Federally Funded Researchers Want To Scrap The Internet

Seeking further funding from Congress for "clean slate" projects
infowars
Researchers funded by the federal government want to shut down the internet and start over, citing the fact that at the moment there are loopholes in the system whereby users cannot be tracked and traced all the time.

Time magazine has reported that several foundations and universities including Rutgers, Stanford, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are pursuing individual projects, along with the Defense Department, in order to wipe out the current internet and replace it with a new network which will satisfy big business and government:

One challenge in any reconstruction, though, will be balancing the interests of various constituencies. The first time around, researchers were able to toil away in their labs quietly. Industry is playing a bigger role this time, and law enforcement is bound to make its needs for wiretapping known.

There's no evidence they are meddling yet, but once any research looks promising, "a number of people (will) want to be in the drawing room," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor affiliated with Oxford and Harvard universities. "They'll be wearing coats and ties and spilling out of the venue."

The projects echo moves we have previously reported on to clamp down on internet neutrality and even to designate a new form of the internet known as Internet 2.

This would be a faster, more streamlined elite equivalent of the internet available to users who were willing to pay more for a much improved service. providers may only allow streaming audio and video on your websites if you were eligible for Internet 2.

Of course, Internet 2 would be greatly regulated and only "appropriate content" would be accepted by an FCC or government bureau. Everything else would be relegated to the "slow lane" internet, the junkyard as it were. Our techie rulers are all too keen to make us believe that the internet as we know it is "already dead" .

Google is just one of the major companies preparing for internet 2 by setting up hundreds of " server farms " through which eventually all our personal data - emails, documents, photographs, music, movies - will pass and reside.

However, experts state that the "clean slate" projects currently being undertaken go even further beyond projects like Internet2 and National LambdaRail, both of which focus primarily on next-generation needs for speed.

In tandem with broad data retention legislation currently being introduced worldwide, such "clean slate" projects may represent a considerable threat to the freedom of the internet as we know it. EU directives and US proposals for data retention may mean that any normal website or blog would have to fall into line with such new rules and suddenly total web regulation would become a reality.

In recent months, a chorus of propaganda intended to demonize the Internet and further lead it down a path of strict control has spewed forth from numerous establishment organs:

* In a display of bi-partisanship, there have recently been calls for all out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans alike.

* Republican Senator John McCain recently tabled a proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. It is well known that McCain has a distaste for his blogosphere critics, causing a definite conflict of interest where any proposal to restrict blogs on his part is concerned.

* During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News last November, George Bush senior slammed Internet bloggers for creating an "adversarial and ugly climate."

* The White House's own recently de-classified strategy for "winning the war on terror" targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to "diminish" their influence.

* The Pentagon recently announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and propagandize for the war on terror.

* In a speech last October, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a "terror training camp," through which "disaffected people living in the United States" are developing "radical ideologies and potentially violent skills." His solution is "intelligence fusion centers," staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will go into operation next year.

* The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance.

* A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web - and their argument is supported by the U.S. government.

* A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.

* The European Union, led by former Stalinist and potential future British Prime Minister John Reid, has also vowed to shut down "terrorists" who use the Internet to spread propaganda.

* The EU data retention bill, passed last year after much controversy and with implementation tabled for late 2007, obliges telephone operators and internet service providers to store information on who called who and who emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the US , can access EU citizens' data on phone calls, sms', emails and instant messaging services.

* The EU also recently proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a license.

* The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine . "At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites."

We are being led to believe that a vast army of maniac pedophiles or terrorists are on the loose and we must do away with all forms of privacy in order to stop them. This is akin to saying that blanket cctv prevents crime. As if to say "if we film everyone all the time, even innocent people, then no one will ever commit any crimes."

Increasingly we are seeing this in every aspect of our lives. Recording, tracking and retaining our data in the name of keeping us all safe. Everyone is now treated as guilty until proven innocent.

Make no mistake, the internet, one of the greatest outposts of free speech ever created is under constant attack by powerful people who cannot operate within a society where information flows freely and unhindered. Both American and European moves mimic stories we hear every week out of State Controlled Commu nist China, where the internet is strictly regulated and virtually exists as its own entity away from the rest of the web.

The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate their populations under a surveillance panopticon prison, whether that be in Communist China, Neoconservative America or the Neofascist EU.

Surveillance Tapes Misplaced During Probe of Texas Juvenile Detention Centers

ap
HOUSTON — State investigators want to know why surveillance tapes from a troubled youth prison — allegedly showing a former guard entering a supply closet with a teenage girl — were never shown to the grand jury that cleared the guard of abusing the girl and two others.

The tapes were discovered at Texas Youth Commission headquarters in Austin on Friday, nine days after the grand jury decided not to indict the former guard at the Ron Jackson facility in Brownwood.

After learning that no indictment had been returned, Richard Steptoe, an investigator with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inspector General's office, asked TYC officials to show him the collected evidence. He had the three or four tapes within minutes. The inspector's office has been called to assist the investigation of sexual and physical abuse cases at TYC.

"We don't know if they were misplaced or concealed," Steptoe's boss, John Moriarty, TDCJ's inspector general, told the San Antonio Express-News. "We're looking into it. I would certainly say (the tapes) are material to the case."

The Brown County district attorney's office didn't immediately return phone calls to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

In 2005, the TYC said it confirmed the guard had sexually abused at least three girls at the Brownwood facility. The official report stated that the footage supported details given by each of the three girls.

The girls told investigators the guard used the supply closet to have sex with them. The tapes allegedly show the seven-year-veteran, over a number of days in 2004, entering and exiting the supply closet with at least one of the girls.

"Several times that day (the alleged victim) went into the closet followed by (the guard) a few minutes later," the report stated.

The guard was allowed to resign. The case was forwarded to the local district attorney after the more publicized sex abuse scandal at the West Texas TYC facility broke in February.

Scholars debate 9/11 findings

winnipegsun
An unbiased observer doesn't need to look beyond what's happening on the ground today in Iraq and Afghanistan to conclude the War on Terror has been a brutal, manipulative means to a transparently self-serving end.

None of this is news, however, to proponents of "9/11 Truth," a worldwide movement that seems to keep growing despite an unofficial media blackout on their questions and investigations. So what are these "Truthers" saying?

Many people were quick to declare 9/11 a possible "inside job" based on the visible facts themselves, in particular the blanket failure of air defence, which even former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura said defied all logic and precedent. They also seized on the history (largely unknown in North America) of Pentagon-linked "false-flag" terrorist attacks in Europe during the Cold War, and CIA involvement with al-Qaida operations.

With the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, it was seen that 9/11 was amazingly fortuitous to the Bush administration, elements of which had been looking for excuses to invade both countries -- for purely strategic-commercial reasons -- in the months and years prior to the attacks.

But it was the release of the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004 that breathed full life into the 9/11 Truth Movement -- because it was now apparent to many that the "official story" relied on massive distortion and evasion.

The most dramatically disputed aspect of 9/11 is the question of what the world really saw that day in New York City, when three steel-frame high-rises -- the 110-storey Twin Towers and the 47-storey WTC 7 -- collapsed at near free-fall speed neatly into their own footprints.

In 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out (Olive Branch Press, 2007), former Brigham Young University physics professor Steven Jones argues forcefully that the nature of the collapses, the presence of large pools of molten metal in the basements of all three buildings, witness accounts of hearing explosions -- that these and other factors point to the conclusion all three buildings were brought down by controlled demolition.

This view, though rejected by Popular Mechanics and defenders of the status quo, has won support from engineers and academics from other disciplines. For instance, John McMurtry, a philosophy professor emeritus at the University of Guelph and fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, credits Prof. John Valleau of the Chemistry-Physics Research Group at University of Toronto for drawing his attention to "this scientific anomaly." McMurtry concludes: "The instant and inexplicable collapses of the WTC buildings in uniform demolition style could not be explained by fire (plus, in the case of the Twin Towers, the impact of the airplanes) without contradicting the laws of engineering physics."

David Ray Griffin, a former theology professor from California who has become a leading voice of 9/11 dissent, also points to the destruction of evidence after the collapse -- most of the steel was quickly hauled away and shipped to Asia, where it was melted down.

"Although it is normally a federal offence to remove evidence from a crime scene, the removal of the steel, which was carefully overseen, was facilitated by federal officials," Griffin wrote.

You can see why these scholars are calling for an independent, preferably international investigation into 9/11.

Shootings renew gun-control debate

Many discourage rush to action on sensitive topic
columbus dispatch
Virginia Tech that killed 33 people have revived a dormant debate in Congress over whether to tighten the rules about buying guns.

But even staunch gun-control advocates yesterday conceded the chances for more-restrictive gun laws were slim.

"It could be very hard" to get any new restrictions, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a leading supporter of stricter gun-control rules. "It's always very hard and very emotional."

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that would take a major role in crafting any new gun-control laws, said he has "never found the mood to be hot for" gun restrictions and that the shootings are unlikely to change that.

The gun-control movement got a big boost after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and culminated a year later with the Million Mom March, when thousands of women marched in Washington, D.C., to demand tougher gun laws.

But no major new gun restrictions resulted and, recently, Congress has taken steps to loosen some gun laws.

Under Republican control, Congress in 2004 allowed the 1994 assault-weapons ban to expire; that statute outlawed some semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. And two years ago, President Bush signed a law shielding gun makers and sellers from a broad swath of civil lawsuits.

Bush, in an interview yesterday with ABC News, said he expects a debate on gun policy, but now is not the time.

"I think when a guy walks in and shoots 32 people it's going to cause there to be a lot of policy debate," he said. "Now is not the time to do the debate until we're actually certain about what happened. And after we help people get over their grieving. But yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of discussion."

Bush has said he believes law-abiding citizens have the right to own guns, but he also has said he would support some modest limitations.

Gun-rights supporters say that advocacy of tighter controls cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000 and helped elect Republicans to Congress.

Many Democrats have since shied away from the gun issue for fear of turning off hunters and rural, gun-owning voters. Last year's election also sent several moderate Democrats to Congress, including Sen. Jon Tester, Mont., who promised voters on the campaign trail he would "stand up to anyone ... who wants to take away Montanans' gun rights."

Feinstein noted that the shooter at Virginia Tech may have been able to fire off shots quickly using a clip carrying 16 bullets. That size of a clip was illegal under the expired assault-weapons law, which limited clips to 10 rounds.

Other Democrats on Capitol Hill reacted cautiously. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., deferred discussing gun legislation until later this week, while Tester said lawmakers' focus should be on the victims.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who came to Congress on a gun-control platform after her husband died in a 1993 shooting, complained that Congress "has stood idle while gun violence continues to take its toll."

"The unfortunate situation in Virginia could have been avoided if congressional leaders stood up to the gun lobby," McCarthy said.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who serves on the National Rifle Association's board of directors, said it would be a political misstep for backers of tighter gun controls to seize on the shooting as evidence tougher laws are needed.

"Americans are more than ever before awakened to the reality of politics and those who try to take advantage of difficult and tragic situations like this (in) the name of their personal politics," Craig said.

The issue could flare up on the campaign trail. The top Democratic candidates -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois -- have supported tighter restrictions on guns.

Most leading Republican candidates -- including former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- also have built records supporting gun controls.

Meanwhile, the lobbying group Gun Owners of America blamed gun-control laws for possibly contributing to the tragedy.

"The latest school shooting at Virginia Tech demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law," Gun Owners of America president Larry Pratt said in an e-mail. "It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools."

That sentiment was shared by Mike Stollenwerk, 44, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a Virginia-based gun-rights networking group.

"The only person who is responsible to defend you is you -- the police are incapable of defending each and every one of us all the time," he said.

In Virginia, anyone 21 years of age or older holding a concealed handgun permit can carry a weapon. But Virginia Tech and other colleges across the state have policies that prohibit bringing weapons onto campus facilities.

Information from the New York Daily News and Cox News Service was included in this story.

160 slaughtered in Baghdad car bomb avalanche

String of car bombs rips through five districts of violence-torn capital, undermining US security plan.
middle east online
An avalanche of car bomb attacks on Shiite districts of Baghdad slaughtered 160 people on Wednesday and delivered a savage blow to the credibility of two-month-old US security plan.

The series of blasts were the deadliest in Baghdad since the launch of the massive crackdown; the single deadliest blast alone killed 115 people, mainly commuters and shoppers.

The bombings ripped through five districts of the sprawling capital, where thousands of Iraqi and US troops are straining to enforce order and contain the daily violence terrorising Baghdad's five million residents.

In the bloodiest attack, a parked car exploded on a principal intersection and in a busy market area in the downtown district of Al-Sadriyah, scattering charred corpses among a row of burnt-out buses.

A fire incinerated human flesh, cars and vehicles after a deafening blast that sent a dense cloud of putrid black smoke spewing into the afternoon sky as rescue workers screeched through the streets to scenes of horror.

Fire engines doused nearby cars and buses as dozens of ambulances and pick-up trucks ferried the wounded to hospital and civilian volunteers wrapped charred bodies in carpets for transport to the city's overflowing morgues.

Angry Iraqis who lost loved ones lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, blaming his beleaguered government for failing to bring law and order to the streets of the capital, nearly a year after it took office.

"Down with Maliki! Where is the security plan? We are not protected by this plan," they shouted as an angry mob pelted Iraqi and American soldiers who scrambled to the scene with stones.

A defence ministry official put the death toll at 112, and a medic at the Al-Kindi hospital said doctors there had received 69 bodies alone.

On February 3, a suicide bomber blew up a Mercedes truck in the same Baghdad market, a mixed Kurdish and Shiite area, killing at least 130 people in the final days before the crackdown was officially launched on February 14.

Markets are favourite targets for mass bomb attacks, seen as a trademark tactic of Sunni extremists bent on slaughtering Shiites, the majority community in Iraq that today heads the government and dominates the security forces.

US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters on Wednesday that troops had constructed walls around vulnerable markets in a bid to thwart bomb attacks as part of the security crackdown.

The day's second deadliest car bomb attack killed 28 people, ripping through civilians on the streets near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad's Shiite slum district of Sadr City and wounding another 44 people.

The crowded district is a bastion of Shiite militia faithful to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and has frequently been targeted by car bombings blamed on Sunni extremists.

At least 10 civilians were killed and 12 wounded, including women and children, when a car bomb exploded on a main road near a private hospital in the central Karrada district, formerly upmarket but fallen on hard times.

Seven other people, including four policemen, were killed in separate car bomb attacks on the western outskirts of Baghdad and in the central Al-Jhumuriyah district.

Wednesday's blasts overshadowed a festive ceremony in southern Iraq that saw government forces assume security control of the oil-rich Maysan province from British forces as part of plans in London to drawback troops.

Reading greetings from Maliki, national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie expressed hope Iraq would take full charge of all 18 provinces before the year-end even as the Baghdad bloodshed underscored the huge insecurity.

"Maysan province is the fourth.... To be followed by the three provinces of Kurdistan a month from now. Then Karbala and Wasit, followed by provinces one after the other until the end of the year," he told the ceremony.

Maysan is the fourth province to be handed over to Iraqi forces since July and the third transferred by British-led troops.

Speaking in London, British Defence Secretary Des Browne hailed the transfer as a milestone but warned the next few months would be a crucial test.

"We need to recognise ... that security challenges remain in all three provinces. Iraqi authorities now have the ability to deal with the vast majority of circumstances they are likely to face," said Browne.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in February that the number of British troops in Iraq would likely drop to 5,000 by the end of the year, compared to about 7,200 currently deployed in the country.

U.S. approves first bird flu vaccine for people

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first bird flu vaccine for people won U.S. approval on Tuesday as an interim measure in case an influenza pandemic strikes before a better immunization comes along.

The vaccine made by French company Sanofi-Aventis will not be sold commercially. It is being stockpiled by the government for use if the H5N1 bird flu virus mutates to a form that can spread easily from person to person.

The Food and Drug Administration said two injections given 28 days apart may provide "limited" protection if a pandemic occurs. About 45 percent of people who got the vaccine in a study developed an immune response to the virus.

The vaccine is "sort of an interim measure" until better ones are developed, said Norman Baylor, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review. Several companies are working on other versions.

"Ideally, yes, you would like a vaccine that would have a higher efficacy," Baylor told reporters.

A single shot and a lower dose also would be preferred, Baylor said. The dose needed for the new Sanofi vaccine is higher than used in the seasonal flu vaccine.

Still, "we feel as part of pandemic preparedness it would be best to have a licensed vaccine. Our review suggests this vaccine is safe and effective," Baylor said.

David Williams, president of Sanofi vaccine unit Sanofi Pasteur, said in a statement the approval was "a significant milestone in pandemic preparedness."

Sanofi manufactures the vaccine at a plant in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it had already purchased 13 million doses of the Sanofi vaccine, enough to inoculate 6.5 million people.

The vaccine was approved for people age 18 to 64. Studies in other age groups are ongoing. The most common side effects reported were pain at the injection site, headache, "general ill feeling" and muscle pain, the FDA said.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed 172 people out of 291 known to have been infected, according to the World Health Organization. If it acquires the ability to pass person-to-person easily, it would spark a pandemic and scientists fear it could kill tens of millions of people.

If H5N1 does mutate, it is unclear if vaccines developed now would still work against a pandemic strain. Manufacturers could tailor a new vaccine to that strain, but current production methods take months.

Research on the Sanofi vaccine was conducted by the National Institutes of Health as part of the government's efforts to prepare for a flu pandemic.

Several companies, including Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, are developing bird flu vaccines with adjuvants, substances that can boost immune response.

Sanofi's stock closed down slightly on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, off 5 cents at $46.14.

Iraq plans to control whole nation by end 2007: Maliki

AMARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq plans to take security control of all its provinces from foreign forces before the end of the year, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a speech read out by a senior official on Wednesday.

Maliki is under growing pressure from powerful anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to set a timetable for the withdrawal of 146,000 U.S. troops from Iraq.

In a speech delivered on his behalf by National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie at a ceremony marking the handover of southern Maysan province from British forces to Iraqi control, Maliki said three provinces in the autonomous Kurdistan region would follow next.

"Maysan ... will be followed by the three Kurdistan provinces, a month from now," Maliki said.

"After that Kerbala and Wasit (provinces). Then it will be province by province until we achieve (this transfer) before the end of the year."

The transfer of Maysan means four of the country's 18 provinces are now under Iraq's security control.

Sadr withdrew six ministers from his political movement from Maliki's government on Monday to press his demand for a timetable for the pullout of American troops.

Maliki has repeatedly said U.S. troops would leave Iraq only when Iraqi forces were ready to take over security.

Scales Said to Tip in Favor of Antidepressant Use in Children

NEW YORK TIMES

CHICAGO, April 17 (AP) — The authors of a comprehensive new analysis say the benefits of antidepressants in children and teenagers trump a small risk that they will experience increased suicidal thoughts and behavior.

The risk found by the researchers is lower than one that the Food and Drug Administration identified in 2004, the year the agency warned the public about the drugs’ risks in children. After the warning, suicides among American youth increased, and some mental health experts said reluctance to try antidepressants might be to blame.

The new analysis, being reported Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, includes data from seven studies that the previous F.D.A. analysis did not examine. Among those studies were two large pediatric depression trials whose results were unavailable three years ago.

The researchers analyzed data on 5,310 children and teenagers from 27 studies involving the antidepressants Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron. They found that for every 100 treated with antidepressants, about one additional child experienced worsening suicidal feelings above what would have occurred without drug treatment. In contrast, the F.D.A. analysis had found an added risk affecting about two in 100 patients. There were no suicides in any of the studies.

“The medications are safe and effective and should be considered as an important part of treatment,” said one co-author of the new analysis, Dr. David Brent of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “The benefits seem favorable compared to the small risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior.”

Reuters reported that the F.D.A. had no plans to soften or eliminate antidepressants’ warning labels as a result of the new research. “At this time nothing indicates a need for change in the ‘black box’ warning, which urges attention to patients starting treatment,” said Dr. Thomas Laughren, director of the agency’s division of psychiatry products.

The new analysis found that antidepressants worked best when used to treat anxiety. They worked moderately well in treating obsessive-compulsive disorders. They worked less well, though still effectively, in treating depression.

Adolescents responded better than children to treatment for depression and anxiety, the researchers found. They also found that only Prozac worked better than dummy pills in depressed children younger than 12.

In the studies involving depression, 61 percent of patients improved while on antidepressants. But 50 percent of depressed patients taking dummy pills also improved.

Among young patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders, 52 percent improved on antidepressants, compared with 32 percent who improved on dummy pills.

And in the studies of anxiety disorders, 69 percent improved on antidepressants and 39 percent improved on dummy pills.

Dr. John March, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, called the report “the most comprehensive analysis of the data yet put together.” But he said the suicidal behavior risk, although lower than found by the F.D.A., demanded that doctors and families watch for warning signs.

“You can’t treat kids with these drugs without taking this information into account,” said Dr. March, who was not involved in the study but who does similar research. “You can’t say, ‘Take these and call me in six weeks.’ ”

Bush stance will be critical for Wolfowitz

Midway through last weekend’s meeting of world finance and development ministers in Washington it looked as if Paul Wolfowitz’s strategy of toughing out the Shaha Riza controversy might work, and he could emerge with his prospects of holding on to his job as World Bank president enhanced.
FINANCIAL TIMES
But after Sunday’s unprecedented statement of “great concern” by the bank’s shareholder governments – including the US – the likelihood that he will see out his full term looks considerably diminished.

Yet the game is far from over. Mr Wolfowitz still retains the personal support of President George W. Bush, who nominated him to the job. European nations, though united in their desire to be rid of Mr Wolfowitz, are not agreed about how to get there.

The statement by ministers was an invitation to Mr Wolfowitz to consider whether he could stay on in the job after revelations that he was personally involved in securing an attractive secondment package for Ms Riza, with whom he has been romantically involved.

Many officials very much hope he will take the problem out of their hands by volunteering to step down. But there is no indication that he will do so. “I intend to stay,” he told reporters on Sunday.

What happens next will depend on three principal actors in this drama: Mr Wolfowitz himself, Europe and the US administration.

Mr Wolfowitz could surprise everyone by standing down at a moment of his own choosing.

If the bank president stays on, he will face hostility from staff and peers and be severely weakened in his dealings with the board.

Moreover, his continued presence will make it difficult for the bank to raise the $28bn (L14bn, €21bn) it needs to replenish the International Development Association, its main lending facility for poor countries. European nations are now talking about withholding funds if he stays.

Mr Wolfowitz is already a liability in fundraising terms in the US, where the Democrats now hold the purse strings in Congress.

If the IDA is threatened, borrowing countries in Africa and elsewhere – which have expressed some support for Mr Wolfowitz – may turn against him.

But people who know Mr Wolfowitz say he is not likely to quit simply because he is widely disliked.

More likely, he will try to wait for the storm inside and outside the bank to abate and trust that institutional inertia will mean that it is soon concentrating once again on its daily anti­poverty work.

He may try to split the coalition against him by offering to sack intensely disliked aides and restructure his personal office, possibly bringing in Lars Thunell, the respected head of the bank’s private-sector arm, as a chief operating officer.

A sincere and far-reaching proposal might just be enough to satisfy Europe, though not the many staff members determined to drive him out. For all their dislike of Mr Wolfowitz, some European nations are worried his departure would start a new debate over whether the US and Europe should split the top jobs at the World Bank and IMF.

But Europe is too heavily invested in the success of the bank to allow Mr Wolfowitz to stick out the remaining three years of his term without radical changes to his presidency.

That would risk continued internal strife of such intensity it could cripple the bank as an institution.

If he does not offer such changes – and his defiant statement to staff on Saturday suggests he will not – Europe will keep stepping up the pressure on him to go.

The big European nations are firm on this, with Britain and Germany taking the lead, and France hanging back largely for tactical ­reasons.

They want to show Mr Bush that this is not a US v Europe political issue but a question of management and corporate governance.

The US position will be critical. It has voiced its “full support” for Mr Wolfowitz and is determined not to let staff protests and newspaper leaks run him out of the bank.

While it is in Mr Bush’s power to stop anyone else from driving Mr Wolfowitz out, it is not in Mr Bush’s gift to give him a manageable institution to run.

If this becomes a domestic political issue – which it need not do, as Mr Wolfowitz is not a member of the administration – the White House will almost certainly refuse to let him go, regardless of the cost to the bank itself. If it does not, and the turmoil at the bank continues unabated, the US will have to decide whether at some point to whisper in Mr Wolfowitz’s ear that the game is up.

Much will rest on the counsel of Hank Paulson, the Treasury secretary, and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state.

Gates: Iraq Failure Would Hit Mideast

ap
Failure in Iraq will unleash sectarian strife and extremism and will be felt first in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Speaking to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce luncheon on the third day of his Middle East travels, Gates exhorted Arab countries in the region to use their influence to dampen the insurgency and encourage political reconciliation in Iraq.

"Whatever disagreements we might have over how we got to this point in Iraq, the consequences of a failed state in Iraq - of chaos there - will adversely impact the security and prosperity of every nation in the Middle East and Gulf region," Gates said in remarks prepared for delivery.

He warned that while some who disagree with the war may be cheering for failure in Iraq, "these sentiments are dangerously shortsighted and self-destructive."

The initial effects of failure, he said, will first be felt in Middle East capitals and communities "well before they are felt in Washington or New York."

Gates' speech came in the midst of visits to military and political leaders in the region, where he urged them to do what they can to spur reconciliation efforts in Iraq and involve the Iraqi government more actively in the political discourse in the Middle East.

Gates, who is making his third trip to the region as defense secretary, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Iraq and to protecting allies in area - while also alluding to the raging debate between the Democratically controlled Congress and the Bush administration over bringing an end to the war.

The arguments, he said, probably reflect those going on across the Middle East but do not suggest the U.S. is not determined to keep working with its allies in the region.

That "is a responsibility we will not abandon, a trust we will not break," he said.

Gates also said that Iran and Syria need to become part of the solution by reducing the violence and helping promote reconciliation in Iraq - a key goal of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

U.S. military officials have stepped up their criticism of Iran, saying for the first time this week that Iranians are involved in providing weapons to Afghanistan.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that U.S. forces recently intercepted Iranian-made weapons intended for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, suggesting wider Iranian involvement in the region. Military officials have said for months that Iranians are supplying weapons and training to insurgents in Iraq.

"We should have no illusions about the nature of this regime - or about their designs for their nuclear program, their intentions for Iraq or their ambitions in the Gulf region," Pace said, referring to Iran.

Iran has been a key topic in meetings Gates had with leaders in Jordan, and on Tuesday he told reporters that he would bring up the issue with Egypt President Hosni Mubarak during a meeting Wednesday. He said he wanted to get Mubarak's views on Iran's role in Iraq.

In his speech, which came shortly after he met with Mubarak, Gates said Egypt will play a key role in securing Iraq and holding Iran accountable.

"Because of Egypt's unique position - its geography, economy, and demographics - it is unlikely that progress can be made on the most pressing issues of today without Egypt's full engagement, support and leadership," said Gates.

The U.S. and some of its allies have expressed concerns about Iran secretly developing nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies.

Gates met with Jordan's King Abdullah II Tuesday, and is expected to travel to Israel later this week for meetings with leaders there.

The Iraqis are under growing pressure to move more quickly on political reconciliation so they can temper divisive sectarianism and tamp down the violence gripping the country.

Japanese mayor killed by gangster

ap

TOKYO — When Nagasaki's mayor was fatally shot in southern Japan, it wasn't much of a surprise that a gangster was arrested for the attack. In a country where regular citizens face strict gun laws, the mob does most of the shooting.

Iccho Ito, 61, was shot twice in the back Tuesday evening and died early Wednesday. Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, was captured at the scene and admitted to the attack, police said.

"This murder, which took place in the middle of an election campaign, is a threat to democracy," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said early Wednesday. "We must eradicate violence firmly."

The killing — reportedly linked to Shiroo's demands for city compensation for car damage caused by a pothole — focused attention on the role of the Japanese mafia, or "yakuza," in the rare shootings here.

Of the 53 gun attacks reported in 2006, two-thirds — 36 — were blamed on organized crime groups, the National Police Agency says.

Handguns are strictly banned for ordinary citizens in Japan, and only police officers and others — such as shooting instructors — with job-related reasons can own them. Hunting rifles are also strictly licensed and regulated.

Crime syndicates, however, have the money, numbers and international connections that enable them to smuggle foreign guns into Japan.

"The mayor of Nagasaki was killed by a gun that was illegally possessed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. "The fact that criminal organizations have stashed away guns through smuggling and illicit sales ... is also a cause."

The attack came despite a sharp drop in shootings in recent years.

The number of reported gun attacks have plunged from 158 in 2002 — with 70 percent blamed on yakuza — to 53 last year. The number of illegal guns seized by police dropped by nearly 40 percent from 2002 to 2006, when 458 firearms were confiscated.

Even gangsters are careful when it comes to opening fire, preferring to use knives for mob hits because murders with guns typically carry heavier sentences. Instead, mobsters sometimes use guns for intimidation, shooting the outside of an office, for instance, as a warning to the occupants.

Still, public concern about gangster gunfights remains high amid a widely publicized turf war between Japan's two largest underworld gangs earlier this year that ended a yearlong lull in gang violence.

The boss of a gang affiliated with the Tokyo-based Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate was shot to death in February, and the killing was believed to have prompted at least three more shootings at gangland headquarters in Tokyo.

"I want Japanese laws to protect the general public," said Shinichi Tada, a 44-year-old manufacturing company worker in Tokyo. "I do not want Japan to be like the U.S.," he added, referring to Monday's massacre in Virginia that killed at least 33 people.

Japan's organized crime groups are typically involved in real estate and construction kickback schemes, extortion, gambling, the sex industry and drug trafficking.

Gunrunning is another main activity. Between 1996 and 2005, 8,180 smuggled guns were seized by police, with the United States being the top origin with nearly 30 percent, the NPA says. The Philippines was second with about 10 percent.

Noriyoshi Takemura, criminologist at Toin University in Yokohama, said tight weapons laws make Japan an attractive market for gunrunners.

"There are not many guns made in Japan. The tighter the control is, the higher the price goes up," he said.