BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Pressure grows for a 7/7 inquiry

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Pressure grows for a 7/7 inquiry

Pressure grows for a 7/7 inquiry
Survivors and relatives of victims of the 7 July attacks are stepping up the pressure for a public inquiry into MI5's handling of intelligence.
On Monday it emerged at the end of a year-long terror trial that MI5 had two of the 7 July bombers under surveillance a year before the attacks.

Ministers are opposed to an inquiry but a parliamentary committee will consider why the bombers were not picked up.

Those affected by the 2005 attacks have delivered a letter to the Home Office.

The document, requesting an "impartial public inquiry", was handed to an official from the department.


BUGGED BY MI5
It all depends on the situation ... everybody wants to go to the front, everybody wants to fight.
Omar Khyam speaking to Mohammad Sidique Khan


It says one of the purposes would be "to examine issues aimed at saving lives, minimising suffering and improving the response of government agencies to the continuing threat of terrorist attacks".

The letter was signed by more than 18 people, including 7 July survivors Paul Mitchell and Jacqui Putnam, as well as relatives of those affected - such as Ros Morley, whose husband, Colin, was killed.

Survivor Rachel North said: "This is not about blame but about future public safety - understanding what happened, how it happened and to stop it happening again."





In response, the Home Office released a statement saying the home secretary would "give very careful consideration" to the letter.

The statement added: "However, as we have consistently maintained, experience has shown that a fuller public inquiry can take years and divert huge resources."

On Monday five men were given life sentences for a foiled plot to build a huge fertiliser bomb for a UK attack.

It emerged during the trial that MI5 had tailed London suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer while investigating that case, but took no action.

The BBC has now published a full transcript of an MI5 bugged conversation in which the bomber discusses leaving the UK to join jihadi extremists in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas.

One issue being looked at is what MI5 told both the public and politicians in the wake of the 7 July attacks.


EVIDENCE SINCE TRIAL
Khan followed Feb 2004
Photographed with extremists
Recorded talking with plot ringleader
Home address seen
Car ownership and surname known June 04

The media were briefed that Khan and fellow bombers were "clean skins" - men with no previous record of terrorist associations.

But evidence following the end of the trial reveals MI5 photographed Khan as he met other extremists, followed him home - and by the summer of 2004 they knew his surname and that he owned a car.

Danny Biddle, who survived the 7 July attacks, said the revelation that there were links between the suicide bombers and those behind the fertiliser plot meant a public inquiry was now essential.

"This is about finding out how this could be allowed to happen and how nobody could stop it. That needs to be investigated and to totally dismiss a public inquiry is shameful."

Paul Dadge, who also survived the London bombings, said he believed the attacks may have been prevented if the leads had been followed, but argued that it was important to praise the security services for securing convictions.


Prime Minister Tony Blair has asked the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to consider why the 7 July bombers were not picked up.

The committee, which comprises MPs and Lords, is expected to examine claims that West Yorkshire Police special branch was not told about the MI5 surveillance operation.

ISC chairman Paul Murphy MP has previously indicated that police were informed.

Former Tory Defence Secretary Lord King cast doubt on the impartiality of the committee, saying it should be led by a member of the Opposition to ensure independence.

Mr Blair rejected calls for a public inquiry, although he said he "totally" understood why some people sought one.

He told GMTV: "The problem if you have an independent public inquiry into something like this is you will divert all their energy and attention into trying to answer the questions that come up in the inquiry."


WHAT MI5 TOLD COMMITTEE
We have been told in evidence that none of the ... 7 July group had been identified (that is named and listed) as potential terrorist threats prior to July
ISC report into MI5, 2006

The revelation that one of the 7 July bombers met up with one of the fertiliser bomb plotters - Omar Khyam - at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan has caused concern.

However, the head of Pakistan's National Crisis Management Centre, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, said anyone "who spends a lot of money and travels to Pakistan...[is] already motivated for a particular reason".

The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have both called for an independent inquiry into the 2005 London bombings.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6610209.stm

Published: 2007/05/01 15:03:47 GMT

FOXNews.com - Kent State Vietnam War Protest Shooting Victim to Release 37-Year-Old Recording - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

FOXNews.com - Kent State Vietnam War Protest Shooting Victim to Release 37-Year-Old Recording - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Tuesday , May 01, 2007

A man who was shot in the wrist when National Guard troops killed four Kent State University students during an anti-war demonstration says he has found an audiotape that reveals someone gave a command to fire.

Alan Canfora wants the government to reopen the 37-year-old case because he thinks it will give both the victims and shooters a chance to heal.

"We're not seeking revenge; we're not seeking punishment for the Guardsmen at this late date," Canfora said Monday.

"All we want is the truth because we seek healing at Kent State for the student victims, as well as the triggermen who were ordered to fire. And healing can only result from the truth, and that's all we want."

Canfora planned to release CD copies of the recording Tuesday at a news conference at Kent State, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Four Kent State students were killed and nine were wounded in the 1970 clash, which followed several days of Vietnam War protests. Four years later, eight Guardsmen were acquitted of federal civil rights charges.

Canfora said he recently requested a copy of the nearly 30-minute tape from Yale University, where a government copy has been stored in an archive.

He said that just before the 13-second volley of gunfire, a voice on the tape is heard yelling, "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!"

"I was shaking when I first heard it," Canfora said. "I shed tears."

He said he was convinced from his research — including other tapes and photos — that the command was issued by one of three Guard officers at the shooting site.

"The time has now come to where it's impossible to deny the verbal command to fire," Canfora said.

The government should analyze the recording using new technology, he said.

After the shooting, the FBI investigated whether an order had been given to fire, and said it could only speculate. One theory was that a Guardsman panicked or fired intentionally at a student and that others fired when they heard the shot.

The FBI would look into any new inquiry about the shootings, spokesman Scott Wilson said.

The Ohio National Guard had no comment on the tape, spokesman James Sims said.

Canfora said the reel-to-reel audio recording was made by Terry Strubbe, a student who placed a microphone at a windowsill of his dormitory that overlooked the anti-war rally. Strubbe turned the tape over to the FBI, which kept a copy.

Strubbe, who still lives near Kent, keeps the original tape in a safe deposit box, said Canfora, who heads a nonprofit organization at Kent State that leads a candlelight vigil every May 4 to mark the anniversary of the shootings.

Strubbe didn't return a message seeking comment Monday. Joe Bendo, a friend who spoke for him, said Strubbe has not listened to the tape in years and does not know whether a command to shoot can be heard.

"He's just curious, like everybody else. Is it possible? Yes, it's possible," Bendo said.

When government officials listened to the tape, it was to evaluate such things as how frequently shots were fired and for how long, Bendo said.

He said Strubbe isn't sure what he will eventually do with the original recording.

Reuters AlertNet - Iran says "evil approach" by U.S. prevents talks

Reuters AlertNet - Iran says "evil approach" by U.S. prevents talks

TEHRAN, May 1 (Reuters) - Iran will not negotiate with the United States until it stops its "evil approach", the government spokesman was quoted as saying on Tuesday, two days before the two foes were due to attend a meeting on Iraq.

U.S. officials say Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is ready to talk with Iran on the sidelines of the May 3-4 conference in Egypt, if such contact is deemed useful.

But Iran appeared to dismiss the possibility of bilateral discussions at the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which is to seek ways to end the violence in Iraq and will be attended by major powers and Baghdad's neighbours.

Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic ties for nearly three decades and are sharply at odds over the conflict in Iraq and Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Asked if Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki may hold talks in Egypt, his deputy Mahdi Mostafavi said according to the ISNA news agency:

"No, so far the necessary situation for talks and negotiations is not ready."

Washington accuses Iran of destabilising Iraq and U.S. officials say Rice would probably limit any discussions to this.

Iran denies meddling in Iraq and blames the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 for violence that is threatening to tear Iraq apart, saying U.S. forces should leave the country.

IRAN DEFIANT

Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham suggested Washington wanted to talk to Tehran because of its problems in Iraq and a realisation Iran was a growing regional power.

"The Americans know that they are faced with Iran as a real, capable power because Iran has entered the field of the nuclear technology and has the will to move forward," ISNA quoted him as saying.

"That is why they are after negotiating with Iran somehow," Elham said. "Naturally until the Americans stop their arrogant, one-sided and evil approach we won't negotiate with them."

Washington cut ties with Tehran in 1980, after the Iranian Islamic revolution and the holding of U.S. hostages, and has spearheaded a drive to isolate Iran over its nuclear programme.

It has made clear it will only engage in broader talks when Iran halts sensitive uranium enrichment, which can be used to fuel power stations or make atomic weapons. Iran denies Western accusations it is seeking to develop nuclear bombs.

But the U.S. State Department has said Rice is open to direct talks with Iran over Iraq. Iraq's foreign minister said on Sunday there was a "high possibility" Iran and the United States would hold bilateral discussions at the Egypt meeting.

Elham said Iran would be ready to negotiate with the United States if it changes its behaviour and is no longer a "terrorist and evil government" but made clear his view that Washington was more keen for such talks than Tehran was.

"About negotiations, it is Miss Rice who really would like to have a friendly chat with Mr Mottaki," he said.

News Corp. offers to buy Dow Jones - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

News Corp. offers to buy Dow Jones - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

News Corp. offers to buy Dow Jones
Newspaper company bid is unsolicited; share price surges
BREAKING NEWS
Reuters
Updated: 11:56 a.m. ET May 1, 2007
NEW YORK - Media company News Corp. has made an unsolicited $60 a share cash bid for newspaper company Dow Jones & Co. Inc., owner of the Wall Street Journal, CNBC reported on Tuesday.

Shares of Dow Jones surged nearly 58 percent on the news before trade was halted. Shortly before noon ET, Dow Jones confirmed the News Corp. offer and said it is evaluating the proposal.

CNBC said News Corp sent a letter to Dow Jones’ board of directors two weeks ago and that the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of Dow Jones’ shares, is currently deciding whether it will consider a sale. It has hired financial advisers, CNBC said.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18417054/

Al-Qaida-tied group denies al-Masri dead - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

Al-Qaida-tied group denies al-Masri dead - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

Al-Qaida-tied group denies al-Masri dead
Self-styled organization refutes claims that al-Masri died in insurgent battle
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:33 a.m. ET May 1, 2007
DUBAI - The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq denied the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, was killed on Tuesday.

"The Islamic State in Iraq assures the Islamic nation about the safety of Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, may God save him, and that he is still fighting the enemies," said the al-Qaida-linked group in a statement posted on a Web site used by militants.

A spokesman for Iraq's interior ministry said earlier on Tuesday that the militant leader was killed in an internal fight between militants north of Baghdad. but U.S. military officials appeared to cast doubt on the report.

The Ministry spokesman also told NBC News that al-Masri was killed Tuesday in an "internal" fight between insurgents. "We have intelligence reports that confirm he was killed," Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.

Internal friction grows
There has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al-Qaida and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al-Qaida's indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.

If true, al-Masri's killing would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shiite-led government is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf and another Interior Ministry source told Reuters that the Iraqi authorities did not have al-Masri's body, but the source added that “our people had seen the body.”

The U.S. military, for its part, was checking the reports, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman.

“We are in discussions with the Iraqis over how they obtained this intelligence. If we do have a body, we are going to conduct DNA tests, and that will take several days. If there is no body, that makes it harder,” Garver said.

Separately, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said U.S. officials were still checking the details with Iraqi leaders.

Crocker added that if confirmed, "clearly taking a major terrorist off the battlefield is an important thing" and a "significant and positive development."

Previous reports in error
In February, Interior Ministry sources said al-Masri had been wounded in a gunbattle north of Baghdad, but those reports turned out not to be true. There were also reports in October that he had been killed, which again were incorrect.

Al-Masri, believed to be Egyptian and who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, assumed the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

Officials had hoped the demise of Zarqawi might have weakened al-Qaida, but he was quickly replaced by Masri and the group’s attacks continued unabated, pushing Iraq closer to full-scale sectarian civil war.

The United States has a $5 million bounty on al-Masri's head.

Sunni threat
On the political front, Iraq’s main Sunni bloc is considering quitting the Shiite-led government because it believes the concerns of Sunnis are not being addressed, members of the bloc including the vice president said on Tuesday.

Some members of the Sunni Accordance Front have been urging the bloc for several months to pull out of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet, partly over accusations that reconciliation with minority Sunni Arabs has moved too slowly.

The bloc has six ministers in the government and a withdrawal would be a blow to Maliki and raise questions about how representative his administration would remain.

A pullout would not be enough to topple al-Maliki, as he would still have a majority in parliament through his ruling Shiite Alliance and a coalition of Kurdish parties. The Accordance Front has 44 seats in the 275-member parliament.

“We are serious in withdrawing if nothing new happens with progress in the political process,” Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc, said in Amman where he was on a visit.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a senior member of the bloc, said the Front would make its position known soon.

Maliki, a Shiite Islamist, insists the government is making progress toward reconciliation between majority Shiites and Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam Hussein.


© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveReuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18410713/

Chavez: Venezuela to exit IMF, World Bank - Focus on Venezuela - MSNBC.com

Chavez: Venezuela to exit IMF, World Bank - Focus on Venezuela - MSNBC.com

Chavez: Venezuela to exit IMF, World Bank
Move is largely symbolic since nation has canceled debts to institutions
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET May 1, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.

“We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone,” said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions.

Venezuela, one of the world’s top oil exporters, recently repaid its debts to the World Bank five years ahead of schedule, saving $8 million. It paid off all its debts to the IMF shortly after Chavez first took office in 1999. The IMF closed its offices in Venezuela late last year.

Chavez, who says he wants to steer Venezuela toward socialism, made the announcement a day after telling a meeting of allied leaders that Latin America would be better off without the U.S.-backed World Bank or IMF. He has often blamed their lending policies for perpetuating poverty.

New lender?
Chavez wants to set up a new lender run by Latin American nations and has pledged to support it with Venezuela’s booming oil revenues. The regional lender, which he has called “Bank of the South,” would dole out financing for state projects across Latin America.

Chavez has criticized past Venezuelan governments for signing agreements with the IMF to restructure the economy — plans blamed for contributing to racing inflation.

Under former President Carlos Andres Perez in 1989, violent protests broke out in Caracas in response to IMF austerity measures that brought a hike in subsidized gasoline prices and public transport fares.

Enraged people took the streets in violence that killed at least 300 people — and possibly many more. The riots came to be known as the “Caracazo,” and Chavez often refers to it as a rebellion against the status quo.

During Sunday’s talks with leaders from Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti, Chavez predicted that “sooner or later, those institutions will fall due to their own weight.”

“They will wear away — the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and all those institutions,” Chavez said.

Bolivian President Evo Morales raised complaints about a World Bank body that mediates disputes between governments and foreign investors. He said governments never seem to win their disputes against transnational companies at the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Chavez suggested that Latin countries could instead create their own arbitration body for disputes with big companies.

‘That prison’
Venezuela is not the only country in the region distancing itself from international lenders.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Sunday that he hopes to “get out of that prison” of IMF debt and that “we are negotiating with the Fund to leave the Fund.”

Ecuador’s leftist president, Rafael Correa, recently asked the World Bank’s representative there to leave and said the country paid off its debt to the IMF. Argentina also has paid back billions of dollars to the IMF.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18406119/

Sharp rise in terrorist attacks in 2006 - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

Sharp rise in terrorist attacks in 2006 - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

Sharp rise in terrorist attacks in 2006
State Department says most attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:18 p.m. ET April 30, 2007
WASHINGTON - Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up 25 percent last year, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, according to a new State Department report.

Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, giving material support and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, the report said.

In its annual global survey of terrorism to be released Monday, the State Department says about 14,000 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. These strikes claimed more than 20,000 lives — two-thirds in Iraq. That is 3,000 more attacks than in 2005 and 5,800 more deaths.

Altogether, 40 percent more people were killed by increasingly lethal means around the globe.

The report partly attributes the higher casualty figures to a 25-percent jump in the number of nonvehicular suicide bombings targeting large crowds. That overwhelmed a 12-percent dip in suicide attacks involving vehicles.

Chemical use marks ‘dangerous’ shift
In Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, seen for the first time in a November 23, 2006 attack in Sadr City, also “signaled a dangerous strategic shift in tactics,” it says.

With the rise in fatalities, the number of injuries from terrorist attacks also rose, by 54 percent, between 2005 and 2006, with a doubling in the number wounded in Iraq over the period, according to the department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2006.

The numbers were compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center and refer to deaths and injuries sustained by “noncombatants,” with significant increases in attacks targeting children, educators and journalists.

“By far the largest number of reported terrorist incidents occurred in the Near East and South Asia,” says the 335-page report, referring to the regions where Iraq and Afghanistan are located.

“These two regions also were the locations for 90 percent of all the 290 high-casualty attacks that killed 10 or more people,” says the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its official release.

Almost half in Iraq
The report says 6,600, or 45 percent, of the attacks took place in Iraq, killing about 13,000 people, or 65 percent of the worldwide total of terrorist-related deaths in 2006. Kidnappings by terrorists soared 300 percent in Iraq over 2005.

Afghanistan had 749 strikes in 2006, a 50-percent rise from 2005 when 491 attacks were tallied, according to the report.

However, it also details a surge in Africa, where 65 percent more attacks, 420 compared to 253 in 2005, were counted last year, largely due to turmoil in or near Sudan, including Darfur, and Nigeria where oil facilities and workers have been targeted.


Iran gets top billing
As in previous years, the 2006 report identifies Iran as the “most active state sponsor” of terror, accusing the Islamic republic of helping plan and foment attacks to destabilize Iraq and derail Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been “linked to armor-piercing explosives that resulted in the deaths of coalition forces” and has helped, along with Lebanon’s radical Hezbollah movement, train Iraqi extremists to build bombs, the report says.

Although the designation of Iran is not new, it appears in the report that is being released as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepares to attend a conference of Iraq’s neighbors, at which she has not ruled out a meeting with Iran’s foreign minister.

The report says that terrorists continue to rely mainly on conventional weapons in their attacks, but noted no let up in an alarming trend toward more sophisticated and better planned and coordinated strikes.

Deaths, injuries rise sharply
For instance, while the number of bombings increased by 30 percent between 2005 and 2006, the death tolls from these incidents rose by 39 percent and the number of injuries rose by 45 percent, it says.

The report attributes the higher casualty figures to a 25-percent jump in the number of non-vehicular suicide bombings targeting large crowds that more than made up for a slight 12-percent dip in suicide attacks involving vehicles.

Of the 58,000 people killed or wounded in terrorist attacks around the world in 2006, more than 50 percent were Muslims, the report, says with government officials, police and security guards accounting for a large proportion, the report says.

The number of child casualties from terrorist attacks soared by more than 80 percent between 2005 and 2006 to more than 1,800, while incidents involving educators were up more than 45 percent and those involving journalists up 20 percent, the report says.

Twenty-eight U.S. citizens were killed and 27 wounded in terrorist incidents in 2006, most of them in Iraq, where eight of the 12 Americans kidnapped by terrorists last year were taken captive, it says.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18399660/


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trial by jury on verge of extinction, democracy at risk

raw story
According to a story in tomorrow's New York Times (reg. req.), trials by jury are "on the verge of extinction" and are being "replaced by settlements and plea deals, by mediations and arbitrations and by decisions from judges." In fact, "only 1.3 percent of federal civil cases ended in trials last year, down from 11.5 percent in 1962."

The Times points out in particular that "in criminal cases, the vast majority of prosecutions end in plea bargains" and quotes a judge as complaining that defendents "who have the temerity to 'request the jury trial guaranteed them under the U.S. Constitution' ... face 'savage sentences' that can be five times as long as those meted out to defendants who plead guilty and cooperate with the government."

Excerpts:

The trends in criminal cases and in the state courts are broadly similar, though not always quite as striking. But it is beyond dispute that even as the number of lawyers has grown twice as fast as the population and even as the number of lawsuits has exploded, actual trials have become quite rare.

Instead of hearing testimony, ruling on objections and instructing jurors on the law, judges spend most of their time supervising the exchange of information, deciding pretrial motions and dealing with settlements and plea bargains.

...

The movement away from jury trials is not just a societal reallocation of resources or a policy choice. Rather, as Young put it, it represents a disavowal of "the most stunning and successful experiment in direct popular sovereignty in all history."

Indeed, juries were central to the framers of the Constitution, who guaranteed the right to a jury trial in criminal cases, and to the drafters of the Bill of Rights, who referred to juries in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments. Jury trials may be expensive and time-consuming, but the jury, local and populist, is a counterweight to central authority and is as important an element in the constitutional balance as the two houses of Congress, the three branches of government and the federal system itself.

Ex-CIA analyst: Forged 'yellowcake' memo 'leads right back to' Cheney

raw story
A former CIA analyst claims that falsified documents which were meant to show that Iraq's Saddam Hussein regime had been trying to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger can be traced back to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Appearing on MSNBC's Tucker Carlson Show, Ray McGovern who served in the CIA for twenty-seven years, said, "the [forged] memo leads right back to the doorstep of the Vice President of the United States."

According to McGovern, former CIA Director George Tenet told his "coterie of malleable managers" at the CIA to create a National Intelligence Estimate "to the terms of reference of Dick Cheney's speech of August 26, 2002, where Dick Cheney said for the first time Saddam Hussein could have a nuclear weapon in a year, he's got all kinds of chemical, he's got all kinds of biological weapons."

McGovern, who at one time chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief, also claimed to have evidence that the memo leads back to Cheney, but he would not say what it was, except that the names of the people involved were "in the public domain."

In an op-ed posted at Buzzflash, McGovern argues, "If any good can come out of the intelligence/policy debacle regarding Iraq, it would be the clear lesson that intelligence crafted to dovetail with the predilections of policymakers can bring disaster. The role that Tenet, McLaughlin, and their small coterie of malleable managers played as willing accomplices in the corruption of intelligence has made a mockery of the verse chiseled into the marble at the entrance to CIA headquarters: 'You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"

McGovern also calls Tenet a "pathetic figure" who is trying to "justify himself for unjustifiable activity." Tenet, in his new book, claims that the Bush administration distorted his use of the term "slam dunk" in reference to intelligence that ultimately led to the Iraq war (RAW STORY's coverage is here ).

Cops Admit To Planting Marijuana on 92 Year Old Woman Killed in Botched Drug Raid

AP
ATLANTA — Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. A third officer still faces charges.

Officer J.R. Smith told a state judge Thursday that he regretted what had happened.

"I'm sorry," the 35-year-old said, his voice barely audible. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation, making false statements and perjury, which was based on claims in a warrant.

Former Officer Gregg Junnier, 40, who retired from the Atlanta police in January, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. Both men are expected to face more than 10 years in prison.

In a hearing later in federal court, both pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to violate a person's civil rights, resulting in death. Their state and federal sentences would run concurrently.

The charges followed a Nov. 21 "no-knock" drug raid on the home of Kathryn Johnston, 92. An informant had described buying drugs from a dealer there, police said. When the officers burst in without warning, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back, killing her.

Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson said that the officers involved in Johnston's death fired 39 shots, striking her five or six times, including a fatal blow to the chest.

He said Johnston fired only once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.

Junnier and Smith, who is on administrative leave, had been charged in an indictment unsealed earlier Thursday with felony murder, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and making false statements.

The third officer, Arthur Tesler, also on administrative leave, was charged with violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process. His attorney, William McKenney, said Tesler expects to go to trial.

Tesler, 40, is "very relieved" not to face murder charges, McKenney said, "but we're concerned about the three charges."

Both men could have faced up to life in prison had they been convicted of murder. Instead, Junnier will face 10 years and one month and Smith 12 years and seven months. No sentencing date was immediately set, and the sentences are contingent on the men cooperating with the government.

The deadly drug raid had been set up after narcotics officers said an informant had claimed there was cocaine in the home.

When the plainclothes officers burst in without notice, police said, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Yonette Sam-Buchanan said Thursday that although the officers found no drugs in Johnston's home, Smith planted three bags of marijuana in the home as part of a cover story.

The case raised serious questions about no-knock warrants and whether the officers followed proper procedures.

Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington asked the FBI to lead a multi-agency probe. He also announced policy changes to require the department to drug-test its nearly 1,800 officers and require top supervisors to sign off on narcotics operations and no-knock warrants.

To get the warrant, officers told a magistrate judge that an undercover informant had told them Johnston's home had surveillance cameras monitored carefully by a drug dealer named Sam.

After the shooting, a man claiming to be the informant told a television station that he had never purchased drugs there, leading Pennington to admit he was uncertain whether the suspected drug dealer actually existed.

The Rev. Markel Hutchins, a civil rights activist who serves as a spokesman for Johnston's family, said the family was satisfied with Thursday's developments.

"They have never sought vengeance. They have only sought justice," he said.

Hutchins said the family is considering civil action against the police department.

"I think what happened today makes it very clear that Ms. Johnston was violated, that her civil rights were violated," he said.

Associated Press writer Jason Bronis in Atlanta contributed to this report.

How MI5 let bombers through net

news.com.au
MOHAMED Sidique Khan's name featured twice in MI5 anti-terrorist operations more than a year before he went on to lead the 7/7 suicide attacks on London that killed 52 people in 2005.

*video bomb plot
*bombers lost links to 7/7
*Al-Qa'ida will strike again
*Meeting of murderous minds in Lahore

The full extent of the missed opportunities that allowed the July 7 London bombers to slip through the net can be reported for the first time after the conviction of Omar Khyam, a close associate of Khan, for plotting to build a 600kg ammonium nitrate fertiliser bomb to blow up a crowded nightclub or shopping centre in London.

Far from being a "clean skin", Khan had been photographed, followed and bugged by intelligence officers more than a year before the July 2005 bombings, which ranked as Britain's worst act of mass murder.

Security sources said they had identified a Sidique Khan in 2004 as the owner of a mobile phone called by an alleged al-Qa'ida financier and of a Honda car that was tailed by investigators.

Despite those leads, which placed Khan in the company of high-priority terrorist suspects, he was not investigated further.

The disclosures fuelled demands for a public inquiry into 7/7 and raised doubts about the accuracy of assertions by Home Secretary John Reid in the Commons that none of the bombers' identities was known to the security services before July 7.

Mr Reid was speaking after Khyam and four other men received life sentences at the end of a year-long terrorist trial that cost an estimated pound stg. 50 million ($120 million) and had a jury deliberating for a record 27 days before delivering its verdicts.

Trial judge Michael Astill told the five they had "betrayed the country that has given you every advantage in life".

The jury was not told that two men who had met Khyam four times when he was under surveillance in early 2004 were Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, his right-hand man in the 7/7 cell. About 16 months later Khan, Tanweer and two other men detonated suicide devices on three Tube trains - at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross - and on a London bus. Nor did the jurors know that Khan joined Khyam and other members of his bombing team at an al-Qa'ida training camp in Pakistan in July 2003.

The two men were part of a group of young Britons who trained under and took orders from Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, the al-Qa'ida leader who was transferred to Guantanamo Bay last week after being caught by US forces in Iraq.

Police believe another associate of the group tried to buy surface-to-air missiles to bring down a passenger jet. Kazi Rahman, 29, pleaded guilty last year to trying to buy terrorist weaponry and was jailed for nine years but his conviction can only be reported now.

Pakistani intelligence sources said that agents had monitored the group of "English boys" and alerted British agencies that they were planning to strike in Britain. A high-ranking official said: "There is no question that 7/7 could have and should have been stopped. British agencies did not follow some of the information we gave to them."

The connection between the convicted bomb plotters - who were caught in a huge investigation codenamed Operation Crevice - and the 7/7 bombers led to a growing clamour for a public inquiry.

Rachel North, who survived the King's Cross blast, said she had been appalled to learn that Khan and Tanweer were associates of known terrorists. "I remember that (former home secretary) Charles Clarke came out and said 'these bombings came out of the blue, these men are clean skins'," Ms North said.

"It was tempting to believe that these guys had never been known to the police or the security services, that they had somehow managed to make these bombs and drive down to London and get on Tube trains and a bus, and that it was a terrible tragedy and there was nothing anybody could have done to stop them.

"When it transpired that was not the case, it was devastating. This has fuelled my desire for an independent inquiry because it appears we have not been told the truth about what we knew about these bombers prior to 7/7."

A group of survivors will deliver a solicitor's letter to the Home Office overnight demanding "an independent and impartial public inquiry" that would produce "a comprehensive, accurate and definitive factual account" of the events of 7/7.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also called for an independent inquiry into the bombings and the suggestion that MI5 missed vital opportunities to prevent them. But Mr Reid rejected the call for a public inquiry, which he said would divert resources from the front-line fight against terrorism.

He told the Conservatives' spokesman for home security, David Davis, that he was wrong to claim that the identities of any of the bombers had been known before 7/7.

"They were not known to the security services until after 7/7," insisted Mr Reid, who praised the police and security services for their work in foiling the bomb plot. Mr Davis said last night that the Home Secretary's position was indefensible.

He said: "The Home Secretary continues to block an independent inquiry into a major security failure that left 52 dead and 700 injured on the grounds that it is a waste of time. At the time of 7/7, we were told the suicide bombers were unknown to the authorities. This is plainly not true."

Mr Reid told parliament that MI5 had taken the unprecedented step of publishing a list of questions and answers about 7/7 on its website.

In its statement, MI5 said: "Even with the benefit of hind-sight, it would have been impossible from the available intelligence to conclude that either Khan or Tanweer posed a terrorist threat to the public."

Peter Clarke, head of the Counter-Terrorism Command at Scotland Yard, said the conviction of Khyam and four of his accomplices marked a new understanding of the al-Qa'ida threat to Britain.

Mr Clarke said: "The investigation showed the links that these men had with al-Qa'ida in Pakistan. Most of them had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003, and were taught how to make explosives; some had been involved in extremism as far back as 2001. This was not a group of youthful idealists. They were trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists who were obviously planning to carry out an attack against the British public."

Mr Clarke said it was now known that Khan and Tanweer had met the Operation Crevice suspects but that they were judged at the time not to pose a threat to public safety.

He added: "It is a grave disappointment and a matter of great regret to everyone involved in counter-terrorism that we were not able to prevent the attack on July 7, 2005."

Is al Qaeda in Iraq fighting a Sunni backlash?

cnn

• Report of al Qaeda in Iraq leader's death may hint at insurgent rifts
• Analyst: Anbar fighters trying to exclude foreign militants from public role
• Some indigenous Iraqi insurgents say killing civilians is counterproductive
• Regional anti-al Qaeda group has emerged and is working with U.S. forces

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Reports of fighting between al Qaeda in Iraq and Sunni militants surfaced Tuesday, the latest hints of rising tensions between the two allied groups.

Other reports have emerged this year of tensions between Sunni fighters and the Sunni-dominated al Qaeda in Iraq, particularly from Anbar province, long a favored turf for indigenous Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from Syria.

The unconfirmed reports from tribal leaders to Iraqi government officials indicate that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed Tuesday in fighting between al Qaeda militants and Sunni tribal fighters from Abu Ghraib and Falluja.

If Sunni militants had information that led to al-Masri's death, it's a sign of possible rifts among Sunni militants in Iraq, according to CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen.

Militant groups in the region "have been trying to put a more Iraqi face" on their movement and have been trying to "exclude the foreign militants from a public role," Bergen said.

Al-Masri is Egyptian and many suicide attacks are carried out under al Qaeda's direction by other foreigners such as Saudis and North Africans.

There has been talk among indigenous Iraqi insurgents that such attacks, which claim civilian lives, are counterproductive.

In addition, Bergen notes that the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq has adopted an alias that reflects his Iraqi roots: Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

Also, a regional anti-al Qaeda group, the Anbar Salvation Council has emerged which is a coalition touted by the United States and Iraq as a positive development in the war against al Qaeda in Iraq.

Hints of rifts among Sunni-allied insurgents emerged April 12 when two claims of responsibility were announced by Islamic State of Iraq after the deadly attack on Iraqi parliament. (Read more about the attack that claimed eight lives)

While the differing claims used similar and noncontradictory concepts, two claims could indicate differences in the movement, which has about six groups.

Arab media reports hint at rift

More evidence of disunity recently popped up in the Arab media.

Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language news network, reported last month that Ibrahim al-Shammari, a spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, said his group -- also in the Islamic State of Iraq -- does not plan to work with al Qaeda in Iraq.

Among the reasons, he said, are that al Qaeda has targeted Islamic Army of Iraq members and that their goals are divergent, with the Islamic Army in Iraq being more willing, in some circumstances, to deal with the United States instead of al Qaeda.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, addressed the Sunni backlash against al Qaeda at a news conference last week in Washington.

"Sunni insurgents and the so-called Sunni resistance are still forces that must be reckoned with, as well," Petraeus said. "However, while we continue to battle a number of such groups, we are seeing some others joining Sunni Arab tribes in turning against al Qaeda in Iraq and helping transform Anbar province and other areas from being assessed as lost as little as six months ago to being relatively heartening."

Petraeus said the United States "will continue to engage with Sunni tribal sheikhs and former insurgent leaders to support the newfound opposition of some to al Qaeda, ensuring that their fighters join legitimate Iraqi security force elements to become part of the fight against extremists."

He said it is part of the effort to "reach out to moderate members of all sects and ethnic groups to try to drive a wedge between the irreconcilables and the reconcilables, and help the latter become part of the solution instead of part of the problem."

U.S. working with Salvation Council

CNN's Michael Ware reported in March that the United States is giving local Sunni leaders from the Anbar Salvation Council free rein as long as the insurgents in the group root out and kill al Qaeda.

One Iraqi villager, Abu Miriam, told CNN that locals have tired of al Qaeda. He says his people began fighting U.S. forces, but foreigners infiltrated their ranks.

"If you talk against them, they let you go at first, then come back and behead you later," he said.

Asked what would become of him if al Qaeda knew he was talking, Abu Miriam replied, "I will be killed. In fact, slaughtered, slaughtered with a knife."

These tensions provoke the tribes' Salvation Council to work alongside U.S. Marines and soldiers. Its members carry weapons, launch operations against targets they select, make arrests and conduct interrogations.

"The tribes effectively sought out and killed on a repeated basis elements infiltrating from Syria as well as local elements trying to re-establish," a U.S. official said.

Asked if there had been an assassination program backed by U.S. forces, Zalmay Khalilzad, then-U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said, "We lose no sleep over the struggle against al Qaeda and the killing of al Qaeda people."

The Salvation Council says the United States has given it rifle ammunition, a claim the U.S. military does not dispute, and the Iraqi government has provided 30 vehicles.

"We are not looking for bloodshed. We minimize it," a senior Salvation Council member says. "If a suspect is peaceful, we arrest and hand him to the authorities, but if he resists, there will be no other way than to shoot him."

Al Qaeda has hit back hard at the tribes in recent weeks, sending chlorine bombs, car bombs and suicide bombers in explosive chest vests against their leaders.