Vatican calls verbal attack on Pope "terrorism"

reuters
The Vatican's official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of "terrorism" for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.

In an unusually strongly worded editorial, L'Osservatore Romano said a presenter of a televised May Day rock concert, which is sponsored by Italy's labor unions, had launched "vile attacks" on Pope Benedict in front of an "excitable crowd".

"This, too, is terrorism. It's terrorism to launch attacks on the Church," it said. "It's terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man."

At the concert, held every year in front of the Saint John in Lateran basilica -- Rome's cathedral where Pope Benedict sits as bishop -- one of the presenters, Andrea Rivera, spoke out against the Pontiff's stand on a number of issues.

"The Pope says he doesn't believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved," he said.

He also criticized the Church for refusing to give a Catholic funeral to Piergiorgio Welby, a man who campaigned for euthanasia as he lay paralyzed with muscular dystrophy. He died in December after a doctor agreed to unplug his respirator.

"I can't stand the fact that the Vatican refused a funeral for Welby but that wasn't the case for (Chilean dictator Augusto) Pinochet or (Spanish dictator Francisco) Franco," he said between musical acts at the open-air concert.

The latest salvo between the Vatican and its critics in Italy comes a few days after the head of Italy's bishops' conference, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, received a bullet in the post after making comments that his critics say compared homosexuality with incest and pedophilia.

The Osservatore said Rivera's monologue came amid growing anti-clericalism in Italy which included graffiti and Internet messages supporting the Red Brigades, the Marxist group involved in political violence particularly in the 1970s.

"Some people have even twisted (Bagnasco's words) to start an insidious 'war', a new season of tension, which is inspiring those who are looking for motives to return to taking up arms," the newspaper said.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a devout Catholic who is backing legislation to give legal rights to unmarried couples, including homosexuals -- a bill opposed by the Church -- called for calm.

"We have to have calm and good sense," he told reporters. "Unfortunately the rhetoric has continuously been getting harsher over recent months. This country doesn't need it."

FBI agent testifies he posed as al-Qaida recruiter in terror case

AP
An FBI agent who posed as an al-Qaida recruiter in a terrorism investigation testified Thursday at a doctor's trial, recalling that a key conspirator in the case showed him how he could strangle somebody with his prayer beads.

The agent, Ali Soufan, is a key witness in the terrorism trail against the doctor, Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 52, who was charged two years ago with pledging to provide material support to al-Qaida by offering to treat the group's injured fighters.

Most of Soufan's testimony in nearly a day on the witness stand revolved around conversations he had with Tarik Shah, a martial arts expert and jazz musician who said he wanted to introduce him to Sabir. Several taped conversations from a meeting between the agent and Shah in Plattsburgh, N.Y. were played for the jury.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Metzner often paused the tapes to ask Soufan to explain portions of the conversations.

During one talk, Soufan said Shah showed him long prayer beads of the type worn by martial arts masters, and said Shah demonstrated that he could strangle someone with the prayer beads _ "that he could kill with these beads."

Soufan testified the demonstration came after an earlier conversation in which he told Shah that members of al-Qaida had already used martial arts effectively in attacks "and were very successful."

Soufan said he was referring to the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Shah pleaded guilty several weeks ago to providing material support to a terrorist organization. He faces 15 years in prison. Two other defendants, a former Washington D.C. cab driver and a Brooklyn bookstore owner, have pleaded guilty to similar charges and face between 13 and 15 years in prison.

The pleas left Sabir as the lone defendant in the case that relied on tape recordings by a government informant that began weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sabir's lawyer, Ed Wilford, said there was very little evidence, if any, related to his client.

"It's clear you're dealing with two different people," he said of the distinction between his client and Shah. "Dr. Sabir is a medical doctor," he said. "This guy, Shah, is a nut."

Wilford said the government was trying to make up for the lack of evidence against Sabir by showing the jury heavy evidence against someone he knew, Shah, and by linking al-Qaida to multiple terrorist attacks.

"What the government is trying to do is lump everybody into one pot," he said.

If convicted, Sabir could face up to 30 years in prison.

Iraq Memo leak was to 'reveal truth'

bbc
A civil servant accused under the Official Secrets Act of leaking a confidential memo wanted to reveal the truth about Iraq, a court has heard.
David Keogh, 50, and MP's researcher Leo O'Connor, 44, are on trial accused of trying to leak a record of a meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush.

The men, both from Northampton, deny making damaging disclosures.

Counsel for Mr Keogh asked jurors if they would "do the courageous thing" if they were placed in his position.

Few details of the "highly sensitive" memo, which is known to have included discussions about military tactics, have been made public.

Its contents are considered so secret that much of the trial is being held behind closed doors, and have not been directly referred to in court by counsel or witnesses.

'Blackadder script'

The court heard earlier that Mr Keogh gave the memo to political researcher Mr O'Connor at a dining club in Northampton.

It was passed to Northampton South MP Anthony Clarke, who called the police.

Speaking outside the Old Bailey on Thursday, BBC correspondent Ben Geoghegan said Mr Keogh's barrister Rex Tedd QC had reminded the jury of the context in which he says the actions of the two men should be seen.

The British and Americans had gone to Iraq and taken a "tiger by the tail" but did not know how to safely let go, he said.

He said it was ironic, something that "even the scriptwriters of Blackadder couldn't come up with" when President Bush described the campaign as "mission accomplished".

Mr Tedd said Mr Keogh had wanted to seek to reveal the truth of what was happening in Iraq while others were trying to conceal that truth.

He asked the jury whether if they were put in that position where they had some across such a document - whether they would have done the "courageous thing and release it" or "do what you are supposed to do?" which was to hand it in.

'Fear'

Earlier this week Mr O'Connor had never been "so worried and so fearful" when he was passed the document.

Mr O'Connor, who worked for anti-war Labour MP Mr Clarke, said he was approached by Mr Keogh and told about "some quite embarrassing, outlandish statements" in the four-page document.

But he told the jury that he took the claims with a "pinch of salt".

"It was the fear of knowing that I'd got something that I shouldn't have been in possession of, that I needed to get back to where it came from."

Asked if he intended to send copies of the document to newspapers or members of Parliament he said: "The thought never crossed my mind."

Top officials: Bush can still wiretap US citizens without warrant

raw story
Senior Bush administration officials said Tuesday that they believe the president still has the constitutional authority to continue his domestic wiretapping program without first seeking court approval.

"Senior U.S. administration officials have told the U.S. Congress that they could not promise that the Bush administration would fulfill its January pledge to continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program," reports the International Herald Tribune.

In January, the administration agreed to seek court-approved warrants for all wiretaps of US citizens and other living inside the US.

But during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) that he could not promise that Bush would always seek warrants for domestic wiretaps.

"Sir, the president's authority under Article II is in the Constitution," McConnell said. "So if the president chose to exercise Article II authority, that would be the president's call."

Article II of the US Constitution outlines the power and responsibilities of the executive branch of government.

Yesterday, RAW STORY reported that McConnell urged Congress to update the 978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), under which January's agreement placed the controversial domestic spying program.

Critics say that updating FISA could legalize the warrantless domestic wiretaps.

Senate Intelligence Committee members are equally skeptical according to the Associated Press.

"Is the administration's proposal necessary, or does it take a step further down a path that we will regret as a nation?" asked Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) of McConnell at Tuesday's hearing.

Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse also expressed trepidation saying, "We look through the lens of the past to judge how much we can trust you."

"Like other senators, he said that trust had been undermined by the recent disclosure that the FBI had abused so-called national security letters to obtain information about Americans," writes the AP.

A Stock Market Post-Mortem

counterpunch
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class that's winning."

--Investment tycoon, Warren Buffett

The real estate market is crashing faster than anyone had anticipated. Housing prices have fallen in 17 of 20 of the nation's largest cities and the trend lines indicate that the worst is yet to come. March sales of new homes plummeted by a record 23.5% (year over year) removing all hope for a quick rebound. Problems in the subprime and Alt-A loans are mushrooming in previously "hot markets" resulting in an unprecedented number of foreclosures. The defaults have slowed demand for new homes and increased the glut of houses already on the market. This is putting additional downward pressure on prices and profits. More and more builders are struggling just to keep their heads above water. This isn't your typical 1980s-type "correction"; it's a full-blown real estate cyclone smashing everything in its path.

Tremors from the real estate earthquake won't be limited to housing--they will rumble through all areas of the economy including the stock market, financial sector and currency trading. There is simply no way to minimize the effects of a bursting $4.5 trillion equity bubble.

The next shoe to drop will be the stock market which is still flying-high from increases in the money supply. The Federal Reserve has printed up enough fiat-cash to keep overpriced equities jumping for joy for a few months longer. But it won't last. Wall Street's credit bubble is even bigger than the housing bubble---a monstrous, lumbering dirigible that's headed for a crash-landing. The Dow is like a drunk atop a 13,000 ft cliff; inebriated on the Fed's cheap "low-interest" liquor. One wrong step and he'll plunge headlong into the ether.

The stock market cheerleaders are ooooing and ahhing the Dow's climb to 13,000, but it's all a sham. Wall Street is just enjoying the last wisps of Greenspan's low interest helium swirling into the largest credit bubble in history. But there are big changes on the way. In fact, the storm clouds have already formed over the housing market. The subprime albatross has lashed itself to everything in the economy ---dragging down consumer confidence, GDP and (eventually) the stock market, too. The real damage is just beginning to materialize.

So why the stock market keep hitting new highs?

Is it because foreign investors believe that American equities will continue to do well even though the housing market is slumping and GDP has shriveled to the size of a California raison? Or is it because stockholders haven't noticed that the greenback getting clobbered every day in the currency markets? Or, maybe, investors are just expressing their confidence in the way the U.S. is managing the global economic system?

Is that it---they admire the wisdom of borrowing $2.5 billion per day from foreign lenders just to keep the ship of state from taking on water?

No, that's not it. The reason the stock market is flying-high is because the Federal Reserve has been ginning up the money supply to avoid a Chernobyl-type meltdown. All that new funny-money has to go somewhere, so a lot of it winds up in the stock market. Evergreen Bank's Chuck Butler explains the process in Thursday's Daily Pfennig:

"The Fed may have quit publishing the M3 data, but they continue to publish all the data that goes into the calculation and our friends over at Shadow Government Statistics have a chart which demonstrates
why the Fed decided to keep M3 under wraps. A look at the chart shows the Fed is pumping up broad money supply at an astounding rate of 11.8% per year! All of this rapid money supply growth is reflected in an increase in equity prices. The stock market needs to rise just to keep pace with all of this newly-created money. As long as the Fed doesn't rock the boat with another rate hike or by turning off the spigot of money flowing into the markets, the equity markets will continue to run."

Ah-ha! So the Fed gooses the money supply, stocks shoot up, and everyone's happy---right?

Wrong. Growth in the money supply should (closely) parallel growth in the overall economy. So if GDP is shrinking (which it is) and the money supply is increasing then--Viola!--inflation. ("11.8%" to be precise)

Of course inflation doesn't affect the investor class or their fellow-scoundrels at the Fed---the more money floating around the markets the better for them. It's just the opposite for the pensioner on a fixed income or the salaried wage-slave who gets a 15-cent pay raise every millennia. They end up getting ripped off with every newly-minted greenback.

But then that's the plan---to shift zillions from one class to another through massive equity bubbles. All it takes is artificially-low interest rates and a can of WD-40 to keep the printing presses rolling. It's so simple we won't dignify it by calling it a "conspiracy". It's just a swindle, pure and simple. But it never fails.

Every time the Fed prints up another batch of crisp $100 bills; they're confiscating the hard-earned savings of working class people and retirees. And, since the dollar has dropped roughly 40% since Bush took office in 2000; the government has absconded with 40% our life savings.

That's the truth about inflation; it is taxation without representation, but you won't find that in the government's statistics. In fact, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) deliberately factors out food and energy so the working guy can't see how the Fed is robbing him blind. The only way he can gauge his losses is by going to the grocery store or gas station. That's when he can see for himself that the money he works so hard to earn is steadily losing its purchasing power.

The big question now is how long will it take before foreign creditors wise up and see the maxed-out American consumer is running out of steam. As soon consumer spending slows in the US; foreign investment will dry up and stocks will tumble. China and Japan have already slowed or stopped their purchases of US Treasuries and China has stated that they plan to diversify their $1 trillion in US dollars in the future. This has lowered demand for the dollar and decreased its value in relation to other currencies. (The dollar hit a new low just last week at $1.36 vs. the euro)

A slowdown in consumer spending is the death-knell for the dollar. That's when there'll be a stampede for the exits like we've never seen before--with each of the world's central banks tossing their worthless greenbacks into the jet-stream like New Years' confetti. According to Monday's Washington Post that moment may have already arrived. As the Post's Martin Crutsinger says, "Consumer spending rose at the slowest rate in five months in March while construction activity managed only a tiny gain, weighed down by further weakness in housing".

The connection between housing and consumer spending is critical. Housing has been the main engine for growth in the US in the last 5 years accounting for 2 out of every 5 new jobs and hundreds of billions in additional spending through home-equity extractions. A downturn in consumer spending means that foreign investors will have to look for more promising markets abroad, which will trigger a steep reduction in the amount of cheap credit coming into the country via the $800 billion trade deficit. This will slow growth in the US while further weakening the dollar.

Can you say stagflation?

The present currency and economic crises were brought on by Bush's unfunded tax cuts, unsustainable trade deficits, and the Fed's hyperinflationary monetary policy. These policies were executed simultaneously for maximum effect. They were entirely premeditated. Many people now believe that the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve are intentionally creating an "Argentina-type meltdown" so they can privatize state owned assets and usher in the North American Union--the future "one state" alliance of Canada, Mexico and US--along with the new regional currency, the Amero.

Stay tuned.

Nevertheless, monetary policy is not the only reason the stock market is headed for a fall. There's also the jumble of scams and swindles which have been legalized under the rubric of "deregulation". New rules allow Wall Street to take personal liabilities and corporate debt and repackage them as precious gemstones for public auction. It's the biggest racket ever.

Consider the average hedge fund for example. The fund may have originated with $10 billion of its own cash and swelled to $50 billion through (easily acquired) credit. The fund manager then creates an investment portfolio that features CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) to the tune of $160 billion. The majority of these "assets" are nothing more than shaky subprime loans from struggling homeowners who have no chance of meeting their payments. In other words, another man's debt is magically transformed into a Wall Street staple. (Imagine if you, dear reader, could sell your $35,000 credit card debt to your drunken brother-in-law as if it was a bar of gold or a vintage Ferrari. That, believe it or not, is the scam on which bond traders thrive)

So, the fund is leveraged, the assets are leveraged and (guess what) the investors are leveraged too---either buying on margin or borrowing oodles of cheap, low interest credit from Japan to maximize their profit potential.

Get the picture; debt x debt x debt = maximum profit and skyrocketing stock prices. That's why the face value of the market's equities far exceeds the world's aggregate GDP. It's all one, big debt-Zeppelin and it's rapidly tumbling towards planet earth.

KABOOM!

Deregulation works like a charm for the gangsters who run the system. After all, why would they want rules? They're not thinking about capital investment, productivity or infrastructure. They're not building an economy that serves the basic needs of society. They're looking for the next big mega-merger where two monolithic, maxed-out corporations join in conjugal bliss and create a mountain of new credit. That's where the real money is.

Wall Street generates boatloads of cyber-cash with every merger. This pushes stock prices up, up and away. Deregulation has turned Wall Street into the biggest credit-generating Cash-Cow of all time--spawning zillions through seemingly limitless debt-expansion. These virtual dollars were never authorized by the Federal Reserve or the US Treasury--they emerge from the black whole of over-leveraged uber-transactions and the magical world of derivatives trading. They are a vital part of Wall Street's house of mirrors where every dollar is increased by a factor of 50 to 1 as soon as it enters the system. Assets are inflated, debt is converted to wealth, and fiscal reality is vaporized into the toxic gas of human greed.

Doug Noland at Prudent Bear.com explains it like this: "We've entered a euphoric phase of financial arbitrage capitalism with extreme Ponzi overtones, a pyramid scheme of revolving credit rackets and percentage spread plays completely abstracted from any reality of fruitful activity. The reason we don't even call "money" by its former name anymore is precisely because we realize at some semi-conscious level that "liquidity" is not really money. Liquidity is a flow of hallucinated surplus wealth. As long as it flows in one direction, into financial markets, valve-keepers along the pipeline, like Goldman Sachs, Citibank, or the hedge funds, can siphon off billions of buckets of liquidity. The trouble will come when the flow stops -- or reverses! That will be the point where we will rediscover that liquidity really is different from money, and if we are really unlucky we'll discover that our money (the US dollar) is actually different from real wealth".

Noland is right. The market is "a pyramid scheme of revolving credit rackets and percentage spread plays" and no one really knows what to expect the flow of liquidity slows down or "reverses".

Will the stock market crash?

It depends on the aftereffects of the subprime meltdown. The defaults on existing mortgages are only part of the problem. The real issue is how the "credit dependent" stock market will respond to the tightening of lending standards. As liquidity dries up in the real estate market; all areas of the economy will suffer. (We've already seen a downturn in consumer spending) Wall Street is addicted to cheap credit and it has invented myriad abstruse debt-instruments to get its fix. But what happens when investment simply withers away?

According to WorldNetDaily.com Jerome Corsi that question was partially answered in a letter from the Carlyle Group's managing director William Conway Jr. Conway confirms that the rise in the stock market is related to "the availability of enormous amounts of cheap debt". He adds that:

"This cheap debt has been available for almost all maturities, most industries, infrastructure, real estate and at all levels of the capital structure." (But) "This liquidity environment cannot go on forever. The longer it lasts, the worse it will be when it ends.Of course when ends, the buying opportunity will be once in a lifetime."

Ah, yes, another wonderful "buying opportunity"?

You can almost feel the breeze from the great birds flapping overhead as they focus their gaze on the carrion below. Once the stock market collapses and the greenback flattens out on the desert floor; they'll be plenty of smiley faces preparing for the feast.

Conway is right, though, the stock market IS floating on a cloud of cheap credit created by a humongous trade deficit, artificially low interest rates, and a 10% yearly expansion of the money supply. Like he says, "It cannot go on forever." And, we don't expect that it will.

5-1-07 LAPD ASSAULTS IMMIGRATION REFORM DEMONSTRATORS

Bush Wants Phone Firms Immune to Privacy Suits

washington post
The Bush administration is urging Congress to pass a law that would halt dozens of lawsuits charging phone companies with invading ordinary citizens' privacy through a post-Sept. 11 warrantless surveillance program.

The measure is part of a legislative package drafted by the Justice Department to relax provisions in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that restrict the administration's ability to intercept electronic communications in the United States. If passed, the proposed changes would forestall efforts to compel disclosure of the program's details through Congress or the court system.

The proposal states that "no action shall lie . . . in any court, and no penalty . . . shall be imposed . . . against any person" for giving the government information, including customer records, in connection with alleged intelligence activity the attorney general certifies "is, was, would be or would have been" intended to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The measure, which has not yet been filed, is contained in a proposed amendment to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill.

The immunity measure has stoked controversy following public uproar over news reports of warrantless access to both telephone conversations and records as part of the administration's post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism policies. It is part of a larger debate about the proper balance between guarding national security and civil liberties and the extent to which private companies have acted as an arm of the federal government. In March, the Justice Department inspector general found that the FBI had secret contracts with three telephone companies to obtain Americans' phone records, claiming "exigent circumstances," when, in many instances, none existed.

Civil liberties advocates opposed the immunity measure. They said the government had yet to disclose to Congress the attorney general's legal opinion supporting the surveillance program and what role the phone companies played in it.

The government asserts that the blanket immunity is necessary to protect sensitive national security information. "If companies are alleged to have cooperated with the government to protect our nation against another attack, they should not be held liable for any assistance they are alleged to have provided," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said.

The immunity would be limited to assistance from Sept. 11, 2001, to the date the measure becomes law.

Though laws exist that could immunize companies against civil and criminal liability in surveillance cases, invoking them would acknowledge that the firm cooperated with the government. Such knowledge could allow a terrorist to adjust tactics, the government argues.

Government lawyers crafted the immunity bill using terms deliberately vague in referring to activity that "would be or would have been" aimed at protecting the country from attack to avoid indicating whether a company cooperated.

But civil libertarians charged that blanket immunity would amount to a legislative pardon to telecommunications companies and others that have aided the government's warrantless surveillance, without explaining the pardon's basis.

"To let them off the hook now sets a dangerous precedent by encouraging them to continue to engage in illegal collaborations with the government in the future," said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which last year filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T, charging that the company allowed the government to unlawfully monitor U.S. residents.

The measure would gut Congress's efforts to conduct inquiries into the administration's surveillance program because a subpoenaed company or government official could invoke immunity, said Tim Sparapani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued the government to force a halt to its wiretapping program.

"The end result is not only will the Bush administration continue to stonewall Congress in its request for information on warrantless wiretapping, but no one who participated will have any threat above their head," Sparapani said. "You could just face a congressional subpoena and say, 'I'm sorry, I'm immunized.' "

Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said to gain his support, the measure needs to state explicitly that a person who intentionally violates the law should not be granted immunity. "If somebody intentionally breaks the law . . . that's not something you should just ignore," he said.

Bungle over Al-Qaida death

herald sun
It appears there was only one senior al-Qaida leader killed this week by US forces, however, Iraqi forces twice intercepted the corpse.

According to the US military, Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri was shot dead by US forces on Tuesday just west of Taiji.

He was the Minister of Information under the overall head of al-Qaida-affiliated groups in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

Al-Jubouri was suspected of a role in the kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll and the murder of US hostage Tom Fox last year.

His body was brought to Baghdad for DNA testing, then released for burial. But as the relative drove through Baghdad with the body, he was stopped by Iraqi police, who took the body and handed it over to US forces, who released it again.

An alert local tipped off Iraqi security forces that the body of a senior al-Qaida leader, believed to be al-Baghdadi, was in a mosque, and Iraqi security forces seized it and announced they had killed al-Baghdadi.

The US has no reason to think al-Baghdadi and al-Jubouri are the same man -- but they aren't certain who al-Baghdadi is.

Lawmakers wants VA to explain bonuses

chron
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders on Thursday demanded that the Veterans Affairs secretary explain hefty bonuses for senior department officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1 billion short and jeopardized veterans' health care.

Rep. Harry Mitchell, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee on oversight, said he would hold hearings to investigate after The Associated Press reported that budget officials at the Veterans Affairs Department received bonuses ranging up to $33,000.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, who heads the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the payments pointed to an improper "entitlement for the most centrally placed or well-connected staff." He has sent a letter to VA chief Jim Nicholson asking what the department plans to do to eliminate any bonuses based on favoritism.

"These reports point to an apparent gross injustice at the VA that we have a responsibility to investigate," said Mitchell, D-Ariz. "No government official should ever be rewarded for misleading taxpayers, and the VA should not be handing out the most lucrative bonuses in government as veterans are waiting months and months to see a doctor."

One member of the House committee, Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., called for Nicholson to resign.

A list obtained by the AP of bonuses to senior career officials in 2006 documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among those receiving payments were a deputy assistant secretary and several regional directors who crafted the VA's flawed budget for 2005 based on misleading accounting. They received performance payments up to $33,000 each, a figure equal to about 20 percent of their annual salaries.

Also receiving a top bonus was the deputy undersecretary for benefits, who helps manage a disability claims system that has a backlog of cases and delays averaging 177 days in getting benefits to injured veterans.

The bonuses were awarded even after government investigators had determined the VA repeatedly miscalculated — if not deliberately misled taxpayers — with questionable methods used to justify Bush administration cuts to health care amid the burgeoning Iraq war.

Annual bonuses to senior VA officials now average more than $16,000 — the most lucrative in government. All bonuses are proposed by division chiefs, then approved by Nicholson.

A VA spokesman said the payments are necessary to retain hardworking career officials. "Rewarding knowledgeable and professional career public servants is entirely appropriate," spokesman Matt Burns said.

Several veterans groups questioned the practice. They cited short-staffing and underfunding at VA clinics that have become particularly evident after recent disclosures of shoddy outpatient treatment of injured troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

"Rewarding bureaucrats for failure while veterans wait for care is inexcusable," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

In a letter to Nicholson, Akaka also asked the department to outline steps to address disparities in which Washington-based senior officials got higher payments than their counterparts elsewhere.

"Awards should be determined according to performance," said Akaka, D-Hawaii. "I am concerned by this generous pat on the back for those who failed to ensure that their budget requests accurately reflected VA's needs."

Burns, who said the department is reviewing Akaka's request, said many of the senior officials have the kind of experience that would be hard to replace.

"The importance of retaining committed career leaders in any government organization cannot be overstated," Burns said.

VA officials characterized the agency's Washington-based jobs as more difficult, often involving management of several layers of divisions that would justify the higher payments.

In 2006, the VA officials receiving top bonuses included Rita Reed, the deputy assistant secretary for budget, and William Feeley, a former VA network director who is now deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management.

Also receiving $33,000 was Ronald Aument, the deputy undersecretary for benefits, who helps oversee the strained and backlogged claims system that Nicholson now says is unacceptable.

In July 2005, the VA stunned Congress by suddenly announcing it faced a $1 billion shortfall after failing to take into account the additional cost of caring for veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The admission, which came months after the department insisted it was operating within its means and did not need additional money, drew harsh criticism from both parties and some calls for Nicholson's resignation.

In urging Nicholson to step down, Hare cited problems with accounting as well as data security that contributed to the loss of 26.5 million veterans' sensitive personal information last year.

"Time and time again, Secretary Nicholson, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, opted to offer political spin instead of preparing for the inevitable influx of new veterans entering the system," Hare said. "Veterans deserve a secretary that will fight for them."

Burns, the VA spokesman, defended Nicholson. "Nobody cares more about veterans than Secretary Nicholson," Burns said, adding that his boss's "efforts to serve his fellow veterans will not be deterred by partisan posturing and angry personal attacks."

The investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, determined the VA had used misleading accounting methods and claimed false savings of more than $1.3 billion, apparently because President Bush was not willing, at the time, to ask Congress for more money.

According to the White House Office of Personnel Management, roughly three of every four senior officials at the VA have received some kind of bonus each year. In recent years, the payment amount has steadily increased from being one of the lowest in government — $8,120 in 2002 — to the most generous — $16,713 in 2005.

In contrast, just over half the senior officials at the Energy Department in 2005 received an average bonus of $9,064. Across all government agencies, about two-thirds of employees received bonuses, which averaged $13,814 in 2005, the most recent data available.

Hijacking by Renegade Cubans Is Foiled

washington post
MEXICO CITY, May 3 -- Cuban police reportedly fought a gun battle Thursday with two renegade soldiers who tried to hijack a plane at Havana's José Martí International Airport.

An army officer who had been taken hostage was killed on the plane before the soldiers were captured, according to a statement issued to the Associated Press by Cuba's Interior Ministry. The ministry said the soldiers had seized control of a bus taking passengers to a plane waiting on the tarmac.

The would-be hijackers were among three recruits who escaped from a Cuban military base over the weekend after killing one soldier and wounding another, according to the statement. The third recruit was captured before the botched hijacking, the ministry said.

In its statement, the ministry blamed U.S. policies for encouraging Cubans to immigrate to the United States and said the incident was a result of Washington's tolerance of violence against Cuba.

The Cuban government had earlier identified the soldiers as Leandro Cerezo Sirut and Alain Forbus Lameru, both 19, and Yoan Torres Martínez, 21. It was unclear which of the soldiers, all three from the eastern province of Camaguey, were involved in the hijacking attempt.

The Cuban government portrayed Army Lt. Col. Victor Ibo Acuña Velázquez, who was killed during the foiled hijacking, as a hero.

"Despite being unarmed," the Interior Ministry statement read, "he heroically tried to prevent the commission of the terrorist act."

Rumors flew through Havana about the pre-dawn attack, but a resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said late Wednesday that it had not been mentioned in the state-run media.

In the 1970s, there was a rash of hijackings of U.S. planes by fugitives who wanted to be taken to Cuba. But there have been far fewer attempts to hijack planes in Cuba, where residents cannot legally buy guns.

"Having an armed attempt at hijacking is unusual," Dennis K. Hays, a former State Department coordinator for Cuban affairs, said in an interview from his Washington office.

In early 2003, two planes were hijacked in Cuba in separate incidents. One of the planes was hijacked by six knife-wielding men. In the other incident, Fidel Castro personally tried to negotiate with a man who was threatening to detonate a grenade. The Cuban president eventually let the plane fly to Florida. Once it was on the ground, 10 of the 27 passengers were granted political asylum.

EU leads clamour for carbon cuts after UN climate change report

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BANGKOK (Thomson Financial) - The European Union (EU) led demands for a deal to slash global greenhouse-gas emissions after the UN's top scientific panel said deep cuts in this pollution over the next couple of decades could avert longer-term climate damage.

In a statement issued shortly after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its report, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for a breakthrough in efforts to shape a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

'Negotiations on a new global climate change agreement must be launched at the next UN ministerial conference in December,' Dimas' statement, issued in Brussels, said.

'It is now time for the rest of the international community to follow our lead and commit to ambitious reduction targets.'

The 27 EU countries have vowed to cut their emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases by 20 pct by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. It has offered to deepen this to 30 pct if other major polluters follow suit.

The IPCC report, released in Bangkok today, laid out a menu of options for limiting emissions, adding that the technology and policies were all within reach.

Under one of its scenarios, to keep global warming to 2.0-2.4 C (3.6-4.3 F) over pre-industrial times, emissions would have to peak by 2015 and reduce to 50-85 pct of 2000 levels by 2050. The cost would shave around 0.12 percentage points off annual global economic growth.

Among the tools it identified are greater use of renewable energy sources and setting a 'carbon price' to drive up the cost of using fossil fuels, thus encouraging energy efficiency and a switch to cleaner sources.

China plans to control weather for Olympics

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Cloud seeding to be used to prevent rainfall

WASHINGTON -- China's plan to keep the skies sunny and clear during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing shows how far weather modification has come, climatologists say.

If a storm approaches the city, the Chinese said they would seed the clouds with silver iodide to force rainfall, cleansing the air and ensuring spectators and athletes stay dry.

Weather patterns over Beijing in recent decades indicate a 50 percent chance of rain, Chinese meteorologists say. Air pollution from industry and automobiles also is a problem.

The Chinese are as likely as anyone to have scientists skilled enough to stop the rain, said Joseph Golden, senior research scientist for the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, Colo.

The Chinese government has one of the world's largest weather-modification programs, spending about $100 million on the projects and training about 1,500 scientists to administer them, he said. Most of the effort involves increasing rainfall for agriculture.

Weather modification in the United States is more sporadic and done mostly by state or local governments.

"We have fallen behind," Mr. Golden said.

The techniques have been used to increase snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, to clear up icy fog around Salt Lake City International Airport, decrease the size of hail in North Dakota and increase rainfall in Texas.

Changing the weather for a few days during the Olympics is a step beyond any previous efforts by the Chinese, he said.

"This is a whole new thing for them," Mr. Golden said.

Cloud seeding is nothing new, but doing it successfully to prevent rainfall in a specific place is a tricky proposition, according to climatologists.

"I think there's a good chance" Chinese scientists can prevent rain from falling on the Olympics, said Ross Hoffman, vice president of Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc., a Lexington, Mass., company that does customized weather forecasting for industry.