Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Guantanamo conditions 'like a Nazi camp'

AAP
Accused terrorist David Hicks' US lawyer has described conditions at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for five years, as "like a Nazi concentration camp".

The 31-year-old father of two met his lawyers inside the newly-created Camp Six at the US military prison in Cuba.

The Adelaide-born Muslim convert showed signs of mental deterioration, his Australian-based lawyer David McLeod said after the meeting.

"He shows all the signs of someone who has been kept in isolation for a very long time," Mr McLeod said.

"He's not in very good shape, the conditions are pretty ordinary."

Hicks has been detained by the US military without trial since he was captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan in December 2001. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay the following month.

"He continues to be locked up 22 hours a day," Mr McLeod said.

"He has seen the sun three times since he has been at Camp Six in early December.

"He has no privacy whatsoever in Camp Six - his toilet paper is rationed, he hasn't been able to comb his hair since going there because he's not provided with a comb or brush.

"The guards can see into his cell 24 hours a day.

"I won't go into his condition in more detail than that.

"We have just had some time with him and we are seeing him again tomorrow.

"But suffice to say, he's not in good shape."

A US lawyer, Sabin Willett, has visited Camp Six, where Hicks was moved last month, and filed an emergency motion in the US Court of Appeals criticising the conditions.

In an affidavit to the court, Mr Willett described the conditions as like a "Nazi concentration camp - a place where, when they take you in, you never come out".

In his affidavit, Mr Willett said Camp Six detainees are held in solid metal cells with no natural light or air and detailed other alleged human rights violations.

"We put those things very quickly to David and he confirmed each and every allegation of the nature of Camp Six," Mr McLeod said.

"Those observations in those articles are totally consistent with what David is putting up with."

US prosecutors are expected to within weeks lay fresh charges against Hicks, who is accused of training with al-Qaeda.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy before a US military commission in August 2004.

But the charges were dropped last year when the US Supreme Court ruled the military commissions designed to prosecute Hicks and other Guantanamo detainees were unlawful.

The US announced its new rules for the commissions on January 18.

UPDATE 2-"Hoax" triggers Boston security scare

BOSTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Police were investigating an apparent security hoax in Boston on Wednesday involving at least five suspicious devices in separate locations across the city which were later found to be fake bombs.

The discoveries triggered a city-wide security scare that led the U.S. Coast Guard to close the Charles River that feeds from the Atlantic Ocean into the city and caused authorities to shut down major bridges and several roads.

"Based on the information we have, it appears to be a hoax," said Gov. Deval Patrick's spokesman, Jose Martinez.

The packages looked roughly similar, according to police and local media. Most contained wires emerging from a plastic casing. Four were found hours after officials blew up the first suspicious package below a highway in the morning.

They were discovered near the New England Medical Center, the Longfellow Bridge that connects Boston with Cambridge, the Boston University Bridge and at the intersection of Stuart and Columbus streets in central Boston.

"All were found not to be explosive devices," Boston Police Department spokesman Eddie Chrispin said.

There were reports of a sixth device found in the city of Somerville close to Boston.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo said one of the train system's busiest lines had been stopped, while the U.S. Coast Guard said it had closed Boston's Charles River amid the alert. (Additional reporting by Svea Herbst and Scott Malone)

Miller: Libby reveals CIA agent earlier than confessed

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- A U.S. star journalist testified Tuesday in Washington that former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby identified Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, to her on two occasions.

Judith Miller, the journalist, said her two meetings with Libby came on June 23 and July 8, 2003 -- earlier than the dates Libby told FBI investigators, according to media reports Wednesday.

Miller said Libby mentioned Plame, wife of a prominent Iraq war critic, as a CIA employee "in the face-to-face meetings."

Libby, then Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, however, told the FBI and a grand jury that he heard Plame's CIA job for the first time from NBC's Tim Russert on July 10, 2003.

But five U.S. government officials have also testified that Libby discussed Plame and her CIA job with them before the date he gave to the FBI.

Libby resigned after he was charged with lying to investigators in the case.

Libby is not accused of leaking Plame's job but of perjury and obstruction of the investigation into how her name was leaked. The discrepancy over when Libby learned about Plame is a major element in the charges on which he is being tried.

Miller, The New York Times' star journalist until she resigned in late 2005, has spent 85 days in jail because of resisting court orders to disclose who told her about Plame's identity. Citing confidentiality, she resisted revealing her source and was released from jail last year.

The media said the Plame case goes to the heart of criticism that the White House deliberately twisted intelligence about Iraq's purported weapons programs in order to justify the Iraq war.

Plame's husband Joseph Wilson challenged the administration assertions that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa for a nuclear weapons program, saying he had investigated the claim for the CIA on a visit to Niger and found no evidence, and went public on July 6, 2003.

Millions of US funds wasted in Iraq

timesonline
Millions of dollars intended for the rebuilding of Iraq have been squandered amid continuing incompetence, corruption and a deteriorating security situation, American government auditors have revealed.

A damning report by Stuart Bowen, the US special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, described a string of misguided and expensive initiatives that have failed to deliver any real benefit for the country, among them the construction of a police camp in Baghdad that cost $43.8 million (£22.4 million) but has never been used.

The facility, built near Adnan Palace by the US contractor, DynCorp International, was even extended by the Iraqi Interior Ministry — to the tune of an Olympic-size swimming pool and $4.2 million (£2.1 million) of improvements — without proper American approval.

Today's report also included revelations that $36 million (£18 million) was spent by US officials on armoured vehicles, body armour and communications equipment that cannot be accounted for because invoices were vague and there is no back-up documentation.

Mr Bowen's study, which comes as President Bush is preparing to ask Congress to approve a further $1.2 billion (£612 million) in aid for Iraq, also asks serious questions of the Iraqi Government's ability to manage funds given to it. At the end of 2006, Iraqi officials had failed to spend billions of dollars specifically budgeted for capital projects since 2003, the report said.

Iraqi prisons and police forces have also struggled to function amid the serious sectarian violence that has cost tens of thousands of lives in the country in the last year, the audit said, observing that the US has "spent billions in this area, with limited success to date".

"The security situation continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors, and threatening the overall reconstruction effort," the 579-page report adds.

Speaking from Iraq today Stephen Farrell, The Times' Middle East Correspondent, said Iraqi people would not be in the slightest bit surprised by the findings.

"Certainly among Iraqis there is — and has been almost from day one since the US-led invasion — a perception that reconstruction was badly handled and inadequately financed, and what money did pour into the country disappeared at an alarming rate, both by corruption among Iraqis, or due to the US contractors who were responsible for managing it," he told the Times Online.

"We started to hear claims of corruption really early on in this war, and that has never stopped.

"Whatever they thought about the necessity for the war to remove Saddam Hussein, you won't find a single Iraqi who thinks that the reconstruction has been well-handled."

Mr Bowen’s office is responsible for overseeing the use, and potential misuse, of US funds for Iraq’s reconstruction. Today's audit is the latest of his quarterly reports to the US Congress on how the cash is being spent.

Warrants Issued in Germany Kidnapping

BERLIN (AP) - German prosecutors said Wednesday that they have issued arrest warrants for 13 suspected CIA agents who allegedly abducted a German citizen in an apparent anti-terrorist operation gone wrong.

It was Washington's second European ally to seek the arrest of purported CIA agents for spiriting away a terrorism suspect. Italian prosecutors want to question 25 agents and one other American in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric suspected of terrorism.

Munich prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld told The Associated Press that warrants in the latest case were issued in the last few days. He said the unidentified agents were sought on suspicion of wrongfully imprisoning Khaled al-Masri and causing him serious bodily harm.

Al-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, says he was detained in December 2003 at the Serbian-Macedonian border and then flown by the CIA to a jail in Afghanistan, where he was abused. He says he was let go in Albania five months later and told he had been seized in a case of mistaken identity.

Rights activists have seized on al-Masri's story and other cases to demand that the U.S. stop ``extraordinary rendition'' - moving terrorism suspects to third countries where they could face torture. Some European governments have been accused of winking at the practice.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials have declined to address al-Masri's case. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the Bush administration acknowledged making a mistake with al-Masri.

Germany's government refused to comment on the arrest warrants, as did the CIA. The State Department's deputy spokesman, Tom Casey, said only that the U.S. would review the allegations.

NDR television released a list of 11 men and two women reportedly named in the warrants. It said three had been contacted by its reporters and had refused comment.

The prosecutor's office refused to confirm the list, while revealing the suspects' real names weren't known.

``The personal details contained in the arrest warrants are, according to our current knowledge, aliases of CIA agents,'' Schmidt-Sommerfeld said in a statement. ``Further investigation will, among other things, concentrate on trying to determine the clear identities of the suspects.''

Al-Masri's attorney, Manfred Gnjidic, said the issuing of the arrest warrants was ``a very important step in the rehabilitation'' of his client. ``It shows us that we were right in putting our trust in the German authorities and the German prosecutors,'' he told reporters.

Prosecutors were led to the suspects after receiving a list in December 2005 of possible people involved in al-Masri's detention compiled by a Spanish journalist from sources within Spain's Civil Guard, a paramilitary police unit, Schmidt-Sommerfeld said.

He said Spanish authorities then provided help and prosecutors were able to pursue an investigation against ``concrete persons.''

Schmidt-Sommerfeld said tips were also received from others, including prosecutors in Milan, Italy, and Dick Marty, a Swiss senator who led a Council of Europe inquiry into purported CIA ``extraordinary rendition'' flights. The prosecutor did not give any details on the tips.

The CIA agents are suspected of flying aboard a Boeing 737 from the Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca in January 2004 to pick up al-Masri from Macedonian authorities, another prosecutor, August Stern, said.

ARD television said last year investigators were working from passport photocopies made by a hotel where the suspects stayed, but Stern said he could not confirm that or other details.

The Justice Department has declined to provide Munich prosecutors assistance, citing legal proceedings involving al-Masri in the United States.

Al-Masri has asked a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., to reinstate a lawsuit against the CIA seeking compensation. A judge dismissed the suit last May, ruling that a trial could harm national security by revealing details about CIA activities.

The German government has said it learned of the case only after al-Masri's release. In late 2005, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the then-U.S. ambassador to Germany had told his predecessor, Otto Schily, about it May 31, 2004.

Schaeuble said Ambassador Dan Coats provided no details of al-Masri's treatment, but told Schily that ``one had apologized to him (al-Masri) and agreed (on) confidentiality and paid him a sum of money.''

Gnjidic, al-Masri's lawyer, has said his client denies receiving either an apology or money.

Welch: Interference in science "stunning" - Boston.com

Welch: Interference in science "stunning" - Boston.com

January 31, 2007

BURLINGTON, Vt. --U.S. Rep. Peter Welch says it was a "stunning personal experience" to hear federal scientists say they had been stymied from talking about climate change.

"There was a story about a scientist who got authorized to speak at a conference. He was prohibited from using the phrase 'global warming.' He was allowed to say 'global,' and he could say 'warming,' but he couldn't put them next to each other. It became a charade," Welch said.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on which Welch serves, is holding hearings on the administration's handling of the global warming issue. The panel's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the administration appeared to want "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming."

Welch said he had read about scientists being muzzled, but, "It's a stunning personal experience to hear directly from scientists whose life work has been compromised, who live in fear of retaliation or compromised careers if they adhere to their code of ethics as scientists."

The comments came as two advocacy groups -- the Government Accountability Project and the Union of Concerned Scientists -- shared findings with the committee from a survey of about 300 government scientists.

The survey found nearly half the scientists had seen or experienced pressure to delete words like "global warming" from written material. About 40 percent said thad had seen changes to materials that changed their scientific meanings.

The White House maintains it was trying to bring balance to reports on global warming.

U.K. Terror Police Arrest 8 Over Alleged Kidnap Plot

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. police arrested eight people in anti-terrorist raids on homes in Birmingham, central England, after uncovering a plot to kidnap a Muslim soldier.

Police searched 12 locations in the city, the second largest in the U.K., and sealed buildings including an Islamic bookshop. The alleged plot involved abducting a serving British soldier in his 20s and possibly beheading him, two people with knowledge of the investigation said.

``A major counter-terrorism operation took place today, the home secretary has been fully briefed on the operation and is receiving regular updates as developments occur,'' Home Office spokesman Stuart Green said by telephone of the briefing given to John Reid.

U.K. police have arrested more than 1,000 people under the Terrorism Act 2000 since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. Since then Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to take part in U.S.-led military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan has angered some of the country's 2 million Muslims.

Police have carried out several high-profile counter- terrorism operations since the first successful al-Qaeda inspired attack in the country on July 7, 2005. In that attack four British Muslims blew themselves up on London's transport network killing 52 people. Police arrested five men on suspicion of terrorist offenses in raids in the towns of Manchester and Halifax on Jan. 23. The trial of six men accused of trying to launch another attack on London's transport system on July 21, 2005, is currently underway.

Arrest Scenes

``Kidnapping is a fairly common tool in the terrorist arsenal and provides high visibility for extended periods of time,'' said security analyst Bob Ayers, associate fellow of foreign policy think tank Chatham House, a foreign policy institute in London, who spent 30 years in intelligence with the U.S. Army and Defense Intelligence Agency. ``Something happened to cause the police to carry out the raids when they did. Either they were getting ready to launch their plot or the police were about to be compromised.'' Police would probably have had the group under surveillance for some time, he said.

Today's raids were at 12 addresses in the Sparkhill, Washwood Heath, Kingstanding and Edgbaston areas of Birmingham. All are being searched. One raid involved armed police. The city has a 14 percent Muslim population and 11 percent of its residents are of Pakistani descent, according to a 2001 census of the U.K. population.

Terrorism Act

The eight suspects were detained under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, West Midlands Police said. The operation was ``nationwide,'' though police gave no details of activity elsewhere.

``I haven't seen any terrorist activity there at all and I'm quite shocked,'' Saqib Hussain, who lives next to the Islamic bookshop that was sealed off, told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The kidnapping of a soldier would be a new tactic for terrorists in the U.K. In 2004 Ken Bigley, a British civil engineer, was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq by a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi died in a U.S. air strike in 2006.

The Home Office rates the terrorist threat to the U.K. as ``severe,'' the second highest level, meaning that an attack is highly likely. Elizabeth Manningham-Buller, head of the domestic intelligence agency MI5, said in November that the country may be facing as many as 30 terror plots.

Intelligence Agencies

In August, 2006 intelligence agencies said they foiled an alleged plot to use liquids in carry-on luggage to bomb U.S.- bound flights from the U.K. Seventeen people arrested in raids across the U.K. were charged in connection with the allegations.

Following the July 7, 2005 attacks in London the U.K. government made the integration of the country's Muslims a priority. Sky News said the arrested men were British born of Pakistani origin, while one was Pakistani.

A study published Jan. 29 by the Policy Exchange, a consultant on government policies, said that by emphasizing the differences between Muslims and other Britons the government had actually made tensions ``worse not better.''

The think tank's survey of 1,003 British Muslims showed the interest of young Muslims in religion was more politicized than it had been for their parents. Three quarters of 16- to 24-year- olds questioned said they would prefer Muslim women to wear a veil. Among the 55-year-olds and above, only 28 percent favored it.

The survey showed that younger rather than older Muslims were more likely to prefer living under the Islamic legal framework, or Sharia, and favored Islamic schools over non- religious state schools.