Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Blair swaps Downing Street for the Middle East

Deborah Summers, Mark Tran, David Batty and agencies
Wednesday June 27, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


The Blair family leaves Downing Street
Leaving Downing Street: Tony Blair accompanied by his family (left to right) Euan, Kathryn, Cherie, Nicky and, in the front, Leo. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/PA


Tony Blair today bowed out of British politics, stepping down as prime minister and an MP to take a new job as special Middle East envoy.

In a carefully choreographed sequence of events, the UN announced Mr Blair's appointment - which had been heavily trailed last week - just hours after he made his exit from British political life.

Soon after handing his resignation as prime minister to the Queen at Buckingham Palace, Mr Blair stood down as MP for Sedgefield, the constituency he had represented since 1983.

More or less simultaneously, his new role was formally announced at the UN headquarters in New York.

"Mr Blair has long demonstrated his commitment to these issues," a UN spokeswoman said. "He will mobilise international assistance for Palestinians."

The former prime minister will act as the representative for the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia.

In a statement, the group said he would spend significant time in the region "working with the parties and others to help create viable and lasting government institutions representing all Palestinians, a robust economy, and a climate of law and order for the Palestinian people".

The White House was quick to welcome Mr Blair's appointment, Reuters reported.

"The president welcomes this announcement, appreciates his [Blair's] willingness to serve and to continue his work for peace in the Middle East," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Confirmation that the former prime minister was to take up the post came amid renewed violence in Gaza.

Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, in their biggest raid on Gaza since Hamas Islamists took over the territory two weeks ago.

The death toll was the highest in a single day since Hamas routed the forces of Fatah movement, which is led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

A Fatah official said Mr Abbas welcomed Mr Blair's appointment as the Quartet's special envoy.

"The president, who was consulted on the matter, has given the assurance that he will work with Mr Blair to arrive at a peaceful solution on the basis of two states," the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, told the AFP news agency. "The president is sure that the commitment of Mr Blair to achieving peace is real and strong."

Talya Lador-Fresher, Israel's deputy ambassador in London, also welcomed Mr Blair's appointment.

"It is the right person at the right time," she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. "Tony Blair has the trust of most players in the Middle East, and certainly his efforts with the Middle East peace process will be both welcomed and necessary."

Earlier, Mr Blair was asked about the Middle East crisis during his final appearance at the Commons despatch box.

"The only way to bring peace and stability to the Middle East is by a two-state solution," he told MPs. "I believe it is possible to do that, but it will require a huge intensity of focus and work."

Mr Blair received a standing ovation from MPs of all parties as he said farewell to parliament at his final prime minister's question time.

He gave an upbeat and at times lighthearted performance to an emotionally charged chamber.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, stepped aside from the usual party political arguments to pay tribute to Mr Blair's "remarkable achievement of being prime minister for 10 years" and wish him well for the future.

"For all of the heated battles across this dispatch box, for 13 years you have led your party, for 10 years you have led your country and no one can be in any doubt in terms of the huge efforts you have made in terms of public service," he said.

"You have considerable achievements to your credit, whether it is peace in Northern Ireland, whether it is your work in the developing world, which I know will endure."

Mr Blair returned the compliment, thanking the Tory leader and saying, that despite their political differences, he had always found him "most proper, correct and courteous in your dealings with me".

The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said that despite their political disagreements, Mr Blair had been "unfailingly courteous".

Ulster's first minister, the Rev Ian Paisley, paid tribute to Mr Blair for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process, and said he was now entering into "another colossal task".

The house fell silent as he added: "I hope that what happened in Northern Ireland will be repeated."

In lighter moments, there was laughter when Eurosceptic Tory MP Nicholas Winterton asked for a promise to hold a referendum on the new EU treaty. Mr Blair refused, adding: "Au revoir, auf wiedersehen and arrivederci."

A few minutes later, Mr Blair revealed he had yesterday received his P45.

After the father of the house, Alan Williams, bid him a final farewell, Mr Blair admitted he had never been "much of a Commons man" but admitted he had "never stopped fearing" it and even today felt a "tingling apprehension" before question time.

In his final remarks to the chamber, he said: "I wish everyone, friend or foe, well and that is that, the end."

Blair, Brown Eye New Agendas

Outgoing British PM Takes Role As Mideast Envoy, While Successor Wants New Tack For Iraq

cbsnews
LONDON, June 27, 2007
Over the last 13 years, Tony Blair, left, and Gordon Brown developed an acrimonious relationship, with rumors that Blair’s charisma and Brown’s caution often clashed. (AP)

Quote

If Blair is successful, he and Brown may find themselves headed toward a golden anniversary.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?




(CBS) By CBS News London producer Amy Guttman


Even before it was time to take afternoon tea, the keys to the castle at Number 10 Downing Street changed hands. Moving vans arrived early to cart out the Blairs' worldly possessions: beds, mattresses, fragile items and a treadmill — typical household goods.

Crowds clung to the gates to catch a glimpse of the departing Prime Minister one last time, while even the most jaded journalists snapped shots from their camera phones to remember the day Blair stepped down.

And in keeping to British traditions of ceremony, Blair began the day with his weekly routine of addressing the House of Commons with “Question Time,” a chance to bid farewell to his political peers. From there he returned to Downing Street to face the press a final time and wish staff well. He left as he entered, surrounded by his family, catching a break in the raindrops. But it was wife Cherie who got the last word, with a jab at the press. “I don’t think we’ll miss you,” she called out as he got into the ministerial Jaguar that was to transport them to Buckingham Palace.

Following the rules of the Constitution, Blair tendered his resignation to the Queen, allowing her to summon Gordon Brown and ask him to take the position.

And so, the pact between two political partners came to fruition as Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

It was 13 years ago when Brown and Blair planned their futures over dinner at an Italian restaurant. Like an old married couple, the two developed an acrimonious relationship, with rumors that Blair’s charisma and Brown’s caution often clashed. But, like the Clintons, another famous pairing, what may not make for a great romance, has made great politics.

One of Brown’s first priorities will be to resolve the issue of troops in Iraq. Blair was criticized for his unwavering support of the Iraq war and President Bush. Brown is expected to take a more neutral stance, which will win him favor among his constituents. It’s believed Prime Minister Brown will seek to distinguish himself from his predecessor. This won’t mean the U.K. will suddenly turn against the U.S., as the relationship is beneficial, and one Brown will be keen to maintain, but no one’s expecting him to pose in a cowboy hat with Mr. Bush anytime soon.

Meantime, Blair will now serve as an envoy to the Middle East, with his chief goal being peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Many say it’s a poisoned chalice, with no chance of success. Others say it’s the perfect job for a man who wants to remain relevant, in a high profile position which allows him to maintain his friendships with world leaders. And if Blair is successful, he and Brown may find themselves headed toward a golden anniversary.

Democrats see advantage in 2008 because of immigration

Associated Press - June 27, 2007 3:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic party activists are warning that the louder the anti-immigrant rhetoric gets, the more Republicans will see their gains among Hispanic voters slip away.

Democrats predict that without support from heavily Hispanic parts of the country, Republicans have little chance of winning the 2008 presidential election.

Some GOP politicians echo the sentiment.

Thanks to courting by President Bush, Republicans captured 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004. But in last year's election, that dropped about 29%.

Democrats predict that without support from heavily Hispanic parts of the country, Republicans have little chance of winning the 2008 presidential election.

Republican National Committee chairman Mel Martinez is also a senator from Florida. He says Democrats also have voted against immigration reform, while President Bush has made it a top priority. But Martinez says he's worried about the political effects of Republican amendments being offered to the immigration bill now before the US Senate.

Iraqi Official: US 'behind Baghdad hotel blast'

Press TV
Wednesday June 27, 2007

An Iraqi official has accused the United States of being behind the suicide bomb that killed at least 12 in a hotel in central Baghdad.

Muhammad al-Saberi, Iraqi envoy for talks with tribal leaders in Jordan and Syria, on Tuesday held the Bush Administration responsible for the blast at the Mansour Hotel, where a group of Sunni tribal leaders from Iraq's Anbar province had gathered to discuss ways and means of curbing ongoing violence in the country.

"Because the gathering [in the hotel] was supposed to be a step toward establishing national unity among Iraqi tribes, the US, through its terrorist operatives, tried to thwart the move," IRIB quoted al- Saberi as saying.

The Iraqi official said that Washington knows full well that if security and stability come into Iraq from one door, its troops have to leave from the other and have no more pretext to prolong their stay.

"That's why the White House is at odds with bringing peace into Iraq," he observed.

Al-Saberi noted the tribal leaders including al-Ani al-Obeidi, al-Alusi, al-Joburi and al-Wazani in a reaction to the terrorist act in Mansour Hotel, had pledged in a letter they would broaden talks with the Iraqi government.

According to al-Saberi, the Iraqi government plans to put an end to continued bloodletting across the war-ravaged country via talks with Sunni tribal leaders in the west to help suppress the extremist al-Qaeda-linked militants.

On Monday a man wearing a belt of explosives walked into the Mansour Hotel 's bustling lobby around noon, approached the reception desk and detonated his bomb, killing more than 12 and injuring dozens more.

Police said among the dead was Fassal al-Guood, a tribal sheikh and former governor of western Anbar province and al-Iraqiya TV journalist Rahim al-Maliki.

Vaccinated Children Two and a Half Times More Likely to Have Neurological Disorders Like ADHD and Autism, New Survey in California and Oregon Finds

Earth Times
Wednesday June 27, 2007

As the first trial in Vaccine Court explores the relationship between vaccines and autism, a new survey released today indicates a strong correlation between rates of neurological disorders, such as ADHD and autism, and childhood vaccinations.

The survey, commissioned by Generation Rescue, compared vaccinated and unvaccinated children in nine counties in Oregon and California. Among more than 9,000 boys age 4-17, the survey found vaccinated boys were two and a half times (155%) more likely to have neurological disorders compared to their unvaccinated peers. Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and 61% more likely to have autism.

For older vaccinated boys in the 11-17 age bracket, the results were even more pronounced. Vaccinated boys were 158% more likely to have a neurological disorder, 317% more likely to have ADHD, and 112% more likely to have autism. Complete survey results are available at http://www.generationrescue.org/.

Generation Rescue commissioned the phone survey. Data was gathered by SurveyUSA, a national market research firm, which surveyed parents by phone on more than 17,000 children, ages 4-17, in five counties in California (San Diego, Sonoma, Orange, Sacramento, and Marin) and four counties in Oregon (Multnomah, Marion, Jackson, and Lane).

The survey asked parents whether their child had been vaccinated, and whether that child had one or more of the following diagnoses: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Development Disorder -- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), or Autism. The phone survey was chosen to mirror the methodology the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) uses to establish national prevalence for neurological disorders in their national phone survey.

Timed to the release of the survey results, Generation Rescue also ran full-page advertisements in Washington's Roll Call, The Oregonian, and The Orange County Register today. The ad compares the 36 pediatric vaccines the CDC recommends today to the 10 recommended in 1983, and asks, "Are We Over- Vaccinating Our Kids?"

"No one has ever compared prevalence rates of these neurological disorders between vaccinated and unvaccinated children," said J.B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue, whose son was diagnosed with autism. "The phone survey isn't perfect, but these numbers point to the need for a comprehensive national study to gather this critical information."

In Washington, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has been advocating for such a survey. Co-sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), the "Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Population Act of 2006," or H.R. 2832, was introduced on June 22, and would require the National Institutes of Health to complete this research.

"Generation Rescue's study is impressive and forcefully raises some serious questions about the relationship between vaccines and autism. What is ultimately needed to resolve this issue one way or the other is a comprehensive national study of vaccinated and unvaccinated children," said Congresswoman Maloney. "The parents behind Generation Rescue only want information. These parents deserve more than road blocks, they deserve answers. We can and should move forward in search of those answers. That's why I have introduced a common sense bill that would require the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct a comprehensive, comparative study on the possible link between autism and thimerosal."

From 1983 to 2007, autism rates have climbed from 1 in 10,000 children to 1 in 150 children, a growth rate of 6,000% (boys are significantly more affected by neurological disorders, accounting for approximately 80% of all cases). ADHD currently affects 1 in 13 children. In the same period, the CDC's recommended vaccine schedule more than tripled. The simmering debate over the cause of childhood neurological disorders shows no sign of cooling, but no study had ever been done to look at unvaccinated children.

Lisa Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue, adds, "Everyone working with autism wants to identify the cause so we can focus on treatment and prevention. A national study like HR 5940 could help end this debate and focus all of our resources on helping our kids. Its time has come, and we hope Congress will choose to put our children first."

Senate to Test Success of Immigration Bill

Mary Benoit
JBS

Wednesday June 27, 2007

According to Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), the only way for opponents to block the Bush/Kennedy amnesty bill is if "the American people raise the level of their voices in the next 24 hours."

Follow this link to the original source: "Vote Tests Immigration Momentum"

The opportunity for the Senate to pass an immigration reform package (S. 1639) prior to the July 4th recess is growing narrower by the day. However, the momentum on Capitol Hill is picking up by the hour and could be accelerated by a procedural vote which is set to take place later today (click on the link above). If the Senate passes a motion to limit debate on S. 1639 (previously under the bill number S. 1348), there could be enough support for final passage as early as Thursday.

Opponents of Senator Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) so-called "reform" package are optimistic that the Senate will not receive the 60 votes needed to limit debate on the bill's amendments and move to debating the bill itself. One major opponent of S. 1639 is Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) who argues that the only way to block supporters from gaining the votes they need to limit debate is if "the American people raise the level of their voices in the next 24 hours."

The Senate has been desperately trying to push an all-encompassing immigration reform bill since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348) on May 9, 2007. The Reid bill began discussion on immigration reform and, after weeks of closed-door negotiations between the White House and key members of Congress, Senator Kennedy introduced a substitute amendment to the bill (S. Amdt. #1150) that became known as the "grand compromise" on immigration reform.

The Senate was unable to pass the Kennedy amendment earlier this month, forcing Senator Reid to pull the legislation from the Senate floor on June 7. After two weeks of renegotiations, the Senate is ready once again to push an amnesty bill through Congress.

Don't allow the Senate to pass an immigration bill that would, among other things, grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants currently residing within the United States. Click here to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose S. 1639.

America's top spy says extensive domestic surveillance continues; Leaves out great deal

Michael Roston
Raw Story
Tuesday June 26, 2007

An article in July's edition of the journal Foreign Affairs gives Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell an opportunity to outline his plans for 'Overhauling Intelligence.' The article is notable both for what it includes - a discussion of domestic intelligence gathering activities - as well as what it leaves out.

While earlier public statements and writings from McConnell have emphasized the need to modernize the laws governing intelligence gathering, the nation's second National Intelligence Director excluded those issues from this article.

In McConnell's 10-page essay, he puts the threat of terrorist groups to US interests up front, and discusses the activities that are being conducted in the US to counter the danger.

One major challenge the Bush appointee focuses on "is determining how and when it is appropriate to conduct surveillance of a group of Americans who are, say, influenced by al Qaeda's jihadist philosophy. On one level, they are U.S. citizens engaging in free speech and associating freely with one another. On another, they could be plotting terrorist attacks that could kill hundreds of people."

Taking up this challenge, McConnell states that civil liberties watchdogs within his office are working to balance the privacy needs of Americans with the intelligence community's efforts to sift through the data it collects.

"New technology being developed by the Office of the DNI's chief information officer and chief technology officer to access and process vast amounts of digital data to find terrorist-related information is being overseen by the DNI's Privacy and Civil Liberties Office," he writes.

McConnell also discusses what he sees as a need to cooperate more with local law enforcement authorities in the United States.

"The way to do so would be to share threat information with state and local officials as well as members of the private sector. The unique contribution made by men and women on the ground is vital to U.S. national security," he writes, identifying some examples in which local authorities uncovered purported terrorists threats. "State and local partners should no longer be treated as only first responders; they are also the first lines of prevention."

Perhaps more notable than what McConnell says in his article is what he leaves out. He does not expand upon or echo the message he delivered in a May 21 op-ed in the Washington Post on the need to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"If we are to improve our ability to protect the country by gathering foreign intelligence, this law must be updated to reflect changes in technology and the ways our adversaries communicate with one another," the National Intelligence Director wrote at the time.

These issues that McConnell left out from his article on 'Overhauling Intelligence' produced significant criticism from intelligence watchdogs in Congress. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee had before the Post op-ed was published told RAW STORY that he was 'deeply troubled' by McConnell's requests for freeing the government's hand on wiretapping. He expanded on his criticism in a response to the opinion piece.

"In his May 21 op-ed, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, tried to make the case for the administration's new proposal for rewriting FISA. But his complaints about the current system were inaccurate," wrote Rep. Reyes (D-TX) in the May 30 response. "In fact, I believe it was the administration's cumbersome, uncoordinated process and not the statutory requirements that led the president to authorize an end-run around FISA."

McConnell also touched other subjects in his Foreign Affairs article. For one, he discussed the new technology being used by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence overseas to identify individuals who are 'in custody.'

"[The Rapid Technology Transition Initiative] has already shown its value. Since its deployment late last year, the FBI's Biometric Quick Capture Platform - a portable database funded through RTTI - has facilitated the biometric identification of suspects in custody overseas....the bureau's field personnel were using this tool to identify whether individuals in custody overseas had criminal records or were dangerous threats to U.S. forces," he wrote.

Notably, McConnell did not say in whose custody such detainees were being held at the time the FBI employed this tool.

Additionally, McConnell identified some of the major targets of the US intelligence community other than terrorists affiliated with al Qaida.

"The U.S. intelligence community also needs to know where collection gaps exist, where it needs greater specific intelligence, and on what areas it is overly focused," he writes. "Some gains have been made with the creation of mission managers - a recommendation of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission - who oversee and manage high-interest topics, such as North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, and counterterrorism, counterproliferation, and counterintelligence, for appropriate collection and analysis."

McConnell's full article can be downloaded from the ODNI website.

Files on Illegal Spying Show C.I.A. Skeletons From Cold War

MARK MAZZETTI and TIM WEINER
NY Times
Wednesday June 27, 2007

Long-secret documents released Tuesday provide new details about how the Central Intelligence Agency illegally spied on Americans decades ago, including trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room for evidence of infidelity and tracking down an expert lock-picker for a Watergate conspirator.

Known inside the agency as the “family jewels,” the 702 pages of documents catalog domestic wiretapping operations, failed assassination plots, mind-control experiments and spying on journalists from the early years of the C.I.A.

The papers provide evidence of paranoia and occasional incompetence as the agency began a string of illegal spying operations in the 1960s and 1970s, often to hunt links between Communist governments and the domestic protests that roiled the nation in that period.

Yet the long-awaited documents leave out a great deal. Large sections are censored, showing that the C.I.A. still cannot bring itself to expose all the skeletons in its closet. And many activities about overseas operations disclosed years ago by journalists, Congressional investigators and a presidential commission — which led to reforms of the nation’s intelligence agencies — are not detailed in the papers.

In a note to agency employees, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, said that Tuesday’s release of documents was part of the agency’s “social contract” with the American public, “to give those we serve a window into the complexities of intelligence.”

General Hayden drew a contrast between the illegal activities of the past and current C.I.A. practices, which he insists are lawful.

The 60-year-old agency has been under fire, though, by critics who object to the secret prisons and harsh interrogation practices it has adopted since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Some intelligence experts suggested on Tuesday that the release of the documents was intended to distract from the current controversies.

And they and historians expressed disappointment that the documents were so heavily censored. (The agency said it had to protect its intelligence “sources and methods.”)

Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive, the research group that filed the Freedom of Information request in 1992 that led to the documents’ becoming public, said he was initially underwhelmed by them because they contained little about the agency’s foreign operations.

But Mr. Blanton said what was striking was the scope of the C.I.A’s domestic spying efforts — what he called the “C.I.A. doing its Stasi imitation” — and the “confessional” nature of so many of the documents.

“Reading these memos is like sitting in a confessional booth and having a string of former top C.I.A. officials say ‘Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.’ ” Mr. Blanton said.

The broad outlines of the C.I.A.’s illegal activities have been known for some time. Still, the public has never seen most of the documents, contemporary memorandums and reports from an agency that zealously guards its files and almost never permits outsiders to examine its internal records.

More than anything, the papers provide a dark history of the climate both at the C.I.A. and in Washington during the cold war and the Vietnam era, when fears about the Soviet threat created a no-holds-barred culture at the spy agency.

Some of the documents provide insight into the mundane workings of a bureaucracy — tedious correspondence about reimbursement for stationery, references to insurance benefits for E. Howard Hunt, the Watergate conspirator, and a document noting “the high degree of resentment” among C.I.A. officers who had to grow long hair to pose as hippie radicals to infiltrate the peace movement at home and overseas.

And some of the language in the papers reflects the sanitized jargon of officialdom: “gangster-type action” refers to an assassination plot against Fidel Castro, for example.

The internal C.I.A. investigation into covert operations during the agency’s first three decades — the inquiry that produced the “family jewels” documents — was begun in 1973 by James R. Schlesinger, then director of central intelligence.

Mr. Schlesinger had been appalled to learn that operatives had carried out domestic break-ins on behalf of the Nixon White House, and ordered an investigation into past operations “outside the C.I.A.’s charter.”

Because the documents were compiled as the Watergate investigation was gathering steam, the agency’s concern about the extent that it could be tied to the crimes of the Nixon administration is palpable throughout.

Internal memorandums detail C.I.A. contacts with Mr. Hunt and James W. McCord Jr., a retired operative who was one of the Watergate burglars. One has the heading “Hunt Requests a Lockpicker” and reveals that in spring 1972, a C.I.A. official helped Mr. Hunt, the mastermind of the Watergate break-in, track someone “accomplished in picking locks.” It is unclear exactly what lock Mr. Hunt was trying to open.

Historians have generally concluded that far from being a rogue agency, the C.I.A. was following orders from the White House or top officials. In 1967, for instance, President Lyndon B. Johnson became convinced that the American antiwar movement was controlled and financed by Communist governments, and he ordered the C.I.A. to produce evidence.

His director of central intelligence, Richard Helms, reminded him that the C.I.A. was barred from spying on Americans.

In his posthumous memoir, Mr. Helms said Johnson told him: “I’m quite aware of that. What I want for you is to pursue this matter, and to do what is necessary to track down the foreign Communists who are behind this intolerable interference in our domestic affairs.”

Though it was a violation of the C.I.A.’s charter, Mr. Helms obeyed the president’s orders.

The C.I.A. undertook a domestic surveillance operation code-named Chaos that went on for almost seven years under Presidents Johnson and Nixon. Mr. Helms created a Special Operations Group to conduct the spying. A squad of C.I.A. officers grew their hair long, learned the jargon of the New Left, and went off to infiltrate peace groups in the United States and Europe.

The agency compiled a computer index of 300,000 names of American people and organizations, and extensive files on 7,200 citizens. It began working in secret with police departments all over the United States.

The documents released on Tuesday provided details. One said the agency “recruited, tested and dispatched” as foreign agents overseas “Americans with existing extremist credentials.” It also used “new and old Agency assets” — in other words, people and sources of information — who had worked against China, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea.

These were people and businesses that had “connections with and/or knowledge of” the American antiwar movement. They were as far-flung as Paris, Stockholm, Mexico City, Ottawa and Hong Kong.

One document, entitled “Foreign Support for Activities Planned to Disrupt or Harass the Republican National Convention” in 1972, lists the Beatles singer John Lennon, “a British subject,” as someone who had given money to a protest group.

A rare gem among the documents for C.I.A. buffs is a pair of detailed reports signed by James J. Angleton, the legendary chief of the agency’s counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1974. They describe an American program to create and exploit foreign police forces, internal-security services and counterterrorism squads overseas.

The documents explain that the C.I.A. and other American agencies trained and equipped foreigners to serve their countries — and, in secret, the United States. Once the Americans had set up a foreign service, it could help carry out American foreign policy by suppressing communists and leftists, and gather intelligence on behalf of the C.I.A.

The documents evidently were included in the “family jewels” because one part of the program in April 1973 included training of the foreigners by the bomb squad of the Dade County Police in Florida.

Mr. Angleton, who was dismissed from the C.I.A. the following year, after disclosures that he had overseen the opening of first-class mail in the United States since the early 1950s, was the C.I.A.’s man in charge of the overseas training program.

The program, according to recently declassified government documents, trained hundreds of thousands of foreign military and police officers in 25 countries by the early 1960s.

It put the C.I.A. on “dangerous ground,” Robert Amory Jr., chief of the C.I.A.’s intelligence analysis directorate under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, said in an oral history interview for the Kennedy presidential library. “You can get into Gestapo-type tactics.”

Some anecdotes reveal just how far outside the law some C.I.A. agents strayed. One technician was arrested in 1960 after trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room. The operation had been requested by Sam Giancana, the Chicago mobster, who was then helping the C.I.A. in a plot to assassinate Mr. Castro.

Mr. Giancana had been concerned that his girlfriend, the singer Phyllis McGuire, was having an affair with the comedian Dan Rowan, and surveillance was ordered to “determine the extent of his intimacy” with her.

In one episode that has echoes of a current controversy, the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program, a May 1973 memorandum details a C.I.A. wiretapping operation that monitored calls between the United States and Latin America to learn about drug trafficking.

The surveillance, conducted by a C.I.A. unit called Division D, was ended after the agency’s general counsel issued an opinion that it violated the agency’s charter and “should be carried on by appropriate law-enforcement agencies.”

Some of the activities detailed, while lawful, would have been embarrassing had they emerged at the time. One document revealed that John McCone, director of central intelligence during Kennedy’s presidency, authorized an Air Force plane to fly the Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis and the soprano Maria Callas from Rome to Athens, a favor that led to media inquiries.

The documents were compiled in the early 1970s but remained classified because of concern by C.I.A. directors that public exposure of a litany of illegal acts by their operatives would do indelible damage to the agency’s reputation — possibly even bring an end to the agency itself.

“The shock effect of an exposure of the ‘family jewels,’ I urged, could, in the climate of 1973, inflict mortal wounds on the C.I.A. and deprive the nation of all the good the agency could do in the future,” wrote William E. Colby, a former director of central intelligence, in his memoir.

Planet of the slums: UN warns urban populations set to double

Daniel Howden
London Independent
Wednesday June 27, 2007

The combined forces of population growth and urbanisation are creating a planet of slums, where the urban population will have doubled by 2030, according to a report released by the United Nations today.

The shanty towns that choke the cities of Africa and Asia are experiencing unstoppable growth, expanding by more than a million people every week, according to the "state of the world's population" report.

The UN's findings echo recent predictions that 2008 will see a watershed in human history as the balance of the world's population tips from rural to urban. Many of the new urbanites will be poor and the shelters into which they move, or are born, will be slums.

"The growth of cities will be the single largest influence on development in the 21st century," the report states. It maintains that over the next 30 years, the population of African and Asian cities will double, adding 1.7 billion people - more than the current populations of the US and China combined.

In this new world the majority of theurban poor will be under 25, unemployed and vulnerable to fundamentalism, Christian and Islamic.

Mike Davis, a population expert, described this emerging underclass in his recent work Planet of Slums as: "A billion-strong global proletariat ejected from the formal economy, with Islam and Pentecostalism as songs for the dispossessed."

While some critics have accused Mr Davis of scaremongering, the UN's findings appear to back many of his basic assertions.

George Martine, a demographer and the author of today's report, said: "The urbanisation is jolting mentalities and subjecting them to new influences. This is a historical situation. And now one of the ways for people to reorganise themselves in this urban world is to associate themselves with new or strong, fundamentalist religion."

The rise of radical Islam in Africa, from the outskirts of Jakarta to the slums of Egypt, is well documented but the continent is also experiencing a Christian shift, with Pentecostalism winning converts from Uganda to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In Latin America, identified by the UN as the other engine of urban growth, the once all-encompassing Catholic Church is battling for hearts and minds with radical evangelical churches. This battle was one of the key points of Pope Benedict XVI's recent trip to the world's most populous Catholic country, Brazil.

Urbanisation is inevitable, the report warns, and calls on planners to accept that the poor have the right to a place in the city. It argues that this influx can be positive if properly managed. No country in the industrial age has enjoyed economic growth without urbanisation.

"It's pointless trying to control urban growth by stopping migration," Mr Martine said. "It doesn't work. We have to change mindsets and take a different stance. We're at a crossroads and can still make decisions which will make cities sustainable. If we don't make the right decisions the result will be chaos."

UN-Habitat uses the term "slum household" to describe a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following: durable housing, sufficient living area, secure tenure and access to clean water and sanitation.

Until now the response of national and municipal governments to ballooning growth has been to discourage newcomers but this is a failed policy, the report argues. "It has resulted in less housing for the poor and increased slum growth," the reports says. "It also limits opportunities for the urban poor to improve their lives and to contribute fully to their communities and neighbourhoods."

Mr Martine argues for a more positive approach to urbanisation, saying that by providing land for housing with at least some services and planning in advance to promote sustainability, progress can be achieved.

Slums have been part of human communities since Mesopotamia but our modern concept of segregated slums for the poor comes from the Industrial Revolution. The difference between then and now is a question of scale, with today's slum dwellers being one-in-three of all city dwellers.

More than 90 per cent of this underclass are in the developing world, with South Asia having the largest share, followed by eastern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. In sub-Saharan Africa, growth has become synonymous with slums and 72 per cent of the population live in slum conditions.

Growth of urbanisation

* By 2008, more than half of the world's current 6.7billion population will live in cities.

* By 2030, the urban population will have risen to 5 billion, 60 per cent of the world's population.

* Half of the world's urban population is currently under 25. By 2030, young people will make up the vast majority of the 5 billion urban dwellers.

* Between 2000 and 2030, Asia's urban population will increase from 1.3 billion to 2.64 billion. Africa's population will rise from 294 million to 742 million, Latin America and the Caribbean from 394 million to 609million.

* Mega-cities do not have a monopoly on population growth. More than half of the urban world lives in cities with a population of less than 500,000.

EU backs anti-terror deal with U.S. on bank data

Ingrid Melander
Reuters

Wednesday June 27, 2007

The European Union approved a deal on Wednesday setting conditions for the U.S. Treasury Department to consult records of the international banking network SWIFT in anti-terror probes, EU diplomats said.

"We agreed on SWIFT," a diplomat said of an accord aimed at allaying European data privacy concerns over the U.S. fight against terrorism.

EU and Belgian privacy watchdogs said last year SWIFT broke European privacy laws by allowing the U.S. Treasury Department secretly to consult its records in terrorism probes after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, a practice first revealed by the New York Times.

Washington said the access was essential for its global drive to dry up funding sources for suspected extremist cells.

Brussels-based SWIFT said its U.S. office was obliged to obey U.S. subpoenas.

Since then, EU and U.S. officials have worked to find arrangements acceptable to both sides.

Under the deal backed by EU ambassadors on Wednesday, to be rubber-stamped by ministers on Thursday, data would be kept for a maximum of five years and the United States could only use it for counter-terrorism purposes, a diplomat said.

A senior European official would be appointed to monitor how the data is used.

To satisfy U.S. conditions, these arrangements take the form of unilateral U.S. commitments spelled out in a letter, the diplomat said.

SWIFT, which handles global financial transfers, is a cooperative owned by roughly 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries that use it.

SWIFT announced earlier this month it had decided to modify its messaging architecture to ensure that intra-European data be stored only in Europe, and not in the United States. It said it would take it three to four years to put the new system in place.

SWIFT's board is due to approve final details of that plan in September.

Brussels and Washington are holding talks on Wednesday to try to replace an interim deal on the transfer to the United States of private data on transatlantic air passengers -- another sensitive data privacy issue in EU-U.S. relations.

Porn star is quizzed in cash-for-honours police probe

Sophie Walker
UK Daily Mail
Wednesday June 27, 2007

An American porn star has been flown to Britain by detectives investigating the cash-for-honours investigation, it was revealed today.

Californian actress Courtney Coventry, 25, was questioned by police yesterday over her links with Labour's chief fundraiser Lord Levy. Mrs Coventry was introduced to Tony Blair by Lord Levy at a fund-raising ball at the Hilton Hotel in 2004.

She and her British-born husband John Coventry were invited to the event after claiming to be a real life Count and Countess.

Mrs Coventry - wearing a giraffe-print dress and bright red lipstick - was introduced to the Prime Minister as the Countess of Rozel, a title the couple had bought for a few hundred pounds.

The actress was flown to Heathrow from Nice yesterday after she contacted detectives to say she had crucial information on the cashforhonours affair.

A Yard source said today she had been questioned about what she knew but detectives had quickly dismissed her information as valueless. The source said: "We spoke to her in person but we decided she did not have anything of interest to say so she was not formally interviewed. In effect, she was time wasting."

Earlier this year the actress - whose soft-porn credits include the film Dirt Merchant - told how easily she and her husband had duped Labour fund-raising officials after they had paid £1,000 to attend the Labour fundraising ball at the Park Lane Hilton.

She said: "The fake aristocratic title should have shown up in the vetting procedure. But it was clear Lord Levy and the Labour Party were interested only in how much money I could give them."

Mrs Coventry told how she had a conversation with the Prime Minister in which he talked about his vision for the future and how she chatted to Jack Straw. She said: "He spent most of the time talking to my chest."

Meanwhile, it emerged that police investigating the cash-for-honours affair were told that Tony Blair would quit earlier if he had been quizzed as a suspect.

The Metropolitan Police team of detectives received the stark warning from Number 10 in January as they were preparing to grill the Prime Minister under caution.

In the end, Mr Blair was questioned by police only as a witness. But these claims are sure to be seized on by critics as proof that No 10 pressured the investigating officers by raising the prospect of a constitutional crisis.

Did Medal of Freedom buy Tenet's silence?

Raw Story
Wednesday June 27, 2007

Revealing that former CIA director George Tenet gave up $2 million in delaying publication of his memoir, an essay in The New Republic speculates President Bush or his father -- or someone close to them -- convinced Tenet to delay and write a book uncritical of the president.

Tenet began preparing an auction of his memoirs almost immediately after his 2004 resignation, garnering a winning bid of more than $4 million from Random House's Crown Publishing Group, reports Patrick Tyler in TNR. Tenet suddenly got cold feet when it came time to put ink to paper on the deal, and he ended up delaying a book contract for the next 18 months. When it finally came time to ink a deal, the value of Tenet's memoir was cut in half, and he settled for around $2 million from HarperCollins, Tyler reports, based on a source in the publishing industry.

"Which raises a question: Why did a man who seemed so bent on cashing in put off writing his memoir -- at a loss of some $2 million?" Tyler asks.

"There can be no doubt that, while the delay was costly to Tenet, it was valuable to the White House," Tyler writes. "The net effect was to push the book's publication date beyond the 2006 elections."

At the time he was hemming and hawing over the book deal, Tenet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tyler notes, but Tenet insists that's simply a coincidence.

Tenet wasn't "clear on what conversations he'd had with members of the Bush family during the 18-month interval between actions," the article notes.

Former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar also hyped speculation of a Bush intervention in the publication delay.

"I knew President Bush called him," Bandar, a close friend of Tenet, told Tyler. "The question is: Was it 41 or 43?"

The article speculates President George H.W. Bush was more likely to have intervened, although both he and Tenet expressly deny such a meeting took place.

EXCERPTS FROM THE NEW REPUBLIC:

#
When I asked Tenet whether he had received a call from President Bush--either one--to express concerns about the book, he became quite agitated and said everything I had heard in that regard was a "complete fabrication." I was almost startled when he said, "I swear on my father's grave" that no such counsel from the former or current president had been forthcoming. A week or so later, when I asked him to put in writing what he wanted to reiterate about the matter, Tenet said this: "Neither President GHW Bush nor President GW Bush--nor anyone acting on their behalf--influenced me or sought to influence me. No one." For his part, Bush Senior sent me the following statement: "It is absolutely not true. I never discussed with George Tenet when or if he should write a book. There is not even a semblance of truth to this." Whether or not Bandar's theory is true, the Bush camp was clearly paying close attention to the book. It wasn't just the CIA that vetted Tenet's memoir; the White House press office did as well. What's more, according to a foreign diplomat who visited the Oval Office earlier this year, President Bush seemed well-briefed on the revelations in Tenet's manuscript. The visitor, whom I have known for years, asked the president about Tenet's book in passing. Bush replied that he understood the book would soon be cleared and that it contained no criticism of the president but had some tough words about "others" in the administration. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

In the end, the Bushies got just about everything they wanted out of what could have been a dicey situation. For one thing, the book wasn't nearly as nasty toward Bush as it might have been, especially given the depth of Tenet's private disdain for Bush's handling of the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. For another, the White House, armed with foreknowledge of the memoir's contents, was able to put Tenet on the defensive from the moment the book appeared--unlike when Richard Clarke's book came out and the administration seemed caught off guard.

#
FULL ARTICLE HERE

Giuliani Acknowledged Explosions on 9/11, Didn't Believe They Were 'Gas Related'

You Tube
Wednesday June 27, 2007

This clip is from Fox News on September 11, 2001, and is from a Press Conference given by Mayor Giuliani. In the clip, Mayor Giuliani states that he does not believe gas is responsible for the explosions being reported, and emphasizes that the gas has been turned off.

AP Smears and Sneers at Browns Yet Again

Claims family engaged in "elaborate scheme" to hide tax when all they asked for was the law

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The AP has yet again smeared and sneered at the Brown family by claiming they engaged in an elaborate scheme to hide tax, while also attacking Ron Paul for "praising convicted tax evaders."

Last week, the Associated Press salaciously lied when they reported that the Browns routinely taunt police and SWAT teams from their hilltop compound, making it appear as if Ed and Elaine Brown were deranged lunatics itching for a war, when in actual fact they have said all along that they simply want to be left alone but will defend themselves if fired upon.

If anyone is engaging in provocative tactics then it is the authorities themselves, who continue to lie in wait three weeks after they aborted a planned violent siege on the Brown's property and attempted to intimidate witnesses into validating their false cover story.

In the latest smear, the AP attempt to portray the Browns as dangerous criminals and note that Ron Paul has praised them, a sly broadside at the popular presidential candidate.

"The Browns are holed up in their Plainfield, N.H., home and have threatened violence against federal officials if marshals come to arrest them," reports the AP. "They were convicted of an elaborate scheme to hide millions of dollars in income. Their protest has become a rallying cry for anti-tax activists and militia members."

An elaborate scheme? The only "scheme" the Browns engaged in was to ask the authorities to provide them with the law that requires Americans to pay mandatory income tax, a law which they have never received.

An "elaborate scheme to hide millions of dollars in income" again implies that the Browns are criminal outlaws who are bucking the system while the average American pays their fair share, when in fact, as Ronald Reagan said, "not one red cent" goes to run the government, it all goes to pay off the nation's spiraling debt to the private Federal Reserve Bank.

The AP's unabated drive to demonize and smear the Browns knows no bounds, and again underscores the fact that the establishment media is complicit in the propaganda war against the Browns, who the elite dread will provide an example for millions of other Americans to throw out the illegal income tax system.

U.N.: Half of humanity to live in cities

MSN Tracking Image
MSNBC.com

U.N.: Half of humanity to live in cities
'State of the World Population' report urges seeing migrants as assets
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:50 a.m. ET June 27, 2007

LONDON - Some 3.3 billion people — more than half of humanity — will be living in cities by next year, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday. By 2030, cities will be home to close to 5 billion.

Without proper planning, cities across the globe face the threat of overwhelming poverty, limited opportunities for youth, and religious extremism, U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told The Associated Press in London, where the report was released.

"In 2008, half of the world's population will be in urban areas, and we are not ready for them," said Obaid, a U.N. undersecretary-general.

Her agency's "State of the World Population 2007" report outlines the rate and scale of urban growth and calls for the policy initiatives to manage it.

The agency found current policy initiatives often aim to keep the poor out of cities by limiting migration and cutting lower-income housing.

"Cities see poor people as a burden," Obaid said. "They should be seen as an asset."

Investment opportunities
"Investing in them in terms of shelter, education and so on would mean you have a good economic force that can work and create even further economic growth coming from cities," Obaid said.

Birth rates are driving urban population growth — instead of migration from rural areas, the report said. Family planning policies will be most effective in slowing urban growth — including comprehensive reproductive health services and sex education, it said.

"Urban growth, in a sense, encourages low fertility because city people have access to information and access to services and can plan their families better," Obaid said. "In an urban economy, women need less children but (want children) with a better quality of life and better possibilities of education."

Smaller cities, not major metropolises, will absorb the bulk of urban growth, the report said.

"We're focusing on the megacities when the data tell us most of the movement will be coming to smaller cities of 500,000 or more," Obaid said.

Smaller cities may be more flexible in expanding their boundaries and adapting their policies, but they also have fewer resources and smaller governments than major cities that are more accustomed to large migrant populations.

Avoiding extremism
If these smaller cities fail to meet the needs of migrant populations, they could face social unrest, including religious extremism, she said.

"Extremism is often a reaction to rapid and sudden change or to a feeling of exclusion and injustice, and the cities can be a basis for that if they are not well managed," Obaid said. "It's very much an urban phenomenon."

Obaid said involving youth in the decisions and policies of growing cities is vital for dealing with issues of violence and poverty.

"My passion is to make sure youth are included in everything we do," Obaid said. "They are the ones always on the move, trying to find different ways of life and better life."

The full report is online at www.unfpa.org.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19458575/


© 2007 MSNBC.com

BBC News: Russia eyes vast Arctic territory


Russia eyes vast Arctic territory
Russian geologists say they have data that would support a claim to about 1.2m sq km (463,000 sq miles) of energy-rich territory in the Arctic.

Russia has not staked a formal claim to that area - which is the size of France, Germany and Italy combined, Russian media report.

The geologists spent 45 days studying the Lomonosov underwater ridge.

The Law of the Sea Convention allows states an economic zone of 200 nautical miles, which can sometimes be expanded.

To extend the zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory.

At the moment, nobody's shelf extends up to the North Pole, so there is an international area around the Pole administered by the International Seabed Authority.

The Russian team, from the Oceanology Research Institute in St Petersburg, estimates that the Lomonosov ridge area in the Arctic contains oil and gas reserves of up to 10bn tonnes.

They returned to Murmansk on Monday.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6242736.stm

Published: 2007/06/26 18:30:24 GMT

© BBC MMVII

BBC News: Protests at Iran fuel rationing

Protests at Iran fuel rationing

At least one petrol station has been set on fire in the Iranian capital, Tehran, after the government announced fuel rationing for private motorists.

Iranians were given only two hours' notice of the move that limits private drivers to 100 litres of fuel a month.

Despite its huge energy reserves Iran lacks refining capacity, forcing it to import about 40% of its petrol.

Tehran is trying to rein in fuel consumption over fears of possible UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.

Iran fears the West could sanction its petrol imports and cripple its economy.

'Dangerous move'

The restrictions began at midnight local time on Wednesday (2030 GMT Tuesday).

The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says there is anger and frustration the government did not give people more notice.

"Guns, fireworks, tanks, [President] Ahmadinejad should be killed," chanted angry youths, throwing stones at police.

Eyewitnesses have seen at least one petrol station in the outskirts of the west of Tehran on fire.

All over the city there are huge queues and reports of scuffles at petrol stations as motorists try to beat the start of the rationing and fill their tanks.

"I think rationing is not bad by itself but it must be organised," one man told the Associated Press news agency.

"One cannot announce at 9pm that the rationing would start at midnight, they should have announced the exact date at least two days earlier."

Iran's petrol is heavily subsidised, sold at about a fifth of its real cost.

The price of 1,000 rials ($0.11) per litre makes Iran one of the cheapest countries in the world for motorists.

So far there has been no announcement about whether Iranians can buy more petrol at the real market cost.

Licensed taxi drivers will be able to buy 800 litres a month at the subsidised price.

US pressure

Our correspondent says rationing fuel is only likely to add to high inflation.

It is a dangerous move for any elected government, especially in an oil-rich country like Iran where people think cheap fuel is their birthright and public transport is very limited, she says.

The US, which is leading efforts to pressure Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, has said Iran's fuel imports are a point of "leverage".

Washington and other Western nations accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and is solely aimed at producing civilian nuclear power.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6243644.stm

Published: 2007/06/27 03:39:51 GMT

© BBC MMVII

BBC News: Village disputes story of deadly attack

Village disputes story of deadly attack

A group of villagers in Iraq is bitterly disputing the US account of a deadly air attack on 22 June, in the latest example of the confusion surrounding the reporting of combat incidents there. The BBC's Jim Muir investigates:

On 22 June the US military announced that its attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen who had been trying to infiltrate the village of al-Khalis, north of Baquba, where operation "Arrowhead Ripper" had been under way for the previous three days.

The item was duly carried by international news agencies and received widespread coverage, including on the BBC News website.

But villagers in largely-Shia al-Khalis say that those who died had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. They say they were local village guards trying to protect the township from exactly the kind of attack by insurgents the US military says it foiled.


The incident highlights the problems the news media face in verifying such combat incidents in remote areas

They say that of 16 guards, 11 were killed and five others injured - two of them seriously - when US helicopters fired rockets at them and then strafed them with heavy machinegun fire.

Minutes before the attack, they had been co-operating with an Iraqi police unit raiding a suspected insurgent hideout, the villagers said.

They added that the guards, lightly armed with the AK47 assault rifles that are a feature of practically every home in Iraq, were essentially a local neighbourhood watch paid by the village to monitor the dangerous insurgent-ridden area to the immediate south-west at Arab Shawkeh and Hibhib, where the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed a year ago.

US account

Here is the version of the incident issued by the US-led Multinational Forces on 22 June:

"Coalition Forces attack helicopters engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen southwest of Khalis, Friday.

"Iraqi police were conducting security operations in and around the village when Coalition attack helicopters from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade and ground forces from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, observed more than 15 armed men attempting to circumvent the IPs and infiltrate the village.

"The attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen and destroyed the vehicle they were using."

Iraqi version

This is the story as told to the BBC by several local villagers:

At around 2am on Friday morning, the village guards were at their usual base in an unfinished building on the edge of the Hayy al-Junoud quarter about 2km (1.2 miles) south-west of al-Khalis village centre.


THE VICTIMS
Jassem Khalil, the Mukhtar of Hayy al-Junoud
Abbas Khalil, his brother
Ali Khalil, his other brother
Kamal Hadi, their cousin
Shaker Adnan
Abdul Wahhab Ibrahim
Mohammad al-Zubaie
Abbas Muzhir Fadhel
Jamal Hussein Alwan
Abdul Hussein Abdullah
Ali Jawad Kadhem

They were surprised when a convoy of Iraqi police suddenly turned up, headed by the commander of the Khalis emergency squad, Col Hussein Kadhim.

The police told them they were about to raid a suspect house in nearby al-Akrad Street and asked for the village mukhtar (headman) to accompany them.

The Mukhtar of Hayy al-Junoud, Jassem Khalil, and his brothers Abbas and Ali, went with the police. Some of the other guards, about half altogether, also offered to go along.

The raid turned out to be a false alarm - there was nothing suspicious at the house in question.

But as the police and guards began to return, the police received an urgent radio message from the Joint Operations Centre saying that US helicopters were about to raid the area.

The police disappeared immediately. But before the guards could even get to their own car, they were hit by a rocket strike by American helicopters which suddenly appeared overhead.

So too were the remainder of the guards, still at their base in the unfinished building nearby.

The rocket attacks were followed by a prolonged period of strafing by heavy machinegun fire from the helicopters.

"It was like a battlefront, but with the fire going only in one direction," said a local witness. "There was no return fire".

When frightened villagers ventured out at first light, they found 11 of the village guards dead, some of their bodies cut into small pieces by the munitions used against them.

Those who survived with injuries were Bashir (an off-duty policeman), Alwan Hussein, Abu Ra'id, Salam, and Saif Khalil, the son of Abbas Khalil who died.

Questions raised

The families of those who died are seeking a meeting with the head of the al-Khalis town council. They are incensed that the village guards should be described as "al-Qaeda gunmen".

All but two of those killed were Shia and they have been buried at Najaf. The other two who were from the local minority Sunni community.

A spokesman for the US-led Multinational Forces said they were investigating the incident in the light of the allegations.

If the villagers' account is true, the incident would raise many questions, including:

  • On what basis did the US helicopters launch their attack that night?
  • How many other coalition reports of successes against "al-Qaeda fighters" are based on similar mistakes, especially when powerful remote weaponry is used?

The incident also highlights the problems the news media face in verifying such combat incidents in remote areas where communications are disrupted, where direct independent access is impossible because of the many lethal dangers they would face, and where only the official military version of events is available.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6239896.stm

Published: 2007/06/26 08:59:29 GMT

© BBC MMVII