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20080525
• John McCain - Rick Davis - Criminal - Government - Money - Politics - Foreign - Military - Satellite - Imagery - Technology - Israel - Ukraine - Russia - Switzerland - Arizona - US - 2008 Election - "Lobbying labyrinth in McCain camp." ... "Rick Davis, the manager of [Arizona Republican] Senator John McCain's [2008 Election] presidential campaign, is a typical Washington insider in many ways, having long worked as both a lobbyist and a political operative along the intersection of politics, policy and money." ... "Take Davis's involvement with one of his lesser-known lobbying clients, an Israeli company, Imagesat, which sells satellite imagery. Along with lobbying for it, Davis became a consultant to a private investment firm that had a financial stake in it. That connection opened the door for him to get in on the ground floor of other investments made by the firm, Pegasus Capital Advisors." ... "... Davis's business partner, Paul Manafort [of the Davis Manafort lobbying firm], has met with the United States ambassador in Ukrain    e, a time when he was advising Viktor Yanukovich, that country's onetime prime minister, a State Department official said. Yanukovich's party was opposed by both the [Republican President] Bush administration and McCain because it was closely tied to Vladimir Putin [Russia's former President]." ... "Davis Manafort received $120,000 from late 2004 to mid-2005 to lobby for Imagesat on both defense and domestic security issues. Davis and Christian Ferry, now McCain's deputy campaign manager, were the two lobbyists on the project, the records show." ... "Along with his work as a lobbyist, Davis at the time was also drawing a salary as the part-time president of the Reform Institute, a Washington group that McCain helped found to reduce "the influence of special interests" in politics and government." ... "In November 2005, Pegasus bought a stake in a company called Traxys, which trades in industrial metals." ... "In January 2006, just two months later, the subject of metals trading came up in association with a social meeting Davis helped arrange near Davos, Switzerland. At that meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, McCain met the Russian aluminum magnate, Oleg Deripaska, who has been barred from entering the United States apparently because of alleged criminal ties." (1, 2) -By Barry Meier with contributions by Kate Zernike and Andrew E. Kramer -NYTimes via -IHT.com 

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20080501
• US - Iraq -  - Cameras - Media - Politics - San Diego - California - ""Mission Accomplished," 5 Years Later: Since [Republican President] Bush Announced Major Combat Operations In Iraq Ended, Another 3,924 Troops Have Been Killed." ... "It was a picture-perfect moment, made for the TV cameras, in which a military leader stood before heroes and heroines to declare a victory which seemed to come easier than anyone dared hope, in a conflict which was opposed by many friends and foes alike." ... "May 1 marks the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln." ... "After being landed on the deck of the carrier in an S-3B Viking 30 miles off the coast San Diego [California] (Ari Fleischer said the president "could have helicoptered," but "he wanted to see a landing the way aviators see a landing"), Mr. Bush appeared in a flight suit to the cheers of the ship's personnel and the glare of television lights." ... "Later, he stood at a podium against a backdrop of an enormous banner reading "Mission Accomplished."" ... "To the assembled audience and the world, Mr. Bush said, "Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country." ... ""In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment - yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage - your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other - made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free." ... ""Tonight, I have a special word for Secretary Rumsfeld, for General Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done."" ... "Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,058 members of the U.S. military - 3,924 of whom have died since Mr. Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln." ... "And there are currently more U.S. troops in Iraq than there were when the U.S. invaded with a contingent of other coalition forces." -AP via -CBSNews 

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20080424
• US - Iraq - Military - Family - Photographs - People - Media - Politics - Virginia - "What the Family Would Let You See, the Pentagon Obstructs." ... "[Lieutenant Colonel] Lt. Col. Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers to be killed in the Iraq war, was laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery [Arlington, Virginia]. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Pentagon doesn't want you to know that." ... "The family of 38-year-old Hall, who leaves behind two young daughters and two stepsons, gave their permission for the media to cover his Arlington burial -- a decision many grieving families make so that the nation will learn about their loved ones' sacrifice. But the military had other ideas, and they arranged the Marine's burial yesterday so that no sound, and few images, would make it into the public domain." ... "That's a shame, because Hall's story is a moving reminder that the war in Iraq, forgotten by much of the nation, remains real and present for some. Among those unlikely to forget the war: 6-year-old Gladys and 3-year-old Tatianna. The rest of the nation, if it remembers Hall at all, will remember him as the 4,011th American service member to die in Iraq, give or take, and the 419th to be buried at Arlington. Gladys and Tatianna will remember him as Dad." ... "Journalists were held 50 yards from the service, separated from the mourning party by six or seven rows of graves, and staring into the sun and penned in by a yellow rope." ... "It had the feel of a throwback to Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, when the military cracked down on photographs of flag-draped caskets returning home from the war. Rumsfeld himself was exposed for failing to sign by hand the condolence letters he sent to the next of kin." -By Dana Milbank -WashingtonPost

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20080326
• Antarctic - Ice - History - Global - Climate - Science - Space - Cameras - "Chunk of Antarctic ice shelf collapses, putting larger area at risk: Rapid melting on Wilkins Shelf is attributed to global warming." ... "A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan [island borough of New York City, New York] has collapsed, scientists said Tuesday, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk." ... "Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica that started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and had been there for perhaps 1,500 years." ... "British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan attributed the melting to rising sea temperature due to global warming." ... "Because scientists noticed satellite images of the event within hours of its start, they diverted satellite cameras and flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse to capture rare photos and video." -AP via -LAtimes

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20080127
• Government - Spy - Intelligence - Imagery - Technology - Communications - California - "U.S. Spy Satellite, Power Gone, May Hit Earth." ... "A disabled American spy satellite is rapidly descending and is likely to plunge to Earth by late February or early March, posing a potential danger from its debris, officials said Saturday." ... "Officials said that they had no control over the nonfunctioning satellite and that it was unknown where the debris might land." ... "Specialists who follow spy satellite operations suspect it is an experimental imagery satellite built by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December 2006 aboard a Delta II rocket. Shortly after the satellite reached orbit, ground controllers lost the ability to control it and were never able to regain communication." ... ""It's not necessarily dead, but deaf," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an analyst of various government space programs." -NYTimes 

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20071109
• Photo - Media - Intelligence - Politics - California - Wildfire - Emergency - "Just Who Was At That Fake FEMA Briefing? CBS News Obtains A Photo Of The "Press" Gallery Full Of FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] Staffers." ... "CBS News has obtained this photo of the now infamous fake FEMA press conference held during the California wildfires. The photo, taken by a FEMA employee, is one of the only known photos of the press gallery of that event." ... "The gallery is not filled with members of the press but with high-level agency employees." ... "At the podium on the left is Vice Admiral Harvey Johnson, the second in command at FEMA." ... "It was announced Thursday that an internal investigation had found that FEMA's press secretary encouraged, and in some cases instructed, employees to pose as reporters and ask questions at the fake news conference." ... "Since the briefing [former director of public affairs at FEMA, John "Pat"] Philbin - who, at the time of the news conference, already had accepted a job at the office of the director of national intelligence - lost his new post before he even started because of the incident." -CBSNews

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20070816
• Secret - Military - Government - Space - Aircraft - Surveillance - Imagery - Technology - Law - Enforcement - Intelligence - Liberty - Politics - "Domestic Use of Spy Satellites To Widen: Law Enforcement Getting New Access To Secret Imagery." ... "The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers." ... "A program approved by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security will allow broader domestic use of secret overhead imagery beginning as early as this fall, with the expectation that state and local law enforcement officials will eventually be able to tap into technology once largely restricted to foreign surveillance." ... "But the program, described yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, quickly provoked opposition from civil liberties advocates, who said the government is crossing a well-established line against the use of military assets in domestic law enforcement." ... ""They want to turn these enormous spy capabilities, built to be used against overseas enemies, onto Americans," [Center for National Security Studies director Kate] Martin said. "They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state."" -By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost 

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20070812
• China - US - Surveillance - Cameras - Computer - Technology - Company - Freedom - Politics - Police - Peoples - Behavior - Law - "China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People." ... "At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here [Shenzhen, China] in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity." ... "Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens." ... "Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card." ... "Security experts describe China’s plans as the world’s largest effort to meld cutting-edge computer technology with police work to track the activities of a population and fight crime. But they say the technology can be used to violate civil rights." ... "The Chinese government has ordered all large cities to apply technology to police work and to issue high-tech residency cards to 150 million people who have moved to a city but not yet acquired permanent residency." ... "Both steps are officially aimed at fighting crime and developing better controls on an increasingly mobile population, including the nearly 10 million peasants who move to big cities each year. But they could also help the Communist Party retain power by maintaining tight controls on an increasingly prosperous population at a time when street protests are becoming more common." ... "“If they do not get the permanent card, they cannot live here, they cannot get government benefits, and that is a way for the government to control the population in the future,” said Michael Lin, the vice president for investor relations at China Public Security Technology, the company providing the technology." (1, 2) -By Keith Bradsher -NYTimes 

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• Government - Terrorism - Surveillance - Cameras - Tech - Money - Freedom - Politics - Police - Peoples - Behavior - New York - Maryland - Illinois - "US doles out millions for street cameras: Local efforts raise privacy alarms." ... "The [Republican President Bush led] Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" in which the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public will be lost, privacy rights advocates warn." ... "Since 2003, the department has handed out some $23 billion in federal grants to local governments for equipment and training to help combat terrorism. Most of the money paid for emergency drills and upgrades to basic items, from radios to fences. But the department also has doled out millions on surveillance cameras, transforming city streets and parks into places under constant observation." ... "The department will not say how much of its taxpayer-funded grants have gone to cameras. But a Globe search of local newspapers and congressional press releases shows that a large number of new surveillance systems, costing at least tens and probably hundreds of millions of dollars, are being simultaneously installed around the country as part of homeland security grants." ... "Federal money is helping New York, Baltimore [Maryland], and Chicago [Illinois] build massive surveillance systems that may also link thousands of privately owned security cameras." ... "But privacy rights advocates say that the technology is putting at risk something that is hard to define but is core to personal autonomy. The proliferation of cameras could mean that Americans will feel less free because legal public behavior -- attending a political rally, entering a doctor's office, or even joking with friends in a park -- will leave a permanent record, retrievable by authorities at any time." ... "As this technological capacity evolves, it will be far easier for individuals to attract police suspicion simply for acting differently and far easier for police to track that person's movement closely, including retracing their steps backwards in time. It will also create a greater risk that the officials who control the cameras could use them for personal or political gain, specialists said." -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe 

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20070618
• Iraqi - Children - US - Military - Photographs - "Iraqi Orphanage Nightmare: Exclusive: U.S. Troops Discover And Rescue Orphan Boys Left Starving, Chained To Beds." ... "It was a scene that shocked battle-hardened soldiers, captured in [warning: disturbing images] photographs obtained exclusively by CBS News." ... "On a daytime patrol in central Baghdad [Iraq's capital] just over than a week ago, a U.S. military advisory team and Iraqi soldiers happened to look over a wall and found something horrific." ... ""They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," Staff Sgt. Mitchell Gibson of the 82nd Airborne Division told CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan." ... "Inside the building, a government-run orphanage for special needs children, the soldiers found more emaciated little bodies tied to the cribs. They had been kept this way for more than a month, according to the soldiers called in to rescue the 24 boys." ... "This is a tough test for the Iraqi government: How a nation cares for its most vulnerable is one of the most important benchmarks for the health of any society." ... WATCH - "Watch extended video of Logan’s interviews with the soldiers who rescued the orphans." -CBSNews 

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20070502
• Los Angeles - California - US Immigration - Children - People - Civil Righs - Free Speech - TV - Radio - Photo - Journalist - Censorship - "Cop Tactics At Immigration Rally Draw Ire: L.A. Police Seen Firing Rubber Bullets Into Crowds That Included Children. " ... "Police Chief William J. Bratton said Wednesday some of the police tactics to clear immigration protesters from a park were "inappropriate," as numerous news videos showed officers striking people with batons and firing rubber bullets into crowds that included children." ... "After a peaceful day of immigration marches, Los Angeles police say a small group in a downtown park pelted them with rocks and bottles, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. Police responded with force." ... "The Radio and Television News Association of Southern California called for an investigation." ... ""There is evidence that officers knocked reporters to the ground, used batons on photographers and damaged cameras, possibly motivated by anger over journalists photographing efforts by officers to control the movements of marchers," the group said in a statement." -AP via -CBSNews 

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20061015
• Afghanistan - Canada - Italian - Photographer - "Surge Of Violent Clashes In Afghanistan: NATO Soldiers Killed In Ambush; Photographer And Assistant Kidnapped." ... "Two NATO soldiers were killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan after militants ambushed them with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, the alliance said." ... "An Italian freelance photographer and his assistant, meanwhile, were abducted by armed men in southern Helmand province, an Afghan official said." ... "Canada's defense department identified the dead NATO sold[i]ers as Canadian but did not release their names." ... "Counting the latest fatalities, 42 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002." (1, 2) -AP via -CBSNews 

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20061004
• Shimkus - Foley - Hastert - Teen - E-Mail - Photograph - Media - Illinois - Florida - Lawmakers - "Defiant Shimkus says he'll keep post." ... "[Illinois Republican] Rep. John Shimkus mounted an intense media offensive Wednesday, saying he has no intention of resigning from the House Page Board and angrily lashing out at the press and Democrats who have questioned him about his role investigating [Florida Republican] ex-Rep. Mark Foley's contact with former House pages." ... "Shimkus said he had no knowledge of and no comment on new reports that Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, told House Speaker [Illinois Republican] Dennis Hastert's office three years ago that Foley had improper contact with House pages." ... "Shimkus, R-Collinsville, serves as head of the board that oversees the page program, and he has said he confronted Foley last year about a set of e-mails that Foley, R-Fla., sent to a former page. In a telephone interview Wednesday with the Post-Dispatch from his Collinsville office, he maintained his actions were sufficient." ... "The news that Fordham may have alerted the GOP leadership to Foley's conduct more than three years ago raised new questions about both Hastert's and Shimkus' role in the scandal. On Wednesday, Hastert's chief of staff said he had no such warning from Fordham." ... "And the two Illinois lawmakers said that they only knew about one set of e-mail messages, in which Foley asked a former page how he was doing, what he wanted for his birthday, and for a photograph of the teen." -By Deirdre Shesgreen -SLTrib.com

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