a broad smile and a tiny penis, run frequently on
British television, amusing, baffling and annoying viewers.
"While unusual for an animated model of this type to be
shown with genitalia, no sexual or inappropriate references
were made about its anatomy," the UK's Advertising Standards
Authority said.
Twenty-two people complained they were worried children
might see the advertising, which also promotes screen savers
and mobile videos. Five parents said they were embarrassed by
questions their children had asked.
Other viewers simply found the commercial annoying and
thought it was shown too often.
"We appreciate that the frequent broadcast of the same, or
similar commercials can be annoying to some viewers," the ASA
said. "However, it is for the advertiser and broadcaster to
decide how often a particular advertisement is shown."
Because the ads contain a text number to place an order,
they are barred from being shown during children's programs,
and the ASA said there were no reports of children being
concerned by the advert.
Animated Frog's Genitals -- Okay for TV?
LONDON (Reuters) - Despite complaints from 60 people,
Britain's advertising regulators said Wednesday there is
nothing inappropriate about the genitals of an animated frog
whose high-pitched squeals are sold as a mobile phone ringtone.
Television adverts of the motorcycle-riding Crazy Frog, who
is drawn with a broad smile and a tiny penis, run frequently on
British television, amusing, baffling and annoying viewers.
"While unusual for an animated model of this type to be
shown with genitalia, no sexual or inappropriate references
were made about its anatomy," the UK's Advertising Standards
Authority said.
Twenty-two people complained they were worried children
might see the advertising, which also promotes screen savers
and mobile videos. Five parents said they were embarrassed by
questions their children had asked.
Other viewers simply found the commercial annoying and
thought it was shown too often.
"We appreciate that the frequent broadcast of the same, or
similar commercials can be annoying to some viewers," the ASA
said. "However, it is for the advertiser and broadcaster to
decide how often a particular advertisement is shown."
Because the ads contain a text number to place an order,
they are barred from being shown during children's programs,
and the ASA said there were no reports of children being
concerned by the advert.
ARCHEOLOGY
A likely Leonardo da Vinci workshop is discovered in a convent
February 1, 2005
A forgotten workshop of Leonardo da Vinci, complete with 500-year-old frescos and a secret room to dissect human cadavers, has been discovered in Florence, Italy, researchers said last week. The find was made in part of the Santissima Annunziata convent, which let out rooms to artists centuries ago and where the likely muse of the Renaissance artist's masterwork, the Mona Lisa, may have worshipped. ''It's a bit absurd to think that, in 2005, we have found the studio of one of history's greatest artists. But that is what has happened," said Roberto Manescalchi, one of three researchers credited for this month's discovery. ''The proof is on the walls." Frescos adorning part of the workshop were left undisturbed over the centuries and gradually forgotten. Manescalchi speculated that da Vinci had assistants in his workshop and probably used a ''secret" corner room for his dissections of human corpses, aimed at improving his understanding of anatomy. The find has sparked speculation that, while da Vinci was using the workshop, he might have met the probable model for the Mona Lisa, Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine merchant whose family had a chapel in the Santissima Annunziata.
ARCHEOLOGY
A likely Leonardo da Vinci workshop is discovered in a convent
February 1, 2005
A forgotten workshop of Leonardo da Vinci, complete with 500-year-old frescos and a secret room to dissect human cadavers, has been discovered in Florence, Italy, researchers said last week. The find was made in part of the Santissima Annunziata convent, which let out rooms to artists centuries ago and where the likely muse of the Renaissance artist's masterwork, the Mona Lisa, may have worshipped. ''It's a bit absurd to think that, in 2005, we have found the studio of one of history's greatest artists. But that is what has happened," said Roberto Manescalchi, one of three researchers credited for this month's discovery. ''The proof is on the walls." Frescos adorning part of the workshop were left undisturbed over the centuries and gradually forgotten. Manescalchi speculated that da Vinci had assistants in his workshop and probably used a ''secret" corner room for his dissections of human corpses, aimed at improving his understanding of anatomy. The find has sparked speculation that, while da Vinci was using the workshop, he might have met the probable model for the Mona Lisa, Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine merchant whose family had a chapel in the Santissima Annunziata.
ARCHEOLOGY
A likely Leonardo da Vinci workshop is discovered in a convent
February 1, 2005
A forgotten workshop of Leonardo da Vinci, complete with 500-year-old frescos and a secret room to dissect human cadavers, has been discovered in Florence, Italy, researchers said last week. The find was made in part of the Santissima Annunziata convent, which let out rooms to artists centuries ago and where the likely muse of the Renaissance artist's masterwork, the Mona Lisa, may have worshipped. ''It's a bit absurd to think that, in 2005, we have found the studio of one of history's greatest artists. But that is what has happened," said Roberto Manescalchi, one of three researchers credited for this month's discovery. ''The proof is on the walls." Frescos adorning part of the workshop were left undisturbed over the centuries and gradually forgotten. Manescalchi speculated that da Vinci had assistants in his workshop and probably used a ''secret" corner room for his dissections of human corpses, aimed at improving his understanding of anatomy. The find has sparked speculation that, while da Vinci was using the workshop, he might have met the probable model for the Mona Lisa, Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine merchant whose family had a chapel in the Santissima Annunziata.
Pentagon to Propose Bigger Military Death Benefits
Feb 1, 1:49 AM (ET)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure from lawmakers for better treatment for U.S forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to increase survivor benefits for families of service members killed in war, a Pentagon official said on Monday.
The proposed increase would effectively double to $500,000 the amount that survivors receive in government payments and life insurance benefits, The Washington Post reported.
Defense officials will ask that the higher payments be retroactive to October 2001, when the war in Afghanistan started. About 1,500 U.S. forces have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is a recognition that some of the benefit programs have not kept apace with the times," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Pentagon officials would be discussing their proposal in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Whitman said.
Citing unnamed officials, The Washington Post reported the proposal to boost benefits will be sent to Congress formally next week as part of President Bush's 2006 budget request.
Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced legislation to raise military death payments. The proposed legislation is part of a broader effort in Congress to improve conditions for members of the armed forces, their families and veterans, The Washington Post said.
Pentagon to Propose Bigger Military Death Benefits
Feb 1, 1:49 AM (ET)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure from lawmakers for better treatment for U.S forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to increase survivor benefits for families of service members killed in war, a Pentagon official said on Monday.
The proposed increase would effectively double to $500,000 the amount that survivors receive in government payments and life insurance benefits, The Washington Post reported.
Defense officials will ask that the higher payments be retroactive to October 2001, when the war in Afghanistan started. About 1,500 U.S. forces have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is a recognition that some of the benefit programs have not kept apace with the times," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Pentagon officials would be discussing their proposal in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Whitman said.
Citing unnamed officials, The Washington Post reported the proposal to boost benefits will be sent to Congress formally next week as part of President Bush's 2006 budget request.
Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced legislation to raise military death payments. The proposed legislation is part of a broader effort in Congress to improve conditions for members of the armed forces, their families and veterans, The Washington Post said.
Pentagon to Propose Bigger Military Death Benefits
Feb 1, 1:49 AM (ET)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure from lawmakers for better treatment for U.S forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to increase survivor benefits for families of service members killed in war, a Pentagon official said on Monday.
The proposed increase would effectively double to $500,000 the amount that survivors receive in government payments and life insurance benefits, The Washington Post reported.
Defense officials will ask that the higher payments be retroactive to October 2001, when the war in Afghanistan started. About 1,500 U.S. forces have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is a recognition that some of the benefit programs have not kept apace with the times," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Pentagon officials would be discussing their proposal in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Whitman said.
Citing unnamed officials, The Washington Post reported the proposal to boost benefits will be sent to Congress formally next week as part of President Bush's 2006 budget request.
Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced legislation to raise military death payments. The proposed legislation is part of a broader effort in Congress to improve conditions for members of the armed forces, their families and veterans, The Washington Post said.
Brain immaturity can be deadly
NIH study: Risk-taking diminishes at age 25By Elizabeth Williamson
Updated: 12:24 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2005By most physical measures, teenagers should be the world's best drivers. Their muscles are supple, their reflexes quick, their senses at a lifetime peak. Yet car crashes kill more of them than any other cause -- a problem, some researchers believe, that is rooted in the adolescent brain.
A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws.
"We'd thought the highest levels of physical and brain maturity were reached by age 18, maybe earlier -- so this threw us," said Jay Giedd, a pediatric psychiatrist leading the study, which released its first results in April. That makes adolescence "a dangerous time, when it should be the best."
con't
Brain immaturity can be deadly
NIH study: Risk-taking diminishes at age 25By Elizabeth Williamson
Updated: 12:24 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2005By most physical measures, teenagers should be the world's best drivers. Their muscles are supple, their reflexes quick, their senses at a lifetime peak. Yet car crashes kill more of them than any other cause -- a problem, some researchers believe, that is rooted in the adolescent brain.
A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws.
"We'd thought the highest levels of physical and brain maturity were reached by age 18, maybe earlier -- so this threw us," said Jay Giedd, a pediatric psychiatrist leading the study, which released its first results in April. That makes adolescence "a dangerous time, when it should be the best."
con't
Brain immaturity can be deadly
NIH study: Risk-taking diminishes at age 25By Elizabeth Williamson
Updated: 12:24 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2005By most physical measures, teenagers should be the world's best drivers. Their muscles are supple, their reflexes quick, their senses at a lifetime peak. Yet car crashes kill more of them than any other cause -- a problem, some researchers believe, that is rooted in the adolescent brain.
A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws.
"We'd thought the highest levels of physical and brain maturity were reached by age 18, maybe earlier -- so this threw us," said Jay Giedd, a pediatric psychiatrist leading the study, which released its first results in April. That makes adolescence "a dangerous time, when it should be the best."
con't
ASKAN, Iraq (AP) -- The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it.
By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad.
With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics.
"When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game."
ASKAN, Iraq (AP) -- The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it.
By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad.
With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics.
"When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game."
ASKAN, Iraq (AP) -- The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it.
By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad.
With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics.
"When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game."
Hi there. Like myself, and many others across the world, you've probably noticed a man on eBay is renting his forehead for 30 days, so you can put your logo on it. Well, now, you can do so in the UK. No longer restricted to USA based advertising, you can now rent my CLEAVAGE for a period of 15 days, during which I will display your company logo, slogan or web-site address in the form of a temporary tattoo you will supply to me. I should probably give you some information on the whereabouts of this living billboard. I currently live in the town of Greenock in west of Scotland. I'm often to be found in Glasgow or Edinburgh as well. I'm a 27 year old auburn-haired lass. I'm an ample size 42GG, and I usually wear low-cut tops. I am renting the top part of my cleavage (the part which is legal to display) for you to put your company's logo upon. During the 15 days, I can have photos taken of me, with your logo, in front of any of the popular landmarks in Glasgow, or our nation's capital. The other auction, based in the US, has generated massive media interest around the world, and this auction will likely also generate such attention from UK media. Imagine the possibilities of getting your company logo displayed, FOR FREE on national media. All I ask in return is that you supply the temporary tattoo, and that your logo be no larger than 9 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. Also, I cannot advertise any sectarian, or racial logos, slogans or URL's which point to such sites. Also, if the content is of an 'adult' nature, it must be censored to ensure that it is legal to display in a public area.
Hi there. Like myself, and many others across the world, you've probably noticed a man on eBay is renting his forehead for 30 days, so you can put your logo on it. Well, now, you can do so in the UK. No longer restricted to USA based advertising, you can now rent my CLEAVAGE for a period of 15 days, during which I will display your company logo, slogan or web-site address in the form of a temporary tattoo you will supply to me. I should probably give you some information on the whereabouts of this living billboard. I currently live in the town of Greenock in west of Scotland. I'm often to be found in Glasgow or Edinburgh as well. I'm a 27 year old auburn-haired lass. I'm an ample size 42GG, and I usually wear low-cut tops. I am renting the top part of my cleavage (the part which is legal to display) for you to put your company's logo upon. During the 15 days, I can have photos taken of me, with your logo, in front of any of the popular landmarks in Glasgow, or our nation's capital. The other auction, based in the US, has generated massive media interest around the world, and this auction will likely also generate such attention from UK media. Imagine the possibilities of getting your company logo displayed, FOR FREE on national media. All I ask in return is that you supply the temporary tattoo, and that your logo be no larger than 9 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. Also, I cannot advertise any sectarian, or racial logos, slogans or URL's which point to such sites. Also, if the content is of an 'adult' nature, it must be censored to ensure that it is legal to display in a public area.
Hi there. Like myself, and many others across the world, you've probably noticed a man on eBay is renting his forehead for 30 days, so you can put your logo on it. Well, now, you can do so in the UK. No longer restricted to USA based advertising, you can now rent my CLEAVAGE for a period of 15 days, during which I will display your company logo, slogan or web-site address in the form of a temporary tattoo you will supply to me. I should probably give you some information on the whereabouts of this living billboard. I currently live in the town of Greenock in west of Scotland. I'm often to be found in Glasgow or Edinburgh as well. I'm a 27 year old auburn-haired lass. I'm an ample size 42GG, and I usually wear low-cut tops. I am renting the top part of my cleavage (the part which is legal to display) for you to put your company's logo upon. During the 15 days, I can have photos taken of me, with your logo, in front of any of the popular landmarks in Glasgow, or our nation's capital. The other auction, based in the US, has generated massive media interest around the world, and this auction will likely also generate such attention from UK media. Imagine the possibilities of getting your company logo displayed, FOR FREE on national media. All I ask in return is that you supply the temporary tattoo, and that your logo be no larger than 9 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. Also, I cannot advertise any sectarian, or racial logos, slogans or URL's which point to such sites. Also, if the content is of an 'adult' nature, it must be censored to ensure that it is legal to display in a public area.
Oil prices won't fall, OPEC says
By Associated Press | January 31, 2005
VIENNA -- Consumers received no solace yesterday from OPEC, which said oil prices near $50 per barrel would remain high through the spring, even as the cartel decided to keep its production ceiling unchanged.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' current quota of 27 million barrels a day was set in December, when it agreed to shave output by 1 million barrels. But the 10 members of the group subject to the quota -- Iraq is not bound by a limit -- have been overproducing by a total of 500,000 barrels daily.
Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who leads OPEC, said he has permission to conduct a phone meeting before the next gathering, on March 16 in Iran, to address output if market conditions warrant. Al-Sabah said prices have been driven higher amid fears of a cold winter in Europe and North America, where demand for heating oil is high. He said OPEC's decision was aimed at bringing more stability to the market.
Oil prices won't fall, OPEC says
By Associated Press | January 31, 2005
VIENNA -- Consumers received no solace yesterday from OPEC, which said oil prices near $50 per barrel would remain high through the spring, even as the cartel decided to keep its production ceiling unchanged.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' current quota of 27 million barrels a day was set in December, when it agreed to shave output by 1 million barrels. But the 10 members of the group subject to the quota -- Iraq is not bound by a limit -- have been overproducing by a total of 500,000 barrels daily.
Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who leads OPEC, said he has permission to conduct a phone meeting before the next gathering, on March 16 in Iran, to address output if market conditions warrant. Al-Sabah said prices have been driven higher amid fears of a cold winter in Europe and North America, where demand for heating oil is high. He said OPEC's decision was aimed at bringing more stability to the market.
Oil prices won't fall, OPEC says
By Associated Press | January 31, 2005
VIENNA -- Consumers received no solace yesterday from OPEC, which said oil prices near $50 per barrel would remain high through the spring, even as the cartel decided to keep its production ceiling unchanged.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' current quota of 27 million barrels a day was set in December, when it agreed to shave output by 1 million barrels. But the 10 members of the group subject to the quota -- Iraq is not bound by a limit -- have been overproducing by a total of 500,000 barrels daily.
Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who leads OPEC, said he has permission to conduct a phone meeting before the next gathering, on March 16 in Iran, to address output if market conditions warrant. Al-Sabah said prices have been driven higher amid fears of a cold winter in Europe and North America, where demand for heating oil is high. He said OPEC's decision was aimed at bringing more stability to the market.
Flooding in I-93 tunnel snarls traffic for hours
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 31, 2005
A temporary pump that siphons water from the Dewey Square portion of the Interstate 93 southbound tunnel suddenly lost power yesterday, flooding the left lane and backing up traffic for miles, state highway officials said.
A half-foot of water flooded into the tunnel from snow melting above ground, forcing State Police to close the left lane near the Chinatown exit for about five hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
During that time, traffic backed up past the Storrow Drive exit.
The pump failure was the latest in a string of problems on the Big Dig, and quickly revived memories of serious flooding in the tunnel that erupted last September, when water gushed from leaks in the tunnel walls.
Flooding in I-93 tunnel snarls traffic for hours
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 31, 2005
A temporary pump that siphons water from the Dewey Square portion of the Interstate 93 southbound tunnel suddenly lost power yesterday, flooding the left lane and backing up traffic for miles, state highway officials said.
A half-foot of water flooded into the tunnel from snow melting above ground, forcing State Police to close the left lane near the Chinatown exit for about five hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
During that time, traffic backed up past the Storrow Drive exit.
The pump failure was the latest in a string of problems on the Big Dig, and quickly revived memories of serious flooding in the tunnel that erupted last September, when water gushed from leaks in the tunnel walls.
Flooding in I-93 tunnel snarls traffic for hours
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 31, 2005
A temporary pump that siphons water from the Dewey Square portion of the Interstate 93 southbound tunnel suddenly lost power yesterday, flooding the left lane and backing up traffic for miles, state highway officials said.
A half-foot of water flooded into the tunnel from snow melting above ground, forcing State Police to close the left lane near the Chinatown exit for about five hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
During that time, traffic backed up past the Storrow Drive exit.
The pump failure was the latest in a string of problems on the Big Dig, and quickly revived memories of serious flooding in the tunnel that erupted last September, when water gushed from leaks in the tunnel walls.
Bush calls vote 'resounding success' for democracy
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | January 31, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush congratulated Iraqis yesterday on what he called the ''resounding success" of their election, and signaled that he saw the vote as a victory for his larger vision of bringing democracy to the Arab world.
''Today, the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," Bush said at a press briefing after Iraqi polls closed yesterday. ''There is more distance to travel on the road to democracy, yet Iraqis are proving they are equal to the challenge."
Bush calls vote 'resounding success' for democracy
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | January 31, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush congratulated Iraqis yesterday on what he called the ''resounding success" of their election, and signaled that he saw the vote as a victory for his larger vision of bringing democracy to the Arab world.
''Today, the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," Bush said at a press briefing after Iraqi polls closed yesterday. ''There is more distance to travel on the road to democracy, yet Iraqis are proving they are equal to the challenge."
Bush calls vote 'resounding success' for democracy
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | January 31, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush congratulated Iraqis yesterday on what he called the ''resounding success" of their election, and signaled that he saw the vote as a victory for his larger vision of bringing democracy to the Arab world.
''Today, the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," Bush said at a press briefing after Iraqi polls closed yesterday. ''There is more distance to travel on the road to democracy, yet Iraqis are proving they are equal to the challenge."
A plea for troops to come home
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | January 31, 2005
After polls closed on Election Day in Iraq yesterday, war veterans and their families brought the battle to save loved ones in the war to the home front, calling on President Bush to pull out US troops before thousands more die.
The veterans and their families received standing ovations from a crowd of more than 400 people at Faneuil Hall, at the first of a string of unofficial public hearings to be held over the next week in the Boston area.
Testimony came from two groups that favor removing US troops immediately, the 150-member Iraq Veterans Against the War, which was created last summer, and Military Families Speak Out, a 2,000-family organization founded in 2002.
Organizers said they are holding hearings at colleges, churches, and community centers to reveal the war's effect on the military and their families. Yesterday, a 17-year-old Billerica girl whose father is in Iraq wept as she worried about what he will be like when he returns. A former soldier from New York told how his twin brother, also a soldier, returned in a body bag. A Belchertown woman said her family's joy over her brother's return from Iraq melted into grief when he killed himself.
A plea for troops to come home
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | January 31, 2005
After polls closed on Election Day in Iraq yesterday, war veterans and their families brought the battle to save loved ones in the war to the home front, calling on President Bush to pull out US troops before thousands more die.
The veterans and their families received standing ovations from a crowd of more than 400 people at Faneuil Hall, at the first of a string of unofficial public hearings to be held over the next week in the Boston area.
Testimony came from two groups that favor removing US troops immediately, the 150-member Iraq Veterans Against the War, which was created last summer, and Military Families Speak Out, a 2,000-family organization founded in 2002.
Organizers said they are holding hearings at colleges, churches, and community centers to reveal the war's effect on the military and their families. Yesterday, a 17-year-old Billerica girl whose father is in Iraq wept as she worried about what he will be like when he returns. A former soldier from New York told how his twin brother, also a soldier, returned in a body bag. A Belchertown woman said her family's joy over her brother's return from Iraq melted into grief when he killed himself.
A plea for troops to come home
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | January 31, 2005
After polls closed on Election Day in Iraq yesterday, war veterans and their families brought the battle to save loved ones in the war to the home front, calling on President Bush to pull out US troops before thousands more die.
The veterans and their families received standing ovations from a crowd of more than 400 people at Faneuil Hall, at the first of a string of unofficial public hearings to be held over the next week in the Boston area.
Testimony came from two groups that favor removing US troops immediately, the 150-member Iraq Veterans Against the War, which was created last summer, and Military Families Speak Out, a 2,000-family organization founded in 2002.
Organizers said they are holding hearings at colleges, churches, and community centers to reveal the war's effect on the military and their families. Yesterday, a 17-year-old Billerica girl whose father is in Iraq wept as she worried about what he will be like when he returns. A former soldier from New York told how his twin brother, also a soldier, returned in a body bag. A Belchertown woman said her family's joy over her brother's return from Iraq melted into grief when he killed himself.
BAGHDAD — The man replacing the mayor of Baghdad — who was assassinated for his pro-American loyalties — says he is not worried about his ties to Washington.
In fact, he'd like to erect a monument to honor President Bush in the middle of the city.
"We will build a statue for Bush," said Ali Fadel, the former provincial council chairman. "He is the symbol of freedom."
Fadel's predecessor, Ali al-Haidari, was gunned down Jan. 4 when militants opened fire on his armor-covered BMW as it traveled with a three-car convoy.
Fadel said he received numerous threats on his life as the council chairman, and expects to get many more in his new post.
"My life is cheap," Fadel said. "Everything is cheap for my country."
As Iraq prepared for a volatile election that is being watched across the world, Fadel heaped praise on the United States.
Fadel acknowledged that many in his country appear ungrateful for America's foreign assistance. He said most Iraqis are still in "shock" over the changes, and need time to adjust.
Any public monument to Bush is likely to further incense terrorist forces, who have attacked American troops and their supporters for months.
Fadel said he is undaunted.
"We have a lot of work and we are especially grateful to the soldiers of the U.S.A. for freeing our country of tyranny," Fadel said.
As for his own protection, the new mayor will be traveling in a new $150,000 SUV complete with bulletproof windows and flat-resistant tires.
BAGHDAD — The man replacing the mayor of Baghdad — who was assassinated for his pro-American loyalties — says he is not worried about his ties to Washington.
In fact, he'd like to erect a monument to honor President Bush in the middle of the city.
"We will build a statue for Bush," said Ali Fadel, the former provincial council chairman. "He is the symbol of freedom."
Fadel's predecessor, Ali al-Haidari, was gunned down Jan. 4 when militants opened fire on his armor-covered BMW as it traveled with a three-car convoy.
Fadel said he received numerous threats on his life as the council chairman, and expects to get many more in his new post.
"My life is cheap," Fadel said. "Everything is cheap for my country."
As Iraq prepared for a volatile election that is being watched across the world, Fadel heaped praise on the United States.
Fadel acknowledged that many in his country appear ungrateful for America's foreign assistance. He said most Iraqis are still in "shock" over the changes, and need time to adjust.
Any public monument to Bush is likely to further incense terrorist forces, who have attacked American troops and their supporters for months.
Fadel said he is undaunted.
"We have a lot of work and we are especially grateful to the soldiers of the U.S.A. for freeing our country of tyranny," Fadel said.
As for his own protection, the new mayor will be traveling in a new $150,000 SUV complete with bulletproof windows and flat-resistant tires.
BAGHDAD — The man replacing the mayor of Baghdad — who was assassinated for his pro-American loyalties — says he is not worried about his ties to Washington.
In fact, he'd like to erect a monument to honor President Bush in the middle of the city.
"We will build a statue for Bush," said Ali Fadel, the former provincial council chairman. "He is the symbol of freedom."
Fadel's predecessor, Ali al-Haidari, was gunned down Jan. 4 when militants opened fire on his armor-covered BMW as it traveled with a three-car convoy.
Fadel said he received numerous threats on his life as the council chairman, and expects to get many more in his new post.
"My life is cheap," Fadel said. "Everything is cheap for my country."
As Iraq prepared for a volatile election that is being watched across the world, Fadel heaped praise on the United States.
Fadel acknowledged that many in his country appear ungrateful for America's foreign assistance. He said most Iraqis are still in "shock" over the changes, and need time to adjust.
Any public monument to Bush is likely to further incense terrorist forces, who have attacked American troops and their supporters for months.
Fadel said he is undaunted.
"We have a lot of work and we are especially grateful to the soldiers of the U.S.A. for freeing our country of tyranny," Fadel said.
As for his own protection, the new mayor will be traveling in a new $150,000 SUV complete with bulletproof windows and flat-resistant tires.
By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found.
The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general.
The findings were released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.
The official who led the CPA, L. Paul Bremer III, submitted a blistering, written reply to the findings, saying the report had ``many misconceptions and inaccuracies,'' and lacked professional judgment.
Bremer complained the report ``assumes that Western-style budgeting and accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in the midst of a war.''
The inspector general said the occupying agency disbursed $8.8 billion to Iraqi ministries ``without assurance the moneys were properly accounted for.''
U.S. officials, the report said, ``did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractural controls.'' There was no way to verify that the money was used for its intended purposes of financing humanitarian needs, economic reconstruction, repair of facilities, disarmament and civil administration.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Sunday the authority was hamstrung by ``extraordinary conditions'' under which it worked throughout its mission.
``We simply disagree with the audit's conclusion that the CPA provided less than adequate controls,'' Whitman said.
Turning over the money ``was in keeping with the CPA's responsibility to transfer these funds and administrative responsibilities to the Iraqi ministries as an essential part of restoring Iraqi governance.''
The inspector general cited an International Monetary Fund assessment in October, 2003 on the poor state of Iraqi government offices. The assessment found ministries suffered from staff shortages, poor security, disruptions in communications, damage and looting of government buildings, and lack of financial policies.
Some of the transferred funds may have paid ``ghost'' employees, the inspector general found.
CPA staff learned that 8,206 guards were on the payroll at one ministry, but only 602 could be accounted for, the report said. At another ministry, U.S. officials found 1,417 guards on the payroll but could only confirm 642.
When staff members of the U.S. occupation government recommended that payrolls be verified before salary payments, CPA financial officials ``stated the CPA would rather overpay salaries than risk not paying employees and inciting violence,'' the inspector general said.
Bremer attacked many of the specific findings. Among his rebuttal points:
With more than a million Iraqi families depending on government salaries, there would have been an increased security threat if civil servants had not been paid until modern pay records were developed.
U.S. policy was to build up the Iraqi force guarding government facilities, and it was better to accept an imperfect payroll system than ``to stop paying armed young men'' providing security.
The report was suggesting the CPA ``should have placed hundreds of CPA auditors'' in Iraqi ministries, contrary to United States and United Nations policy of giving Iraqi ministers responsibility for their budgets.
The CPA established a program review board, an independent judiciary and inspector generals in each agency to fight corruption.
The inspector general's report rejected Bremer's criticism. It concluded that despite the war, ``We believe the CPA management of Iraq's national budget process and oversight of Iraqi funds was burdened by severe inefficiencies and poor management.''
By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found.
The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general.
The findings were released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.
The official who led the CPA, L. Paul Bremer III, submitted a blistering, written reply to the findings, saying the report had ``many misconceptions and inaccuracies,'' and lacked professional judgment.
Bremer complained the report ``assumes that Western-style budgeting and accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in the midst of a war.''
The inspector general said the occupying agency disbursed $8.8 billion to Iraqi ministries ``without assurance the moneys were properly accounted for.''
U.S. officials, the report said, ``did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractural controls.'' There was no way to verify that the money was used for its intended purposes of financing humanitarian needs, economic reconstruction, repair of facilities, disarmament and civil administration.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Sunday the authority was hamstrung by ``extraordinary conditions'' under which it worked throughout its mission.
``We simply disagree with the audit's conclusion that the CPA provided less than adequate controls,'' Whitman said.
Turning over the money ``was in keeping with the CPA's responsibility to transfer these funds and administrative responsibilities to the Iraqi ministries as an essential part of restoring Iraqi governance.''
The inspector general cited an International Monetary Fund assessment in October, 2003 on the poor state of Iraqi government offices. The assessment found ministries suffered from staff shortages, poor security, disruptions in communications, damage and looting of government buildings, and lack of financial policies.
Some of the transferred funds may have paid ``ghost'' employees, the inspector general found.
CPA staff learned that 8,206 guards were on the payroll at one ministry, but only 602 could be accounted for, the report said. At another ministry, U.S. officials found 1,417 guards on the payroll but could only confirm 642.
When staff members of the U.S. occupation government recommended that payrolls be verified before salary payments, CPA financial officials ``stated the CPA would rather overpay salaries than risk not paying employees and inciting violence,'' the inspector general said.
Bremer attacked many of the specific findings. Among his rebuttal points:
With more than a million Iraqi families depending on government salaries, there would have been an increased security threat if civil servants had not been paid until modern pay records were developed.
U.S. policy was to build up the Iraqi force guarding government facilities, and it was better to accept an imperfect payroll system than ``to stop paying armed young men'' providing security.
The report was suggesting the CPA ``should have placed hundreds of CPA auditors'' in Iraqi ministries, contrary to United States and United Nations policy of giving Iraqi ministers responsibility for their budgets.
The CPA established a program review board, an independent judiciary and inspector generals in each agency to fight corruption.
The inspector general's report rejected Bremer's criticism. It concluded that despite the war, ``We believe the CPA management of Iraq's national budget process and oversight of Iraqi funds was burdened by severe inefficiencies and poor management.''
By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found.
The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general.
The findings were released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.
The official who led the CPA, L. Paul Bremer III, submitted a blistering, written reply to the findings, saying the report had ``many misconceptions and inaccuracies,'' and lacked professional judgment.
Bremer complained the report ``assumes that Western-style budgeting and accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in the midst of a war.''
The inspector general said the occupying agency disbursed $8.8 billion to Iraqi ministries ``without assurance the moneys were properly accounted for.''
U.S. officials, the report said, ``did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractural controls.'' There was no way to verify that the money was used for its intended purposes of financing humanitarian needs, economic reconstruction, repair of facilities, disarmament and civil administration.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Sunday the authority was hamstrung by ``extraordinary conditions'' under which it worked throughout its mission.
``We simply disagree with the audit's conclusion that the CPA provided less than adequate controls,'' Whitman said.
Turning over the money ``was in keeping with the CPA's responsibility to transfer these funds and administrative responsibilities to the Iraqi ministries as an essential part of restoring Iraqi governance.''
The inspector general cited an International Monetary Fund assessment in October, 2003 on the poor state of Iraqi government offices. The assessment found ministries suffered from staff shortages, poor security, disruptions in communications, damage and looting of government buildings, and lack of financial policies.
Some of the transferred funds may have paid ``ghost'' employees, the inspector general found.
CPA staff learned that 8,206 guards were on the payroll at one ministry, but only 602 could be accounted for, the report said. At another ministry, U.S. officials found 1,417 guards on the payroll but could only confirm 642.
When staff members of the U.S. occupation government recommended that payrolls be verified before salary payments, CPA financial officials ``stated the CPA would rather overpay salaries than risk not paying employees and inciting violence,'' the inspector general said.
Bremer attacked many of the specific findings. Among his rebuttal points:
With more than a million Iraqi families depending on government salaries, there would have been an increased security threat if civil servants had not been paid until modern pay records were developed.
U.S. policy was to build up the Iraqi force guarding government facilities, and it was better to accept an imperfect payroll system than ``to stop paying armed young men'' providing security.
The report was suggesting the CPA ``should have placed hundreds of CPA auditors'' in Iraqi ministries, contrary to United States and United Nations policy of giving Iraqi ministers responsibility for their budgets.
The CPA established a program review board, an independent judiciary and inspector generals in each agency to fight corruption.
The inspector general's report rejected Bremer's criticism. It concluded that despite the war, ``We believe the CPA management of Iraq's national budget process and oversight of Iraqi funds was burdened by severe inefficiencies and poor management.''
MOSCOW, January 28 (Itar-Tass) - The customs service in a Volga region has seized more than 37 kilograms of depleted uranium.
A spokesman at the Federal Customs Service told Itar-Tass on Friday that workers of the Orenburg customs service spotted the dangerous cargo on Wednesday during examination of a car with a radiation detector.
The radiation-emitting object was a cylindrical protective container intended for remote manipulation with radioactive substances.
It contained 37.5 kilograms of uranium-238, which is a depleted form.
An owner of the container described it in a customs declaration as a “dumb-bell”. He said he had found it at a dump and used it for exercise and sometimes straightened nails with it.
Specialists are looking for the origin of the container.
MOSCOW, January 28 (Itar-Tass) - The customs service in a Volga region has seized more than 37 kilograms of depleted uranium.
A spokesman at the Federal Customs Service told Itar-Tass on Friday that workers of the Orenburg customs service spotted the dangerous cargo on Wednesday during examination of a car with a radiation detector.
The radiation-emitting object was a cylindrical protective container intended for remote manipulation with radioactive substances.
It contained 37.5 kilograms of uranium-238, which is a depleted form.
An owner of the container described it in a customs declaration as a “dumb-bell”. He said he had found it at a dump and used it for exercise and sometimes straightened nails with it.
Specialists are looking for the origin of the container.
MOSCOW, January 28 (Itar-Tass) - The customs service in a Volga region has seized more than 37 kilograms of depleted uranium.
A spokesman at the Federal Customs Service told Itar-Tass on Friday that workers of the Orenburg customs service spotted the dangerous cargo on Wednesday during examination of a car with a radiation detector.
The radiation-emitting object was a cylindrical protective container intended for remote manipulation with radioactive substances.
It contained 37.5 kilograms of uranium-238, which is a depleted form.
An owner of the container described it in a customs declaration as a “dumb-bell”. He said he had found it at a dump and used it for exercise and sometimes straightened nails with it.
Specialists are looking for the origin of the container.
Officials say third columnist was paid to promote Bush policy
Helped HHS push marriage initiative
By Siobhan McDonough, Associated Press | January 29, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that a third conservative columnist was paid to help promote a Bush administration policy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Columnist Mike McManus received $10,000 to train marriage counselors as part of the agency's initiative promoting marriage to build strong families, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families.
The disclosure was made as the Government Accountability Office sent a letter to the Education Department yesterday asking for all materials related to its contract dealings with a prominent conservative media commentator.
That department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired commentator Armstrong Williams to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The contract also committed Williams, who is black, to provide media access for Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law.
Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.
The Education Department received the GAO letter and is reviewing it, department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said. ''Secretary Spelling has made it very clear she is getting to the bottom of this."
Margaret Spellings started this week, replacing Paige. In a letter to Senators Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, dated yesterday, Spellings wrote, ''At this point, what I can say is that at a minimum, there were errors of judgments at the Department, and I am diligently working to get to the bottom of it all."
The lawmakers are on a panel that oversees education spending, and their subcommittee is looking into the matter.
Officials say third columnist was paid to promote Bush policy
Helped HHS push marriage initiative
By Siobhan McDonough, Associated Press | January 29, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that a third conservative columnist was paid to help promote a Bush administration policy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Columnist Mike McManus received $10,000 to train marriage counselors as part of the agency's initiative promoting marriage to build strong families, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families.
The disclosure was made as the Government Accountability Office sent a letter to the Education Department yesterday asking for all materials related to its contract dealings with a prominent conservative media commentator.
That department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired commentator Armstrong Williams to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The contract also committed Williams, who is black, to provide media access for Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law.
Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.
The Education Department received the GAO letter and is reviewing it, department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said. ''Secretary Spelling has made it very clear she is getting to the bottom of this."
Margaret Spellings started this week, replacing Paige. In a letter to Senators Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, dated yesterday, Spellings wrote, ''At this point, what I can say is that at a minimum, there were errors of judgments at the Department, and I am diligently working to get to the bottom of it all."
The lawmakers are on a panel that oversees education spending, and their subcommittee is looking into the matter.
Officials say third columnist was paid to promote Bush policy
Helped HHS push marriage initiative
By Siobhan McDonough, Associated Press | January 29, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that a third conservative columnist was paid to help promote a Bush administration policy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Columnist Mike McManus received $10,000 to train marriage counselors as part of the agency's initiative promoting marriage to build strong families, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families.
The disclosure was made as the Government Accountability Office sent a letter to the Education Department yesterday asking for all materials related to its contract dealings with a prominent conservative media commentator.
That department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired commentator Armstrong Williams to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The contract also committed Williams, who is black, to provide media access for Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law.
Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.
The Education Department received the GAO letter and is reviewing it, department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said. ''Secretary Spelling has made it very clear she is getting to the bottom of this."
Margaret Spellings started this week, replacing Paige. In a letter to Senators Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, dated yesterday, Spellings wrote, ''At this point, what I can say is that at a minimum, there were errors of judgments at the Department, and I am diligently working to get to the bottom of it all."
The lawmakers are on a panel that oversees education spending, and their subcommittee is looking into the matter.
Creationists at the gate
January 29, 2005
EMBOLDENED BY the important role social conservatives played in the reelection of George W. Bush, believers in the biblical account of man's origins are redoubling their efforts to have it made an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution in public schools. According to the pro-Darwinism National Center for Science Education, efforts are underway in 43 states to nibble away at the clear line the Supreme Court laid down in 1987, when it banned Bible-based creationism as an intrusion of religion into the classroom.
ADVERTISEMENT
To keep this line firmly defined and to ensure that US children learn the importance of evolution, the bedrock of biology, elected officials and educators should be alert to attempts to sneak Genesis into the teaching of science.
In Georgia, a federal judge stepped in this month to stop schools in Cobb County from placing stickers inside biology textbooks urging students to consider alternatives to evolution. The county school board members who favored the stickers said they would appeal.
In Dover, Pa., the school board ordered ninth grade science teachers to read a board-dictated statement criticizing evolution and calling students' attention to an alternative approach known as intelligent design. Earlier this month, the teachers refused. An administrator was preparing to step in and do it, unless a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union brings a halt to the exercise.
Intelligent design tries to skirt the church vs. state line by theorizing that the sheer complexity of organisms, including man, requires an intelligent designer. God or the Creator is not mentioned explicitly. The principal exponent of the view is a Seattle-based organization called the Discovery Institute.
Proponents of intelligent design want the public to believe that solid, peer-reviewed science backs up this explanation for the development of man and other species, but that is not the case. The governing council of one biology journal in Washington state that published an article by a Discovery Institute fellow quickly disavowed it.
Critics of Darwinism make much of saying it is only a theory. But it is one that has stood the test of intense scientific inquiry and brings together a wealth of observable phenomena. Among scientists, there is disagreement about the pace of species development and about the events that caused the extinctions of species. But biologists do not challenge the basic genius of Darwin's discovery.
US students have trouble enough keeping up with their counterparts in foreign countries in mastering the sciences. In biology, they should not have to contend with religion-based efforts to introduce misinformation into their classes. Genesis has a place in comparative religion classes, not public school science classes.
Creationists at the gate
January 29, 2005
EMBOLDENED BY the important role social conservatives played in the reelection of George W. Bush, believers in the biblical account of man's origins are redoubling their efforts to have it made an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution in public schools. According to the pro-Darwinism National Center for Science Education, efforts are underway in 43 states to nibble away at the clear line the Supreme Court laid down in 1987, when it banned Bible-based creationism as an intrusion of religion into the classroom.
ADVERTISEMENT
To keep this line firmly defined and to ensure that US children learn the importance of evolution, the bedrock of biology, elected officials and educators should be alert to attempts to sneak Genesis into the teaching of science.
In Georgia, a federal judge stepped in this month to stop schools in Cobb County from placing stickers inside biology textbooks urging students to consider alternatives to evolution. The county school board members who favored the stickers said they would appeal.
In Dover, Pa., the school board ordered ninth grade science teachers to read a board-dictated statement criticizing evolution and calling students' attention to an alternative approach known as intelligent design. Earlier this month, the teachers refused. An administrator was preparing to step in and do it, unless a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union brings a halt to the exercise.
Intelligent design tries to skirt the church vs. state line by theorizing that the sheer complexity of organisms, including man, requires an intelligent designer. God or the Creator is not mentioned explicitly. The principal exponent of the view is a Seattle-based organization called the Discovery Institute.
Proponents of intelligent design want the public to believe that solid, peer-reviewed science backs up this explanation for the development of man and other species, but that is not the case. The governing council of one biology journal in Washington state that published an article by a Discovery Institute fellow quickly disavowed it.
Critics of Darwinism make much of saying it is only a theory. But it is one that has stood the test of intense scientific inquiry and brings together a wealth of observable phenomena. Among scientists, there is disagreement about the pace of species development and about the events that caused the extinctions of species. But biologists do not challenge the basic genius of Darwin's discovery.
US students have trouble enough keeping up with their counterparts in foreign countries in mastering the sciences. In biology, they should not have to contend with religion-based efforts to introduce misinformation into their classes. Genesis has a place in comparative religion classes, not public school science classes.
Creationists at the gate
January 29, 2005
EMBOLDENED BY the important role social conservatives played in the reelection of George W. Bush, believers in the biblical account of man's origins are redoubling their efforts to have it made an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution in public schools. According to the pro-Darwinism National Center for Science Education, efforts are underway in 43 states to nibble away at the clear line the Supreme Court laid down in 1987, when it banned Bible-based creationism as an intrusion of religion into the classroom.
ADVERTISEMENT
To keep this line firmly defined and to ensure that US children learn the importance of evolution, the bedrock of biology, elected officials and educators should be alert to attempts to sneak Genesis into the teaching of science.
In Georgia, a federal judge stepped in this month to stop schools in Cobb County from placing stickers inside biology textbooks urging students to consider alternatives to evolution. The county school board members who favored the stickers said they would appeal.
In Dover, Pa., the school board ordered ninth grade science teachers to read a board-dictated statement criticizing evolution and calling students' attention to an alternative approach known as intelligent design. Earlier this month, the teachers refused. An administrator was preparing to step in and do it, unless a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union brings a halt to the exercise.
Intelligent design tries to skirt the church vs. state line by theorizing that the sheer complexity of organisms, including man, requires an intelligent designer. God or the Creator is not mentioned explicitly. The principal exponent of the view is a Seattle-based organization called the Discovery Institute.
Proponents of intelligent design want the public to believe that solid, peer-reviewed science backs up this explanation for the development of man and other species, but that is not the case. The governing council of one biology journal in Washington state that published an article by a Discovery Institute fellow quickly disavowed it.
Critics of Darwinism make much of saying it is only a theory. But it is one that has stood the test of intense scientific inquiry and brings together a wealth of observable phenomena. Among scientists, there is disagreement about the pace of species development and about the events that caused the extinctions of species. But biologists do not challenge the basic genius of Darwin's discovery.
US students have trouble enough keeping up with their counterparts in foreign countries in mastering the sciences. In biology, they should not have to contend with religion-based efforts to introduce misinformation into their classes. Genesis has a place in comparative religion classes, not public school science classes.
As mergers grow, so does glut of Hub office space
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | January 29, 2005
A takeover of Gillette Co. that shrinks its executive presence in Boston could leave a lot of empty floors toward the top of the 52-story Prudential building, adding to the city's existing merger-driven glut of sublease office space.
Real estate executives said yesterday that Gillette, a longtime Pru tenant, occupies about 480,000 square feet of space on about 20 floors -- mostly the ones with the best views, on floors 38 and above. That's about 40 percent of all the space in the 1.2 million-square-foot tower.
Meantime, the other signature building in the Back Bay, the Hancock Tower, is already feeling the effects of the 2004 takeover of its headquarters company, John Hancock Financial Services Inc., by Manulife Financial Corp.
"You've got 420,000 square feet at the Hancock Tower subleasing," said David A. Martel, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc.
"Those are huge availabilities in two of the icon towers or premier buildings in town. It's certainly a cause for concern, given the demand."
As mergers grow, so does glut of Hub office space
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | January 29, 2005
A takeover of Gillette Co. that shrinks its executive presence in Boston could leave a lot of empty floors toward the top of the 52-story Prudential building, adding to the city's existing merger-driven glut of sublease office space.
Real estate executives said yesterday that Gillette, a longtime Pru tenant, occupies about 480,000 square feet of space on about 20 floors -- mostly the ones with the best views, on floors 38 and above. That's about 40 percent of all the space in the 1.2 million-square-foot tower.
Meantime, the other signature building in the Back Bay, the Hancock Tower, is already feeling the effects of the 2004 takeover of its headquarters company, John Hancock Financial Services Inc., by Manulife Financial Corp.
"You've got 420,000 square feet at the Hancock Tower subleasing," said David A. Martel, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc.
"Those are huge availabilities in two of the icon towers or premier buildings in town. It's certainly a cause for concern, given the demand."
As mergers grow, so does glut of Hub office space
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | January 29, 2005
A takeover of Gillette Co. that shrinks its executive presence in Boston could leave a lot of empty floors toward the top of the 52-story Prudential building, adding to the city's existing merger-driven glut of sublease office space.
Real estate executives said yesterday that Gillette, a longtime Pru tenant, occupies about 480,000 square feet of space on about 20 floors -- mostly the ones with the best views, on floors 38 and above. That's about 40 percent of all the space in the 1.2 million-square-foot tower.
Meantime, the other signature building in the Back Bay, the Hancock Tower, is already feeling the effects of the 2004 takeover of its headquarters company, John Hancock Financial Services Inc., by Manulife Financial Corp.
"You've got 420,000 square feet at the Hancock Tower subleasing," said David A. Martel, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc.
"Those are huge availabilities in two of the icon towers or premier buildings in town. It's certainly a cause for concern, given the demand."
The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections
1) Election Under Occupation
The media theater called the Iraqi election is under way.
U.S. television anchor people are broadcasting live from
Baghdad, breathlessly describing the preparations for
Sunday's display of so-called democracy.
It is important to emphasive the circumstances under which
this election is being held. More than 150,000 U.S.
troops occupy the country, patrolling the streets with
guns trained on Iraqi civilians. Iraq is under a state of
emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew.
This is and election at gunpoint, which will be supervised
by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Negroponte built an
impressive resume as a brutal enforcer of U.S. policy
through murder, rape, and torture. Negroponte served as
U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period
during which Honduras was the launching pad from which the
Reagan administration conducted its violent attacks on the
people of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The
U.S-backed atrocities, which were condemned by the
International World Court in the Hague, included
kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected
dissidents. Reports from the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw
the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on
Honduran territory, where the U.S. trained Contra
terrorists, and where the military secretly detained,
tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.
This is the person the Bush Administration would have us
believe is going to bring democracy to Iraq.
Assisting him will be two US-funded organizations with
long records of manipulating overseas elections on behalf
of U.S. corporate interests, the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the
International Republican Institute (IRI). These groups,
both of which are tied to covert plans to install
US-favored regimes overseas, are among organizations that
have been given more than $80 million for political
activities in Iraq.
Both organizations work closely with the National
Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for
International Development, long used by the CIA for covert
operations abroad. They were, for example, involved in
orchestrating the failed coup and recall referendum in
Venezuela in an attempt to remove the democratically
elected and popular President Hugo Chavez.
This election is being conducted at gunpoint, administered
by a war criminal, and stage-managed by CIA front
companies. To pretend that this has anything to do with
democracy is outrageous. The Iraqi people recognize this
--among expatriates, 90 percent haven't even bothered to
register to vote on Sunday.
What, then is the purpose of the phony election? It is
actually directed at the U.S. public, which is growing
increasingly disillusioned with the war. The sole intent
of the election is to provide legitimacy for the
occupation, to marginalize the resistance movement, and
create an illusion of progress. The election, like the
phony transfer of power, will change nothing on the ground
in Iraq. On January 31, the day after the election, more
than 150,000 U.S. troops will still occupy Iraq, the
torture chambers of Abu Ghraib will still be full of Iraqi
prisoners, and CIA employee Iyad Allawi will still be the
U.S.-appointed dictator.
2) The Iraqi People Have Already Voted -- Against the
Occupation
The Iraqi people have already expressed their will; they
are overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation of their
country. The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S.
troops to leave and do not believe that the U.S. and
Britain should be involved in holding elections in Iraq,
according to several polls.
Many have already cast their ballot against colonial
occupation by joining the nationwide uprising. The
intelligence chief for the puppet regime in Iraq, General
Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani, admitted that the resistance
now numbers more than 200,000.
The resistance is made up of many difference forces, with
different ideologies and goals. They are united by the
determination to free their country from U.S. occupation.
The right of people to resist occupation by arms is a
basic right recognized under international law and the
Geneva Convention. The people of Iraq have a right to
fight back against the occupation of their country, the
torture of their people, and the bombing of their cities.
They also have a right to expect the solidarity of all
who oppose the criminal war. It is not the role of the
antiwar movement to debate the ideology or tactics of the
resistance; it is our job to stand in solidarity with them
and do everything possible to assist them by working to
end the occupation of their country.
3) What Next for the Antiwar Movement?
The phony elections will not silence the Iraqi resistance.
It is important to remember that in the months since the
last time the U.S. attempted to put an "Iraqi face" on the
occupation, with the phony transfer of power and
appointment of Iyad Allawi as puppet dictator, the
resistance has spread and become more sophisticated and
more entrenched.
As the resistance grows, we in the U.S. have an obligation
not to be deterred by false elections or talk of
"timetables." We must stand with the people of Iraq and
take up their demand: the immediate, unconditional, and
complete withdrawal of all U.S. occupation forces.
We must organize a united struggle to end the occupation.
This is now more important than ever before. George W.
Bush made it clear in his inauguration sermon that he
intends to wage continual, global war. We must meet his
call to war with renewed determination and unity.
The global antiwar movement has called for massive
protests on the weekend of March 19-20. In the U.S., the
Troops Out Now Coalition is organizing local and regional
demonstrations to demand an end to the occupation,
including a massive regional convergence on Central Park
on March 19. The International Action Center, part of the
Troops Out Now Coalition, calls upon all progressive and
antiwar organizations to join us in the streets on March
19 & 20 to demand: "Troops Out Now!"
March 19
Troops Out Now!
March on Central Park in NYC!
Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide
The International Action Center
The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections
1) Election Under Occupation
The media theater called the Iraqi election is under way.
U.S. television anchor people are broadcasting live from
Baghdad, breathlessly describing the preparations for
Sunday's display of so-called democracy.
It is important to emphasive the circumstances under which
this election is being held. More than 150,000 U.S.
troops occupy the country, patrolling the streets with
guns trained on Iraqi civilians. Iraq is under a state of
emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew.
This is and election at gunpoint, which will be supervised
by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Negroponte built an
impressive resume as a brutal enforcer of U.S. policy
through murder, rape, and torture. Negroponte served as
U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period
during which Honduras was the launching pad from which the
Reagan administration conducted its violent attacks on the
people of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The
U.S-backed atrocities, which were condemned by the
International World Court in the Hague, included
kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected
dissidents. Reports from the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw
the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on
Honduran territory, where the U.S. trained Contra
terrorists, and where the military secretly detained,
tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.
This is the person the Bush Administration would have us
believe is going to bring democracy to Iraq.
Assisting him will be two US-funded organizations with
long records of manipulating overseas elections on behalf
of U.S. corporate interests, the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the
International Republican Institute (IRI). These groups,
both of which are tied to covert plans to install
US-favored regimes overseas, are among organizations that
have been given more than $80 million for political
activities in Iraq.
Both organizations work closely with the National
Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for
International Development, long used by the CIA for covert
operations abroad. They were, for example, involved in
orchestrating the failed coup and recall referendum in
Venezuela in an attempt to remove the democratically
elected and popular President Hugo Chavez.
This election is being conducted at gunpoint, administered
by a war criminal, and stage-managed by CIA front
companies. To pretend that this has anything to do with
democracy is outrageous. The Iraqi people recognize this
--among expatriates, 90 percent haven't even bothered to
register to vote on Sunday.
What, then is the purpose of the phony election? It is
actually directed at the U.S. public, which is growing
increasingly disillusioned with the war. The sole intent
of the election is to provide legitimacy for the
occupation, to marginalize the resistance movement, and
create an illusion of progress. The election, like the
phony transfer of power, will change nothing on the ground
in Iraq. On January 31, the day after the election, more
than 150,000 U.S. troops will still occupy Iraq, the
torture chambers of Abu Ghraib will still be full of Iraqi
prisoners, and CIA employee Iyad Allawi will still be the
U.S.-appointed dictator.
2) The Iraqi People Have Already Voted -- Against the
Occupation
The Iraqi people have already expressed their will; they
are overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation of their
country. The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S.
troops to leave and do not believe that the U.S. and
Britain should be involved in holding elections in Iraq,
according to several polls.
Many have already cast their ballot against colonial
occupation by joining the nationwide uprising. The
intelligence chief for the puppet regime in Iraq, General
Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani, admitted that the resistance
now numbers more than 200,000.
The resistance is made up of many difference forces, with
different ideologies and goals. They are united by the
determination to free their country from U.S. occupation.
The right of people to resist occupation by arms is a
basic right recognized under international law and the
Geneva Convention. The people of Iraq have a right to
fight back against the occupation of their country, the
torture of their people, and the bombing of their cities.
They also have a right to expect the solidarity of all
who oppose the criminal war. It is not the role of the
antiwar movement to debate the ideology or tactics of the
resistance; it is our job to stand in solidarity with them
and do everything possible to assist them by working to
end the occupation of their country.
3) What Next for the Antiwar Movement?
The phony elections will not silence the Iraqi resistance.
It is important to remember that in the months since the
last time the U.S. attempted to put an "Iraqi face" on the
occupation, with the phony transfer of power and
appointment of Iyad Allawi as puppet dictator, the
resistance has spread and become more sophisticated and
more entrenched.
As the resistance grows, we in the U.S. have an obligation
not to be deterred by false elections or talk of
"timetables." We must stand with the people of Iraq and
take up their demand: the immediate, unconditional, and
complete withdrawal of all U.S. occupation forces.
We must organize a united struggle to end the occupation.
This is now more important than ever before. George W.
Bush made it clear in his inauguration sermon that he
intends to wage continual, global war. We must meet his
call to war with renewed determination and unity.
The global antiwar movement has called for massive
protests on the weekend of March 19-20. In the U.S., the
Troops Out Now Coalition is organizing local and regional
demonstrations to demand an end to the occupation,
including a massive regional convergence on Central Park
on March 19. The International Action Center, part of the
Troops Out Now Coalition, calls upon all progressive and
antiwar organizations to join us in the streets on March
19 & 20 to demand: "Troops Out Now!"
March 19
Troops Out Now!
March on Central Park in NYC!
Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide
The International Action Center
The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections
1) Election Under Occupation
The media theater called the Iraqi election is under way.
U.S. television anchor people are broadcasting live from
Baghdad, breathlessly describing the preparations for
Sunday's display of so-called democracy.
It is important to emphasive the circumstances under which
this election is being held. More than 150,000 U.S.
troops occupy the country, patrolling the streets with
guns trained on Iraqi civilians. Iraq is under a state of
emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew.
This is and election at gunpoint, which will be supervised
by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Negroponte built an
impressive resume as a brutal enforcer of U.S. policy
through murder, rape, and torture. Negroponte served as
U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period
during which Honduras was the launching pad from which the
Reagan administration conducted its violent attacks on the
people of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The
U.S-backed atrocities, which were condemned by the
International World Court in the Hague, included
kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected
dissidents. Reports from the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw
the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on
Honduran territory, where the U.S. trained Contra
terrorists, and where the military secretly detained,
tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.
This is the person the Bush Administration would have us
believe is going to bring democracy to Iraq.
Assisting him will be two US-funded organizations with
long records of manipulating overseas elections on behalf
of U.S. corporate interests, the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the
International Republican Institute (IRI). These groups,
both of which are tied to covert plans to install
US-favored regimes overseas, are among organizations that
have been given more than $80 million for political
activities in Iraq.
Both organizations work closely with the National
Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for
International Development, long used by the CIA for covert
operations abroad. They were, for example, involved in
orchestrating the failed coup and recall referendum in
Venezuela in an attempt to remove the democratically
elected and popular President Hugo Chavez.
This election is being conducted at gunpoint, administered
by a war criminal, and stage-managed by CIA front
companies. To pretend that this has anything to do with
democracy is outrageous. The Iraqi people recognize this
--among expatriates, 90 percent haven't even bothered to
register to vote on Sunday.
What, then is the purpose of the phony election? It is
actually directed at the U.S. public, which is growing
increasingly disillusioned with the war. The sole intent
of the election is to provide legitimacy for the
occupation, to marginalize the resistance movement, and
create an illusion of progress. The election, like the
phony transfer of power, will change nothing on the ground
in Iraq. On January 31, the day after the election, more
than 150,000 U.S. troops will still occupy Iraq, the
torture chambers of Abu Ghraib will still be full of Iraqi
prisoners, and CIA employee Iyad Allawi will still be the
U.S.-appointed dictator.
2) The Iraqi People Have Already Voted -- Against the
Occupation
The Iraqi people have already expressed their will; they
are overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation of their
country. The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S.
troops to leave and do not believe that the U.S. and
Britain should be involved in holding elections in Iraq,
according to several polls.
Many have already cast their ballot against colonial
occupation by joining the nationwide uprising. The
intelligence chief for the puppet regime in Iraq, General
Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani, admitted that the resistance
now numbers more than 200,000.
The resistance is made up of many difference forces, with
different ideologies and goals. They are united by the
determination to free their country from U.S. occupation.
The right of people to resist occupation by arms is a
basic right recognized under international law and the
Geneva Convention. The people of Iraq have a right to
fight back against the occupation of their country, the
torture of their people, and the bombing of their cities.
They also have a right to expect the solidarity of all
who oppose the criminal war. It is not the role of the
antiwar movement to debate the ideology or tactics of the
resistance; it is our job to stand in solidarity with them
and do everything possible to assist them by working to
end the occupation of their country.
3) What Next for the Antiwar Movement?
The phony elections will not silence the Iraqi resistance.
It is important to remember that in the months since the
last time the U.S. attempted to put an "Iraqi face" on the
occupation, with the phony transfer of power and
appointment of Iyad Allawi as puppet dictator, the
resistance has spread and become more sophisticated and
more entrenched.
As the resistance grows, we in the U.S. have an obligation
not to be deterred by false elections or talk of
"timetables." We must stand with the people of Iraq and
take up their demand: the immediate, unconditional, and
complete withdrawal of all U.S. occupation forces.
We must organize a united struggle to end the occupation.
This is now more important than ever before. George W.
Bush made it clear in his inauguration sermon that he
intends to wage continual, global war. We must meet his
call to war with renewed determination and unity.
The global antiwar movement has called for massive
protests on the weekend of March 19-20. In the U.S., the
Troops Out Now Coalition is organizing local and regional
demonstrations to demand an end to the occupation,
including a massive regional convergence on Central Park
on March 19. The International Action Center, part of the
Troops Out Now Coalition, calls upon all progressive and
antiwar organizations to join us in the streets on March
19 & 20 to demand: "Troops Out Now!"
March 19
Troops Out Now!
March on Central Park in NYC!
Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide
The International Action Center
Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract
By Howard Kurtz
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.
"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."
But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it.
Later in the day, Gallagher filed a column in which she said that "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."
In the interview, Gallagher said her situation was "not really anything near" the recent controversy involving conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. Earlier this month Williams apologized for not disclosing a $241,000 contract with the Education Department, awarded through the Ketchum public relations firm, to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind law through advertising on his cable TV and syndicated radio shows and other efforts.
Gallagher received an additional $20,000 from the Bush administration in 2002 and 2003 for writing a report, titled "Can Government Strengthen Marriage?", for a private organization called the National Fatherhood Initiative. That report, published last year, was funded by a Justice Department grant, said NFI spokesman Vincent DiCaro. Gallagher said she was "aware vaguely" that her work was federally funded.
In columns, television appearances and interviews with such newspapers as The Washington Post, Gallagher last year defended Bush's proposal for a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
Wade Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families, said his division hired Gallagher as "a well-known national expert," along with other specialists in the field, to help devise the president's healthy marriage initiative. "It's not unusual in the federal government to do that," he said.
The essay Gallagher drafted appeared under Horn's byline -- with the headline "Closing the Marriage Gap" -- and ran in Crisis magazine, which promotes humanism rooted in Catholic Church teachings. Horn said most of the brochures written by Gallagher -- such as "The Top Ten Reasons Marriage Matters" -- were not used as the program evolved.
"I don't see any comparison between what has been alleged with Armstrong Williams and what we did with Maggie Gallagher," said Horn, who founded the National Fatherhood Initiative before entering government. "We didn't pay her to write columns. We didn't pay her to promote the president's healthy marriage initiative at all. What we wanted to do was use her expertise." The Education Department is now investigating the Williams contract.
The author of three books on marriage, Gallagher is president of the Washington-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a frequent television guest and has written on the subject for such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Weekly Standard.
While she was being paid by HHS in 2002, Gallagher in her syndicated column dismissed the arguments against "President Bush's modest marriage initiative" as "nonsense," writing: "Bush plans to use a tiny fraction of surplus welfare dollars to fund marriage education services for at-risk couples."
In a column later that year that appeared in the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News, Gallagher said Bush's welfare-revision bill would, among other things, encourage "stable marriages," and that it was a "scandal" for Democrats to reject the president's plan and fail to offer an alternative.
National Review Editor Rich Lowry said of the HHS contract: "We would have preferred that she told us, and we would have disclosed it in her bio."
Tribune Media Services dropped Williams's column after his administration contract was disclosed. Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Gallagher's column, plans no such action.
"We did not know about the contract," spokeswoman Kathie Kerr said. "We would have probably liked to have known." But, Kerr said, "this is what we hired Maggie to write about. It probably wouldn't have changed our mind to distribute it."
Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract
By Howard Kurtz
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.
"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."
But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it.
Later in the day, Gallagher filed a column in which she said that "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."
In the interview, Gallagher said her situation was "not really anything near" the recent controversy involving conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. Earlier this month Williams apologized for not disclosing a $241,000 contract with the Education Department, awarded through the Ketchum public relations firm, to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind law through advertising on his cable TV and syndicated radio shows and other efforts.
Gallagher received an additional $20,000 from the Bush administration in 2002 and 2003 for writing a report, titled "Can Government Strengthen Marriage?", for a private organization called the National Fatherhood Initiative. That report, published last year, was funded by a Justice Department grant, said NFI spokesman Vincent DiCaro. Gallagher said she was "aware vaguely" that her work was federally funded.
In columns, television appearances and interviews with such newspapers as The Washington Post, Gallagher last year defended Bush's proposal for a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
Wade Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families, said his division hired Gallagher as "a well-known national expert," along with other specialists in the field, to help devise the president's healthy marriage initiative. "It's not unusual in the federal government to do that," he said.
The essay Gallagher drafted appeared under Horn's byline -- with the headline "Closing the Marriage Gap" -- and ran in Crisis magazine, which promotes humanism rooted in Catholic Church teachings. Horn said most of the brochures written by Gallagher -- such as "The Top Ten Reasons Marriage Matters" -- were not used as the program evolved.
"I don't see any comparison between what has been alleged with Armstrong Williams and what we did with Maggie Gallagher," said Horn, who founded the National Fatherhood Initiative before entering government. "We didn't pay her to write columns. We didn't pay her to promote the president's healthy marriage initiative at all. What we wanted to do was use her expertise." The Education Department is now investigating the Williams contract.
The author of three books on marriage, Gallagher is president of the Washington-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a frequent television guest and has written on the subject for such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Weekly Standard.
While she was being paid by HHS in 2002, Gallagher in her syndicated column dismissed the arguments against "President Bush's modest marriage initiative" as "nonsense," writing: "Bush plans to use a tiny fraction of surplus welfare dollars to fund marriage education services for at-risk couples."
In a column later that year that appeared in the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News, Gallagher said Bush's welfare-revision bill would, among other things, encourage "stable marriages," and that it was a "scandal" for Democrats to reject the president's plan and fail to offer an alternative.
National Review Editor Rich Lowry said of the HHS contract: "We would have preferred that she told us, and we would have disclosed it in her bio."
Tribune Media Services dropped Williams's column after his administration contract was disclosed. Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Gallagher's column, plans no such action.
"We did not know about the contract," spokeswoman Kathie Kerr said. "We would have probably liked to have known." But, Kerr said, "this is what we hired Maggie to write about. It probably wouldn't have changed our mind to distribute it."
Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract
By Howard Kurtz
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.
"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."
But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it.
Later in the day, Gallagher filed a column in which she said that "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."
In the interview, Gallagher said her situation was "not really anything near" the recent controversy involving conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. Earlier this month Williams apologized for not disclosing a $241,000 contract with the Education Department, awarded through the Ketchum public relations firm, to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind law through advertising on his cable TV and syndicated radio shows and other efforts.
Gallagher received an additional $20,000 from the Bush administration in 2002 and 2003 for writing a report, titled "Can Government Strengthen Marriage?", for a private organization called the National Fatherhood Initiative. That report, published last year, was funded by a Justice Department grant, said NFI spokesman Vincent DiCaro. Gallagher said she was "aware vaguely" that her work was federally funded.
In columns, television appearances and interviews with such newspapers as The Washington Post, Gallagher last year defended Bush's proposal for a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
Wade Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families, said his division hired Gallagher as "a well-known national expert," along with other specialists in the field, to help devise the president's healthy marriage initiative. "It's not unusual in the federal government to do that," he said.
The essay Gallagher drafted appeared under Horn's byline -- with the headline "Closing the Marriage Gap" -- and ran in Crisis magazine, which promotes humanism rooted in Catholic Church teachings. Horn said most of the brochures written by Gallagher -- such as "The Top Ten Reasons Marriage Matters" -- were not used as the program evolved.
"I don't see any comparison between what has been alleged with Armstrong Williams and what we did with Maggie Gallagher," said Horn, who founded the National Fatherhood Initiative before entering government. "We didn't pay her to write columns. We didn't pay her to promote the president's healthy marriage initiative at all. What we wanted to do was use her expertise." The Education Department is now investigating the Williams contract.
The author of three books on marriage, Gallagher is president of the Washington-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a frequent television guest and has written on the subject for such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Weekly Standard.
While she was being paid by HHS in 2002, Gallagher in her syndicated column dismissed the arguments against "President Bush's modest marriage initiative" as "nonsense," writing: "Bush plans to use a tiny fraction of surplus welfare dollars to fund marriage education services for at-risk couples."
In a column later that year that appeared in the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News, Gallagher said Bush's welfare-revision bill would, among other things, encourage "stable marriages," and that it was a "scandal" for Democrats to reject the president's plan and fail to offer an alternative.
National Review Editor Rich Lowry said of the HHS contract: "We would have preferred that she told us, and we would have disclosed it in her bio."
Tribune Media Services dropped Williams's column after his administration contract was disclosed. Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Gallagher's column, plans no such action.
"We did not know about the contract," spokeswoman Kathie Kerr said. "We would have probably liked to have known." But, Kerr said, "this is what we hired Maggie to write about. It probably wouldn't have changed our mind to distribute it."
Bush calls a halt to paying columnists for PR
By Associated Press | January 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries yesterday not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to research an administration initiative.
The president said he expects his agency heads will ''make sure that that practice doesn't go forward."
''All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said at a news conference.
Bush's remarks came a day after syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher apologized to readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help create materials promoting the agency's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage.
Bush also said the White House had not been aware that the Education Department paid commentator and columnist Armstrong Williams $240,000 to plug its policies. That contract came to light Jan. 7.
Bush said there ''needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press."
Bush calls a halt to paying columnists for PR
By Associated Press | January 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries yesterday not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to research an administration initiative.
The president said he expects his agency heads will ''make sure that that practice doesn't go forward."
''All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said at a news conference.
Bush's remarks came a day after syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher apologized to readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help create materials promoting the agency's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage.
Bush also said the White House had not been aware that the Education Department paid commentator and columnist Armstrong Williams $240,000 to plug its policies. That contract came to light Jan. 7.
Bush said there ''needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press."
Bush calls a halt to paying columnists for PR
By Associated Press | January 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries yesterday not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to research an administration initiative.
The president said he expects his agency heads will ''make sure that that practice doesn't go forward."
''All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said at a news conference.
Bush's remarks came a day after syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher apologized to readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help create materials promoting the agency's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage.
Bush also said the White House had not been aware that the Education Department paid commentator and columnist Armstrong Williams $240,000 to plug its policies. That contract came to light Jan. 7.
Bush said there ''needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press."
At 87, she shovels for others
Waltham woman takes few breaks clearing flakes
January 27, 2005
It is a ubiquitous prod during snowstorms in New England: Please help your elderly neighbors. But on River Street in Waltham, no one gets the chance. By the time many residents get home from work, 87-year-old Nellie Tambascia has already shoveled her sidewalk. And theirs, too.
"They're young," she said yesterday. "They have to go to work, so they don't have time for this."
When it snows as it has been snowing this week, Tambascia is out all day. Yesterday, she patiently traversed her driveway and front walk, as well as those of her neighbors, from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m., taking breaks only for coffee and lunch.
The retired school crossing guard took on the chore after her husband died in 1994. He, too, had shoveled out the neighbors. Now, she says, she talks to him while she works. Sometimes she asks him to make it stop snowing.
"It's not working," she said yesterday. "Mama mia, did we have snow!"
At 87, she shovels for others
Waltham woman takes few breaks clearing flakes
January 27, 2005
It is a ubiquitous prod during snowstorms in New England: Please help your elderly neighbors. But on River Street in Waltham, no one gets the chance. By the time many residents get home from work, 87-year-old Nellie Tambascia has already shoveled her sidewalk. And theirs, too.
"They're young," she said yesterday. "They have to go to work, so they don't have time for this."
When it snows as it has been snowing this week, Tambascia is out all day. Yesterday, she patiently traversed her driveway and front walk, as well as those of her neighbors, from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m., taking breaks only for coffee and lunch.
The retired school crossing guard took on the chore after her husband died in 1994. He, too, had shoveled out the neighbors. Now, she says, she talks to him while she works. Sometimes she asks him to make it stop snowing.
"It's not working," she said yesterday. "Mama mia, did we have snow!"
At 87, she shovels for others
Waltham woman takes few breaks clearing flakes
January 27, 2005
It is a ubiquitous prod during snowstorms in New England: Please help your elderly neighbors. But on River Street in Waltham, no one gets the chance. By the time many residents get home from work, 87-year-old Nellie Tambascia has already shoveled her sidewalk. And theirs, too.
"They're young," she said yesterday. "They have to go to work, so they don't have time for this."
When it snows as it has been snowing this week, Tambascia is out all day. Yesterday, she patiently traversed her driveway and front walk, as well as those of her neighbors, from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m., taking breaks only for coffee and lunch.
The retired school crossing guard took on the chore after her husband died in 1994. He, too, had shoveled out the neighbors. Now, she says, she talks to him while she works. Sometimes she asks him to make it stop snowing.
"It's not working," she said yesterday. "Mama mia, did we have snow!"
2 teens arrested in snow fort standoff
January 27, 2005
Police arrested two Framingham High School students Tuesday for refusing to abandon a cave they had built in a pile of plowed snow near a parking lot in front of the school. A school official, concerned that the large snow cave might collapse on the pair, called police to remove the students after he said they were unresponsive to his requests to leave, said principal Ralph Olsen. Police arrived around 2:30 p.m. and arrested Jenna Schroder, 18, and Jason Osorio, 18, after they also refused police orders to leave. They were charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, and were released on personal recognizance.
2 teens arrested in snow fort standoff
January 27, 2005
Police arrested two Framingham High School students Tuesday for refusing to abandon a cave they had built in a pile of plowed snow near a parking lot in front of the school. A school official, concerned that the large snow cave might collapse on the pair, called police to remove the students after he said they were unresponsive to his requests to leave, said principal Ralph Olsen. Police arrived around 2:30 p.m. and arrested Jenna Schroder, 18, and Jason Osorio, 18, after they also refused police orders to leave. They were charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, and were released on personal recognizance.
2 teens arrested in snow fort standoff
January 27, 2005
Police arrested two Framingham High School students Tuesday for refusing to abandon a cave they had built in a pile of plowed snow near a parking lot in front of the school. A school official, concerned that the large snow cave might collapse on the pair, called police to remove the students after he said they were unresponsive to his requests to leave, said principal Ralph Olsen. Police arrived around 2:30 p.m. and arrested Jenna Schroder, 18, and Jason Osorio, 18, after they also refused police orders to leave. They were charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, and were released on personal recognizance.
US to open vast region for drilling in Southwest
New Mexico governor vows to fight decision
By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press | January 26, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE -- Despite protests by the governor and environmentalists, the federal government has decided to open nearly all of New Mexico's vast Otero Mesa for exploratory drilling but vowed that the oil and gas industry won't have a ''free-for-all."
ADVERTISEMENT
The decision Monday by the Bureau of Land Management permanently will protect about 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acre mesa, one of North America's largest remaining pieces of Chihuahuan desert grassland.
Governor Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.
''The state is going to fight this with everything we've got," Richardson said.
US to open vast region for drilling in Southwest
New Mexico governor vows to fight decision
By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press | January 26, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE -- Despite protests by the governor and environmentalists, the federal government has decided to open nearly all of New Mexico's vast Otero Mesa for exploratory drilling but vowed that the oil and gas industry won't have a ''free-for-all."
ADVERTISEMENT
The decision Monday by the Bureau of Land Management permanently will protect about 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acre mesa, one of North America's largest remaining pieces of Chihuahuan desert grassland.
Governor Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.
''The state is going to fight this with everything we've got," Richardson said.
US to open vast region for drilling in Southwest
New Mexico governor vows to fight decision
By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press | January 26, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE -- Despite protests by the governor and environmentalists, the federal government has decided to open nearly all of New Mexico's vast Otero Mesa for exploratory drilling but vowed that the oil and gas industry won't have a ''free-for-all."
ADVERTISEMENT
The decision Monday by the Bureau of Land Management permanently will protect about 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acre mesa, one of North America's largest remaining pieces of Chihuahuan desert grassland.
Governor Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.
''The state is going to fight this with everything we've got," Richardson said.
Deadliest day for U.S. in Iraq war
31 Marines killed in chopper crash; 5 troops in other incidents
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 10:18 AM EST (1518 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirty-one Marines were killed in a helicopter crash near Iraq's border with Jordan, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed Wednesday to 36 -- the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq.
Four U.S. Marines were killed during combat in Iraq's Al-Anbar province, and a U.S. soldier died when insurgents attacked a combat patrol north of Baghdad, according to the U.S. military.
The cause of the chopper crash was not immediately known and is being investigated, according to the military.
Wednesday's death toll surpassed the 31 U.S. forces killed on March 23, 2003 -- four days after the start of the war in Iraq. Twenty-nine of them died in combat that day.
Wednesday's incidents brought the U.S. death toll in the war to 1,417.
Deadliest day for U.S. in Iraq war
31 Marines killed in chopper crash; 5 troops in other incidents
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 10:18 AM EST (1518 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirty-one Marines were killed in a helicopter crash near Iraq's border with Jordan, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed Wednesday to 36 -- the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq.
Four U.S. Marines were killed during combat in Iraq's Al-Anbar province, and a U.S. soldier died when insurgents attacked a combat patrol north of Baghdad, according to the U.S. military.
The cause of the chopper crash was not immediately known and is being investigated, according to the military.
Wednesday's death toll surpassed the 31 U.S. forces killed on March 23, 2003 -- four days after the start of the war in Iraq. Twenty-nine of them died in combat that day.
Wednesday's incidents brought the U.S. death toll in the war to 1,417.
Deadliest day for U.S. in Iraq war
31 Marines killed in chopper crash; 5 troops in other incidents
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 10:18 AM EST (1518 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirty-one Marines were killed in a helicopter crash near Iraq's border with Jordan, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed Wednesday to 36 -- the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq.
Four U.S. Marines were killed during combat in Iraq's Al-Anbar province, and a U.S. soldier died when insurgents attacked a combat patrol north of Baghdad, according to the U.S. military.
The cause of the chopper crash was not immediately known and is being investigated, according to the military.
Wednesday's death toll surpassed the 31 U.S. forces killed on March 23, 2003 -- four days after the start of the war in Iraq. Twenty-nine of them died in combat that day.
Wednesday's incidents brought the U.S. death toll in the war to 1,417.
Weiner heckled by his own mom
BY MAGGIE HABERMAN
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Anthony Weiner got a public reminder yesterday that "Mother knows best."
As the Democratic mayoral hopeful blasted Mayor Bloomberg's educational policies yesterday, he was quietly corrected by his own mom.
After Weiner's first major education speech, the congressman told a West Side Chamber of Commerce breakfast that music, arts and language programs have been "decimated" under Bloomberg.
"You basically have one choice in school now in terms of a second language and that's Spanish," said Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn), a public school alum.
But his mom, Fran, a retired teacher whom he praised earlier, informed him that Latin is still taught in some schools.
After a back-and-forth, Weiner joked: "Please. I can't be heckled by my own mother."
Weiner criticized Bloomberg's top-down reshuffling of the school system, saying teachers deserve more autonomy and bigger salaries.
Weiner admitted Bloomberg recently called for a big boost in vocational training, but Weiner said a lack of emphasis on those programs has hurt kids.
He also criticized the disciplinary system, saying it can take 105 days to suspend a student from school.
"Anthony Weiner's education speech today was all politics and loaded with inaccuracies," said Bloomberg spokesman Robert Lawson.
City Hall officials singled out Weiner's claim that the mayor's Leadership Academy to teach principals is spending $250,000 per graduate.
Insiders said the real amount is about $150,000 - all of it paid for by private funds.
Weiner heckled by his own mom
BY MAGGIE HABERMAN
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Anthony Weiner got a public reminder yesterday that "Mother knows best."
As the Democratic mayoral hopeful blasted Mayor Bloomberg's educational policies yesterday, he was quietly corrected by his own mom.
After Weiner's first major education speech, the congressman told a West Side Chamber of Commerce breakfast that music, arts and language programs have been "decimated" under Bloomberg.
"You basically have one choice in school now in terms of a second language and that's Spanish," said Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn), a public school alum.
But his mom, Fran, a retired teacher whom he praised earlier, informed him that Latin is still taught in some schools.
After a back-and-forth, Weiner joked: "Please. I can't be heckled by my own mother."
Weiner criticized Bloomberg's top-down reshuffling of the school system, saying teachers deserve more autonomy and bigger salaries.
Weiner admitted Bloomberg recently called for a big boost in vocational training, but Weiner said a lack of emphasis on those programs has hurt kids.
He also criticized the disciplinary system, saying it can take 105 days to suspend a student from school.
"Anthony Weiner's education speech today was all politics and loaded with inaccuracies," said Bloomberg spokesman Robert Lawson.
City Hall officials singled out Weiner's claim that the mayor's Leadership Academy to teach principals is spending $250,000 per graduate.
Insiders said the real amount is about $150,000 - all of it paid for by private funds.
Weiner heckled by his own mom
BY MAGGIE HABERMAN
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Anthony Weiner got a public reminder yesterday that "Mother knows best."
As the Democratic mayoral hopeful blasted Mayor Bloomberg's educational policies yesterday, he was quietly corrected by his own mom.
After Weiner's first major education speech, the congressman told a West Side Chamber of Commerce breakfast that music, arts and language programs have been "decimated" under Bloomberg.
"You basically have one choice in school now in terms of a second language and that's Spanish," said Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn), a public school alum.
But his mom, Fran, a retired teacher whom he praised earlier, informed him that Latin is still taught in some schools.
After a back-and-forth, Weiner joked: "Please. I can't be heckled by my own mother."
Weiner criticized Bloomberg's top-down reshuffling of the school system, saying teachers deserve more autonomy and bigger salaries.
Weiner admitted Bloomberg recently called for a big boost in vocational training, but Weiner said a lack of emphasis on those programs has hurt kids.
He also criticized the disciplinary system, saying it can take 105 days to suspend a student from school.
"Anthony Weiner's education speech today was all politics and loaded with inaccuracies," said Bloomberg spokesman Robert Lawson.
City Hall officials singled out Weiner's claim that the mayor's Leadership Academy to teach principals is spending $250,000 per graduate.
Insiders said the real amount is about $150,000 - all of it paid for by private funds.
Children Charged With Felonies Over Violent Drawings
POSTED: 5:00 am MST January 26, 2005
OCALA, Fla. -- Two boys, ages 9 and 10, were charged with felonies and taken away from school in handcuffs, accused of making violent drawings of stick figures.
Should these children face felony charges for their violent drawings?
No, they are children.
No, nobody should face charges for a drawing.
Yes, a felony is appropriate for this type of drawing.
The boys were arrested Monday on charges of making a written threat to kill or harm another person, a second-degree felony. The special education students used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick figure scenes on scrap paper that showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said.
"The officer found they were drawing these pictures for the sole purpose of intimidating and scaring the victim," said Ocala Police Sgt. Russ Kern.
Children Charged With Felonies Over Violent Drawings
POSTED: 5:00 am MST January 26, 2005
OCALA, Fla. -- Two boys, ages 9 and 10, were charged with felonies and taken away from school in handcuffs, accused of making violent drawings of stick figures.
Should these children face felony charges for their violent drawings?
No, they are children.
No, nobody should face charges for a drawing.
Yes, a felony is appropriate for this type of drawing.
The boys were arrested Monday on charges of making a written threat to kill or harm another person, a second-degree felony. The special education students used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick figure scenes on scrap paper that showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said.
"The officer found they were drawing these pictures for the sole purpose of intimidating and scaring the victim," said Ocala Police Sgt. Russ Kern.
Children Charged With Felonies Over Violent Drawings
POSTED: 5:00 am MST January 26, 2005
OCALA, Fla. -- Two boys, ages 9 and 10, were charged with felonies and taken away from school in handcuffs, accused of making violent drawings of stick figures.
Should these children face felony charges for their violent drawings?
No, they are children.
No, nobody should face charges for a drawing.
Yes, a felony is appropriate for this type of drawing.
The boys were arrested Monday on charges of making a written threat to kill or harm another person, a second-degree felony. The special education students used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick figure scenes on scrap paper that showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said.
"The officer found they were drawing these pictures for the sole purpose of intimidating and scaring the victim," said Ocala Police Sgt. Russ Kern.
US drops Afghanistan opium spraying plans
January 26, 2005
Facing opposition from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the United States has set aside plans to use spray planes to kill opium crops in Afghanistan, the world's largest drug producing country. Karzai's opposition to spraying has frustrated some US officials who doubt that the vast amount of opium produced in Afghanistan can be significantly reduced without spraying. Opium is the raw material for heroin. The UN says Afghanistan's drug trade has funded terrorists. (AP)
US drops Afghanistan opium spraying plans
January 26, 2005
Facing opposition from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the United States has set aside plans to use spray planes to kill opium crops in Afghanistan, the world's largest drug producing country. Karzai's opposition to spraying has frustrated some US officials who doubt that the vast amount of opium produced in Afghanistan can be significantly reduced without spraying. Opium is the raw material for heroin. The UN says Afghanistan's drug trade has funded terrorists. (AP)
US drops Afghanistan opium spraying plans
January 26, 2005
Facing opposition from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the United States has set aside plans to use spray planes to kill opium crops in Afghanistan, the world's largest drug producing country. Karzai's opposition to spraying has frustrated some US officials who doubt that the vast amount of opium produced in Afghanistan can be significantly reduced without spraying. Opium is the raw material for heroin. The UN says Afghanistan's drug trade has funded terrorists. (AP)
State gets $60.3m to curb homelessness
January 26, 2005
Massachusetts received $60.3 million in federal grants yesterday to curb homelessness, part of $1.4 billion being distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This year's round of grants to the Bay State represent a $5.9 million increase from last year's $54.4 million given to fund permanent housing and transitional programs for the homeless. The money also will help fund the construction and maintenance of emergency shelters, but the focus this year is on finding permanent housing. Massachusetts ranked seventh for the most funding across the country, said Joe Finn, executive director of Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.
State gets $60.3m to curb homelessness
January 26, 2005
Massachusetts received $60.3 million in federal grants yesterday to curb homelessness, part of $1.4 billion being distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This year's round of grants to the Bay State represent a $5.9 million increase from last year's $54.4 million given to fund permanent housing and transitional programs for the homeless. The money also will help fund the construction and maintenance of emergency shelters, but the focus this year is on finding permanent housing. Massachusetts ranked seventh for the most funding across the country, said Joe Finn, executive director of Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.
State gets $60.3m to curb homelessness
January 26, 2005
Massachusetts received $60.3 million in federal grants yesterday to curb homelessness, part of $1.4 billion being distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This year's round of grants to the Bay State represent a $5.9 million increase from last year's $54.4 million given to fund permanent housing and transitional programs for the homeless. The money also will help fund the construction and maintenance of emergency shelters, but the focus this year is on finding permanent housing. Massachusetts ranked seventh for the most funding across the country, said Joe Finn, executive director of Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.
Here's a movie idea: diehard Red Sox fan falls into a coma before the 2004 playoffs, spends the next four weeks fighting for his life, then regains his senses after the World Series. He survives ... only he feels ripped off, because as millions of Sox fans say, "I saw them win in my lifetime," this poor guy is the one who didn't see anything.
Never mind. It's too improbable, right?
To The Coma Guy, this moment still seems like a dream.
Meet Steven Manganello, known from this day forward in Red Sox history as The Coma Guy. Growing up in Maine, his family followed the Sox because his grandfather did, one more diehard who ended up with these dates on his tombstone: 1917-2003. Ouch.
Last September, Steven scheduled a Japan vacation that would get him home two days before the playoffs began. On Oct. 1, the final night of his trip, he crossed a street in Tokyo and ... well, this is where it gets hazy. That tends to happen when you're pancaked by a taxi travelling at an estimated 50 mph. Steven spent the next four weeks in a Tokyo hospital, battling a potentially fatal brain hemorrhage, not to mention paralysis, a punctured lung and other critical injuries. The collision was so violent, he didn't just have five broken ribs, one of them had actually flipped around inside his body. Steven's head was so swollen that when his brother, Anthony, showed up the next day, he swears it was "three times its normal size."
In the movies, people spring out of a coma like Adrian in Rocky II, as if nothing happened. In real life, there's a tube jammed down your throat and enough drugs pump through your veins to bring Keith Richards to his knees. For 17 days Steven was a blank slate. Sometimes he woke for a few minutes, but his short-term memory was demolished. That didn't stop Anthony from constantly feeding him playoff updates, hoping the positive news would stimulate something in his brother. When the Sox dropped those first three to the Yanks, Anthony even lied, pretending they were winning. Anything to keep his brother going. When Steven heard the "good" news, he'd squeeze his brother's hand -- it was all he could do. A few minutes later, as Anthony puts it, "He'd be on vacation again."
When the Yankees orchestrated the Greatest Choke in Sports History, a semiconscious Steven was still disoriented (channeling Grady Little of the previous October). When the Sox won it all and his friends and family called to share the moment, he understood ... for about five minutes. Then he forgot what happened. It was like SNL's old Mr. Short-Term Memory sketch. As Steven says, "I could remember my childhood phone number, but I couldn't remember somebody's name." It wasn't until he flew home to California in November that his brain started to work again. By Thanksgiving, Steven was well enough to fully grasp two things: "Holy crap, I almost died!" and "Holy crap, the Red Sox won the World Series!"
Problem is, now he feels left out. He only vaguely remembers a buddy calling after the ALCS, a Yankee fan saying he was half-rooting for Boston for Steven's sake. That made him feel good. He remembers watching highlights of two Johnny Damon homers on Japanese television, a happy, if hazy, memory. He knows he absorbed his brother's updates and believes they helped him ... but he remembers nothing of them. And he is proud the Sox won. Still, Steven says, "I get hit by a car and boom, they win the Series. If you loved the Red Sox and waited your whole life for this, how would you feel?" In case you don't know, he'll tell you. "It's brutal."
Should any of this matter to a guy who has undergone a near-death experience, especially if he's still slurring his speech and the right side of his body isn't yet working right? "Hey, the guy watched every Sox game he could his whole life," Anthony explains. "When they won the Series, back home we were buying shots, bottles of champagne, it was crazy. He shoulda been there. It isn't fair."
Doctors expect Steven to be fully recovered by the summer. That, in itself, is practically a miracle ... right along the lines of the Red Sox winning the Series. He plans to watch the DVDs and tapes of the Yankees games some time this winter, although part of him is afraid to. The thrill of the ride may just make the after-the-fact experience too bittersweet.
"My grandfather died having never seen them win," Steven says. "I had my chance, but I didn't see it either. Even though it happened, even though we ended the Curse, I feel I missed something big."
For The Coma Guy, it's 87 years and counting.
Here's a movie idea: diehard Red Sox fan falls into a coma before the 2004 playoffs, spends the next four weeks fighting for his life, then regains his senses after the World Series. He survives ... only he feels ripped off, because as millions of Sox fans say, "I saw them win in my lifetime," this poor guy is the one who didn't see anything.
Never mind. It's too improbable, right?
To The Coma Guy, this moment still seems like a dream.
Meet Steven Manganello, known from this day forward in Red Sox history as The Coma Guy. Growing up in Maine, his family followed the Sox because his grandfather did, one more diehard who ended up with these dates on his tombstone: 1917-2003. Ouch.
Last September, Steven scheduled a Japan vacation that would get him home two days before the playoffs began. On Oct. 1, the final night of his trip, he crossed a street in Tokyo and ... well, this is where it gets hazy. That tends to happen when you're pancaked by a taxi travelling at an estimated 50 mph. Steven spent the next four weeks in a Tokyo hospital, battling a potentially fatal brain hemorrhage, not to mention paralysis, a punctured lung and other critical injuries. The collision was so violent, he didn't just have five broken ribs, one of them had actually flipped around inside his body. Steven's head was so swollen that when his brother, Anthony, showed up the next day, he swears it was "three times its normal size."
In the movies, people spring out of a coma like Adrian in Rocky II, as if nothing happened. In real life, there's a tube jammed down your throat and enough drugs pump through your veins to bring Keith Richards to his knees. For 17 days Steven was a blank slate. Sometimes he woke for a few minutes, but his short-term memory was demolished. That didn't stop Anthony from constantly feeding him playoff updates, hoping the positive news would stimulate something in his brother. When the Sox dropped those first three to the Yanks, Anthony even lied, pretending they were winning. Anything to keep his brother going. When Steven heard the "good" news, he'd squeeze his brother's hand -- it was all he could do. A few minutes later, as Anthony puts it, "He'd be on vacation again."
When the Yankees orchestrated the Greatest Choke in Sports History, a semiconscious Steven was still disoriented (channeling Grady Little of the previous October). When the Sox won it all and his friends and family called to share the moment, he understood ... for about five minutes. Then he forgot what happened. It was like SNL's old Mr. Short-Term Memory sketch. As Steven says, "I could remember my childhood phone number, but I couldn't remember somebody's name." It wasn't until he flew home to California in November that his brain started to work again. By Thanksgiving, Steven was well enough to fully grasp two things: "Holy crap, I almost died!" and "Holy crap, the Red Sox won the World Series!"
Problem is, now he feels left out. He only vaguely remembers a buddy calling after the ALCS, a Yankee fan saying he was half-rooting for Boston for Steven's sake. That made him feel good. He remembers watching highlights of two Johnny Damon homers on Japanese television, a happy, if hazy, memory. He knows he absorbed his brother's updates and believes they helped him ... but he remembers nothing of them. And he is proud the Sox won. Still, Steven says, "I get hit by a car and boom, they win the Series. If you loved the Red Sox and waited your whole life for this, how would you feel?" In case you don't know, he'll tell you. "It's brutal."
Should any of this matter to a guy who has undergone a near-death experience, especially if he's still slurring his speech and the right side of his body isn't yet working right? "Hey, the guy watched every Sox game he could his whole life," Anthony explains. "When they won the Series, back home we were buying shots, bottles of champagne, it was crazy. He shoulda been there. It isn't fair."
Doctors expect Steven to be fully recovered by the summer. That, in itself, is practically a miracle ... right along the lines of the Red Sox winning the Series. He plans to watch the DVDs and tapes of the Yankees games some time this winter, although part of him is afraid to. The thrill of the ride may just make the after-the-fact experience too bittersweet.
"My grandfather died having never seen them win," Steven says. "I had my chance, but I didn't see it either. Even though it happened, even though we ended the Curse, I feel I missed something big."
For The Coma Guy, it's 87 years and counting.
Here's a movie idea: diehard Red Sox fan falls into a coma before the 2004 playoffs, spends the next four weeks fighting for his life, then regains his senses after the World Series. He survives ... only he feels ripped off, because as millions of Sox fans say, "I saw them win in my lifetime," this poor guy is the one who didn't see anything.
Never mind. It's too improbable, right?
To The Coma Guy, this moment still seems like a dream.
Meet Steven Manganello, known from this day forward in Red Sox history as The Coma Guy. Growing up in Maine, his family followed the Sox because his grandfather did, one more diehard who ended up with these dates on his tombstone: 1917-2003. Ouch.
Last September, Steven scheduled a Japan vacation that would get him home two days before the playoffs began. On Oct. 1, the final night of his trip, he crossed a street in Tokyo and ... well, this is where it gets hazy. That tends to happen when you're pancaked by a taxi travelling at an estimated 50 mph. Steven spent the next four weeks in a Tokyo hospital, battling a potentially fatal brain hemorrhage, not to mention paralysis, a punctured lung and other critical injuries. The collision was so violent, he didn't just have five broken ribs, one of them had actually flipped around inside his body. Steven's head was so swollen that when his brother, Anthony, showed up the next day, he swears it was "three times its normal size."
In the movies, people spring out of a coma like Adrian in Rocky II, as if nothing happened. In real life, there's a tube jammed down your throat and enough drugs pump through your veins to bring Keith Richards to his knees. For 17 days Steven was a blank slate. Sometimes he woke for a few minutes, but his short-term memory was demolished. That didn't stop Anthony from constantly feeding him playoff updates, hoping the positive news would stimulate something in his brother. When the Sox dropped those first three to the Yanks, Anthony even lied, pretending they were winning. Anything to keep his brother going. When Steven heard the "good" news, he'd squeeze his brother's hand -- it was all he could do. A few minutes later, as Anthony puts it, "He'd be on vacation again."
When the Yankees orchestrated the Greatest Choke in Sports History, a semiconscious Steven was still disoriented (channeling Grady Little of the previous October). When the Sox won it all and his friends and family called to share the moment, he understood ... for about five minutes. Then he forgot what happened. It was like SNL's old Mr. Short-Term Memory sketch. As Steven says, "I could remember my childhood phone number, but I couldn't remember somebody's name." It wasn't until he flew home to California in November that his brain started to work again. By Thanksgiving, Steven was well enough to fully grasp two things: "Holy crap, I almost died!" and "Holy crap, the Red Sox won the World Series!"
Problem is, now he feels left out. He only vaguely remembers a buddy calling after the ALCS, a Yankee fan saying he was half-rooting for Boston for Steven's sake. That made him feel good. He remembers watching highlights of two Johnny Damon homers on Japanese television, a happy, if hazy, memory. He knows he absorbed his brother's updates and believes they helped him ... but he remembers nothing of them. And he is proud the Sox won. Still, Steven says, "I get hit by a car and boom, they win the Series. If you loved the Red Sox and waited your whole life for this, how would you feel?" In case you don't know, he'll tell you. "It's brutal."
Should any of this matter to a guy who has undergone a near-death experience, especially if he's still slurring his speech and the right side of his body isn't yet working right? "Hey, the guy watched every Sox game he could his whole life," Anthony explains. "When they won the Series, back home we were buying shots, bottles of champagne, it was crazy. He shoulda been there. It isn't fair."
Doctors expect Steven to be fully recovered by the summer. That, in itself, is practically a miracle ... right along the lines of the Red Sox winning the Series. He plans to watch the DVDs and tapes of the Yankees games some time this winter, although part of him is afraid to. The thrill of the ride may just make the after-the-fact experience too bittersweet.
"My grandfather died having never seen them win," Steven says. "I had my chance, but I didn't see it either. Even though it happened, even though we ended the Curse, I feel I missed something big."
For The Coma Guy, it's 87 years and counting.
Wis. Student Sues Over Summer Homework
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By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Associated Press Writer
January 20, 2005, 10:20 PM EST
MILWAUKEE -- Peer Larson was days away from a dream camp counselor job last June when his new high school math teacher dropped a sheaf of assignments on his desk that turned his summer of fun into a headache.
One of 30 staffers who handled 500 campers six days a week, the 17-year-old was hard pressed to finish the three pre-calculus assignments for his honors math class at Whitnall High School -- one of which was 16 pages long. They had to be mailed in three installments over the summer break.
"It didn't completely ruin my summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home and at work," Larson, a high school junior, told The Associated Press Thursday. "I just didn't have the energy or the time for it."
Larson and his father, unhappy with the response of school officials to their complaint of an unfair workload, have filed a lawsuit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court seeking to bar mandatory homework over the summer break in the Whitnall district and throughout Wisconsin.
They argue that school officials have no authority to make students who aren't in school in the summer do homework and then grade them on it, because the required 180-day school year is over.
Wis. Student Sues Over Summer Homework
Email this story
Printer friendly format
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Associated Press Writer
January 20, 2005, 10:20 PM EST
MILWAUKEE -- Peer Larson was days away from a dream camp counselor job last June when his new high school math teacher dropped a sheaf of assignments on his desk that turned his summer of fun into a headache.
One of 30 staffers who handled 500 campers six days a week, the 17-year-old was hard pressed to finish the three pre-calculus assignments for his honors math class at Whitnall High School -- one of which was 16 pages long. They had to be mailed in three installments over the summer break.
"It didn't completely ruin my summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home and at work," Larson, a high school junior, told The Associated Press Thursday. "I just didn't have the energy or the time for it."
Larson and his father, unhappy with the response of school officials to their complaint of an unfair workload, have filed a lawsuit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court seeking to bar mandatory homework over the summer break in the Whitnall district and throughout Wisconsin.
They argue that school officials have no authority to make students who aren't in school in the summer do homework and then grade them on it, because the required 180-day school year is over.
Wis. Student Sues Over Summer Homework
Email this story
Printer friendly format
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Associated Press Writer
January 20, 2005, 10:20 PM EST
MILWAUKEE -- Peer Larson was days away from a dream camp counselor job last June when his new high school math teacher dropped a sheaf of assignments on his desk that turned his summer of fun into a headache.
One of 30 staffers who handled 500 campers six days a week, the 17-year-old was hard pressed to finish the three pre-calculus assignments for his honors math class at Whitnall High School -- one of which was 16 pages long. They had to be mailed in three installments over the summer break.
"It didn't completely ruin my summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home and at work," Larson, a high school junior, told The Associated Press Thursday. "I just didn't have the energy or the time for it."
Larson and his father, unhappy with the response of school officials to their complaint of an unfair workload, have filed a lawsuit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court seeking to bar mandatory homework over the summer break in the Whitnall district and throughout Wisconsin.
They argue that school officials have no authority to make students who aren't in school in the summer do homework and then grade them on it, because the required 180-day school year is over.
On the heels of electoral victories to bar same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, asked guests on Tuesday at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies.
On the heels of electoral victories to bar same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, asked guests on Tuesday at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies.
On the heels of electoral victories to bar same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, asked guests on Tuesday at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies.
The 'calling of our time,' inaugural address asserts
(By Rick Klein, Globe Staff)
Declaring an American commitment to "liberty throughout all the world," George Walker Bush yesterday took the oath of office for a second presidential term with a call for national unity in advancing the cause of freedom at home and abroad, and a vow to stamp out tyranny wherever it is found.
The 'calling of our time,' inaugural address asserts
(By Rick Klein, Globe Staff)
Declaring an American commitment to "liberty throughout all the world," George Walker Bush yesterday took the oath of office for a second presidential term with a call for national unity in advancing the cause of freedom at home and abroad, and a vow to stamp out tyranny wherever it is found.
The 'calling of our time,' inaugural address asserts
(By Rick Klein, Globe Staff)
Declaring an American commitment to "liberty throughout all the world," George Walker Bush yesterday took the oath of office for a second presidential term with a call for national unity in advancing the cause of freedom at home and abroad, and a vow to stamp out tyranny wherever it is found.
Creaking Houses Prompt Reports of Gunfire
Wed Jan 19, 2005 01:35 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A cold spell gripping Ottawa is so intense that houses have started to produce loud cracking noises, prompting worried citizens to report burglaries and gunfire, local police said Wednesday.
Spokeswoman Monique Ackland said police had received around 20 calls Monday night and Tuesday morning, when temperatures in the Canadian capital dipped to an unseasonably low minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit).
"Those were calls about breaking and entering, people making excessive noise and calls about gunshots," she said. Police responded to each alarm and rapidly realized crime was not responsible.
"Those calls were all (prompted by) the cold," she said, adding that one possible reason for the loud noises were exploding nails.
Creaking Houses Prompt Reports of Gunfire
Wed Jan 19, 2005 01:35 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A cold spell gripping Ottawa is so intense that houses have started to produce loud cracking noises, prompting worried citizens to report burglaries and gunfire, local police said Wednesday.
Spokeswoman Monique Ackland said police had received around 20 calls Monday night and Tuesday morning, when temperatures in the Canadian capital dipped to an unseasonably low minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit).
"Those were calls about breaking and entering, people making excessive noise and calls about gunshots," she said. Police responded to each alarm and rapidly realized crime was not responsible.
"Those calls were all (prompted by) the cold," she said, adding that one possible reason for the loud noises were exploding nails.
Creaking Houses Prompt Reports of Gunfire
Wed Jan 19, 2005 01:35 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A cold spell gripping Ottawa is so intense that houses have started to produce loud cracking noises, prompting worried citizens to report burglaries and gunfire, local police said Wednesday.
Spokeswoman Monique Ackland said police had received around 20 calls Monday night and Tuesday morning, when temperatures in the Canadian capital dipped to an unseasonably low minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit).
"Those were calls about breaking and entering, people making excessive noise and calls about gunshots," she said. Police responded to each alarm and rapidly realized crime was not responsible.
"Those calls were all (prompted by) the cold," she said, adding that one possible reason for the loud noises were exploding nails.
Historic organ lost in Jamaica Plain fire
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 20, 2005
A majestic pre-Civil War pipe organ that was among the best-preserved in the United States burned to ruins in the fire that gutted First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain on Tuesday, the church's former music director said yesterday.
The instrument was one of the few remaining antebellum organs to employ three separate manuals, or keyboards. It had been manufactured in 1859 by E. & G.G. Hook of Boston, among the greatest organ builders of their time, Leonardo Ciampa said.
Historic organ lost in Jamaica Plain fire
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 20, 2005
A majestic pre-Civil War pipe organ that was among the best-preserved in the United States burned to ruins in the fire that gutted First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain on Tuesday, the church's former music director said yesterday.
The instrument was one of the few remaining antebellum organs to employ three separate manuals, or keyboards. It had been manufactured in 1859 by E. & G.G. Hook of Boston, among the greatest organ builders of their time, Leonardo Ciampa said.
Historic organ lost in Jamaica Plain fire
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 20, 2005
A majestic pre-Civil War pipe organ that was among the best-preserved in the United States burned to ruins in the fire that gutted First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain on Tuesday, the church's former music director said yesterday.
The instrument was one of the few remaining antebellum organs to employ three separate manuals, or keyboards. It had been manufactured in 1859 by E. & G.G. Hook of Boston, among the greatest organ builders of their time, Leonardo Ciampa said.
Boston gets terror threat warning
By Thomas Frank and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The FBI notified Boston-area law enforcement agencies Wednesday to be on the lookout for four Chinese nationals described as possible terrorism suspects who may be headed to the area.
Boston gets terror threat warning
By Thomas Frank and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The FBI notified Boston-area law enforcement agencies Wednesday to be on the lookout for four Chinese nationals described as possible terrorism suspects who may be headed to the area.
Boston gets terror threat warning
By Thomas Frank and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The FBI notified Boston-area law enforcement agencies Wednesday to be on the lookout for four Chinese nationals described as possible terrorism suspects who may be headed to the area.
HIALEAH, Fla. -- The people who live in a Hialeah neighborhood say they are outraged by displays of hatred on a house there.
Take A Slideshow Tour Of The House
The home has six swastikas splashed across a fence and another one etched into the door. But it is a message apparently directed at President George W. Bush that has caught the attention of the Secret Service.
Yanis Leidy, who lives near the home that is located on the corner of East 52nd Street and 9th Court, is worried.
"It concerns me," Leidy said. "It worries me that this person might do something else."
Hialeah police records show code enforcement and animal control officers visited this home last September, following complaints. Police say they were looking for owner Billie Morgan.
Monday, despite three visits Local 10 made to the house and leaving telephone messages, neither Morgan nor his wife would give us a comment.
But the Anti-Defamation League did make a comment and they expressed alarm.
Art Teitelbaum, with the Anti-Defamation League, said, "People in almost any neighborhood will recognize that the swastika represents everything that America stands against: bigotry, hatred, war, and destruction -- and the Holocaust itself"
SURVEY
Should swastikas and hate messages be allowed under freedom of speech, or should such signs be prevented?
They should be allowed.
They should be stopped.
The fence has other prominent signs and warnings, but most disturbing may be a spray-painted message the U.S. Secret Service will investigate as a possible threat against the president.
While displaying swastikas is not illegal, the message could be another matter.
Prominently painted on an awning are the words, "Die Bush."
HIALEAH, Fla. -- The people who live in a Hialeah neighborhood say they are outraged by displays of hatred on a house there.
Take A Slideshow Tour Of The House
The home has six swastikas splashed across a fence and another one etched into the door. But it is a message apparently directed at President George W. Bush that has caught the attention of the Secret Service.
Yanis Leidy, who lives near the home that is located on the corner of East 52nd Street and 9th Court, is worried.
"It concerns me," Leidy said. "It worries me that this person might do something else."
Hialeah police records show code enforcement and animal control officers visited this home last September, following complaints. Police say they were looking for owner Billie Morgan.
Monday, despite three visits Local 10 made to the house and leaving telephone messages, neither Morgan nor his wife would give us a comment.
But the Anti-Defamation League did make a comment and they expressed alarm.
Art Teitelbaum, with the Anti-Defamation League, said, "People in almost any neighborhood will recognize that the swastika represents everything that America stands against: bigotry, hatred, war, and destruction -- and the Holocaust itself"
SURVEY
Should swastikas and hate messages be allowed under freedom of speech, or should such signs be prevented?
They should be allowed.
They should be stopped.
The fence has other prominent signs and warnings, but most disturbing may be a spray-painted message the U.S. Secret Service will investigate as a possible threat against the president.
While displaying swastikas is not illegal, the message could be another matter.
Prominently painted on an awning are the words, "Die Bush."
HIALEAH, Fla. -- The people who live in a Hialeah neighborhood say they are outraged by displays of hatred on a house there.
Take A Slideshow Tour Of The House
The home has six swastikas splashed across a fence and another one etched into the door. But it is a message apparently directed at President George W. Bush that has caught the attention of the Secret Service.
Yanis Leidy, who lives near the home that is located on the corner of East 52nd Street and 9th Court, is worried.
"It concerns me," Leidy said. "It worries me that this person might do something else."
Hialeah police records show code enforcement and animal control officers visited this home last September, following complaints. Police say they were looking for owner Billie Morgan.
Monday, despite three visits Local 10 made to the house and leaving telephone messages, neither Morgan nor his wife would give us a comment.
But the Anti-Defamation League did make a comment and they expressed alarm.
Art Teitelbaum, with the Anti-Defamation League, said, "People in almost any neighborhood will recognize that the swastika represents everything that America stands against: bigotry, hatred, war, and destruction -- and the Holocaust itself"
SURVEY
Should swastikas and hate messages be allowed under freedom of speech, or should such signs be prevented?
They should be allowed.
They should be stopped.
The fence has other prominent signs and warnings, but most disturbing may be a spray-painted message the U.S. Secret Service will investigate as a possible threat against the president.
While displaying swastikas is not illegal, the message could be another matter.
Prominently painted on an awning are the words, "Die Bush."
January 18, 2005
Researchers have identified a gene that prevents the regeneration of inner-ear cells that are critical to hearing, a discovery experts say is the first step toward finding a way to correct the most common form of deafness among the elderly. In laboratory mouse studies at Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers found that by eliminating the effects of a single gene, they could cause inner-ear cells vital to hearing to regrow. The regrowth replaces nerve endings, called hair cells, that are often lost to injury or age -- and cannot regenerate. "Most deafness is caused by the loss of these hair cells," said Zheng-Yi Chen, leader of the hospital research team that published its findings in last week's issue of Science. "Now we have the means to regenerate these cells." The goal, Chen said, is to find a way to turn off this gene in the inner ear of humans, probably with a drug, and allow the regrowth of hair cells.
January 18, 2005
Researchers have identified a gene that prevents the regeneration of inner-ear cells that are critical to hearing, a discovery experts say is the first step toward finding a way to correct the most common form of deafness among the elderly. In laboratory mouse studies at Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers found that by eliminating the effects of a single gene, they could cause inner-ear cells vital to hearing to regrow. The regrowth replaces nerve endings, called hair cells, that are often lost to injury or age -- and cannot regenerate. "Most deafness is caused by the loss of these hair cells," said Zheng-Yi Chen, leader of the hospital research team that published its findings in last week's issue of Science. "Now we have the means to regenerate these cells." The goal, Chen said, is to find a way to turn off this gene in the inner ear of humans, probably with a drug, and allow the regrowth of hair cells.
January 18, 2005
Researchers have identified a gene that prevents the regeneration of inner-ear cells that are critical to hearing, a discovery experts say is the first step toward finding a way to correct the most common form of deafness among the elderly. In laboratory mouse studies at Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers found that by eliminating the effects of a single gene, they could cause inner-ear cells vital to hearing to regrow. The regrowth replaces nerve endings, called hair cells, that are often lost to injury or age -- and cannot regenerate. "Most deafness is caused by the loss of these hair cells," said Zheng-Yi Chen, leader of the hospital research team that published its findings in last week's issue of Science. "Now we have the means to regenerate these cells." The goal, Chen said, is to find a way to turn off this gene in the inner ear of humans, probably with a drug, and allow the regrowth of hair cells.
Bush won't rule out action against Iran
By Reuters | January 18, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday he would not rule out military action against Iran if Tehran is not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program.
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"I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," Bush told NBC News, adding that he could act if Iran "continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program."
Iran denies that it has been trying to make nuclear weapons.
Bush's comments followed Pentagon criticism yesterday of a published report that it was mounting reconnaissance missions in Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said Sunday's article in The New Yorker magazine was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed."
The report said Bush authorized secret commando groups and other special-forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia. DiRita and other Pentagon officials did not comment on whether military forces had been doing reconnaissance in Iran.
The New York Times reported today the Bush administration imposed penalties on eight Chinese firms it thinks aided Iran in improving ballistic missiles. The State Department did not name the technology allegedly exported. The firms are barred from doing business with the US government.
Bush won't rule out action against Iran
By Reuters | January 18, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday he would not rule out military action against Iran if Tehran is not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," Bush told NBC News, adding that he could act if Iran "continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program."
Iran denies that it has been trying to make nuclear weapons.
Bush's comments followed Pentagon criticism yesterday of a published report that it was mounting reconnaissance missions in Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said Sunday's article in The New Yorker magazine was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed."
The report said Bush authorized secret commando groups and other special-forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia. DiRita and other Pentagon officials did not comment on whether military forces had been doing reconnaissance in Iran.
The New York Times reported today the Bush administration imposed penalties on eight Chinese firms it thinks aided Iran in improving ballistic missiles. The State Department did not name the technology allegedly exported. The firms are barred from doing business with the US government.
Bush won't rule out action against Iran
By Reuters | January 18, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday he would not rule out military action against Iran if Tehran is not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," Bush told NBC News, adding that he could act if Iran "continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program."
Iran denies that it has been trying to make nuclear weapons.
Bush's comments followed Pentagon criticism yesterday of a published report that it was mounting reconnaissance missions in Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said Sunday's article in The New Yorker magazine was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed."
The report said Bush authorized secret commando groups and other special-forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia. DiRita and other Pentagon officials did not comment on whether military forces had been doing reconnaissance in Iran.
The New York Times reported today the Bush administration imposed penalties on eight Chinese firms it thinks aided Iran in improving ballistic missiles. The State Department did not name the technology allegedly exported. The firms are barred from doing business with the US government.
Kidnapping, more deaths rock Iraq
(By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post)
Insurgents who have vowed to disrupt Iraq's parliamentary elections unleashed attacks yesterday across Iraq, from the kidnapping of a Catholic archbishop and a car bombing at a police station in the north to mortar attacks on polling stations in Basra in the south. At least 18 people were killed.
Kidnapping, more deaths rock Iraq
(By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post)
Insurgents who have vowed to disrupt Iraq's parliamentary elections unleashed attacks yesterday across Iraq, from the kidnapping of a Catholic archbishop and a car bombing at a police station in the north to mortar attacks on polling stations in Basra in the south. At least 18 people were killed.
Kidnapping, more deaths rock Iraq
(By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post)
Insurgents who have vowed to disrupt Iraq's parliamentary elections unleashed attacks yesterday across Iraq, from the kidnapping of a Catholic archbishop and a car bombing at a police station in the north to mortar attacks on polling stations in Basra in the south. At least 18 people were killed.
THE WORLD TODAY
US-led forces damaged Babylon, report finds
January 15, 2005
Britain
LONDON -- US-led forces, using Iraq's ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archeological treasures, a British Museum report said. The report, quoted in today's Guardian newspaper, said US and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added. John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities specialists, also said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate. US military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, just after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and handed it over to a Polish-led force five months later. (Reuters)
THE WORLD TODAY
US-led forces damaged Babylon, report finds
January 15, 2005
Britain
LONDON -- US-led forces, using Iraq's ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archeological treasures, a British Museum report said. The report, quoted in today's Guardian newspaper, said US and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added. John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities specialists, also said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate. US military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, just after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and handed it over to a Polish-led force five months later. (Reuters)
THE WORLD TODAY
US-led forces damaged Babylon, report finds
January 15, 2005
Britain
LONDON -- US-led forces, using Iraq's ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archeological treasures, a British Museum report said. The report, quoted in today's Guardian newspaper, said US and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added. John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities specialists, also said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate. US military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, just after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and handed it over to a Polish-led force five months later. (Reuters)
Sunni group says it killed Shi'ite aide
Gunmen seize 15 Iraqi troops in bus ambush
By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post | January 15, 2005
BAGHDAD -- A Sunni Muslim insurgent group that has vowed to disrupt Iraq's Jan. 30 elections claimed responsibility yesterday for the assassination of an aide of the country's most prominent Shi'ite Muslim religious leader, and suspected insurgents abducted 15 Iraqi soldiers and torched their bus in restive western Iraq.
Sunni group says it killed Shi'ite aide
Gunmen seize 15 Iraqi troops in bus ambush
By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post | January 15, 2005
BAGHDAD -- A Sunni Muslim insurgent group that has vowed to disrupt Iraq's Jan. 30 elections claimed responsibility yesterday for the assassination of an aide of the country's most prominent Shi'ite Muslim religious leader, and suspected insurgents abducted 15 Iraqi soldiers and torched their bus in restive western Iraq.
Sunni group says it killed Shi'ite aide
Gunmen seize 15 Iraqi troops in bus ambush
By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post | January 15, 2005
BAGHDAD -- A Sunni Muslim insurgent group that has vowed to disrupt Iraq's Jan. 30 elections claimed responsibility yesterday for the assassination of an aide of the country's most prominent Shi'ite Muslim religious leader, and suspected insurgents abducted 15 Iraqi soldiers and torched their bus in restive western Iraq.
GOP seeks exemption to bias law
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | January 15, 2005
WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders want to exempt members of Congress from laws against discrimination that apply to private employers, despite the Republicans' Contract With America pledge that ''all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress" and a decade-old law that placed Congress under antidiscrimination statutes.
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Last week, in response to a discrimination lawsuit filed against a Democratic House member, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, majority leader Tom DeLay, and majority whip Roy Blunt submitted a ''friend of the court" brief on behalf of the House, saying members of Congress should be shielded from discrimination suits.
They said the Constitution protects representatives' ability to study and craft legislation with the staff members they choose, regardless of laws that prohibit employment decisions based on factors such as age, race, gender, and disabilities.
But Democratic House leaders refused to sign off on the House brief, saying that if the court accepts that reasoning, the 10-year-old Congressional Accountability Act would be rendered meaningless. That law, passed shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1995 and designed on the first plank of the Contract with America, specifically stated that Congress should be covered by the same statutes against discrimination that apply to private-sector employers.
''This is a total flip-flop, a repudiation of the contract," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, who held a news conference yesterday to call attention to the Republicans' move. ''It's really wrong for Congress to pass laws that cover the private sector that don't cover ourselves."
GOP seeks exemption to bias law
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | January 15, 2005
WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders want to exempt members of Congress from laws against discrimination that apply to private employers, despite the Republicans' Contract With America pledge that ''all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress" and a decade-old law that placed Congress under antidiscrimination statutes.
ADVERTISEMENT
Last week, in response to a discrimination lawsuit filed against a Democratic House member, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, majority leader Tom DeLay, and majority whip Roy Blunt submitted a ''friend of the court" brief on behalf of the House, saying members of Congress should be shielded from discrimination suits.
They said the Constitution protects representatives' ability to study and craft legislation with the staff members they choose, regardless of laws that prohibit employment decisions based on factors such as age, race, gender, and disabilities.
But Democratic House leaders refused to sign off on the House brief, saying that if the court accepts that reasoning, the 10-year-old Congressional Accountability Act would be rendered meaningless. That law, passed shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1995 and designed on the first plank of the Contract with America, specifically stated that Congress should be covered by the same statutes against discrimination that apply to private-sector employers.
''This is a total flip-flop, a repudiation of the contract," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, who held a news conference yesterday to call attention to the Republicans' move. ''It's really wrong for Congress to pass laws that cover the private sector that don't cover ourselves."
GOP seeks exemption to bias law
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | January 15, 2005
WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders want to exempt members of Congress from laws against discrimination that apply to private employers, despite the Republicans' Contract With America pledge that ''all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress" and a decade-old law that placed Congress under antidiscrimination statutes.
ADVERTISEMENT
Last week, in response to a discrimination lawsuit filed against a Democratic House member, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, majority leader Tom DeLay, and majority whip Roy Blunt submitted a ''friend of the court" brief on behalf of the House, saying members of Congress should be shielded from discrimination suits.
They said the Constitution protects representatives' ability to study and craft legislation with the staff members they choose, regardless of laws that prohibit employment decisions based on factors such as age, race, gender, and disabilities.
But Democratic House leaders refused to sign off on the House brief, saying that if the court accepts that reasoning, the 10-year-old Congressional Accountability Act would be rendered meaningless. That law, passed shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1995 and designed on the first plank of the Contract with America, specifically stated that Congress should be covered by the same statutes against discrimination that apply to private-sector employers.
''This is a total flip-flop, a repudiation of the contract," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, who held a news conference yesterday to call attention to the Republicans' move. ''It's really wrong for Congress to pass laws that cover the private sector that don't cover ourselves."