DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER
Soldier shocked by pupils' letters
Gary Younge in New York
Thursday February 24, 2005
The Guardian
A teacher has apologised for letters sent by his sixth-grade students to an American soldier, accusing the US military of killing civilians and destroying Iraqi mosques in a futile war on terror.
Alex Kunhardt sent the letters to Private Rob Jacobs for a social studies assignment. Pte Jacobs, who is serving 10 miles from the North Korean border, said his excitement at getting the letters from the Brooklyn schoolchildren turned to shock as he read them.
One of the letters from the 11- to 12-year-old pupils, stamped with a smiley face, said the soldier might have been risking his life for his country, but then asked: "Have you seen how many civilians you or some other soldier killed?"
Another read: "I feel that you are being forced to kill innocent people. Iraq never attacked us, if Bush cared so much about this country then we would be out there trying to find Osama bin Laden. Bush calls this war the war on terrorism. What terrorism? Name one terrorist from Iraq ... I know I can't."
Most letters did include support for the troops, but few were completely uncritical. A Muslim boy wrote: "I know your [sic] trying to save our country and kill the terrorists but you are also destroying holy places like mosques."
Another stated: "Bush thinks he's brave ... in his safe little white house with as many guards as he thinks he needs." He concluded with: "By the way, when you shoot someone, is it great or horrible?"
Pte Jacobs, 20, told the New York Post: "It's hard enough for soldiers to deal with being away from their families, they don't need to be getting letters like this. If they don't have anything nice to say, they might as well not say anything at all." Pte Jacobs added that the letters were demoralising.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1424024,00.html
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U.S. helicopter down in S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier died and a second was wounded when a military helicopter crashed on Saturday while conducting a training exercise in South Korea, officials said.
The Apache helicopter, used by the 2nd Infantry Division, went down in a training area at about 11:20 a.m. local time (9:20 p.m. Friday ET), U.S. military officials said.
Only two people were on the helicopter. The wounded soldier was being treated at a nearby hospital, authorities said.
Training exercises were suspended while an investigation was conducted into the cause of the crash, military officials said. The name of the soldier who died was not released.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/skorea.helicopter/index.html
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Blast hits Baghdad supermarket
Al-Zarqawi aides arrested
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two Iraqi civilians were killed and a third was wounded Saturday when a suicide car bomber targeted -- but missed -- a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
The explosion occurred about 8:55 a.m. local time (12:55 a.m. ET) near a supermarket on the al-Adil highway road, only a few meters away from the convoy, police said. There were no U.S. casualties.
Besides the civilians killed and injured, three civilians' cars were damaged, authorities said.
Iraq attacks target police
Other attacks killed eight people on Friday, a day after a string of attacks targeting Iraqi police.
A U.S. Marine was killed in action Friday while conducting security and stability operations in Iraq's al-Anbar province, military officials said.
The marine was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, authorities said early Saturday. No further information was released.
A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Tarmiya as a convoy passed, killing three Task Force Baghdad soldiers and wounding nine, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division said. Tarmiya is about 20 miles north of Baghdad.
Another Task Force Baghdad soldier died Friday in "non-battle injuries."
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/26/iraq.main/index.html
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Forces: U.S. & Coalition/Casualties
There have been 1,663 coalition troop deaths, 1,491 Americans, 86 Britons, seven Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 20 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 17 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of February 25, 2005. (Graphical breakdown of casualties). The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose families have been notified of their deaths by each country's government. At least 11,069 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. The Pentagon does not report the number of non-hostile wounded. For a historical look at U.S. war casualties, click here. To view casualties in the war in Afghanistan, click here.
A - B | C - D | E - H | I - L | M - O | P - T | U - Z
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
Whooooooooops they forgot the one Australian, bad move CNN edition
Sorry Cristy and Kimmy 1 compared with 1,491 I guess we have just been lucky thank the lord, But I always catch the omission, but we down under are always omitted I have always noticed that on all cable and media from America, and it really pisses me off big time always has
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Gallery Photos of the voting In Iraq
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/iraq.transition/
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Allawi forms new bloc to vie for Iraqi prime ministry
Move challenges Shiite-led alliance's nomination of al-Jaafari
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In a sign that political jockeying for the job of Iraqi prime minister isn't over, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Wednesday named a new coalition to challenge Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the post.
At a news conference with other supporters, Allawi indicated his backing is broader than the list he fielded in January's election, but he didn't provide details.
On Tuesday, the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance announced the candidacy of al-Jaafari, leader of the religious Dawa Party. (Al-Jaafari profile)
The United Iraqi Alliance won 140 seats, a slim majority in the 275-member National Assembly, in last month's election, and it must share power because a two-thirds vote is needed to form a government.
Allawi's Iraqi List placed third behind the United Iraqi Alliance and a Kurdish coalition, winning 40 seats.
Referring to Allawi's new alliance, Kassim Dawood, Iraq's national security adviser and a member of the Iraqi List, said, "This coalition represents the democratic coalition which will work ... to create a united Iraq, where all human values ... flourish -- the values of social justice, the values which we inherited from our Islamic heritage and the values which match with experiences of other nations."
Negotiations among various parties that earned seats in the elections are under way. It is not known whether Allawi would be willing to accept other jobs in the new government.
Officials from the Kurdish alliance that placed second in the election said they expect to meet with al-Jaafari and other prime minister candidates to discuss their concerns.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/23/iraq.main/index.html
Wow your prez must be really pissing himself at the moment, thing are getting away from him
The games begin, Al-Jaafari will not do, no no no this will not be, I will not allow it.
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'River Blitz' launched around Ramadi
Crackdown follows more than 50 deaths during Shiite holiday
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an anti-insurgency operation Sunday in Ramadi and other cities along the Euphrates River, adding an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew and other security measures, the U.S. military said.
Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, said the Iraqi government had asked U.S. forces to "increase our security operations ... to locate, isolate and defeat" insurgents operating from the area.
The push, dubbed "Operation River Blitz," is a "purely routine" activity aimed at bringing order and stability, an Iraqi interior ministry official told CNN.
Ramadi, provincial capital of Anbar province and considered a stronghold of Sunni Muslims who once backed Saddam Hussein, is 60 miles west of Baghdad and 30 miles west of Falluja. U.S. forces took Falluja back from insurgents in a devastating show of force late last year.
"Ramadi has been an ongoing problem for some time for the Iraqi government, but there is nothing new or extraordinary about the military operations in the area," the Iraqi interior ministry official said.
The official said that no area of Ramadi has been sealed off. He said security in the area was tough because of difficulties recruiting police officers.
Forces involved in the operation will set up checkpoints and screen vehicles, a statement from the U.S. military said
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/20/iraq.main/index.html
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7 dead in Iraq attacks
Al-Zarqawi aides arrested
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers killed seven people -- including three U.S. soldiers -- in separate attacks in the Baghdad area on Friday, a day after a string of attacks targeting Iraqi police.
A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Tarmiya as a convoy passed, killing three Task Force Baghdad soldiers and wounding nine, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division said. Tarmiya is about 20 miles north of Baghdad.
Another Task Force Baghdad soldier died Friday in "non-battle injuries."
The incidents bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the war to 1,491.
Three Iraqis were killed in an attack in southeast Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
A roadside bomb killed one person around 9:40 a.m., the military said in a statement, and Iraqi police and Task Force Baghdad members cordoned the area.
Then, "a terrorist fired into the crowd with an unknown weapon," killing two and wounding two, the statement said. The attacker then fled.
In Iskandariya, a restive town in northern Babil province 30 miles south of Baghdad, three masked gunmen fired on a car carrying employees of the al-Hurra television network Friday morning, killing the driver, police said.
"Three masked terrorists" drove up next to the car carrying al-Hurra staff and opened fire, killing the driver instantly, police said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/25/iraq.main/index.html
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Israeli police: Four dead in Tel Aviv bombing
As many as 65 injured in suicide blast
TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Less than three weeks after Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to a cease-fire amid newfound optimism about the Mideast peace process, a suicide bomber attacked a nightclub in a popular beachfront area of Tel Aviv late Friday night, killing four people and wounding at least 65 others, according to Israeli police and emergency services.
At least three of the wounded were considered severely injured and at least three others were critically hurt, Israeli emergency services spokesman Yoni Yagodozsky said.
In the wake of the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consulted Saturday with his defense minister and security services on what response to make.
But Israel "remains committed" to the cease-fire reached with Palestinian Authority officials in Egypt on February 8, said Ra'annan Gissin, a spokesman Sharon
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held an emergency meeting of his security officials in Ramallah, Palestinian sources said.
He also released a statement pledging that Palestinian authorities would do everything they can to track down those responsible for the attack.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing in the "strongest possible terms," and he urged "all sides to exercise restraint."
• Special Report: Land of conflict
• Video: Bombing outside Tel Aviv nightclub
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/26/telaviv.explosion/index.html
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Hizbollah 'behind' Israel attack
From correspondents in Ramallah
February 27, 2005
INITIAL investigations show that Hizbollahwas behind a suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv which killed at least four people, a senior Palestinian security source said today.
In Beirut, the Lebanese guerrilla group denied any role in the bombing and called the accusations "a provocation".
"All the information that we have until now from interrogations show that Hizbollah is involved in the operation," said the Palestinian source, who is closely involved in the investigation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had earlier said that a "third party" opposed to his peacemaking with Israel appeared to have a hand in the attack, but he stopped short of naming Hizbollah – which is backed by Syria and Iran.
Hizbollah said in a statement in Beirut: "Hizbollah unequivocally denies the accusations pointing towards its supposed role in the Tel Aviv operation and considers them devoid of any truth and a type of provocation of Hizbollah by the Zionist entity."
Israeli and Palestinian officials have said recently that they believe Hizbollah has been trying to encourage such attacks in order to sabotage peacemaking.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12386893-23109,00.html
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NATO plane hits Kabul terminal
From correspondents in Kabul
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
A MILITARY transport aircraft from the NATO-led peacekeeping force slid off the runway at Kabul airport Saturday, sustaining minor damage after hitting a terminal building, an official said.
There were no casualties but the plane, a C-130, was damaged and grounded for repair, NATO spokeswoman Major Karen Tissot Van Patot told reporters in Kabul.
She said the aircraft "struck and hit one of the buildings of the terminal at Kabul Airport – there were no injuries... and only minor damage to the aircraft."
It was unclear how many personnel were on board the plane at the time of the accident and whether the plane was taking off or landing.
The accident occurred while the plane was on the ground and an investigation was pending, she said, declining to give any further information.
NATO-led peacekeepers are operating in the capital Kabul and some northern provinces under a United Nations mandate to helping the Afghan authorities with security.
As part of its operations, the 8,000-strong force operates two C-130 transport aircraft and nearly a dozen helicopters.
Kabul Airport, one of the biggest air facilities in the war-shattered country, suffered serious damage during 23 years of war and lacks a radar facility, although NATO is considering equipping the airport with one.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12380319-23109,00.html
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Brothers of disco suicide bomber arrested
From correspondents in the West Bank
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
THE Israeli army today arrested the two brothers of the Palestinian suicide bomber who attacked a Tel Aviv disco, during an incursion into a village near Tulkarem, on the West Bank, security sources and witnesses said.
The attack late Friday, which left four dead and 50 wounded, was the first suicide bombing inside Israel since November 1.
The Israeli army made an incursion into the village of Deir al-Ghoussoun, east of Tulkarem, where it imposed a curfew and arrested the two brothers of 22-year-old suicide bomber Abdallah Badrane
A cell of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Palestinian militant group loosely affiliated to the mainstream Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12380315-23109,00.html
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Japan admits 15th mad cow case
From correspondents in Tokyo
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
JAPAN confirmed Saturday its 15th case of mad cow disease since 2001, saying a Holstein born in the northern main island of Hokkaido had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease.
The 102-month cow was tested for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), when it developed arthritis after stumbling, the farm ministry said in a statement.
Japan is the only Asian country to have confirmed cases of mad cow disease which decimated Britain's cattle industry in the 1990s.
It uncovered its first case in September 2001 and soon afterwards introduced measures to screen every cow which is slaughtered for consumption.
Japan halted imports of US beef in December 2003 after a cow infected with BSE was discovered in the US state of Washington. Before then, it was the top export market for US beef.
Farm minister Yoshinobu Shimamura said Friday Japan would work towards lifting the ban to prevent retaliation from Washington, where 20 senators have threatened sanctions unless Japan resumes buying US beef.
On February 4 Japan confirmed its first citizen to die from mad cow disease but said the man had contracted the condition in Britain, which has seen most cases.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12378798-23109,00.html
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Arnie admits past steroid use
From correspondents in Washington DC
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
AS a young body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger used experimental steroids on doctors' recommendations, the movie-star-turned California governor admitted in a television interview today, calling for a youth ban on steroids.
"That's what we did in those days," the star of Terminator said, quizzed on the American ABC network's News This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
"But I would strongly recommend that people do not take drugs."
Asked on the ABC News program, due to air fully on Sunday, if he had regrets about using steroids, he replied: "No, I have no regrets about it, because at that time, it was something new that came on the market, and we went to the doctor and did it under doctor's supervision.
"We were experimenting with it, it was a new thing."
The California governor said that, "absolutely" he planned to advance his own steroid legislation, after his veto of a bill that required high school coaches to teach student athletes the dangers of steroids.
Schwarzenegger said he vetoed the bill because performance enhancing food supplements had been included alongside steroids.
"It's ludicrous to forbid this for a student to take. Because if you take a protein food supplement that is made out of milk protein, out of milk, or out of soybean, or out of liver or fish that has maybe 90 percent protein, they will enhance your performance.
"That's what you need in order to get strong, is protein."
The California governor said he would seek a ban on steroids, but without food supplement restrictions.
"Of course, we want to keep the sport clean. It says, 'body-building', not 'body-destroying'.
"But people should take food supplements, people should be able to take the vitamins and all of the nutritious stuff that is available, but stay away from drugs."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12377050-29278,00.html
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Evangelicals to target abortion clinics
From correspondents in London
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
A MILITANT evangelical Christian group plans to target pregnant women and medical staff at abortion clinics in Britain, taking their cue from US anti-abortion groups, a newspaper reported Saturday.
A member of parliament will make a written statement to the House of Commons next week calling on Home Secretary Charles Clarke to investigate the activities of Christian Voice, The Times newspaper reported.
Adopting the tactics of fundamentalist Christians in the United States, Christian Voice pickets buildings and displays the home addresses and phone numbers of its targets on the internet, it said.
The group, led by Stephen Green, gained notoriety when it circulated the home addresses and telephone numbers of senior BBC figures when the musical, Jerry Springer The Opera', was screened on BBC Two last month.
Some people on the list received calls threatening them with bloodshed.
The musical features a nappy-wearing Jesus who admits he is "a bit gay".
Green, 53, told The Times that his next target is abortion clinics.
"The taking of innocent blood brings judgment on our land and cries to Heaven for vengeance," he was quoted as saying.
"The presence of abortion centres in our towns is iniquitous. They should be shut down. It would not take much: just a few prayer vigils outside clinics," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12376875-23109,00.html
These so called Christian, make me want to pute, put them on the front line of their War in Iraq, bet they voted for that in an instant
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China's Quiet Rise Casts Wide Shadow
East Asian Nations Cash In on Growth
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 26, 2005; Page A01
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Bespectacled and mild-mannered, Leong Kai Hin is every bit the professor. He teaches economics at a Kuala Lumpur university and seems most at home behind his computer grazing for statistics.
But Leong is off on a new project that, according to his assessment, says a lot about where East Asia is headed. In partnership with a mainland Chinese friend, Leong is organizing a strawberry importing business, hoping to cash in on Malaysia's hunger for juicy berries and the ability of Chinese farmers to grow them cheaply.
Leong's out-of-character leap from the classroom into competitive business, he says, is just a small example of rapidly expanding economic activity generated across East Asia by China's 9 percent annual growth. From Japan southward to Indonesia, companies and governments have come to rely on China as a market for vital exports -- from palm oil to semiconductors -- and a source for the imports that delight local business people .
With stronger economic ties between East Asian countries and China has come a rise in Beijing's political and diplomatic influence, according to a variety of sources in China and the region. Treading softly but casting a big shadow, they say, China has emerged as an active and decisive leader in East Asia, transforming economic and diplomatic relationships across an area long dominated by the United States.
The shift in status, increasingly clear over the past year, has changed the way Chinese officials view their country's international role as well as the way other Asians look to Beijing for cues. In many ways, China has started to act like a traditional big power, tending to its regional interests and pulling smaller neighbors along in its wake.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54610-2005Feb25.html
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Suspect in BTK Killings Arrested in Kansas
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 26, 2005; 1:00 PM
WICHITA, Kan. -- Police said Saturday they have arrested a man they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s and then resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence.
"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference in Wichita with some of the victims' family members.
BTK investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr identified the suspect as Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker in nearby Park City, who was arrested Friday at his suburban home.
The BTK killer -- a self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill" -- had been linked to eight killings committed between 1974 and 1986. Police said Saturday they have attributed two more slayings to BTK, from 1985 and 1991.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55705-2005Feb26.html
Sunny and Doc will be happy
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Iran-Russia nuclear deal delayed
Last-minute hitches forced Iran and Russia to postpone the signing of an agreement to supply Iran with fuel for its first nuclear reactor Saturday.
The two countries top nuclear officials were due to sign the agreement, a deal stronlgy opposed to by the U.S., Saturday morning, a day after President Bush and President Putin were to hold a summit.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Mohammad Saeedi, attributed the postponement to differences over the delivery time of the first shipment of fuel and the launch of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Saeedi said the deal may be signed Sunday in Bushehr, the southern town where Iran's first reactor was built, using Russian help.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7277
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Iraqs government close to capturing rebel leader
The Iraqi interim government announced on Friday the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared rebel group and expressed confidence that the capture of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was very close.
Word of the capture came as a U.S. patrol was attacked killing three American soldiers and wounding nine in Tarmiyah, about 20 miles north of the capital.
In Haqlaniyah, 85 miles northwest of Baghdad, residents said U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers were driving through town offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi.
"We are very close to al-Zarqawi, and I believe that there are few weeks separating us from him," Iraq's interim national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7365
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Seven held over Tel Aviv bombing
Seven Palestinians are held by Israeli and Palestinian security forces over Friday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
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USS Cole attack verdicts upheld
A Yemeni appeals court has upheld a death sentence, and commuted another, over the bomb attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors in 2000.
Suspected ringleader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, currently in US custody, will receive the death penalty.
But Jamal Mohammed al-Badawi will only serve 15 years in jail, the court said.
Three others are to serve between five and 10 years; a fourth sentence was commuted from eight to five years.
In October 2000, two attackers rammed the destroyer with a small boat laden with explosives in the port of Aden.
The attack was blamed on Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
'Un-Islamic verdict'
Saturday's court session in the capital Sanaa was held under strict security.
Streets near the courthouse were blocked and several armoured vehicles and military jeeps armed with machine guns surrounded the building.
Defendants and their families shouted "Allahu Akbar" [God is Greatest] after the ruling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4300015.stm
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Third 'gorilla breast' woman sues
A third woman hired to look after a gorilla is suing her Californian ex-employer for allegedly ordering her to show her breasts to the animal.
Koko the gorilla can understand 2,000 words of spoken English
Iris Rivera says Gorilla Foundation boss Francine Patterson told her to bare her nipples as a way of bonding with the gorilla, Koko.
Two other women, Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller, made similar allegations last week in their own legal action.
The Gorilla Foundation, based in San Francisco, strongly denies the claims.
Ms Rivera was an administrative assistant there until she resigned last month.
She is seeking unspecified damages from the foundation for alleged sexual and disability discrimination, invasion of privacy and violation of US labour laws.
'Disagreeable duty'
Ms Alperin and Ms Keller, who were fired from their jobs, are seeking damages of more than $1m (£528,000) for wrongful dismissal, outstanding overtime pay and sexual discrimination.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4300803.stm
hahahahahaha it could only happen in the Americas I think
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How long can Bush get away with lies?
February 25, 2005
BY ANDREW GREELEY
As the criminal, sinful war in Iraq enters its third year, the president goes to Europe to heal the wounds between the United States and its former allies, on his own terms of course. The White House propaganda mill will hail it as another victory for the president and ignore the fact that most Europeans still consider the war dangerous folly and the president a dangerous fool.
One hears new rationalizations for the war on this side of the Atlantic. After the hearings on Secretary of State Rice, a Republican senator, with all the self-righteous anger that characterizes many such, proclaimed, "The Democrats just have to understand that the president really believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." This justification is not unlike the one heard frequently at the White House, "The president believed the intelligence agencies of the world."
Would it not be much better to have a president who deliberately lied to the people because he thought a war was essential than to have one who was so dumb as to be taken in by intelligence agencies, especially those who told him what he wanted to hear?
It is also asserted that the election settled the matters of the war and the torture of prisoners. These are dead issues that no longer need be addressed. Yet the president received only 51 percent of the vote and carried only one more state than the last time (picking up New Mexico and Iowa and losing New Hampshire). This is a validation of the war and of prisoner abuse? This is a mandate to do whatever he wants to do and whatever the leadership of the evangelical denominations want? A percentage point and a single state are a mandate for more war? Never before in American political history!
http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel25.html
They have done a pretty good job of getting away with it for this long
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U.S. Says 'Thousands' of Missiles Missing
WASHINGTON (Feb. 25) - It has been known for years that thousands of light and lethal shoulder-fired missiles are in black-market circulation. What is not known is exactly who has them and whether many have fallen into the hands of terrorists or criminals.
A worrisome puzzle, it explains why the United States and Russia signed an agreement Thursday to cooperate in destroying surplus Soviet-era SA-7s and other portable anti-aircraft missiles. The smallest of these are durable, relatively cheap and easy to smuggle.
The United States also has understandings with several other countries, including Nicaragua, Bosnia, Cambodia and Liberia, for Washington to provide technical assistance or money to destroy anti-aircraft missiles.
The State Department estimates that about 1 million shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles have been produced worldwide since the 1950s. The number believed to be in the hands of "nonstate actors,'' such as terrorist groups, is "in the thousands,'' the department says.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050224171009990023
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Top U.S. General Sees Lasting Iraq Insurgency
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) - The insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites) is not likely to be put down in a year or even two since history shows such uprisings can last a decade or more, the United States' top military commander said on Friday
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said that in the past century, insurgencies around the world have lasted anywhere from seven to 12 years, making a quick fix to the problem in Iraq unlikely.
"This is not the kind of business that can be done in one year, two years probably," said Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council here.
Myers was filling in for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was scheduled to address the group but became ill after a long trip to Europe.
Myers said, however, that recent elections in Iraq were a sign that insurgents were not succeeding in their efforts to strike fear in the Iraqi people. American television was full of images in January of Iraqis whose fingers were stained with indelible ink after casting their ballots.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20050226/wl_nm/iraq_myers_dc
Lots and lots of money for Bush and his Corporations while the country goes into bankrupcy
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Oil Pipeline Destroyed in Northern Iraq
February 26, 2005 — Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline in northern Iraq in the latest attack against the country's vital petroleum industry, while a roadside bomb killed two people in the capital, officials and witnesses said.
The U.S. military also said Saturday that a soldier had died during a sweep for insurgents west of Baghdad.
The violence came one day after the government announced the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared terrorist group, and a top official said the noose was tightening around the group's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The pipeline connecting oil fields in Dibis with the northern city of Kirkuk about 20 miles away was blown up late Friday, an official of the state-run North Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. He said repairs would take at least four days.
Insurgents regularly target Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country funds that are badly needed for reconstruction.
In Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in the west of the city, killing two civilians. Their slumped bodies could be seen in a small white car, its windshield smashed in the blast.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/022605_nw_pipeline.html
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Arkansas GOP's election fine negotiated to $400,000 for violations of campaign finance law during the 2000 election 2/26
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg&storyid=108924
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Aal-Jaafari claims influential Shiite cleric endorses him for PM
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - United Iraqi Alliance candidate Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Friday that Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has endorsed his nomination for prime minister
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/25/942435-ap.html
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Iraqi forces reportedly capture al-Zarqawi' s key aide
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi forces have captured a key aide to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who leads an insurgency affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the government said Friday.
The man, identified as Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured during a Feb. 20 raid in Anah, about 255 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, a government announcement said.
"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with al-Zarqawi," the government said.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/25/942416-ap.html
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U.S. soldiers killed, wounded in explosion
TARMIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Attackers ambushed patrolling U.S. troops north of Iraq's capital on Friday, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding eight others, the military said.
Lt.-Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said "a U.S. patrol was hit by an IED," or improvised explosive device, the term used by the military to describe a homemade bomb. "There are three soldiers killed and eight soldiers wounded."
Witnesses said the attack took place around midday in Tarmiyah, 35 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Two residents, including an Associated Press reporter who rushed to the scene after the blast, saw about a dozen U.S. soldiers laying on blood-splattered ground after the attack.
"I was heading to our house. . . . There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them," said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. "I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying."
He added that he was about 200 metres away and "I think there were explosives hidden among the palm trees overlooking the street."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/25/942415-ap.html
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Turkish bestseller describes war against America
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - It's the year 2007, and U.S. troops in northern Iraq fire on a group of Turkish commandos, setting off a war between the two NATO allies.
U.S. tanks quickly pour across the Iraqi border into Turkey, annihilating Turkish forces while U.S. warplanes target Istanbul. A Turkish agent, acting on his own initiative, exacts his revenge. He detonates a nuclear bomb in a park in Washington that levels the U.S. capital.
Turkey's new hot-selling novel is Metal Storm, and although it is pure thriller, it highlights the deep fears that many Turks harbour that the U.S. invasion of Iraq will put the decades-long allies on a collision course.
The mood of suspicion has become so serious that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a meeting with Turkish leaders earlier this month, raised concerns about the negative image of the United States in Turkey, diplomats said.
The book is "fiction but in Turkey everyone is questioning whether there will eventually be a conflict between America and Turkey," Cem Kucuk, an editor at Timas Yayinlari, the book's publisher, said in an interview Tuesday.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/22/939122-ap.html
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Heart victim family plan to sue Jackson
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
Michael Jackson faces further legal action, from the family of a woman who died after she was moved in hospital, apparently to make way for the singer when he took ill on the way to court last week.
Manuela Gomez Ruiz, 74, who had had a heart attack that day, was in the main trauma room at the Marian medical centre in Santa Maria, California, when Mr Jackson developed "flu-like symptoms".
She was moved to a smaller room when Mr Jackson arrived, her family said. She suffered two more heart attacks and died.
Her daughter Maria Elena Ortiz told ABC News: "He walked in. When I saw him, he was walking unassisted."
She had protested to hospital staffthat her mother should not be moved, but they had not answered her.
"I said: 'My mother just had a heart attack and I think it's more critical than a stomach flu.' They didn't say anything."
Mr Jackson's time in hospital delayed the selection of a jury for his trial on charges of child molestation and conspiracy involving extortion, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1425858,00.html
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US abortion row hots up with court fight over medical records
Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
The Kansas state attorney general has demanded the medical files of women who have had late-term abortions for potential criminal investigations, it was reported yesterday.
In the latest escalation of America's abortion war, attorney general Phill Kline, a conservative Republican, has argued he needs to see the files for investigations involving underage sex and child abuse.
But he also hinted he will investigate doctors carrying out late-term abortions, beyond the 22nd week of pregnancy, which are illegal in Kansas except when they are performed to prevent substantial and irreversible harm to the pregnant woman.
Abortion rights supporters believe the country's right-wingers are pursuing an incremental strategy ultimately aimed at criminalising abortions altogether, and that this is simply the latest step in that campaign.
The Kansas ban was passed in 1998, but a doctor practising in the state, George Tiller, has continued to carry out hundreds of late-term abortions each year, claiming they are legal under the exemption.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1425713,00.html
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Iraq looks for light to beat dark forces
US takes the brunt as power cuts play into the insurgents' hands
Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
Fumbling in the dark for her kerosene lamp, the room silent without the hum of the fridge or the television, Hamdia Naief was not sure whether this era should be called pre-industrial or post-Saddam.
A school caretaker, she lives with her husband in a middle-class district of east Baghdad with leafy avenues, satellite dishes and air-conditioning systems. But four hours out of six are without electricity. Their flat has few windows, to minimise the summer heat, and with no power there is no light, so the couple spend most of the day in gloom. "We can't really afford the kerosene so we try not to use the lamp much," Mrs Naief said. A power surge burnt the motor in their fridge and the oven does not work, so they cook non-perishable food on a stove on the floor. It has been this way since the invasion in March 2003. The caretaker's husband, Abdul Timimi, cursed the world in general and the Americans and Iraqi authorities in particular. "It's worse all the time."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1425976,00.html
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Nineteen die in Taliban attacks
Nine Afghan soldiers died as Taliban rebels ambushed a vehicle in Helmand province. Ten Taliban fighters were killed in Khost as Afghan and US troops responded to another ambush.
AP, Kandahar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1425977,00.html
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Gallop claims election victory
27feb05
WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S Labor leader Geoff Gallop has declared victory in the state election, thanking the electorate for giving him a second term in office.
"Ladies and gentleman, it has been a great privilege to be premier of this great state of Western Australia and I thank the people of Western Australia for voting (with) confidence in my government for another term," Dr Gallop told a party gathering in his Victoria Park electorate last night.
After thanking the state's voters for their part in the democratic process, Dr Gallop – flanked by his wife Bev – also thanked his political opponent Colin Barnett.
"Can I wish Colin, Lyn and his family all the best for the future and I know how hard it will be for them tonight and I am thinking of them," he said.
In a speech frequently interrupted by enthusiastic applause, Dr Gallop said that over the past four years he had presided over a good government, but he believed it could be stronger
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12386697%255E1702,00.html
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Beazley seeks briefing on Iraq troops
26feb05
THE federal opposition wants a briefing on the government's decision to deploy an extra 450 troops to Iraq.
Prime Minister John Howard has announced Australian troops would be sent to southern Iraq to guard Japanese engineers in the wake of the Netherlands' decision to withdraw its troops.
The Opposition this week raised concerns, citing the Defence Department's annual report, that Australian troops were under-prepared and ill-equipped for the deployment.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said today he had written to Mr Howard seeking a formal briefing on the move.
"The Opposition is concerned about the safety of Australian troops, especially in view of comments from senior department officials and reports of deficiencies in equipment and levels of preparedness raised in the Defence
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12379328%255E1702,00.html
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Trial set for captain accused of killing badly-injured Iraqi
By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, February 26, 2005
The court-martial of a 1st Armored Division captain accused of murdering an Iraqi man last year is set to begin March 28, according to Army officials.
If coverage of the preliminary hearings last fall is any indication, the trial of Capt. Rogelio M. Maynulet should generate great interest among servicemembers and the media. Some view the case as “an act of mercy” to a dead or dying man, while Army prosecutors maintain it was murder.
Maynulet is charged with premeditated murder and dereliction of duty relating to the May 21 death of a man believed to be associated with the insurgency campaign against U.S. troops. At the time of the incident, Maynulet commanded Company A, 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, and was viewed by many superiors as a rising star.
“Captain Maynulet maintains his innocence, and I think that the court members will reach the right and just verdict,” Capt. Will Helixon, the lead defense attorney, said in a telephone interview Friday.
The trial will be held in the courtroom on Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Germany.
Maj. Michael Indovina, a division spokesman, said the proceedings are expected to last several days.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27413
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$9B Goes Missing In Iraq
Huge Sum Disappears Without A Trace
Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist
POSTED: 12:41 pm EST February 24, 2005
Profiteering from the Iraq war is not a surprise, especially in light of the Bush administration's pandering to the military-industrial complex.
But some Democratic lawmakers are concerned that profiteering may have achieved stratospheric dimensions in the case of the $9 billion that is missing from the sale of Iraqi oil. This money was to have been used for humanitarian aid and reconstruction for Iraq.
It seems no one is watching the store. The fund was transferred to Iraqi government ministries, which lacked the proper financial controls, security and staff to keep close tabs on the money flow.
Nevertheless, the Democrats would like to prod the Bush administration to show its concern over the loss. You can do a lot with $9 billion, but it's only a drop in the bucket in terms of spending in Iraq. The war there is costing the United States more than $50 billion a year.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has led the move to seek accountability for the missing funds after Stuart W. Bowen, the special inspector general appointed by the U.S. occupation authority, reported the disappearance last Jan. 30.
The audit spurred the Democratic Policy Committee -- which serves as a clearinghouse for all Democratic offices on Capitol Hill -- to hold hearings Feb. 14 on the management by the Coalition Provisional Authority of billions in Iraqi oil revenue.
The panel found that no banking system was implemented in Iraq, although "a lot of dinars and American dollars" were in circulation. The money was stashed in the basement of CPA headquarters and released from time to time to contractors.
The Democrats have also asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to convene a grand jury to look into the problem.
http://www.thewgalchannel.com/helenthomas/4228758/detail.html
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The Handover That Wasn't
Before his departure, CPA chief Paul Bremer issued 100 Orders to dramatically restructure Iraq's economy to fit free-market ideals. And no Iraqi, including future elected officials, can undo them
The U.S. occupation of Iraq officially ended on June 28, 2004 , in a secret ceremony in Baghdad. Officially, "full sovereignty" was handed from the Americans to the Iraqi Interim Government. But it was clear from the start that this was sovereignty in name, not in deed. First, there is the continued military occupation: 138,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, plus 20,000 troops from other countries and an estimated 20,000 contractors, all fully under U.S. control and immune to Iraqi laws. Equally debilitating, however significantly less well reported upon, is the continued political and economic occupation by the Bush administration and its corporate allies.
The most important tools being used by the Bush administration to maintain varying degrees of economic and political control in Iraq are the 100 Orders enacted by L. Paul Bremer, III, head of the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) before his departure. It was thought that the "end" of the occupation would also mean the end of the Orders. Instead, in his final Order enacted on his last day in the country, Bremer simply transferred authority for the Orders over to the new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. For his part, Allawi – a thirty-year exile of Iraq with close ties to both the CIA and British Intelligence Services – is considered America 's new man in charge of Iraq .
http://www.alternet.org/story/19293/
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Lucrative security job draws officer to Iraq
Mendocino County man uses vacation time for 60-day stint with private contractor
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Leaving the security of his routine on the North Coast for unknown dangers in the desert, a veteran Mendocino County law enforcement officer is heading to Iraq this weekend to join a well-paid private army that is increasingly used to carry out military duties for the United States.
"I want to help people. I would love to see a Middle East in which everyone is free," said Bob Nishiyama, commander of the multiagency Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force.
On Sunday, Nishiyama, 53, flies to Jordan, where he'll connect with others working for Virginia-based MVM Inc. before heading to Iraq for 60 days.
MVM is a global security company formed 24 years ago by former Secret Service agents. It has more than 4,300 employees and security contracts with government agencies around the world, including with the U.S. State Department. The company reported $165 million in revenue in 2003
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050226/NEWS/50226001/1033/NEWS01
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Graham offers sobering assessment on Iraq
By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, back from a weeklong journey overseas, offered the sobering assessment Friday that American troops will be in Iraq for years and casualties are likely for some time to come.
Graham vowed to push to increase the size of the military, attracting recruits through bonuses and benefits. But, he said, there is no need for a draft.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050225/APN/502250825&cachetime=3&template=dateline
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Powell criticises Iraq troop levels and rift with Europe
By Robin Gedye
(Filed: 26/02/2005)
Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, has for the first time publicly criticised troops levels in Iraq and spoken of the rifts between himself and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, that undermined his role as architect of American foreign policy.
Mr Powell, in his first interview since resigning last November, also told The Telegraph of his "dismay" at the deterioration in relations between America and Europe and of his "disappointment" with France.
While holding back from blaming Mr Rumsfeld by name for the problems that eventually persuaded him to resign, Mr Powell showed that much of the innuendo and leaks surrounding his volatile relationship with the defence secretary had been well-founded.
Admitting that Mr Rumsfeld's controversial plan to fight the war with limited troop numbers had been an outstanding success, Mr Powell said the "nation building" that followed had been deeply flawed.
There had been "enough troops for war but not for peace, for establishing order. My own preference would have been for more forces after the conflict."
Mr Powell said he had warned President George W Bush over dinner in August 2002 that the problem with Iraq was not going to be the invasion but what followed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/26/wpowell26.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/26/ixportaltop.html
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Colin Powell: 'I'm very sore'
(Filed: 26/02/2005)
This is the first real interview I've given," says Colin Powell. "I want to let time pass."
Until last month, the most successful black public servant in the history of America was George Bush's Secretary of State, who tried to steer his nation's foreign policy through the storm that has scarcely abated since September 11 2001.
On the previous occasion that I interviewed General Powell - in December of that year - we sat in the tense, time-bound confines of the State Department, with worried officials running in and out looking at their watches. Today, we are in a surprisingly modest office in the building of the Armed Forces Benefits Association in Alexandria. In the clear sun of early spring, the great public buildings of Washington are distantly visible across the Potomac.
We are a long way from the centre of power.
Washington rumour says that Colin Powell is a disappointed man. Although he had made his job available to the President, he apparently did not expect his offer to be taken up. It is particularly irritating for him, the rumour continues, that he goes and Donald Rumsfeld, his sparring partner at the Defence Department, stays. The most prominent moderate in the Administration, it is said, has lost out.
Perhaps. But Colin Powell is too much the gentleman to express any disappointment. At 67, and with huge offers for his thoughts, speeches and advice coming in, he is relaxed. His old friend, Margaret Thatcher's former private secretary Charles Powell (pronounced "Pole"), is present, and Colin (pronounced "Coalin") is chatty and at ease.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/26/wpowell126.xml
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Iraq's liberation comes with a ballooning price tag:
Bush never addressed the question of cost. From the start, the administration has been, and continues to be, evasive about the costs of war in Iraq.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=12944
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Paul Martin insists U.S. must consult Canada before firing missiles:
The top American envoy to Canada - Paul Cellucci - says Canada would be "outside of the room" while the U.S. decided whether to fire at incoming missiles.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n022502A.xml
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US deficits risk crash: Treasury
David Uren and Roy Eccleston
February 25, 2005
PETER Costello's closest adviser fears the US is heading for a devastating financial crash that could ravage Australia's economic growth.
As the Reserve Bank considers raising interest rates at its board meeting next Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry likened the flood of money pouring into the US to support its budget and current account deficits to the stockmarket's dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.
Were it suddenly to stop, there would be shockwaves felt throughout the world's economies.
The financial crash feared by Dr Henry would involve a sharp fall in the US dollar and a bond market sell-off, which would push up US and world interest rates.
This would hit US economic growth and, as a result, cut Chinese exports of manufactured products to the American market. In turn, this would threaten the boom in Australian mineral exports to China.
Fears that the world economy is in grave danger are growing in the major financial capitals.
The International Monetary Fund, which is responsible for stability of the world economy, also warned yesterday of a sudden collapse.
IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato said urgent combined international action was required to head off the dangers.
The main cause of concern is the fact the US is running a trade deficit of about $US600billion ($760billion) and a budget deficit of about $US430billion for 2005.
US imports are almost 50per cent greater than the country's exports, with the deficit being financed by international central banks and funds managers.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12364202^601,00.html
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Aussie official: U.S. dollar may collapse
A top Australian treasury official is warning of a global financial tsunami if there is a U.S. dollar and government bond sell off.
Treasury Secretary Ken Henry compared the flood of money pouring into the United States to support its budget and current account deficits to the stock market's dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, the Australian reports.
If money stops pouring into the United States, it would hit the U.S. economy, cut Chinese exports and lead to the end of Australia's booming mineral exports to China.
Ramifications would also hit all other parts of the world economy.
Henry is just the latest in a string of recent voices warning about a possible dollar collapse. The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday urgent combined international action is required to head off such a danger.
Washington is running a budget deficit of $430 billion and a balance of trade deficit of $600 billion.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=916ebc2046ada2ba
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Putin loses his smile after lecture from Bush on democracy
By Andrew Osborn in Bratislava
25 February 2005
President George Bush subjected Russia's Vladimir Putin to a public lecture on the fundamentals of democracy yesterday, injecting a chill into a relationship that has - until now - been characterised by bonhomie.
Meeting in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, Mr Bush emerged from a three-hour meeting with the Russian President joking and smiling and full of warm words. But his frequent references to "Vladimir" and the "fella" were peppered with targeted criticism of the state of democracy in Russia with which the more hawkish members of his administration are said to have lost patience.
An unsmiling, visibly irritated Mr Putin squirmed as he listened to Mr Bush tell a press conference he had been told that Washington had "concerns about Russia's commitment in fulfilling" the "universal principles" of democracy. "Democracies always reflect a country's customs and culture, and I know that," Mr Bush said. "Yet democracies have certain things in common; they have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=614535
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Why are we welcoming this torturer?
Europe is tacitly condoning the Bush regime's appalling practices
Victoria Brittain
Thursday February 24, 2005
The Guardian
George Bush is this week having an extravagantly orchestrated series of meetings with Europe's leaders, designed to show a united front for the creation of democracy around the world. Tony Blair talks of our "shared values". No one mentions the word that makes this show a mockery: torture.
It is now undeniable that the US administration, at the highest levels, is responsible for the torture that has been routine not only, as seen round the world in iconic photographs, at Abu Ghraib, but at Guantánamo Bay and Bagram. Meanwhile, in prisons in Egypt, Jordan and Syria (and no doubt others we do not know about), Muslim men have been tortured by electric shocks to the genitals, by being kept in water, by being threatened with death - after being flown to those countries by the CIA for that very purpose.
How can it be that not one mainstream public figure in Europe has denounced these appalling practices and declared that, in view of all we now know of cells, cages, underground bunkers, solitary confinement, sodomy and threatened sodomy, beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, mock executions and kidnapping, President Bush and his officials are not welcome? Perhaps it's not surprising given the British army's own dismal record in southern Iraq. Why has no public figure had the honesty to admit that the democracy and freedom promised for the Middle East are fake and mask US plans to leave Washington dominant in the area? And why does no one say publicly that what is really happening in the "war on terror" is a war on Muslims that is creating a far more dangerous world for all?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1423861,00.html
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U.S. Blocked from Getting Reporters' Phone Records
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday lost a bid to obtain telephone records of two New York Times reporters in a major free speech battle over journalists' rights to keep their sources secret from prosecutors' probes.
The phone records related to newspaper articles written about government probes into Islamic charities during the fall of 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on America. Prosecutors wanted to uncover the identities of government sources that might have given information to the reporters.
U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet ruled that the phone records are protected from disclosure by a reporter's privilege under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The ruling was made in a New York Times' lawsuit aimed at blocking prosecutors from obtaining the phone records of reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon. The case was filed last year in Manhattan federal court.
"The court has balanced the interests of the free press and the government," Sweet said. "That balance requires maintaining the secrecy of the confidential sources of Miller and Shenon."
The newspaper said the disclosure of the phone records would not only constitute an unacceptable violation of the reporters' privacy but would also likely reveal the identities of dozens of confidential sources who are of no relevance to the government's investigation.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7732129
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Body of an Iraqi Journalist Found in Mosul
26 February 2005 | 14:20 | FOCUS News Agency
Mosul. A body of an Iraqi woman journalist Raied Mohamad Vazan, kidnapped on 20 February, was found, RBK reports. According to her husband, she was shot dead in the head. Vazan was working for a local TV station in Mosul. The reasons for her kidnapping are still unclear.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&newsid=58597&ch=0&datte=2005-02-26
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Gary Younge in New York
Thursday February 24, 2005
The Guardian
A teacher has apologised for letters sent by his sixth-grade students to an American soldier, accusing the US military of killing civilians and destroying Iraqi mosques in a futile war on terror.
Alex Kunhardt sent the letters to Private Rob Jacobs for a social studies assignment. Pte Jacobs, who is serving 10 miles from the North Korean border, said his excitement at getting the letters from the Brooklyn schoolchildren turned to shock as he read them.
One of the letters from the 11- to 12-year-old pupils, stamped with a smiley face, said the soldier might have been risking his life for his country, but then asked: "Have you seen how many civilians you or some other soldier killed?"
Another read: "I feel that you are being forced to kill innocent people. Iraq never attacked us, if Bush cared so much about this country then we would be out there trying to find Osama bin Laden. Bush calls this war the war on terrorism. What terrorism? Name one terrorist from Iraq ... I know I can't."
Most letters did include support for the troops, but few were completely uncritical. A Muslim boy wrote: "I know your [sic] trying to save our country and kill the terrorists but you are also destroying holy places like mosques."
Another stated: "Bush thinks he's brave ... in his safe little white house with as many guards as he thinks he needs." He concluded with: "By the way, when you shoot someone, is it great or horrible?"
Pte Jacobs, 20, told the New York Post: "It's hard enough for soldiers to deal with being away from their families, they don't need to be getting letters like this. If they don't have anything nice to say, they might as well not say anything at all." Pte Jacobs added that the letters were demoralising.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1424024,00.html
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U.S. helicopter down in S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier died and a second was wounded when a military helicopter crashed on Saturday while conducting a training exercise in South Korea, officials said.
The Apache helicopter, used by the 2nd Infantry Division, went down in a training area at about 11:20 a.m. local time (9:20 p.m. Friday ET), U.S. military officials said.
Only two people were on the helicopter. The wounded soldier was being treated at a nearby hospital, authorities said.
Training exercises were suspended while an investigation was conducted into the cause of the crash, military officials said. The name of the soldier who died was not released.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/skorea.helicopter/index.html
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Blast hits Baghdad supermarket
Al-Zarqawi aides arrested
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two Iraqi civilians were killed and a third was wounded Saturday when a suicide car bomber targeted -- but missed -- a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
The explosion occurred about 8:55 a.m. local time (12:55 a.m. ET) near a supermarket on the al-Adil highway road, only a few meters away from the convoy, police said. There were no U.S. casualties.
Besides the civilians killed and injured, three civilians' cars were damaged, authorities said.
Iraq attacks target police
Other attacks killed eight people on Friday, a day after a string of attacks targeting Iraqi police.
A U.S. Marine was killed in action Friday while conducting security and stability operations in Iraq's al-Anbar province, military officials said.
The marine was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, authorities said early Saturday. No further information was released.
A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Tarmiya as a convoy passed, killing three Task Force Baghdad soldiers and wounding nine, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division said. Tarmiya is about 20 miles north of Baghdad.
Another Task Force Baghdad soldier died Friday in "non-battle injuries."
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/26/iraq.main/index.html
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Forces: U.S. & Coalition/Casualties
There have been 1,663 coalition troop deaths, 1,491 Americans, 86 Britons, seven Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 20 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 17 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of February 25, 2005. (Graphical breakdown of casualties). The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose families have been notified of their deaths by each country's government. At least 11,069 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. The Pentagon does not report the number of non-hostile wounded. For a historical look at U.S. war casualties, click here. To view casualties in the war in Afghanistan, click here.
A - B | C - D | E - H | I - L | M - O | P - T | U - Z
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
Whooooooooops they forgot the one Australian, bad move CNN edition
Sorry Cristy and Kimmy 1 compared with 1,491 I guess we have just been lucky thank the lord, But I always catch the omission, but we down under are always omitted I have always noticed that on all cable and media from America, and it really pisses me off big time always has
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Gallery Photos of the voting In Iraq
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/iraq.transition/
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Allawi forms new bloc to vie for Iraqi prime ministry
Move challenges Shiite-led alliance's nomination of al-Jaafari
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In a sign that political jockeying for the job of Iraqi prime minister isn't over, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Wednesday named a new coalition to challenge Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the post.
At a news conference with other supporters, Allawi indicated his backing is broader than the list he fielded in January's election, but he didn't provide details.
On Tuesday, the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance announced the candidacy of al-Jaafari, leader of the religious Dawa Party. (Al-Jaafari profile)
The United Iraqi Alliance won 140 seats, a slim majority in the 275-member National Assembly, in last month's election, and it must share power because a two-thirds vote is needed to form a government.
Allawi's Iraqi List placed third behind the United Iraqi Alliance and a Kurdish coalition, winning 40 seats.
Referring to Allawi's new alliance, Kassim Dawood, Iraq's national security adviser and a member of the Iraqi List, said, "This coalition represents the democratic coalition which will work ... to create a united Iraq, where all human values ... flourish -- the values of social justice, the values which we inherited from our Islamic heritage and the values which match with experiences of other nations."
Negotiations among various parties that earned seats in the elections are under way. It is not known whether Allawi would be willing to accept other jobs in the new government.
Officials from the Kurdish alliance that placed second in the election said they expect to meet with al-Jaafari and other prime minister candidates to discuss their concerns.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/23/iraq.main/index.html
Wow your prez must be really pissing himself at the moment, thing are getting away from him
The games begin, Al-Jaafari will not do, no no no this will not be, I will not allow it.
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'River Blitz' launched around Ramadi
Crackdown follows more than 50 deaths during Shiite holiday
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an anti-insurgency operation Sunday in Ramadi and other cities along the Euphrates River, adding an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew and other security measures, the U.S. military said.
Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, said the Iraqi government had asked U.S. forces to "increase our security operations ... to locate, isolate and defeat" insurgents operating from the area.
The push, dubbed "Operation River Blitz," is a "purely routine" activity aimed at bringing order and stability, an Iraqi interior ministry official told CNN.
Ramadi, provincial capital of Anbar province and considered a stronghold of Sunni Muslims who once backed Saddam Hussein, is 60 miles west of Baghdad and 30 miles west of Falluja. U.S. forces took Falluja back from insurgents in a devastating show of force late last year.
"Ramadi has been an ongoing problem for some time for the Iraqi government, but there is nothing new or extraordinary about the military operations in the area," the Iraqi interior ministry official said.
The official said that no area of Ramadi has been sealed off. He said security in the area was tough because of difficulties recruiting police officers.
Forces involved in the operation will set up checkpoints and screen vehicles, a statement from the U.S. military said
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/20/iraq.main/index.html
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7 dead in Iraq attacks
Al-Zarqawi aides arrested
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers killed seven people -- including three U.S. soldiers -- in separate attacks in the Baghdad area on Friday, a day after a string of attacks targeting Iraqi police.
A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Tarmiya as a convoy passed, killing three Task Force Baghdad soldiers and wounding nine, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division said. Tarmiya is about 20 miles north of Baghdad.
Another Task Force Baghdad soldier died Friday in "non-battle injuries."
The incidents bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the war to 1,491.
Three Iraqis were killed in an attack in southeast Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
A roadside bomb killed one person around 9:40 a.m., the military said in a statement, and Iraqi police and Task Force Baghdad members cordoned the area.
Then, "a terrorist fired into the crowd with an unknown weapon," killing two and wounding two, the statement said. The attacker then fled.
In Iskandariya, a restive town in northern Babil province 30 miles south of Baghdad, three masked gunmen fired on a car carrying employees of the al-Hurra television network Friday morning, killing the driver, police said.
"Three masked terrorists" drove up next to the car carrying al-Hurra staff and opened fire, killing the driver instantly, police said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/25/iraq.main/index.html
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Israeli police: Four dead in Tel Aviv bombing
As many as 65 injured in suicide blast
TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Less than three weeks after Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to a cease-fire amid newfound optimism about the Mideast peace process, a suicide bomber attacked a nightclub in a popular beachfront area of Tel Aviv late Friday night, killing four people and wounding at least 65 others, according to Israeli police and emergency services.
At least three of the wounded were considered severely injured and at least three others were critically hurt, Israeli emergency services spokesman Yoni Yagodozsky said.
In the wake of the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consulted Saturday with his defense minister and security services on what response to make.
But Israel "remains committed" to the cease-fire reached with Palestinian Authority officials in Egypt on February 8, said Ra'annan Gissin, a spokesman Sharon
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held an emergency meeting of his security officials in Ramallah, Palestinian sources said.
He also released a statement pledging that Palestinian authorities would do everything they can to track down those responsible for the attack.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing in the "strongest possible terms," and he urged "all sides to exercise restraint."
• Special Report: Land of conflict
• Video: Bombing outside Tel Aviv nightclub
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/26/telaviv.explosion/index.html
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Hizbollah 'behind' Israel attack
From correspondents in Ramallah
February 27, 2005
INITIAL investigations show that Hizbollahwas behind a suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv which killed at least four people, a senior Palestinian security source said today.
In Beirut, the Lebanese guerrilla group denied any role in the bombing and called the accusations "a provocation".
"All the information that we have until now from interrogations show that Hizbollah is involved in the operation," said the Palestinian source, who is closely involved in the investigation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had earlier said that a "third party" opposed to his peacemaking with Israel appeared to have a hand in the attack, but he stopped short of naming Hizbollah – which is backed by Syria and Iran.
Hizbollah said in a statement in Beirut: "Hizbollah unequivocally denies the accusations pointing towards its supposed role in the Tel Aviv operation and considers them devoid of any truth and a type of provocation of Hizbollah by the Zionist entity."
Israeli and Palestinian officials have said recently that they believe Hizbollah has been trying to encourage such attacks in order to sabotage peacemaking.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12386893-23109,00.html
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NATO plane hits Kabul terminal
From correspondents in Kabul
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
A MILITARY transport aircraft from the NATO-led peacekeeping force slid off the runway at Kabul airport Saturday, sustaining minor damage after hitting a terminal building, an official said.
There were no casualties but the plane, a C-130, was damaged and grounded for repair, NATO spokeswoman Major Karen Tissot Van Patot told reporters in Kabul.
She said the aircraft "struck and hit one of the buildings of the terminal at Kabul Airport – there were no injuries... and only minor damage to the aircraft."
It was unclear how many personnel were on board the plane at the time of the accident and whether the plane was taking off or landing.
The accident occurred while the plane was on the ground and an investigation was pending, she said, declining to give any further information.
NATO-led peacekeepers are operating in the capital Kabul and some northern provinces under a United Nations mandate to helping the Afghan authorities with security.
As part of its operations, the 8,000-strong force operates two C-130 transport aircraft and nearly a dozen helicopters.
Kabul Airport, one of the biggest air facilities in the war-shattered country, suffered serious damage during 23 years of war and lacks a radar facility, although NATO is considering equipping the airport with one.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12380319-23109,00.html
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Brothers of disco suicide bomber arrested
From correspondents in the West Bank
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
THE Israeli army today arrested the two brothers of the Palestinian suicide bomber who attacked a Tel Aviv disco, during an incursion into a village near Tulkarem, on the West Bank, security sources and witnesses said.
The attack late Friday, which left four dead and 50 wounded, was the first suicide bombing inside Israel since November 1.
The Israeli army made an incursion into the village of Deir al-Ghoussoun, east of Tulkarem, where it imposed a curfew and arrested the two brothers of 22-year-old suicide bomber Abdallah Badrane
A cell of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Palestinian militant group loosely affiliated to the mainstream Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12380315-23109,00.html
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Japan admits 15th mad cow case
From correspondents in Tokyo
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
JAPAN confirmed Saturday its 15th case of mad cow disease since 2001, saying a Holstein born in the northern main island of Hokkaido had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease.
The 102-month cow was tested for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), when it developed arthritis after stumbling, the farm ministry said in a statement.
Japan is the only Asian country to have confirmed cases of mad cow disease which decimated Britain's cattle industry in the 1990s.
It uncovered its first case in September 2001 and soon afterwards introduced measures to screen every cow which is slaughtered for consumption.
Japan halted imports of US beef in December 2003 after a cow infected with BSE was discovered in the US state of Washington. Before then, it was the top export market for US beef.
Farm minister Yoshinobu Shimamura said Friday Japan would work towards lifting the ban to prevent retaliation from Washington, where 20 senators have threatened sanctions unless Japan resumes buying US beef.
On February 4 Japan confirmed its first citizen to die from mad cow disease but said the man had contracted the condition in Britain, which has seen most cases.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12378798-23109,00.html
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Arnie admits past steroid use
From correspondents in Washington DC
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
AS a young body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger used experimental steroids on doctors' recommendations, the movie-star-turned California governor admitted in a television interview today, calling for a youth ban on steroids.
"That's what we did in those days," the star of Terminator said, quizzed on the American ABC network's News This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
"But I would strongly recommend that people do not take drugs."
Asked on the ABC News program, due to air fully on Sunday, if he had regrets about using steroids, he replied: "No, I have no regrets about it, because at that time, it was something new that came on the market, and we went to the doctor and did it under doctor's supervision.
"We were experimenting with it, it was a new thing."
The California governor said that, "absolutely" he planned to advance his own steroid legislation, after his veto of a bill that required high school coaches to teach student athletes the dangers of steroids.
Schwarzenegger said he vetoed the bill because performance enhancing food supplements had been included alongside steroids.
"It's ludicrous to forbid this for a student to take. Because if you take a protein food supplement that is made out of milk protein, out of milk, or out of soybean, or out of liver or fish that has maybe 90 percent protein, they will enhance your performance.
"That's what you need in order to get strong, is protein."
The California governor said he would seek a ban on steroids, but without food supplement restrictions.
"Of course, we want to keep the sport clean. It says, 'body-building', not 'body-destroying'.
"But people should take food supplements, people should be able to take the vitamins and all of the nutritious stuff that is available, but stay away from drugs."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12377050-29278,00.html
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Evangelicals to target abortion clinics
From correspondents in London
February 26, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
A MILITANT evangelical Christian group plans to target pregnant women and medical staff at abortion clinics in Britain, taking their cue from US anti-abortion groups, a newspaper reported Saturday.
A member of parliament will make a written statement to the House of Commons next week calling on Home Secretary Charles Clarke to investigate the activities of Christian Voice, The Times newspaper reported.
Adopting the tactics of fundamentalist Christians in the United States, Christian Voice pickets buildings and displays the home addresses and phone numbers of its targets on the internet, it said.
The group, led by Stephen Green, gained notoriety when it circulated the home addresses and telephone numbers of senior BBC figures when the musical, Jerry Springer The Opera', was screened on BBC Two last month.
Some people on the list received calls threatening them with bloodshed.
The musical features a nappy-wearing Jesus who admits he is "a bit gay".
Green, 53, told The Times that his next target is abortion clinics.
"The taking of innocent blood brings judgment on our land and cries to Heaven for vengeance," he was quoted as saying.
"The presence of abortion centres in our towns is iniquitous. They should be shut down. It would not take much: just a few prayer vigils outside clinics," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12376875-23109,00.html
These so called Christian, make me want to pute, put them on the front line of their War in Iraq, bet they voted for that in an instant
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China's Quiet Rise Casts Wide Shadow
East Asian Nations Cash In on Growth
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 26, 2005; Page A01
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Bespectacled and mild-mannered, Leong Kai Hin is every bit the professor. He teaches economics at a Kuala Lumpur university and seems most at home behind his computer grazing for statistics.
But Leong is off on a new project that, according to his assessment, says a lot about where East Asia is headed. In partnership with a mainland Chinese friend, Leong is organizing a strawberry importing business, hoping to cash in on Malaysia's hunger for juicy berries and the ability of Chinese farmers to grow them cheaply.
Leong's out-of-character leap from the classroom into competitive business, he says, is just a small example of rapidly expanding economic activity generated across East Asia by China's 9 percent annual growth. From Japan southward to Indonesia, companies and governments have come to rely on China as a market for vital exports -- from palm oil to semiconductors -- and a source for the imports that delight local business people .
With stronger economic ties between East Asian countries and China has come a rise in Beijing's political and diplomatic influence, according to a variety of sources in China and the region. Treading softly but casting a big shadow, they say, China has emerged as an active and decisive leader in East Asia, transforming economic and diplomatic relationships across an area long dominated by the United States.
The shift in status, increasingly clear over the past year, has changed the way Chinese officials view their country's international role as well as the way other Asians look to Beijing for cues. In many ways, China has started to act like a traditional big power, tending to its regional interests and pulling smaller neighbors along in its wake.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54610-2005Feb25.html
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Suspect in BTK Killings Arrested in Kansas
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 26, 2005; 1:00 PM
WICHITA, Kan. -- Police said Saturday they have arrested a man they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s and then resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence.
"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference in Wichita with some of the victims' family members.
BTK investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr identified the suspect as Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker in nearby Park City, who was arrested Friday at his suburban home.
The BTK killer -- a self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill" -- had been linked to eight killings committed between 1974 and 1986. Police said Saturday they have attributed two more slayings to BTK, from 1985 and 1991.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55705-2005Feb26.html
Sunny and Doc will be happy
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Iran-Russia nuclear deal delayed
Last-minute hitches forced Iran and Russia to postpone the signing of an agreement to supply Iran with fuel for its first nuclear reactor Saturday.
The two countries top nuclear officials were due to sign the agreement, a deal stronlgy opposed to by the U.S., Saturday morning, a day after President Bush and President Putin were to hold a summit.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Mohammad Saeedi, attributed the postponement to differences over the delivery time of the first shipment of fuel and the launch of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Saeedi said the deal may be signed Sunday in Bushehr, the southern town where Iran's first reactor was built, using Russian help.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7277
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Iraqs government close to capturing rebel leader
The Iraqi interim government announced on Friday the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared rebel group and expressed confidence that the capture of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was very close.
Word of the capture came as a U.S. patrol was attacked killing three American soldiers and wounding nine in Tarmiyah, about 20 miles north of the capital.
In Haqlaniyah, 85 miles northwest of Baghdad, residents said U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers were driving through town offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi.
"We are very close to al-Zarqawi, and I believe that there are few weeks separating us from him," Iraq's interim national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7365
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Seven held over Tel Aviv bombing
Seven Palestinians are held by Israeli and Palestinian security forces over Friday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
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USS Cole attack verdicts upheld
A Yemeni appeals court has upheld a death sentence, and commuted another, over the bomb attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors in 2000.
Suspected ringleader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, currently in US custody, will receive the death penalty.
But Jamal Mohammed al-Badawi will only serve 15 years in jail, the court said.
Three others are to serve between five and 10 years; a fourth sentence was commuted from eight to five years.
In October 2000, two attackers rammed the destroyer with a small boat laden with explosives in the port of Aden.
The attack was blamed on Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
'Un-Islamic verdict'
Saturday's court session in the capital Sanaa was held under strict security.
Streets near the courthouse were blocked and several armoured vehicles and military jeeps armed with machine guns surrounded the building.
Defendants and their families shouted "Allahu Akbar" [God is Greatest] after the ruling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4300015.stm
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Third 'gorilla breast' woman sues
A third woman hired to look after a gorilla is suing her Californian ex-employer for allegedly ordering her to show her breasts to the animal.
Koko the gorilla can understand 2,000 words of spoken English
Iris Rivera says Gorilla Foundation boss Francine Patterson told her to bare her nipples as a way of bonding with the gorilla, Koko.
Two other women, Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller, made similar allegations last week in their own legal action.
The Gorilla Foundation, based in San Francisco, strongly denies the claims.
Ms Rivera was an administrative assistant there until she resigned last month.
She is seeking unspecified damages from the foundation for alleged sexual and disability discrimination, invasion of privacy and violation of US labour laws.
'Disagreeable duty'
Ms Alperin and Ms Keller, who were fired from their jobs, are seeking damages of more than $1m (£528,000) for wrongful dismissal, outstanding overtime pay and sexual discrimination.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4300803.stm
hahahahahaha it could only happen in the Americas I think
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How long can Bush get away with lies?
February 25, 2005
BY ANDREW GREELEY
As the criminal, sinful war in Iraq enters its third year, the president goes to Europe to heal the wounds between the United States and its former allies, on his own terms of course. The White House propaganda mill will hail it as another victory for the president and ignore the fact that most Europeans still consider the war dangerous folly and the president a dangerous fool.
One hears new rationalizations for the war on this side of the Atlantic. After the hearings on Secretary of State Rice, a Republican senator, with all the self-righteous anger that characterizes many such, proclaimed, "The Democrats just have to understand that the president really believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." This justification is not unlike the one heard frequently at the White House, "The president believed the intelligence agencies of the world."
Would it not be much better to have a president who deliberately lied to the people because he thought a war was essential than to have one who was so dumb as to be taken in by intelligence agencies, especially those who told him what he wanted to hear?
It is also asserted that the election settled the matters of the war and the torture of prisoners. These are dead issues that no longer need be addressed. Yet the president received only 51 percent of the vote and carried only one more state than the last time (picking up New Mexico and Iowa and losing New Hampshire). This is a validation of the war and of prisoner abuse? This is a mandate to do whatever he wants to do and whatever the leadership of the evangelical denominations want? A percentage point and a single state are a mandate for more war? Never before in American political history!
http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel25.html
They have done a pretty good job of getting away with it for this long
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U.S. Says 'Thousands' of Missiles Missing
WASHINGTON (Feb. 25) - It has been known for years that thousands of light and lethal shoulder-fired missiles are in black-market circulation. What is not known is exactly who has them and whether many have fallen into the hands of terrorists or criminals.
A worrisome puzzle, it explains why the United States and Russia signed an agreement Thursday to cooperate in destroying surplus Soviet-era SA-7s and other portable anti-aircraft missiles. The smallest of these are durable, relatively cheap and easy to smuggle.
The United States also has understandings with several other countries, including Nicaragua, Bosnia, Cambodia and Liberia, for Washington to provide technical assistance or money to destroy anti-aircraft missiles.
The State Department estimates that about 1 million shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles have been produced worldwide since the 1950s. The number believed to be in the hands of "nonstate actors,'' such as terrorist groups, is "in the thousands,'' the department says.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050224171009990023
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Top U.S. General Sees Lasting Iraq Insurgency
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) - The insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites) is not likely to be put down in a year or even two since history shows such uprisings can last a decade or more, the United States' top military commander said on Friday
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said that in the past century, insurgencies around the world have lasted anywhere from seven to 12 years, making a quick fix to the problem in Iraq unlikely.
"This is not the kind of business that can be done in one year, two years probably," said Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council here.
Myers was filling in for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was scheduled to address the group but became ill after a long trip to Europe.
Myers said, however, that recent elections in Iraq were a sign that insurgents were not succeeding in their efforts to strike fear in the Iraqi people. American television was full of images in January of Iraqis whose fingers were stained with indelible ink after casting their ballots.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20050226/wl_nm/iraq_myers_dc
Lots and lots of money for Bush and his Corporations while the country goes into bankrupcy
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Oil Pipeline Destroyed in Northern Iraq
February 26, 2005 — Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline in northern Iraq in the latest attack against the country's vital petroleum industry, while a roadside bomb killed two people in the capital, officials and witnesses said.
The U.S. military also said Saturday that a soldier had died during a sweep for insurgents west of Baghdad.
The violence came one day after the government announced the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared terrorist group, and a top official said the noose was tightening around the group's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The pipeline connecting oil fields in Dibis with the northern city of Kirkuk about 20 miles away was blown up late Friday, an official of the state-run North Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. He said repairs would take at least four days.
Insurgents regularly target Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country funds that are badly needed for reconstruction.
In Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in the west of the city, killing two civilians. Their slumped bodies could be seen in a small white car, its windshield smashed in the blast.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/022605_nw_pipeline.html
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Arkansas GOP's election fine negotiated to $400,000 for violations of campaign finance law during the 2000 election 2/26
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg&storyid=108924
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Aal-Jaafari claims influential Shiite cleric endorses him for PM
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - United Iraqi Alliance candidate Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Friday that Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has endorsed his nomination for prime minister
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/25/942435-ap.html
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Iraqi forces reportedly capture al-Zarqawi' s key aide
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi forces have captured a key aide to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who leads an insurgency affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the government said Friday.
The man, identified as Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured during a Feb. 20 raid in Anah, about 255 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, a government announcement said.
"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with al-Zarqawi," the government said.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/25/942416-ap.html
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U.S. soldiers killed, wounded in explosion
TARMIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Attackers ambushed patrolling U.S. troops north of Iraq's capital on Friday, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding eight others, the military said.
Lt.-Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said "a U.S. patrol was hit by an IED," or improvised explosive device, the term used by the military to describe a homemade bomb. "There are three soldiers killed and eight soldiers wounded."
Witnesses said the attack took place around midday in Tarmiyah, 35 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Two residents, including an Associated Press reporter who rushed to the scene after the blast, saw about a dozen U.S. soldiers laying on blood-splattered ground after the attack.
"I was heading to our house. . . . There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them," said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. "I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying."
He added that he was about 200 metres away and "I think there were explosives hidden among the palm trees overlooking the street."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/25/942415-ap.html
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Turkish bestseller describes war against America
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - It's the year 2007, and U.S. troops in northern Iraq fire on a group of Turkish commandos, setting off a war between the two NATO allies.
U.S. tanks quickly pour across the Iraqi border into Turkey, annihilating Turkish forces while U.S. warplanes target Istanbul. A Turkish agent, acting on his own initiative, exacts his revenge. He detonates a nuclear bomb in a park in Washington that levels the U.S. capital.
Turkey's new hot-selling novel is Metal Storm, and although it is pure thriller, it highlights the deep fears that many Turks harbour that the U.S. invasion of Iraq will put the decades-long allies on a collision course.
The mood of suspicion has become so serious that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a meeting with Turkish leaders earlier this month, raised concerns about the negative image of the United States in Turkey, diplomats said.
The book is "fiction but in Turkey everyone is questioning whether there will eventually be a conflict between America and Turkey," Cem Kucuk, an editor at Timas Yayinlari, the book's publisher, said in an interview Tuesday.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/02/22/939122-ap.html
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Heart victim family plan to sue Jackson
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
Michael Jackson faces further legal action, from the family of a woman who died after she was moved in hospital, apparently to make way for the singer when he took ill on the way to court last week.
Manuela Gomez Ruiz, 74, who had had a heart attack that day, was in the main trauma room at the Marian medical centre in Santa Maria, California, when Mr Jackson developed "flu-like symptoms".
She was moved to a smaller room when Mr Jackson arrived, her family said. She suffered two more heart attacks and died.
Her daughter Maria Elena Ortiz told ABC News: "He walked in. When I saw him, he was walking unassisted."
She had protested to hospital staffthat her mother should not be moved, but they had not answered her.
"I said: 'My mother just had a heart attack and I think it's more critical than a stomach flu.' They didn't say anything."
Mr Jackson's time in hospital delayed the selection of a jury for his trial on charges of child molestation and conspiracy involving extortion, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1425858,00.html
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US abortion row hots up with court fight over medical records
Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
The Kansas state attorney general has demanded the medical files of women who have had late-term abortions for potential criminal investigations, it was reported yesterday.
In the latest escalation of America's abortion war, attorney general Phill Kline, a conservative Republican, has argued he needs to see the files for investigations involving underage sex and child abuse.
But he also hinted he will investigate doctors carrying out late-term abortions, beyond the 22nd week of pregnancy, which are illegal in Kansas except when they are performed to prevent substantial and irreversible harm to the pregnant woman.
Abortion rights supporters believe the country's right-wingers are pursuing an incremental strategy ultimately aimed at criminalising abortions altogether, and that this is simply the latest step in that campaign.
The Kansas ban was passed in 1998, but a doctor practising in the state, George Tiller, has continued to carry out hundreds of late-term abortions each year, claiming they are legal under the exemption.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1425713,00.html
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Iraq looks for light to beat dark forces
US takes the brunt as power cuts play into the insurgents' hands
Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
Fumbling in the dark for her kerosene lamp, the room silent without the hum of the fridge or the television, Hamdia Naief was not sure whether this era should be called pre-industrial or post-Saddam.
A school caretaker, she lives with her husband in a middle-class district of east Baghdad with leafy avenues, satellite dishes and air-conditioning systems. But four hours out of six are without electricity. Their flat has few windows, to minimise the summer heat, and with no power there is no light, so the couple spend most of the day in gloom. "We can't really afford the kerosene so we try not to use the lamp much," Mrs Naief said. A power surge burnt the motor in their fridge and the oven does not work, so they cook non-perishable food on a stove on the floor. It has been this way since the invasion in March 2003. The caretaker's husband, Abdul Timimi, cursed the world in general and the Americans and Iraqi authorities in particular. "It's worse all the time."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1425976,00.html
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Nineteen die in Taliban attacks
Nine Afghan soldiers died as Taliban rebels ambushed a vehicle in Helmand province. Ten Taliban fighters were killed in Khost as Afghan and US troops responded to another ambush.
AP, Kandahar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1425977,00.html
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Gallop claims election victory
27feb05
WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S Labor leader Geoff Gallop has declared victory in the state election, thanking the electorate for giving him a second term in office.
"Ladies and gentleman, it has been a great privilege to be premier of this great state of Western Australia and I thank the people of Western Australia for voting (with) confidence in my government for another term," Dr Gallop told a party gathering in his Victoria Park electorate last night.
After thanking the state's voters for their part in the democratic process, Dr Gallop – flanked by his wife Bev – also thanked his political opponent Colin Barnett.
"Can I wish Colin, Lyn and his family all the best for the future and I know how hard it will be for them tonight and I am thinking of them," he said.
In a speech frequently interrupted by enthusiastic applause, Dr Gallop said that over the past four years he had presided over a good government, but he believed it could be stronger
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12386697%255E1702,00.html
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Beazley seeks briefing on Iraq troops
26feb05
THE federal opposition wants a briefing on the government's decision to deploy an extra 450 troops to Iraq.
Prime Minister John Howard has announced Australian troops would be sent to southern Iraq to guard Japanese engineers in the wake of the Netherlands' decision to withdraw its troops.
The Opposition this week raised concerns, citing the Defence Department's annual report, that Australian troops were under-prepared and ill-equipped for the deployment.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said today he had written to Mr Howard seeking a formal briefing on the move.
"The Opposition is concerned about the safety of Australian troops, especially in view of comments from senior department officials and reports of deficiencies in equipment and levels of preparedness raised in the Defence
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12379328%255E1702,00.html
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Trial set for captain accused of killing badly-injured Iraqi
By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, February 26, 2005
The court-martial of a 1st Armored Division captain accused of murdering an Iraqi man last year is set to begin March 28, according to Army officials.
If coverage of the preliminary hearings last fall is any indication, the trial of Capt. Rogelio M. Maynulet should generate great interest among servicemembers and the media. Some view the case as “an act of mercy” to a dead or dying man, while Army prosecutors maintain it was murder.
Maynulet is charged with premeditated murder and dereliction of duty relating to the May 21 death of a man believed to be associated with the insurgency campaign against U.S. troops. At the time of the incident, Maynulet commanded Company A, 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, and was viewed by many superiors as a rising star.
“Captain Maynulet maintains his innocence, and I think that the court members will reach the right and just verdict,” Capt. Will Helixon, the lead defense attorney, said in a telephone interview Friday.
The trial will be held in the courtroom on Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Germany.
Maj. Michael Indovina, a division spokesman, said the proceedings are expected to last several days.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27413
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$9B Goes Missing In Iraq
Huge Sum Disappears Without A Trace
Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist
POSTED: 12:41 pm EST February 24, 2005
Profiteering from the Iraq war is not a surprise, especially in light of the Bush administration's pandering to the military-industrial complex.
But some Democratic lawmakers are concerned that profiteering may have achieved stratospheric dimensions in the case of the $9 billion that is missing from the sale of Iraqi oil. This money was to have been used for humanitarian aid and reconstruction for Iraq.
It seems no one is watching the store. The fund was transferred to Iraqi government ministries, which lacked the proper financial controls, security and staff to keep close tabs on the money flow.
Nevertheless, the Democrats would like to prod the Bush administration to show its concern over the loss. You can do a lot with $9 billion, but it's only a drop in the bucket in terms of spending in Iraq. The war there is costing the United States more than $50 billion a year.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has led the move to seek accountability for the missing funds after Stuart W. Bowen, the special inspector general appointed by the U.S. occupation authority, reported the disappearance last Jan. 30.
The audit spurred the Democratic Policy Committee -- which serves as a clearinghouse for all Democratic offices on Capitol Hill -- to hold hearings Feb. 14 on the management by the Coalition Provisional Authority of billions in Iraqi oil revenue.
The panel found that no banking system was implemented in Iraq, although "a lot of dinars and American dollars" were in circulation. The money was stashed in the basement of CPA headquarters and released from time to time to contractors.
The Democrats have also asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to convene a grand jury to look into the problem.
http://www.thewgalchannel.com/helenthomas/4228758/detail.html
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The Handover That Wasn't
Before his departure, CPA chief Paul Bremer issued 100 Orders to dramatically restructure Iraq's economy to fit free-market ideals. And no Iraqi, including future elected officials, can undo them
The U.S. occupation of Iraq officially ended on June 28, 2004 , in a secret ceremony in Baghdad. Officially, "full sovereignty" was handed from the Americans to the Iraqi Interim Government. But it was clear from the start that this was sovereignty in name, not in deed. First, there is the continued military occupation: 138,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, plus 20,000 troops from other countries and an estimated 20,000 contractors, all fully under U.S. control and immune to Iraqi laws. Equally debilitating, however significantly less well reported upon, is the continued political and economic occupation by the Bush administration and its corporate allies.
The most important tools being used by the Bush administration to maintain varying degrees of economic and political control in Iraq are the 100 Orders enacted by L. Paul Bremer, III, head of the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) before his departure. It was thought that the "end" of the occupation would also mean the end of the Orders. Instead, in his final Order enacted on his last day in the country, Bremer simply transferred authority for the Orders over to the new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. For his part, Allawi – a thirty-year exile of Iraq with close ties to both the CIA and British Intelligence Services – is considered America 's new man in charge of Iraq .
http://www.alternet.org/story/19293/
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Lucrative security job draws officer to Iraq
Mendocino County man uses vacation time for 60-day stint with private contractor
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Leaving the security of his routine on the North Coast for unknown dangers in the desert, a veteran Mendocino County law enforcement officer is heading to Iraq this weekend to join a well-paid private army that is increasingly used to carry out military duties for the United States.
"I want to help people. I would love to see a Middle East in which everyone is free," said Bob Nishiyama, commander of the multiagency Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force.
On Sunday, Nishiyama, 53, flies to Jordan, where he'll connect with others working for Virginia-based MVM Inc. before heading to Iraq for 60 days.
MVM is a global security company formed 24 years ago by former Secret Service agents. It has more than 4,300 employees and security contracts with government agencies around the world, including with the U.S. State Department. The company reported $165 million in revenue in 2003
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050226/NEWS/50226001/1033/NEWS01
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Graham offers sobering assessment on Iraq
By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, back from a weeklong journey overseas, offered the sobering assessment Friday that American troops will be in Iraq for years and casualties are likely for some time to come.
Graham vowed to push to increase the size of the military, attracting recruits through bonuses and benefits. But, he said, there is no need for a draft.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050225/APN/502250825&cachetime=3&template=dateline
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Powell criticises Iraq troop levels and rift with Europe
By Robin Gedye
(Filed: 26/02/2005)
Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, has for the first time publicly criticised troops levels in Iraq and spoken of the rifts between himself and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, that undermined his role as architect of American foreign policy.
Mr Powell, in his first interview since resigning last November, also told The Telegraph of his "dismay" at the deterioration in relations between America and Europe and of his "disappointment" with France.
While holding back from blaming Mr Rumsfeld by name for the problems that eventually persuaded him to resign, Mr Powell showed that much of the innuendo and leaks surrounding his volatile relationship with the defence secretary had been well-founded.
Admitting that Mr Rumsfeld's controversial plan to fight the war with limited troop numbers had been an outstanding success, Mr Powell said the "nation building" that followed had been deeply flawed.
There had been "enough troops for war but not for peace, for establishing order. My own preference would have been for more forces after the conflict."
Mr Powell said he had warned President George W Bush over dinner in August 2002 that the problem with Iraq was not going to be the invasion but what followed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/26/wpowell26.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/26/ixportaltop.html
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Colin Powell: 'I'm very sore'
(Filed: 26/02/2005)
This is the first real interview I've given," says Colin Powell. "I want to let time pass."
Until last month, the most successful black public servant in the history of America was George Bush's Secretary of State, who tried to steer his nation's foreign policy through the storm that has scarcely abated since September 11 2001.
On the previous occasion that I interviewed General Powell - in December of that year - we sat in the tense, time-bound confines of the State Department, with worried officials running in and out looking at their watches. Today, we are in a surprisingly modest office in the building of the Armed Forces Benefits Association in Alexandria. In the clear sun of early spring, the great public buildings of Washington are distantly visible across the Potomac.
We are a long way from the centre of power.
Washington rumour says that Colin Powell is a disappointed man. Although he had made his job available to the President, he apparently did not expect his offer to be taken up. It is particularly irritating for him, the rumour continues, that he goes and Donald Rumsfeld, his sparring partner at the Defence Department, stays. The most prominent moderate in the Administration, it is said, has lost out.
Perhaps. But Colin Powell is too much the gentleman to express any disappointment. At 67, and with huge offers for his thoughts, speeches and advice coming in, he is relaxed. His old friend, Margaret Thatcher's former private secretary Charles Powell (pronounced "Pole"), is present, and Colin (pronounced "Coalin") is chatty and at ease.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/26/wpowell126.xml
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Iraq's liberation comes with a ballooning price tag:
Bush never addressed the question of cost. From the start, the administration has been, and continues to be, evasive about the costs of war in Iraq.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=12944
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Paul Martin insists U.S. must consult Canada before firing missiles:
The top American envoy to Canada - Paul Cellucci - says Canada would be "outside of the room" while the U.S. decided whether to fire at incoming missiles.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n022502A.xml
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US deficits risk crash: Treasury
David Uren and Roy Eccleston
February 25, 2005
PETER Costello's closest adviser fears the US is heading for a devastating financial crash that could ravage Australia's economic growth.
As the Reserve Bank considers raising interest rates at its board meeting next Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry likened the flood of money pouring into the US to support its budget and current account deficits to the stockmarket's dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.
Were it suddenly to stop, there would be shockwaves felt throughout the world's economies.
The financial crash feared by Dr Henry would involve a sharp fall in the US dollar and a bond market sell-off, which would push up US and world interest rates.
This would hit US economic growth and, as a result, cut Chinese exports of manufactured products to the American market. In turn, this would threaten the boom in Australian mineral exports to China.
Fears that the world economy is in grave danger are growing in the major financial capitals.
The International Monetary Fund, which is responsible for stability of the world economy, also warned yesterday of a sudden collapse.
IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato said urgent combined international action was required to head off the dangers.
The main cause of concern is the fact the US is running a trade deficit of about $US600billion ($760billion) and a budget deficit of about $US430billion for 2005.
US imports are almost 50per cent greater than the country's exports, with the deficit being financed by international central banks and funds managers.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12364202^601,00.html
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Aussie official: U.S. dollar may collapse
A top Australian treasury official is warning of a global financial tsunami if there is a U.S. dollar and government bond sell off.
Treasury Secretary Ken Henry compared the flood of money pouring into the United States to support its budget and current account deficits to the stock market's dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, the Australian reports.
If money stops pouring into the United States, it would hit the U.S. economy, cut Chinese exports and lead to the end of Australia's booming mineral exports to China.
Ramifications would also hit all other parts of the world economy.
Henry is just the latest in a string of recent voices warning about a possible dollar collapse. The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday urgent combined international action is required to head off such a danger.
Washington is running a budget deficit of $430 billion and a balance of trade deficit of $600 billion.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=916ebc2046ada2ba
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Putin loses his smile after lecture from Bush on democracy
By Andrew Osborn in Bratislava
25 February 2005
President George Bush subjected Russia's Vladimir Putin to a public lecture on the fundamentals of democracy yesterday, injecting a chill into a relationship that has - until now - been characterised by bonhomie.
Meeting in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, Mr Bush emerged from a three-hour meeting with the Russian President joking and smiling and full of warm words. But his frequent references to "Vladimir" and the "fella" were peppered with targeted criticism of the state of democracy in Russia with which the more hawkish members of his administration are said to have lost patience.
An unsmiling, visibly irritated Mr Putin squirmed as he listened to Mr Bush tell a press conference he had been told that Washington had "concerns about Russia's commitment in fulfilling" the "universal principles" of democracy. "Democracies always reflect a country's customs and culture, and I know that," Mr Bush said. "Yet democracies have certain things in common; they have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=614535
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Why are we welcoming this torturer?
Europe is tacitly condoning the Bush regime's appalling practices
Victoria Brittain
Thursday February 24, 2005
The Guardian
George Bush is this week having an extravagantly orchestrated series of meetings with Europe's leaders, designed to show a united front for the creation of democracy around the world. Tony Blair talks of our "shared values". No one mentions the word that makes this show a mockery: torture.
It is now undeniable that the US administration, at the highest levels, is responsible for the torture that has been routine not only, as seen round the world in iconic photographs, at Abu Ghraib, but at Guantánamo Bay and Bagram. Meanwhile, in prisons in Egypt, Jordan and Syria (and no doubt others we do not know about), Muslim men have been tortured by electric shocks to the genitals, by being kept in water, by being threatened with death - after being flown to those countries by the CIA for that very purpose.
How can it be that not one mainstream public figure in Europe has denounced these appalling practices and declared that, in view of all we now know of cells, cages, underground bunkers, solitary confinement, sodomy and threatened sodomy, beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, mock executions and kidnapping, President Bush and his officials are not welcome? Perhaps it's not surprising given the British army's own dismal record in southern Iraq. Why has no public figure had the honesty to admit that the democracy and freedom promised for the Middle East are fake and mask US plans to leave Washington dominant in the area? And why does no one say publicly that what is really happening in the "war on terror" is a war on Muslims that is creating a far more dangerous world for all?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1423861,00.html
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U.S. Blocked from Getting Reporters' Phone Records
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday lost a bid to obtain telephone records of two New York Times reporters in a major free speech battle over journalists' rights to keep their sources secret from prosecutors' probes.
The phone records related to newspaper articles written about government probes into Islamic charities during the fall of 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on America. Prosecutors wanted to uncover the identities of government sources that might have given information to the reporters.
U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet ruled that the phone records are protected from disclosure by a reporter's privilege under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The ruling was made in a New York Times' lawsuit aimed at blocking prosecutors from obtaining the phone records of reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon. The case was filed last year in Manhattan federal court.
"The court has balanced the interests of the free press and the government," Sweet said. "That balance requires maintaining the secrecy of the confidential sources of Miller and Shenon."
The newspaper said the disclosure of the phone records would not only constitute an unacceptable violation of the reporters' privacy but would also likely reveal the identities of dozens of confidential sources who are of no relevance to the government's investigation.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7732129
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Body of an Iraqi Journalist Found in Mosul
26 February 2005 | 14:20 | FOCUS News Agency
Mosul. A body of an Iraqi woman journalist Raied Mohamad Vazan, kidnapped on 20 February, was found, RBK reports. According to her husband, she was shot dead in the head. Vazan was working for a local TV station in Mosul. The reasons for her kidnapping are still unclear.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&newsid=58597&ch=0&datte=2005-02-26
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posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:46 PM
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