9/11 Family Members File Petition with NIST

GEORGEWASHINGTON BLOG
Bill Doyle and Bob McIlvaine today filed a petition with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeking correction of inaccurate factual statements and analysis in NIST's reports on the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Mr. Doyle is the representative of the largest group of 9/11 families, the Coalition of 9/11 Families*, and lost his own son Joey in the collapse of the twin towers.

Mr. McIlvaine, an outspoken 9/11 truth activist, lost his son Bobby when the World Trade Centers were destroyed.

Another prominent 9/11 family member supports the petition, but decided for personal reasons not to sign.

Also signing the petition are:

• Physicist Dr. Steven Jones

• Scientist and former Site Manager for Environmental Health Laboratories, a division of Underwriters Laboratories, Kevin Ryan

• Architect Richard Gage (a member of the American Institute of Architects, who has been a practicing architect for 20 years and has been responsible for the production of construction documents for numerous steel-framed and fire-protected buildings for uses in many different areas, including education, civic, rapid transit and industrial use)

• And the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice

The petition can be read here. It is very strong and solid, and well worth a read.

It should be noted that the work on the petition commenced many months before the NIST petitions prepared by James Fetzer, Judy Wood, Morgan Reynolds and Ed Haas, which promote directed energy weapon theories and, in the case of Mr. Haas' petition, actually tries to stop NIST from examining whether or not explosives brought down WTC 7. You can be the judge of which petition is the strongest.

The family members' petition was mainly drafted by attorney James Gourley.

* The Coalition of 9/11 Families is not a signatory to the petition.

US Citizen Indicted for Alleged Terrorist Activities

A U.S. citizen has been arrested in Ohio and charged with conspiring to support terrorist activities both at home and abroad. VOA's Michael Bowman has details from Washington.
VOANEWS

The U.S. Justice Department describes the man, 43-year-old Christopher Paul, as a "violent jihadist." Paul was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the form of an explosive, and two counts of providing material support and resources to terrorists.

The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury, alleges that Paul's known terrorist connections began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he is said to have traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan for training at an al-Qaida military camp.

"By mid-1991, the indictment alleges, he actually joined al-Qaida and stayed at a guest house exclusively for al-Qaida members," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. "He returned to the United States, taught martial arts at a mosque in Columbus [Ohio], and then over the next few years provided money and equipment from the U.S. to individuals overseas."

"In 1999, he traveled to Germany, and provided training on explosives to a radical Islamic group in Germany. He also assisted them in recruiting new members," he added.

More recently, the indictment alleges that Paul stored a variety of military gear and literature on explosives in Columbus, and conducted research on commercial flight simulator programs and remote controlled boats and helicopters.

The indictment does not list specific targets that Paul or his associates were believed to have contemplated for attack.

Justice officials say the case underscores the need for cooperation among government agencies in fighting terrorism and should serve as a strong warning to any U.S. citizen who considers joining forces with America's enemy.

Paul has not been convicted of any crime and is innocent until proven guilty.

Sunni Lawmaker Killed in Iraqi Parliament Building Blast

BAGHDAD — A Sunni lawmaker was killed after a bomb rocked a cafeteria inside Iraq's parliament building, a top politician said, in the heavily fortified Green Zone Thursday, and many people were wounded.
FOXNEWS

The explosion took place while several lawmakers were eating lunch, said Mohammed Abu Bakr, who heads the media department at the parliament.

"Several people were wounded, including members of parliament and some employees," Abu Bakr said.

This is a breaking news story; please refresh for updates.

Initial media reports said at least four people were wounded. Al-Arabiyah television said a member of parliament was killed.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which is also in the Green Zone, said no Americans were injured in the blast.

"We are aware of reports of an explosion in the Green Zone. We are investigating the nature and source of the explosion," spokesman Lou Fintor said. "No Embassy employees or U.S. citizens were affected."

The attack came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River below, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.

Hospital officials said another 26 were injured, and police were trying to rescue as many as 20 people whose cars plummeted off the al-Sarafiya bridge.

Waves lapped against twisted girders, as patrol boats searched for survivors while U.S. helicopters whirred overhead. Scuba divers donned flippers and waded in from the riverbanks.

Farhan al-Sudani, a 34-year-old Shiite businessman who lives near the bridge, said the blast woke him at dawn.

"A huge explosion shook our house and I thought it would demolish our house. Me and my wife jumped immediately from our bed, grabbed our three kids and took them outside," he said.

The al-Sarafiya bridge connected two northern Baghdad neighborhoods — Waziriyah, a mostly Sunni enclave, and Utafiyah, a Shiite area.

Police blamed the attack on a suicide truck bomber, but Associated Press Television News footage showed the bridge broken apart in two places — perhaps the result of two blasts.

Cement pilings that support the steel structure were left crumbling. At the base of one lay a charred vehicle engine, believed to be that of the truck bomb.

"We were astonished more when we saw the extent of damage," said Ahmed Abdul-Karim, 45, who also lives near the bridge. "I was standing in my garden and I saw the smoke and flying debris."

Locals said the al-Sarafiya bridge is believed to be at least 75 years old, built by the British in the early part of the 20th century.

"It is one of Baghdad's monuments. This is really damaging for Iraq. We are losing a lot of our history every day," Abdul-Karim said.

The al-Sarafiya bridge has a duplicate in Fallujah that was built later and made infamous in March 2004, when angry mobs hung the charred bodies of U.S. contractors from the bridge's girders.

"This bridge is linked to Baghdad's modern history — it is one of our famous monuments," said Haider Ghazala, a 52-year-old Iraqi architect.

"Attacking this bridge affects the morale of Iraqis and especially Baghdad residents who feel proud of this bridge. They (insurgents) want to demolish everything that connects the people with this land," he said.

Before the al-Sarafiyah bridge was destroyed, nine spans across the Tigris linked western and eastern Baghdad.

The river now serves as a de facto dividing line between the mostly Shiite east and the largely Sunni west of the city, a reality of more than a year of sectarian fighting that has forced Sunnis to flee neighborhoods where they were a minority and likewise for Shiites.

Baghdad's neighborhoods had been very mixed before the war but hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since then as militants from both Muslim sects have sought to cleanse their neighborhoods of rivals.

There have been unconfirmed reports for months that Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq were planning a campaign to blow up the city's bridges. U.S. military headquarters near the Baghdad airport and the Green Zone, site of the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi parliament and government, are both on the west side of the river.

Also Thursday, the U.S. military said its troops killed two suspected insurgents and captured 17 in raids across the country.

Citigroup to lay off 17,000 workers

Many jobs being moved overseas or to less costly areas
SFGATE
(04-12) 04:00 PDT New York -- Citigroup said Wednesday that it will eliminate or reassign more than 26,500 jobs to cut costs and streamline the global bank's sprawling operations.

Under intense pressure from investors, the company plans to lay off more than 17,000 workers, with the first pink slips coming this week. About 9,500 jobs will be moved overseas or to parts of the United States where the cost of doing business is lower, from more expensive locations like London, Hong Kong and New York City, home of the company's headquarters.

Roughly 8 percent of Citigroup's 327,000 workers, from entry-level consumer bankers to senior executives in the investment bank, will be affected. All five of its major business divisions will face cuts. About 1,600 jobs will be eliminated in New York City, where Citigroup has 27,000 employees.

"These changes will streamline Citi and make us leaner, more efficient and better able to take advantage of high revenue opportunities," Charles Prince III, Citigroup's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

To cover the cost, Citigroup said it will take a $1.38 billion pretax charge against earnings in the first quarter of 2007 and an additional $200 million over subsequent quarters this year. However, Citigroup expects the initiative to yield about $2.1 billion in savings in 2007, growing to $4.76 billion by 2009.

The restructuring is Citigroup's first major overhaul since it was forged by a merger nearly a decade ago and has been anxiously awaited by Wall Street since plans for the restructuring were announced in December. It comes as Prince faces mounting criticism from shareholders frustrated by expenses that are rising twice as fast as revenue.

Citigroup fell 60 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close at $51.80 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have barely budged since Prince took over as chief executive in October 2003.

Whether the reorganization alone can fuel growth at Citigroup remains a question. Not only have Citigroup's expenses been high, but revenue growth, particularly in the U.S. consumer division, has been sluggish. Prince must confront both problems amid a challenging operating environment. Jason Goldberg, banking analyst at Lehman Bros., said that "2007 is a pivotal year for the company. It just takes a long time to turn an oil tanker, and one of the things we hope this restructuring does is make Citigroup a bit more nimble."

During the past three months, Citigroup's chief operating officer, Robert Druskin, has been working with consultants from Mercer Oliver Wyman, a boutique firm specializing in financial services, to conduct a broad-based "structural review." Their task: to flush out big expenses that have bogged down the company.

Citigroup expects to achieve much of the savings by streamlining its technology systems and management. It plans to shutter offices around the world, centralize its purchasing, consolidate data centers and eliminate overlapping positions, including legal, human resources and risk management staff jobs.

About 57 percent of the job cuts will be outside the United States, Druskin said. Unprofitable consumer units in Europe will be shut and some positions will move from the United Kingdom to Poland. In the United States, Citigroup plans to move some jobs from New York City to Buffalo, after obtaining about $1.5 million from the state in exchange for adding jobs in Buffalo.