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HavenWorks.com/history/archive/2004 |
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- History Archive
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ARCHIVES NEWS History News History Archives 2003 History Archives 2002 History Archives 2001 History Archives History Archives |
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Larry
Franklin - 
Douglas
Feith - 
Criminal
Investigation - 
US
- 
Israel
- 
Italy
- 
Iran
- 
Military
- 
Intelligence
- 
History
- "Iran-Contra
II? Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation."
... "On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI [Federal Bureau
of Investigation ] is investigating a suspected mole in the Department
of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization
[AIPAC], classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the
investigation, according to [United States] U.S. government officials,
is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now
working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official,
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith." ... "The investigation
of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within
the [Republican President] Bush administration over the direction of U.S.
policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest
at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers
in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried
in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up." ... "Franklin,
along with another colleague from Feith's office, a polyglot Middle East
expert named Harold Rhode, were the two officials involved in the back-channel,
which involved on-going meetings and contacts with Iranian arms dealer
Manucher Ghorbanifar and other Iranian exiles, dissidents and government
officials. Ghorbanifar is a storied figure who played a key role in embroiling
the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. The meetings were
both a conduit for intelligence about Iran and Iraq and part of a bitter
administration power-struggle pitting officials at [the Department of Defense]
DoD who have been pushing for a hard-line policy of "regime change" in
Iran, against other officials at the State Department and the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] who have been counseling a more cautious approach."
... "Reports of two of these meetings first surfaced a year ago in Newsday,
and have since been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence. Whether or how the meetings are connected
to the alleged espionage remains unknown. But the FBI is now closely scrutinizing
them." ... "While the FBI is looking at the meetings as part of its criminal
investigation, to congressional investigators the Ghorbanifar back-channel
typifies the out-of-control bureaucratic turf wars which have characterized
and often hobbled Bush administration policy-making. And an investigation
by The Washington Monthly -- including a rare interview with Ghorbanifar
-- adds weight to those concerns. The meetings turn out to have been far
more extensive and much less under White House control than originally
reported. One of the meetings, which Pentagon officials have long characterized
as merely a "chance encounter" seems in fact to have been planned long
in advance by Rhode and Ghorbanifar. Another has never been reported in
the American press. The administration's reluctance to disclose these details
seems clear: the DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that
a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign
policy channels to advance a "regime change" agenda not approved by the
president's foreign policy principals or even the president himself." ...
"The Italian Job" ... "The first meeting occurred in Rome [Italy's
capital] in December, 2001. It included Franklin, Rhode, and another American,
the neoconservative writer and operative Michael Ledeen, who organized
the meeting. (According to UPI, Ledeen was then working for Feith as a
consultant.) Also in attendance was Ghorbanifar and a number of other Iranians.
One of the Iranians, according to two sources familiar with the meeting,
was a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed
to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services.
The
Washington Monthly has also learned from U.S. government sources that
Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI,
attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino,
who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington." ... "Alarm
bells about the December 2001 meeting began going off in U.S. government
channels only days after it occurred." ... "Since the late 1980s Ghorbanifar
has been the subject of two CIA "burn notices." The Agency believes Ghorbanifar
is a serial "fabricator" and forbids its officers from having anything
to do with him." -By Joshua
Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen,
and Paul Glastris with contributions by Claudio Lavanga
-WashingtonMonthly.com
- 
- "Lance
Armstrong wins record sixth Tour de France." ...
"Lance Armstrong rode into history Sunday, winning a record sixth Tour
de France and cementing his place as one of the greatest athletes of all
time." ... "Never in its 101-year history has the Tour had a winner like
Armstrong — who just eight years ago was given less than a 50% chance
of overcoming testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and brain."
... "Armstrong's victories and his inspiring comeback from cancer have
drawn new fans to a race that has been won five times by four other riders.
His professionalism, attention to detail, grueling training regimens and
tactics have raised the bar for other riders hoping to win the three-week
cycling marathon." ... "After more than 1,900 miles of racing, riders mostly
took it easy on the 101-mile final stage, until they reached the crowd-lined
Champs-Elysees." -By John Leicester
-AP via -USATODAY
-
- "Fear
of Nuclear Iran Could Influence U.S. Diplomacy."
... "The intense antagonism that has existed since militant students held
52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the 1979 Iranian revolution "could
become a collision course," former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski
said this week." ... ""But perhaps there are the makings of somewhat ameliorating
the relationship between the two sides," he said." ... "[However] Many
experts believe even if Tehran's hard-line leaders are replaced, it may
have no impact on the quest for a nuclear bomb because a broad spectrum
of Iranians endorse that goal." (1, 2)
-By Carol Giacomo-Reuters
Microsoft
News - "[Microsoft
dividends] Giving $75 billion back, with plenty to spare."
... "On Tuesday July 20th, Microsoft said it would return a whopping $75
billion to shareholders over the next four years, in the biggest corporate
cash disbursement in history." ... "Regardless of the legal situation,
Microsoft's bosses realised some time last year that they could no longer
sit on their cash pile (valued at $56.4 billion as of March 31st this year),
and resolved to take steps to give it back to shareholders." ... "Under
the disbursement announced this week, Microsoft will pay out a special
dividend worth $32 billion in early December; buy back a further $30 billion
in stock over the next four years; and double its annual dividend to 32
cents per share." -Economist
- "Darfur
Documents Confirm Government Policy of Militia Support:
A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, July 20, 2004." ... "Since February
2003, the government of Sudan has used militias known as “Janjaweed”3
as its principal counter-insurgency ground force in Darfur against civilians
from the Fur, Zaghawa, Massalit and other ethnic groups from which two
rebel groups known as the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are drawn. The government-backed Janjaweed
militias are derived from the “Abala,” camel-herding nomads who migrated
to Darfur from Chad and West Africa in the 1970s, and from Arab camel-herding
tribes from North Darfur.4
With government aerial support, arms, communications, and other backing,
and often alongside government troops, the Janjaweed militias have been
a key component in the government’s military campaign in Darfur; a campaign
that has resulted in the murder, rape and forced displacement of thousands
of civilians.5"
... "If genuinely concerned with bringing peace and stability to Darfur
and ending the cycle of violence and impunity in the region, the Sudanese
government should suspend key government officials who bear responsibility
for recruiting, arming or otherwise supporting the Janjaweed militias from
official duties, pending official investigation of their responsibility
for abuses." ... "In addition, the international community must recognize
that the government-backed militias and government forces are clearly indivisible—they
are utilized as one entity. Those officials for whom there is evidence
of implication in the policy of militia support should be included in any
forthcoming international measures, including international travel sanctions,
arms embargoes, and investigation by any future international commission
of inquiry." -HRW.org
- "The
[diamond] cartel isn't for ever." ... "On July 13th
in an Ohio court De Beers, the world's largest producer of rough stones,
finally pleaded guilty to charges of price-fixing of industrial diamonds
and agreed to pay a $10m fine, thereby ending a 60-year-long impasse. De
Beers executives are at last free to visit and work directly in the largest
diamond market, America." ... "A few days earlier, on July 9th, the first
case of successful industry self-regulation against trade in so-called
conflict diamonds took place when Congo-Brazzaville was punished
for
failing to prove the source of its diamond exports. And on June 28th Lev
Leviev, an arch-rival of De Beers, opened Africa's biggest diamond-polishing
factory in Namibia." ... "Behind all these events lies sweeping change
in an industry that sells $60-billion-worth of jewellery alone each year.
For generations it has been run by De Beers as a cartel. The South African
firm dominated the digging and trading of diamonds for most of the 20th
century. Yet the system for distributing stones established decades ago
by De Beers is curious and anomalous—no other such market exists, nor would
anything similar be tolerated in a serious industry."
-Economist
- 
- Portland
- "Archdiocese
of Portland's bankruptcy filing turns eyes to Vatican."
... "When the Archdiocese of Portland filed for bankruptcy a week ago today,
many were stunned — then perplexed." ... "How could the Vatican allow such
a move? And with its vast holdings of priceless art and property, why couldn't
the Vatican simply bail out the archdiocese?" ... "The answers are rooted
in history and based largely on practicality: While the Vatican seeks strict
control over theology, liturgy and key personnel issues in its 3,000-plus
dioceses worldwide, it has largely stayed out of their financial workings."
-By Janet I. Tu -SeattleTimes.NWsource
- "Iowa
lab marks century of testing." ... "The Iowa Hygienic
Laboratory has been on the forefront diseases for 100 years and counting."
... "The state established the lab in April 1904. It wasn't until later
that year, on Sept. 26, 1904, that the first disease sample was recorded
- a tuberculosis test result for woman from Shell Rock. It turned out to
be negative." -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
- 
- 
- "Israeli
Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu to Go Free." ... "Israeli
nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu goes free on Wednesday after 18
years in jail for spilling secrets that publicly placed the Jewish state
among the world's top atomic powers." ... "But the former nuclear technician
-- whose revelations to a British newspaper led analysts to conclude Israel
had an arsenal of more than 100 nuclear warheads -- will still be subject
to a list of stringent security measures to keep him silent." ... "Vanunu
was jailed in 1986 for treason after disclosing information to Britain's
Sunday Times." (1, 2)
-By Megan Goldin -Reuters
- "Web
inventor wins top technology prize." ... "The MIT
scientist credited with inventing the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee,
was today awarded the first Millennium technology prize." ... "The award,
a €1m (£670,000) cash prize, is among the largest of its kind."
... "Mr Berners-Lee is credited with creating the world wide web in the
early 1990s while working for the Cern Laboratory, the European centre
for nuclear research near Geneva, Switzerland. His graphical point-and-click
browser, World Wide Web, was the first client that featured the core ideas
included in today's web browsers." -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
- "South
Koreans Vote Heavily for Impeached Leader's Party."
... "In a sharp political backlash against last month's impeachment of
President Roh Moo Hyun, South Koreans voted heavily today for congressional
candidates of Mr. Roh's party, according to surveys of voters by South
Korea's three largest broadcasting networks." ... "If the forecasts hold
up, the president and the Parliament will be of the same party for the
first time since democracy was restored here in 1987. Mr. Roh has four
more years in his term, and the legislators were elected today to four-year
terms." ... "In the vote, the Grand National Party avoided electoral disaster
largely through determined campaigning by Park Geun Hye, the new party
chairman. Ms. Park learned her political skills in the 1970's, when her
father, Park Chung Hee, an army general, ruled South Korea with dictatorial
powers." -By James Brooke -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
- 
- "A
primate primer: Boys will be boys, as girls ape mom:
Chimps shed light on roots of sex-based learning differences in human youngsters."
... "The girls watch their mothers closely. The boys horse around. Researchers
have found sex-based learning differences in chimpanzees that are similar
to those observed in human children." ... "This means, the scientists said,
that sex-based learning differences likely have a biological basis that
dates back to the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees." ...
"There is still debate, however, over whether biology or culture plays
a larger role in the learning differences that have been observed between
the sexes in humans." -By Anne McIlroy
-TheGlobeAndMail.com
-
- "Is
this the oldest known piece of jewelry?." ... "Humans
living in coastal South Africa about 75,000 years ago may have fashioned
snail shells into the world's oldest jewelry, according to a new study.
Critics, however, say the dramatic claim lacks the evidence to fully back
it." ... "If the 41 snail shells described in today's issue of the journal
Science are indeed beads, they would predate the oldest known pieces of
jewelry by more than 30,000 years and add significant weight to the idea
that symbolic thought and language flowered among modern humans long before
their forays into Europe and Asia." ... "Reached by telephone at the South
African excavation site known as Blombos Cave, lead author Christopher
Henshilwood said storing information in the form of beads or words is a
key element of symbolic behavior." -By Bryn Nelson
-Newsday.com
-
- "Oldest
Jewelry? "Beads" Discovered in African Cave." ...
"Humans may have been wearing jewelry as far back as 75,000 years ago,
about 30,000 years earlier than previously thought, if 41 shells found
at Blombos Cave in South Africa prove to have been used as beads." ...
"Beads are considered definitive evidence of symbolic thinking, which many
scientists don't think occurred in modern humans until about 45,000 years
ago." ... "The presence of beads, whether used as trade items, to convey
group status, or to identify group members or relationships within a group
suggests some form of language existed, says [Blombos Cave Project director
Christopher] Henshilwood, who is affiliated with the University of Bergen,
Norway, and the State University of New York." ... "Recent studies have
suggested that Khoisan, a southern African language that includes many
clicks, could be as many as 100,000 years old. It's possible the people
at Blombos were speaking in some form of click language, Henshilwood said."
-By Hillary Mayell -NationalGeographic>News
- 
-
- "Japan
court rules against shrine visits, PM unbowed." ...
"A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
had violated the constitution by visiting a shrine honouring Japan's military
war dead, a landmark ruling on his annual pilgrimages that have angered
China and other Asian neighbours." ... "But Koizumi vowed to keep visiting
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are among those honoured and
which critics at home and abroad regard as a symbol of Japan's past militarism."
-By Masayuki Kitano -Reuters
-
-
- "Attack
on expectant mom a crime against 2: Relatives of
Peterson, other victims attend bill signing." ... "President Bush signed
legislation Thursday making it a separate crime to harm a fetus during
the commission of a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman, and
he declared that, with the new law, the United States was "building a culture
of life."" ... "The Unborn Victims of Violence Act protects a fetus at
any stage of its development. The measure does not deal with abortion but
at its foundation it deals with the central question in the abortion debate:
At what point does an embryo or a fetus deserve full protection of the
law as a living person?" ... "Advocates of abortion rights fear it will
be used to establish precedent that could undercut those rights, established
in 1973 by the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade." -By
James Gerstenzang-LAtimes
via -SFGate.com
2004
ELECTION -
- 
- "Political
titles play an unusual role in this campaign." ...
"The influential role that serious, issues-based books are playing is unusual,
historians and political scientists say. "I can't think of anything close
to this happening during a campaign, at least in the 20th century," says
James Campbell, a political science professor at the State University of
New York at Buffalo." ... "The hottest book is Against All Enemies:
Inside America's War on Terror by Richard Clarke. The counterterrorism
expert served in the Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations. He
says the current administration paid too little attention to the threat
of terrorism before Sept. 11 and made terrorism more of a threat by going
to war in Iraq." -By Mark Memmott
-USATODAY
Rove
- 
Abramoff
- 
Ralston
- 
DeLay
- 
Norquist
- 
Reed
- Scanlon
- 
Money
- Religion
- 
Government- Law
- Politics
- 
Texas
- 2004
Election - History
- "K
Street Stumble." ... "As [Republican] presidential
adviser Karl Rove set up shop in the West Wing in 2001, he was looking
for an assistant to serve as the trusted gatekeeper of his new fiefdom.
Superlobbyist and Republican fundraiser Jack Abramoff was happy to lend
a hand. Abramoff knew just the right person for the job: his own assistant,
Susan Ralston. She interviewed with Rove and got the position." ... "For
a staunch conservative and smooth GOP operative like Abramoff, losing a
valuable aide was well worth the opportunity to ingratiate himself with
the president's senior political adviser." ... "An active fundraiser for
George W. Bush's 2000 election race, Abramoff has done even better in the
2004 campaign, raising more than $100,000 and becoming an elite "Pioneer"
in the president's re-election drive. For years, Abramoff has been a generous
donor and key fundraiser for powerful GOP members of Congress, notably
House Majority Leader [Republican]
Tom DeLay, R-Texas. In the 2004
election cycle, Abramoff and his wife, Pam, have contributed $83,000 to
Republicans, landing themselves at No. 93 on the nationwide list of individuals
who have donated to either political party, according to the nonpartisan
Center for Responsive Politics. Nine other Washington lobbyists are higher
on that list." ... "For almost a quarter-century, Abramoff has counted
among his friends and allies anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and grassroots
strategist and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. An Orthodox
Jew, Abramoff has moved easily in conservative circles since the early
1980s, when he was chairman of the College Republican National Committee."
... "On March 2, Abramoff abruptly resigned from [lobbying law firm] Greenberg
Traurig, and now he's embroiled in what's shaping up as a legal and political
fight to salvage his reputation." ... "When asked about Abramoff's troubles,
DeLay distanced himself, telling reporters, "If anybody is trading on my
name to get clients or to make money, that is wrong and they should stop
it immediately."" ... "One reason for the touchiness is that the controversy
has also ensnared Michael Scanlon, a former aide to DeLay who worked with
Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig before setting up his own grassroots firm,
Capital Campaign Strategies." -By Peter H. Stone
-NationalJournal
-
-
- "Mass
Extinction Not Inevitable." ... "Two new studies
published this week in Science
that show steep declines in bird, butterfly and plant populations across
Great Britain provide the strongest proof yet that we are in the midst
of the sixth great extinction of life." ... "The British analyzed six surveys
covering virtually all of their native species populations over the last
40 years. They discovered birds and native plants had declined 54 percent
and 28 percent respectively while butterflies experienced a shocking 71
percent decrease." ... "According to scientists, there have been five prior
mass
extinctions in the past 450 million years. The last was 65 million
years ago, when the dinosaurs and tens of thousands of species disappeared,
likely as a result of a comet or large asteroid hitting the Earth." -By
Stephen Leahy -Wired
-
- "A
Primer on the ETA." ... "Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna, translated
from Euskara, the Basque language, means "freedom for the Basque country.""
... "And the organization bearing that name, ETA for short, has been fighting
for freedom from Spain since the 1960s in an unrelenting campaign of bombings,
kidnappings and assassinations." ... "In that respect, today's devastating
attacks on commuter trains in Madrid were definitely in character. That
may be one of the reasons why Spanish government officials so quickly blamed
ETA, without offering concrete evidence or any claim of responsibility."
... "In another respect, however, the attack departed from ETA's pattern:
Never before has the organization killed and injured so many people in
a single blow." (1, 2)
-By Fred Barbash -WashingtonPost
- 
- "Koizumi
admits state fault in '50s emigration plan." ...
"He [Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi] indicated the government might compensate
Japanese emigrants to the Caribbean country who have filed a suit against
the government." ... "Some 180, including returnees, have filed a damages
suit seeking 3.1 billion yen in compensation. The plaintiffs have said
they did not receive the rich farmland that the Japanese government had
promised, and had to endure many difficulties after moving there."
-JapanTimes.co.jp
- "Prices
at the pump vault toward all-time high: Early hikes
in gas prices across the US could affect everything from flower delivery
to vacation plans." ... "Later this month, gas prices will almost certainly
eclipse the record for the highest average price-per-gallon in US history.
Then, if analysts are right, they will go even higher." ... "Ominously,
some experts suggest that the energy outlook hasn't looked so bleak since
the last days of Mr. Carter. Not that the country would be as severely
affected as it was in the 1970s. For one, today's prices are still well
below 1970s levels, when adjusted for inflation. In addition, many US power
plants have since shifted to natural gas and coal, and manufacturing is
now a smaller share of the economy. As a result, America is less dependent
on oil for its well-being." -By Mark Sappenfield
-CSMonitor
-
-
- "Aristide
Again Says He Was Kidnapped from Haiti." ... "Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says his departure from his country was
a "kidnapping" as heavily armed "white men" surrounded the National Palace,
according to a statement released on Saturday." ... "The United States
has repeatedly dismissed Aristide's contentions that he was kidnapped when
he left Haiti on Feb. 29. The Bush administration blames the crisis in
Haiti on Aristide, who was restored to power a decade earlier by 20,000
U.S. troops after his ouster in a military coup."
-Reuters
Water
- "Life
was viable on Mars: Rover digs up history of abundant
briny water on Red Planet." ... "The Mars rover Opportunity has discovered
powerful evidence that water once drenched the surface of Mars and made
the planet habitable for life during some unknown epoch in the distant
past, NASA scientists announced Tuesday." ... "For the first time since
astronomers and planetary visionaries began speculating about water and
life on the Red Planet centuries ago, the historic new findings from the
Mars rover mission appear to have pinned down the long-cherished idea that
Mars in fact once held a warm, wet environment where life could well have
flourished." -By David Perlman
-SFGate.com
-
-
- Religion
- "Aum
guru gets death." ... "Aum Shinrikyo founder Chizuo
Matsumoto was sentenced to death today for masterminding a deadly reign
of terror that culminated in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway
system." ... "Matsumoto, 48, faced 13 charges involving the deaths of 27
people." ... "The key charges concerned a sarin nerve-gas attack in Matsumoto,
Nagano Prefecture, in 1994 that killed seven people and left hundreds injured;
the slayings of anti-Aum lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and infant
son in 1989; and the subway attack that killed 12 and sickened thousands."
... "Matsumoto, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara, is the 12th cultist
to receive the death sentence." -Asahi
Shimbun/English
- 
-
-
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "White
House releases Bush's Guard records." ... "Moving
to squelch an election year controversy, the White House yesterday made
public records showing that President Bush attended some Air National Guard
training between mid-1972 and mid-1973 and was paid for it, and said the
records refute reports that Bush did not fulfill his military obligation
during the Vietnam War." ... "But the same records also show that Bush
may not have met the minimum-service requirement expected of most Guard
members, according to National Guard officials. And after releasing the
records, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, could not explain
why, if Bush appeared for duty on the days listed in the documents, Bush's
superiors wrote on May 2, 1973, that he had not been seen at his Houston
air base for the previous 12 months." -By Walter V.
Robinson and Michael Rezendes -Boston/Globe
-
- "Americans
warned against travel to Haiti." ... "With Haiti
wracked by civil unrest, the United States urged Americans Tuesday to leave
the country "if they can do so safely."" ... "Haiti has been wracked by
violence in recent weeks with armed opponents of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide taking control of several cities." ... "Authorities believe the
rebels are a combination of former paramilitary troops and former supporters
of Aristide, who was ousted in a military coup in 1991 but won a new term
as president in 2000." -CNN
- 
-
-
- "Pakistan's
Nuclear Ali Baba." ... ""Nobody could touch him,"
says Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Pakistan's foreign minister. The regret in
his voice is palpable. "Imagine an American government doing this to Charles
Lindbergh, or Albert Einstein, at the height of his popularity. Dr. A.Q.
Khan is that kind of national hero in Pakistan."" ... "Abdul Qadeer Khan,
an accomplished scientist, is also by his own account a thief of Ali Baba
proportions. He became a national hero by stealing the designs of a European
nuclear centrifuge system that enabled Pakistan to explode several nuclear
devices in 1998. Khan's original nuclear larceny, as Kasuri says, "gave
us strategic balance."" -By Jim Hoagland
-WashingtonPost
- "Negotiators
continue working on prison guard's release." ...
"A prison standoff [in Arizona] that stretched to 12 days Thursday could
be the lengthiest prison hostage situation in the United States in at least
50 years, an expert said." ... "Other standoffs include an 11-day incident
in 1987, when Cuban detainees took control of a penitentiary in Atlanta
and held more than 100 hostages. Inmates in Lucasville, Ohio, also staged
an 11-day standoff in 1993, taking 12 guards hostage to stop mandatory
tuberculosis testing." ... "Both ended in negotiated surrenders." -By
Ananda Shorey -AZDailySun
- 2004
ELECTION - "Ariz.
hosts first primary test out West." ... "Targeted
by every major candidate except Sen. John Edwards, Arizona is a prize with
symbolic value beyond the 55 convention delegates at stake. Its primary,
one of seven contests on Feb. 3, is the first to test the contenders' appeal
in the West and among Hispanic voters. Neighboring New Mexico has caucuses
that day." ... "In 1996, President Clinton became the first Democrat to
win Arizona's electoral votes since Harry Truman in 1948. In 2000, Bush
beat Al Gore here, 51%-45%, but Gore put up no fight, Arizona Democrats
say." -By Martin Kasindorf
-USATODAY
- 
-
- 
- "WMD
hunter: No stockpiles in Iraq." ... "The man who
has led Washington's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, David
Kay, says he doesn't think large weapons stockpiles existed there past
the mid-1990s." ... "Kay quit his post as the CIA's chief weapons hunter
in Iraq and will be replaced by Charles Duelfer -- a former official with
the U.N.'s inspection team in Iraq." ... "Though Kay has said new information
has been uncovered about Iraq's programs --particularly its efforts to
build missiles --he has since concluded there are no weapons stockpiles
to be found." -CNN
- 
-
- 
- "US
business urging Bush to drop Libya sanctions soon."
... "U.S. oil companies and other corporations eager to do business in
Libya have urged the Bush administration to remove sanctions on that country
by an April 23 deadline set by Tripoli and families of the 1988 Lockerbie
bombing victims, senior industry officials said Friday." ... "Tripoli appears
eager to restore normal diplomatic and trade relations with the United
States, which banned Libyan oil imports in 1982 and imposed additional
economic sanctions in 1986 against the country it accused of sponsoring
terrorism." -By Doug Palmer
-Reuters via -Forbes
-
-
- "Japanese
sends first troops out to war zone since 1945." ...
"As an advanced team of Self-Defense Forces prepared to leave Friday for
Iraq, the first Japanese troops to be deployed since World War II to a
country with ongoing combat continued their training at their snow-covered
base here in northern Japan [Asahikawa]." ... "The troops have taken Arabic
lessons, and learned about the Koran and Ramadan. They have focused, above
all, on mastering their rules of engagement, the way in which they would
respond to a hostile situation in southern Iraq. While the details are
kept secret, the rules are said to be more muscular than the guidelines
under which the forces have operated in the past." -By
Norimitsu Onishi-NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
- 
- "Libya
signs $170M deal for for '89 French passenger jet bombing."
... "Libya on Friday signed a compensation accord worth $170 million with
families of victims of a 1989 French passenger jet bombing, bringing closure
to years of grief." ... "The deal, which came 14 years after the bombing
of the French UTA passenger plane over the Niger desert that killed 170
people, also was expected to open the way to a new era of ties between
Tripoli and Paris." -AP
via -USATODAY
- "Hong
Kong Postpones Timetable For Reforms: Beijing's Request
for Talks Forced Delay, Officials Say." ... "Hong Kong's chief executive,
Tung Chee-hwa, indefinitely postponed plans Wednesday to set a timetable
for democratic reform, breaking a promise made after huge street demonstrations
last summer. Senior aides blamed the delay on a last-minute request from
Chinese leaders for consultations on "matters of principle and legislative
process."" ... "By requesting the delay and asking for talks just before
preliminary discussions about political reform were to be scheduled in
Hong Kong, China's Communist leaders signaled a new willingness to intervene
openly and directly in the affairs of the former British colony, which
was promised a high degree of autonomy after its handover to Chinese rule
in 1997." -By Philip P. Pan
-WashingtonPost
- 
-
-
- "Evidence
found of Siberian hunters living 30,000 years ago."
... "A people who may have been ancestors of the first Americans lived
in Arctic Siberia, enduring one of the most unforgiving environments on
Earth at the height of the Ice Age, according to researchers who discovered
the oldest evidence yet of the ancient hunters." ... "Russian scientists
uncovered a 30,000-year-old site where the hunters lived on the Yana River
in Siberia, some 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle and not far from
the Bering land bridge that then connected Asia with North America." -By
Paul Recer -AP
via -StarTribune.com
-
-
- "Bomb
kills 10 New Year revelers in Indonesia's Aceh province; Police blame separatist
rebels." ... "A bomb tore through a crowded New Year's
concert in Indonesia's Aceh province, killing 10 people -- including three
children -- and challenging government claims that security in the restive
region is improving." ... "Wednesday's blast, which also wounded 45 people,
was the bloodiest bombing in Aceh since the government on May 19 abandoned
a six-month truce and launched a military offensive against the rebels."
... "Authorities accused separatist guerrillas of the bombing -- a claim
denied by the insurgents, who have been fighting since 1976 for independence
for their oil-and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island."
-By Chris Brummitt -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "Koizumi
makes controversial visit to war shrine." ... "Junichiro
Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, on Thursday visited a shrine that venerates
the country's war-dead, including several war criminals, in a move that
is likely to trigger protests from Japan's neighbours." ... "The [Yasukuni]
shrine honours the 2.5m Japanese who have died in war since the 1850s.
But for some it is a symbol of Japan's military expansion and brutal colonisation
of its Asian neighbours because of the 14 convicted war criminals buried
on the site." -By Bayan Rahman
-FT.com
-
- "Revelers
Ring in 2004 Amid Heavy Security: Revelers Around
the United States Ring in 2004 Amid Some of Tightest Security Ever Seen."
... "Amid continuing conflict overseas and a dark mood of apprehension
at home, revelers across the nation greeted the dawn of 2004 under an orange
terrorism alert and the watchful eye of police officers." ... "Nearly 1
million revelers rang in the new year with the dropping of the traditional
crystal ball in Times Square a joyous, confetti-filled bash against the
backdrop of some of the tightest security measures in U.S. history."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
