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2006 History Archive:

20061222

Noteworthy - Japan- US - World - Auto - Technology - Workers - Politics- History - Fuel - "Toyota’s Sales Projections Show It Surpassing G.M.." ... "Toyota Motor said today it plans to sell 9.34 million vehicles next year, a figure that analysts said would put it ahead of troubled General Motors as the world’s largest auto company." ... "Toyota reported global group sales this year of 8.8 million cars and trucks, below G.M.’s 2006 sales forecast of 9.2 million vehicles. But the figures released today showed the two rival car giants on starkly different trajectories, with Toyota expecting to add a half million vehicle sales next year, at a time when G.M. is shuttering plants and laying off workers." ... "Surpassing G.M. would be a crowning achievement for Toyota, a company that got its start in the 1930s by reverse-engineering G.M. and Ford cars, and that spent decades catching up with Detroit. It would also end G.M.’s 81-year reign over the global auto industry, and mark another step in the rise of Asian carmakers." ... "Analysts also said reaching the top would not exhaust Toyota’s opportunities for growth. They said Toyota will continue to gain in the American market, where higher gas prices have increased the popularity of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles." ... "Toyota’s rise would also prove a victory of sorts for its unique corporate culture, the so-called Toyota Way, which is rooted in an obsession with craftsmanship and constant improvement, or “kaizen.”" -By Martin Fackler -NYTimes

20061110

US - Government - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Privacy - Environment - Health - Seniors - Drugs - Oil - Industry - Legal - History - Missouri - "Democrats are set to subpoena: The new majority is expected to hold hearings on military spending and the Iraq war -- just for starters." ... "[Missouri Democrat] Rep. Ike Skelton knows what he will do in one of his first acts as chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the Democratic-led House: resurrect the subcommittee on oversight and investigations." ... "The panel was disbanded by the Republicans after they won control of Congress in 1994. Now, Skelton (D-Mo.) intends to use it as a forum to probe Pentagon spending and the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war." ... "With control of every committee in Congress starting in January, the new majority will inherit broad powers to subpoena and investigate. And that is expected to translate into wide-ranging and contentious hearings." ... "The agenda is likely to be dominated by the Iraq war, but could include probes into the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance, environmental policies and new prescription-drug program for seniors. Industries, such as oil companies, could also come under closer scrutiny." ... ""This could be remembered as a historically unique period in which an administration got immunity from Congress to engage in errors with impunity," said Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore law professor and a former House counsel." ... "Democrats are expected to bore into the Iraq war, including review of no-bid contracts for reconstruction, intelligence failures and decisions to ignore the advice of military commanders about troop levels." (1, 2) -By Richard B. Schmitt and Richard Simon -LAtimes

20061108

Noteworthy - Secret - US - Iraq - Iran - Religious- Terrorism - Military - Intelligence - History - "Gates’ CIA Past Could Haunt Him in Confirmation Hearings." ... "President Bush’s pick to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld with former CIA Director Robert Gates is an odd one, considering it’s almost certain to revive festering questions about the Bush administration’s handling of pre-war intelligence on Iraq." ... "In early 1987, his role in the so-called Iran-Contra affair, a secret White House operation to sell weapons to radical Islamic Iran in exchange for the release of U.S. hostages — and cash for CIA-backed rebels in Nicaragua — came under scrutiny." ... "Then, in during his 1991 nomination hearings to run the CIA, Gates ran into a buzz saw of testimony from a former agency analyst who said that during the 1980s Gates had skewered intelligence to fit the convictions of senior Reagan administration officials that Soviet agents had concocted a plot to assassinate the pope and were arming and encouraging Marxist revolutionary groups to carry out terrorist attacks." ... "Both theories turned out to be wrong, according Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl, who headed a team of CIA analysts assigned the task of investigating the theory." ... "Senior former CIA analyst Mel Goodman charged Gates with a number of improprieties, including “the imposition of intelligence judgments, often over the protests of the consensus in the Directorate of Intelligence, to slant intelligence . . . suppression of intelligence that didn’t support the Casey agenda . . . (and) use of the Directorate of Operations to slant intelligence of the Directorate of Intelligence.”" -By Jeff Stein-CQ.com

20061103

Secret - US - Iraq- Nuclear - Government - Military - Intelligence - Internet - Archive - History - Hoekstra - Michigan - Roberts - Kansas - Legislation - Politics - "U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer." ... "Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein." ... "But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb." ... "Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”" ... "Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures." ... "The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs." ... "The director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, had resisted setting up the Web site, which some intelligence officials felt implicitly raised questions about the competence and judgment of government analysts. But President Bush approved the site’s creation after Congressional Republicans proposed legislation to force the documents’ release." ... "The campaign for the Web site was led by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Peter Hoekstra [Republican] of Michigan. Last November, he and his Senate counterpart, Pat Roberts [Republican] of Kansas, wrote to Mr. Negroponte, asking him to post the Iraqi material." (1, 2, 3) -By William J. Broad with contributions by Scott Shane -NYTimes

20061102

Noteworthy - US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Politics - History - "Bush owes troops an apology, not Kerry: Olbermann: Bush 'appearing to be stupid' about Kerry's joke." ... "A brief reminder, Mr. Bush: You are not the United States of America." ... "You are merely a politician whose entire legacy will have been a willingness to make anything political; to have, in this case, refused to acknowledge that the insult wasn't about the troops, and that the insult was not even truly about you either, that the insult, in fact, is you." ... "So now John Kerry has apologized to the troops; apologized for the Republicans' deliberate distortions." ... "Thus, the president will now begin the apologies he owes our troops, right?" ... "This president must apologize to the troops for having suggested, six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will, to history, "look like just a comma."" ... "This president must apologize to the troops because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably and irredeemably wrong." ... "This president must apologize to the troops for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence at a banquet while our troops were in harm's way." ... "This president must apologize to the troops because the streets of Iraq were not strewn with flowers and its residents did not greet them as liberators." ... "This president must apologize to the troops because his administration ran out of "plan" after barely two months." ... "This president must apologize to the troops for getting 2,815 of them killed." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Keith Olbermann -MSNBC

20061026

Money - Consumer - History - "Exxon Mobile posts $10.49B profit." ... "Oil industry behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday its third-quarter earnings rose to $10.49 billion, the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company." ... "The report comes as high crude prices this year have fueled record profits in the oil industry, triggering an outcry from consumers who were being asked to pay about $3 a gallon for gasoline in early August." ... "The largest quarterly profit ever was Exxon Mobil's $10.71 billion profit in the fourth quarter of 2005." ... "They may beat that next quarter, said Howard Silverblatt Standard & Poor's Senior Index Analyst. "Then in all likelihood they will be at that $40 billion mark for the year." That would put the company on track for the highest annual profit ever by a U.S. company. Exxon Mobil holds that record with a 2005 profit of $36.1 billion." -By Steve Quinn -AP via -DenverPost.com

20061017

Secret - Military - Terrorism - Torture - Prisons- Legislation - Religious- Civil Liberties - History - Politics - "Bush Signs Terror Interrogation Law." ... "President Bush signed legislation Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation of terror suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military commissions, calling it a "vital tool" in the war against terrorism." ... "Bush's plan for treatment of the terror suspects became law just six weeks after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions." ... "A coalition of religious groups staged a protest against the bill outside the White House, shouting "Bush is the terrorist" and "Torture is a crime." About 15 of the protesters, standing in a light rain, refused orders to move. Police arrested them one by one." ... "The law protects detainees from blatant abuses during questioning - such as rape, torture and "cruel and inhuman" treatment - but does not require that any of them be granted legal counsel. Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts." ... "Many Democrats opposed the legislation because they said it eliminated rights of defendants considered fundamental to American values, such as a person's ability to go to court to protest their detention and the use of coerced testimony as evidence." ... "The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."" ... ""The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero." ... ""Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act," he said." -By Nedra Pickler -AP

20061015

US - North Korea - Nuclear - Military - History - Politics - "N. Korean Nuclear Conflict Has Deep Roots: 50 Years of Threats and Broken Pacts Culminate in Apparent Atomic Test." ... "Democrats and Republicans have been quick to use North Korea's apparent nuclear test to benefit their own party in these final weeks of the congressional campaign, but a review of history shows that both sides have contributed to the current situation." ... "There is more than 50 years of history to Pyongyang's attempt to gain a nuclear weapon, triggered in part by threats from Presidents Harry S. Truman [Democrat] and Dwight D. Eisenhower [Republican] to end the Korean War." ... "In 1950, when a reporter asked Truman whether he would use atomic bombs at a time when the war was going badly, the president said, "That includes every weapon we have."" ... "Three years later, Eisenhower made a veiled threat, saying he would "remove all restraints in our use of weapons" if the North Korean government did not negotiate in good faith an ending to that bloody war." ... "In 1957, the United States placed nuclear-tipped Matador missiles in South Korea, to be followed in later years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, by nuclear artillery, most of which was placed within miles of the demilitarized zone." ... "It was not until President [Democrat] Jimmy Carter's administration, in the late 1970s, that the first steps were taken to remove some of the hundreds of nuclear weapons that the United States maintained in South Korea, a process that was not completed until 1991, under the first [Republican] Bush administration." -By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost

20061011

Abramoff - Pombo - Money - Lawmakers - History - US - Northern Mariana Islands - Garment - Labor - California - "AP Exclusive: Records suggest Abramoff, Pombo lobbying contacts." ... "California [Republican] Rep. Richard Pombo has insisted he was never lobbied by [Republican lobbyist] Jack Abramoff. Records show the disgraced lobbyist billed a client for at least two contacts with Pombo a decade ago." ... "The lobbying records released by the Northern Mariana Islands show that Abramoff billed once for calls to Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, and a second time for a discussion with him, while lobbying in 1996." ... "On more than two dozen other occasions from 1996 through 2001, Abramoff associates called or met with members of Pombo's staff, including his chief of staff, the records indicate. As the contacts picked up, Pombo voted Abramoff's way on a bill important to Abramoff's clients." ... "The Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 14 islands near Guam, became a U.S. commonwealth in 1986. Residents have nonvoting citizenship but the islands are exempt from many federal labor laws." ... "Democrats, complaining about reported abuses at low-paying garment factories, have sought to end those exemptions and increase the minimum wage, now $3.05 an hour. The Marianas government hired Abramoff to block such moves." ... "On Sept. 10, 1996, Abramoff billed for a discussion with Pombo. Two days later he gave Pombo a $500 donation, the first of what would become $7,500 in campaign contributions. Pombo has since donated the money to charity. On Nov. 21, 1996, Abramoff reported putting in calls to Pombo and other lawmakers." -By Erica Werner -AP via -MercuryNews

20061002

Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - History - Politics - Reporting - Book - "Records Show Tenet Briefed Rice on Al Qaeda Threat." ... "A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday." ... "The account by Sean McCormack came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, 2001, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks." ... "Mr. McCormack also said records show that the Sept. 11 commission was informed about the meeting, a fact that former intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed on Monday." ... "When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Mr. Woodward’s reporting." ... "Now, after several days, both current and former Bush administration officials have confirmed parts of Mr. Woodward’s account." ... "Officials now agree that on July 10, 2001, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism deputy, J. Cofer Black, were so alarmed about an impending Al Qaeda attack that they demanded an emergency meeting at the White House with Ms. Rice and her National Security Council staff." ... "According to two former intelligence officials, Mr. Tenet told those assembled at the White House about the growing body of intelligence the Central Intelligence Agency had collected pointing to an impending Al Qaeda attack." -By Philip Shenon and Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes
Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - History - Politics - "Rumsfeld, Ashcroft received warning of al Qaida attack before 9/11." ... "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former Attorney General John Ashcroft received the same CIA briefing about an imminent al-Qaida strike on an American target that was given to the White House two months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ... "The State Department's disclosure Monday that the pair was briefed within a week after then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was told about the threat on July 10, 2001, raised new questions about what the Bush administration did in response, and about why so many officials have claimed they never received or don't remember the warning." ... "One official who helped to prepare the briefing, which included a PowerPoint presentation, described it as a "10 on a scale of 1 to 10" that "connected the dots" in earlier intelligence reports to present a stark warning that al-Qaida, which had already killed Americans in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and East Africa, was poised to strike again." ... "Former CIA Director George Tenet gave the independent Sept. 11, 2001, commission the same briefing on Jan. 28, 2004, but the commission made no mention of the warning in its 428-page final report. According to three former senior intelligence officials, Tenet testified to commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste and to Philip Zelikow, the panel's executive director and the principal author of its report, who's now Rice's top adviser." ... "A new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post alleges that Rice failed to take the July 2001 warning seriously when it was delivered at a White House meeting by Tenet, Cofer Black, then the agency's chief of top counterterrorism, and a third CIA official whose identity remains protected." ... "Rice's deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, who became national security adviser after she became secretary of state, and Rice's top counterterrorism aide, Richard Clarke, also were present." -By Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Stroebel, and John Walcott with contributions by Matt Stearns and Drew Brown -McClatchyvia -RealCities
Secret - Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - History - "9/11 Commission failed to disclose 'scary' briefing also given to White House." ... "The independent Sept. 11, 2001, commission was given the same “scary” briefing about an imminent al Qaida attack on a U.S. target that was presented to the White House two months before the attacks, but failed to disclose the warning in its 428-page report." ... "Former CIA Director George Tenet presented the briefing to commission member Richard Ben Veniste and executive director Philip Zelikow in secret testimony at CIA headquarters on Jan. 28, 2004, said three former senior agency officials." ... "Tenet raised the matter himself, displayed slides from a Power Point presentation that he and other officials had given to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on July 10, 2001, and offered to testify on the matter in public if the commission asked him to, they said." ... "Richard Clarke, who was the National Security Council's top counter-terrorism advisor, confirmed the former senior intelligence officials’ account. Clarke was present when Tenet briefed Rice, along with deputy national security adviser Steven Hadley, CIA counter-terrorism chief Cofer Black and another CIA officer whose identity remains protected." -By Jonathan S. Landay -McClatchy via -RealCities

20061001

Children - Enforcement - Politics- Mark Foley - History - Florida - "GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001." ... "A Republican staff member warned congressional pages five years ago to watch out for [Florida Republican] Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page." ... "Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor in the House Clerk's office." ... "Loraditch says that some of the pages who "interacted" with Foley were hesitant to report his behavior because "members of Congress, they've got the power." Many of the pages were hoping for careers in politics and feared Foley might seek retribution." -By Maddy Sauer and Anna Schecter -ABCNEWS.com

20060929

George Allen - Language- History - US - Virginia - Indian - 2008 Election - 2006 Election - Military - Law - Israel - "Guess Who's Mad At George Allen Now? Confederate Group Slams Va. Senator For Demeaning Rebel Flag." ... "[Virginia Republican] Sen. George Allen's use [of] the word "macaca" for a young man of Indian descent forced him to spend the past six weeks disputing claims that his past is littered with racist language and a fondness for Confederate symbols." ... "What had been a warm-up race for a 2008 presidential [election] bid has become the fight of Allen's political life. He had been a strong [2006 election] favorite over Democrat Jim Webb, a decorated combat veteran who once served as President Reagan's Navy secretary." ... "Stories about how the Confederate flag he kept in his home and a hangman's noose in his law office have gained new currency. At a debate, Allen was startled and irritated by a question about whether his grandfather was Jewish, then confirmed it a day later." -AP via -CBSNews
Noteworthy - US - Iraq- Political - Intelligence - History - Book - "Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq." ... "The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war." ... "The warning is described in “State of Denial,” scheduled for publication on Monday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush’s top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms, but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq." ... "As late as November 2003, Mr. Bush is quoted as saying of the situation in Iraq: “I don’t want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don’t think we are there yet.”" ... "Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq — a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon — and so hostile toward Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. The American commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, is reported to have told visitors to his headquarters in Qatar in the fall of 2005 that “Rumsfeld doesn’t have any credibility anymore” to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq." ... "Robert D. Blackwill, then the top Iraq adviser on the National Security Council, is said to have issued his warning about the need for more troops in a lengthy memorandum sent to Ms. Rice. The book says Mr. Blackwill’s memorandum concluded that more ground troops, perhaps as many as 40,000, were desperately needed." ... "It says that Mr. Blackwill and L. Paul Bremer III, then the top American official in Iraq, later briefed Ms. Rice and Stephen J. Hadley, her deputy, about the pressing need for more troops during a secure teleconference from Iraq. It says the White House did nothing in response." (1, 2) -By David E. Sanger with contributions by Mark Mazzetti, David Johnston, and Julie Bosman -NYTimes

20060922

Torture - Secret - Noteworthy - United States - Government - International - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Prisons - Human Rights - War Crimes - Law- Politics - Ariz - SC - VA - "The Abuse Can Continue: Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either." ... "The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes." ... "In short, it's hard to credit the statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday that "there's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved." In effect, the agreement means that U.S. violations of international human rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress's tacit assent. If they do, America's standing in the world will continue to suffer, as will the fight against terrorism." ... "In theory, Congress could override Mr. Bush's regulations governing treatment if it judges that they are being used to authorize unacceptable practices." ... "But the senators who have fought to rein in the administration's excesses -- led by Sens. McCain, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) -- failed to break Mr. Bush's commitment to "alternative" methods that virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military regards as unreliable, counterproductive and dangerous for Americans who may be captured by hostile governments." ... "Mr. Bush will go down in history for his embrace of torture and bear responsibility for the enormous damage that has caused." -WashingtonPost

20060921

Secret - Torture - United States - World - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism- Prisons - Human Rights - Law - Michael Hayden - "CIA Praises Deal; Harsh Techniques Would Continue." ... "The CIA director, General Michael Hayden, praised the deal reached in Congress today that, in effect, would permit CIA interrogators to use harsh techniques critics call torture." ... "President Bush and the CIA have repeatedly maintained the procedures are not torture and have saved American lives." ... "Human rights groups maintain the procedures constitute a form of torture, and the United States military has banned its personnel from using water boarding [which may be allowed under the current Republcan congressional deal]." ... "Today's congressional deal, if signed into law, would allow the CIA to continue the six techniques and to continue to run secret prisons overseas for select terror suspects." -By Brian Ross -ABCNEWS.com

20060920

Virginia - 2006 Election - 2008 Election -US - Iraq - Military - Terrorism - "Gaffes Make Allen Vulnerable to Hard-Charging Webb in Va.." ... "Less than a year ago, there was little indication that Virginia Republican George Allen would face much of a race in his bid for a second Senate term. With Democrats then struggling to find a credible challenger, Allen was widely expected to be able to spend a good part of this year in other states to prospect a possible bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination." ... "But the emergence of a tough-minded Democratic nominee in author and former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, and some self-inflicted damage on Allen’s part, have combined to keep Allen close to home — and thrust him into a contest that looks increasingly competitive. As a result, CQPolitics.com has changed its rating on the race to Leans Republican from Republican Favored." ... "Webb, a decorated Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, served as Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan and is the author of several best-selling non-fiction books and novels, many with military themes. He maintained his Republican Party allegiances right through 2000, when he favored George W. Bush for president — and Allen in his successful bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb." ... "But Webb turned sharply because of his strong opposition to Bush’s decision as president to launch the war in Iraq, a conflict that Webb viewed as unnecessary to defend U.S. national security and a diversion of personnel and resources away from the pursuit of the terrorists who actually staged the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States." -By Greg Giroux -CQPolitics.com

20060918

Canada - US - Syria - Secret - Torture - Intelligence - Religious - Terrorism - Politics - "Canadian was falsely accused, panel says: Muslim held by U.S. was sent to Syria for interrogation." ... "Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday." ... "The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods." ... "The inquiry, which focused on the Canadian intelligence services, found that agents who were under pressure to find terrorists after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, falsely labeled an Ottawa computer consultant, Maher Arar, as a dangerous radical. They asked U.S. authorities to put him and his wife, a university economist, on the al-Qaeda "watchlist," without justification, the report said." ... "Arar was also listed as "an Islamic extremist individual" who was in the Washington area on Sept. 11. The report concluded that he had no involvement in Islamic extremism and was on business in San Diego that day, said the head of the inquiry commission, Ontario Justice Dennis O'Connor." (1, 2) -WashingtonPost via -MSNBC

20060914

US - World - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Secret- Police - Prisoner - Human Rights - Legislation - South Carolina - Virginia - Arizona- "Senate Panel, Rebuffing Bush, Approves Terror Tribunal Measure." ... "A Senate committee, in a bipartisan rebuff to President George W. Bush, approved military tribunal legislation that would give more legal protection to suspected terrorists than the administration wants." ... "Four of the 13 Republicans on the panel joined the 11 Democrats to pass their version of the measure, rejecting Bush's proposal to bar defendants from seeing classified evidence prosecutors may want to use in court. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed the Senate approach, warning that the Bush administration is risking the safety of U.S. troops and worldwide opinion by permitting harsh treatment of detainees." ... "Today's Armed Services Committee vote would let suspected terrorists see evidence used against them and would bar statements obtained through torture or inhumane treatment. It also would authorize military judges to fashion declassified summaries of evidence and to dismiss charges if the prosecutors don't consent to the disclosures." ... "[South Carolina Republican Lindsey] Graham joined the panel's chairman, Virginia Republican John Warner, and Arizona Republican John McCain in resisting Bush's demand to redefine the terms ``cruel, inhumane and degrading'' in describing treatment barred by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions." ... "Graham, a former Air Force lawyer, said that if the interpretation of the Geneva Conventions is changed, ``why wouldn't every other country do the same thing, have their secret police tell them to change the treaty obligations?''" -By James Rowley -Bloomberg

20060913

Afghanistan - US - Terrorism - Politics - "NATO: We need more troops in Afghanistan: U.S. envoy says reinforcements necessary to combat strengthening Taliban." ... "NATO allies must fulfil their commitment to the future stability of Afghanistan by dispatching more troops to fight insurgents, Washington's ambassador to the alliance said on Wednesday." ... "NATO troops have been drawn into bloody combat with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan - particularly in the more volatile south - in recent weeks and commanders on the ground have voiced concerns about troop capacity." ... "The Taliban are now the most active they have been since being toppled by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks by the group's al-Qaida allies." -Reuters via -MSNBC

20060908

Noteworthy - US - Iraq - Military- Terrorism - Religion - Osama bin Laden - Dick Cheney - Politics - "Intelligence Didn't Back Bush Iraq Claims, Senate Reports Say." ... "Bush administration claims justifying the war against Iraq were based on fragmented, conflicting, and at times unreliable intelligence, according to two reports released today by the Senate Intelligence Committee." ... "Administration statements that Saddam Hussein was allied with Osama bin Laden and was helping al-Qaeda obtain chemical and biological weapons proved wrong and misleading and weren't based on solid intelligence in its possession, the declassified Senate reports said." ... "Contrary to assertions by Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials, Hussein didn't have links to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist plot, the reports said." ... "``Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime,'' one of the reports said. Hussein refused all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support, said the reports." ... "Allegations that Hussein provided chemical and biological weapons training to al-Qaeda operatives also turned out to be false, the reports said. The Defense Intelligence Agency said in 2002 that it was unlikely Iraq gave Bin Laden any useful weapons assistance." ... "While Bin Laden's al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq in 2002, he was traveling under cover and eluded efforts by Hussein to capture him, the reports said." -By William Roberts and James Rowley -Bloomberg
TV - Media - Business - Terrorism - History - Politics - "ABC Gets More Pressure to Toss 9/11 Film." ... "ABC faced growing pressure Friday about its planned miniseries on the buildup to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Former Clinton administration officials, historians and a Democratic petition with nearly 200,000 signatures urged the network to scrap the five-hour drama." ... "The network said the movie, scheduled to air commercial-free on Sunday and Monday, is being edited to deal with concerns that it distorts history. ABC had no response to the calls to abandon it." ... "A group of historians, including Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Princeton University's Sean Wilentz, wrote to ABC parent Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, urging him to scrap the series. They said that permitting inaccuracies to heighten drama is "disingenuous and dangerous."" ... ""A responsible broadcast network should have nothing to do with the falsification of history, except to expose it," they wrote." ... "Harvey Keitel, one of the actors in "The Path to 9/11," also said he had questions about whether some of the material was accurate." ... ""When I received the script, it said ABC history project," Keitel said in an interview with CNN Headline News' "Showbiz Tonight." "I took it to be exactly what they presented to me, history. And that the facts were correct. It turned out not all the facts were correct, and ABC set out trying to heal that problem. In some instances it was too late because we had begun."" ... "The controversy is reminiscent of the one that erupted over a 2003 CBS miniseries about President Ronald Reagan. In the face of political pressure over that film's accuracy, CBS canceled it, and it later aired on the Showtime cable network." -By David Bauder -AP

20060907

Secret - US - Foreign - Military - Terrorism - Prisons - Human Rights - Law - War Crimes Act - Politics - UN - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba- "Bush Admits the CIA Runs Secret Prisons: Bush admits CIA runs secret prisons overseas, says interrogations made terrorists reveal plots." ... "President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies." ... "Bush said 14 suspects _ including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania _ had been turned over to the Defense Department and moved to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial." ... "Earlier this year, an anti-torture panel at the United Nations recommended the closure of Guantanamo and criticized alleged U.S. use of secret prisons and suspected delivery of prisoners to foreign countries for questioning. Some Democrats and human rights groups argued that the CIA's secret prison system did not allow monitoring for abuses and they hoped that it would be shut down." ... "The Supreme Court ruled that prisoner protections spelled out by the Geneva Conventions should extend to members of al-Qaida. In addition to torture and cruel treatment, the treaties ban "outrages against personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment."" ... "Administration officials said they were concerned the ruling left U.S. personnel vulnerable to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act because the language under the Geneva Conventions was so vague." -By Deb Riechmann with contributions by Anne Plummer Flaherty -AP via -CBSNews

20060906

Pakistan - Afghanistan - US - Military - Terrorism - "Pakistan Reaches Peace Accord With Pro-Taliban Militias: Deal Arouses Alarm in Afghanistan." ... "The government of Pakistan signed a peace accord Tuesday with pro-Taliban forces in the volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, agreeing to withdraw its troops from the region in return for the fighters' pledge to stop attacks inside Pakistan and across the border." ... "Under the pact, foreign fighters would have to leave North Waziristan or live peaceable lives if they remained. The militias would not set up a "parallel" government administration." ... "Reached as Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, prepared to visit the Afghan capital Wednesday, the accord aroused alarm among some analysts in Afghanistan. They expressed concern that, whatever the militias promise, a Pakistani army withdrawal might backfire, emboldening the groups to operate more freely in Pakistan and to infiltrate more aggressively into Afghanistan to fight U.S. and allied forces there." ... "More than 1,500 people have been killed in combat and terrorist attacks this year as violence in Afghanistan swelled to its highest level since 2001, when U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power. Suicide bombings, once unheard of, are now almost daily occurrences. Schools have been burned across the region and dozens of community leaders have been assassinated." -By Pamela Constable -WashingtonPost

20060905

Pakistan - Afghanistan - US - Military - Terrorism - Osama bin Laden - "Bin Laden Gets a Pass from Pakistan." ... "Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a "peaceful life," Pakistani officials tell ABC News." ... "The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part of a "peace deal" with the Taliban." ... "If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden "would not be taken into custody," Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, "as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen."" ... "Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, but U.S. officials say his precise location is unknown." ... ""What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director." -By Brian Ross and Gretchen Peters -ABCNEWS.com
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