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Bernard
Kerik - Rudolph
Giuliani - 
New
York
- Police
- 
Government
- 
Politics
- "Kerik
made millions from agency contractor: Homeland Security
nominee sat on board of stun-gun maker." ... "Bernard Kerik, [Republican]
President Bush's choice to run the Homeland Security Department, made $6.2
million by exercising stock options he received from a company that sold
stun guns to the department — and seeks more business with it." ... "Taser
International was one of many companies that received consulting advice
from Kerik after he left his job as New York City police commissioner in
2001, when he was earning $150,500 a year. Kerik remains on Taser's board
of directors, although the company and the White House said he planned
to sever the relationship." ... "Partnering with former New York Mayor
[Republican] Rudolph Giuliani and also operating independently, Kerik has
had business arrangements with manufacturers of prescription drugs, computer
software and bulletproof materials, as well as companies selling nuclear
power, telephone service, insurance and security advice for Americans working
abroad." ... "Kerik and other former New York City officials joined the
ex-mayor in Giuliani Partners, a consulting firm. In 2003, Kerik became
chief executive officer of an affiliate consulting company, Giuliani-Kerik."
-AP via -MSNBC
Nathan
Sproul - Criminal
- Politics
- 
2004
Election - 
Oregon
- 
Nevada
- Phoenix
- 
Arizona
Nathan
Sproul - Criminal
- Politics
- 2004
Election - 
Library
- Portland
- Ore
- Nevada
- Arizona
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
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prison
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- US
- 
Syria
- 
Iraq
- "Knowledge
of Abusive Tactics May Go Higher." ... "Army intelligence
officers suspected that a Syrian and admitted jihadist who was detained
at [Iraq's] Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad [Iraq's capital] knew about
the illegal flow of money, arms and foreign fighters into Iraq. But he
was smug, the officers said, and refused to talk. So last November, they
devised a special plan for his interrogation, going beyond what Army rules
normally allowed." ... "An Army colonel [Thomas M. Pappas] in charge of
intelligence-gathering at the prison, spelling out the plan in a classified
cable to the top [United States] U.S. military officer in Iraq, said interrogators
would use a method known as "fear up harsh," which military documents said
meant "significantly increasing the fear level in a security detainee."
The aim was to make the 31-year-old Syrian think his only hope in life
was to talk, undermining his confidence in what they termed "the Allah
factor."" ... "According to the plan, interrogators needed the assistance
of military police supervising his detention at the prison, who ordinarily
play no role in interrogations under Army regulations. First, the interrogators
were to throw chairs and tables in the man's presence at the prison and
"invade his personal space."" ... "Then the police were to put a hood on
his head and take him to an isolated cell through a gantlet of barking
guard dogs; there, the police were to strip-search him and interrupt his
sleep for three days with interrogations, barking and loud music, according
to Army documents. The plan was sent to [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez." ... "Congressional testimony by Defense Department and Army officials
over the past two weeks has highlighted the fact that the abuses in Iraq
-- which mostly occurred in the last quarter of 2003 -- came at a time
of heightened pressures in Washington for more robust intelligence-gathering,
because of proliferating attacks on U.S. forces and the dwindling intelligence
on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction." ... "Although
no direct links have been found between the documented abuses and orders
from Washington, Pentagon officials who spoke on the condition that they
not be named say that the hunt for data on these two topics was coordinated
during this period by Defense Undersecretary Stephen A. Cambone, the top
U.S. military intelligence official and long one of the closest aides to
[Republican President Bush's] Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld."
... ""We've got no proof that a person in authority told them to do this
activity," [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the Army's deputy
chief of staff, said on May 11." ... "But three directives in particular
have already begun to attract congressional scrutiny: The first is a classified
report by Army [Major General] Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller on [September]
Sept. 9, 2003, demanding that the military police at Abu Ghraib be dedicated
and trained to set "the conditions for the successful interrogation and
exploitation of internees/detainees." The report, which Cambone has testified
was presented to his deputy William Boykin, contained five recommendations
spelling out how this was to occur and reported it had already begun."
... "The second is an [October] Oct. 12 classified memo signed by Sanchez
that demanded a "harmonization" of military policing and intelligence work
at Abu Ghraib for the purpose of ensuring "consistency with the interrogation
policies . . . and maximiz[ing] the efficiency of the interrogation.""
... "The memo, obtained by The Washington Post, also states "it is imperative
that interrogators be provided reasonable latitude to vary their approach,"
depending on a detainee's background, strengths, resistance and other factors.
It also explicitly demands humane treatment and requires that any dogs
present during the interrogations be muzzled." ... "The third is a [November]
Nov. 19 memo from Sanchez's office that formally placed the two key Abu
Ghraib cellblocks where the abuses occurred under the control of Pappas
and his 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. It was 11 days later, after
this memo placed the military police responsible for "security of detainees
and base protection" in Pappas's hands, that he sought, in his memo to
Sanchez, to draw military police explicitly into applying pressure on the
Syrian." ... "The fact that prison interrogations were so directly controlled
by these military directives, as well as the apparent cultural sophistication
of some of the abuses, has already led some lawmakers to conclude that
much more experienced and senior officers were involved than the seven
military police now charged by the Army with wrongdoing. " (1, 2,
3)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
and Sewell Chan -WashingtonPost
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- Feith
- 
Rhode
Island - 
Virginia
- US
- Iraq
- Guantánamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial." ... "Writing in the December 16, 2002, edition
of The Nation, I broke the news--and explored the concerns many
in the [United States] US intelligence community had--about [Republican
President Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's quiet success in
prevailing upon Congress to authorize the creation of a new senior position
at the Pentagon,the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Several
months later, in the pages of the Columbia Journalism Review, I
followed up with a piece devoted to the media's utter lack of interest--perhaps
best demonstrated by the absence of any reporter from a farcical confirmation
hearing--in the new Under Secretary himself, Stephen Cambone." ... "Despite
his status as the Pentagon's über-intelligence authority, in the initial
days of the breaking [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib scandal Cambone was virtually
invisible. When Rumsfeld was called to the Hill to testify before the Armed
Services Committee on May 7, however, Cambone was unexpectedly summoned
to the witness table from his chair behind Rumsfeld. That cameo appearance
resulted in a more expansive return appearance on May 11, in which Cambone
less than deftly tried to undermine Abu Ghraib investigator [Major General]
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. (Cambone disputed the general's conclusion that
military intelligence units effectively controlled the prison's military
police detachment.) Cambone also reacted adversely to [Rhode Island Democratic]
Senator Jack Reed's assertion (confirmed by Taguba) that recommendations
made in a report on improving intelligence collection at Abu Ghraib by
then-chief Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] interrogator [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller clearly called for the use of [Military Police] MPs
in interrogations, which helped create an environment that begot the subsequent
abuse and torture in the tiers. As a May 12 Washington Post editorial
points out, Cambone's office approved interrogation practices that are
in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions." ... "At the May 11 hearings,
Cambone and another senior Defense Department official, Army intelligence
chief [Lieutenant General] Lieut. Gen Keith Alexander, essentially cast
themselves as mere Pentagon representatives fielding questions about Abu
Ghraib--and not as men who might bear any responsibility for what they
desperately tried to cast as an aberrant and isolated incident. Yet many
of their assertions on May 11 are in fact contradicted by statements they
made before the same committee a month before, as well as a year-old memo
outlining the responsibilities of Cambone's office." ... "The Under Secretary
of Defense for Intelligence, or OUSD(I) in Pentagonese, was originally
conceived by Rumsfeld as a centralizing measure, a way to give him "one
dog to kick" rather than a "whole kennel" of individual civilian and uniformed
defense intelligence agencies. In choosing the person responsible for ostensibly
bringing unprecedented order and control to the Pentagon's spy shops, the
Secretary chose Cambone, a man with no intelligence experience but a favored
protégé and loyal partisan who had served on Rumsfeld's ballistic
missile threat commission and worked with the neoconservative Project for
the New American Century. Previously principal deputy to Under Secretary
for Policy Doug Feith (and, in that capacity, liaison between Feith and
the ideological intelligence analysis unit that would later morph into
the notorious Office of Special Plans), Cambone went out of his way in
his confirmation hearings to say that he would closely "consult and coordinate"
with Feith to "insure [that Department of Defense] DoD-related intelligence
activity supports the goals" of the Pentagon's policy shop." ... "Two months
after Cambone's confirmation, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described
his new portfolio in a detailed internal Pentagon memo. Reflecting the
seriousness and specificity of Cambone's mission, an organizational chart
appended to the memo shows a generic under secretary with six deputies,
including one for warfighting and operations, whose duties include specific
liaison with the intelligence elements of each of the armed services, each
individual combatant command, and the under secretary for policy. The document
itself explicitly states that Cambone's office will, among other things:"
... "provide oversight and policy guidance for all DoD intelligence activities;
provide policy oversight of all the intelligence organizations within the
DoD, to include ensuring these organizations are manned, trained, equipped
and structured to support the missions of the Department; provide
assessments of and advice [to] the Secretary and CJCS [Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff] on the adequacy of military intelligence performance;
exercise management and oversight of all DoD counterintelligence and security
activities; coordinate DoD intelligence and intelligence-related policy,
plans, programs, requirements and resource allocations; oversee provision
of intelligence support and involvement in information operations, focused
on assessments in support of operations." ... "None of this should leave
much to the imagination, especially when it comes to policies and practices
pertaining to the dimensions of human intelligence collection that involve
interrogations conducted by military intelligence. Yet when asked by [Virginia
Republican] Senator John Warner if his office has "overall responsibility
for policy concerning the handling of detainees," Cambone dodged with a
"not precisely, sir," effectively denying any responsibility as set forth
in his charge by Wolfowitz. Rather, Cambone said, he only reactively "became
involved in this issue from the perspective of assuring there was a flow
of intelligence back to the commands and done in an efficient and effective
way."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
- "Four
Killed and 148 Wounded in a Suicide Bombing in Riyadh."
... "A suicide bomber detonated a Chevrolet Blazer loaded with explosives
in central Riyadh on Wednesday, shattering the facade of a police building,
killing at least four people and wounding 148." ... "Saudi officials and
foreign embassies had been bracing for such an attack since April 12, when
a shoot-out in a poor Riyadh neighborhood led to a chain of bloody skirmishes
across the central part of the kingdom. In the last 10 days, six police
officers were shot dead, and security officials said that they had captured
five booby-trapped cars and arrested eight militants." ... "Wednesday's
bombing and the clashes preceding it represent a qualitative shift in the
ongoing war between the security services and Islamic militants believed
to be either directly connected to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda or inspired
by the terrorist group, Saudi officials and other analysts said. It was
a shift, they said, toward attacks by groups that are less organized, on
targets that are less easily protected." (1, 2)
-By Neil MacFarquhar -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Suicide
Bombers Kill at Least 58 in Southern Iraq." ... "Suicide
bombers killed at least 58 people, many of them children, in co-ordinated
strikes on four police stations that brought bloody chaos to Iraq's southern
city of Basra on Wednesday, witnesses said." ... "Near-simultaneous explosions
hit three police stations in Basra and one in the town of Zubair, 16 miles
south of the mainly Shi'ite city, the British military said." ... "Reuters
counted 55 bodies at one hospital. Among the dead were many children who
had been going to school in a minibus caught in one of the car bombings.
Some 200 civilians and police were wounded." (1, 2,
3)
-By Abdel-Razzak Hameed -Reuters
- "Bombs
hit Basra police stations: Rush-hour blasts probably
caused by car bombs have hit three police stations in Iraq's second city
of Basra, killing at least 40 and injuring scores." ... "Two school buses,
one of them apparently full of children, were destroyed in one of the attacks,
an AP correspondent reports from the scene." ... "A British officer said
the three attacks had been near-simultaneous."
-BBC/News
-
- "Iraq
jail attack kills 22 inmates: A mortar attack on
an Iraqi detention centre near Baghdad has left 22 inmates dead, the US
military says." ... "All the casualties in the attack on the Baghdad Confinement
Facility in Abu Ghraib were prisoners of the US-led coalition, officials
said." ... "The sprawling prison complex of Abu Ghraib, which covers more
than one square kilometre, was one of Iraq's biggest prisons under Saddam
Hussein's regime and had a fearsome reputation."
-BBC/News
-
- "9/11
Panel Report Finds FBI Counterterror Efforts Lacking:
Freeh, Reno Argue Against Setting Up a Domestic Intelligence Agency." ...
"The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks provided
details today of a number of shortcomings in the FBI's counterterrorism
efforts, saying the agency was not properly structured to root out terrorists
in the United States and that the Justice Department was not sufficiently
focused on the issue during the first months of the Bush administration."
... "In a 12-page staff report issued before today's hearings, the commission
said that, among other failings, the FBI lacked the ability to carry out
"strategic analysis" of the terrorist threat, the kind of work required
to pull disparate bits of intelligence together and connect the dots to
pinpoint potential attacks." ... "In fact, before Sept. 11, "the FBI had
never completed an assessment of the overall terrorist threat to the U.S.
homeland," said the report, read to the commission by executive director
Philip D. Zelikow." (1, 2)
-By William Branigin contributed to by Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost
- "Taiwan
Riot Police Battle Election Protesters." ... "Riot
police officers fought with demonstrators and used water cannons mounted
on armored cars as a large rally turned unexpectedly violent here on Saturday
night in front of the presidential palace." ... "A crowd estimated by organizers
at 300,000 and by the police at 100,000 assembled peacefully on Saturday
afternoon to call for a parliamentary investigation into a shooting incident
that wounded President Chen Shui-bian on the eve of elections here last
month, and may have helped him win re-election." ... "On March 20, President
Chen won a second four-year term by fewer than 30,000 votes out of 13 million
cast, defeating Mr. Lien of the Nationalist Party and his running mate,
James Soong of the People First Party. The president had been grazed across
the abdomen the day before by a bullet while standing in an open Jeep in
a motorcade through his hometown, Tainan." ... "The Nationalists have suggested
that presidential aides inside the Jeep may have staged the shooting, in
a bid to bolster Mr. Chen's support." -By Keith Bradsher
-NYTimes
-
- "Three
countries arrest 53 militants in coordinated crackdown."
... "Turkey, Italy, and Belgium arrested 53 militants in a coordinated
crackdown Thursday on a Turkish Marxist group considered a terrorist organization
by Washington, Turkey's Interior Ministry said." ... "Police in Istanbul
arrested 37 suspects of the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front,
or DHKP-C, while security forces Italy and Belgium detained 16, an Interior
Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity."
-AP via -USATODAY
- 
- "Spain
Studies Alleged al-Qaida Tape Claim." ... "Investigators
analyzed a videotape in which al-Qaida reportedly claimed responsibility
for the deadly railway bombings earlier this week amid criticism Sunday
that Spanish intelligence blundered in failing to foresee the attack."
... "With a mourning nation voting in general elections overshadowed by
the attacks that killed 200 and wounded 1,500, officials said five suspects
arrested Saturday can remain in police custody for 72 hours, after which
police would need a court order for an extension." -By
Daniel Woolls -AP
via -Miami/Herald
- 
-
- 
-
-
- "Five
Guantanamo Britons Fly Home, Fate Unsure." ... "Five
British men jailed for more than two years at the U.S. Guantanamo base
in Cuba headed home Tuesday -- posing anti-terror police a dilemma over
whether to release them to their families or keep them behind bars." ...
"The five, held since late 2001 or early 2002 with more than 600 others
suspected of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan or supporting al
Qaeda, were expected to reach the Northolt military air base near London
around 7 p.m." ... "Police will take immediate custody of them, but if
they decide there is no case against them under Britain's tough anti-terror
laws, they may be freed in days, legal sources said." (1, 2)
-By Andrew Cawthorne -Reuters
- 
- 
- "Groundbreaking
ruling in Peterson case Tracking device evidence can be presented."
... "The judge in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial broke new legal
ground Tuesday and ruled that for the first time in a California courtroom,
evidence gleaned from a high-tech tracking device can be presented to a
jury." ... "From January to April of 2003, Modesto police secretly attached
GPS devices to a number of Peterson's vehicles so the police could spy
on his travels, including several trips to the Berkeley marina. The bodies
of Peterson's 27-year-old wife, Laci, and the couple's fetus washed ashore
not far away." -By Stacy Finz, Diana Walsh and Kelly
St. John
-SFGate.com
- "Car
bomb kills around 50 south of Baghdad." ... "About
50 people were killed and dozens wounded on Tuesday when a car bomb ripped
through a police station south of Baghdad, witnesses and hospital doctors
said." -Reuters
via -Boston/Globe
- 
- "Freed
female prison officer 'exceptionally strong': 'They
would have killed me,' ex-hostage says." ... "The spirit of the female
corrections officer -- freed Sunday night by two inmates, who held her
for 15 days in a guard tower -- is "exceptionally strong," an Arizona official
said after the ordeal ended." ... "As the officer was being transported
to the hospital Sunday, she spoke to Gov. Janet Napolitano." ... ""She
said basically, 'Thank you for not leaving me. Thank you for not rushing
the tower. They would have killed me,' " Napolitano said."
-CNN
- "Prison
hostage standoff ends; guard released." ... "The
longest U.S. prison hostage standoff in decades ended Sunday when a corrections
officer was released from the guard tower where two inmates had held her
for two weeks, a Corrections Department spokeswoman said." -By
Paul Davenport -APvia
-StarTribune.com
-
-
- "Bombs
kill 12 in Iraq, including 3 U.S. soldiers." ...
"Witnesses in Mosul, Iraq's major northern city, said what appeared to
be a suicide attacker drove through a security barricade in front of the
police station before blowing up his vehicle outside the building. Officials
confirmed a car bomb but wouldn't say if it was a suicide attack." ...
"In Kirkuk, a homemade bomb exploded as a 4th Infantry Division convoy
passed by about 25 miles southwest of the city today, killing the three
soldiers, the U.S. military said. The deaths raised to 522 the number of
U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq conflict."
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
- "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
-
- "Iraq
roadside attacks kill one and injure 13." ... "A
series of roadside attacks in Iraq have killed a local security officer
and wounded at least 13 other people as insurgents mount fresh strikes
against Iraqis seen as collaborating with U.S. forces." ... "Since May
1 last year, when President George W. Bush declared major combat over in
Iraq, more than 300 Iraqi policemen have been killed in shootings, bombings
or suicide attacks, according to Iraq's interior ministry." -By
Michael Georgy -Reuters
via -Reuters.co.uk
-
- "Court
OKs roadblocks to hunt criminals." ... "The Supreme
Court gave police leeway Tuesday to use random roadblocks to track down
criminals. Justices said in the 6-3 ruling that police checkpoint stops,
when used to seek information about recent crimes, do not violate the privacy
rights of other motorists. (Related item: Supreme
Court decision)" ... "The court overturned a decision by the Illinois
Supreme Court, which had ruled that it was not an emergency in 1997 when
officers stopped cars at an intersection outside Chicago to pass out leaflets
seeking information about a fatal hit-and-run."
-AP via -USATODAY
- 
- "Treasury
seeks probe into papers taken by O'Neill." ... "The
Treasury Department has asked for a probe into former Treasury secretary
Paul O'Neill's possible misuse of documents that may have been classified,
a department spokesman said Monday. But O'Neill said Tuesday, "The truth
is, I didn't take any documents at all."" ... "At least one of the documents
was shown Sunday during an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes in which
O'Neill described his disillusioning experience in the Bush administration.
O'Neill served as Treasury secretary for two years before he was forced
to resign in December 2002. His perspective is laid out in a new book,
The
Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of
Paul O'Neill." -By Peronet Despeignes
-USATODAY
-
- "US
releases 60 Iraqi prisoners." ... "The US army freed
about 60 prisoners from the feared Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad today,
the first detainees to be released under a new amnesty introduced by the
coalition provisional authority (CPA)." ... "Paul Bremer, the heed of the
CPA in Iraq, announced the amnesty for low-threat detainees yesterday[.]"
... "As part of wider US efforts to bring about reconciliation in Iraq,
the military will release around 500 prisoners in total. Around 9,000 Iraqis
have been detained in the eight months since the overthrow of the Saddam
regime." -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "FBI
Checked Las Vegas Hotel Lists in Terror Alert." ...
"The FBI demanded Las Vegas hotels turn over their guest lists leading
up to New Year's Eve to check against a U.S. master list of suspected terrorists,
a law enforcement official said on Sunday." ... "The demand for "patron
information" went to all major hotels in the Nevada casino and entertainment
city, said the official who declined to be named." -By
Jim Wolf -Reuters
via -Wired
-
- "Chicago
topped USA in homicides in 2003." ... "Despite a
sharp drop in homicides, Chicago has regained a title it didn't want: America's
murder capital." ... "The city finished 2003 with 599 homicides, police
said Thursday. That was down from 648 a year earlier and the first time
since 1967 that the total dipped below 600." ... "Still, the nation's third-largest
city outpaced all others for the second time in three years. New York,
with about three times the population, ended the year with 596 homicides.
Los Angeles, which had the most murders in 2002 at 658, wound up 2003 with
an estimated total just under 500." -AP
via -USATODAY
-
-
- "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
-
- "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
