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US
- 
Iraq
- 
People
- Police
- 
Military
- 
Politics
- "12,000
Iraqi policemen killed since '03; 6 U.S. soldiers killed."
... "Some 12,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed since the ouster of Saddam
Hussein, the country's interior minister said Sunday, as clashes, a suicide
bomber and weekend explosions killed more than a dozen Iraqi officers and
six American soldiers." ... "Police and police recruits have been frequent
targets of insurgent attacks. In one of the worst single attacks, a suicide
car bomber detonated his explosives near a line of national guard and police
recruits waiting to take physicals in February 2005. The blast in Hillah,
about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed 125." ... "Police have also been
blamed for violence. Gunmen in Iraqi army and police uniforms have been
responsible for recent bank robberies in Baghdad and the kidnapping of
more than 40 workers and volunteers at the Iraqi Red Crescent." ... "The
Iraqi Ministry of Health estimated in November that 150,000 Iraqi civilians
been killed in the war that began in 2003. Other estimates put the figure
as low as 51,000 or as high as 600,000." -AP
via -USATODAY
US
- Iraq
- Military
- Police
- 
Terrorism
- 
Religion
- 
Intelligence
- Politics
- Analysis
- "Intensified
Combat on Streets Likely." ... "President Bush's
plan to send tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements to Baghdad
to jointly confront Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias is likely to touch
off a more dangerous phase of the war, featuring months of fighting in
the streets of the Iraqi capital, current and former military officials
warned." ... "The prospect of a more intense battle in the Iraqi capital
could put U.S. military commanders in exactly the sort of tough urban fight
that war planners strove to avoid during the spring 2003 invasion of the
country. The plan to partner U.S. and Iraqi units may compel American soldiers
to rely on questionable Iraqi army and police forces as never before. And
while the president insisted there is no timetable associated with the
troop increase, military officials said sustaining it for more than a few
months would place a major new strain on U.S. forces that already are feeling
burdened by an unexpectedly long and difficult war." ... "Most of all,
the White House's insistence on confronting all insurgents and militias,
both Sunni and Shiite, may mean that the U.S. military will wind up fighting
the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. That militia is estimated
by some U.S. intelligence officials to have grown over the past year to
about 60,000 fighters, and some in the Pentagon consider it more militarily
effective than the Iraqi army." -By Thomas E. Ricks
and Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost
Richard
Shelby - 
Corporate
- Crime
- 
Government
- Law
- Politics
- 
Digital
- 
Technology
- 
Online
- 
Consumer
- 
California
- 
Alabama
US
- 
Afghanistan
- Military
- People
- Law
- Investigation
- 
Journalism
- "AP:
Startling findings in Tillman probe." ... "The latest
inquiry into Tillman's death by friendly fire should end next month; authorities
have said they intend to release to the public only a synopsis of their
report. But The Associated Press has combed through the results of 2 1/4
years of investigations — reviewed thousands of pages of internal Army
documents, interviewed dozens of people familiar with the case — and uncovered
some startling findings." ... "Investigators are looking at who pulled
the triggers and fired at Tillman; they are also looking at the officers
who pressured the platoon to move through a region with a history of ambushes;
the soldiers who burned Tillman's uniform and body armor afterward; and
at everyone in the chain of command who deliberately kept the circumstances
of Tillman's death from the family for more than a month." ... "Military
investigators under Gimble's direction this year visited the rugged valley
in eastern Afghanistan where Tillman was killed. It was a risky trip; the
region is even more dangerous today than it was in 2004." -By
Scott Lindlaw and Martha Mendoza -AP
via -Yahoo
Virginia
- 2006
Election
- Politics
- Law
- "FBI
looking into possible Va. voter intimidation: Officials
probing reports of phone calls allegedly intended to confuse voters." ...
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the possibility of
voter intimidation in the hard-fought U.S. Senate race between Sen. George
Allen, a Republican, and Democratic challenger James Webb, officials told
NBC News." ... "State officials alerted the Justice Department on Tuesday
to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters who attempted
to misdirect or confuse them about election day, Jean Jensen, Secretary
of the Virginia State Board of Elections, told NBC's David Shuster." ...
"Jensen told NBC that she had been contacted by FBI agents. The FBI in
Richmond refused to comment." ... "State Democratic Party counsel Jay Myerson
said in a written statement issued by the Webb campaign that he believed
Republicans are behind an orchestrated effort to suppress votes for the
Democratic challenger." -MSNBC
Foley
- 
Ohio
- 
Florida
- 
NM
- 
NY
- Police
- Election
2006 - "Scandals
Alone Could Cost Republicans Their House Majority."
... "Indictments, investigations and allegations of wrongdoing have helped
put at least 15 Republican House seats in jeopardy, enough to swing control
to the Democrats on Tuesday [2006 Election] even before the larger issues
of war, economic unease and President Bush are invoked." ... "Democrats
have repeatedly hit [Republican] Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio), the House Republican
Conference chairman, for inaction on the [Florida Republican Mark] Foley
matter. And Democrats have tried to hold two former members of the Page
Board, [New York Republican] Reps. Sue W. Kelly (N.Y.) and [New Mexico
Republican] Heather A. Wilson (N.M.), accountable for Foley's actions."
... "Meanwhile, new allegations continue to spring up. Vern Buchanan, a
Republican running for the Florida seat vacated by Rep. Katherine Harris
(R), was the target of local media reports this week detailing his use
of business entities in Caribbean tax havens to reduce levies on his auto
dealerships. The Albany Times Union published an article yesterday charging
that the wife of [New York Republican] Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) called
police late last year to report that her husband was "knocking her around"
during a late-night argument." -By Jonathan Weisman
and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum -WashingtonPost
Secret
- US
- Iraq
- Religious
- Police
- Politics
- Intelligence
- "Military
Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos."
... "A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States
Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the
military is using as a barometer of civil conflict." ... "A one-page slide
shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military
command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly
in terms of sectarian fighting." ... "The slide includes a color-coded
bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.” It shows
a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite
shrine in Samarra in February, and tracks a further worsening this month
despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad."
... "In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the
ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious
and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such
as the enemy’s fighting strength and the control of territory." ... "The
conclusions the Central Command has drawn from these trends are not encouraging,
according to a copy of the slide that was obtained by The New York Times.
The slide shows Iraq as moving sharply away from “peace,” an ideal on the
far left side of the chart, to a point much closer to the right side of
the spectrum, a red zone marked “chaos.” As depicted in the command’s chart,
the needle has been moving steadily toward the far right of the chart."
... "An intelligence summary at the bottom of the slide reads “urban areas
experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns to consolidate control” and “violence
at all-time high, spreading geographically.” According to a Central Command
official, the index on civil strife has been a staple of internal command
briefings for most of this year. The analysis was prepared by the command’s
intelligence directorate, which is overseen by Brig. Gen. John M. Custer."
-By Michael R. Gordon
-NYTimes
John
E Sweeney - Politician
- New
York - Law
Renzi
- Phoenix
- 
Arizona
- 
Real
Estate - Money
- Politics
- Law
Enforcement - "Lawmaker's
Influence in Land Deals Probed." ... "U.S. prosecutors
in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation into whether [Republican]
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) twice pressured landowners to buy a 480-acre
parcel owned by his former business partner, a major backer of Renzi's
political campaign, according to federal law enforcement sources." ...
"The deal ultimately netted the business partner a $3 million profit, according
to Arizona land records." ... "The Arizona transaction has drawn the interest
of the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI's Phoenix field office. Three
law enforcement officials said both are investigating Renzi's involvement
in two land deals -- one of which was not completed -- designed to put
the 480 acres under federal protection from development in exchange for
land more fit for commercial development." ... "According to sources, the
investigation is focusing on whether, in exchange for political contributions
and business support, James Sandlin received special treatment from Renzi
for a parcel of land that earned him a $3 million profit." ... "Sandlin
bought into Renzi's real estate firm in 2001, then paid about $200,000
for half the business and, after he was elected to Congress, $1 million
to $5 million for the rest." ... "Investigators want to know whether Renzi
twice attempted to arrange deals for Sandlin, including once by proposing
legislation, two sources with knowledge of the investigations said." -By
Jonathan Weisman and Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost
Renzi
- Arizona
- Legislation
- Politics
- 
International
- Money
- 
Family
- Military
- Communications
- Virginia
- "Congressman
From Arizona Is the Focus of an Inquiry." ... "Federal
authorities in Arizona have opened an inquiry into whether [Arizona Republican]
Representative Rick Renzi introduced legislation that benefited a military
contractor that employs his father, law enforcement officials said Tuesday."
... "Mr. Renzi, 48, a Republican who represents the First Congressional
District, is a former insurance executive and real estate investor who
was first elected in 2002. Almost from the start, he has been a target
of citizen watchdog groups who have accused him of ethical laxity in office."
... "Law enforcement officials said that the most serious accusation involved
Mr. Renzi’s sponsorship of legislation in 2003 that appeared to indirectly
benefit the ManTech International Corporation, a communications company
based in Virginia that employs Mr. Renzi’s father, Eugene, a retired Army
general, as executive vice president." -By David Johnston
-NYTimes
Noteworthy
- US
- Guantanamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Torture
- Terrorism
- Prison
- Religion
- People
- War
Crimes - Law
Enforcement - Politics
- "Can
the '20th hijacker' of Sept. 11 stand trial? Aggressive
interrogation at Guantanamo may prevent his prosecution." ... "Mohammed
al-Qahtani, detainee No. 063, was forced to wear a bra. He had a thong
placed on his head. He was massaged by a female interrogator who straddled
him like a lap dancer. He was told that his mother and sisters were whores.
He was told that other detainees knew he was gay. He was forced to dance
with a male interrogator. He was strip-searched in front of women. He was
led on a leash and forced to perform dog tricks. He was doused with water.
He was prevented from praying. He was forced to watch as an interrogator
squatted over his Koran." ... "That much is known. These details were among
the findings of the U.S. Army's investigation of al-Qahtani's aggressive
interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." ... "But only now is a picture
emerging of how the interrogation policy developed, and the battle that
law enforcement agents waged, inside Guantanamo and in the offices of the
Pentagon, against harsh treatment of al-Qahtani and other detainees by
military intelligence interrogators." ... "In interviews with MSNBC.com
- the first time they have spoken publicly -former senior law enforcement
agents described their attempts to stop the abusive interrogations. The
agents of the Pentagon's Criminal Investigation Task Force, working to
build legal cases against suspected terrorists, said they objected to coercive
tactics used by a separate team of intelligence interrogators soon after
Guantanamo's prison camp opened in early 2002. They ultimately carried
their battle up to the office of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld,
who approved the more aggressive techniques to be used on al-Qahtani and
others." ... "Although they believed the abusive techniques were probably
illegal, the Pentagon cops said their objection was practical. They argued
that abusive interrogations were not likely to produce truthful information,
either for preventing more al-Qaida attacks or prosecuting terrorists."
... "And they described their disappointment when military prosecutors
told them not to worry about making a criminal case against al-Qahtani,
the suspected "20th hijacker" of Sept. 11, because what had been done to
him would prevent him from ever being put on trial." ... "Defense Department
e-mails seen by MSNBC.com show that a delegation visiting Guantanamo on
Sept. 25, 2002, included Alberto R. Gonzales, then the White House counsel
and now attorney general; David S. Addington, legal counsel to Vice President
Dick Cheney, now his chief of staff; Timothy E. Flanigan, the deputy White
House counsel; William Haynes III, the Pentagon general counsel; Larry
Thompson, then deputy attorney general; Christopher A. Wray, the principal
associate deputy attorney general, now head of Criminal Division at the
Justice Department; and John Yoo, a lawyer in the Justice Department's
Office of Legal Counsel, who reportedly had just helped write an Aug. 1,
2002, "torture memo" to Gonzales, defining torture narrowly as causing
pain equivalent to organ failure or death." ... "The visiting VIPs met
with Gen. Dunlavey and his staff, but not with any of the law enforcement
investigators who opposed the aggressive interrogations." ... "Under the
Military Commissions Act signed last week by President Bush, statements
made under torture would not be admissible in a military trial." ... "But
the law says a military judge could accept statements made under coercion.
A court may have to decide which category, torture or coercion, encompasses
such techniques as a fake trip to Egypt, sleep deprivation, and being forced
to do dog tricks. The new law also extends legal protection from prosecution
for war crimes to any U.S. personnel who used coercive tactics, if they
believed in good faith that what they were doing was lawful." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Bill Dedman -MSNBC
Renzi
- Arizona
- Real
Estate - Money
- Politics
- Government
- Legislation
- "Officials
scrutinize Ariz. land deal." ... "A land deal involving
Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona], is being scrutinized by
the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, a law enforcement official in Washington
said Tuesday." ... "Records and officials involved in the October 2005
deal say Renzi helped promote the sale of land that netted a former business
partner $4.5 million." ... "The property eventually was to be part of a
swap in which potential buyers could exchange it for land owned by the
federal government. And while Renzi's business partner, James Sandlin,
made money off the land sale, Renzi never introduced legislation in Congress
to complete the swap for the new owners." ... "State records indicate that
Renzi and Sandlin were partners in a real estate development firm dating
back to at least 2002. It is unclear whether the two still have a business
relationship." -By Jennifer Talhelm with contributions
by Arthur H. Rotstein -AP
via -BostonGlobe
US
- Iraq
- Police
- "15
Police Recruits Killed in Iraq; U.S. Death Toll for October Hits 86."
... "At least 15 Iraqi police recruits were killed Sunday when two buses
taking them to Baghdad were ambushed by insurgents north of the capital,
a local police official said. Twenty-five recruits were injured in the
attack, and 20 others were kidnapped, he said." ... "On Sunday and Monday,
the U.S. military announced the deaths of seven soldiers and a Marine,
bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to 86 -- the
fifth-highest total in any single month since the war began. The only higher
monthly tolls were 137 in November 2004, 135 in April 2004, 106 in January
2005, and 96 in October, 2005. Attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces in
Baghdad have increased more than 40 percent since midsummer, U.S. military
officials say." -By John Ward Anderson and Debbi Wilgoren
-WashingtonPost
Sherwood
- 
Pennsylvania
- 2006
Election - Law
- Police
- "During
National Character Counts Week, Bush Stumps for Philanderer."
... "So it has come to this: Nineteen days before the midterm elections,
President Bush flew here [Pennsylvania] to champion the reelection of a
congressman who last year settled a $5.5 million lawsuit alleging that
he beat his mistress during a five-year affair." ... ""I'm pleased to be
here with Don Sherwood," a smiling president told the congressman's loyal
but dispirited supporters at a luncheon fundraiser Thursday. "He has got
a record of accomplishment."" ... "Quite a record. While representing the
good people of the 10th District, the married congressman shacked up in
Washington with a Peruvian immigrant more than three decades his junior.
During one assignation in 2004, the woman, who says Sherwood was striking
her and trying to strangle her, locked herself in a bathroom and called
911; Sherwood told police he was giving her a back rub." ... "At a time
when Republicans are struggling to motivate religious conservatives to
go to the polls next month, it is not clear what benefit the White House
found in sending Bush to stump for Sherwood -- smack dab in the middle
of what Bush, in an official proclamation, dubbed "National Character Counts
Week."" ... "The nature of the accuser's allegations -- she said Sherwood
gave her "facial lacerations, bruises about the head, neck and other portions
of her body, head injury, injuries to her teeth, mouth and gums, back and
neck strain, injuries to her scalp" -- makes it more than a distraction.
Sherwood continues to deny abuse after reaching the secret settlement."
-By Dana Milbank -WashingtonPost
Sherwood
- Pennsylvania
- 2006
Election - Lawmaker
- Police-
"Bush
campaigns for Pennsylvania congressman enmeshed in sex scandal."
... "He said she was "a casual acquaintance." She said they were extra-marital
lovers, but told police that he tried to choke her. His wife says she forgives
him. So does President Bush." ... "In fact, Bush traveled to northeastern
Pennsylvania Thursday to help the wayward husband, Republican Rep. Don
Sherwood, keep his seat in Congress. Perhaps it's a measure of the Republicans'
plight that the president would throw his prestige behind a candidate whose
marital misbehavior conjures memories of Bill Clinton." ... "Sherwood's
five-year fling with a woman half his age has all the elements of a bad
soap opera, but voter reaction to his performance could help decide whether
Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives. Polls show Sherwood
trailing Democratic challenger Chris Carney in a district that had been
considered a lock for the GOP." ... "Sherwood's problems started in September
2004, when Cynthia Ore called police to the congressman's Capitol Hill
apartment claiming that he'd choked her for no apparent reason." ... "She
was 29 at the time; he was 63." ... "Sherwood was never charged, and the
matter attracted little attention until the following spring, when Ore
threatened legal action and provided details of a relationship that Sherwood
had initially denied. The two met in 1999 at a gathering for young Republicans."
-By Ron Hutcheson -McClatchy
via -KansasCity.com
US
- 
Russia
- 
Weldon
- Family
- Government
- Money
- Law
- 
Energy
- Politics
- Pennsylvania
- "Weldon's
Ties to Serbian Businessman Part of Probe." ... "Officials
at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade were surprised three years ago to be invited
to a luncheon in honor of visiting Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa. [Republican-Pennsylvania]),
hosted by Bogoljub Karic, a wealthy Serbian businessman who had been barred
from visiting or trading with the United States because of his close ties
to former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic." ... "Weldon "was visiting
solely because of Karic," whom he was trying to get off the U.S. blacklist,
a former senior embassy official familiar with the visit concluded. "It
seemed odd" at the time, because Karic had no obvious tie to Weldon's district
outside Philadelphia [Pennsylvania], and Weldon should have known the embassy
was shunning contacts with him, the official said." ... "What the embassy
apparently did not know is that the Karic family that year signed a contract
with Weldon's daughter, Karen, and a business partner that called for monthly
payments of $20,000 for "management, government and public relations,"
according to a copy of the March 2003 contract. In all, the family paid
Karen Weldon's firm $133,858 that year for efforts she undertook to set
up a foundation for it." ... "Curt Weldon's visit and that deal are under
investigation by the FBI, according to a law enforcement source familiar
with the probe. His efforts to assist clients of his daughter's consulting
firm in their dealings with the federal government are the focus of that
probe, according to sources familiar with it." ... "Besides looking at
Weldon's Karic connection, the FBI is examining the lawmaker's contacts
with a Russian-managed oil and gas company, Itera International Energy
Corp., the sources said." (1, 2)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith and Carol D. Leonnig -with contributions
by Lucy Shackelford and Madonna Lebling -WashingtonPost
US
- Russia
- Energy
- Weldon
- Money
- Law
- Politics
- PA
- Florida
- "FBI
raids four homes, two offices in Weldon probe." ...
"FBI agents investigating U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa. [Republican, Pennsylvania])
conducted six raids this morning - including at the homes of his daughter
and a longtime friend." ... "In Center City [Pennsylvania], agents searched
the law office of John Gallagher, a Weldon friend who has conducted extensive
business in Russia and former Soviet Republics." ... "In Media [Pennsylvania],
agents searched the offices of the public relations firm formed by Weldon's
longtime friend Charles P. Sexton Jr., and the congressman's daughter,
Karen." ... "Sexton and Karen Weldon formed Solutions North America in
2002, and won $1 million in contracts from two Russian energy firms and
a Serbian family with ties to Slobodan Milosevic." ... "FBI agents in Jacksonville,
Fla. [Florida], raided the office of one of the Russian energy firms, Itera,
and a private residence whose connection to the investigation was not disclosed."
... "" -By John Shiffman, Mitch Lipka and Patrick
Kerkstra -Philly.com
Government
- Terrorism
- Prisons
- Law
- Enforcement
- Money
- Politics
- 
Colorado
- "Supermax
Staffing Too Low To Be Safe: Arbitrator Finds Problems
At Prison That Holds Moussaoui, Unabomber." ... "Staffing at the Supermax
prison has gotten so low that job hazards have increased for correctional
officers watching over the nation's worst terrorists, an arbitrator has
ruled." ... "The arbitrator stopped short of ordering the Bureau of Prisons
to hire more staff, but union officials representing Supermax officers
said the ruling would bolster their argument to Congress for more prison
funding." ... ""If the most maximum security federal penitentiary is indeed
understaffed, what is happening across the entire Bureau of Prisons as
far as staffing levels?" asked [Colorado Democrat] state Rep. Buffie McFadyen,
who testified for the union at an arbitration hearing in May. Her district
includes Supermax and 11 other state and federal prisons."
-AP via
-CBSNews
US
- Afghan
- Police
- "String
of Deadly Attacks In Afghanistan: U.S. Army Special
Forces Soldier, 3 NATO Soldiers, Several Afghan Policemen and Civilians
Killed." ... "An Army Special Forces soldier died of combat-related injuries
sustained in Afghanistan." ... "Six Afghan policemen, meanwhile, died after
a roadside bomb hit their convoy Friday elsewhere in eastern Afghanistan,
said Gen. Anan Roufi, the police chief of Paktia province." ... "Late Friday,
Taliban militants attacked a police patrol in Zabul province, sparking
a firefight that left two police and three militants dead, said Noor Mohammad
Paktin, the provincial police chief." -AP
via -CBSNews
Jim
Kolbe
- Gay
- Ariz
- Legislator
- Teenager
- Politics
- "Feds
probe trip that Kolbe made with pages: NBC exclusive:
Congressman alleged to have been inappropriate in '96." ... "Federal prosecutors
in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman
Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona], took 10 years ago that included
two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC
News. NBC News first reported
on the camping and rafting trip on Tuesday." ... "A spokesman for the
Justice Department in Washington said that the U.S. attorney in Arizona
has started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip, after an unidentified
source made allegations about the congressman's behavior on the expedition."
... "As NBC News first reported, Kolbe took a tour down the Grand Canyon
in July 1996 with a group that included two 17-year-old males who had recently
left the congressional page program." ... "Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican
legislator in both houses of Congress, had not acknowledged his homosexuality
publicly at the time." ... "NBC News interviewed several people who were
on the trip, and their accounts vary. One participant, who requested anonymity,
said he was uncomfortable with the attention Kolbe paid to one of the former
pages. He was "creeped out by it," he said, adding that there was a lot
of "fawning, petting and touching" on the teenager's arms, shoulders and
back by Kolbe." -By Jim Popkin and Aram Roston
-MSNBC
US
- Russia
- Weldon
- Family
- Money
- Politics
- Law
- Pennsylvania
- "FBI
investigates Rep. Curt Weldon." ... "The Justice
Department is investigating whether Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania
traded his political influence for lucrative lobbying and consulting contracts
for his daughter, according to sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry."
... "The FBI, which opened an investigation in recent months, has formally
referred the matter to the department's Public Integrity Section for additional
scrutiny. At issue are Weldon's efforts between 2002 and 2004 to aid two
Russian companies and two Serbian brothers with ties to strongman Slobodan
Milosevic, a federal law enforcement official said." ... "The Russian companies
and a Serbian foundation run by the brothers' family each hired a firm
co-owned by Weldon's daughter, Karen, for fees totaling nearly $1 million
a year, public records show." ... "Karen Weldon was 28 and lacked consulting
experience when she and Charles Sexton, a Weldon ally and longtime Republican
leader in Delaware County, Pa., created the firm of Solutions North America
Inc. in 2002." ... "Spokesmen for the FBI and the Justice Department declined
to confirm or deny that an inquiry is under way." ... "But McClatchy Newspapers'
sources said the FBI only over the last few months obtained evidence suggesting
that the congressman may have broken the law. One of the sources, a federal
law enforcement official, said that Weldon had not yet been told about
the inquiry." -By Greg Gordon
-McClatchy via
-RealCities
Secret
- US
- 
Philippines
- Emergency
- Leandro
Aragoncillo
- 
Dick
Cheney
- Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Politics
- 
New
Jersey - Law
- "Spy
Probe Widens to Years Suspect Was at White House:
Ex-Marine Allegedly Sent Files to Philippine Opposition." ... "The Justice
Department is investigating whether a naturalized U.S. citizen from the
Philippines stole classified documents while he worked in the office of
[Republican] Vice President Cheney and provided the information to opposition
politicians in Manila [Philippines capital], [Republican] Bush administration
officials said yesterday." ... "The possibility that Leandro Aragoncillo
was passing the material while stationed as a U.S. Marine security official
at the White House marks a dramatic expansion of the case against him and
a former Philippine police official, Michael Ray Aquino. Both were arrested
and charged in federal court in Newark [New Jersey] last month with sending
classified information obtained this year to the Philippines -- more than
two years after Aragoncillo left the White House and went to work as an
FBI intelligence analyst." ... "Officials from the White House, Justice
Department and FBI declined to comment late yesterday, other than to confirm
that Aragoncillo first went to work at the White House in 1999, when [Democratic
Vice President] Al Gore was vice president. ABC News reported last night
that Aragoncillo had admitted taking classified documents while he worked
in Cheney's office." ... "Joseph Estrada, the former Philippine president
who was forced from office four years ago by mass demonstrations, has acknowledged
receiving documents from Aragoncillo while the suspect was still in the
Marines." ... "A document from late July reportedly detailed coup discussions
at a secret conclave of about two dozen young army and naval officers in
Manila. Another account, citing a clandestine source, described Arroyo
calling an emergency meeting of her commanding generals to ensure their
backing." (1, 2,
3)
-By Dan Eggen and Alan Sipress
-WashingtonPost
Foley
- E-Mail
- Politics
- Fla
- "Watchdog
Group Disputes FBI's Claims on E-Mails." ... "The
watchdog group that first provided the FBI with suspicious e-mails from
then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla. [Republican-Florida]) said yesterday that
FBI and Justice Department officials are attempting to cover up their inaction
in the case by making false claims about the group." ... "Law enforcement
officials said the allegations by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington (CREW) are without merit, and they stood by allegations that
the group had refused to provide some information to the FBI." ... "CREW
held a news conference Monday to announce that in July it had provided
the FBI suspicious e-mails between Foley and a former House page. The group
criticized the bureau for not taking more aggressive action and asked Justice
Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine to investigate the FBI's handling
of the case." -By Dan Eggen
-WashingtonPost
Sherwood
- Pennsylvania
- 2006
Election - 
TV
- Ad
- Politics
- Law
- "Congressman
apologizes for affair in TV ad: [Pennsylvania Republican]
Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa. also denies abusing mistress." ... "Rep. Don Sherwood,
a Republican fighting for [2006] re-election in northeastern Pennsylvania,
says in a TV ad that he is "truly sorry" for cheating on his wife but denies
ever abusing the woman he had the affair with." ... "Sherwood, a four-term
congressman, has a seat that had been considered safe until it was revealed
last year that police in 2004 investigated an incident between Sherwood
and Cynthia Ore at his Washington apartment." ... "Charges were never filed,
but Ore sued Sherwood, claiming he had choked her. Sherwood apologized
for the affair but denied abusing Ore. The suit was settled for an undisclosed
sum." -AP
via -MSNBC
Hastert
- 
Reynolds
- Foley
- Computer
- Messages
- Teenage
- Lawmaker
- Law
Enforcement - 2006
Election - 
Illinois- New
York - Florida
- "Aide
says he told Hastert's office about Foley's conduct more than 3 years ago."
... "House Speaker [Illinois Republican] Dennis Hastert's political support
showed signs of cracking on Wednesday as Republicans fled an election-year
[2006] scandal spawned by steamy computer messages from former Rep. Mark
Foley to teenage male pages." ... "At the same time, Foley's former chief
of staff said in an Associated Press interview that he first warned Hastert's
aides more than three years ago that Foley's behavior toward pages was
troublesome. That was long before GOP leaders acknowledged learning of
the problem." ... "Kirk Fordham, who was Foley's top aide until January
2004, said he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the
highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene"
several years ago." ... "Fordham resigned Wednesday as staff chief for
another lawmaker caught up in the scandal, New York [Republican] Rep. Thomas
Reynolds, the House GOP campaign chief who says he alerted Hastert to concerns
about Foley last spring." ... "The Justice Department ordered House officials
to "preserve all records" related to Foley's electronic correspondence
with teenagers, and one law enforcement official said FBI agents have begun
interviewing participants in the House page program." -By
Devlin Barrett with contributions by Andrew Taylor, Lara Jakes Jordan,
David Hammer, Laurie Kellman, Bruce Schreiner, and Marus Kabel
-AP via -STLtoday.com
Foley
- Hastert
- 
Cunningham
- 
DeLay
- 
Ney
- Children
- Lawmakers
- Politics
- 2006
Election - Florida
- Illinois
- California
- 
Texas
- Ohio
- "FBI
looks at [Florida Republican] Foley's e-mails to teens."
... "[Illinois Republican] House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked the Justice
Department on Sunday to investigate former [Florida Republican] congressman
Mark Foley's communications with teenage boys who worked as House pages."
... "Hastert has said he knew about non-sexual e-mails that Foley, 52,
a Florida Republican, sent to a 16-year-old former page, first reported
by ABC News on Thursday." ... "Foley is the fourth House Republican forced
out by ethics problems. [Republican] Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California
resigned in November after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in
bribes. Former majority leader [Republican] Tom DeLay of Texas was indicted
on state campaign finance violations and resigned in June. [Republican]
Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio has agreed to plead guilty to charges of corruption
and is not seeking re-election [in 2006]." ... "House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi [from California] called on the House ethics committee Sunday
to question GOP leaders under oath. "They chose to cover it up rather than
to protect these children," she said." -By Richard
Wolf and Kevin Johnson with contributions by Kathy Kiely, Jill Lawrence,
Matt Kelley, and Wendy Koc -USATODAY
Reynolds
- Hastert
- Foley
- 
Boehner
- E-Mails
- 
Louisiana
- Teen
- Noteworthy
- Lawmakers
- Enforcement
- Secrets
- 2006
Election - NY
- Ill
- Fla
- Ohio
- 
Mich
- "GOP
Leader Rebuts Hastert on Foley: [New York Republican
Thomas] Reynolds: Speaker Knew of E-Mails in Spring." ... "House Speaker
J. Dennis Hastert ([Republican, Illnois] R-Ill.) was notified early this
year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley ([Republican,
Florida] R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday
-- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about
Foley only last week." ... "Hastert did not dispute the claims of Rep.
Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), and his office confirmed that some of Hastert's
top aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with
the boy and to treat all pages respectfully." ... "Reynolds, chairman of
the National Republican Congressional Committee, became the second senior
House Republican to say that Hastert has known of Foley's contacts for
months, prompting Democratic attacks about the GOP leadership's inaction.
Foley abruptly resigned his seat Friday." ... "House Majority Leader John
A. Boehner ([Republican] R-Ohio) told The Washington Post on Friday that
he had learned in late spring of inappropriate e-mails Foley sent to the
page, a boy from Louisiana, and that he promptly told Hastert, who appeared
to know already of the concerns. Hours later, Boehner contacted The Post
to say he could not be sure he had spoken with Hastert." ... "Yesterday's
developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican
ranks a month before the Nov. 7 [2006] elections, and they threatened to
expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma." ... "Republicans appeared
to have kept the matter under wraps. Rep. Dale E. Kildee (Mich.), the only
Democrat on the House Page Board, said yesterday: "I was never informed
of the allegations about Mr. Foley's inappropriate communications with
a House page, and I was never involved in any inquiry into this matter.""
(1, 2)
-By Jonathan Weisman and Charles Babington with contributions
by R. Jeffrey Smith and Magda Jean-Louis -WashingtonPost
Mark
Foley - Computer
- E-Mail
- Messages
- Laws
- Children
- Politics
- Dennis
Hastert - Illinois
- Florida
- 
Nevada
- California
- Louisiana
- "FBI
looking into Foley computer exchanges." ... "The
FBI is looking at whether former Florida [Republican] Rep. Mark Foley's
computer exchanges with underage House pages broke any laws, an FBI spokesman
said late Sunday." ... "Under fire from Democrats, House Speaker Dennis
Hastert [Illinois Republican] also asked Sunday that [Republican] U.S.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
- look into the case." ... "Foley, a Florida Republican, gave no reason
for leaving but said he was "deeply sorry" and resigned Friday after the
subsequent, sexually explicit instant messages were disclosed by ABC News."
... "Earlier Sunday, Democrats in both chambers, Senate Democratic leader
Harry Reid of Nevada and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California,
called for investigations." ... "Hastert's office said Saturday his office
was contacted last fall by a staff member in the office of Louisiana Republican
Rep. Rodney Alexander, where the page once worked. The boy said in an e-mail
to Alexander's office that the computer exchange with Foley "freaked him
out" and was "sick..sick..sick."" -By Lesley Clark
-McClatchy via
-MercuryNews
School
- Children
- Internet
- Messaging
- Law
- Politics
- Foley- Florida
- "FBI
Opens "Preliminary Investigation" of Foley." ...
"The FBI has opened a "preliminary investigation" of disgraced former [Florida
Republican] Congressman Mark Foley over the sexually explicit Internet
messages he sent to congressional pages, all male high school students
under the age of 18." ... "It's possible Foley could be prosecuted under
laws he helped to enact, as the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing
and Exploited Children." -By Brian Ross
-ABCNEWS.com
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
Secret
- Children
- Crime
- Politics
- Mark
Foley - Florida
- John
Boehner
- Ohio
- Louisiana
- New
York - Illinois
- Alabama
- 2006
Election - "G.O.P.
Aides Knew in Late ’05 of E-Mail." ... "Top House
Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between [Florida Republican]
Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter
secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on
children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday." ... "Among those
who became aware earlier this year of the fall 2005 communications between
Mr. Foley and the 16-year-old page, who worked for Representative Rodney
Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, were [Ohio Republican] Representative
John A. Boehner, the majority leader, and [New York Republican] Representative
Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional
Committee. Mr. Reynolds said in a statement Saturday that he had also personally
raised the issue with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert [Illinois Republican]."
... "Democrats moved quickly to criticize Mr. Reynolds, who while overseeing
House campaigns nationally is facing the potential of a serious [2006 Election]
challenge from Jack Davis, a wealthy businessman who has vowed to spend
at least $2 million of his own money in the contest. “Tom Reynolds had
a moral obligation to protect our children,” said Curtis Ellis, a spokesman
for Mr. Davis." ... "At the Justice Department, an official said that no
investigation was under way but that the agency had “real interest” in
examining the circumstances to see if any crimes were committed." ... "Several
of Mr. Foley’s former colleagues demanded a criminal inquiry." ... "Representative
Robert E. Cramer, an Alabama Democrat who was co-chairman with Mr. Foley
of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, condemned Mr. Foley’s
actions as “shocking and disturbing.”" ... "“Anyone, including Foley, involved
in this type of behavior should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law,” Mr. Cramer said." (1, 2)
-By Carl Hulse and Raymond Hernandez with contributions
by Kate Zernike, David Johnston, and Abby Goodnough -NYTimes
Mark
Foley - Florida
- Children
- Enforcement
- Politics
- IM
- "Florida
Republican Foley Resigns From U.S. House Seat (Update2)."
... "[Republican] Representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned
his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives today after ABC News queried
him about sexually explicit messages with underage congressional pages."
... "ABC News today said the network had read excerpts of instant messages
provided by former pages who said Foley made references to sexual organs
and acts." ... "[Speaker of the House, Illinois Republican Dennis] Hastert
said he had asked the head of the page board, Illinois Republican John
Shimkus, ``to look into this issue regarding Congressman Foley. We want
to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe.''"
... "Foley was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and co-chairman
of the House's Missing and Exploited Children Caucus." -By
Nicholas Johnston and Brian Faler -Bloomberg
Mark
Foley - Internet
- Messages
- Children
- Mental
Health - Enforcement
- Politics
- Fla
- "Exclusive:
The Sexually Explicit Internet Messages That Led to [Republican] Fla. Rep.
Foley's Resignation." ... "Florida Rep. Mark Foley's
resignation came just hours after ABC News questioned the congressman about
a series of sexually explicit instant messages involving congressional
pages, high school students who are under 18 years of age." ... "In Congress,
Rep. Foley (R-FL) was part of the Republican leadership and the chairman
of the House caucus on missing and exploited children." ... "He crusaded
for tough laws against those who used the Internet for sexual exploitation
of children." ... ""They're sick people; they need mental health counseling,"
Foley said." ... "But, according to several former congressional pages,
the congressman used the Internet to engage in sexually explicit exchanges."
... "They say he used the screen name Maf54 on these messages provided
to ABC News."Another
message:
Maf54:
What
ya wearing?
Teen:
tshirt
and shorts
Maf54:
Love
to slip them off of you.
And
this one:
Maf54:
Do
I make you a little horny?
Teen:
A little.
Maf54:
Cool.
Mark
Foley - E-Mails
- Florida
- Parents
- Enforcement
- Politics
- 2006
Election - La
- NY
- Ill
- "[Republican]
Foley Resigns From Congress Over E-Mails." ... "[Republican]
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., abruptly resigned from Congress on Friday in the
wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page." ...
"His departure sent Republicans scrambling for a replacement candidate
less than six weeks before midterm [2006] elections in which Democrats
are making a strong bid to gain control of the House." ... "Foley, 52,
had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail correspondence surfaced
in recent days." ... "[Louisiana Republican] Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.,
who sponsored the page from his district, told reporters that he learned
of the e-mails from a reporter some months ago and passed on the information
to [New York Republican] Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the
House Republican campaign organization." ... "Carl Forti, a spokesman for
the GOP campaign organization, said Reynolds learned from Alexander that
the parents did not want to pursue the matter. Forti said, however, that
the matter did go before the House Page Board — the three lawmakers and
two House officials who oversee the pages." ... "It was unclear what the
officials did." ... "The board currently is headed by [Illinois Republican]
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who did not respond to requests for an interview."
-By David Espo and Jim Kuhnhenn with contributions
by Brendan Farrington, Larry Margasak, and Natasha Metzler
-AP via -SFGate.com
Mark
Foley - Florida
- Children
- Enforcement
- Politics
- E-Mail
- "[Republican]
Rep. Foley resigns from Congress." ... "[Republican]
Rep. Mark Foley, a six-term Florida Republican, resigned from Congress
and apologized to constituents Friday after questions arose regarding e-mail
and other electronic exchanges with former Capitol pages under the age
of eighteen." ... "ABC News on Friday said that earlier in the day it had
read to Foley excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages
who said the congressman made repeated references to sexual organs and
acts." ... "Foley was the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited
children and had authored legislative language signed into law by President
Bush this year designed to crack down on sexual predators." -By
William L. Watts -MarketWatch
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
New
York
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcers - 
Firefighters
- Transit
- 
Workers
- "Major
health study finds 70% of WTC recovery workers suffered lung problems."
... "Nearly 70% of recovery workers who responded to the attacks on the
World Trade Center [New York] suffered lung problems during or after their
work at ground zero, a new health study released Tuesday shows." ... "Less
than a week before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
Mount Sinai Medical Center issued the results of the largest study on related
health effects." ... "It found, among other things, that illnesses tended
to be worst among those who arrived first at the site, and that high rates
of lung "abnormalities" continued years later." ... "The findings are based
on medical exams conducted between July 2002 and April 2004 on 9,500 ground
zero workers, including construction workers, law enforcers, firefighters,
transit workers, volunteers and others." -AP
via -USATODAY
Tom
Ridge - Crime
- Politics
- Terrorism
- 
Albania
- US
- Pennsylvania
US
- International
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Government
- Prison
- Politics
- "Study:
Terror Cases Now at Pre-9/11 Rate: U.S. Has Fallen
Back to Prosecuting International Terrorists at Pre-9/11 Rate, Study Finds."
... "The federal government has fallen back to prosecuting international
terrorists at about the same rate it did before Sept. 11, according to
a study based on Justice Department data." ... "The surprising decline
followed a sharp increase in such criminal prosecutions in the year after
the attacks, according to a study released Sunday by the Transactional
Records Access Clearinghouse [TRAC], a data research group at Syracuse
University." ... "The analysis of data from Justice's Executive Office
of U.S. Attorneys also found:" ... "In the eight months ending last May,
Justice attorneys declined to prosecute more than nine out of every 10
terrorism cases sent to them by the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
and other federal agencies. Nearly 4 in 10 of the rejected cases were scrapped
because prosecutors found weak or insufficient evidence, no evidence of
criminal intent or no evident federal crime." ... "Since the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks, only 14 people have been sentenced to 20 years or more in
prison in terrorism cases. Of the 1,329 convicted defendants, only 625
received any prison sentence. More than half got no prison time or no more
than they had already served awaiting their verdict." (1, 2,
3)
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Washington
- 
Maryland
- Police
- "McGavick
gave misleading DUI account." ... "A 1993 Maryland
police report, obtained Friday, shows that [Washington state] Republican
U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick was less candid than he seemed last
week when he disclosed a previously unknown arrest for drunk driving."
... "For example, in a sketchy, four-sentence description of the incident
on his campaign Web site Aug. 24, McGavick wrote that he was stopped when
he "cut a yellow light too close in 1993" while driving home with Gaelynn,
now his wife." ... "The Montgomery County, Md., police officer who arrested
him Nov. 21, 1993, said in his report that he saw McGavick "drive through
a steady red light."" ... "The candidate, who is running against Democratic
Sen. Maria Cantwell, said in an interview last week that he was issued
a citation but wasn't arrested." ... "But the police report and a police
spokesman Friday said McGavick was placed under arrest, handcuffed, driven
to a district police station and handcuffed to a desk while he was questioned
and signed various forms." -By Neil Modie
-SeattlePI.NWsource
US
- 
British
- Iraq
- Police
- Religion
- Politics
- "Rival
Shiite Militias Clash in Southern Iraq." ... "Clashes
between rival Shiite Muslim militias erupted Wednesday in Basra, Iraq's
second-largest city, when scores of gunmen stormed the governor's office
after accusing his supporters of assassinating their tribal leader. Meanwhile,
car bombs in Baghdad killed 25 people." ... "The gunmen in Basra, a predominantly
Shiite city, laid siege to the office for two hours, lobbing mortar shells
and barricading nearby bridges, before British troops and Iraqi police
pushed them back. The fighting left at least four policemen dead, police
said. Authorities imposed a curfew on the city. As U.S. and Iraqi forces
focus their efforts on taming sectarian violence in Baghdad, Wednesday's
bloodshed served as a reminder of the tenuous security conditions across
Iraq, and how precariously the country teeters on the edge of civil war."
... "Tensions also are rising between U.S. and Iraqi forces and the powerful
anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is emerging as the main Shiite
obstacle to U.S. efforts to establish order and security in Baghdad as
well as in the south." ... "Many of the militias are affiliated with radicalized
clerics or political parties in Iraq's fragile coalition government. Some
leaders, such as Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the influential Supreme Council
for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, have called for neighborhood militias
to provide security, a move that would strengthen their power bases." (1,
2)
-By Sudarsan Raghavan with contributions by Saad al-Izzi
and K.I. Ibrahim -WashingtonPost
British
- 
Pakistan
- US
- 
Aviation
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Intelligence
- 
Book
- Military
- Politics
- "The
Triumph of Unrealism." ... "The London plot against
civil aviation confirmed a theme of an illuminating new book, Lawrence
Wright's "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11." The theme
is that better law enforcement, which probably could have prevented Sept.
11, is central to combating terrorism. F-16s are not useful tools against
terrorism that issues from places such as Hamburg (where Mohamed Atta lived
before dying in the North Tower of the World Trade Center) and High Wycombe,
England." ... "Cooperation between Pakistani and British law enforcement
(the British draw upon useful experience combating IRA terrorism) has validated
John Kerry's belief (as paraphrased by the New York Times Magazine of Oct.
10, 2004) that "many of the interdiction tactics that cripple drug lords,
including governments working jointly to share intelligence, patrol borders
and force banks to identify suspicious customers, can also be some of the
most useful tools in the war on terror." In a candidates' debate in South
Carolina (Jan. 29, 2004), Kerry said that although the war on terror will
be "occasionally military," it is "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement
operation that requires cooperation around the world."" -By
George F. Will -WashingtonPost
Britain
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Intelligence
- Historical
- Terrorism
- Religion
- Mental
Health - Enforcement
- "These
ludicrous lies about the West and Islam." ... "There
is indeed a plausible argument that military action in recent years has
made Britain less, not more, secure. In particular, the conduct of the
war in Iraq, regardless of the virtues of removing Saddam Hussein from
office, has been riddled with error. The absence of weapons of mass destruction,
removal of which was the premise for war, has undermined trust in the Prime
Minister. Meanwhile, engagement in Iraq has made it harder to secure victory
in Afghanistan, where the anti-terror justification for war was rock solid."
... "But even within the bleakest possible analysis of Mr Blair's foreign
policy, it is still simply not true that the West is waging war on Islam.
Just as it is not true that the CIA was really behind the 11 September
attacks or any other arrant conspiratorial nonsense that enjoys widespread
credence in the Middle East and beyond. It is also a logical and moral
absurdity to imply, as some critics of British policy have done, that mass
murder is somehow less atrocious when it is motivated by an elaborate narrative
of political grievance." ... "If young British Muslims are alienated, that
is sad and their anger should be addressed. But anyone whose alienation
leads them to want to kill indiscriminately has crossed a line into psychopathic
criminality. Policy cannot be dictated by the need to placate such people."
... "British Muslim leaders are entitled, along with everybody else, to
raise questions about the conduct and consequences of Mr Blair's foreign
policy. But they have a more immediate responsibility to promote the truth:
that Britain is not the aggressor in a war against Islam; that no such
war exists; that there is no glory in murder dressed as martyrdom and that
terrorism is never excused by bogus accounts of historical victimisation."
-Observer.co.uk via -Guardian.co.uk
US
- Iraq
- Military
- Enforcement
- Politics
- "5
Bombs Kill at Least 57 in Baghdad." ... "As American
forces conducted a new security sweep in western Baghdad [Iraq's capital]
on Sunday, five apparently coordinated bombings in a predominantly Shiite
neighborhood on the city’s south side killed at least 57 people and wounded
148, an Iraqi government official said." ... "The death toll could rise,
the official said, as emergency workers searched for victims in the rubble
of an apartment building that collapsed as a result of the bombings." ...
"The attacks, which killed civilians in a largely residential neighborhood,
were the deadliest in the capital since the American military dispatched
new forces here more than a week ago to quell a surge in killings and kidnappings
by sectarian militias and criminal gangs." ... "The new American-led security
operation here is intended “to reduce the level of murders, kidnappings,
assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in northwest Baghdad and
to reinforce the Iraqi government’s control in Iraq’s capital city,” according
to a statement released by the United States military on Sunday evening."
-By Paul von Zielbauer with contributions by Qais
Mizher, Ali Adeeb, and Khalid W. Hassan -NYTimes
US
- UK
- Airline
- Terrorism
- Police
- Intelligence
- "Source:
U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests: British
wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says." ...
"NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant
disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to
bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States." ... "A
senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police
were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week
to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them
to arrest the suspects sooner." ... "In contrast to previous reports, the
official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had
not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have
passports." ... "The source did say, however, that police believe one U.K.-based
suspect was ready to conduct a "dry run." British authorities had wanted
to let him go forward with part of the plan, but the Americans balked."
... "At the White House, a top aide to President Bush denied the account."
-By Aram Roston and Lisa Myers
-MSNBC
US
- Guantanamo
- Cuba
- Afghanistan
- Iraq
- Political
- Law
- Enforcement
- War
Crimes Act - Human
Rights - Military
- Terrorism
- Detainee
- History
- "Criminal,
Immunize Thyself: The Bush administration's get out
of jail card for torturers." ... "If the Bush administration is still good
at anything, it's this: distracting its opponents and seizing little victories
from what might have been big defeats." ... "Take the administration's
recent efforts to respond to the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v.
Rumsfeld. Hamdan arose from a challenge to the president's authority to
create novel military commissions to try Guantanamo [Cuba] detainees. In
June, the court found these commissions were unlawful: Among other problems,
their procedures were inconsistent with existing statutes and fell short
of "fair trial" guarantees in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. (Defendants
could, for instance, be convicted based on evidence they would never see.)"
... "The decision was, of course, a major defeat for the Bush administration.
Not surprisingly, administration officials went back to Congress this month
with legislation that would authorize military commissions to pass Supreme
Court muster." ... "But now, as recently reported by the Washington Post,
the administration is also trying to use Hamdan to pass legislation that
would immunize government personnel for abuses against detainees at Guantanamo,
in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, including those abuses it authorized. In other
words, in the middle of what should be a post-Hamdan debate about how to
provide fair trials for those accused of terrorist activities, the administration
is simultaneously trying to decriminalize its own past crimes." -By
John Sifton -Slate
US
- Britain
- Airline
-Terrorism
- Intelligence
- "Britain
Thwarts Airline Terror Plot: UK, U.S. Raise Security
Threat Levels." ... "British authorities said Thursday they have disrupted
a sophisticated and well-advanced terrorist plot to blow up U.S.-bound
airliners using liquid explosives, arresting 24 people who police said
had planned to commit mass murder over the Atlantic Ocean." ... "Police
said they were confident they had the "main players" in custody, but authorities
in London and Washington ordered a full-scale security clampdown at U.S.
and British airports out of concern that other plotters may still be at
large." ... "A senior European intelligence official said at least a few
people suspected of being involved in the plot were missing and that it
was unclear whether they were still in Britain." ... "The plotters had
not yet booked specific flights but were searching airline routes and apparently
did not plan to purchase tickets until the last minute, the official said."
... "British authorities said the threat involved terrorists who aimed
to smuggle liquid explosive material aboard airplanes in hand baggage,
as well as timers and detonators that could be assembled in flight. British
Home Secretary John Reid said the operation was aimed at bringing down
"a number of aircraft" -- reportedly as many as 10 -- "through mid-flight
explosions, causing a considerable loss of life."" ... "Peter Clarke, chief
of the London police department's anti-terrorism branch, said the investigation
reached a "critical point" Wednesday night, requiring immediate disruption
of the plot, the arrests and the imposition of heightened security measures."
(1, 2,
3,
4)
-By John Ward Anderson and William Branigin with contributions
by Karen DeYoung, Dafna Linzer, Dan Eggen, Debbi Wilgoren, Del Quentin
Wilber, Fred Barbash and Spencer S. Hsu -WashingtonPost
US
- Iraq
- International- Military
- Intelligence
- Prisons
- Human
Rights - War
Crimes Act - Enforcement
- Politics
- "War
Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution."
... "The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law
that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees,
CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading
war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments."
... "Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the
mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set
of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions
generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime
prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean." ... "The draft
U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential
criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against
detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking."
... "Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as
"outrages upon [the] personal dignity" of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating
acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of
women's underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- that
fall short of torture." (1, 2)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith -WashingtonPost
US
- International
- Military
- Intelligence
- Detainees
- Human
Rights - War
Crimes Act - Enforcement
- Politics
- "Retroactive
war crime protection proposed." ... "The Bush administration
drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect
policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating
and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen
the proposal." ... "The move by the administration is the latest effort
to deal with treatment of those taken into custody in the war on terror."
... "At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA, and the degree
to which harsh tactics such as water-boarding were authorized by administration
officials. A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, applies
to the military." ... "One section of the draft would outlaw torture and
inhuman or cruel treatment, but it does not contain prohibitions from Article
3 of the Geneva Conventions against "outrages upon personal dignity, in
particular humiliating and degrading treatment."" -By
Pete Yost -AP
via -MercuryNews
Kids- Behavior
- Enforcement
- Texas
- Drugs
- "At
schools, less tolerance for 'zero tolerance'." ...
""Zero tolerance" discipline policies that are enforced widely in U.S.
schools are backfiring: They may be promoting misbehavior and making students
feel more anxious, the American Psychological Association (APA) said Wednesday."
... "The group called for more flexibility and common sense in applying
the policies, reserving zero tolerance for the most serious threats to
school safety." ... "Zero-tolerance policies spread in the 1990s as a tool
to fight drug use and violence on campuses. Schools often suspend or expel
students for having weapons or drugs, which can include over-the-counter
medicine, says educational psychologist Cecil Reynolds of Texas A&M
University. Verbal threats, fighting or sexual harassment also can get
kids booted, he says. "There are cases such as the kindergarten boy who
hugged two classmates. His teacher reported him for sexual harassment,
and he was suspended."" ... ""The 'one-size-fits-all' approach isn't working.
Bringing aspirin to school is not the same as bringing cocaine. A plastic
knife isn't the same as a handgun," Reynolds says. He led an APA panel
that summarized research on the topic." -By Marilyn
Elias -USATODAY
Secret
- Government
- Law
- Enforcement
- Military
- Intelligence
- Aviation
- Transportation
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "9/11
Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon: Allegations
Brought to Inspectors General." ... "Some staff members and commissioners
of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how
it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate
effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection
of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the
debate." ... "Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission,
in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring
the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according
to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought
that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe
that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements
to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response
to the hijackings, these sources said." ... "In the end, the panel agreed
to a compromise, turning over the allegations to the inspectors general
for the Defense and Transportation departments, who can make criminal referrals
if they believe they are warranted, officials said." ... ""We to this day
don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what
they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor
who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's
one of those loose ends that never got tied."" ... "For more than two years
after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate
information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media
appearances." -By Dan Eggen
-WashingtonPost
Minnesota
- 
Wisconsin
- 
Kentucky
- 
North
Carolina - 
Massachusetts
- "Police
groups to hold summit on rising crime." ... "Citing
increasing concerns about violent crime, law enforcement authorities are
convening a national summit here next month to deal with sudden spikes
in homicides, robberies and assaults." ... "Local police officials and
municipal authorities from more than a dozen cities, including Minneapolis
[Minnesota], Milwaukee [Wisconsin], Louisville [Kentucky], Charlotte [North
Carolina] and Boston [Massachusetts] will meet Aug. 30 in Washington, where
the mayor and police chief recently declared a "crime emergency."" ...
""What we've seen happen in the past year across this country deserves
all of our attention," said Charlotte Police Chief Darrel Stephens, referring
to the first significant jump in homicides and other major crimes in more
than a decade. "We need to get a better sense of what is going on."" -By
Kevin Johnson -USATODAY
Prisons
- Psychology
- "Study:
Sex crimes in prisons underreported." ... "Fewer
than three prisoners in every 1,000 report they were sexually abused or
harassed, but that probably is not the whole story, a government study
says." ... "There may be far more sexual violence in prisons than is reported,
the study's authors said, because inmates fear reprisal, adhere to a code
of silence, do not trust the staff or are embarrassed." ... "Prison rape
isn't a problem limited to prisons, she [Cindy Struckman-Johnson, University
of South Dakota social psychology professor] said. "We get reports that
people who are raped and abused in prison will rape and abuse others when
they leave prison," she said." -By Leslie Miller
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
US
- Iraq
- Terrorism
- Police
- Religion- Politics
- "Shortage
of troops in Iraq a `grim warning'." ... "The Bush
administration's decision to move thousands of U.S. soldiers into Baghdad
to quell sectarian warfare before it explodes into outright civil war underscores
a problem that's hindered the American effort to rebuild Iraq from the
beginning: There aren't enough troops to do the job." ... "Many U.S. officials
in Baghdad and in Washington privately concede the point. They say they've
been forced to shuffle American units from one part of the country to another
for at least two years because there haven't been enough soldiers and Marines
to deal simultaneously with Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shiite militias;
train Iraqi forces; and secure roads, power lines, border crossings and
ammunition dumps." ... "Although military planners are still finalizing
the details, as many as 4,000 additional U.S. soldiers are being sent to
Baghdad, including two battalions of the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade,
four or five military police companies from northern Iraq and a field artillery
battalion that's standing in reserve in Kuwait." ... "But when U.S. forces
have cracked down in one place, Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists
have popped up in another. Some towns have been pacified multiple times,
only to return to chaos as soon as the Americans reduced troop numbers.
In cities such as Baghdad, Kirkuk, Samarra and Ramadi, bloodshed ebbs and
flows, but security is never a given." ... "The frustration of returning
to quell violence in the same places multiple times has taken a toll on
American morale, undermined Iraqi confidence in the U.S. and cast doubt
on the Bush administration's hopes of beginning significant withdrawals
of soldiers and Marines by the end of this election year. There are 130,000
U.S. service members in Iraq, down from 160,000 last December." -By
Tom Lasseter -McClatchy-RealCities
Enforcement
- Politics
- "Panel
chides Bush on bypassing laws: ABA group cites limits
to power." ... "President Bush should stop issuing statements claiming
the power to bypass parts of laws he has signed, an American Bar Association
task force has unanimously concluded in a strongly worded 32-page report
that is scheduled to be released today." ... "The bipartisan panel of legal
specialists includes a former FBI director, a former federal appeals court
chief judge, former Republican officials, and leading scholars." ... "The
panel said presidents do not have the authority to declare that sections
of the bills they sign are unconstitutional, and that they thus need not
be enforced as Congress wrote them." ... "Bush has used these so-called
signing statements to challenge more than 750 laws that have been enacted
since he took office, more than all previous presidents combined." ...
"``The president's constitutional duty is to enforce laws he has signed
into being, unless and until they are held unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court," the report said. ``The Constitution is not what the president says
it is."" -By Charlie Savage
-Boston/Globe
Illinois
- Legal
- History
- "Probe:
Black Chicago Suspects Tortured: Probe Finds Chicago
Police Tortured Scores of Black Suspects in 1970s, 1980s to Get Confessions."
... "Chicago police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores
of black suspects in the 1970s and 1980s to try to extract confessions
from them, prosecutors reported Wednesday." ... "However, the prosecutors
appointed by a Cook County judge four years ago to look into torture allegations
said that the cases are too old or too weak to prosecute anyone now." ...
"Prosecutors Robert D. Boyle and Edward Egan said they found evidence that
police abused at least half the 148 suspects whose cases were reviewed.
Nearly all of the suspects were black." ... "The release of the report
was the subject of a legal battle. The Illinois Supreme Court eventually
denied a request from a former prosecutor, identifiedin court documents
only as "John Doe," to block portions from being released." (1, 2,
3)
-By Don Babwin with contributions by Sharon Cohen
and Carla K. Johnson -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Noteworthy
- Secret
- US
- 
Belgium
- International
- Financial
- Consumer
- Civil
Liberties - Free
Speech - Media
- Government
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Intelligence
- Politics
- "What
the Government Knows: While an overseas program to
track bank records has unleashed a political storm, the domestic Patriot
Act has already made a wealth of financial data available to U.S. law enforcement
agencies." ... "Over the last four years, U.S. law enforcement agencies
have gained access to over 28,000 financial records inside the United States
under a little known provision of the USA Patriot Act that parallels the
secret international bank data program disclosed by news organizations
last week, Treasury Department records show." ... "The disclosure of the
overseas program-under which Treasury Department officials have tapped
into the records of a vast Belgian-based international financial database
called Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications)-has
kicked up a storm of controversy. Some critics have decried the program
as another example of the administration's invasion of privacy in the name
of the war on terror. At the same time, President Bush today condemned
as "disgraceful" the disclosure of the operation, which intended to help
the government track overseas money movements of suspected terrorists.
"For people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does
great harm to the United States of America," Bush told reporters in Washington."
... "But the international program is only one part of a much broader,
if little publicized, Treasury Department effort to probe suspect financial
records-including thousands of bank accounts, wire transfers and other
transactions involving individuals, companies and nonprofit organizations
inside the United States." ... "Although it has received little attention,
the Patriot Act program has produced a wealth of previously unavailable
financial data that has been shared with U.S. law enforcement agencies-without
any notice to the account holders who are being investigated. Since the
fall of 2002, when the program began, U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network (FINCEN)-an arm of the Treasury Department-has directed searches
of 4,397 "subjects of interest" and received reports back on 28,463 accounts
and financial transactions, according to recent Treasury records." (1,
2)
-By Michael Isikoff -MSNBC/Newsweek
Terrorism- Law
Enforcement - Civil
Liberties - Illinois
- Florida
- "Indictment
of suspected terrorists contains little evidence of plot."
... "Even as Justice Department officials trumpeted the arrests of seven
Florida men accused of planning to wage a "full ground war against the
United States," they acknowledged the group did not have the means to carry
out the plan." ... "The Justice Department unveiled the arrests with an
orchestrated series of press conferences in two cities, but the severity
of the charges compared with the seemingly amateurish-nature of the group
raised concerns among civil libertarians." ... ""We're as puzzled as everyone
else," said Howard Simon, the director of the Florida chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union. "There's no weapons, no explosives, but this major
announcement."" ... "The seven men are charged with conspiring to blow
up the Sears Tower in Chicago [Illinois] and FBI buildings in five cities."
... "Simon of the ACLU said his organization is reserving judgment until
it gets more information." ... ""We count on our law enforcement officers
to make a distinction between people who are trash talking or making serious
threats," he said. "But this one requires more information for the general
public to be able to make a judgment as to which category they fall into.""
-By Marisa Taylor and Lesley Clark
-KnightRidder via -KansasCity.com
Phone
- Companies
- Consumer
- Government
- Intelligence
- Law
- Law
Enforcement
- "AT&T
revises privacy policy, says owns customer data."
... "AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday it was revising its privacy policy,
explaining to customers that it owns their phone records and can hand them
over to law enforcers if necessary." ... "The changes take effect on Friday
and come at a time when AT&T and other phone companies face lawsuits
claiming they aided a U.S. government domestic spying program by giving
the National Security Agency call records of millions of customers without
their permission." -Reuters
via -ABCNEWS.com
Law
Enforcement - Intelligence
- Illinois
- Florida
- "Feds:
Terror suspects targeted Sears Tower." ... "FBI agents
in an undercover sting operation arrested seven terrorism suspects in Miami
on Thursday who allegedly were plotting to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago
[Illinois], the FBI headquarters in Miami [Florida] and other U.S. buildings,
officials said." ... "The suspects had "aspirations" but "no means" to
attack the Sears Tower or other buildings, a senior federal law-enforcement
source said." ... "The men were all Muslims who thought they were plotting
"in conjunction with Al Qaeda" but they really were dealing with law-enforcement
undercover agents, one law-enforcement official told The Miami Herald."
... "The 110-story Sears Tower is the nation's tallest building. Security
was ramped up after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 103rd-floor Skydeck was
closed for about a month and a half." -By Michael
Tackett and Jeff Zeleny with contributions by David Heinzmann and Gerry
Doyle -ChicagoTribune
Noteworthy
- Government
- Police
- Civil
Righs - Politics
- Samuel
Alito
- Sandra
Day O'Connor
- Homes
- "Police
don't have to knock, justices say: Alito's vote breaks
4-4 tie in police search case." ... "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that
police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even
if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President
Bush's new justices." ... "The 5-4 ruling clearly signals the court's conservative
shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O'Connor." ... "The
case tested previous court rulings that police armed with warrants generally
must knock and announce themselves or they run afoul of the Constitution's
Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches."
-AP via -CNN
Police
- History
- Civil
Righs - Politics
- Samuel
Alito
- Antonin
Scalia
- John
Roberts
- Homes
- "Court
Limits Protection Against Improper Entry." ... "Evidence
found by police officers who enter a home to execute a search warrant without
first following the requirement to "knock and announce" can be used at
trial despite that constitutional violation, the Supreme Court ruled on
Thursday." ... "The 5-to-4 decision left uncertain the value of the "knock-and-announce"
rule, which dates to 13th-century England as protection against illegal
entry by the police into private homes." ... "Justice Antonin Scalia, in
the majority opinion, said that people subject to an improper police entry
remained free to go to court and bring a civil rights suit against the
police." ... "But Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the dissenters,
said the ruling "weakens, perhaps destroys, much of the practical value
of the Constitution's knock-and-announce protection." He said the majority's
reasoning boiled down to: "The requirement is fine, indeed, a serious matter,
just don't enforce it."" ... "In addition to Justice Alito, those who joined
the majority opinion by Justice Scalia were Chief Justice John G. Roberts
Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy. Justice Breyer's
dissenting opinion was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter
and Ruth Bader Ginsburg" -By Linda Greenhouse
-NYTimes
Drug
- Police
- Home
- 
Privacy
- History
Ala.
- Wis.
- 
Mo.
- "After
long decline, murders rise in small cities." ...
"It's too soon to call it a trend, but last year's jump in murders - particularly
in smaller cities - has some police and crime experts worried." ... "Murders
rose 4.8 percent, the largest percentage increase in 15 years, according
to the preliminary FBI numbers released Monday. And while the number of
murders in the nation's largest cities barely changed, cities with smaller
populations saw a much sharper increase. Murders were up 76 percent in
Birmingham, Ala., 40 percent in Milwaukee [Wis.], and 42 percent in Kansas
City, Mo., and 12.5 percent on average for all cities between 100,000 and
250,000 people." ... ""This looks like something real," says David Kennedy,
director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at CUNY's John
Jay College of Criminal Justice. "It's usually very unwise to read too
much into the year-to-year movement. But within the general national decline
[in violent crime in the past decade] there has been a general trend in
the smaller jurisdictions and in rural areas that has been on the increase.""
-By Amanda Paulson and Sara Miller Llana -CSMonitor
Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Religion
- Politics
- 
Delaware
- New
York
- "US
officials seeing new home-grown terror cells." ...
"U.S. intelligence and law enforcement authorities are discovering new
home-grown cells of Islamist radicals in the United States that draw inspiration
and moral support from al Qaeda, officials said on Tuesday." ... "Sen.
Joseph Biden of Delaware, the panel's ranking Democrat, said the emergence
of home-grown U.S. terror cells is widely recognized within the intelligence
community." ... ""Everyone I've spoken to in the intelligence community
says there are more cells now in the United States, there's more activity
in the United States," Biden said." ... "Biden noted that word of new cells
inside the United States comes at a time when the Bush administration has
proposed 40 percent cutback in counterterrorism funding for New York and
Washington — the two cities hit in the September 11 attacks." ... "He also
blasted the administration for not meeting security funding recommendations
by the September 11 commission." ... ""We're spending $740 million for
the whole shooting match and the recommendation is $44 billion over five
years," the Delaware senator said." ... ""I find it absolutely on the verge
of criminal."" -By David Morgan
-Reuters via -ABCNEWS.com
Government
- Terrorism
- Money
- Law
- Politics
- History
- "Violent
Crime Rises In U.S.." ... "Violent crime in 2005
increased at the highest rate in 15 years, driven in large part by a surge
of killings and other attacks in many Midwestern cities, the FBI reported
yesterday." ... "The rise in violent offenses nationally represents the
largest overall crime increase since 1991. Violent crime peaked in 1992,
before beginning to plummet to its lowest levels in three decades." ...
"Criminal justice experts said there were a number of possible explanations
for the increase, including an influx of gangs into medium-size cities
and a predicted surge in the number of inmates released from U.S. prisons.
The jump could also represent a lingering effect of the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks, some experts said, because governments at all levels have diverted
resources away from traditional crime fighting in favor of anti-terrorism
and homeland security programs." ... "James Alan Fox, a criminal justice
professor at Northeastern University in Boston, said the increase should
serve as a "wake-up call in Washington." Lawmakers and the Bush administration
have cut back many law enforcement programs popular during the 1990s."
... ""We have to worry about not just homeland security but also hometown
security," Fox said. "High-crime areas have been relatively ignored over
the last five years so we can deploy officers to fight terrorism."" (1,
2)
-By Dan Eggen with contributions by Petula Dvorak
and Allison Klein -WashingtonPost
Iran
- 
Women
- Censorship
- Free
Speech - Law
- Politics
- "Iran
police beat women activists: Police in Iran have
beaten a small group of women activists trying to hold a protest for greater
legal rights in the biggest square of the capital." ... "The BBC's Frances
Harrison in Tehran says the police who massively outnumbered the protestors,
almost immediately started beating the women to disperse them." ... "The
viciousness of the police attack caused men who were passing by in the
street to protest, our correspondent says."
-BBC /News
Internet
- Phone
- Privacy
- Politics
- Electronic
- Technology
- Police
- "Appeals
court backs Bush on wiretaps." ... "A federal appeals
court sided with the Bush administration Friday on an electronic surveillance
issue, making it easier to tap into Internet phone calls and broadband
transmissions." ... "The court ruled 2-1 in favor of the Federal Communications
Commission, which says equipment using the new technologies must be able
to accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance
for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA." ... "Judge David Sentelle called
the agency's reading of the law a reasonable interpretation. In dissent,
Judge Harry Edwards said the FCC gutted an exemption for information services
that he said covered the Internet and broadband." ... "The FCC "apparently
forgot to read the words of the statute," Edwards wrote."
-AP via -USATODAY
Noteworthy- Government- Intelligence
- Law
Enforcement - Politics
- Karl
Rove
- I.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby
- Dick
Cheney - Journalism
- "What
Ashcroft Was Told." ... "Then-Attorney General John
Ashcroft continued to oversee the Valerie Plame-CIA leak probe
for more than two months in late 2003 after he learned in extensive briefings
that FBI agents suspected White House aides Karl Rove and I.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby of trying to mislead the FBI to conceal their
roles in the leak, according to government records and interviews. Despite
these briefings, which took place between October and December 2003, and
despite the fact that senior White House aides might become central to
the leak case, Ashcroft did not recuse himself from the matter until December
30, when he allowed the appointment of a special prosecutor, Patrick
Fitzgerald, to take over the investigation." ... "According to people
with firsthand knowledge of the briefings, senior Justice Department officials
told Ashcroft that the FBI had uncovered evidence that Libby, then chief
of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, had misled the bureau about
his role in the leaking of Plame's identity to the press." ... "By November,
investigators had obtained personal notes of Libby's that indicated he
had first learned from Cheney that Plame was a CIA officer. But Libby was
insisting in FBI interviews that he had learned Plame's name and identity
from journalists. Libby was also telling investigators that when he told
reporters that Plame worked for the CIA, he was only passing along an unsubstantiated
rumor." ... "Officials also told Ashcroft that investigators did not believe
Libby's account, according to sources knowledgeable about the briefings,
and that Libby might have lied to the FBI to defend other -- more senior
-- administration officials." ... "Ashcroft was told no later than November
2003 that investigators also doubted the accounts that Rove, President
George
W. Bush's chief political adviser, had given the FBI as to how he,
too, learned that Plame was a CIA officer and how he came to disclose that
information to columnist Robert Novak." ... "It was Novak who, in
a July 14, 2003, syndicated column, outed Plame as a CIA employee, relying
on Rove as one of his sources." -By Murray
Waas -NationalJournal
US
- 
EU
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Prisons
- Transport
- Human
Rights - Politics
- Britain
- 
Germany
- 
Italy
- 
Sweden
- 
Turkey
- 
Spain
- 
Romania
- 
Poland
- "Probe
of CIA Prisons Implicates EU Nations." ... "Fourteen
European nations colluded with U.S. intelligence in a "spider's web" of
human rights abuses to help the CIA spirit terror suspects to illegal detention
facilities, a European investigator said Wednesday." ... "Swiss senator
Dick Marty's report to Europe's top human rights body was thin on evidence
but raises the possibility of a cover-up involving both friends and critics
of Washington's war on terror. It says European governments "did not seem
particularly eager to establish" the facts." ... "He listed 14 European
countries - Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Bosnia, Macedonia, Turkey,
Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Poland - as being
complicit in "unlawful interstate transfers" of people." -By
Jan Sliva -AP
via -Forbes
Noteworthy
- Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Computer
- Database
- Identity
Theft - Law
Enforcement - Maryland
- "Data
Theft Affected Most in Military: National Security
Concerns Raised." ... "Social Security numbers and other personal information
for as many as 2.2 million U.S. military personnel -- including nearly
80 percent of the active-duty force -- were among the data stolen from
the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst last month, federal
officials said yesterday, raising concerns about national security as well
as identity theft." ... "The department announced that personal data for
as many as 1.1 million active-duty military personnel, 430,000 National
Guard members and 645,000 reserve members may have been included on an
electronic file stolen May 3 from a department employee's house in Aspen
Hill [Maryland]. The data include names, birth dates and Social Security
numbers, VA spokesman Matt Burns said." ... "Defense officials said the
loss is unprecedented and raises concerns about the safety of U.S. military
forces. But they cautioned that law enforcement agencies investigating
the incident have not found evidence that the stolen information has been
used to commit identity theft." ... "Army spokesman Paul Boyce said: "Obviously
there are issues associated with identity theft and force protection.""
... "For example, security experts said, the information could be used
to find out where military personnel live. "This essentially can create
a Zip code for where each of the service members and [their] families live,
and if it fell into the wrong hands could potentially put them at jeopardy
of being targeted," said David Heyman, director of the homeland security
program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)."
... "Another worry is that the information could reach foreign governments
and their intelligence services or other hostile forces, allowing them
to target service members and their families, the experts said." (1, 2)
-By Ann Scott Tyson and Christopher Lee with contributions
by Ernesto Londoño -WashingtonPost
Reporters
- Law
Enforcement - Politics
- Sports
- Drugs- San
Francisco - California
- "Justice
Dept. Is Criticized by Ex-Official on Subpoenas."
... "Subpoenas issued last month to reporters for The San Francisco Chronicle
were criticized yesterday by a former chief spokesman for Attorney General
John Ashcroft as a "reckless abuse of power."" ... "The former spokesman,
Mark Corallo, made similar statements in an affidavit filed in federal
court yesterday. He said Mr. Ashcroft's successor, Alberto R. Gonzales,
had acted improperly in issuing the subpoenas." ... ""This is the most
reckless abuse of power I have seen in years," Mr. Corallo said in an interview.
"They really should be ashamed of themselves."" ... "The subpoenas, part
of an effort to identify The Chronicle's sources for its coverage of steroid
use in baseball, would not have been authorized by Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Corallo
said. "You just don't ride roughshod over the rights of reporters to gather
information from confidential sources," he added." -By
Adam Liptak -NYTimes
E-Mail
- 
Searches
- Law
- History
- Internet
- Telecom
- Business
- Law
Enforcement - Terrorism
- "U.S.
asks Internet firms to save data." ... "Top law enforcement
officials have asked leading Internet companies to keep histories of the
activities of Web users for up to two years to assist in criminal investigations
of child pornography and terrorism, the Justice Department said Wednesday."
... "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller
outlined their request to executives from Google, Microsoft, AOL, Comcast,
Verizon and others Friday in a private meeting at the Justice Department.
The department has scheduled more discussions as early as Friday." ...
"It wants records such as lists of e-mail traffic and Web searches, he
[Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse] said." -By
Jon Swartz and Kevin Johnson with contributions by William M. Welch
-USATODAY
East
Timor - Police
- Politics- 
Australia
- "Emergency
rule for E Timor leader: East Timor's President Xanana
Gusmao [formerly: Jose Alexandre Gusmao] is to assume emergency powers
to try to defuse mounting looting and unrest." ... "Mr Gusmao, a highly
respected former guerrilla leader, said he would take over national security
and defence." ... "This would give him control over the army and police,
which have been split by internal disputes and gang violence." ... "His
announcement came after fresh looting hit the capital, Dili, despite the
presence on the streets of an Australian-led peacekeeping force."
-BBC /News
Political
- Government
- Police
- Louisiana
- John
Boehner
- Ohio
- "F.B.I.
Raid Divides G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House." ...
"After years of quietly acceding to the Bush administration's assertions
of executive power, the Republican-led Congress hit a limit this weekend."
... "Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday
after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded
entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his
files." ... "The episode prompted cries of constitutional foul from Republicans
— even though the lawmaker in question, Representative William J. Jefferson
of Louisiana, is a Democrat whose involvement in a bribery case has made
him an obvious partisan political target." ... "[Republican] Representative
John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader, predicted that the
separation-of-powers conflict would go to the Supreme Court. "I have to
believe at the end of the day it is going to end up across the street,"
Mr. Boehner told reporters gathered in his conference room, which looks
out on the Capitol plaza and the court building." ... "A court challenge
would place all three branches of government in the fray over whether the
obscure "speech and debate" clause of the Constitution, which offers some
legal immunity for lawmakers in the conduct of their official duties, could
be interpreted to prohibit a search by the executive branch on Congressional
property." -By Carl Hulse
-NYTimes
Government
- Police
- Politics
- History
- Louisiana
- Illinois
- "Speaker
Hastert Protests to Bush Over Raid: House Speaker
Dennis Hastert Protests to President Bush Over FBI Raid on Congressman's
Office." ... "The FBI's raid on a congressman's office is rippling through
Capitol Hill, with majority Republicans in the House complaining to President
Bush and predicting a constitutional showdown in the Supreme Court." ...
"Lawmakers predict this may be the beginning a long dispute over the FBI's
search of [Louisiana Democrat] Rep. William Jefferson's office last weekend.
Historians say it was the first raid of a representative's quarters in
Congress' 219 years." ... "House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was so
angry that he complained to Bush about the FBI's conduct." ... ""My opinion
is that they took the wrong path," Hastert said of the FBI, after meeting
with Bush in the White House. "They need to back up, and we need to go
from there."" (1, 2)
-By Laurie Kellman with contributions by David Espo
and Mark Sherman -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Police
- Military
- Identity
Theft - Hacking- Electronic
- Consumer
- "Personal
Data on Veterans Is Stolen: Burglary Leaves Millions
at Risk Of Identity Theft." ... "As many as 26.5 million veterans were
placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic
data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security
numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary
Jim Nicholson said yesterday." ... "A career data analyst, who was not
authorized to take the information home, has been put on administrative
leave pending the outcome of investigations by the FBI, local police and
the VA inspector general, Nicholson said. He would not identify the employee
by name or title." ... "The theft represents the biggest unauthorized disclosure
ever of Social Security data, and it could make affected veterans vulnerable
to credit card fraud if the burglars realize the value of the data, one
expert said." ... "Although publicly revealing the incident may alert the
thieves to the value of the data, Nicholson said VA officials decided that
veterans needed to know to monitor their credit scores and credit card
and bank statements." (1,
2)
-By Christopher Lee and Steve Vogel
-WashingtonPost
Government
- Politics
- Police
- History
- Louisiana
- Illinois
- "Congressional
Leaders Challenge FBI Raid on U.S. House Office."
... "House and Senate leaders challenged the constitutionality of an FBI
raid on a lawmaker's office, saying it broke a 219-year precedent and raised
concerns about the separation of power between the administration and Congress."
... "``The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this
warrant raise important constitutional issues,'' House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
an Illinois Republican, said in a statement last night. ``I expect to seek
a means to restore the delicate balance of power among the branches of
government that the founders intended.''" ... "Hastert said in his statement
that every congressional office contains documents protected by the constitutional
principle of the separation of powers. Those protections, and the independence
of the legislative branch, ``must be respected in order to prevent overreaching
and abuse of power by the executive branch,'' he said." ... "The speaker
said it ``would appear'' that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was aware
the Justice Department had entered ``constitutionally suspect grounds''
in conducting the raid because the FBI suggested in seeking a warrant that
it would create special procedures to step around the constitutional issues."
-By Jonathan D. Salant and Laura Litvan -Bloomberg
Government- Law
Enforcement - Phone
- Intelligence
- Reporters
- Free
Speech - Civil
Liberties - Privacy
- Law
- Politics
- "Federal
Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling."
... "A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government
is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call
in an effort to root out confidential sources." ... ""It's time for you
to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person
conversation." ... "ABC News does not know how the government determined
who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government
as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls."
... "Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters
for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are
being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation." -Brian
Ross and Richard Esposito -ABCNEWS.com
Kyle
"Dusty" Foggo
- Randy
"Duke" Cunningham
- 
Brent
Wilkes - Intelligence
- Law
- Money
- Politics
- San
Diego - California
- Virginia
- "FBI
searches home of ex-CIA official: The FBI searched
the home and office of former CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo
on Friday, the CIA said." ... "Foggo, who was the spy agency's third-ranking
official, is part of a broad law enforcement investigation into allegations
of corruption, according to officials familiar with the probe." ... "The
Associated Press reported that Foggo has been under investigation by the
FBI, Internal Revenue Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service,
the CIA's inspector general and the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego,
California, according to FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego. Langwell
told the AP that officials -- under a sealed warrant -- searched Foggo's
Virginia home and his office at the CIA's Langley, Virginia, campus." ...
"Foggo, who resigned this week from his job overseeing day-to-day CIA operations,
is under investigation over his ties to a defense contractor linked to
the bribery case against former [California Republican Representative]
U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-California." ... "The investigations
stem from Foggo's relationship with defense contractor Brent Wilkes." ...
"After reports surfaced last week alleging Wilkes provided Cunningham with
limousines and prostitutes at two Washington hotels, Foggo said he had
attended poker parties thrown by Wilkes there." -Contributed
to by Kevin Bohn and John Roberts -CNN
Intelligence
- Porter
Goss - Randy
Cunningham
- California
- Military
- Business
- Politics
- Law
- "Law
Enforcement Searches Exiting CIA Deputy's Home."
... "CIA and FBI officers today searched the home and former office of
the recently retired third-ranking official at the CIA, who is under investigation
for his ties to a defense contractor linked to the bribery scandal that
has landed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-San Diego [California])
in jail." ... "Kyle "Dusty" Foggo resigned as CIA executive director Monday.
He had been a top aide to CIA Director Porter J. Goss, who was forced to
resign the previous Friday." ... "A CIA spokeswoman said Foggo's legal
troubles had "absolutely nothing" to do with Goss' decision to resign."
... "They have been investigating whether Foggo played an improper role
in the awarding of defense contracts to Brent Wilkes, a personal friend
and San Diego businessman who has been implicated in the bribery scandal
involving Cunningham." -By Richard Schmitt
-LAtimes
China
- Free
Speech - Education
- Computer
- Internet
- Politics
- Police
- "As
Chinese Students Go Online, Little Sister Is Watching."
... "For several hours each week she [sophomore Hu Yingying of Shanghai
Normal University] repairs to a little-known on-campus office crammed with
computers, where she logs in unsuspected by other students to help police
her school's Internet forums." ... "Once online, following suggestions
from professors or older students, she introduces politically correct or
innocuous themes for discussion." ... "Politics, even school politics,
is banned on university bulletin boards like these. Ms. Hu says she and
her fellow moderators try to steer what they consider negative conversations
in a positive direction with well-placed comments of their own. Anything
they deem offensive, she says, they report to the school's Web master for
deletion." ... "Part traffic cop, part informer, part discussion moderator
— and all without the knowledge of her fellow students — Ms. Hu is a small
part of a huge national effort to sanitize the Internet. For years China
has had its Internet police, reportedly as many as 50,000 state agents
who troll online, blocking Web sites, erasing commentary and arresting
people for what is deemed anti-Communist Party or antisocial speech." ...
"But Ms. Hu, one of 500 students at her university's newly bolstered, student-run
Internet monitoring group, is a cog in a different kind of force, an ostensibly
all-volunteer one that the Chinese government is mobilizing to help it
manage the monumental task of censoring the Web." (1, 2)
-By Howard W. French -NYTimes
Nepal- Police
- Military
- "In
a Retreat, Nepal's King Says He Will Reinstate Parliament."
... "King Gyanendra appeared on television late Monday to concede to the
demands of Nepal's pro-democracy demonstrators and turn the government
over to the elected Parliament that was dissolved four years ago." ...
"His offer came on the eve of what were billed as the largest demonstrations
to date. The political parties that began the protests 19 days ago had
been preparing to encircle the city center on Tuesday. Instead, celebrations
broke out late Monday night on the streets of the capital, Katmandu." ...
"Initially at least, protesters and political leaders greeted the address
with glee, though the king stopped short of fulfilling what for him is
certainly their most unpalatable demand: his abdication." (1, 2)
-By Somini Sengupta with contributions by Tilak P.
Pokharel -NYTimes
New
York
- 
Air
- 
Environment
- Science
- Government
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - "Official:
9/11 Health 'Warning'." ... "The government's point
man on Sept. 11 health programs said he is worried that an autopsy linking
a retired detective's death to recovery work at ground zero may be a warning
sign of other life-threatening cases." ... "Dr. John Howard also said it
will take time to determine whether there is a scientific link between
deaths and exposure to toxic dust. Some epidemiologists have said it will
take 20 years or more to prove such a link."
-AP
-CBSNews
Egypt
- Police
- Tourist
- Scuba
- "Blasts
Kill 22 in Egyptian Resort City: Three Explosions
in Egyptian Resort City Kill at Least 22 People, Wound More Than 150 Others."
... "Three nearly simultaneous explosions rocked the Egyptian resort city
of Dahab on Monday, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 150
in a terror attack at the height of the tourist season." ... "Police said
the explosions hit the central part of the city where there are many shops,
restaurants, bars and guesthouses. The blasts ripped through the town at
7:15 p.m., shortly after nightfall, when the streets would have been jammed
with tourists mainly Egyptians, Europeans, Israelis and expatriates living
in Egypt." ... "For years, Dahab was popular, low-key haven for young Western
backpackers including Israelis drawn by prime scuba diving sites and cheap
hotels, which mainly consisted of huts set up along the beach. In recent
years, a number of more upscale hotels have been built, including a five-star
Hilton resort." (1, 2,
3)
-By Steven R. Hurst -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Iraq
- Military
- Police
- Politics
- "Seven
Car Bombs Rock Baghdad." ... "Seven car bombs exploded
across the capital Monday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens,
as politicians met to try to finalize a new Cabinet. Police discovered
bodies of 20 Iraqis, apparent victims of sectarian killings the U.S. hopes
the new government can end." ... "Elsewhere, in Baghdad and other areas,
three roadside bombs, five drive-by shootings and a mortar round killed
a total of 12 Iraqis, police said." ... "The violence underlines the challenges
prime minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki faces as he begins the tough task
of assembling a Cabinet out of Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties."
(1,
2)
-AP -CBSNews
Nepal
- Police
- Military
- "Rift
Emerges in Nepalese Opposition: As protests continue,
alliance members disagree on whether to dump the monarchy. Separately,
rebels swarm a town near the capital." ... "As the political stalemate
here dragged on, pro-democracy protesters in the capital kept up their
pressure on King Gyanendra on Sunday, but in smaller numbers and less violent
clashes with authorities than in recent days." ... "Meanwhile, hundreds
of Maoist rebels stormed police, government and telecommunications facilities
in the town of Chautara, a rebel stronghold about 30 miles east of Katmandu,
an official told Reuters news service today." -By
Henry Chu -LAtimes
Nepal
- Military
- Police-
"Rain,
police douse Nepal protest: 'Sea of people' in Kathmandu
marches despite king's concession." ... "Heavy rain and a strong police
presence doused a protest Saturday by about 200,000 marchers who headed
toward the palace in another show of opposition to the absolute rule of
Nepal's King Gyanendra, who vowed to return political power "to the people"
the day before." ... "The weather, which changed abruptly halfway through
an eight-hour government curfew, which the protesters ignored to enter
Kathmandu, where police used tear gas and barriers to prevent the crowd
from storming the king's residence and the Central Secretariat. Armed soldiers
stood guard at the palace." -Contributed to by Satinder
Bindra and Prithvi Banerjii -CNN
Nepal
- Military
- Police
- "Nepalese
Police Open Fire on Protesters." ... "Nepali security
forces opened fire and beat protesters marching toward the royal palace
Saturday, as opposition leaders rejected the king's proposals for restoring
democracy in the Himalayan country." ... "The violence erupted after an
alliance of seven opposition parties rejected King Gyanendra's offer to
allow them to nominate a prime minister and form a government." ... "Opposition
leaders, however, saw little in the speech to resolve the crisis, which
began when the king seized power in February 2005, saying he needed to
crush the Maoist insurgency." ... "They noted the king fell short of a
key opposition demand _ the return of parliament and creation of a special
assembly to write a constitution." ... "But they saw other problems too:
Under the new plan, the king would retain an undefined political role in
a constitutional monarchy and apparently keep control of the military."
-By Binaj Gurubacharya
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
Nepal
- Law
Enforcement - 
UN
- "Nepalese
Defy Curfew to Protest; UN Condemns Security Forces."
... "Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese defied curfews to march in Kathmandu
and other cities demanding the lifting of emergency rule, as the United
Nations condemned security forces for ``indiscriminate'' shooting at protesters."
... "At least three people were shot dead in the capital during yesterday's
protests, bringing to 13 the number of people killed in the country since
a general strike began April 6, Nepalnews.com reported." ... "``The law
enforcement agencies have resorted to indiscriminate firing of rubber bullets,
even on occasion live ammunition, into crowds,'' a group of UN human rights
officials said in a statement on the UN's Web site. ``Scores of bystanders
and demonstrators, including women, children, journalists and lawyers have
been identified among the casualties.''" -By Paul
Tighe -Bloomberg
Nepal
- Police
- "Nepal
braced for fresh protests: The government of Nepal
has imposed a new shoot-to-kill curfew in Kathmandu, in the wake of escalating
violence between police and protestors." ... "The curfew, which will remain
in force throughout Friday, coincides with a planned rally called by the
opposition." ... "Police on Thursday opened fire on demonstrators who defied
the curfew, killing three and wounding many more." ... "The protesters,
who have staged mass strikes for the past two weeks, want the king give
up direct rule." ... "King Gyanendra dismissed parliament in February 2005,
saying the government had failed to defeat Nepal's Maoists."
-BBC /News
Nepal
- Military
- Police
- "Protests
and death on the streets of Kathmandu." ... "The
fight for political control of the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal left at least
three people dead and scores injured yesterday as pro-democracy demonstrators
defied a curfew by gathering at the perimeter of the country's capital
to demand an end to royal rule." ... "Extending an earlier ban on protests
in the centre of Kathmandu, King Gyanendra outlawed demonstrations on the
road encircling the city - fearful of a swell of people marching on the
palace." ... "But more than 100,000 people poured on to Kathmandu's ring
road, which marks the end of the city limits, waving flags, pumping fists
and filling the air with republican chants. In many places they advanced
until they met a wall of heavily armed police wearing body padding. Residents
of central Kathmandu came out onto their roofs, whistling and banging plates.
Mobile phones were used to call others out on to the streets." ... "But
King Gyanendra, a chain-smoking royal who has consulted his astrologers
over the protests, appears little moved by the mounting crisis. Like his
father, Mahendra, who toppled democracy in 1960, King Gyanendra seized
power last year with military backing. He blamed squabbling politicians
for failing to squash the Maoists." -By Randeep Ramesh
-Guardian.co.uk
Kansas
- School
- Web
- "5
Kan. students arrested in alleged plot." ... "Five
teenage boys fully intended to go on a shooting spree at their high school
but were stopped after one of them discussed the plot on a Web site, law
enforcement and school officials said." ... "The boys, ranging in age from
16 to 18, were arrested Thursday, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre,
just hours before they planned to shoot fellow students and school employees,
authorities said." ... "Apparently, they had been plotting since the beginning
of the school year. [Cherokee County Sheriff Steve] Norman said school
officials began investigating Tuesday after learning a threatening message
had been posted on MySpace.com." -By Marcus Kabel
with contributions by Heather Hollingsworth -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
US
Immigration - Workers
- Business
- Law
Enforcement - "Companies
using illegal workers to be targeted: Immigration
arrests 9 IFCO bosses along with 1,000 workers." ... "The Bush administration
unveiled Thursday what it said is a new strategy aimed at companies employing
illegal immigrants, illustrating it with a crackdown on the German-based
firm IFCO Systems." ... "Law enforcement officials will "use all the tools
we have, whether it be criminal enforcement or immigration laws to break
the back" of businesses that exploit undocumented immigrants, said Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a news conference." ... "Federal
authorities checked a sample of 5,800 IFCO employee records last year and
found that 53 percent had faulty Social Security numbers, an Immigration
and Customs Enforcement official said." -By Terry
Frieden and Mike M. Ahlers -CNN
Kansas
- Abortion
- Law
Enforcement - 
Doctors
- Teachers
- "Judge
rules for Kan. abortion rights group." ... "In a
victory for an abortion rights group, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that
abortion clinic doctors and other professionals are not required under
Kansas law to report underage sex between consenting youths." ... "The
ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten was a setback for Kansas
Attorney General Phill Kline, an abortion foe." ... "Kline contended a
1982 Kansas law requiring doctors, teachers and others to alert the state
and law enforcement about potential child abuse covers consensual sex between
minors. He argued that the law applies to abortion clinics, and later extended
that to other health professionals and teachers." ... "Kline said he had
not decided whether to appeal." -By Roxana Hegeman
with contributions by John Hanna -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
US
- Iraq
- Religious
- Political
- Police
- "Threat
of Shiite Militias Now Seen As Iraq's Most Critical Challenge."
... "Shiite Muslim militias pose the greatest threat to security in many
parts of Iraq, having killed more people in recent months than the Sunni
Arab-led insurgency, and will likely present the most daunting and critical
challenge for Iraq's new government, U.S. military and diplomatic officials
say." ... "Assassinations, many carried out by Shiite gunmen against Sunni
Arabs in Baghdad and elsewhere, accounted for more than four times as many
deaths in March as bombings and other mass-casualty attacks, according
to military data. And most officials agree that only a small percentage
of shooting deaths are ever reported." ... "While acknowledging the instability
caused by Shiite armed groups, the largest of which are linked to the country's
dominant political parties and operate among Iraq's police and army, U.S.
and Iraqi officials here have yet to implement, or even publicly articulate,
a strategy for addressing the problem." ... "Militias last emerged as a
top U.S. concern in 2004, when the American and Iraqi armies spent months
putting down violent uprisings by the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to the
firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in Baghdad, Najaf and other cities. But
the problem is far thornier now, U.S. officials say, because the militias
have added thousands of foot soldiers and gained new political stature."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Jonathan Finer with contributions by John Ward
Anderson and Ellen Knickmeyer -WashingtonPost
US
Immigration - Business
- Jobs
- Law
- Enforcement
- Wisc.
- "Key
House Republican vows to oppose immigration measure."
... "House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., told
USA TODAY in an interview Friday that the Senate measure, which won support
from Republican and Democratic leaders as well as President Bush, is unacceptable
to him because it would grant millions of people who came here illegally
a chance at citizenship." ... "His immigration and border security proposal,
approved by the House in December, aims at beefing up border security and
enforcement of existing immigration laws. It does not contain provisions
permitting more foreign workers into the USA or provide for those now working
here illegally to obtain citizenship." ... ""What we have to do in order
to make a bill work is first secure the border and enforce the employer
sanctions law to cut off the magnet of jobs in the United States," Sensenbrenner
said. "When we do that and see that it is working, then we deal with the
11 million illegal immigrants who are in the country."" ... "As long as
employers can hire illegal immigrants without being punished, Sensenbrenner
said, they will bypass American citizens and legal immigrants in favor
of a cheaper wage." -By Kathy Kiely
-USATODAY
US
- 
Mexico
- US
Immigration - Law
- Enforcement
- "Senate
immigration overhaul in doubt." ... "A U.S. Senate
compromise on an overhaul of immigration law appeared to get bogged down
late on Thursday in the face of opposition by some Republicans who say
it would give amnesty to lawbreakers." ... "Any Senate bill still has to
be merged with a House of Representatives version that focuses on border
security and enforcement and makes it a felony, instead of a civil offense,
to be in the country illegally. It also calls for constructing a fence
along parts of the U.S. border with Mexico." ... "A number of conservative
House Republicans also oppose Senate provisions that would give illegal
immigrants a chance at legal status and citizenship." (1, 2)
-By Donna Smith with contributions by Adriana Barrera,
Joanne Kenen, Vicki Allen, and Thomas Ferraro in -Reuters
US
- US
Immigration - Business
- Foreign
- Workers
- Law
- Enforcement- Bill
Frist - 
Tennessee
- Colorado
- "Conservatives
Stand Firm on Immigration." ... "Conservative House
Republicans bluntly warned their leaders Thursday against any immigration
compromise that would allow temporary foreign workers and assailed a Senate
proposal that would open the way for illegal immigrants to earn citizenship."
... ""My fear is that if we continue down this path that the Senate has
established, that we will have created the biggest magnet ever," said Representative
Bob Beauprez, a Colorado Republican. "It would be like a dinner bell, 'Come
one, come all.' "" ... "The sharp divisions among Republicans illustrated
the difficulty Congress would have in reaching agreement, particularly
with midterm elections looming. Lawmakers and Senate officials said the
climactic votes would come next week as senators considered amendments
and a choice between the Judiciary Committee plan and a proposal by [Tennessee
Republican] Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, that focuses on tougher
law enforcement." -Carl Hulse and Rachel L. Swarns
-NYTimes
Government
- Intelligence
- Law
Enforcement - Privacy
- Politics- Illinois
- "Judges
on Secretive Panel Speak Out on Spy Program." ...
"Five former judges on the nation's most secretive court, including one
who resigned in apparent protest over President Bush's domestic eavesdropping,
urged Congress on Tuesday to give the court a formal role in overseeing
the surveillance program." ... "In a rare glimpse into the inner workings
of the secretive court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court, several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism
at a Senate hearing about the president's constitutional authority to order
wiretapping on Americans without a court order. They also suggested that
the program could imperil criminal prosecutions that grew out of the wiretaps."
... "Judge Harold A. Baker, a sitting federal judge in Illinois who served
on the intelligence court until last year, said the president was bound
by the law "like everyone else." If a law like the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act is duly enacted by Congress and considered constitutional,
Judge Baker said, "the president ignores it at the president's peril.""
-By Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
Nigeria
- 
Liberia
- Military- Police
- Politics
- US
- MA
- "Nigeria:
Ex-Liberian Warlord Arrested." ... "Liberian warlord
Charles Taylor, who vanished in Nigeria as he was about to stand trial
for crimes against humanity, has been arrested trying to cross the border
into Cameroon, Nigerian police said Wednesday." ... "Taylor's disappearance
came after Nigeria resisted calls for two days from the United States,
human rights organizations and the war tribunal in Sierra Leone for authorities
to arrest Taylor, who escaped from a U.S. jail in Boston [MA] in 1985,
to ensure he would stand trial." ... "Taylor, a one-time warlord and rebel
leader, is charged with backing Sierra Leone rebels, including child fighters,
who terrorized victims by chopping off body parts. He would be the first
African leader to face trial for crimes against humanity."-AP-CBSNews
US
Immigration - Business
- Jobs
- Law
- Enforcement
- History
- "Bill
to Broaden Immigration Law Gains in Senate." ...
"With Republicans deeply divided, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted
on Monday to legalize the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants and ultimately
to grant them citizenship, provided that they hold jobs, pass criminal
background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes." ... "If
passed, it would create the largest guest worker program since the bracero
program brought 4.6 million Mexican agricultural workers into the country
between 1942 and 1960." ... "Any legislation that passes the Senate will
have to be reconciled with the tough border security bill passed in December
by the Republican-controlled House, which defied President Bush's call
for a temporary worker plan." ... "The rift among Republicans on the [Senate]
committee reflects the deep divisions in the party as business groups push
to legalize their workers and conservatives battle to stem the tide of
illegal immigration." ... "The House bill would, among other things, make
it a federal crime to live in this country illegally, turning the millions
of illegal immigrants here into felons, ineligible to win any legal status.
(Currently, living in this country without authorization is a violation
of civil immigration law, not criminal law.)" (1, 2)
-By Rachel L. Swarns -NYTimes
US
Immigration - Worker
- Law
- Enforcement
- 2008
Election - Bill
Frist
- Tenn.
- "No
crime to help immigrants: Senate committee bill tosses
felony provision for aiding illegal aliens and gives means for green card."
... "The Senate Judiciary Committee rammed through a sweeping immigration
reform bill Monday, rejecting a House measure making it a crime to assist
undocumented aliens, while creating a way for millions of illegal immigrants
to stay here legally." ... "Yet as the committee was deliberating, Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) cast doubt on the entire effort, threatening
to block the bill from ever reaching the Senate floor if a majority of
the Senate's 55 Republican senators don't agree to it." ... "Frist, a potential
2008 presidential candidate who has courted conservatives, reiterated his
threat to introduce his own stripped-down version, which doesn't include
the temporary worker or felony provisions." -By Glenn
Thrush and Peter Clark -Newsday.com
Terrorism
- Enforcement
- Environment
- 
Food
- Civil
Liberties - Free
Speech - Privacy
- Law
- Politics
- 2004
Election - Seattle
- WA
- CO
- "FBI
Keeps Watch on Activists." ... "The FBI, while waging
a highly publicized war against terrorism, has spent resources gathering
information on antiwar and environmental protesters and on activists who
feed vegetarian meals to the homeless, the agency's internal memos show."
... "For years, the FBI's definition of terrorism has included violence
against property, such as the window-smashing during the 1999 Seattle [WA]
protests against the World Trade Organization. That definition has led
FBI investigations to online discussion boards, organizing meetings and
demonstrations of a wide range of activist groups. Officials say that international
terrorists pose the greatest threat to the nation but that they cannot
ignore crimes committed by some activists." ... "The FBI's encounters with
activists are described in hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the
American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act after
agents visited several activists before the 2004 political conventions."
... ""They don't know where Osama bin Laden is, but they're spending money
watching people like me," said environmental activist Kirsten Atkins. Her
license plate number showed up in an FBI terrorism file after she attended
a protest against the lumber industry in Colorado Springs [CO] in 2002."
(1, 2)
-By Nicholas Riccardi
-LAtimes
Secret
- Government
- Terrorism
- Police
- Intelligence
- Civil
Liberties - Law
- Politics
- "Bush
shuns Patriot Act requirement: In addendum to law,
he says oversight rules are not binding." ... "When President Bush signed
the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum
saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform
Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers."
... "The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure
the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes
and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials
to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what
type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide
the information to Congress by certain dates." ... "In the [addendum] statement,
Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the
Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements,
he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair
foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive,
or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."" ... "Bush
wrote: ''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that
call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch
. . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority
to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information .
. . "." -By Charlie Savage
-BostonGlobe
Iraq
- Police
- Religious
- Military
- "At
Least 56 Iraqis Dead in New Violence: In a Brutal
New Wave of Violence, 56 Iraqis Are Killed, Including Car Bombing at a
Police Lockup." ... "A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the
entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in Baghdad's central
Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there,
authorities said." ... "The Interior Ministry is a predominantly Shiite
organization and heavily infiltrated by members of various Shiite militias.
The unit targeted Thursday investigates large-scale crimes and has about
20 suspected insurgents in custody, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammadawi
said." ... "He ruled out that the assault was aimed at releasing the prisoners,
which was the goal of previous days' attacks on other police facilities."
... "Insurgents engineered a successful jailbreak that released more than
30 prisoners north of Baghdad on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the militants laid
siege to a prison south of the capital, but U.S. troops and a special Iraqi
unit thwarted the pre-dawn attack, capturing 50 of the gunmen, police said."
... "Police have discovered hundreds of corpses in the past four weeks,
victims of religious militants on a rampage of revenge killing."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
US
- World- US
Immigration - Law
- Enforcement
- Nev.
- Bill
Frist
- Tenn.
- Mass.
- Ariz.
- "Reid
threatens filibuster as immigration showdown looms."
... "Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would "use every procedural
means at my disposal" to prevent Frist from bypassing the Judiciary Committee.
Frist, R-Tenn., has made clear the Senate will take up his proposal next
week if the 18-member committee fails to complete a broader bill." ...
"Reid said the overhaul must include heightened border enforcement, a "guest
worker" program and a "path to citizenship" for the estimated 11 million
people in the United States illegally. He called legislation by Sens. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., a "good place to start."" -By
Elliot Spagat -AP
via -MercuryNews
Government
- Flying
- Transportation
- Terrorism- Law
Enforcement - Execution
- "Judge
Calls Halt to Penalty Phase of Terror Trial." ...
"An angry federal judge delayed the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
on Monday and said she was considering ending the prosecution's bid to
have him executed after the disclosure that a government lawyer had improperly
coached some witnesses." ... "Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said she had just
learned from prosecutors that a lawyer for the Transportation Security
Administration gave portions of last week's trial proceedings to seven
witnesses who have yet to testify. In e-mail messages, the lawyer also
seemed to tell some of the witnesses how they should testify to bolster
the prosecution's argument that Mr. Moussaoui bore some responsibility
for the deaths caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ... ""In all my
years on the bench, I've never seen a more egregious violation of the rule
about witnesses," Judge Brinkema said before sending the jury home for
two days. She said that the actions of the government lawyer, identified
in court papers as Carla J. Martin, would make it "very difficult for this
case to go forward."" -By Neil A. Lewis
-NYTimes
Politics- Law
- Health
- Maryland
- "Former
Top Bush Aide Accused of Md. Thefts: Refund Scam
Netted $5,000, Police Say." ... "[Republican] Claude A. Allen, who resigned
last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested
this week in Montgomery County [Maryland] for allegedly swindling Target
and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said."
... "Allen, a former deputy secretary in the Department of Health and Human
Services, was nominated in 2003 to a federal appeals court seat. He was
appointed the president's top domestic policy adviser last year at the
start of Bush's second term." ... "Working out of a small office on the
second floor of the West Wing, Allen shaped administration policy on such
issues as health care, space exploration, housing and education." (1, 2)
-By Ernesto Londoño and Michael A. Fletcher
with contributions by Martin Weil -WashingtonPost
Government
- Military
- Law
Enforcement - Terrorism
- Databases
- Religion
- Privacy
- Politics
- Florida
- "Pentagon
admits errors in spying on protesters: NBC: Official
says peaceful demonstrators' names erased from database." ... "The Department
of Defense admitted in a letter obtained by NBC News on Thursday that it
had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators to a database of possible domestic
terrorist threats. The letter followed an NBC report focusing on the Defense
Department's Threat and Local Observation Notice, or TALON, report." ...
"In 2003, the Defense Department directed a little-known agency, Counterintelligence
Field Activity (CIFA), to establish and "maintain a domestic law enforcement
database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats
directed against the Department of Defense." Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz also established TALON at that time." ... "The original
NBC News report, from December, focused on a secret 400-page Defense Department
document listing more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country
over a 10-month period. One such incident was a small group of activists
meeting in a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla. [Florida], to plan
a protest against military recruiting at local high schools." (1, 2)
-Contributed to by Lisa Myers
-MSNBC
US
- Mexico
- Arizona
- US
Immigration - Law
- Law
Enforcement - "[Arizona]
Governor expands National Guard at border: Troops
would perform support duties to give federal agents more time to catch
illegal migrants." ... "Dismissed in the past as being outside the National
Guard's duties, the idea of using border troops to confront illegal immigration
gained momentum when [Democratic governor Janet] Napolitano gave it her
blessing earlier this year. Under her plan, troops would support federal
immigration efforts, but wouldn't arrest illegal immigrants." ... ""They
are not there to militarize the border," Napolitano said. "We are not at
war with Mexico."" ... "The National Guard has assisted in anti-drug and
other law enforcement efforts at the Arizona border since 1988. Now the
governor wants an unspecified number of troops to perform some support
duties in an attempt to give federal agents more time to catch people crossing
illegally into Arizona." -AP
via -TucsonCitizen.com
US
- Iraq- Religious
- Police
- Politics
- "U.S.
Takes Steps to Reduce Shiite Domination in Iraqi Military."
... "As the threat of full-scale sectarian strife looms, the American military
is scrambling to try to weed out ethnic or religious partisans from the
Iraqi security forces." ... "The United States faces the possibility that
it has been arming one side in a prospective civil war. Early on, Americans
ceded operational control of the police to the Iraqi government. Now, the
police forces are overseen at the highest levels by religious Shiite parties
with militias, and reports of uniformed death squads have risen sharply
in the past year." ... "The American military is trying an array of possible
solutions, including quotas to increase the number of Sunni Arab recruits
in police academies, firing Shiite police commanders who appear to tolerate
militias, and sending 200 training teams composed of military police officers
or former civilian police officers to Iraqi stations, even in remote and
risky locations." (1, 2)
-Edward Wong -NYTimes
Media- Intelligence
- Government
- Law
- Law
Enforcement - Politics
- Secret
- Prisons
- "White
House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks: Sources, Reporters
Could Be Prosecuted." ... "The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks
of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists
and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI
probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the
Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws."
... "In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security
Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents
from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible
leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless
domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence
officials familiar with the two cases." ... "Some media watchers, lawyers
and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the
most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation, and that
they have worsened the already-tense relationship between mainstream news
organizations and the White House." ... ""There's a tone of gleeful relish
in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their
appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who
look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors,"
said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding
to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will
follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring
war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."" (1, 2,
3) -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Charles Lane
and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
US
Immigration - Work
- Business
- Enforcement
- Politics
- "The
Search for Illegal Immigrants Stops at the Workplace."
... "It may seem that the United States government has declared all-out
war against illegal immigration. During the last decade, the budget dedicated
to enforcement of immigration laws has grown by leaps and bounds. The Border
Patrol has about three times as many agents as it did in the early 1990's,
and the southern border has been laced with high-tech surveillance gadgetry."
... "Yet a closer look reveals a very different portrait of immigration
policy. It seems designed for failure. Most experts agree that a vast majority
of illegal immigrants who make it across the border every year are seeking
work. But the workplace is the one spot that is virtually unpoliced." ...
"Demographers estimate that six million to seven million illegal immigrants
are working in the United States; that is some 5 percent of the nation's
work force. Yet in 2004, the latest year for which there is data, the immigration
authorities issued penalty notices to only three companies." -By
Eduardo Porter -NYTimes
Secret
- Government
- Enforcement
- Politics
- "Secret
court cases increase under Bush administration."
... "Despite the 6th Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all
records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed
their journey through the federal courts in the past three years." ...
"Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005." ... "An
Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most
of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy
surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their
plea bargains." -By Michael J. Sniffen and John Solomon-AP
via -ChicagoTribune
Mitchell
J Wade - 
Randy
"Duke" Cunningham - 
Katherine
Harris - 
Virgil
H Goode Jr - Criminal
- Money
- Politics
- Election
- Illegal
- Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- MZM
- Calif
- Va
- Fla
- "Contractor
Pleads Guilty to Corruption: Probe Extends Beyond
Bribes to Congressman." ... "Washington defense contractor Mitchell J.
Wade admitted yesterday in federal court that he attempted to illegally
influence Defense Department contracting officials and tried to curry favor
with two House members, in addition to lavishing more than $1 million in
cash, cars, a boat, antiques and other bribes on convicted [California
Republican Representative] Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif. [Republican-California])."
... "The new admissions, including details that identify [Republican Representatives]
Reps. Virgil H. Goode Jr. (R-Va. [Republican-Virginia]) and Katherine Harris
(R-Fla. [Republican-Florida]) as recipients of illegal campaign contributions,
are contained in Wade's agreement to plead guilty to four criminal charges
stemming from his role in the Cunningham probe. The congressman resigned
after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in bribes from
Wade and others in return for steering federal funds and contracts their
way." ... "The court filings indicated a new direction for the corruption
inquiry, as Wade pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge that he also provided
benefits to an unnamed Defense official and other Defense employees to
get them to help Wade's company, MZM Inc." ... "The description of the
official-turned-MZM-employee in the court papers matches Robert Fromm,
who worked at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville
[Virginia] as program manager for a computer project known as FIRES and
subsequently went to work for MZM." ... "Wade also pleaded guilty to election
law fraud for making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to
"Representatives A and B," who are identifiable as Goode and Harris." ...
"The congressman identifiable as Goode received $46,000 in such disguised
contributions in 2003 and 2005, the court papers said. That was part of
about $90,000 Wade and his workers contributed to Goode. Wade then asked
the member to request appropriations for an MZM facility in his district,
the Wade papers said, and a Goode staff member confirmed to Wade that the
bill would include $9 million in funding." ... "The member identifiable
as Harris received $32,000 in illegal donations from Wade and his employees
in 2004. Documents filed with Wade's plea say that he took Harris to dinner
early last year, where they discussed the possibility of another fundraiser
and the possibility of getting funding for a Navy counterintelligence program
in the member's district. One source familiar with the inquiry said Harris
made such a request for funding, but it was not granted." -By
Charles R. Babcock with contributions by Walter Pincus and Madonna Lebling
-WashingtonPost
New
York
- Police- Air
- Environment
- Terrorism
- "Tale
Of The 'Walking Dead'." ... "Last month, James Zadroga,
a 34-year-old New York City police detective, died of a respiratory disease
he contracted during rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero — the
site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center." ... "Shortly
after finishing his rescue and recovery work at the World Trade Center,
Zadroga developed a chronic cough, shortness of breath and acid reflux.
He was plagued by nightmares and headaches. Within months, he needed oxygen
tanks, antibiotics and steroid injections on a regular basis." ... "More
than four years after hijackers rammed passenger jets into the twin towers,
at least a dozen people who worked at Ground Zero have died of diseases
attributed to the witch's brew of deadly chemicals and toxic substances
that filled the air at the disaster site." ... "Thousands of other Ground
Zero workers are suffering from serious respiratory ailments. The victims
include police officers, firefighters, construction workers and even immigrant
laborers. Some call these forgotten men and women the "walking dead.""
... "Estimates vary, but tens of thousands of workers and residents have
reported some lingering effects from Ground Zero exposure. Of the roughly
70,000 people currently enrolled in Mount Sinai's World Trade Center health
study, more than 60,000 suffer some kind of respiratory problem." (1, 2,
3)
-By Stephen Smith
-CBSNews
Government
- Police
- Business
- Employee
- Technology
- Ohio
- "US
group implants electronic tags in workers." ... "An
Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first
known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way
of identifying them." ... "CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance
company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access
to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies
and the police." ... "Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely
to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the
next big growth industries." -By Richard Waters
-FT.com
Cuba
- United
States - Florida
- US
Immigration - Politics
- "Update
10: 15 Cubans Who Got to Fla. Bridge Sent Home."
... "Cuban-American community activists and politicians lambasted the U.S.
government's decision to repatriate 15 Cubans picked up from the base of
an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys." ... "The migrants were sent back
to Cuba Monday after U.S. officials concluded that the section of the partially
collapsed bridge where they landed did not count as dry land under the
government's policy because it was no longer connected to any of the Keys."
... "Under the U.S. government's "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans who
reach dry land in the United States are usually allowed to remain in this
country, while those caught at sea are sent back."
-AP via -Forbes
US
- Iraq
- Police
- Military
- Politics
- "Interior
Ministry attack kills 29 Iraqis." ... "Two suicide
bombers disguised as police infiltrated the heavily fortified Interior
Ministry compound in Baghdad and blew themselves up Monday during celebrations
of National Police Day, killing 29 Iraqis." ... "The attackers died before
getting near the U.S. ambassador and senior Iraqi officials at the festivities,
but the blasts capped a particularly deadly week for American and Iraqi
forces." -AP
via -USATODAY
DeLay
- 
Doolittle
- 
Pombo
- Government
- Money
- Law
- Enforcement
- Texas
- California
- "A
Donor Who Had Big Allies: DeLay and two others helped
put the brakes on a federal probe of a businessman. Evidence was published
in the Congressional Record." ... "In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff
influence-peddling scandal, two Northern California Republican congressmen
used their official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of
a wealthy Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions."
... "Reps. John T. Doolittle [California Republican] and Richard W. Pombo
[California Republican] joined forces with former House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay [Republican] of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking
regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, documents
recently obtained by The Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a
Texas savings and loan that cost taxpayers $1.6 billion." ... "The investigation
was ultimately dropped." ... "The effort to help Hurwitz began in 1999
when DeLay wrote a letter to the chairman of the FDIC denouncing the investigation
of Hurwitz as a "form of harassment and deceit on the part of government
employees." When the FDIC persisted, Doolittle and Pombo — both considered
proteges of DeLay — used their power as members of the House Resources
Committee to subpoena the agency's confidential records on the case, including
details of the evidence FDIC investigators had compiled on Hurwitz." ...
"Then, in 2001, the two congressmen inserted many of the sensitive documents
into the Congressional Record, making them public and accessible to Hurwitz's
lawyers, a move that FDIC officials said damaged the government's ability
to pursue the banker." ... "The FDIC's chief spokesman characterized what
Doolittle and Pombo did as "a seamy abuse of the legislative process."
But soon afterward, in 2002, the FDIC dropped its case against Hurwitz,
who had owned a controlling interest in the United Savings Assn. of Texas.
United Savings' failure was one of the worst of the S&L debacles in
the 1980s." (1, 2,
3)
-By Richard A. Serrano and Stephen Braun, with contributions
by Ted Rohrlich -LAtimes
US- Iraq
- Police
- Military
- Religious
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "134
killed at holy site, police post in Iraq: Five US
soldiers die in separate bombing." ... "Suicide bombers carried out twin
assaults yesterday on one of Shi'ite Islam's most sacred sites and a police
recruitment center, killing at least 134 people and wounding hundreds,
Iraqi officials said." ... "Five American soldiers were also killed by
a roadside bomb in the capital, the US military said." ... "The attacks
on the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad,
and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Sunni-dominated Anbar Province in the
west, contributed to what was one of the bloodiest days since the US-led
invasion of the country in 2003." -By Nelson Hernandez
and Saad Sarhan -WashingtonPost
via -Boston/Globe
West-Virginia
- Kentucky
- Labor
- Business
- Law
- Enforcement
- "Mine
Where Explosion Occurred Was Cited for Hazards (Update2)."
... "Federal authorities issued 21 citations last year for a build-up of
combustible materials at the West Virginia mine where 12 men died, according
to U.S. Labor Department statistics." ... "The Sago mine, owned by billionaire
investor Wilbur Ross's International Coal Group Inc., was cited for a total
of 208 federal safety violations last year, up from 68 in 2004, according
to the Labor Department. The largest individual fine last year was $440;
the citations for combustible materials carried fines of $60." ... "When
asked about the facility's safety record at a news conference yesterday,
Ben Hatfield, International Coal's chief executive officer, said the Ashland,
Kentucky-based company has improved safety conditions since acquiring the
mine last year." ... "Phil Smith, the communications director for the United
Mine Workers of America, in Washington, said the fines assessed for safety
violations are too small to force large corporations to make improvements."
... "``We could get pulled over for speeding and pay more than that,''
said Smith, who said the Sago mine was nonunion. ``The problem with the
current laws is enforcement.''" -By William McQuillen
-Bloomberg
US
- 
North
Korea - 
Nuclear
- Business
- Enforcement
- "US
rejects N.Korea demand to end finance crackdown."
... "The United States on Tuesday rejected North Korea's demand to end
a crackdown on the communist state's finances before nuclear weapons talks
can restart and said this matter is "not subject to negotiation."" ...
"In a tough statement, the White House also insisted that it would continue
to take action to thwart what it said was North Korea's money laundering
and counterfeiting activities." ... ""We've made very clear what the concerns
are when it comes to those activities, whether it's counterfeiting U.S.
money, engaging in drugs or proliferation of weapons technology," spokesman
Scott McClellan told reporters." (1, 2)
-By Carol Giacomo -Reuters
