Bombs targeting police kill over 40 in Pakistan

By Augustine Anthony

Reuters
Friday, February 29, 2008; 2:41 PM

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a police funeral, killing at least 38 people in northwest Pakistan on Friday, intelligence officials said.

The attack in Swat district came days after the military said it had cleared most areas in the mountainous region of Islamist militants, who it had been battling there for months, aside from a few pockets of resistance.

"The blast occurred after people had offered prayers and pall bearers were carrying the coffin for a police salute," said Deputy Superintendent Karamat Shah. He was among more than 500 mourners at the funeral for a senior colleague in Swat district.

The policeman being buried was one of three policemen killed earlier on Friday when their van struck a roadside bomb in another region of North West Frontier Province, where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are active.

Mohammad Khan, the senior doctor at the hospital in Saidu Sharif in Swat, said 34 bodies had been received and more than 50 people were being treated for wounds after the attack.

But intelligence officials said the death toll was at least 38, and Shah said he saw some people carrying bodies of relatives home to prepare them for burial.

The funeral was being held after dusk in accordance with Muslim custom, and Shah said a power cut immediately after the blast added to confusion.

The earlier roadside bomb occurred near Bannu, a town at the gateway to North Waziristan, a tribal region where al Qaeda cells have become entrenched.

"The device targeted the police van, killing three people and critically wounding two," said Hamza Mehsud, chief of police in Bannu district.

A missile, believed to have been fired by a U.S. pilotless drone, struck a house in North Waziristan on Thursday, killing 13 suspected militants including some believed to be Arabs.

On Monday, the army's top medical officer was killed in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi. The lieutenant-general was the most senior officer killed so far in the conflict with al Qaeda inspired Islamist militants.

Over 450 people have been killed in militant-related violence this year alone. A suicide bomb campaign targeting security forces intensified after the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque last July to crush a militant student movement.

The escalating violence has raised concern about the stability of the nuclear-armed state, as it passes through a period of political transition with doubts over how long President Pervez Musharraf can hold onto power after his allies lost a parliamentary election on February 18.

Americans would be making a mistake to reopen NAFTA: Harper

Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - It would be a mistake for a future U.S. administration to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Thursday in response to election-year sabre-rattling south of the border.

"I would caution about jumping to conclusions about what a future president may do," Harper told the House Commons following suggestions the nearly 15-year-old trade pact could be up for renegotiation if the Democrats take the White House in November.

"If a future president actually did want to open up NAFTA, Mr. Speaker, which I highly doubt, then Canada would obviously have some things we would want to discuss."

In any renegotiation, Canada would have strong leverage in the privileged access the U.S. enjoys to Canadian oil supplies.

"If any American government chose to make the mistake of reopening that we would have some things we would want to talk about as well," Harper emphasized.

Both Democratic candidates for the U.S. presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have threatened to invoke the six-month termination clause in NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.

Harper suggested he took the comments with a grain of salt and noted that in Canada's 1993 federal election former prime minister Jean Chretien promised to back out of the Free Trade Agreement, signed in the late 1980s by the Tories.

Democrats have long complained about the trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, saying states such as Ohio, where the latest primary is taking place, have suffered job losses.

During a candidate's debate Tuesday, Clinton said her plan includes telling Canada and Mexico the U.S. will opt out unless the core labour and environmental standards are changed.

She said and the enforcement mechanism also needs to be enhanced.

Obama also said he would make sure the U.S. renegotiates the deal, and "use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage."

He too wants to see better labour and environmental standards.

NDP Leader Jack Layton picked up on the theme and urged Harper on Thursday to take advantage of the opening.

"Why won't the prime minister take the lead here, exercise some sovereignty and bring about some change here that would be good for workers?" he asked during question period.

Under NAFTA, Canada is prohibited from cutting off oil exports to the United States if there is a worldwide shortage or supply disruption unless supplies are also rationed to Canadian consumers by the same amount.

Most studies of the continental trade deal conclude all three countries have benefited in increased trade, but Canada and especially Mexico gained an advantage in the balance of trade with the U.S.

MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Close Sharply Lower To End With Monthly Declines

February 29, 2008: 05:04 PM EST CNN

U.S. stocks plunged on Friday, ending the week and the month on a losing note after losses by American International Group Inc. shook up Wall Street and poor results from Dell Inc. rocked the tech sector.

"We had a trainload of bad news; they couldn't keep the bad news coming fast enough," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 315.79 points to 12,266.39, giving the blue-chip gauge a weekly loss of 0.9%. The Dow fell 3% in February, and is down 7.5% for the year to date.

All of the Dow's 30 components spent the final day of February in the red. Pacing the action was AIG (AIG), off more than 7% after the insurance giant reported the largest loss in its almost 90 years in business. .

"It will be interesting to see what happens next week, since we're in for the same combination of bad economic data and bad corporate news -- that's what happens when you have an economic slowdown," Hogan said.

Other financial stocks were hit as well, with shares of Ambac Inc. (ABK) down 5.6% on reports that a plan to provide the firm with new capital has hit a snag.

Outside the Dow industrials, Dell Inc. (DELL) fell 4.7% after the PC maker reported fourth-quarter profits fell 6% from a year ago.

The S&P 500 (SPX) dropped 37.05 points to 1,330.63, down 1.7% for the week; 3.5% for the month and 9.4% year-to-date.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) declined 60.99 points to 2, 271.48, a drop of 1.4% on the week; a 5% decline for February and 14% so far this year.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped 1.7 billion, with nearly seven stocks posting losses for each share on the rise. On the Nasdaq, nearly 1.2 billion shares traded hands, with decliners stocks topping those advancing more than 4 to 1.

Sector snap

Often isolated from the carnage of late, the tech sector joined the suffering this time, with declines coming from bellwethers including Hewlett-Packard Co. ( HPQ) and IBM Corp. (IBM). .

Retail stocks also slipped amid gloomy news on consumer spending, with the S&P Retail Index (RLX) off about 3.3%. .

Gold futures finished with gains, having hit a record high of $978.50 an ounce overnight, as the metal continues to draw support from weakness in the U.S. dollar and rising investment flows into commodities. Gold for April delivery ended up $7.50 at $975 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold posted a weekly gain of $27.20 from last Friday's closing level of $947.80. .

Elsewhere on the Nymex, crude-oil futures hit a record high of $103.05 overnight before trimming gains to end at $101.84 a barrel. .

The dollar pared its losses after dropping to three-year lows against the yen, with the greenback buying 103.79 yen after an earlier fall as low as 103.81 yen -- the first time the pair fell below the 104 level since March 2005 -- compared with 105.33 yen in late U.S. trade Thursday. .

Downbeat data

The stock indexes steepened their losses on a decline in consumer sentiment in February, with more households reporting financial distress than anytime since the worst of the 1991 recession. .

The sentiment data coincided with a survey of manufacturing and sector activity in the Chicago area, which fell to 44.5 in February, "indicating a contraction in the economy in the region," said Drew Matus, a Lehman Bros. economist.

The Commerce Department reported consumer spending climbed more than predicted in January, with the 0.4% hike in buying illustrating an increase in costs that is denting Americans' purchasing power. .

"Today's data on personal spending showed a fairly good gain of 0.4%, but the gain was eaten up fully by higher prices," Tony Crescenzi, a bond analyst with Miller Tabak & Co., wrote in a research note to clients.

"The Federal Reserve certainly won't be pleased with the 0.3% rise in core consumer prices in today's report, but we have seen from the Fed continued emphasis on growth risks, which for now reduces the importance of the inflation news from a monetary policy perspective," Crescenzi added.

Active issues

Friday's most active stocks included MF Global Ltd. (MF), down more than 17% in a second day of steep losses amid ongoing fallout from the broker's disclosure of a $140 million loss on unauthorized trades in wheat futures.

Shares of 3Com Corp. (COMS) ended more than 13% higher, with the networker gaining on news that work continues on securing the sale of the company to a U.S. investment firm and its Chinese partner. .

The Gap Inc. (GPS) gained almost 4%. The country's largest clothing chain reported fourth-quarter profits climbed 21%.

In overseas trading, British shares pulled lower on losses for banks and airlines. .

In Asia, stocks fell, with Japanese stocks under pressure and Australia's market hit on weakness in financials. .

Euro Keeps on Climbing Against Dollar

BERLIN (AP) -- The euro continued its rapid climb to new highs against the dollar on Friday, hitting $1.5238 in early European trading.

The dollar has been plagued by uncertainty about the course of the U.S. economy even after U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that the American economy was not "anywhere near" the dangerous situation of the 1970s.

With the economy slowing and inflation rising, fears have grown that the country could be headed for the dreaded twin evils of stagnant growth and rising prices known as stagflation.

The euro's peak Friday was above the previous record of $1.5229 that it reached on Thursday.

In midmorning trading, the euro subsided slightly to $1.5203 from the $1.5215 it bought in late New York trading Thursday.

"The dollar looks set to finish the month with yet more downside pressure being heaped upon it," said Gary Thomson of CMC Markets in London.

The British pound fell to $1.9871 from $1.9926. The dollar dipped to 104.39 Japanese yen from 105.36 yen in New York the night before.

The euro topped $1.50 for the first time since its 1999 introduction early Wednesday, then surged above $1.51 after markets took comments from Bernanke as a sign that yet more U.S. rate cuts are on the way.

Lower interest rates can jump-start a nation's economy, but can weigh on its currency as traders transfer funds to countries where they can earn higher returns.

Toxin ricin found in Las Vegas hotel room-media

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ricin, a deadly poison, was discovered in a hotel room in Las Vegas but officials don't believe the incident is terrorism related, media reported on Friday.

Las Vegas police were called to an Extended Stay America Hotel on Thursday after a suspicious substance was found in one of the rooms, the reports said.

Preliminary tests indicated the substance was ricin, which can be deadly even in small quantities. Results from further tests were expected later on Friday.

Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating along with the Las Vegas police. "This event does not appear to be terrorism related," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said in a statement.

Three police officers, three hotel employees and another person were taken to the hospital for testing and observation. All appeared to be in good condition, authorities said.

Ricin is made from castor beans and in proper doses can be used for cancer treatments. It attacks cells, preventing them from making necessary proteins, and an amount the size of a grain of salt can be deadly.

In 2003 an envelope containing ricin was sent to the White House but was intercepted by the Secret Service. Ricin also was found in a similar envelope at a South Carolina postal facility.

It also was detected in a Senate mailroom in 2004.

In 1978 dissident Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was killed after a passerby in London jabbed him with an umbrella that injected a tiny ricin-filled pellet.

Britain: Harry's Afghan Deployment Over

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's defense chief decided Friday to immediately pull Prince Harry out of Afghanistan after news of his deployment was leaked, citing concerns that media coverage could put him and his comrades at increased risk.

Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, chief of the Defense Staff, said he decided to withdraw the prince after senior commanders assessed the risks, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Harry, third in line to the British throne, has been serving on the front line with an army unit in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province since mid-December. He was originally due to return to Britain within weeks, but "the situation has now clearly changed," the statement said.

The ministry asked the media not to speculate on Harry's location - or how and when he would return - until he was back in Britain.

British officials had hoped to keep Prince Harry's deployment secret until he had safely returned, but they released video of him serving in Helmand province after the leak. The Australian women's magazine New Idea reported on Harry's deployment in January. The news appeared Wednesday in the U.S. Web site the Drudge Report, and media around the world subsequently reported it.

The ministry deplored the leak by "elements of the foreign media."

"However, this was a circumstance that we have always been aware of and one for which we have had contingency plans in place," the statement said.

Queen Elizabeth II said her 23-year-old grandson had performed "a good job in a very difficult climate."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the prince had demonstrated that he was an exemplary young officer and the country owned him a "debt of gratitude.

"Security considerations come first. That has been the deciding factor which was made by our defense staff and I think that everybody will respect that is the right decision," Brown said.

Harry is the first royal to serve in a combat zone since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during Britain's war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982.

Tours to Afghanistan usually last six months; Harry has served 10 weeks.

Harry conceded in an interview filmed last week that when he returns to Britain he could be a "top target" for Islamic terrorists.

"Once this ... comes out, every single person that supports them will be trying to slot me," he said.

But he said his deployment was a welcome chance to escape from paparazzi and hostile headlines. He said it was probably the best chance he'll ever get at being a normal person.

"To be honest with you the one nice thing is not knowing what's in the paper, what kind of rubbish people are writing," he said.

Harry, a regular in London's nightclub circuit, has made steady headlines over the years. He's been snapped wearing a Nazi uniform at a costume party, cavorting with strippers, and scuffling with the photographers outside trendy London nightspots.

His red hair coated in dust, Harry said he had been eating military rations and drinking nonalcoholic beverages.

The deployment plan had been disclosed to reporters, with no specific date, but was not reported previously because of an agreement between the Ministry of Defense and all major news organizations operating in Britain, including The Associated Press. The news blackout was intended to reduce the risk to the prince and his regiment.

Harry was supposed to go to Iraq with the Blues and Royals regiment in May last year but the assignment was canceled because of security fears. Iraqi insurgents made threats on Internet chat rooms, saying he would not make it home alive.

Harry trained at Sandhurst military academy and joined the Blues and Royals as a cornet, the cavalry regiment's equivalent of a second lieutenant. After being held back from his Iraq assignment, the prince threatened to quit the army if he was not given the chance to see combat.

He said the news of his Afghan assignment had been delivered by the queen herself.

Harry said his older brother, William, who also graduated from Sandhurst and is training as a military pilot, is jealous of his deployment. As Britain's likely future king, Prince William is unlikely ever to see combat.

Harry said his brother wrote to tell him his late mother, Princess Diana, would have been proud.

"She would be looking down having a giggle about the stupid things that I've been doing, like going left when I should have gone right," Harry said.

Helmand province is where most of the 7,800 British soldiers in Afghanistan are based. It has seen some of the country's fiercest combat in recent years, with NATO-led forces fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Harry's work in Afghanistan has involved calling in airstrikes on Taliban positions as well as going out on foot patrols. He spent part of his deployment at a base 500 yards from Taliban positions, the military said.

Since Harry's arrival, his battle group has been responsible for around 30 enemy deaths, a Ministry of Defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Video showed the prince in camouflage fatigues walking across arid and dusty terrain, calling in air support, firing a machine gun and patrolling the streets of Garmsir, the southernmost part of the province. He has since left Garmsir, and his current whereabouts are being kept secret.

Gunmen kidnap Iraqi Chaldean Catholic archbishop

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul on Friday from the northern Iraqi city and killed his driver and two companions, police said.

"He was kidnapped in the al-Nour district in eastern Mosul when he left a church. Gunmen opened fire on the car, killed the other three and kidnapped the archbishop," a Mosul police official said.

Hezbollah says US ship is threat

BBC
A Hezbollah MP has condemned the deployment of the USS Cole warship off the coast of Lebanon as a threat to Lebanese sovereignty and independence.

The US is sending one warship and a support ship to the eastern Mediterranean as a show of support for "regional stability".

The deployment is seen as a warning to Syria, which backs the opposition, of which Hezbollah is part.

But MP Hassan Fadlallah said the movement would not give in to threats.

He told reporters: "It is clear this threat and intimidation will not affect us."

We don't succumb to threats and military intimidation practised by the United States to implement its hegemony over Lebanon Hassan Fadlallah

"The American move threatens the stability of Lebanon and the region and it is an attempt to spark tension," he told Reuters news agency.

"The American administration has used the policy of sending warships to support its allies in Lebanon before, and that experiment failed and backfired.

"We don't succumb to threats and military intimidation practised by the United States to implement its hegemony over Lebanon."

Support

Lebanon is deep in political crisis, precipitating a series of political assassinations.

The country has not had a president since 24 November, when pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud left office. Parliament has repeatedly failed to elect a successor amid an ongoing row over candidates.

The election was postponed once again this week, and is now due to take place on 11 March. There are fears that the political deadlock could lead to escalating sectarian violence.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, said the presence of the USS Cole was important.

He said the signal was "not specifically sent to any one country as much as it is to the region itself".

"That's a very important part of the world and stability there is an important outcome for us," he said.

The USS Cole is expected to take up position, out of visible range of Lebanon.

Afghanistan mission close to failing - US

Injection of troops and aid has not brought stability says intelligence chief

• Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Richard Norton Taylor
• The Guardian,
• Friday February 29 2008

Afghan mourners carry a victim of last week's suicide bombing in Kandahar. Photograph: Allauddin Khan/AP

After six years of US-led military support and billions of pounds in aid, security in Afghanistan is "deteriorating" and President Hamid Karzai's government controls less than a third of the country, America's top intelligence official has admitted.

Mike McConnell testified in Washington that Karzai controls about 30% of Afghanistan and the Taliban 10%, and the remainder is under tribal control.

The Afghan government angrily denied the US director of national intelligence's assessment yesterday, insisting it controlled "over 360" of the country's 365 districts. "This is far from the facts and we completely deny it," said the defence ministry.

But the gloomy comments echoed even more strongly worded recent reports by thinktanks, including one headed by the former Nato commander General James Jones, which concluded that "urgent changes" were required now to "prevent Afghanistan becoming a failed state".

Although Nato forces have killed thousands of insurgents, including several commanders, an unrelenting drip of violence has eroded Karzai's grip in the provinces, providing fuel to critics who deride him as "the mayor of Kabul".

A suicide bomb at a dog fight near Kandahar last week killed more than 80 people. Yesterday fighting erupted in neighbouring Helmand when the Taliban ambushed a police patrol. The interior ministry said 25 militants were killed; a Taliban spokesman said they lost one.

A day earlier, the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation aid agency said it feared that Cyd Mizell, an American employee kidnapped in Kandahar last month, had been killed in captivity.

A big injection of foreign troops has failed to bring stability. The US has almost 50,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and - twice as many as in 2004 - while the UK has 7,700, mostly in Helmand. Another 2,200 US marines are due to arrive next month to combat an expected Taliban surge.

Nato commanders paint the suicide bombs and ambushes as signs of a disheartened enemy. Yesterday, Brigadier Andrew Mackay, commander of the British contingent in southern Afghanistan, said the Taliban were "worn down", running low on fighters, and being ostracised by local communities. "Logistically they are also challenged. The cumulative effect of all of this is that they are having to change their modus operandi, and that is why we are seeing more asymmetric attacks and suicide bombings in places such as Kandahar," he said.

But analysts believe the Taliban is successfully adapting the brutal guerrilla tactics that have served Iraqi insurgents so well. The six British soldiers killed in Helmand over the past three months were victims of roadside bombs. The drugs trade is swelling the Taliban coffers - according to the highest estimates, 40% of profits, or tens of millions of pounds, go to the insurgency. Attacks have made the main road from Kandahar to Kabul too dangerous for foreigners. Afghan truck drivers travel with armed escort.

The insecurity has penetrated the capital. Since an assault on Kabul's Serena Hotel last January, westerners have disappeared from the streets of Kabul. This week Taliban commanders threatened to step up the campaign with more bombs.

The key to the Taliban's success, McConnell said, "is the opportunity for safe haven in Pakistan". Meanwhile the surge in violence has placed a big strain on Nato. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has agreed to deploy a battalion outside Kabul after America has criticised European states for refusing to join the fight in the south and Canada threatened to withdraw its troops from Kandahar next year if reinforcements do not arrive.

An Oxfam report yesterday said international and national security forces, as well as warlords, criminals and the Taliban, were perceived by ordinary Afghans as posing security threats.

Court gags ex-SAS man who made torture claims

• Richard Norton-Taylor
• The Guardian,
• Friday February 29 2008

A former SAS soldier was served with a high court order yesterday preventing him from making fresh disclosures about how hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture.

Ben Griffin could be jailed if he makes further disclosures about how people seized by special forces were allegedly mistreated and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law. Griffin, 29, left the British army in 2005 after three months in Baghdad, saying he disagreed with the "illegal" tactics of US troops.

He told a press conference hosted by the Stop the War Coalition this week that individuals detained by SAS troops in a joint UK-US special forces taskforce had ended up in interrogation centres in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Guantánamo Bay. He had not witnessed torture himself but added: "I have no doubt in my mind that non-combatants I personally detained were handed over to the Americans and subsequently tortured."

Referring to the government's admission that two US rendition flights containing terror suspects had landed at the British territory of Diego Garcia, Griffin said the use of British territory and airspace "pales into insignificance in light of the fact that it has been British soldiers detaining the victims of extraordinary rendition in the first place".

The Ministry of Defence said it did not comment on special forces' activities.

In a separate move, the media have been prevented by a court order from reporting a court martial of six SAS soldiers charged with a conspiracy to "defraud of a value of about £3,000".

Bill Clinton: The Decline Of An Elitist Puppet

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Thursday, Feb 28, 2008

In the vain of an emperor or dictator in his last days, Bill Clinton is losing his mind and lashing out. The past few months have seen him make bizarre comments, engage in biting skirmishes and with reporters and scuffles with rival politicians’ supporters, and react with intense venom to confrontations from 9/11 truthers.

The picture being painted is one of a former elitist sock puppet very publicly falling from grace.

Clinton’s actions have even led prominent democrats to fear he is damaging the party’s prospects.

Earlier this week Clinton gave a speech in which he actively encouraged those in attendance to "elect me", a telling slip of the tongue if ever there was one.

Prior to this he became involved in a scuffle with some Obama supporters in Ohio. “I think he even hit me in the face with his hand,” one man said. “He did give me a little pop."

Clinton has also made bizarre comments to reporters about Barak Obama orchestrating a "hit job" on him, without going into any details. Previously Clinton also caused a stir when he riled black voters by referring to Obama’s campaign as "the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen".

"Clinton’s damage-limitation exercise came after his wife also provoked controversy by appearing to diminish the achievements of Martin Luther King. She said it took President Lyndon B Johnson to implement the reforms that the assassinated civil rights leader had championed." reported the London Telegraph.

This Democratic commentator’s words sum up the decline of Clinton quite succinctly:

It is hard to watch. All of the political cache that this man has garnered since his Presidency is gone… he has this ‘anything to get elected’ quality that is destroying his relationship with the American people. I have been a fan of him in the past. I will be hard to woo back. In fact, I’m so dismayed at his behavior that I would have very little enthusiasm to support the campaign of his wife should she win the nomination. She could put the brakes on this train wreck. She won’t. This tag-team has been running rough shod over the opposition for a long time. But now, they are losing the fans.

With every sinister calculation and angry outburst, he acts like the administration that we are looking to oust. It is politics as usual. It is the logic of loyalty over competence. Make arguments that parse words and define the most simple terms, and attempt to confuse the people into believing that you are their friend. With twists and turns like that, it is a devilish combination.

Clinton’s most intense confrontations, however, have been with 9/11 truth protestors.

Clinton has had several run ins with members of We Are Change and other 9/11 truth groups who have consistently reminded Clinton that it was he who failed to pursue Osama Bin Laden despite having the opportunity to do so on several occasions.

Others have pointed out that the former National Security Advisor in the Clinton administration, Sandy Berger, was convicted of charges related to stealing/removing and destroying classified documents pertaining to pre-9/11 intelligence.

Questions and accusations also remain about the roles of Sandy Berger and the Clinton Administration at large of obfuscating the 9/11 Commission’s investigation (Bergers charges relate to this period).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Be…

Despite this, Sandy Berger has now joined the Hillary Clinton campaign in an advisory capacity and would likely enter a Hillary Clinton administration.
http://www.examiner.com/a-977346~He_s…

In the face of these facts Clinton has the gall to stand up on his pedestal and call such protestors "people who are afraid of the truth", while his zombie-like fawning supporters close in on any dissenters like packs of wolves.

In a separate incident Clinton spouted "You wanna know what I think? You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims’ families. You’re nuts."

Here he fails to comprehend that some of the largest victims’ families groups continue to campaign for a new investigation, as well as justice for first dying responders, often working hand in hand with 9/11 truth groups.

On more than one occasion Clinton’s security entourage has detained and questioned protestors.

Other incidents:

Bill Clinton Shamed In Public Confrontation

Bill Clinton Takes On 9/11 Conspiracy Protesters

Bill Clinton has angry response for 9/11 heckler

Bill Clinton Confronted by WeAreChange.org

Bill Clinton Trades Blows With 9/11 Truthers

If you want a president who goes around calling people that disagree with him "nuts", giving them a little "pop in the face" and having them confronted by the secret service then the choice is clear, elect his wife.

Israeli War Minister Threatens Palestinian Holocaust

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Friday, February 29th, 2008

Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has provoked outrage after threatening Palestinians with a "holocaust," but the same media who obsessed about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s "wipe Israel off the map" misquote are scurrying to defend Vilnai’s disgraceful comments.

"The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Vilnai told the Army Radio on Friday.

However, in a Reuters report, despite the fact that the rest of the statement was translated into English, the incendiary word "holocaust" remained in its original Hebrew version - "shoah".

Why Reuters would choose to print the rest of the statement in English yet cherry-pick one word to remain in Hebrew is obvious - they don’t want to draw any attention to the fact that Vilnai is threatening the Palestinians with a holocaust.

Vilnai’s spokesman has attempted to diffuse the controversy by claiming Vilnai was speaking in terms of a "disaster" and not a holocaust.

But you can’t have your cake and eat it.

	When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allegedly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," the media blindly repeated the quote ad infinitum.

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allegedly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," the media blindly repeated the quote ad infinitum, and it became second nature for them to carelessly drop it into any propaganda piece intended to hype Iran’s supposed threat to Israel and the world.

Barely a day goes by that Israeli, American and British warhawks don’t spew the phrase like a broken record in an attempt to create a catchy cliché and brand market the next jaunt of imperial blood-letting.

No matter that, according to numerous different translations, Ahmadinejad never used the word "map," instead his statement was in the context of time and applied to the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad was expressing his future hope that the Zionist regime in Israel would fall, not that Iran was going to physically annex the country and its population.

To claim Ahmadinejad has issued a rallying cry to ethnically cleanse Israel is akin to saying that Churchill wanted to murder all Germans when he stated his desire to crush the Nazis. This is about the demise of a corrupt occupying power, not the deaths of millions of innocent people.

On the other hand, even as Reuters is forced to admit, Vilnai’s use of the word "shoah" is intrinsically allied to the context of "Discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews," adding, "Many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other contemporary events."

So will the media make reference to one of Israel’s top minister’s expressing his wish to inflict a Palestinian "holocaust" in all future reports about Israel’s geopolitical motives, just as they do with Ahmadinejad’s supposed call to wipe Israel off the map?

There’s more chance of Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin coming back from the dead to broker a peace settlement.