Thursday, June 21, 2007

Documents: CIA tapped, tailed newsmen - USATODAY.com

Documents: CIA tapped, tailed newsmen - USATODAY.com

Documents: CIA tapped, tailed newsmen
By Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — Little-known documents made public Thursday detail illegal and scandalous activities by the CIA more than 30 years ago — wiretappings of journalists, kidnappings, warrantless searches and more.

The documents provide a glimpse of nearly 700 pages of materials that the agency has declassified and plans to release next week.

A six-page summary memo declassified in 2000 and released by The National Security Archive at George Washington University outlines 18 activities by the CIA that "presented legal questions" and were discussed with President Ford in 1975.

Among them:

•The "two-year physical confinement" in the mid-1960s of a Soviet defector.

•CIA wiretapping in 1963 of two columnists, Robert Allen and Paul Scott, following a newspaper column in which national security information was disclosed. The wiretapping revealed calls from 12 senators and six congressmen but did not indicate the source of the leak.

•The "personal surveillances" in 1972 of Pulitzer Prize-winning muckraking columnist Jack Anderson and staff members including Les Whitten and Britt Hume. The surveillance involved watching the targets but no wiretapping. The memo said it followed a series of "tilt toward Pakistan" stories by Anderson.

•The personal surveillance of Washington Post reporter Mike Getler over three months beginning in late 1971. No specific stories are mentioned in the memo.

Much of the decades-old activities have been known for years. But Tom Blanton, head of the National Security Archive, said the 1975 summary memo prepared by Justice Department lawyers had never been publicly released. It sheds light on meetings in the top echelon of government that were little known by the public, he said.

CIA Director Michael Hayden called the documents being released next week unflattering, but he added that "it is CIA's history."

"The documents provide a glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency," Hayden told a conference of historians on Thursday.

Blanton pointed to more recent concerns, such as post-Sept. 11 programs that included warrantless wiretapping. "The resonance with today's controversies is just uncanny," he said.

The documents were compiled at the direction of CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, he directed senior CIA officials to report immediately on any current or past agency matters that might fall outside the authority of the agency.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

National Security Archive: The CIA's Family Jewels


National Security Archive: The CIA's Family Jewels - Agency Violated Charter for 25 Years,
Wiretapped Journalists and Dissidents



The CIA's Family Jewels

Agency Violated Charter for 25 Years,
Wiretapped Journalists and Dissidents

CIA Announces Declassification of 1970s "Skeletons" File,
Archive Posts Justice Department Summary from 1975,
With White House Memcons on Damage Control

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 222
Edited by Thomas Blanton

Posted - June 21, 2007

For more information contact:
Thomas Blanton - 202/994-7000

Washington D.C., June 21, 2007 - The Central Intelligence Agency violated its charter for 25 years until revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation led to official investigations and reforms in the 1970s, according to declassified documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden announced today that the Agency is declassifying the full 693-page file amassed on CIA's illegal activities by order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973--the so-called "family jewels." Only a few dozen heavily-censored pages of this file have previously been declassified, although multiple Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed over the years for the documents. Gen. Hayden called today's release "a glimpse of a very different time and a very different Agency."

"This is the first voluntary CIA declassification of controversial material since George Tenet in 1998 reneged on the 1990s promises of greater openness at the Agency," commented Thomas Blanton, the Archive's director.

Hayden also announced the declassification of some 11,000 pages of the so-called CAESAR, POLO and ESAU papers--hard-target analyses of Soviet and Chinese leadership internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations from 1953-1973, a collection of intelligence on Warsaw Pact military programs, and hundreds of pages on the A-12 spy plane.

The National Security Archive separately obtained (and posted today) a six-page summary of the illegal CIA activities, prepared by Justice Department lawyers after a CIA briefing in December 1974, and the memorandum of conversation when the CIA first briefed President Gerald Ford on the scandal on January 3, 1975.

Then-CIA director Schlesinger commissioned the "family jewels" compilation with a May 9, 1973 directive after finding out that Watergate burglars E. Howard Hunt and James McCord (both veteran CIA officers) had cooperation from the Agency as they carried out "dirty tricks" for President Nixon. The Schlesinger directive, drafted by deputy director for operations William Colby, commanded senior CIA officials to report immediately on any current or past Agency matters that might fall outside CIA authority. By the end of May, Colby had been named to succeed Schlesinger as DCI, and his loose-leaf notebook of memos totaled 693 pages [see John Prados, Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby (Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 259-260.]

Seymour Hersh broke the story of CIA's illegal domestic operations with a front page story in the New York Times on December 22, 1974 ("Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years"), writing that "a check of the CIA's domestic files ordered last year… produced evidence of dozens of other illegal activities… beginning in the nineteen fifties, including break-ins, wiretapping, and the surreptitious inspection of mail."

On December 31, 1974, CIA director Colby and the CIA general counsel John Warner met with the deputy attorney general, Lawrence Silberman, and his associate, James Wilderotter, to brief Justice "in connection with the recent New York Times articles" on CIA matters that "presented legal questions." Colby's list included 18 specifics:

1. Confinement of a Russian defector that "might be regarded as a violation of the kidnapping laws."
2. Wiretapping of two syndicated columnists, Robert Allen and Paul Scott.
3. Physical surveillance of muckraker Jack Anderson and his associates, including current Fox News anchor Britt Hume.
4. Physical surveillance of then Washington Post reporter Michael Getler.
5. Break-in at the home of a former CIA employee.
6. Break-in at the office of a former defector.
7. Warrantless entry into the apartment of a former CIA employee.
8. Mail opening from 1953 to 1973 of letters to and from the Soviet Union.
9. Mail opening from 1969 to 1972 of letters to and from China.
10. Behavior modification experiments on "unwitting" U.S. citizens.
11. Assassination plots against Castro, Lumumba, and Trujillo (on the latter, "no active part" but a "faint connection" to the killers).
12. Surveillance of dissident groups between 1967 and 1971.
13. Surveillance of a particular Latin American female and U.S. citizens in Detroit.
14. Surveillance of a CIA critic and former officer, Victor Marchetti.
15. Amassing of files on 9,900-plus Americans related to the antiwar movement.
16. Polygraph experiments with the San Mateo, California, sheriff.
17. Fake CIA identification documents that might violate state laws.
18. Testing of electronic equipment on US telephone circuits.

Spying fears lead to Blackberry ban for government workers - World - smh.com.au

Spying fears lead to Blackberry ban for government workers - World - smh.com.au

Spying fears lead to Blackberry ban for government workers

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June 22, 2007
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PARIS: French Government officials have been ordered not to use handheld BlackBerry devices amid fears that Britain or the US might spy on them.

The French General Secretariat for Defence is worried because all BlackBerry emails are transmitted from servers in Britain and the US, and are at risk of being picked up by agents at the US National Security Agency or their British counterparts. "The risks of interception are real; it's economic warfare," said Alain Juillet, France's head of economic intelligence.

To drive home the point, Mr Juillet pointed out that during meetings US bankers and businessmen placed their BlackBerrys on the table with the batteries removed to avoid suspicion of foul play.

Government workers are reportedly deeply frustrated about the ban, which they say is taking them back to the dark ages of French bureaucracy. Some are flouting the ban and using their BlackBerrys in secret.

RIM, which created the BlackBerry, rejected the French concerns, saying its encryption system was "the most secure wireless data solution available" and had been approved for the transmission of sensitive data by the British Government and NATO.

Telegraph, London

As Recruitment Numbers Fall, U.S. Army Looking Toward Illegals

Ann Shibler
JBS
Thursday June 21, 2007

Fresh off the American Forces Press Service comes an item detailing the U.S. Defense Department's attempt to pressure Congress into fast-tracking a section of the stalled immigration bill for the purpose of military recruiting.

Follow this link to the original source: "Officials Hope to Rekindle Interest in Immigration Bill Provision"

Tucked away in the recesses of the current immigration bill there is a provision to help boost military recruiting. It's known as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act of 2007 (sections 621 through 632).

The provision was expected to help improve sagging recruitment numbers by allowing illegal aliens to enlist as a way to obtain citizenship. The Defense Department figures showed that the Army fell short in May by 399 recruits. The Army National Guard fell 12 percent short of their goal, while the Air National Guard was well below their target by 23 percent.

Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, explained that if one had come across the border as a minor child and had been in the U.S. school system for "a number of years," then one could be eligible to enlist under DREAM. Under the provision, the newly enlisted recruits would be given a Z visa, granting them probationary status as a legal resident and making them eligible for student loans, job training, and other benefits as a first step toward citizenship.

Presently "about 35,000 non-citizens serve in the military, and about 8,000 permanent resident aliens enlist every year," said Marine Maj. Stuart Upton, from the Pentagon. (Only non-citizen legal residents and green card holders qualify to serve.) Drawing from the pool of illegal immigrants would add significantly to recruitment goals. With at least 750,000 of the youths admittedly at military service age even 10 percent of them would equal a year's worth of recruits.

Max Boot, senior fellow at the internationalist Council on Foreign Relations, opines that the United States is crazy for not tapping into this demographic group. He even suggested that the United States go a step further by recruiting foreigners overseas to serve in the military.

Engaged in an unconstitutional perpetual war that is not warranted or popular, with extended and more numerous tours of duty now common, and a rapidly rising wounded and death toll, it's no wonder the armed services continue to be plagued by a lack of recruits. But is it wise to look to illegal immigrants who haven't assimilated well, learned the language of our nation, and whose loyalties may lie elsewhere to be trained in the finer points of warfare and combat?

We should learn a lesson from the ancient Romans who did just what is being proposed — with obvious results in the outcome.

Russia says relations with U.S. inspire alarm

Reuters
Thursday June 21, 2007

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that relations with the United States "inspire alarm," Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The exact context of the comment was unclear and Tass appeared to be the only Russian news agency reporting the comment, made in a speech to a think tank in Moscow.

Lavrov also said Russia wanted wider discussions on a major arms pact, after talks in Vienna this month ended in deadlock.

"We do not want to bury CFE," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Tass in reference to the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

Big Brother Britain: Wireless CCTV Can Be Hidden Inside Clothing

Mick Meaney
RNIF
Thursday June 21, 2007

Ongoing negotiations between “802 Global” and an unnamed Premier League football club could see Britain’s soccer terraces become a surveillance playground as live pictures can be beamed to a control room where the images will be scanned.

The miniature cameras can be hidden in lapels and hats and are already in widespread use throughout the UK, mainly to protect VIPs and used by security vans supplying cash to banks.

Tim Close, the director of sales and marketing at 802 Global, the company who make the cameras, says: “It’s adding an extra layer of security to the blanket. We see this as an overlay technology to enhance and build on traditional CCTV surveillance.

“For example, if the camera is in a helmet, it’s going to be trained straight at the face of the suspect during a robbery, which makes identification much easier — it’s more effective than ordinary CCTV” explained Tim Close.

However, this is just the latest step of the growing surveillance society, which now makes up one fifth of all worldwide surveillance and claims

  • over 4 million CCTV cameras
  • talking CCTV cameras
  • the trailing of listening CCTV cameras
  • CCTV cameras in bathrooms
  • fingerprinting in schools without guidelines, regulations or parental consent
  • the DNA database
  • the introduction of ID cards
  • the use of remote-controlled spy drones
  • biometric passports
  • Passport Offices aka “interrogation centres”
and the list goes on.

FDNY's 9/11 Toll Shocker

ANGELA MONTEFINISE and SUSAN EDELMAN
NY Post
Thursday June 21, 2007

About 5,000 active and retired FDNY employees are receiving medical treatment for injuries and illnesses connected to the World Trade Center attacks, according to a Fire Department document.

"That is an absolutely staggering number, and it's a number that speaks volumes," said Andrew Carboy, a lawyer who represents more than 200 firefighters in a negligence suit against the city. "That's half of what the force was on 9/11."

The FDNY had about 11,000 members on Sept. 11, 2001.

About 3,000 firefighters and EMS workers are receiving counseling for emotional problems. Another 1,500 are suffering respiratory ailments.

There are also between 600 and 1,000 FDNY members - most of whom retired after 9/11 - currently receiving prescription medication for a variety of illnesses, from asthma and gastrointestinal disease to depression and anxiety.

The shocking numbers were revealed in a June 8 FDNY "request for proposals," launched in search of a vendor to manage the department's prescription-drug program for five years.

The department announced in February that it will use millions of dollars in federal funds to help subsidize medication for workers suffering from 9/11-related injuries, allowing them to obtain free prescription drugs.

Although all 5,000 workers suffering from ailments - who were all screened by the FDNY - are eligible for the program, many are using workers' compensation or other forms of insurance to obtain medication.

There are 207 drugs approved in the program, including antidepressants Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil; anti-anxiety medication Xanax; narcotic painkiller OxyContin; and antipsychotics Haldol and Zyprexa, which are used to combat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

"When 5,000 members of the FDNY qualify for these kinds of medications, it's clear this problem isn't going to go away anytime soon," said Stephen Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

"People tend to forget, or maybe it's just human nature, to put that event behind you," he said. "But firefighters, many of whom lost many, many friends that day, besides the physical injuries, still suffer severe emotional pain."

Homeland Security can't look after itself

Nick Farrell
The Inquirer
Thursday June 21, 2007

THE US DEAPARTMENT of Homeland Insecurity, the outfit which tells other people how to make themselves safe, has suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years.

Red-faced departmental managers admitted to the US congress that hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems.

Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration workstations were infected with malicious software which spent a lot of time talking to outsiders. DHS staff had also lost a few laptops and its website has been turned over several times.

The Homeland Security Department's chief information officer, Scott Charbo, assured the senators his outfit was working to prevent such problems.

It may not be doing much, but it is still working.

More here.

Atlanta City Council Nixes Free Speech Zone Ordinance

Jonathan Springston
The Atlanta Progressive News
Thursday June 21, 2007

The Atlanta City Council voted unanimously Monday to file an ordinance creating free speech zones, essentially killing the legislation, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

The vote came after the Community Development/Human Resources (CDHR) Committee voted unanimously June 12, 2007, to recommend to the City Council to file the legislation.

CDHR Chairman Jim Maddox, who first introduced the legislation on behalf of the Mayor’s Office, briefed the City Council Monday on the ordinance and the discussion members had June 12, 2007.

"I believe the intent [of the ordinance] was good but it did not sit well with citizens," Maddox said Monday.

Maddox then moved to file the ordinance and the City Council voted 14 to 0 to do so.

Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Chief of Staff Greg Pridgeon had come to the June 12, 2007, CDHR Meeting to request on behalf of the Mayor’s Office that the CDHR Committee and the City Council file the ordinance.

"We are here today to say to this audience and this Committee that we may have been premature in the ordinance that we set forward," Pridgeon at the CDHR Meeting.

Several citizens briefly spoke before the vote Monday to remind and urge the City Council to file the ordinance for good during a public comment segment.

Activists and concerned citizens first received word of the ordinance when the City Council was prepared to approve it June 4, 2007.

Citizen outrage and concern among certain City Council Members forced the Full Council to send the ordinance back to the CDHR Committee for reconsideration.

Atlanta Progressive News has followed this ordinance in depth. For more of our coverage, see:

Committee Vote Likely Dooms Free Speech Zone Ordinance- Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0176.html

Mayor, City Attorney Seek Delay in Free Speech Zone Ordinance- Matthew Cardinale, News Editor

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0172.html

Atlanta Council Wants Free Speech Zones to Restrict Public Protests- Jonathan Springston and Matthew Cardinale

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0170.html

FBI Knowingly Allowed Bin Laden To Personally Charter Flight After 9/11


Newly released documents prove agency let Osama's family go at his request without even questioning them

Steve Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, June 21, 2007

The FBI were aware that Osama Bin Laden may have chartered one of the flights that took Bin Laden family members out of the U.S. in the days after the 9/11 attacks, yet allowed the planes to depart without even questioning them, new Agency documents reveal.

While all other air traffic had been grounded for days by the authorities they knowingly allowed the immediate family of their prime suspect behind the attacks to get into planes and fly out at Bin Laden's own request.

The previously confidential documents (PDF link) have been obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act and ongoing litigation.

The documents state:

ON 9/19/01, A 727 PLANE LEFT LAX, RYAN FLT #441 TO ORLANDO, FL W/ETA (estimated time of arrival) OF 4-5PM. THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN…THE LA FBI SEARCHED THE PLANE [REDACTED] LUGGAGE, OF WHICH NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS FOUND.

Traffic control reports show that the plane made four stops to pick up passengers and was then allowed to depart the United States for Paris where all passengers disembarked on 9/20/01.

The documents reveal that the FBI did not consider a single Saudi national nor any of the Bin Laden family worthy of investigative value.

Furthermore, Judicial Watch's examination of the documents has revealed that they contain numerous errors and inconsistencies which show the FBI’s investigation of the Saudi flights to be woefully inadequate and almost non existent.

For example, in one document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 20 of 23 passengers on the Ryan International Airlines flight (commonly referred to as the “Bin Laden Family Flight”) while a second FBI document claims only to have interviewed 15 of 22 passengers on the same flight.

“Eight days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Osama bin Laden possibly charters a flight to whisk his family out of the country, and it’s not worth more than a luggage search and a few brief interviews?” asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Clearly these documents prove the FBI conducted a slapdash investigation of these Saudi flights. We’ll never know how many investigative leads were lost due to the FBI’s lack of diligence.”

U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts ordered the FBI to resubmit “proper disclosures” to the Court and Judicial Watch, leading to these incredible findings.

It was revealed that the FBI had previously redacted Osama Bin Laden’s name from the records in order “to protect privacy interests.”

Note the previously blacked out "Osama Bin Laden" - privacy interests? get real.

The documents provide clear proof that the FBI was protecting the Bin Laden while the rest of the world was being told that he had masterminded the biggest terror attack in history. The FBI then attempted to cover up this fact.

An FBI spokesman said the information in the documents is inaccurate.

"There is no new information here. Osama bin Laden did not charter a flight out of the US," FBI special agent Richard Kolko said.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Kolko then cited the 9/11 Commission Report which determined that the FBI did conduct a thorough enough investigation, despite the fact that its own documents contradict each other on basic facts such as how many people were on a plane. Remember also that the same 9/11 Commission report failed to even mention the collapse of building 7, a 47 story skyscraper that wasn't hit by anything on 9/11 and in which many people lost their lives according to witnesses.

Perhaps the FBI allowed Bin Laden to charter the flight and take all his family members out of the USA because they know he is not a suspect. The FBI's most wanted page for Osama bin Laden still does not include an apportion of blame for 9/11 and there has still been no formal indictment of Bin Laden almost six years after 9/11.

The protection of Bin Laden by federal authorities has been ongoing since BEFORE 9/11 when agents were told to 'back off the Bin Laden family' in order to protect business interests that the Bush family had with the Bin Ladens and other Saudi nationals.

The FBI asserts that no one on the planes that left had any terrorist links. yet documents (specifically FBI document 199I WF213589) found back in November 2001 prove this to be a falsehood.

The FBI was on the trail of bin Laden family members living in the US before September 11. A document showed that special agents from the Washington field office were investigating Abdullah, a close relative of Osama, because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a suspected terrorist organisation, it said.

The Times of India reported at the time:

The report, which the BBC claimed was based on a secret FBI document, numbered 199I WF213589 and emanating out of the FBI’s Washington field office, alleged that the cynicism of the American establishment and "connections between the CIA and Saudi Arabia and the Bush men and bin Ladens" may have been the real cause of the deaths of thousands in the World Trade Centre attacks.

The Bin Laden family are business people, they are not as many would have it hardcore fundamentalist muslim extremists that live in caves in Afghanistan. Here is young Osama lounging around a pink Cadillac with his siblings looking very fashionable in the 1970s.

In the 1980s George W Bush made millions on the back of a company financed by Osama Bin Laden's elder brother, Salem. In addition both presidents Bush had lucrative stakes along with the Bin Ladens in The Carlyle Group which has gone on to become one of America's biggest defence contractors.

On the very morning of 9/11 George W. Bush's father was meeting with Osama bin Laden's brother, Shafig Bin Laden, in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Carlyle Group business. The Bin Ladens sold their stake in Carlyle soon after 9/11.

FBI Special agent Robert Wright broke down when testifying that he had been gagged and could not reveal the true extent of what he knew about the Bush-Bin Laden connection and 9/11. His lawyer stepped up and said live on C-Span that "The Bush Family vacations with the Bin Ladens".

The ties run deep and all lead to money, huge amounts of money. This is how the Bushes do business, this is how they have always done business, they own the best enemies money can buy and the latest revelations underscore the fact that an independent and thorough investigation into 9/11 and the Bush Administration's role in it is absolutely imperative.

Army Again Considers Longer Combat Tours

AP | June 20, 2007
ANNE FLAHERTY

WASHINGTON — The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force.

Most soldiers spend 15 months in combat with a guaranteed 12 months home, a rotation plan that has infuriated Democrats because it exceeds the service's goal of giving troops equal time home as in combat. In coming weeks, the Senate will vote on a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would restrict deployments.

"It's too early to look into the next year, but for the Army we have to begin to plan," Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We have to look into our options." Army spokesman Paul Boyce said, "If the future were to require such an option, it would be the last option on the list."

Gen. David Petraeus, Iraq war commander, suggested Sunday that conditions on the ground might not be stable enough by September to justify a drop in force levels, and he predicted stabilizing Iraq could take a decade. Earlier this year, Bush ordered the deployment of some 30,000 additional troops as part of a massive U.S.-led security push around Baghdad and the western Anbar province.

There are about 156,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

When asked by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., whether maintaining the force buildup would affect soldiers' 15-month combat schedules, Geren said he was unsure and cited "numerous options" available, including a "different utilization of the Guard and Reserve" and relying on the other services for help.

"We're committed to filling the requirements that the combatant commander asks," Geren said. "We have been able to do so up until now, and we will continue to do so."

The Army assessment comes as Democrats say they are already dissatisfied with the existing policy.

"Who was talking for the well being and the health of the soldiers when this requirement was put down?" asked Webb, referring to the 15-month combat tours. After four years of combat, the strategy in Iraq cannot "justify doing this to the soldiers in the Army and the families back here," he said.

Geren also said it "would certainly be valuable" if other departments helped more in rebuilding Iraq.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman said he was surprised during a recent trip to Iraq to see how many soldiers were tasked with "nation-building."

"I wish every American could see what the U.S. Army and others are doing to rebuild the government, the health care system, the education system, to secure the neighborhoods," said Lieberman, I-Conn. "But some of that, in the best of all worlds, should frankly be done by people from other departments of our government."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had accepted a request by Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, to "beef up the economic and political sections" of the embassy with more Arabic-language speakers and mid- to senior-level foreign service officers to supplement the existing work force.

"He says he needs these things, we're going to get them for him," McCormack told reporters. "We're going to get him what he needs."

There are currently only 10 U.S. diplomats in Baghdad, including Crocker, who are fluent in both written and spoken Arabic, the State Department says.

Geren said the decision made earlier this year to extend tours from 12 to 15 months was intended to ensure soldiers were guaranteed one year at home. Previously, soldiers deployed for 12-month cycles but were unsure when they would be sent back.

"I felt it was the best of the two tough choices to make. ... That decision I believe was the right one," Geren said.

The Senate panel is expected to approve Bush's nomination of Geren as Army secretary, replacing Francis Harvey who was pushed out amid a scandal on deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Lawmakers said they also were concerned about the Army's ability to care for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and brain injuries.

Geren said the Army is beginning an effort to educate senior military officers on how to identify symptoms. And last week, the Army contracted to hire 200 more mental health professionals, increasing such staff by more than 20 percent.

Despite the hiring push, Geren said it will still be tough to find people who specialize in treatment of the disorder, particularly in rural areas where many military bases are located.

"We have stressed a work force of the medical professionals in the mental health area that was already short and we've stressed it more with deployments," Geren said.

Bomb kills 78 in Baghdad, U.S. in big offensive

Reuters | June 19, 2007
Dean Yates

A suspected al Qaeda bomber killed 78 people when he rammed a truck into a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, just hours after 10,000 U.S. troops began an offensive against the Sunni Islamist group north of the capital.

The offensive around the city of Baquba in Diyala province is partly aimed at al Qaeda car bomb networks that cause carnage in Baghdad. It is one of the biggest military operations since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

One witness said the bomber drove his truck into the Khilani mosque in Baghdad, destroying one wall and wrecking part of the building's interior. The mosque's signature turquoise dome appeared to have suffered little damage.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the attacks on "Saddamists and Takfiris", a term commonly used by Iraqi officials to describe al Qaeda. "It shows (their) determination to ignite sectarian violence," Maliki said in a statement.

Police said 78 people had been killed, including at least nine women, and 224 others were wounded. Rescuers dragged bodies from the mosque while the charred remains of others could be seen in burned out minibuses around a nearby traffic circle.

It was the second worst bombing in Baghdad since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a crackdown in February in the capital aimed at halting Iraq's spiral into all-out sectarian civil war. A car bomb on April 18 killed 140 near a Baghdad market.

"Iraqis in this country are being killed every day. No one takes care of them," shouted one old man at the scene.

Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi said the truck had been loaded with gas canisters and half a metric ton of explosives.

The explosion followed a relatively quiet period in Baghdad after a four-day curfew was imposed last week in the wake of an attack on a revered Shi'ite shrine in the city of Samarra that was also blamed on al Qaeda.

Militants also fired a barrage of mortar bombs at Baghdad's Green Zone in one of the heaviest attacks in weeks on the compound that houses the U.S. embassy and government offices.

The U.S. embassy said no U.S. citizens were killed or wounded in the attack just before sundown. There was no other information about possible casualties.

ATTACK HELICOPTERS

The U.S. military said 22 militants were killed in the early hours of the offensive against al Qaeda around Baquba. Diyala province is a stronghold of the Sunni Islamist group but it also has significant Shi'ite and Kurdish populations.

"The end state is to destroy the al Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people," Brigadier-General Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general, operations, 25th Infantry Division, said in a statement.

"That is the number one, bottom-line, up-front, in-your-face, task and purpose."

The statement said about 10,000 soldiers, backed by attack helicopters, close air support and armored fighting vehicles were taking part in Operation Arrowhead Ripper.

It did not say how long the offensive would last. But it coincides with smaller operations launched in recent days against al Qaeda targets around Baghdad.

"It's certainly one of the largest since the end of ground operations in 2003," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told Reuters when asked to describe the significance of the operation.

Residents in Baquba, capital of Diyala, said heavy and continual explosions echoed around the city since before dawn. Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, was under total curfew, they added.

The operation comes just days after the U.S. military said it had completed its troop build-up in Iraq to 160,000 soldiers.

South of the capital, gunmen loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr battled police linked to a rival Shi'ite faction for a second day in the city of Nassiriya. Hospital officials said 35 people had been killed over the past two days.

The fighting underscored frictions between Sadr's political movement and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), which have raised fears of a battle for control of Iraq's more stable Shi'ite southern regions.

(Additional reporting by Paul Tait, Alister Bull, Ross Colvin, Waleed Ibrahim and Aseel Kami)

GALLUP: 7 in 10 Americans Say Economy Is 'Getting Worse'

E&P | June 19, 2007

NEW YORK A new Gallup Poll will only reinforce those who claim that while the rich get richer most Americans don't feel they are sharing in the growth in our economy. The stock market may be climbing and the unemployment remains relatively low, but 7 in 10 Americans believe the economy is getting worse -- the most negative reading in nearly six years.

Only one in three Americans rate the economy today as either excellent or good, while the percentage saying the economy is getting better fell from 28% to 23% in one month.

Gallup adds: "For the first time this year, a majority of Americans are negative about the employment market, saying it is a bad time to find a quality job."

The 70% negative rating is up 10 points since April. Also, just in the past month, there has been a significant five-point drop, from 28% to 23%, in the percentage saying conditions are getting better.

"When asked about the most pressing financial problems their family faces today, Americans mention healthcare costs, lack of money or low wages, and oil and gas prices," Gallup reports. "Healthcare costs are mentioned by 16% of Americans while 13% say low wages and 11% say oil and gas prices. These percentages are virtually unchanged from last month."

The survey of 1,007 adults was taken June 11 to 14.

US, Israel finalise Iran strike plan

Press Esc | June 20, 2007

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Washington yesterday and met with US President George W. Bush to finalise plans for a joint US-Israel strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

President Bush hinted that actions against Iran will form the core of their discussion.

"I'm sure that we will find some time, also, to discuss other measures, such as the danger of Iran and the threats that come from the President of Iran, who talks time and again about the liquidation of the state of Israel, something that is totally intolerable and unacceptable," he said. "And we have to continue the measures taken in order to stop the Iranian efforts to establish unconventional weapons."

Talking to reporters at a joint press conference Bush once again re-iterated his position on military strikes against Iran by saying "I will tell you this, that my position hasn't changed, and that is all options are on the table."

"And I fully understand the concerns of any Israeli when they hear the voice of the man in Iran saying, on the one hand, we want to acquire the technologies and know-how to build a -- enrich uranium, which could then be converted into a nuclear weapon, and on the other hand, we want to destroy Israel," he added. "Look, if I were an Israeli citizen I would view that as a serious threat to my security. And as a strong ally of Israel, I view that as a serious threat to its security -- not only the security of Israel, but the security of the Middle East."

Olmert also met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to obtain their broad support for military action against Iran.

Pelosi's comments welcoming the Prime Minister indicate that he is likely to get the backing he is seeking from the Congress.

“With the Republican and Democratic leaders gathered here, you see how strong the bipartisanship is for a great U.S.-Israel relationship," Pelosi said.

Meanwhile, Iran has formally complained to the United Nations about the planned strike by US and Israel.

"I wish to inform you that, emboldened by the absence of any action by the Security Council, various Israeli officials have unabatedly continued to publicly and contemptuously make unlawful and dangerous threats of resorting to force against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif wrote in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, dated June 11.

Iran has also accused the US of carrying out covert operations aimed at destabilising the country.

9/11 Bombshell: WTC7 Security Official Details Explosions Inside Building

Says bombs were going off in 7 before either tower collpased


Infowars Network | June 19, 2007

S. Watson

The Alex Jones show today welcomed Loose Change creators Dylan Avery and Jason Burmas to discuss an exclusive interview they have conducted with an individual with high level security clearance who was inside the Office of Emergency Management in World Trade Center 7 and has descibed and detailed explosions inside the building prior to the collapse of any of the buildings at ground zero on 9/11.

The interview, to be featured in the forthcoming Final Cut of Loose Change is currently under wraps but the creators have allowed some details to leak purely to protect themselves and the individual involved who has asked to remain anonymous until the film is released.

While details remain scant for obvious reasons, we can reveal that the individual concerned was asked to report to building seven with a city official after the first attack on the North tower but before the second plane hit the South Tower and before their eventual collapse, in order to provide the official with access to different floors of the building.

The city official he was escorting was attempting to reach Rudy Guiliani, who he had determined was inside building 7 at that time. According to Avery and Burmas this official now works for Guiliani partners.

The individual was also asked to provide access to the Office Of Emergency Management on the 23rd floor of the building, this was the so called "bunker" that was built inside WTC7 on the orders of Rudy Guiliani.

When he got there he found the office evacuated and after making some calls was told to leave immediately.

It was at this point that he witnessed a bomb going off inside the building:

"We subsequently went to the stairwell and were going down the stairs, when we reached the sixth floor, the landing that we were standing on gave way, there was an explosion and the landing gave way. I was left there hanging, I had to climb back up and now had to walk back up to the eighth floor. After getting to the eighth floor everything was dark."

The individual in a second clip detailed hearing further explosions and then described what he saw when he got down to the lobby:

"It was totally destroyed, it looked like King Kong had been through it and stepped on it and it was so destroyed i didn't know where I was. It was so destroyed that had to take me out through a hole in the wall, a makeshift hole I believe the fire department made to get me out."

He was then told by firefighters to get twenty blocks away from the area because explosions were going off all over the World Trade Center complex.

The key to this information is that the individual testifies this all happened BEFORE either tower collapsed, thus building 7 was at that point completely undamaged from any falling debris or resulting fires. It also means that explosions were witnessed in WTC7 up to eight hours before its collapse at around 5.30pm.

listen to the clips here .

Avery and Burmas, who played the two short clips of the interview prior to further analysis and more clips to be played on their own GCN radio show later tonight at 7pm CST, further described how the individual had witnessed dead bodies in the lobby of 7 and was told by the police not to look at them.

This is vital information be cause it is in direct conflict with the official claim that no one was killed inside building 7. The 9/11 Commission report did not even mention building, yet here we have a key witness who told them he saw dead people inside the building after explosions had gutted the lower level.

What makes all this information even more explosive is the fact that this individual was interviewed by the 9/11 Commission as they conducted their so called investigation.

The fact that the building was not even mentioned in the report in light of this information thus becomes chilling and indicates that officials have lied in stating that they have not come into contact with evidence of explosive devices within the buildings.

Avery and Burmas successfully contacted the individual after discovering a TV interview he did on 9/11 while they were trawling through news footage from the day in research for the Final Cut.

Avery says that he can and will prove beyond any shadow of doubt that the individual was in building 7 on 9/11 and that what he is saying is accurate.

American gamble or bluff: WTO members bet on Antigua

Published Thursday 21st June 2007 03:34 GMT

Analysis Antigua yesterday filed for formal trade sanctions against the United States, demanding $3.4 billion in compensation from the truculent, recalcitrant super power for failing to open its domestic market to remote gambling services. Antigua, as expected, was not alone; the hottest online gaming market in the world, the EU, also filed for sanctions.

Antigua has been embroiled in a four year battle with the US over the provision of remote gambling services, and the WTO has repeatedly ruled against the US, in increasingly stern terms. After the US tried to insist to the WTO that it had brought itself into compliance without doing anything at all – a novel argument that riled the WTO compliance panel – the WTO issued a definitive and far reaching ruling in favor of Antigua, opening the door for sanctions for the tiny Caribbean country that has seen one of its principal industries pummeled repeatedly by the American Department of Justice (DOJ).

The rules of the WTO typically provide for traditional tit-for-tat trade sanctions, but for tiny countries like Antigua that depend heavily on imports, such an approach can be economically devastating, while doing virtually nothing to penalize the offending nation. The WTO thereby provides an alternative; countries may suspend their own obligations to the offending country. Antigua thus could sell unlicensed copies of American movies or software, for example, to compensate itself for losses resulting from the American actions.

Although gambling is the kind of allegedly trivial activity that inspires strong reactions in many people, important principles of international law and trade are at stake: just what kind of internet do we want, and to what extent can one country pick up its proverbial marbles and go home when trade disputes go bad? Do we want the freewheeling internet that characterized its early years, or a tightly regulated and controlled internet, subject to the prosecutorial whims of the administration of the day? Regardless of what one thinks of gambling and gamblers, just how far should American police jurisdiction really go?

The United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) has taken a similar hard line position to that of the DOJ, and it’s clear from the American arguments in front of the WTO that the two have been working in concert on this case. Not surprising, since this dispute has revolved around American criminal law and how it impacts internet gambling.

What is surprising is the extent to which the USTR seems willing to abandon the decades of hard-fought negotiations covering the international trade in services that ultimately resulted in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) for a policy ultimately damaging to American trade interests. The USTR, after pretending the US didn’t really know what it was doing when it failed to exempt gambling services from its schedule of commitments (countries are allowed to exempt “immoral” services or products, but cannot discriminate in doing so), and repeatedly getting hammered by the Antiguans, has decided to redefine its GATS commitments to eliminate gambling services, thereby opening the door for other WTO members to do the same. It’s not hard to understand how such an approach may quickly render international agreements worth less than the paper they are printed on.

And so, today, what is expected to become a parade of countries demanding sanctions against the United States as a result of its refusal to comply with WTO rulings on gambling services began to form, as Japan and India piled it on with more demands for compensation. Every other signatory affected will have a right to demand sanctions, and those sanctions may, depending on the circumstances, be applied against any American industry, from automobiles to semiconductors.

Perhaps this is just a game of chicken by the USTR, a kind of unilateralist posturing, although that seems hard to believe considering the floundering state of the current DOHA round of negotiations; just where the WTO goes from here, no one really knows.®

Starbucks in Ethiopia coffee vow

Coffee beans
Coffee is a vital source of income for Ethiopia
Starbucks has agreed a wide-ranging accord with Ethiopia to support and promote its coffee, ending a long-running dispute over the issue.
bbc

The US retailer will market, distribute and, in some cases, license Ethiopia's range of high-quality coffee brands.

A row over the recognition and use of trademarks for its coffee has stymied co-operation between the two sides.

But it is hoped the deal will act as a catalyst to raise prices and improve the livelihoods of Ethiopian farmers.

'Milestone'

Although Ethiopian coffees command a premium price in foreign markets, particularly the US, farmers who grow the beans often live in extreme poverty.

Hopes of an alliance between Starbucks and Ethiopia receded last year when the retailer objected to a plan to license rights to coffee brands in countries where they were not registered as trademarks.

Having the commitment and support of Starbucks will improve the income of farmers and traders
Getachew Mengistie, Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office

Starbucks was also accused of opposing potentially lucrative trademark applications in the US.

But the new agreement acknowledges Ethiopian ownership of popular coffee designations such as Yirgacheffe, Harrar and Sidamo, regardless of whether they are registered or not.

It will also allow Starbucks to use coffee types in certain markets under agreed conditions.

Ethiopian farmers will not receive royalty payments from the deal, but it is hoped that more effective distribution and marketing will help boost demand and, in time, lift prices.

"This agreement marks an important milestone in our efforts to promote and protect Ethiopia's speciality coffee designations," said Getachew Mengistie, director general of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office.

Starbucks staff at US store
Starbucks recognises the value of Ethiopian beans

"Having the commitment and support of Starbucks will help enhance the quality of Ethiopian fine coffees and improve the income of farmers and traders."

Ethiopian coffees have been trademarked in the US, Japan, Canada and Europe, while applications are pending in China, Brazil and India.

Fairtrade concern

But fair-trade campaigners argue that this has done little so far to reward Ethiopian farmers, some of whom receive only $300 a year for their crop.

Ethiopian officials said the ultimate aim of the agreement was to try to boost prices, which for Starbucks purchases averaged $1.42 per pound last year.

Starbucks said the accord was far more comprehensive than previous agreements.

"We are extremely pleased that this agreement supports both the Ethiopian speciality coffee industry and the farmers and their communities that produce these fine coffees, while allowing us to bring them to our customers," said chairman Howard Schultz.

Ethiopia is Africa's third largest coffee producer, behind Uganda and the Ivory Coast, and coffee is its largest source of foreign exchange.

China opposes new IMF ruling on exchange rate policy

Beijing, June 21 (PTI): China has expressed "reservations" about a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) ruling on exchange rate policy, saying drastic exchange rate fluctuations in a country will damage its economic stability as well as that of other developing nations.

"As it does not fully reflect the opinions of developing countries, China has expressed reservations about the adoption of this decision," a statement from the People's Bank of China said.

The IMF's Executive Board decided on Friday on a new framework for IMF bilateral surveillance, or the way the Fund monitors and assesses its member's economies.

It is an update of the 1977 Decision on Surveillance over Exchange Rate Policies. The revised decision adds the new principle that a member should avoid exchange rate policies that result in external instability.

The ruling has been widely interpreted as a move to increase pressure on China to allow a faster revaluation of the Chinese currency, yuan.

Past experience has shown that exchange rate adjustment has a role in resolving external imbalances, but it is not the fundamental and only instrument to that end, the Chinese central bank said.

"In the past years, many developing countries, China included, have worked hard to adjust their domestic economic structure, improve market mechanisms and increase exchange rate flexibility. These efforts have contributed to the rapid growth of the global economy," it added.

China is under pressure from its major trading partners to revalue its currency. American manufactures contend that the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 per cent.

The Bilderberg Group: A powerful coterie

merinews
The Bilderberg Group is a select group of high profile personalities from Europe and North America who meet annually to “promote Trans-Atlantic cooperation”, but have been accused of “deciding” the fate of the world and its people behind closed doors.

THE BILDERBERG GROUP or Bilderberg conference is a select group of around 120-130 individuals who meet every year in an invitation-only conference. The members of this group are the crème-de-la-crème of world politics, business and media. While this group meets annually at high-profile and exclusive venues, generally in Europe, once in every four years, the scene shifts to the United States or Canada. The Bilderberg Group began in the year 1954 as a small network of the high and mighty in Europe and North America who met to discuss the state of the relations between Europe and the US and promote trans-Atlantic cooperation.

Origin of the name Bilderberg:

The Bilderberg Group takes its name from the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands where the group first met from May 29 to May 31, 1954. Organisational matters are handled by a steering committee of two people from each of the participating nations. Joseph Retinger, a Polish political advisor, émigré and founder of the European Movement took the lead in proposing an international conference to promote trans-Atlantic Cooperation. Retinger is, however, alleged to have been working for the Freemasons, the Vatican, the Mexican government and British intelligence at various times in his life. He was also the Chairman of the European Movement, which campaigned for closer European integration.

Some of the other leading personalities who supported Retinger included Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the then Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the head of Unilever at that time, Paul Rijkens. The first meeting was a success, which led the organizers to propose an annual conference. A permanent Steering Committee was then set up. When Retinger passed away, Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel took over as the permanent secretary in 1960. Prince Bernhard served as the meeting’s chairman until 1976, when his name surfaced in the Lockheed scandal. Though there was no meeting that year, the meetings resumed in 1977 under Alec Douglas-Home, the former British Prime Minister. Invites for this conference are sent only to select people from Europe and North America. While the location of their meetings is not secret, the public and press are strictly off-limits.

Important people associated with Bilderberg:

The Bilderberg Group includes the Who’s Who from the higher echelons of international banking, media, governments, royal families and businessmen from Europe and North America. Some of the important personalities who have attended Bilderberg Group meetings include Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy defense secretary and former World Bank head, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Leon Brittan, former vice-president of the European Commission, John Deutch, former US deputy secretary of defence, Javier Solana Madariaga, former NATO secretary-general, American billionaire David Rockefeller, the former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger and many others.

Criticisms:

What has added to the aura of secrecy surrounding the Bilderberg Group is that the proceedings of the meetings are kept secret. There have been allegations that the members of the Bilderberg Group are making decisions that influence people across the world, without any accountability. Another grouse has been that many of those invited are from the world of business, which shows that it is money that does the talking at these conferences. It has also been alleged that Bilderbergers even decide when wars should start and when they should end. Since many of the Bilderbergers head central banks, it has been alleged that they manipulate discount rates, gold prices etc.

Among the positive things it has been associated with include the prompting of the establishment of the European Community. It has also helped to bring Europe closer to North America, especially the United States, which has been very beneficial in those matters where European governments have been at loggerheads with the Americans, like the war in Iraq, the Kosovo issue and many others. Since Bilderbergers know each other personally, this has helped to cement official-level ties between their respective governments. Irrespective of the controversy shrouding the Bilderberg Group, the fact remains that this high-profile group is here to stay and will definitely stay in the news.

The latest meeting of the Bilderberg Group was held in June 2007 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in ÅžiÅŸli, Istanbul, Turkey, shrouded in secrecy as usual.

Additional Reading:

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3773019.stm

2. http://www.prisonplanet.com/archive_bilderberg.html

3.http://www.meta-religion.com/Secret_societies/Groups/The_Bilderberg_Group/bi

lderberg_group.htm

Europe Divided on How to Unite

First it was the Euro-skeptics. Now, those in favor of a more integrated European Union are threatening to veto the new draft treaty -- if the UK and other nay-sayers get their way. With leaders assembling in Brussels on Thursday, time is running out.

A life-size placard of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski is displayed amongst placards of other EU leaders in Brussels in advance of the crucial summit on Thursday.
Zoom
REUTERS

A life-size placard of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski is displayed amongst placards of other EU leaders in Brussels in advance of the crucial summit on Thursday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as current European Union president, has spent the last few weeks trying to cajole dissenters, such as Poland and the UK, into agreeing to a new European Treaty to replace the defunct constitution. But while the Eurosceptics have been attracting all the attention, now those in favor of further integration are also threatening to play hardball. Both Spain and Luxembourg have raised the specter of using their vetoes -- not if the treaty goes too far but if it doesn't go far enough.

EU diplomats are now faced with reaching agreement on 15 outstanding objections to the so-called "draft mandate," an 11-page blueprint presented by Germany to the 27 member states on Tuesday. The European leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to try to hammer out a final deal on how to make the bloc work more effectively. Now some German officials are trying to dampen expectations, while the tone across Europe is getting decidedly undiplomatic.

The remaining sticking points include the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the role of an EU foreign minister, and voting rights. While the main blocker in the run up to the summit has been Poland, which has threatened to scupper the deal with its veto, the UK, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic are other countries who have voiced serious misgivings.

The conflict over EU voting rights, explained.
Zoom
DER SPIEGEL

The conflict over EU voting rights, explained.

Poland has calld for a change to the proposed "double majority" voting system, which is says favors larger countries, particularly Germany. Great Britain doesn't want to hand over any sovereignty over foreign and defence policy to the EU, or to allow the Charter of Fundamental Rights have any influence on its own legal system, while the Netherlands want a greater say for national parliaments.

Spain and Luxembourg, however, are now threatening not to sign up to any deal that makes too many changes to the original constitution.

The amount of unresolved issues, means that diplomats are expecting the meeting to go on well into the early hours of Saturday and one thing people can agree on is that a deal is far from guaranteed.

Germany Dampening Expectations

The EU member states are attemping to reach agreement on an alternative to the European constitution, which was ratified by 18 countries, but killed off when France and the Netherlands voted against it in referenda in 2005. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has made reviving the treaty a central plank of her six-month presidency of the European Council.

In a letter to the other leaders in advance of the Brussels meeting, Merkel wrote: "The European public now expects us to put the necessary reforms of the union in hand." She goes on: "The time has now come to set out the roadmap for the impending reforms of the treaties."

PHOTO GALLERY: WHAT DOES EUROPE THINK OF THE TREATY?

Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (10 Photos)


But a wave of nasty barbs and a ramping up of the rhetoric this week does not exactly point to a harmonious Europe. And it could take all of Merkel's famed diplomatic skills to achieve a break through in Brussels this week. German diplomats at a briefing in Berlin on Wednesday said: "If there's no solution, there's no solution. The world won't end if that happens." And a senior German official told Reuters, "It's impossible to predict success."

Poland's World War II rhetoric

The Poles have been using particularly emotional rhetoric in advance of the summit. Polish Prime Miniser Jaroslaw Kaczynski told Polish radio on Tuesday that his objection to the proposed new voting formula went back to the country's suffering in World War II. According to Thursday's Financial Times, he said: "If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million." Poland's current population is 38 million.

But although Warsaw has been the most vociferous opponent of the treaty in recent weeks, it seems to be coming round. The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso phoned Kaczynski on Wednesday and afterwards said "He promised me he would work towards a compromise." Later Kaczynski told Reuters: "We realize we cannot stop the process (of reform) ... that would be too risky for the future." He said there was a 50-50 chance of the summit reaching an agreement.

Now the UK seems to be stepping into its old role as the main Euro spoilsport. Britain fears that a legally binding Charter could take precedence over its Common Law -- unlike the other EU member states, Great Britain does not have a written constitution. Tony Blair this week talked about "red lines" that could not be breached in the negotiations. London is objecting to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, has questioned the role of a single EU foreign minister and does not want to give up British control over justice, foreign policy or tax and benefits arrangements.

British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett is reported to have told a parliamentary committee earlier this week that the rest of the EU was "in denial" over the rejection of the constitution, and cannot adopt a treaty that is too similar to that original text. She is also reported to have complained about the way Germany has prepared for the summit. "There haven't been feverish negotiations and discussions in Europe. I wish there had," she said. "We did assume that there would be a sustained process of dialogue and draft documents. It simply hasn't happened."

Rejecting a Watered-Down Treaty

But the British and Polish attempts to water down the treaty have enraged other countries. Spain is insisting on the establishment of the role of European foreign minister, and the Spanish press reports that the Madrid government is threatening to use its veto on this point.

And Luxembourg is also fuming at the Euro-skeptic saber-rattling in advance of the summit. Speaking on Germany's ZDF channel on Wednesday, Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker warned that if the summit failed then the EU could split into a two-speed bloc, with some European states further integrating "without the others."

And in an interview with German daily Die Welt, published on Thursday, he said: "We will do everything we can to get the substance of the old constitution text into the new treaty." And he didn't refrain from flexing tiny Luxembourg's muscles, adding: "If I have the impression that the progresses in the constitutional treaty, which the Luxembourg people voted for, is threatened, then I will have to say No."

smd/ap/reuters/dpa

'Queen should withdraw award'

afp

A top Muslim cleric in Indian Kashmir called on Thursday for books by Salman Rushdie to be burned and said Britain had to apologise for awarding the author a knighthood.

A small protest also saw some 200 Muslim youths chant "Death to Rushdie" and "Down with Britain" as they torched effigies of the Indian-born British author, accused of blasphemy against Islam in his 1998 book The Satanic Verses.

"I urge the Queen and her government to withdraw the award and also apologise to the Muslim world for conferring the knighthood title on Rushdie, as it has hurt Muslim sentiments," Grand Mufti Bashir-u-Din said in a statement.

He also urged governments around the world to ban Rushdie's books and called on Kashmiri Muslims to burn them, arguing that Rushdie was still "liable to be killed for rendering gravest injury."

Rushdie was sentenced to death in a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A hardline militant group, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, called for a one-day strike in the revolt-hit region on Friday.

"The Kashmiri nation has to rise in one voice to show resentment against the shameful decision by observing a complete shutdown," Jamiat spokesman Jameel Ahmed said.

Some booksellers in the summer capital, Srinagar, said they had started withdrawing Rushdie books from their shelves.

"It is a sensitive issue and we have to respect sentiments," said bookseller Bashir Ahmed.

Despite the controversy over The Satanic Verses, many of Rushdie's other novels continue to be sold across the Muslim world. - AFP

What The "Chinese Style" Internet Will Look Like

Electronic police state: Say goodbye to high speed broadband when everything goes through a government censor

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Control freaks the world over, including most recently Tony Blair, have called for the introduction of a Chinese style Internet, where the World Wide Web is tightly regulated and free speech stifled on the whim of a government censor.

Here's what Internet 2, the Chinese format, will look like.

Say goodbye to downloading your favorite music or videos in seconds via high-speed cable or ADSL. There is no high speed broadband Internet in China. Since every website you access has to first pass through a government approved list, even the likes of Yahoo and Google lag and stumble onto your monitor, as if you're using dial-up.

If you don't live in a major city then expect your Internet connectivity to be degraded to a speed slower than dial-up.

The Communist Chinese government blocks any website that is mildly critical of the state and that even extends to mainstream foreign news outlets such as the BBC. Under the new format that Blair and others are proposing, the function of the Internet as a forum for political debate, protest and freedom of speech will simply cease to exist.

Say goodbye to video blogging - since popular personal video upload sites are notoriously hard to moderate, they too will disappear. Despite the best efforts of Google to cozy up to Red China, Google Video is blocked.

Say goodbye to e mail as a reliable form of communication. If the person you're writing to has an account with a mail service that the government doesn't like, the mail is simply returned to you and you're informed that the recipient is an "illegal user".

Keyword logging is also employed to block out individual words - if you include them in the e mail then you've just wasted your time in writing it because it doesn't get through.

"The Washington Post obtained a list of keywords used by a Chinese blog service provider to flag offensive material. Of 236 items on the list, 18 were obscenities. The rest were related to politics or current affairs," reported the Post in February 2006.

"Most words on this list can be posted on Chinese Web sites, but their presence quietly alerts editors to examine the messages that contain them and possibly take action. In tests, postings that included long sections of the list were allowed to remain on several sites, but quickly removed from others. One site also blocked the computer used to conduct the tests from posting anything else."

Say goodbye to Googling away to your heart's content. If you input too many sensitive words in one go, as I did with "Bush" and "Taiwan" - google.com ceases to be accessible at all and in some cases your Internet connection is instantly terminated.

In conclusion, the new Internet will be nothing more than an electronic police state, merely acting as a tool for the authorities to track down and incarcerate dissidents who dare question the government.