Mexican President Criticizes 'Absurd' U.S. Border Policies - washingtonpost.com

Mexican President Criticizes 'Absurd' U.S. Border Policies - washingtonpost.com

Mexican President Criticizes 'Absurd' U.S. Border Policies

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 17, 2007; A10

MEXICO CITY, March 16 -- Mexican President Felipe Calderón said Friday that U.S. border policies are marred by many "absurd" paradoxes that hurt the Mexican economy and force more Mexicans to migrate illegally to the United States.

In an interview en route from Mexicali, Mexico, to Mexico City on his presidential jet, Calderón criticized construction of more border fencing and accused U.S. border agents of slowing the flow of commerce between the countries by sometimes failing to staff enough crossing booths.

He also argued against plans to line with concrete the massive All-American Canal, which connects the Colorado River to farms in California. Calderón said the project would cut off groundwater that flows into Mexico and possibly hurt the businesses of Mexican farmers enough that they would need to migrate illegally to make a living.

The border debate has become increasingly personal for Calderón, after recent revelations that some of his relatives have migrated. During President Bush's visit to Mexico this week, Calderón said he has relatives "working in vegetable fields" and restaurants in the United States. "They probably handle what you eat," he said at a news conference.

In the interview Friday, Calderón said that between "five and 20" of his relatives have migrated and that he does not know their current immigration statuses or whether they entered legally. The relatives include "cousins, uncles and in-laws," he said.

"I'd rather not say who they are," Calderón said.

Top aides to Calderón have said that he would like to shift immigration away from the center of U.S.-Mexico relations, but on a visit Friday to the border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali, he returned to the theme repeatedly. At the inauguration of a wastewater treatment plant outside Mexicali, Calderón commented on the "absurd paradox that in their determination to have less migration, at the same time [the United States] is cutting off more job opportunities for Mexicans." The audience members -- some of whom held handkerchiefs to their noses to block the odor coming from the treatment plant -- applauded loudly.

Aboard his plane, Calderón said U.S. border policies seem to run counter to U.S. intentions for "friendly relations" with Mexico. He described the relationship between the two countries as "complex and difficult."

He seemed particularly irked by bottlenecks at border checkpoints -- some Mexicans sleep in their cars to get a spot in line. Calderón singled out the crossing at San Ysidro, Calif., one of the busiest in the world, as a trouble spot that is hurting commerce between the nations.

"There are times when, out of 24 booths, 17 are not open," he said.

Calderón is pushing for a comprehensive revamping of the U.S. immigration system and said he believes there is a better chance of achieving that goal now that Democrats have control of Congress. But he noted that progress on immigration could take place only if "Democrats told the truth and did not trick" voters with promises during last fall's election campaigns.

Calderón has argued that improving Mexico's economy will stem the flow of illegal migrants across the U.S. border. He cited the example of Spain, a country that once had mass economic migrations but has improved its economy so much that it now is a destination for migrants. Hoping to replicate such successes, Calderón boasted that Mexico created 116,000 jobs in February.

"I don't know how many were created in the United States, but I think it could not be many more," he said.

Calderón has been in office since December, after running a campaign focused on job stimulation and free trade. He said if he fails, the next Mexican president would surely be "a populist demagogue" who would hurt Mexico's economy and make today's immigration problem seem "like child's play."

Calderón criticized U.S. drug policy, saying the United States is not doing enough to lower consumption and to help combat the narco-traffickers who have terrorized Mexico in recent years. He called U.S. aid to Mexico to combat drugs "a symbolic gesture" and accused U.S. officials of failing to do enough to stop the flow of drugs across the border.

During his first 100 days in office, Calderón has sent federal police and military troops to areas plagued by drug violence, including Tijuana, Acapulco and Monterrey. He said that this year, he will continue using the military and federal police to launch major operations against Mexican drug cartels, which have grown in size, strength and barbarity to rival the Colombian cartels of the 1980s. But Calderón said he would also like to focus attention on police reforms as a way of combating drug gangs.

Calderón's trip to the border took him far from the scene of a historic event in Mexico City, where same-sex couples lined up for the first time in the city's history to register for civil unions and the first civil union ceremony took place Friday.

"I completely respect a person's sexual preferences," Calderón said. "However, I believe in the family, that the family is an institution headed by the principle of heterosexuality."

Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran

Damascus reportedly hiding WMD among commercial pharmaceuticals
WORLDNETDAILY
An American biodefense analyst living in Europe says if the U.S. invades Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions, Syria is ready to respond with weapons of mass destruction – specifically biological weapons.

"Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran," Jill Bellamy-Dekker told WND. "The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities. The intelligence service oversees Syria's 'bio-farm' program and the Ministry of Defense is well interfaced into the effort."

Bellamy-Decker currently directs the Public Health Preparedness program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense.

She anticipates a variation of smallpox is the biological agent Syria would utilize.

"The Syrians are also working on orthopox viruses that are related to smallpox," Bellamy-Decker said, "and it's a good way to get around international treaties against offensive biological weapons development. They work on camelpox as a cover for smallpox."

According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, camelpox is a virus closely related to smallpox, that causes a "severe and economically important disease in camels," but rarely, if ever, causes the disease in humans.

Bellamy-Decker also told WND the North Koreans were working closely with the Syrians on their biological weapons program.

"The Syrians have made some recent acquisitions in regard to their smallpox program from the DPRK," she explained. "Right before the recent Lebanon war, the Syrians had a crash program in cryptosporidium."

According to the Washington State Department of Health, cryptosporidium is a one-celled parasite that causes a gastrointestinal illness with symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and a low-grade fever. The symptoms can last for weeks and may result in weight loss and dehydration.

"Because cryptosporidium is impervious to chlorine," Bellamy-Decker continued, "you could infect the water supply by the bucket full of cryptosporidium, if you know where to get it. The resulting illness would put down a lot of civilians and military who might oppose you going into their country."

"The Syrians have a modus operandi of covert operations and deniability," she stressed, "so biological weapons are absolutely perfect for them."

WND asked Bellamy-Decker if the Syrians have any history of having used biological weapons.

"I believe they are testing biological weapons right now, in Sudan, in the conflict in Darfur," she answered. "There is credible information about flyover activity in Darfur, where little parachutes have been dropped down on the population. This is consistent with dispersal methods in bioweapons attacks. I've also seen evidence of bodies that have been recovered from Darfur that look as if they had been exposed to biological weapons."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum Feb. 28 to exchange expressions of support and solidarity.

"The Syrians now consider biological weapons as part of their arsenal," Bellamy-Decker said. "The Syrian military is also beginning to plan the eventual integration of biological weapons in its tactical and strategic arsenals."

She referenced an April 2000 article published by Syrian defense minister General Mustafa Talas, titled "Biological (Germ) Warfare: A New and Effective Method in Modern Warfare." The article was republished in a Farsi translation in Tehran.

"All indications suggest that Syria's ultimate objective is to mount biological warheads on all varieties of the long-range surface-to-surface missiles in its possession," Bellamy-Decker maintained. "This is a goal that can probably be achieved within a few years, and it may already have been realized in part."

She argued that instead of producing large quantities of bioweapons agents, Syria is seeking to develop a smaller, but high-quality arsenal, which it can deliver accurately against military and civilian targets.

When asked how Syria might be expected to retaliate against Israel or Europe if the U.S. attacked Iran, she responded, "Syria has most likely forward-deployed some of their covert operatives. Smallpox does not need to be weaponized. Aerosol release is the way to go."

Bellamy-Decker explained the methodology of a terrorist bio-attack:

So with a good primary aerosol release in an airport in Israel or Europe and you could get 100 index cases. If you've made the strain sufficiently virulent, you could have a ratio of 1 to 13 for infectivity, where the normal ratio is 1 to 3. If every index case infects 13 other people, you unfortunately have a great first hit.

"A terrorist bio-attack could go global," she noted. "A good biological hit will spread rapidly with international travel. Smallpox is a better weapon than anthrax. Smallpox has been field-tested, it is highly stable, and highly communicable, especially if you look at some of the strains the Russians manipulated. Syria probably retained some of [its] smallpox strains from the last outbreak back in 1972."

Another risk is the possibility Syria's military might give bioweapons to terrorists.

"We are close to seeing a breakthrough where Syria could provide biological weapons to some of the terrorist groups they work with, like Hezbollah in Lebanon," Bellamy-Decker argued. "The Syrians believe they can vaccinate themselves and they are working within the Syrian military. They're certainly not worried about releasing these biological weapons in a military setting, or even if civilians were infected as well, as long as they are vaccinated. I think it is a real threat."

Bellamy-Decker is presenting a paper at this week's Intelligence Summit in St. Petersburg, Fla. It is expected to focus on the sophisticated state of development of the Syrian bioweapons program.

"The Syrians have developed a rather remarkable bioweapons capability that has gone under the radar of U.S. intelligence," she said. "U.S. intelligence continues to insist that the Syrian capability is not highly developed. The Syrian program mirrors how the Russians have developed their program, as well as Iraq under Saddam Hussein, North Korea, and Iran. The emphasis in the Syrian program is on latent potential and outbreak capability."

Bellamy-Decker explained we should not expect to find stockpiles of biological weapons.

"Stockpiles are just not how biological weapons are done," she said. "With biological weapons, it is not the quantity, but the quality that counts. If you can produce a virulent, communicable strain, then you have a great biological weapon and it doesn't matter how much of it you have, it depends on what the weapon looks like."

Bellamy-Decker also referenced a paper she had co-authored for the European Homeland Security Association (EHSA) titled, "Public Health Security and Preparedness."

This paper is intended to be used as part of a new initiative EHSA is launching in Brussels to hold a quarterly bioterrorism forum bringing together national and international experts with high-level decision-makers "to discuss the threat posed by deliberate disease and the appropriate preparedness and response mechanisms vitally needed to address this threat."

N.Y. cops spied before convention - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

N.Y. cops spied before convention - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

N.Y. cops spied before convention
Undercover police tracked protesters in U.S., Europe , N.Y. Times reports
Reuters
Updated: 4:19 p.m. ET March 25, 2007

NEW YORK - Undercover New York City police, apparently acting partially in response to the September 11 attacks, conducted covert observations across the United States and in Europe of people planning protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention, the New York Times said.

The newspaper said in Sunday’s edition that records indicated the “R.N.C. Intelligence Squad” attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or activists, to glean information on people or groups intending to disrupt the convention.

But hundreds of reports, stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” indicated that church groups, theater companies and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists, anti-death penalty activists and others opposed to globalization, were all surveyed and included in the files, the Times said.

Intelligence on apparently lawful activities was also shared with police departments in other cities, it said.

“Detectives collected information both in-state and out-of-state to learn in advance what was coming our way,” the Times quoted the NYPD’s chief spokesman Paul Browne as saying, and adding “All our activities were legal.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who took the post in January 2002 after the September 11 attacks, “took the position that the NYPD could no longer rely on the federal government alone, and that the department had to build an intelligence capacity worthy of the name,” Browne told the Times.

David Cohen, the deputy police commissioner for intelligence and a former CIA official, said the long period of preparation by a sleeper cell for an act of terrorism requires the department’s entire resources “be available to conduct investigations into political activity and intelligence-related issues,” he wrote in a 2002 affidavit.

According to the newspaper, the city’s police department applied newly ramped-up intelligence resources aimed at fighting terrorism to a different context -- that of gathering information on people joining political protests.

But the bulk of hundreds of reports dating back to 2003 reviewed by the Times pertained to people with no clear intention of breaking any laws, the Times said.

Federal lawsuits have been brought over mass arrests made at the time, with lawyers slated to begin depositions next week of Cohen.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17779725/
© 2007 MSNBC.com

Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years - washingtonpost.com

Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years - washingtonpost.com

Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years
U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; A01

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.

Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives.

But in addressing one problem, TIDE has spawned others. Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it. "The single biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control," said Russ Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean. "Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, five years down the road?"

TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.

The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state and local law enforcement, have a higher bar. But they have become a source of irritation -- and potentially more serious consequences -- for many U.S. citizens and visitors.

In 2004 and 2005, misidentifications accounted for about half of the tens of thousands of times a traveler's name triggered a watch-list hit, the Government Accountability Office reported in September. Congressional committees have criticized the process, some charging that it collects too much information about Americans, others saying it is ineffective against terrorists. Civil rights and privacy groups have called for increased transparency.

"How many are on the lists, how are they compiled, how is the information used, how do they verify it?" asked Lillie Coney, associate director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. Such information is classified, and individuals barred from traveling are not told why.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens. The listing referred to the Britain-based pop singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The reason Islam is not allowed to fly to the United States is secret.

So is the reason Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, remains on the State Department's consular watch list. Detained in New York while en route to Montreal in 2002, Arar was sent by the U.S. government to a year of imprisonment in Syria. Canada, the source of the initial information about Arar, cleared him of all terrorism allegations last September -- three years after his release -- and has since authorized $9 million in compensation.

TIDE is a vacuum cleaner for both proven and unproven information, and its managers disclaim responsibility for how other agencies use the data. "What's the alternative?" Travers said. "I work under the assumption that we're never going to have perfect information -- fingerprints, DNA -- on 6 billion people across the planet. . . . If someone actually has a better idea, I'm all ears."
'Thousands of Messages'

The electronic journey a piece of terrorism data takes from an intelligence outpost to an airline counter is interrupted at several points for analysis and condensation.

President Bush ordered the intelligence community in 2003 to centralize data on terrorism suspects, and U.S. agencies at home and abroad now send everything they collect to TIDE. It arrives electronically as names to be added or as additional information about people already in the system.

The 80 TIDE analysts get "thousands of messages a day," Travers said, much of the data "fragmentary," "inconsistent" and "sometimes just flat-out wrong." Often the analysts go back to the intelligence agencies for details. "Sometimes you'll get sort of corroborating information," he said, "but many times you're not going to get much. What we use here, rightly or wrongly, is a reasonable-suspicion standard."

Each TIDE listee is given a number, and statistics are kept on nationality and ethnic and religious groups. Some files include aliases and sightings, and others are just a full or partial name, perhaps with a sketchy biography. Sunni and Shiite Muslims are the fastest-growing categories in a database whose entries include Saudi financiers and Colombian revolutionaries. U.S. citizens -- who Travers said make up less than 5 percent of listings -- are included if an "international terrorism nexus" is established. A similar exception for the administration's warrantless wiretap program came under court challenge from privacy and civil rights advocates.
Information Sharing

Every night at 10, TIDE dumps an unclassified version of that day's harvest -- names, dates of birth, countries of origin and passport information -- into a database belonging to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. TIDE's most sensitive information is not included. The FBI adds data about U.S. suspects with no international ties for a combined daily total of 1,000 to 1,500 new names.

Between 5 and 6 a.m., a shift of 24 analysts drawn from the agencies that use watch lists begins a new winnowing process at the center's Crystal City office. The analysts have access to case files at TIDE and the original intelligence sources, said the center's acting director, Rick Kopel.

Decisions on what to add to the Terrorist Screening Center master list are made by midafternoon. The bar is higher than TIDE's; total listings were about 235,000 names as of last fall, according to Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. The bar is then raised again as agencies decide which names to put on their own watch lists: the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" and "selectee" lists for airlines; Consular Lookout and Support System at the State Department; the Interagency Border and Inspection System at the Department of Homeland Security; and the Justice Department's National Crime Information Center. The criteria each agency use are classified, Kopel said.

Some information may raise a red flag for one agency but not another. "There's a big difference between CLASS and no-fly," Kopel said, referring to State's consular list. "About the only criteria CLASS has is that you're not a U.S. person. . . . Say 'a Mohammed from Syria.' That's useless for me to watch-list here in the United States. But if I'm in Damascus processing visas . . . that might be enough for someone to . . . put a hold on the visa process."

All of the more than 30,000 individuals on the TSA's no-fly list are prohibited from entering an aircraft in the United States. People whose names appear on the longer selectee list -- those the government believes merit watching but does not bar from travel -- are supposed to be subjected to more intense scrutiny.

With little to go on beyond names, airlines find frequent matches. The screening center agent on call will check the file for markers such as sex, age and prior "encounters" with the list. The agent might ask the airlines about the passenger's eye color, height or defining marks, Kopel said. "We'll say, 'Does he have any rings on his left hand?' and they'll say, 'Uh, he doesn't have a left hand.' Okay. We know that [the listed person] lost his left hand making a bomb."

If the answers indicate a match, that "encounter" is fed back into the FBI screening center's files and ultimately to TIDE. Kopel said the agent never tells the airline whether the person trying to board is the suspect. The airlines decide whether to allow the customer to fly.

TSA receives thousands of complaints each year, such as this one released to the Electronic Privacy Information Center in 2004 under the Freedom of Information Act: "Apparently, my name is on some watch list because everytime I fly, I get delayed while the airline personnel call what they say is TSA," wrote a passenger whose name was blacked out. Noting that he was a high-level federal worker, he asked what he could do to remove his name from the list.

The answer, Kopel said, is little. A unit at the screening center responds to complaints, he said, but will not remove a name if it is shared by a terrorism suspect. Instead, people not on the list who share a name with someone listed can be issued letters instructing airline personnel to check with the TSA to verify their identity. The GAO reported that 31 names were removed in 2005.
A Process Under Fire

A recent review of the entire Terrorist Screening Center database was temporarily abandoned when it proved too much work even for the night crew, which generally handles less of a workload. But the no-fly and selectee lists are being scrubbed to emphasize "people we think are a danger to the plane, and not for some other reason they met the criteria," Kopel said.

A separate TSA system that would check every passenger name against the screening center's database has been shelved over concern that it could grow into a massive surveillance program. The Department of Homeland Security was rebuked by Congress in December for trying to develop a risk-assessment program to profile travelers entering and leaving the United States based on airline and financial data.

Kopel insisted that private information on Americans, such as credit-card records, never makes it into the screening center database and that "we rely 100 percent on government-owned information."

The center came in for ridicule last year when CBS's "60 Minutes" noted that 14 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were listed -- five years after their deaths. Kopel defended the listings, saying that "we know for a fact that these people will use names that they believe we are not going to list because they're out of circulation -- either because they're dead or incarcerated. . . . It's not willy-nilly. Every name on the list, there's a reason that it's on there."

BBC NEWS | Business | Venezuela aims for China oil deal

BBC NEWS | Business | Venezuela aims for China oil deal

Venezuela aims for China oil deal
Venezuela says it is working on a number of new oil deals with China, as it aims to reduce its dependence upon crude exports to the US.

The left-wing Venezuelan government said it would work with China National Petroleum Corporation to boost Chinese investment in its oil facilities.

It added that there were also joint plans to build a fleet of new tanker ships and three refineries in China.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has long spoken of his hostility to the US.

'US declining'

His increasingly fraught relationship with America comes as he is pushing ahead with a nationalisation of Venezuela's oil industry.

Such a move would strip major US companies such as Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron of their majority stakes in Venezuelan oil projects.

"The United States as a power is on the way down, China is on the way up. China is the market of the future," said Mr Chavez after the Chinese investment announcement.

China's breakneck economic growth of recent years means it is today the world's second-biggest oil consumer after the US.

Venezuela is the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6492833.stm

Bolton: Force may be needed against Iran - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com

Bolton: Force may be needed against Iran - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com

Bolton: Force may be needed against Iran
Ex envoy to U.N. says military action preferable to nuclear-armed Tehran
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:19 a.m. ET March 21, 2007

NEW YORK - President Bush’s former envoy to the United Nations says using military force against Iran would be preferable to allowing the country to acquire nuclear weapons.

John Bolton gained a reputation for speaking out during his 17 months as U.S. ambassador to the world body. But his remarks Tuesday night were some of his boldest yet, especially concerning Tehran.

“I believe that ultimately the only real prospect of getting Iran to give up nuclear weapons is to change the regime,” Bolton told reporters after an off-the-record speech to the Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization.

How should this be done?

“By the force of the Iranian people themselves,” Bolton replied. “But if the alternative is a nuclear Iran, as unpleasant as the use of military force would be, I think the prospect of a nuclear Iran is worse.”

The U.N. Security Council is considering new sanctions against Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fissile material for nuclear weapons as well as fuel for nuclear power plants. Tehran’s reaction to U.N. sanctions imposed in December was to step up its enrichment of uranium.

“I think Iran’s record is clear that they’re never going to give up the pursuit of uranium enrichment,” Bolton said, “and I think that there’s no disagreement within their leadership that that’s the road to nuclear weapons.”

Controversial figure
Bolton arrived at the United Nations in August 2005, a controversial figure appointed by Bush during a Congressional recess because he twice failed to be confirmed by the Senate. Still unable to get Senate backing, he stepped down in December.

Now back at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, he says he’s writing a book about his days at the U.N. titled “Surrender is Not an Option.” Published by Simon & Schuster, it is due out in November.

Bolton also criticized the U.S. government for releasing $25 million in frozen North Korean assets held by a Macau bank suspected of helping North Korea launder money from counterfeiting and other illegal activities.

The United States had promised to release the funds as part of international efforts to roll back the communist regime’s nuclear weapons program.

“I think it’s a signal of weakness,” he said. “It’s a terrible signal to Iran and other would-be proliferators.”

The former ambassador also said it was time to contemplate regime change in Sudan, whose government is accused of inciting a conflict in the country’s Darfur region that has killed 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since 2003.

He said so many elements of Sudan are dissatisfied with the government that there would be a “lot of candidates” for undertaking regime change.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17717396/
© 2007 MSNBC.com

Pentagon: 15 British troops seized by Iranians - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com

Pentagon: 15 British troops seized by Iranians - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com

Pentagon: 15 British troops seized by Iranians
Soldiers seized during smuggling investigation, official says
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 8:16 a.m. ET March 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon official said Friday that up to 15 British troops have been detained by the Iranian navy.

The Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation, said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the incident.

Earlier, British forces said there had been “an incident” in the northern Gulf after an Iraqi fisherman reported seeing up to seven British or American military personnel being seized by an Iranian ship.

“There has been an incident somewhere in the north of the Persian Gulf,” British military spokesman Major David Gell said in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, without elaborating.

He said he did not know whether any British or American servicemen were involved.

In January 2006, the Iranian coastguard stopped three Iraqi vessels Tehran said had crossed into Iranian waters, prompting Iraqi officials to accuse Iran of taking hostage nine Iraqis working on the vessels.

© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveThe Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17752685/

FBI warns of extremists on school buses - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

FBI warns of extremists on school buses - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

FBI warns of extremists on school buses
No plots found, agency says; alert aims to educate police to possibilities
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:33 p.m. ET March 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said that "parents and children have nothing to fear."

Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said that "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety.

The bulletin, parts of which were read to The Associated Press, did not say how often foreign extremists have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or where. It was sent Friday as part of what officials said was a routine FBI and Homeland Security Department advisory to local law enforcement.

It noted "recent suspicious activity" by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, according to a counterterror official.

Foreigners under recent investigation include "some with ties to extremist groups" who have been able to "purchase buses and acquire licenses," the bulletin says.

But Homeland Security and the FBI "have no information indicating these individuals are involved in a terrorist plot against the homeland," it says. The memo also notes: "Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school bus licenses to drive them are legitimate."

Kolko said the bulletin was sent merely as an educational tool to help local police identify and respond to any suspicious activity.

One counterterror official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the government felt it was likely that the foreigners investigated were merely employed as bus drivers, and did not intend to use them as part of any terror plot.

A second official said the government felt it prudent that the backgrounds of all those who come in contact with schoolchildren be checked.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the government has no credible information to suggest terrorists are "involved in buying school buses or seeking licenses to drive them." He said there was no indication of any immediate threat to the country.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17650445/

Confession of 9/11 architect backfires on US

london indy
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's dramatic confessions before a US military hearing are beginning to backfire on the Bush administration. Legal experts are casting serious doubt about their validity as evidence, and human rights activists say they only illuminate a "sham process" of justice in the US war on terror, including the apparent use of torture on Mohammed and potentially dozens of other al-Qa'ida suspects.

Mohammed's claims to have been fully responsible for the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, the murder of Daniel Pearl, the 2002 Bali disco bombings and a host of lesser plots, both hatched and fully realised, were made public to great fanfare last week.

Almost immediately, however, legal experts said he appeared to be exaggerating his role for his own self-aggrandisement and may also have deliberately floated false claims to send US investigators on wild goose chases.

The CIA denies that Mohammed was tortured, but evidence to the contrary has been building for years. Two years ago, a CIA official told ABC News that he had been water-boarded, and had won the admiration of his interrogators because it took him two to two-and-half minutes to start confessing - well beyond the average of 14 seconds observed in others.

Bloomberg Kills 'Sensitive 9/11 Probe'

ny post
Mayor Bloomberg killed a study on the city's response to the 9/11 attacks after his lawyers said they did not want a report that cited any missteps or dealt with "environmental" or "respirator issues," says a former city official.

City lawyers raised fears that the proposed "after-action report" - which the U.S. Department of Justice had offered to fund - could lead to criticism and fuel lawsuits, David Longshore, former director of special programs for the city's Office of Emergency Management, told The Post.

"The Bloomberg administration acted to sweep any potential problems under the rug," said Longshore, who was trapped in a loading dock outside the WTC while both towers collapsed. He later developed sinusitis and throat polyps and sued the city.

Longshore, who left his city job last year, showed The Post his work notes on internal OEM discussions with city lawyers in February 2003. His notes say the Law Department "doesn't want a critical report" and "does not want a report that says we did anything wrong."

Police DNA Collection Sparks Questions

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - When a 60-year-old man spat on the sidewalk, his DNA became as public as if he had been advertising it across his chest.

Police officers secretly following Leon Chatt last August collected the saliva - loaded with Chatt's unique genetic makeup - to compare with DNA evidence from the scene of an old murder they believed he'd committed.

On Feb. 1, Chatt was charged in one of Buffalo's oldest unsolved cases, the 1974 rape and stabbing of his wife's stepsister, Barbara Lloyd.

While secretly collecting a suspect's DNA may be an unorthodox approach to solving crimes, prosecutors say it crosses no legal boundaries - that when someone leaves their DNA in a public place via flakes of skin, strands of hair or saliva, for example, they give up any expectation of privacy.

But the practice has raised questions from Washington state to Florida, where similar collections are under scrutiny.

"If we felt it wasn't proper and we didn't have a strong legal foundation, we wouldn't have done it," Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said, discussing another recent case involving secretly obtained DNA.

In that case, the smoking gun was tableware the suspect used during a night out with his wife. Undercover investigators had waited out Altemio Sanchez at the bar of a Buffalo restaurant one evening and moved in on his water glass and utensils after he'd gone.

Two days later, the 49-year-old factory worker and father of two was charged with being the elusive "Bike Path Rapist" believed responsible for the deaths of three women and rape of numerous others from the early 1980s through 2006.

Lawyers for Sanchez and Chatt say both men continue to profess their innocence. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and their cases are pending in the courts.

DNA, which is unique to every person, has become a cold case squad's best friend. Investigators can re-examine things like hair, blood, semen and carpet fibers from decades-old crime scenes and cross-reference the DNA with ever expanding databases kept by law enforcement.

"It's one of the greatest tools that law enforcement has today," said Dennis Richards, the Buffalo Police Department's chief of detectives.

New York state last year underscored the value of DNA by tripling, to about 46 percent, the number of people convicted of crimes who must submit a sample to the state's database.

To catch up on a backlog, Erie County in January conducted an unusual two-day DNA "blitz." Hundreds of convicts who "owed" a sample were summoned to a downtown courthouse, where an assembly line of sorts was set up to swab their mouths.

But it is the so-called "abandoned" DNA like that collected from Sanchez and Chatt - and suspects elsewhere arrested based on discarded cigarettes or chewing gum - that concerns people like Elizabeth Joh. The University of California law professor believes it is time legislators consider regulating such collections out of concerns for privacy.

Right now, police rely on abandoned DNA when they lack enough evidence to obtain a court-ordered sample.

"If we look at this kind of evidence as abandoned, then it really permits the police to collect DNA from anyone - not just cold case issues - from anyone at any time and really for no good reason or any reason at all," Joh said.

"That's something that maybe sounds like a science fiction scenario - police running after people trying to get their DNA," she said, "but we really don't know where this could lead."

Asked whether there should be boundaries on such collections, Richards said, "That's one for the lawyers to argue in a court of law."

Chatt's attorney, John Jordan, said he would "absolutely" challenge the DNA evidence in his client's case in court but declined to elaborate.

Prosecutors tend to view abandoned DNA as akin to trash, which courts have upheld as fair game for investigators, Joh said.

She pointed to the case of California v. Greenwood, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that police did not need a warrant to search a suspected drug dealer's trash because he should have had no expectation of privacy when he placed it on the curb. Trash, the judges wrote, is "readily accessible to animals, children, scavengers, snoops, and other members of the public."

But Joh argued comparing DNA and trash is a poor analogy.

"Obviously, we might want to discard that cigarette, but do we really mean to give up all kinds of privacy claims in the genetic material that might lie therein?" she asked.

As advances in technology make DNA analysis faster and cheaper, "I think of it really as a kind of frontier issue," she said.

Richards, meanwhile, pointed out that while abandoned DNA can confirm a suspect's identity, it also works to the benefit of someone who is innocent.

"DNA rules people in, but it also rules people out," he said.

That point was not lost on the husband of murder victim Barbara Lloyd, who was questioned for hours after he reported his wife's death from 16 stab wounds in their bedroom that March 1974 morning. Police ruled Galan Lloyd out as a suspect after a few days.

Chatt's arrest, he said, proved that was the right decision.

"If there were people out there who still thought I did it, this should do it," Lloyd, now 59, told The Buffalo News.

Barbara Lloyd was killed as her then-3-year-old son, Joseph, and 14-month-old daughter, Kimberly, slept. The now-grown children recently persuaded police to take another look at the killing, leading police to close in on Chatt.

"We were very fortunate that at that time there was a detective in the evidence collection unit who was able to secure evidence from the scene which was later used for comparison," Richards said. "Here we are 30 years later, able to open up a box and submit some of the items that we found and to have a DNA analysis done."

Joh suggests proceeding with caution.

"My hope is there will be much greater awareness of what this means, not just for these particular cases, but for everyone," she said. "Is DNA sampling going to be ordinary and uncontroversial for the general population, in which case abandoned DNA may not be so alarming, or does it raise a whole host of privacy questions?"

I plotted E. African terror, sez Qaeda big

ny daily
WASHINGTON - Another top Al Qaeda thug has confessed, this time to masterminding attacks on the destroyer Cole and two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Walid Bin Attash admitted to his "many roles" in the suicide bombings. But unlike 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, he didn't offer regrets.

Attash told a military tribunal at the Guantanamo naval base that he was "the link" between Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and the Nairobi, Kenya, cell behind the 1998 embassy attacks that killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.

Attash also said he was with Bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Oct. 12, 2000, when a small boat blew a hole in the Cole, moored in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors.

"I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation," Bin Attash admitted. He bought the boat and explosives, and was in charge of "recruiting the members that did the operation."

The tribunal is likely to determine Bin Attash is an "enemy combatant" eligible for a war crimes trial.

Military trials for low-level detainees are set to begin this summer, and trials for senior operatives may begin soon after, according to an informed source.

Gary Solis, a Georgetown University expert on the law of war, said the confessions make it much easier to prosecute.

"You take the evidence handed to the military on a platter, verify it, convict them and sentence them to death," Solis said.

Clinton: U.S. troops needed in Iraq beyond 2009 - CNN.com

Clinton: U.S. troops needed in Iraq beyond 2009 - CNN.com

Clinton: U.S. troops needed in Iraq beyond 2009
Story Highlights
• Presidential candidate says small force should remain past 2009
• New York senator says troops would fight terrorists, train Iraqis
• Scenario works only if Iraqis "get their act together," she says
• Sen. Barack Obama laid out similar plan on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If elected president, Sen. Hillary Clinton said, she would likely keep some U.S. forces in Iraq in a supporting role after 2009 because America has "a remaining military as well as a political mission" that requires a presence there.

However, in an interview with The New York Times published Thursday, Clinton said the American troops would not play a role in trying to curb sectarian violence.

Rather, they would be positioned north of Baghdad to combat terrorists, support the Kurds, counter any Iranian moves into Iraq and provide logistical, air and training support to the Iraqi government "if the Iraqis ever get their act together."

"If there is not any political resolution, the civil war will continue and we need to get out of the way," she told the Times. (Watch how Americans think the war is goingVideo)

Clinton aides say her comments are consistent with a broader plan by Democrats in Congress to begin redeploying combat troops, with the goal of having U.S. forces out of Iraq by March 2008. However, some political analysts say her support for a continued presence in Iraq could touch a raw nerve with anti-war Democrats.

"They're really not sure that she's with them on Iraq and other issues," said Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "So they're suspicious, and that suspicion shows itself in what they say about her."

In 2002, Clinton voted for a congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action in Iraq. And although she's become a vocal critic of the way the war has been executed, she has repeatedly refused demands from anti-war Democrats to admit her vote was a mistake, although she has said "knowing what I know now, I would not have voted for it."

Of her two closest rivals for the Democratic nomination, former Sen. John Edwards, has said his vote in favor of the 2002 resolution was a mistake; Sen. Barack Obama was still a state legislator in Illinois at the time of that vote, but he has opposed the war from the beginning.

Wednesday, Obama outlined a plan for maintaining a U.S. presence in Iraq similar to Clinton's.

"Withdrawal would be gradual, and we'd keep some U.S. troops in the region to prevent a wide war, to go after al Qaeda and other terrorists," he said.

The question is whether, given her previous record on Iraq, Clinton's call for continuing a U.S. presence might resonate differently with anti-war activists.

"They are not inclined to cut her much slack," Sabato said. "They are inclined to cut Barack Obama quite a bit of slack and John Edwards some slack as well."



Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/15/clinton.troops/index.html

China Says U.S. Move on Macau Bank Threatens Talks

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. moves against a Macau bank it accused of laundering money for North Korea threaten an agreement with Kim Jong Il's government to end its nuclear weapons program, China's Foreign Ministry said.

``We have expressed our deep regret to the U.S. side,'' ministry spokesman Qin Gang said today in a regular briefing in Beijing. ``We believe the U.S. side should take actions that help stimulate progress in the six-party talks and help in maintaining social stability of the Macau Special Administrative Region.''

North Korea on Feb. 13 agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for food and energy aid and prospects of normalizing ties with the U.S. and Japan. Under the accord, North Korea has 60 days to shut its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

U.S. Treasury Department officials took action yesterday that could free North Korean funds frozen in Macau's Banco Delta Asia SARL even as the regulators cut the financial institution off from the U.S. banking system. The accounts were frozen soon after the Treasury Department blacklisted the bank in 2005, saying it was a ``money-laundering concern.''

``I'm pretty confident that we'll get through this issue, just fine,'' U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said. ``My sense is they were concerned about the effect on Macau as a banking center.''

``Our concern is the long term future of BDA, not Macau monetary authorities, so frankly we try to make it very clear to the Chinese that we are supportive of Macau. I think we'll be ok on this issue,'' he told reporters.

18-Month Probe

U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said yesterday that an 18-month probe found Banco Delta Asia had allowed North Korea to launder money. The findings will be shared with authorities in Macau, who will then decide whether to release as much as $25 million in North Korean accounts at the bank, he said.

North Korea's government is demanding the return of the money before it will allow nuclear inspectors into the country, the chief of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Beijing yesterday after holding talks in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

The U.S. move could hurt the financial sector in Macau, a thriving gambling center and former Portuguese colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1999, Qin said.

``We have to consider how to push for progress of the six- party talks,'' Qin said. ``We also have concerns about Macau. We believe both should be taken into full consideration.''

Envoys Meet

Hill and envoys from China, Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea are in Beijing this week to begin work on following through on the Feb. 13 agreement. The envoys will begin discussing in detail steps needed to dismantle the plutonium- producing Yongbyon reactor on March 17 and 18.

The U.S. decision won't affect Japan's stance on pushing for North Korea's nuclear disarmament, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

``This is a U.S. law enforcement decision and has no impact on Japan,'' Abe told reporters today in Tokyo. ``North Korea must abandon its nuclear program in line with the agreement reached at the six-party talks.''

Japan has refused to give energy assistance unless North Korea pledges to resolve its kidnapping of Japanese citizens three decades ago. Representatives from Japan and North Korea met last week in Hanoi for two days as part of the agreement and made no progress on the abduction issue.

The Treasury decision ``won't change the direction of the discussions we've made so far,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said at a regular press conference in Tokyo earlier today. ``We will just wait for the Macau authorities' decision.''

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's de facto central bank, said today in a statement that it ``will monitor closely'' the situation regarding Banco Delta Asia, and its Hong Kong subsidiary Delta Asia Credit Ltd.

``The HKMA will take such supervisory measures as appear necessary from time to time to ensure that the interests of the depositors of DAC remain protected,'' an unidentified HKMA spokesman said in the statement.

For U.S. Troops at War, Liquor Is Spur to Crime - New York Times

For U.S. Troops at War, Liquor Is Spur to Crime - New York Times

March 13, 2007
For U.S. Troops at War, Liquor Is Spur to Crime
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER

In May 2004, Specialist Justin J. Lillis got drunk on what he called “hajji juice,” a clear Iraqi moonshine smuggled onto an Army base in Balad, Iraq, by civilian contractors, and began taking potshots with his M-16 service rifle.

“He shot up some contractor’s rental car,” said Phil Cave, a lawyer for Specialist Lillis, 24. “He hopped in a Humvee, drove around and shot up some more things. He shot into a housing area” and at soldiers guarding the base entrance.

Six months later, at an Army base near Baghdad, after a night of drinking an illegal stash of whiskey and gin, Specialist Chris Rolan of the Third Brigade, Third Infantry Division, pulled his 9mm service pistol on another soldier and shot him dead.

And in March 2006, in perhaps the most gruesome crime committed by American troops in Iraq, a group of 101st Airborne Division soldiers stationed in Mahmudiya raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family after drinking several cans of locally made whiskey supplied by Iraqi Army soldiers, military prosecutors said.

Alcohol, strictly forbidden by the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan, is involved in a growing number of crimes committed by troops deployed to those countries. Alcohol- and drug-related charges were involved in more than a third of all Army criminal prosecutions of soldiers in the two war zones — 240 of the 665 cases resulting in convictions, according to records obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Seventy-three of those 240 cases involve some of the most serious crimes committed, including murder, rape, armed robbery and assault. Sex crimes accounted for 12 of the convictions.

The 240 cases involved a roughly equal number of drug and alcohol offenses, although alcohol-related crimes have increased each year since 2004.

Despite the military’s ban on all alcoholic beverages — and strict Islamic prohibitions against drinking and drug use — liquor is cheap and ever easier to find for soldiers looking to self-medicate the effects of combat stress, depression or the frustrations of extended deployments, said military defense lawyers, commanders and doctors who treat soldiers’ emotional problems.

“It’s clear that we’ve got a lot of significant alcohol problems that are pervasive across the military,” said Dr. Thomas R. Kosten, a psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston. He traces their drinking and drug use to the stress of working in a war zone. “The treatment that they take for it is the same treatment that they took after Vietnam,” Dr. Kosten said. “They turn to alcohol and drugs.”

The use of alcohol and drugs in war zones appears to reflect a broader trend toward heavier and more frequent drinking among all military personnel, but especially in the Army and Marine Corps, the two services doing most of the fighting, Pentagon officials and military health experts said.

A Pentagon health study released in January, for instance, found that the rate of binge drinking in the Army shot up by 30 percent from 2002 to 2005, and “may signal an increasing pattern of heavy alcohol use in the Army.”

While average rates of alcohol consumption in the Navy and Air Force have steadily declined since 1980, the year the military’s health survey began, they have significantly increased in the Army and Marine Corps and exceed civilian rates, the Pentagon study showed. For the first time since 1985, more than a quarter of all Army members surveyed said they regularly drink heavily, defined as having five or more drinks at one sitting.

The rate of illicit drug use also increased among military members in 2005, to an estimated 5 percent, nearly double the rate measured in 1998, a trend that the study called “cause for concern.”

The study also found other health problems in the military, from the growing popularity of chewing tobacco to a 20 percent increase during the past decade in service members who are considered overweight.

Lynn Pahland, a director in the Pentagon’s Health Affairs office, said the rising rates of heavy drinking and illegal drug use among active-duty military personnel are particularly troubling inside the Defense Department. “It is very serious,” Ms. Pahland said in an interview. “It is a huge concern.”

In the military, seeking help for psychological problems, including alcohol and drug abuse, is considered a taboo, especially among officers competing for promotions. Several officers interviewed for this article said the Pentagon was not doing enough to reduce that stigma.

Though the Pentagon has spent millions of dollars on several initiatives to reverse the trend, including a new Web site that deglamorizes drinking, financing to combat alcohol abuse has fallen over time, a Pentagon spokesman said. Spending on programs to reduce alcohol abuse, smoking and obesity dropped to $7.74 million in the current fiscal year from $12.6 million in fiscal year 2005 — a 39 percent decline.

Some military doctors and other mental health experts said the Army’s greater use of so-called moral waivers, which allow recruits with criminal records to enlist, may also be a factor in the increased drug and alcohol use.

Getting liquor or drugs in Iraq is not difficult. One of the most common ways to smuggle in brand name gin or clear rum is in bottles of mouthwash sent from friends back home, soldiers said. Blue or yellow food coloring makes the liquid look medicinal. Some Army medics have been known to fill intravenous fluid bags with vodka, Army officers said.

In Iraq, liquor of a distinctly more dubious quality can be purchased from Iraqi Army soldiers or civilian contractors working on American bases, and Iraqi soldiers have sold locally produced prescription drugs to American troops for a tidy profit.

Commanders have not always regarded drinking as a problem. The Army “was a culture in the 1970s that encouraged drinking,” said a retired Army colonel. “You’d go out drinking together and you’d find your buddy hugging the toilet at the officer’s club and think nothing of it.”

Command tolerance for such behavior began changing in the 1980s, and by the 1990s, “if you had more than a couple drinks at the club, people started looking at you strange,” the retired colonel said.

But at a time when the military is fighting two major ground wars, the often serious consequences of heavy drinking has emerged with increasing clarity as more troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental health problems, military officials and mental health experts said.

“I think the real story here is in the suicide and stress, and the drinking is just a symptom of it,” said Charles P. O’Brien, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who served as a Navy doctor during the Vietnam War. There is a high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among Iraq veterans, he said, adding that “there’s been a lot of suicide in the active-duty servicemen.”

More than 90 percent of sex crimes prosecuted by the military involve alcohol abuse, defense lawyers and military doctors said. Roughly half of the marines charged with crimes in Iraq exhibit clear signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, a Marine defense lawyer said.

“They turn to alcohol and drugs for an escape,” he said.

The health study released in January was produced for the Pentagon by RTI International, a nonprofit research organization. Robert M. Bray, the group’s project director, first agreed to be interviewed for this article but later declined after a Defense Department spokesman said he was not available to comment.

In the past two years, though, top military officials have begun talking publicly about the danger that excessive drinking among the troops.

In 2005, the Army’s deputy chief of staff at the time, Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, wrote in an editorial in a magazine for Army leaders that the rising rate of heavy drinking and drug use “seriously impacts mission readiness.”

General Hagenbeck, now the superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, said more than half of soldiers discharged for misconduct had also been disciplined for drug or alcohol use within the previous year.

“When one soldier has an alcohol or other drug incident, it impacts the whole unit,” General Hagenbeck wrote.

That kind of ripple effect has played out repeatedly in Iraq, military defense lawyers said, as soldiers who drink or use drugs commit crimes and hinder their unit’s combat and support missions.

Specialist Lillis, for example, was given a bad conduct discharge and sentenced to 10 years in prison as punishment for his drunken shooting spree; he is in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. A military judge sentenced Specialist Rolan, who testified that he drank to relieve depression in Iraq, to 33 years in prison for killing a fellow soldier.

Two of the soldiers charged in the Mahmudiya case pleaded guilty to murder, and a former Army private described as the ringleader, Steven D. Green, is awaiting trial for rape and murder in a federal district court.

Last year, the Pentagon spent $2 million to initiate its “That Guy” campaign, (www.thatguy.com), which recommends that service members “reject binge drinking because it detracts from the things they care about: family, friends, dating, sex, money and reputation.”

The Pentagon is poised to launch another Web-based antidrinking campaign this summer.

Capt. Robert DeMartino, a doctor with the United States Health Service who is coordinating the project, said the hope is that service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq will use the site to find help coping with post-deployment problems, including alcohol dependency.

Andrew Lehren contributed reporting.

German Official Adds to Mystery of Iranian Missing in Turkey - New York Times

German Official Adds to Mystery of Iranian Missing in Turkey - New York Times

March 14, 2007
German Official Adds to Mystery of Iranian Missing in Turkey
By SEBNEM ARSU

ISTANBUL, March 13 — More than a month after a former top official in Iran’s Defense Ministry disappeared in Turkey, a German official on Tuesday stirred up the controversy over whether he had defected with the collusion of the West.

On an official visit to Ankara, the German defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, was asked about the whereabouts of the former Iranian deputy defense minister, Ali Reza Asgari, and whether he was in Germany undergoing questioning. Mr. Jung merely replied: “I cannot say anything on this issue.”

He made the cryptic remark at a news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Vecdi Gonul, the Anatolian News Agency reported.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said last week that the Turkish intelligence service was investigating the matter.

A Foreign Ministry official said Iranian officials had contacted the ministry through Interpol three weeks after Mr. Asgari’s entry into Turkey in early February to ask for information.

But the official, who declined to be identified because of diplomatic protocol, was not optimistic about finding him, saying, “Every year millions of Iranians enter Turkey, so it’s impossible to keep personal records.”

The official said accounts in the news media should be viewed “as pure speculation before our collective and comprehensive investigation is finalized.” He was referring to coverage in the mainstream newspaper Hurriyet that said Mr. Asgari arrived at the Istanbul airport on Feb. 7 after moving his family to safety in Damascus, Syria. The newspaper said he was given a passport under a new name, enabling him to flee Turkey over land.

Iranian officials, meanwhile, have said Mr. Asgari had been kidnapped, possibly by the West.

The head of Iran’s Security Forces, Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, said that Mr. Asgari arrived in Istanbul from Damascus but that he disappeared after three days, according to the ILNA news agency.

“It is possible that Western intelligence services have kidnapped him because of his background in the Defense Ministry,” Mr. Moghadam said Tuesday.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, has denied reports that Mr. Asgari had defected to a Western country.

Members of Mr. Asgari’s family, who are now in Tehran, met with journalists this week. Ziba Ahmadi, Mr. Asgari’s wife, denied that her husband “would ever” ask for asylum in the West. She also said he had disappeared in December, which The Financial Times said was consistent with reporting it conducted in Tehran on Sunday with a former senior official and friend of Mr. Asgari.

“Personally I am sure that Iran’s main enemies, America and Israel, have kidnapped my father,” Mr. Asgari’s daughter Elham told state radio. “As a loyal servant of the revolution, my father had many enemies.”

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | US moves to release N Korea funds

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | US moves to release N Korea funds

US moves to release N Korea funds
The US has announced steps that could give North Korea access to funds frozen in a Macau bank, one of its key demands for dismantling its nuclear programme.

The US Treasury has barred American banks from dealings with Banco Delta Asia (BDA), whom it accused of a role in North Korea-linked money laundering.

North Korean accounts worth $25m (£13m) have been frozen there since 2005.

But the move formally ends the US probe and could allow officials in Macau to release some of Pyongyang's money.

Last month, North Korea agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for large quantities of foreign aid.

Under the 13 February deal, Pyongyang has 60 days to shut and seal its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

But one of its key demands has been the release of its funds from BDA.

'Illicit activity'

In September 2005 the US accused the bank of acting as a conduit for money earned by Pyongyang from counterfeit currency and drug smuggling.

Soon afterwards the Macau authorities took control of the bank and froze North Korea's accounts.


N KOREA NUCLEAR DEAL
N Korea to 'shut down and seal' Yongbyon reactor, then disable all nuclear facilities
In return, will be given 1m tonnes of heavy fuel oil
N Korea to invite IAEA back to monitor deal
Under earlier 2005 deal, N Korea agreed to end nuclear programme and return to non-proliferation treaty
N Korea's demand for light water reactor to be discussed at 'appropriate time'

US Treasury Under-Secretary Stuart Levey, announcing the US action, said that the 18-month probe had confirmed BDA's "willingness to turn a blind eye to illicit activity, notably by its North Korean-related clients".

The measures mean US banks and companies must sever all ties with the Macau-based institution.

But now, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington, it is up to the Macau authorities whether any of North Korea's assets can be released.

The US is expected to issue guidance to financial regulators to identify high-risk accounts.

That could pave the way for North Korea to gain access to some of its money.

But, our correspondent says, it is still not clear how North Korea will react to this announcement and what effect it might have on last month's deal.

The move came as the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said North Korea was still "fully committed" to giving up its nuclear programme.

The IAEA leader was speaking in Beijing after holding talks in Pyongyang, which he described as "quite useful".

Delegates from the six countries involved in the multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear programme will meet in Beijing next week for further discussions on implementing the 13 February deal.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6452189.stm

Published: 2007/03/14 23:58:17 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Salazar 'troubled' but not calling for Gonzales to resign

rm NEWS
WASHINGTON — Sen. Ken Salazar said today he is troubled by allegations that have "blemished" the Department of Justice, but so far he is not joining the parade of Democrats calling for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

"I think we need to know the facts first," Salazar, D-Denver, told reporters during a conference call.

"I am troubled by the allegations here, that the arm of the law in the Department of Justice would somehow be used to further a particular political end," Salazar said. "That would be a misuse of the prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice, in my view."

Several prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have called for Gonzales to follow his chief of staff's lead and resign over a series of prosecutor firings that critics claim were politically-motivated.

Gonzales is in the center of a firestorm over the way eight U.S. Attorneys were replaced late last year.

Some of the fired prosecutors have said that, prior to their firings, they received inappropriate communications from congressional Republicans pressing them to take action on investigating voter fraud allegations against Democrats.

Justice Department officials had denied that the White House was involved in the decisions. But Gonzales was forced to admit some mistakes on Tuesday, after the release of e-mails showing that his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, had repeated communications with former White House legal adviser Harriet Miers over plans to replace U.S. attorneys.

Sampson resigned earlier this week. On Tuesday, Gonzales' acknowledged "mistakes were made" in the handling of the case, but he defended the president's right to replace U.S. attorneys and said he had no plans to step down.

Despite Gonzales' public explanations, the list of Democrats calling for his resignation continues growing, including Reid, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and others.

So far, Salazar has not joined the resignation calls, but he said he also is troubled by recent reports about federal investigators' widespread use of controversial "National Security Letters" to obtain information in terrorism investigations.

"I don't think things are looking very bright in the Department of Justice," Salazar said. "The DOJ at the end of the day should be the one department of our nation's government that really is viewed by the American people as standing up for the rule of law. Right now, it appears that the Department of Justice and its role in upholding the rule of law has been blemished."

Salazar has had close ties with Gonzales since his earliest days in the U.S. Senate. After taking the oath of office in January 2006, one of Salazar's first official acts was to escort Gonzales to his Senate confirmation hearing.

In introductory remarks, Salazar said they shared similar backgrounds as children raised in large, working class families. He called Gonzales, a former Texas Supreme Court Justice, "better qualified" than many recent attorneys general.

Salazar's endorsement angered Democrats who had just helped elect him, since they wanted to hold Gonzales accountable for his role in crafting the Bush administration's policies on torture prior to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

In the end, Salazar was one of only six Democrats to vote for Gonzales, and today the two men are among the highest-ranking Hispanics in U.S. government.

Last month, Gonzales joined Salazar and fellow Coloradans, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, and Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, on a tour of the Supermax prison in Florence.

Clinton sees ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ alive in N.H.

ap
WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday described past Republican political malfeasance in New Hampshire as evidence of a “vast, right-wing conspiracy.”

Clinton’s barbed comments revived a term she coined for the partisan plotting during her husband’s presidential tenure and echoed remarks she made last weekend in New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first primary.

Her rhetorical red meat to a sympathetic audience of Democratic municipal officials comes as Clinton courts New Hampshire voters and squeezes donors for dollars ahead of a March 31 fundraising report deadline. She also continues to face criticism from the party’s liberal base for her failure to repudiate her vote authorizing military force in Iraq.

Clinton asserted Tuesday that the conspiracy is alive and well, and cited as proof the Election Day 2002 case of phone jamming in New Hampshire, a case in which two Republican operatives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and a third was convicted.

“To the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s credit, they sued and the trail led all the way to the Republican National Committee,” Clinton said. “So if anybody tells you there is no vast, right-wing conspiracy, tell them that New Hampshire has proven it in court,” she said.

Former RNC operative James Tobin was convicted of telephone harassment and appealed his conviction. The investigation arose after Democratic organizers’ phones were overwhelmed by annoying hang-up calls hindering their get-out-the-vote efforts.

Clinton accused the GOP of a number of other anti-voter actions, including intimidating phone calls during the 2006 congressional elections.

New Hampshire Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan said she absolutely agreed with the New York senator’s description of the case.

“People think we’re paranoid when we talk about the vast, right-wing conspiracy, but there is a real connection of these groups – the same names keep popping up,” Sullivan said. “They are the most disgusting group of political thugs that I have ever seen.”

RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt responded that Democrats “might be disappointed to learn that almost a decade later, the senator’s playbook consists of little more than a resurrection of Clinton-era talking points.”

Clinton made her charge of conspiracy in response to a question about her proposed bill that would make Election Day a federal holiday, and make it a crime to send misleading or fraudulent information to voters.

She also said the government should do more to end unusually long lines at certain polling places. “It just so happens that many of those places where people are waiting for hours are places where people of color are voting or young people are voting. That is un-American, and we’re going to end it,” Clinton said.

In January 1998, as the investigation into her husband’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky probe engulfed the White House, Clinton appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and dismissed the allegations as part of a broader effort to smear her husband with groundless investigations.

“The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast, right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president,” the first lady said at the time.

As evidence of the affair eventually came to light, the comment was ridiculed. But many Democrats have since insisted that Clinton was correct, pointing to the well-documented efforts by conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife to fund a network of anti-Clinton investigations.

Clinton aides noted Tuesday that she also revisited the conspiracy comments back in 2003, when she said: “My only regret was using the word conspiracy, because there’s absolutely nothing secret about it.”

Iranians outraged over hit movie ‘300’ - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com

Iranians outraged over hit movie ‘300’ - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com

Iranians outraged over hit movie ‘300’

Blockbuster depicting Persian siege called an ‘obvious insult’

The Associated Press
Updated: 6:27 p.m. ET March 13, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - The hit American movie “300” has angered Iranians who say the Greeks-vs-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran.

“Hollywood declares war on Iranians,” blared a headline in Tuesday’s edition of the independent Ayende-No newspaper.

The movie, which raked in $70 million in its opening weekend, is based on a comic-book fantasy version of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days.

Even some American reviewers noted the political overtones of the West-against-Iran story line — and the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks.

In Iran, the movie hasn’t opened and probably never will, given the government’s restrictions on Western films, though one paper said bootleg DVDs were already available.

Still, it touched a sensitive nerve. Javad Shamghadri, cultural adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the United States tries to “humiliate” Iran in order to reverse historical reality and “compensate for its wrongdoings in order to provoke American soldiers and warmongers” against Iran.

The movie comes at a time of increased tensions between the United States and Iran over the Persian nation’s nuclear program and the Iraq war.

But aside from politics, the film was seen as an attack on Persian history, a source of pride for Iranians across the political spectrum, including critics of the current Islamic regime.

State-run television has run several commentaries the past two days calling the film insulting and has brought on Iranian film directors to point out its historical inaccuracies.

“The film depicts Iranians as demons, without culture, feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people,” Ayende-No said in its article Tuesday.

“It is a new effort to slander the Iranian people and civilization before world public opinion at a time of increasing American threats against Iran,” it said.

Iran’s biggest circulation newspaper, Hamshahri, said “300” is “serving the policy of the U.S. leadership” and predicted it will “prompt a wave of protest in the world. ... Iranians living in the U.S. and Europe will not be indifferent about this obvious insult.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17599641/