Dobbs: Will the Democrats save their souls? - CNN.com

Dobbs:  Will the Democrats save their souls? - CNN.com

Dobbs: Will the Democrats save their souls?
By Lou Dobbs
CNN
Lou Dobbs' commentary appears weekly on CNN.com.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is under way. And the outcome of this battle will likely not be determined by any one of the rising number of candidates for the party's 2008 presidential nomination, but rather by the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill.

The House of Representatives passed important legislation designed, at least politically, to focus on the needs of our middle class, beset by stagnating wages, failing public education, destructive so-called free trade policies, skyrocketing health care costs, out-of-control illegal immigration and the soaring price of higher education.

So in Congress' self-proclaimed first 100 hours, speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered on her promise to have the House pass bills raising the federal minimum wage, cutting interest rates on student loans and helping bring down the cost of prescription drugs. But none of that legislation has passed the Senate.

The ascension of the so-called Lou Dobbs Democrats in the November election gave hope to many that our representatives and senators were awakening to the need to represent the largest single group of voters in the country, 150 million working men and women and their families. The reality is, however, corporate America and special interests still dominate our legislative and electoral process.

A successful Democratic candidate running for his or her party's nomination is as dependent as any Republican seeking the nomination of his party, and $100 million is the price of the ticket. Who has the money? Corporate America and Wall Street, of course.

Corporate America will fight as hard to control the Democratic agenda as it has to control the Republican agenda in Washington. Of great service to their efforts will be the "think tanks" bent on preserving the status quo and the all-but-absolute domination of corporate America over our political process.

The Democratic Leadership Council is obviously frightened that my brand of independent populism is a threat. The council claims that I, and those who agree with me, "are simply, factually, decisively wrong about the strength of the U.S. manufacturing economy itself," and that the more than three million jobs lost in manufacturing are a testament to corporate America's technology-based efficiency, not outsourcing and offshoring to cheap foreign labor markets. Then why are foreign-produced imports rising so dramatically and taking an ever-larger share of many of the most important sectors of our economy?

The Third Way, which is supposedly a "strategy center for Progressives," has just published a new study called "The New Rules Economy: A Policy Framework for the 21st Century." Third Way's conclusion that the struggling middle class is a myth requires it to avoid the fact that the share of national income going to wages and salaries is now at the lowest level on record. At the same time, the share of national income captured by corporate profits is at its highest level in more than half a century.

In fact, wages from 2000 to 2006 for working men and women in this country increased at half the rate they normally do in a recovery. And, not surprisingly, corporate America's profits are increasing at double the historic rate in that six-year period.

The Third Way adds: "...While economic conservatism is premised on the myths of an infallible market and incompetent government, neo-populism is premised on the myths of a failing middle class, a declining America, and omnipotent corporations." I call that independent populism, not neo-populism. And I also call that truth.

The middle class is also working more hours than ever before: Thirty years ago Americans worked an average of 43 weeks, but now U.S. workers are putting in an average of 47 weeks per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's in stark contrast to the rest of the industrialized world, where the number of hours worked in all other countries except for Canada has decreased over the past 30 years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported.

About one-third of the families in this country bring in less than $35,000 of income each year, according to the Census Bureau, a figure that's nowhere close to ensuring the quality of life and standard of living to which many Americans have grown accustomed. I fear the American Dream may finally become the American Pipe Dream.

These families at the bottom of the wage scale are really struggling. According to the Federal Reserve's most recent comprehensive Survey of Consumer Finances (released every three years), average family income from 2001 to 2004 fell 2.3 percent, and the median net worth of the bottom 40 percent of families declined as well. And real median wages declined by more than 6 percent during the same period.

Why are the partisans of both political parties so committed to denying the economic and social reality we face? In the case of the Democratic Party, there seems to be a rising fear that more Lou Dobbs Democrats are on the way and are going to demand truth over slogans and an improving reality for working men and women rather than ideological posturing that will salve the corporate masters of both parties.

At least the Democrats still have a chance to save their souls.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/20/Dobbs.February21/index.html

Dobbs: Will the Democrats save their souls? - CNN.com

Dobbs:  Will the Democrats save their souls? - CNN.com

Dobbs: Will the Democrats save their souls?
By Lou Dobbs
CNN
Lou Dobbs' commentary appears weekly on CNN.com.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is under way. And the outcome of this battle will likely not be determined by any one of the rising number of candidates for the party's 2008 presidential nomination, but rather by the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill.

The House of Representatives passed important legislation designed, at least politically, to focus on the needs of our middle class, beset by stagnating wages, failing public education, destructive so-called free trade policies, skyrocketing health care costs, out-of-control illegal immigration and the soaring price of higher education.

So in Congress' self-proclaimed first 100 hours, speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered on her promise to have the House pass bills raising the federal minimum wage, cutting interest rates on student loans and helping bring down the cost of prescription drugs. But none of that legislation has passed the Senate.

The ascension of the so-called Lou Dobbs Democrats in the November election gave hope to many that our representatives and senators were awakening to the need to represent the largest single group of voters in the country, 150 million working men and women and their families. The reality is, however, corporate America and special interests still dominate our legislative and electoral process.

A successful Democratic candidate running for his or her party's nomination is as dependent as any Republican seeking the nomination of his party, and $100 million is the price of the ticket. Who has the money? Corporate America and Wall Street, of course.

Corporate America will fight as hard to control the Democratic agenda as it has to control the Republican agenda in Washington. Of great service to their efforts will be the "think tanks" bent on preserving the status quo and the all-but-absolute domination of corporate America over our political process.

The Democratic Leadership Council is obviously frightened that my brand of independent populism is a threat. The council claims that I, and those who agree with me, "are simply, factually, decisively wrong about the strength of the U.S. manufacturing economy itself," and that the more than three million jobs lost in manufacturing are a testament to corporate America's technology-based efficiency, not outsourcing and offshoring to cheap foreign labor markets. Then why are foreign-produced imports rising so dramatically and taking an ever-larger share of many of the most important sectors of our economy?

The Third Way, which is supposedly a "strategy center for Progressives," has just published a new study called "The New Rules Economy: A Policy Framework for the 21st Century." Third Way's conclusion that the struggling middle class is a myth requires it to avoid the fact that the share of national income going to wages and salaries is now at the lowest level on record. At the same time, the share of national income captured by corporate profits is at its highest level in more than half a century.

In fact, wages from 2000 to 2006 for working men and women in this country increased at half the rate they normally do in a recovery. And, not surprisingly, corporate America's profits are increasing at double the historic rate in that six-year period.

The Third Way adds: "...While economic conservatism is premised on the myths of an infallible market and incompetent government, neo-populism is premised on the myths of a failing middle class, a declining America, and omnipotent corporations." I call that independent populism, not neo-populism. And I also call that truth.

The middle class is also working more hours than ever before: Thirty years ago Americans worked an average of 43 weeks, but now U.S. workers are putting in an average of 47 weeks per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's in stark contrast to the rest of the industrialized world, where the number of hours worked in all other countries except for Canada has decreased over the past 30 years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported.

About one-third of the families in this country bring in less than $35,000 of income each year, according to the Census Bureau, a figure that's nowhere close to ensuring the quality of life and standard of living to which many Americans have grown accustomed. I fear the American Dream may finally become the American Pipe Dream.

These families at the bottom of the wage scale are really struggling. According to the Federal Reserve's most recent comprehensive Survey of Consumer Finances (released every three years), average family income from 2001 to 2004 fell 2.3 percent, and the median net worth of the bottom 40 percent of families declined as well. And real median wages declined by more than 6 percent during the same period.

Why are the partisans of both political parties so committed to denying the economic and social reality we face? In the case of the Democratic Party, there seems to be a rising fear that more Lou Dobbs Democrats are on the way and are going to demand truth over slogans and an improving reality for working men and women rather than ideological posturing that will salve the corporate masters of both parties.

At least the Democrats still have a chance to save their souls.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/20/Dobbs.February21/index.html

Audit: U.S. anti-terror statistics inflated - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Audit: U.S. anti-terror statistics inflated - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Audit: U.S. anti-terror statistics inflated

Marriage fraud, other non-terror issues counted in numbers since 9/11

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:05 p.m. ET Feb 20, 2007

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 even though no evidence linked them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit said Tuesday.

Overall, nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics on investigations, referrals and cases examined by department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated. Only two of 26 sets of department data reported between 2001 and 2005 were accurate, the audit found.

Responding, a Justice spokesman pointed to figures showing that prosecutors in the department's headquarters for the most part either accurately or underreported their data — underscoring what he called efforts to avoid pumping up federal terror statistics.

The numbers, used to monitor the department's progress in battling terrorists, are reported to Congress and the public and help, in part, shape the department's budget.

"For these and other reasons, it is essential that the department report accurate terrorism-related statistics," the audit concluded.

Fine's office took care to say the flawed data appear to be the result of "decentralized and haphazard" methods of collection or disagreement over how the numbers are reported, and do not appear to be intentional.

Still, the errors led Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., to question whether the department had exaggerated the number of terror cases.


"If the Department of Justice can't even get their own books in order, how are we supposed to have any confidence they are doing the job they should be?" said Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the department. "Whether this is just an accounting error or an attempt to pad terror prosecution statistics for some other reason, the Department of Justice of all places should be classifying cases for what they are, not what they want us to think them to be."

Auditors looked at 26 categories of statistics -- including numbers of suspects charged and convicted in terror cases, and terror-related threats against cities and other U.S. targets -- compiled by the FBI, Justice's Criminal Division, and the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys.

Executive Office had most errors
It found that data from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys were the most severely flawed. Auditors said the office, which compiles statistics from the 94 federal prosecutors' districts nationwide, both under- and over-counted the number of terror-related cases during a four-year period.

The office has since agreed to change the way it counts and classifies anti-terrorism cases, said department spokesman Dean Boyd.

Boyd denied suggestions that the department pumped up its numbers. He said Criminal Division prosecutors at Justice headquarters and the FBI have overhauled their respective case reporting systems since 2004 for a more accurate picture of terror-related workloads. Both agencies, he said, were strained to accurately report terrorism data in the flood of cases immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The notion that the Justice Department intentionally inflated its statistics is false and flatly contradicted by the OIG report itself," Boyd said.

In all but one area, Criminal Division prosecutors either accurately stated or underreported their data — the ones the department usually uses in public statements about its counterterror efforts, Boyd noted. He said the Justice Department has already completed most of the fixes recommended in the audit.

Much of the problem stemmed from how that office defines anti-terrorism cases.

Immigration arrests lumped in
A November 2001 federal crackdown on security breaches at airports, for example, yielded arrests on immigration and false document charges, but no evidence of terrorist activity. Nonetheless, the attorneys' office lumped them in with other anti-terror cases since they were investigated by federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces or with other counterterror measures.

Other examples, according to the audit, included:

Charges against a marriage-broker for being paid to arrange six fraudulent marriages between Tunisians and U.S. citizens.
Prosecution of a Mexican citizen who falsely identified himself as another person in a passport application.
Charges against a suspect for dealing firearms without a license. The prosecutor handling the case told auditors it should not have been labeled as anti-terrorism.
"We do not agree that law enforcement efforts such as these should be counted as anti-terrorism," the audit concluded.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17249651/

Britain announces Iraq withdrawal

(London-AP) February 21, 2007 - Britain is pulling some of its troops out of Iraq.

Wednesday's announcement by Prime Minister Tony Blair calls for about 1,600 of Britain's 7,000 troops in Iraq to be withdrawn in the "coming months."

Britain has been America's chief ally in the coalition since the 2003 invasion. Its forces have responsibility primarily for southern Iraq, which has not had nearly the turmoil other parts of the country have, most notably Baghdad and western Iraq's Anbar province. American troops there have had a particularly rough time of it.

The British drawdown is already getting a positive spin in Washington.

The White House says President Bush views it as "a sign of success." Still, the British scale-back is coming at a time when the US is boosting its troop commitment in Iraq by more than 21,000.

Iran vows to press on

Reuters
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran vowed on Wednesday to press on with its nuclear fuel program, ignoring a U.N. deadline to freeze uranium enrichment or face broader sanctions, but offered to guarantee it would not try to develop atomic weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant as a 60-day grace period Iran had been given on December 23 to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel was expiring.

"We ... will continue our work to reach our right (to nuclear technology) in the shortest possible time," Iranian student news agency ISNA quoted him as saying in the provincial town of Siahkal.

With the deadline running out, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been unable to verify Iran's program is wholly peaceful after three years of investigations, was expected to report to the U.N. Security Council by Thursday that Tehran was pursuing enrichment regardless of pressure to stop.

The West suspects Iran is trying to make atom bombs behind the facade of a civilian nuclear energy program. Tehran says it wants only an alternative source of electricity so it can maximize oil exports and prepare for when oil reserves run dry.

"Obtaining this technology is very important for our country's development and honor. It is worth it to stop other activities for 10 years and focus only on the nuclear issue," said Ahmadinejad.

A British Foreign Office official brushed off his comments.

"He has been saying this over and over and over again. Iran needs to restore confidence in its intentions regarding its nuclear program by complying fully with Security Council resolution 1737," the official said.

The Council, which two months ago banned transfers of nuclear technology and expertise to Iran, could consider wider sanctions if Tehran does not freeze enrichment work by February 21.

But it will not take action before the next meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on March 5-9, leaving a little more time for dialogue to avert a feared U.S.-Iran conflict, said the diplomat close to the IAEA.

IRAN OFFERS GUARANTEES AS PART OF NEGOTIATIONS

Ultimate authority on nuclear matters lies not with Ahmadinejad but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But senior Iranian leaders have all ruled out halting nuclear work as a precondition for talks on trade benefits from the West.

"We would give the necessary assurances and guarantees (in negotiations) that there will be no deviation ever toward nuclear weapons (in Iran)," chief negotiator Ali Larijani said in Vienna on Tuesday after talks with the IAEA director.

"Maybe there are certain groups or countries willing to coerce Iran ... (but) Iran's nuclear dossier cannot be resolved through force and pressure," he said, alluding to the United States, which has built up strike forces in the Gulf near Iran.

Larijani said he had "constructive" talks with IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei on ways of reviving talks with Western powers.

ElBaradei has urged both sides to take a mutual "timeout" to enable talks -- Iran would suspend enrichment rather than accelerate it from research level to "industrial scale" as planned at its Natanz plant, while sanctions would be suspended.

The diplomat close to the IAEA said Iranian officials were sounding positive in private about a "timeout" and hoped EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who led earlier talks with Larijani, would be authorized to discuss it with him.

Western officials have dismissed previous such signs of Iranian flexibility as stalling while it strives to master enrichment technology at its underground Natanz complex, ringed by anti-aircraft guns against feared U.S. assault.

As a possible compromise to jumpstart negotiations, Larijani has suggested Iran could pledge to refine uranium no higher than the 4-5 percent level, sufficient for power plant fuel but far below the 80 percent needed for the fissile core of bombs.

But diplomats and analysts have said there is no technical method to guarantee a cap on enrichment levels.

ElBaradei cites intelligence estimates that Iran remains 4-8 years away from learning how to build an atom bomb, assuming it wants one, leaving ample time for a diplomatic deal. He says neither sanctions nor war could erase Iranian nuclear ambitions.

******************************

CHRONOLOGY-Iran's nuclear program

Here are the main events since Iran's nuclear program, which it says is purely peaceful, first came to light:

August 2002 - Exiled opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran reports the existence of uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and heavy water plant at Arak.

June 2003 - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, after February inspection of Natanz and Arak, says Iran has failed to comply with nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

December 2003 - Iran signs protocol allowing snap inspections of nuclear facilities.

February 2005 - President Mohammad Khatami says no Iranian government will give up nuclear technology program.

September 2 - IAEA report confirms Iran has resumed uranium conversion at Isfahan.

January 10, 2006 - Iran removes U.N. seals at Natanz enrichment plant and resumes nuclear fuel research.

February 4 - IAEA votes to report Iran to U.N. Security Council. Iran ends snap U.N. nuclear inspections the next day. Ten days later Iran restarts small-scale feeding of uranium gas into centrifuges at Natanz after 2-1/2-year suspension.

March 8 - IAEA report to Security Council says it cannot verify Iran's atomic activities are peaceful.

April 11 - Iran announces it has produced low-grade enriched uranium suitable for use in power stations; IAEA confirms this.

April 28 - An IAEA report, sent to the Security Council, confirms Iran has flouted council demands to suspend enrichment.

July 31 - Security Council demands Iran suspend its nuclear activities by August 31. In a resolution, council for first time makes legally binding demands on Iran and threat of sanctions. Iran's ambassador to the U.N. rejects the resolution.

August 31 - IAEA announces Iran has not met deadline to suspend its program and has resumed enriching uranium.

September 19 - President Bush and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clash over Iran's nuclear ambitions at the United Nations.

September 26 - Russia and Iran agree start-up date of September 2007 for Iran's first nuclear power station at Bushehr.

November 14 - A confidential IAEA report says Iran is pushing ahead with uranium enrichment and still stonewalling investigations by the agency despite the risk of sanctions.

-- The report also says Iran has started up second experimental chain of 164 interlinked centrifuge machines and has begun feeding uranium UF6 gas into them for enrichment.

December 23 - Security Council votes to impose sanctions and gives the country 60 days to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran calls the resolution an illegal measure.

January 22, 2007 - Iran says it has barred entry to 38 IAEA inspectors after hardliners demanded retaliation for sanctions.

February 9 - IAEA says it has cut back almost half its technical aid projects in Iran to uphold U.N. sanctions imposed on Tehran.

February 19 - Russia announces a delay in work the Bushehr reactor as Iran is behind with payments worth $73.75 million.

February 20 - Chief negotiator Ali Larijani announces in talks with IAEA that Iran will give necessary assurances and guarantees that there will be no deviation ever toward nuclear weapons.

February 21 - A 60-day grace period Iran had been given to stop enriching uranium expires. President Ahmadinejad remains defiant as Iran vows to press on with its program.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US 'Iran attack plans' revealed

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US 'Iran attack plans' revealed

US 'Iran attack plans' revealed

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.

But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.

Two triggers

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.


Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.
Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians.

Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says.

Deadline

Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq.


Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this.

At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.

Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran.

Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.

Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February.

If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6376639.stm

Europe’s Plan to Track Phone and Net Use - New York Times

Europe’s Plan to Track Phone and Net Use - New York Times

February 20, 2007

Europe’s Plan to Track Phone and Net Use

By VICTORIA SHANNON
PARIS, Feb. 19 — European governments are preparing legislation to require companies to keep detailed data about people’s Internet and phone use that goes beyond what the countries will be required to do under a European Union directive.

In Germany, a proposal from the Ministry of Justice would essentially prohibit using false information to create an e-mail account, making the standard Internet practice of creating accounts with pseudonyms illegal.

A draft law in the Netherlands would likewise go further than the European Union requires, in this case by requiring phone companies to save records of a caller’s precise location during an entire mobile phone conversation.

Even now, Internet service providers in Europe divulge customer information — which they normally keep on hand for about three months, for billing purposes — to police officials with legally valid orders on a routine basis, said Peter Fleischer, the Paris-based European privacy counsel for Google. The data concerns how the communication was sent and by whom but not its content.

But law enforcement officials argued after the terrorist bombings in Spain and Britain that they needed better and longer data storage from companies handling Europe’s communications networks.

European Union countries have until 2009 to put the Data Retention Directive into law, so the proposals seen now are early interpretations. But some people involved in the issue are concerned about a shift in policy in Europe, which has long been a defender of individuals’ privacy rights.

Under the proposals in Germany, consumers theoretically could not create fictitious e-mail accounts, to disguise themselves in online auctions, for example. Nor could they use a made-up account to use for receiving commercial junk mail. While e-mail aliases would not be banned, they would have to be traceable to the actual account holder.

“This is an incredibly bad thing in terms of privacy, since people have grown up with the idea that you ought to be able to have an anonymous e-mail account,” Mr. Fleischer said. “Moreover, it’s totally unenforceable and would never work.”

Mr. Fleischer said the law would have to require some kind of identity verification, “like you may have to register for an e-mail address with your national ID card.”

Jörg Hladjk, a privacy lawyer at Hunton & Williams, a Brussels law firm, said that might also mean that it could become illegal to pay cash for prepaid cellphone accounts. The billing information for regular cellphone subscriptions is already verified.

Mr. Fleischer said: “It’s ironic, because Germany is one of the countries in Europe where people talk the most about privacy. In terms of consciousness of privacy in general, I would put Germany at the extreme end.”

He said it was not clear that any European law would apply to e-mail providers based in the United States, like Google, so anyone who needed an unverified e-mail address — for political, commercial or philosophical reasons — could still use Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail addresses.

Mr. Hladjk said, “It’s going to be difficult to know which law applies.” Google requires only two pieces of information to open a Gmail account — a name and a password — and the company does not try to determine whether the name is authentic.

In the Netherlands, the proposed extension of the law on phone company records to all mobile location data “implies surveillance of the movement of large amounts of innocent citizens,” the Dutch Data Protection Agency has said. The agency concluded in January that the draft disregarded privacy protections in the European Convention on Human Rights. Similarly, the German technology trade association Bitkom said the draft there violated the German Constitution.

Internet and telecommunications industry associations raised objections when the directive was being debated, but at that time their concerns were for the length of time the data would have to be stored and how the companies would be compensated for the cost of gathering and keeping the information. The directive ended up leaving both decisions in the hands of national governments, setting a range of six months to two years. The German draft settled on six months, while in Spain the proposal is for a year, and in the Netherlands it is 18 months.

“There are not a lot of people in Germany who support this draft entirely,” said Christian Spahr, a spokesman for Bitkom. “But there are others who are more critical of it than we are.”

The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and The Starbucks Coffee Company Joint Statement

dBusiness News
SEATTLE -- The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and The Starbucks Coffee Company recognize their shared interests and responsibility in the sustainability and growth of the Ethiopian coffee sector. Strong partnerships between the Government, coffee companies, donors and other stakeholders are critical to the growth of the sector.

The Government of Ethiopia and Starbucks have agreed to work together in their shared vision to increase Ethiopian farmer incomes and enhance the sustainable production of fine coffee. Both the Government of Ethiopia and Starbucks recognize that there may be differences in approach to achieving this shared vision. Starbucks respects the right and choice of the Government of Ethiopia to trademark its coffee brands and create a network of licensed distributors. Starbucks will not oppose Ethiopia’s efforts to obtain trademarks for its specialty coffees—Sidamo, Harar/Harrar and Yirgacheffe—and its efforts to create a network of licensed distributors.

Further, Starbucks has agreed to double its purchases from East Africa and will increase its purchases from Ethiopia. Starbucks will also provide technical support and capacity building to Ethiopian farmers through a Farmer Support Center that it will open in East Africa. The Farmer Support Center will be staffed with agronomists who will work with farmers to improve quality, yields and prices received. Starbucks will also expand its micro-credit facilities in East Africa to help farmers invest in their farms.

Both the Government of the Ethiopia and Starbucks will continue to strengthen their partnership and engage in consultations on strategies to improve the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers and their families.

Guantanamo detainees lose court case - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Guantanamo detainees lose court case - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Guantanamo detainees lose court case

Challenges to military system are denied in big win for administration

BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:27 a.m. ET Feb 20, 2007

WASHINGTON - Guantanamo Bay detainees may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling upholding a key provision in President Bush’s anti-terrorism law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that civilian courts no longer have the authority to consider whether the military is illegally holding foreigners.

This report will be updated as information becomes available.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17239258/

FOXNews.com - Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Stop Nuke Enrichment If You Will, Too - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

FOXNews.com - Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Stop Nuke Enrichment If You Will, Too - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News


Tuesday , February 20, 2007
TEHRAN, Iran —

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would only halt its uranium enrichment program and return to negotiations if other Western nations do the same.

Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in northern Iran one day ahead of a U.N. Security Council deadline that it was no problem for his country to stop, but that "fair talks" demanded a similar gesture from the West.

"That ... we shut down our nuclear fuel cycle program to let talks begin. It's no problem. But justice demands that those who want to hold talks with us shut down their nuclear fuel cycle program too. Then, we can hold dialogue under a fair atmosphere," Ahmadinejad said.

The Security Council has set Wednesday as a deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment or face further economic sanctions.

Ahmadinejad spoke in a far more conciliatory tone than the one he usually adopts, avoiding fiery denunciations of the West with a call for talks.

• Monitor the nuclear showdown in FOXNews.com's Iran Center.

"We are for talks but they have to be fair negotiations. That means, both sides hold talks under equal conditions," he said.

He added, however, that it was unacceptable for countries to demand that Iran stop its nuclear activities without reciprocity.

"We say how is it that your (nuclear fuel) production facilities work 24 hours a day, but you feel threatened by our newly established complex and we need to shut it down for talks," he asked.

Iran has long insisted that it will not stop its nuclear activities as a condition for negotiations to start.

"The condition they set for talks is a condition that deprives us of our rights," Ahmadinejad said of the United States and its Western allies. "We have never been after confrontation and tension. We have always been for dialogue but dialogue under fair conditions."

On Dec. 23 the Security Council agreed to impose limited sanctions against Iran and gave the country 60 days to halt enrichment or face additional measures.

At the time, Iran rejected the resolution as "illegal" and said it would not give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.

The United States and several of its Western allies believe that Iran is using its nuclear program to produce an atomic weapon — charges Iran denies, saying its aim is to generate electricity.

Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad said Iran would not give in to coercion and warned the United States and its allies they will fail to force it into give up its nuclear program.

"If you want to speak from the position of power and make use of the oppressing leverage of some international institutions, you have to know the you will fail against the unity and resistance of the Iranian nation," he said.

Russia's nuclear agency spokesman warned Tuesday that Iranian delays in payments for the construction of a Russian-built nuclear plant would push back its launch date and uranium fuel deliveries from Russia.

A top nuclear official in Iran on Monday rejected Russian claims that Tehran had been dragging its feet on payments, and accused Moscow of trying to delay the launch of the reactor.

But Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency spokesman Sergei Novikov insisted Tuesday that Iran has made no payments this month, and paid only a quarter of what was due last month.

Novikov told The Associated Press that Iran was to pay Russia $25 million a month for construction works at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran, adding that Iran has continuously dragged its feet on meeting the obligations.

Top Bin Laden Expert: Confession Fake

9/11 Blogger | February 19, 2007

Kevin Barrett sent the following email:

Top U.S. Bin Laden Expert: Confession Video “Bogus”
by Kevin Barrett, http://mujca.com
2/17/06

Was Osama Bin Laden responsible for 9/11?

The Bush Administration says yes, citing a grainy, badly-edited videotape that surfaced in December, 2001. In that tape, a fat guy who vaguely resembles Bin Laden chortles about the success of the 9/11 attacks. (In earlier interviews, Bin Laden had denied responsibility for 9/11, once even deploring the loss of civilian life in the attacks and calling them un-Islamic.)

Is the famous “confession video” genuine? Despite Bush’s insistence that the tape is authentic, America’s top academic Bin Laden expert has finally gone on the record, joining numerous other experts.

“It’s bogus,” says Professor Bruce Lawrence, head of Duke University’s Religious Studies program.

Lawrence, author of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, offered his historic debunking of the administration’s lie in an interview with Kevin Barrett (“Dynamic Duo,” gcnlive.com, 2/16/2007, first hour). The interview marked Lawrence’s first major public statement since he made headlines last year by suggesting that recent Osama tapes are hoaxes and that the real Osama Bin Laden may be dead.

Why has the Bush Administration been lying for more than five years by telling us that this preposterously bad hoax is a genuine “confession video”? Lawrence, citing informants in the US intelligence apparatus’s Bin Laden units, said that everyone knows the tape is fake, adding that the hoax has been kept alive because it is politically useful to those who wish to deflect attention from
“conspiracy theories” about 9/11.

If Professor Lawrence is right—and anyone with eyes can see that he is, simply by comparing the overweight impostor in the Fatty Bin Laden bogus confession video to other pictures of Osama Bin Laden—the Bush Administration, by repeatedly citing the tape as authentic, is clearly guilty of obstruction of justice at best, high treason and conspiracy to mass murder at worst. Since the FBI now tells us that Osama Bin Laden is “not wanted for 9/11” because there is “no hard evidence” connecting him to the 9/11 attacks, and since US intelligence personnel all know the “confession tape” is a Bush Administration hoax, it should not be difficult to nail the perpetrators of this outrageous cover-up of the crime of the century.

It is time for Congress or an appropriate judicial authority to mount an investigation of the Fatty Bin Laden bogus confession video.

Where did this tape come from? Who was responsible for the
administration’s claim that it is authentic, despite widespread knowledge in relevant intelligence agencies that it is bogus? If Bruce Lawrence is correct in asserting that US intelligence personnel know the tape is fake, we need to put them, along with Bush and Cheney, under oath and find out why our government has been lying so outrageously for more than five years in order to obstruct justice by shielding the real perpetrators of 9/11.

Please email your congressional representatives with the subject header “investigate bogus Bin Laden ‘confession video’ NOW!” and include a copy of this article in the body of the message.

_______________

Its hard to believe, but I actually agree with a Dookie...

US National ID Cards by May 2008

al-jazeerah

At large, the American people are still unaware of the issuance of the Real ID card forthcoming in May of 2008. This new national/international ID card, and its interactivity with national/international databases, can access our medical, financial, driving, Social Security, license(s), firearms registrations, and political status inside its high tech/little nano brain. In essence, it holds our private lives on a swipe-able card that is then privy to any organization, retailer, or person requesting our identification or our money. In other words, our life histories accessible upon command from one 2X3 inch card.

Having no choice but to comply, most American people will accept their new national/international ID card. It is my understanding that without the card, we will be denied bank accounts in the United States of America, a driver's license, and the right to fly on airplanes unless we have been issued a Real ID card. One might imagine that global retailers might require the Real ID to purchase food and gasoline. Take a look at your current driver's license. Check the expiration date. 2008 would be a good global guess.

For those of us who have seen United Nations military vehicles in the United States, and who have also noticed convoys of military tanks being transported through the wilderness areas of our nation – the same areas that have been locked down and away from the American people via Biosphere Reserves and conservation corridors - we have realized for a great many years that, as one patriot stated, the “stage was being set” for difficult times on American soil – the key issue that mass media ignores at its professional finest. So, with stages being set, one must also look to the timing of the Real ID card, and to 2008 in general. Let us not forget all the other paramilitary systems in our nation, like the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Citizens Corp groups, Neighborhood Watch groups, C.O.P.S. (Community Oriented Policing Services), the militarizing of law enforcement departments, and the many new for-hire corporations that offer private armies with weapons for a price. And then, of course, there are the U.N. peacekeeping forces, which the American military has been actively involved with for many, many decades while, simultaneously and incrementally, our “leaders” have been closing our homeland military bases during these same decades.

The professional timing of the Real ID card in 2008, and its mandatory issuance, brings to mind several forthcoming coincidences and issues. The collecting and databasing of all personal information of every American adult – coinciding with the CFR's North American Community – and all global government infrastructures in place and play, one must consider the following:

• How are “domestic terrorists” determined and identified?

• Who will be held in the Civilian Labor Camps on American soil?

• What is the real issue behind the “identity theft” propaganda?

• Why are the off-limits American wilderness areas crawling with secret military operations?

• And why the mandatory issuance of an ID card that sums up every American citizen with one swipe?

One cannot help but to almost laugh when it comes to considering how directly global intentions rest beneath our noses. So easy to see, yet so blindly the public goes about its merry and dull way. On that note, the Real ID card will ultimately seal your fate. You will be a compliant and completely identifiable slave to the New World Order, or you will be its enemy – and your Real ID will determine which global creature you shall be.

Therefore, America, let us not in-fight. The fact of our demise as free people exists no matter whose research is right or wrong. The stage is, in fact, being set for our nation's conquering. The Democrats and Republicans have seen to this fact and have worked steadfastly to raise their one-world government. They knew from the beginning that people with property, firearms, and rights were their primary problems, or in other words, the people of the United States of America and other westernized nations. Our “leadership” is not what they seem.

The public acceptance of the Real ID in May of 2008 seals the deal. It will be more than interesting to see which of our friends, neighbors, and family members will willingly sign onto their fate as new “citizens” of the global police state. Just keep telling yourselves that you voted them into office. So did I. As such, we have a lot of soul searching to do and very, very little time – about 21 months. Are we going to continue to allow our “representatives” to march off with this nation and our Constitutional freedom, or are we going to unite and reclaim OUR nation? Ignorance is never bliss. It is abject slavery, and this time, the enslavement is backed by a system far greater than concepts or perceived notions of freedom. It's past time to do more than wave flags, wear patriotic tee shirts, hats, and pins. It's time to serve through action and duty to this nation. Start an A.C.E. (Americans for Constitutional Enforcement) chapter in your neighborhood NOW. Request an information packet (contactus@a4ce.org) and create your local chapter. It's YOUR job and Constitutional duty to save our nation and to preserve freedom. We have been betrayed. For the sake of your children, open your eyes and act. The only potential answer is to UNITE for freedom and to command that freedom with one voice. Then, as a nation UNITED in knowledge, we can rid ourselves of our “representative” globalists. Now, please stop the bickering and bitching, especially of the partisanship flavor, and get to WORK. Global government is non-partisan minus the master-slave divide.

You may also request a mailed copy of the A.C.E. Information Packet by sending $10.00 to A.C.E., P.O. Box 293, Iron Mountain, MI 49801.

Clinton Defends Consulting Contract

In South Carolina, Hillary Rodham Clinton Defends Hiring Politician Who Endorsed Her

FLORENCE, S.C. Feb 19, 2007 (AP)— Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday denied that her campaign traded money for an endorsement from one of South Carolina's most influential black politicians.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Clinton responded to questions about the consulting contract her campaign negotiated with state Sen. Darrell Jackson, who last week endorsed her candidacy rather than of top rivals John Edwards or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"Senator Jackson was someone who was involved in my husband's campaigns. He was someone we turned to for political advice and counsel and I'm proud to have him on my team," Clinton told the AP.

Soon after the endorsement, Jackson acknowledged that his media consulting firm had negotiated a $10,000 per month contract with Clinton's campaign. Jackson has said he turned down more lucrative contracts from other candidates.

Although he backed Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary, Jackson said he now supports Clinton because she has the best shot of winning the White House.

Mo Elleithee, a Clinton spokesman, said Friday that Jackson's firm will advise the campaign on "political matters in South Carolina, outreach, organizing issues" and purchasing advertising.

Earlier in the day, Jackson introduced Clinton when she spoke to more than 1,500 people gathered at Allen University, a historically black college in Columbia.

Clinton, who spoke to the AP during her first trip to this early voting state since announcing her White House bid, also said South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from its Statehouse grounds, in part because the nation should unite under one banner while at war.

"I think about how many South Carolinians have served in our military and who are serving today under our flag and I believe that we should have one flag that we all pay honor to, as I know that most people in South Carolina do every single day," the New York senator said.

"I personally would like to see it removed from the Statehouse grounds."

Other Democratic hopefuls, including Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have said the flag should come down. The banner, which once flew over the Statehouse dome and now flies nearby, is the subject of an ongoing NAACP boycott.

Clinton is one of several Democrats to draw huge crowds during campaign stops in the state, but she said during the interview that her party will have a tough time winning in GOP-heavy South Carolina.

"I think it's going to be hard for any Democrat to carry the state," she said. "The Republican Party is very strong here."

Clinton's visit comes close on the heels of Obama's two-day trip to the state in which he drew crowds of about 2,000 people.

UN handbook tells governments how to fight terrorism

rawstory
New York- The first handbook advising governments in various aspects of the fight against terrorism was published Friday by the United Nations, ranging from preventing the theft of nuclear materials to protecting human rights during anti-terrorism campaigns.
The first edition of Counter-Terrorism Online Handbook, was expected to be updated regularly, and was published only in electronic form at www.un.org/terrorism/CThandbook. The material was mandated by the UN General Assembly, which last year adopted wide- ranging measures to fight terrorist activities around the world.

The 192-nation assembly has adopted several conventions against terrorism, focusing on areas that would deprive terrorists or would- be terrorists of the financial and technological resources to carry out their activities.

"We stand ready to work with you (governments)," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said. "To support our joint efforts, a task force has created a Counter-Terrorism Online Handbook."

"Its purpose is to give member states, regional organizations and UN country teams a single, easily accessible tool for information on activities and resources," Ban said.

The handbook is described as a tool to better assist governments to utilize resources to "enhance their own efforts at countering terrorism within the framework of the (anti-terror) global strategy."

The handbook will focus on ways to prevent financing of terrorism; promote education, tolerance and dialogue; and protect nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological materials.

It also discusses ways to assist victims of terrorist attacks, prevent travel by terrorists, provide training to law enforcement entities, assist with drafting of anti-terrorism legislation, defend human rights and protect key infrastructure.

The handbook was drawn up by a 24-member counterterrorism implementation task force comprised of various UN departments and agencies. The task force received assistance from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

US Officials: Bin Laden Building Hub in Pakistan

NYTIMES
Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.

The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.

American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.

Officials said the training camps had yet to reach the size and level of sophistication of the Qaeda camps established in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. But groups of 10 to 20 men are being trained at the camps, the officials said, and the Qaeda infrastructure in the region is gradually becoming more mature.

The new warnings are different from those made in recent months by intelligence officials and terrorism experts, who have spoken about the growing abilities of Taliban forces and Pakistani militants to launch attacks into Afghanistan. American officials say that the new intelligence is focused on Al Qaeda and points to the prospect that the terrorist network is gaining in strength despite more than five years of a sustained American-led campaign to weaken it.

The intelligence and counterterrorism officials would discuss the classified intelligence only on the condition of anonymity. They would not provide some of the evidence that led them to their assessments, saying that revealing the information would disclose too much about the sources and methods of intelligence collection.

The concern about a resurgent Al Qaeda has been the subject of intensive discussion at high levels of the Bush administration, the officials said, and has reignited debate about how to address Pakistan’s role as a haven for militants without undermining the government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president.

Last week, President Bush’s senior counterterrorism adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, went to Afghanistan during a Middle East trip to meet with security officials about rising concerns on Al Qaeda’s resurgence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an administration official said.

Officials from several different American intelligence and counterterrorism agencies presented a consistent picture in describing the developments as a major setback to American efforts against Al Qaeda.

A Split Over Strategy

But debates within the administration about how best to deal with the threat have yet to yield any good solutions, officials in Washington said. One counterterrorism official said that some within the Pentagon were advocating American strikes against the camps, but that others argued that any raids could result in civilian casualties. And State Department officials say increased American pressure could undermine President Musharraf’s military-led government.

Some of the interviews with officials were granted after John D. Negroponte, then the director of national intelligence, told Congress last month that “Al Qaeda’s core elements are resilient” and that the organization was “cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders’ secure hide-out in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.”

As recently as 2005, American intelligence assessments described senior leaders of Al Qaeda as cut off from their foot soldiers and able only to provide inspiration for future attacks. But more recent intelligence describes the organization’s hierarchy as intact and strengthening.

“The chain of command has been re-established,” said one American government official, who said that the Qaeda “leadership command and control is robust.”

American officials and analysts said a variety of factors in Pakistan had come together to allow “core Al Qaeda” — a reference to Mr. bin Laden and his immediate circle — to regain some of its strength. The emergence of a relative haven in North Waziristan and the surrounding area has helped senior operatives communicate more effectively with the outside world via courier and the Internet.

The investigation into last summer’s failed plot to bomb airliners in London has led counterterrorism officials to what they say are “clear linkages” between the plotters and core Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. American analysts point out that the trials of terrorism suspects in Britain revealed that some of the defendants had been trained in Pakistan.

In a videotaped statement last year, Mr. Zawahri claimed responsibility for the July 2005 London suicide bombings. Included in the same tape was a statement by one of the London suicide bombers, pledging allegiance to Al Qaeda. Two of the four bombers traveled to Pakistan prior to the attack.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, told the House Armed Services Committee last week that Al Qaeda “is on the march.” He said, “Al Qaeda in fact is now functioning exactly as its founder and leader, Osama bin Laden, envisioned it,” because, he said, Qaeda leaders are planning major attacks and inspiring militants to carry out attacks around the globe.

Other experts questioned the seriousness of Pakistan’s commitment. They argued that elements of Pakistan’s military still supported the Taliban and saw them as a valuable proxy to counter the rising influence of India, Pakistan’s regional rival.

Joint Efforts by Militants

Since 2001, members of various militant groups in Pakistan have increased their cooperation with one another in the tribal areas, according to American analysts.

The analysts said that North Waziristan became a hub of militant activity last year, after President Musharraf negotiated a treaty with tribal leaders in the area. He pledged to pull troops back to barracks in the area in exchange for tribal leaders’ ending support for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but officials in Washington and Islamabad conceded that the agreement had been a failure.

During a news conference days before last November’s elections, President Bush said of the campaign against Al Qaeda: “Absolutely, we’re winning. Al Qaeda is on the run.”

But in a speech several days ago, Mr. Bush painted a more sober picture of Al Qaeda’s current strength, especially inside Pakistan.

“Taliban and Al Qaeda figures do hide in remote regions of Pakistan,” Mr. Bush said. “This is wild country; this is wilder than the Wild West. And these folks hide and recruit and launch attacks.”

Officials said that both American and foreign intelligence services had collected evidence leading them to conclude that at least one of the camps in Pakistan might be training operatives capable of striking Western targets. A particular concern is that the camps are frequented by British citizens of Pakistani descent who travel to Pakistan on British passports.

In a speech in November, the director general of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, said that terrorist plots in Britain “often have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan.” She said that “through those links, Al Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale.”

Leaders Appear Secure

Officials said that the United States still had little idea where Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri had been hiding since 2001, but that the two men were not believed to be present in the camps currently operating in North Waziristan. Among the indicators that American officials cited as a sign that Qaeda leaders felt more secure was the release of 21 statements by Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri in 2006, roughly twice the number as in the previous year.

In the past, statements issued by Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri referred to events that were sometimes several weeks old, one official said, suggesting that the men had difficulty creating a secure means of distributing the tapes. Now, the statements are more current, at times referring to events that occurred days earlier.

American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said that most of the men receiving training in Pakistan had been carrying out attacks inside Afghanistan, but that Al Qaeda had also strengthened its ties to groups in Iraq that had sworn allegiance to Mr. bin Laden. They said dozens of seasoned fighters were moving between Pakistan and Iraq, apparently engaging in an “exchange of best practices” for attacking American forces.

Over the past year, insurgent tactics from Iraq have migrated to Afghanistan, where suicide bombings have increased fivefold and roadside bomb attacks have doubled. In testimony to the House Armed Services Committee last week, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the departing commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, said the United States could not prevail in Afghanistan and defeat global terrorism without addressing the havens in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials say that they are doing their best to gain control of the area and that military efforts to pacify it have failed, but that more reconstruction aid is needed.

Officials said that over the past year, Al Qaeda had also shown an increased international capability, citing as an example its alliance with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian-based group that has carried out a series of attacks in recent months.

Last fall, the Algerian group renamed itself Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb. Officials in Washington say they believe that the group is linked to a recent string of sophisticated car bombings and other attacks in Algeria, including a December attack on a bus carrying Halliburton contractors.

'NY Post': Those Who Oppose 'Surge' in Congress Are Guilty of 'Treason'

NYTIMES
"TREASON" screamed the front page of the New York Post today, in reaction to Friday's vote in the House of Representatives which easily passed a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush's troop surge in Iraq. Seventeen Republicans joined the Democrats in that vote.

The Post's Ralph Peters caleld it "the most disgraceful congressional action since the Democratic Party united to defend slavery"-- roughly 150 years ago.

Peters charged, "Providing aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime is treason. It's not 'just politics.' It's treason....

"The vote was a huge morale booster for al Qaeda, for Iraq's Sunni insurgents, and for the worst of the Shia militias....

"We've reached a low point in the history of our government when a substantial number of legislators would welcome an American defeat in Iraq for domestic political advantage. ...

"If you were an Iraqi, would you be willing to trust Americans and risk your life after the United States Congress voted to abandon you?"

Proposed bill would ban political opinions in classes

AP
A proposed state law would prohibit any instructor in a public school or college from advocating or opposing a political candidate or one side of a social, political or cultural issue that is part of a partisan debate.

A group of Arizona lawmakers concluded Thursday that classrooms should not be forums for schoolteachers and college professors to espouse political opinions.

Supporters said the measure would let students disagree with instructors without fearing retribution.

However, college students and education advocates worry it would discourage instructors from leading discussions and debates on controversial topics.

Legislators disagreed and approved the bill in a House committee, saying students should not receive a biased education.

"In any class, any issue could be discussed as long as the instructor is neutral on the issue and not telling you what your conclusion should be," said Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, who wrote the bill.

Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, said she has concerns about Verschoor's proposal, but she voted for it so it could move out of committee and to the full Senate for consideration.

The bill was approved 4-3 in the Senate Government Committee with Republicans voting for the measure and Democrats voting against.

The bill will go to the full Senate for consideration and would need approval from the House and Gov. Janet Napolitano before becoming law.

Militants Attack U.S. Base in Iraq

newyorktimes
BAGHDAD, Feb. 20 — In a coordinated assault on an American combat outpost north of Baghdad, suicide bombers drove three cars laden with explosives into the base, killing two American soldiers and wounding at least 17 more, according to witnesses and the American military.

The brazen attack, which was followed by fierce gun battles and a daring evacuation of the wounded by at least four American helicopters, came on a day of deadly violence across the country, including shootings suicide bombings, mortar attacks and roadside explosions. Civilians, Americans and the Iraqi security forces all were targets.

Many of the attacks apparently were conducted by Sunni militants, perhaps seeking to gain firm control of havens outside Baghdad as American and Iraqi troops flood the streets of the capital in an attempt to stem the bloodshed, according to American and Iraqi military officials.

A family of thirteen was slaughtered on the road leading to Fallujah, 12 miles northwest of Baghdad, because they belonged to a tribe known to oppose the actions of Al Qaeda in Iraq, according to witnesses. The family, including an elderly woman and two small boys, was riding in an Akia minibus when the bus was stopped and they were dragged out, lined up in the middle of the road and shot. The killings took place in daylight in full view of others on the road, where traffic was stopped, witnesses said. At nightfall, the dead still lay on the pavement, because people remained fearful that they would be ambushed if they tried to collect the bodies.

The assault on the American base, located in the heart of a town called Tarmyia, was unusual, because militants have largely avoided staging direct attacks on heavily fortified American positions. In the past year, their attacks on American bases have mainly been mounted more indirectly — by firing mortar rounds from a distance, or by using snipers to wait for targets of opportunity.

Residents of Tarmyia, a city of 25,000, said the Americans had only occupied the base there for three months, since the local police force in the town collapsed following a campaign of intimidation and murder threats against the officers and their families by Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Before that, Americans were seen only occasionally in the city, sending soldiers from a base a short distance away to conduct joint patrols with the Iraqis.

When the Americans took over the former police station in Tarmyia, which is in the center of the city, they quickly fortified it with large blast walls.

The suicide bombers who attacked today timed their assault to inflict maximum damage, witnesses said. Shortly before dawn, two of them drove their vehicles into the outer perimeter of the station and detonated them, tearing a huge hole in the walls. Then, as American soldiers gathered at the breach to assess the damage, a third bomber drove his car up and detonated it.

There was also a heavy exchange of gunfire, but residents said they could not tell who was firing.

American military officials confirmed today that the base was attacked, and that two soldiers were killed and another 17 wounded. But they did not immediately provide details regarding the assault, so the accounts of witnesses could not be independently verified.

Residents said that even as the gunfire rang out in the air, four American helicopters flew into the town and wounded soldiers were evacuated.

This evening, American forces sealed off all routes in and out of the town, leaving residents worried that they would be cut off from basic supplies.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial

Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial
An Italian judge has ordered 26 US citizens - most of them CIA agents - to stand trial over the kidnap of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
Osama Mustafa Hassan was allegedly seized by the CIA and flown to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

Seven Italians were also indicted, including Italy's ex-military intelligence chief, Nicolo Pollari.

The case would be the first criminal trial over the secret US practice known as "extraordinary rendition".

During rendition, people suspected of involvement in terror activities are taken from one country and flown to another, where many claim they are tortured.

Extradition decision

Most of the indicted US citizens are believed to have returned home from Italy.

The Italian government has yet to decide whether or not it wishes to request their extradition.





Prime Minister Romano Prodi is coming under renewed pressure to do so at a time when Italian-US relations are sticky at best, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome.
The US has never commented on the case.

Those indicted include the former station chief of CIA operations in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, who says his opposition to the proposal to kidnap the imam was over-ruled.

He is reported to be among those who have returned to the US, leaving behind a villa in Italy which he bought with his life savings.

Mr Pollari, the former head of the Italian secret service, SISMI, had already been removed from his job following a parliamentary inquiry into the claims.

Of the seven Italians who were charged, six were charged with abduction and one is accused of withholding information on abductions.

Lawyers say they have compiled thousands of pages of documents and testimony from Italian agents past and present, some of whom have acknowledged working with the US in planning the abduction.

The trial is due to begin on 8 June.

Torture claims

Mr Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, was released from prison in Egypt only on Sunday.

He says that he was repeatedly beaten and tortured during his four years of detention in Cairo.

He described one form of torture in which he was forced to lie on a wet mattress through which an electric current was passed.

Mr Hassan still faces the risk of arrest as a terror suspect if he returns to Italy, our correspondent says, but his lawyer has said that he wishes to come to Milan nonetheless to testify during the trial.

On Wednesday, EU lawmakers endorsed a damning report accusing some member states of turning a blind eye to rendition, naming Italy as one of the countries involved.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6368269.stm

Published: 2007/02/16 16:51:35 GMT

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial

Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial
An Italian judge has ordered 26 US citizens - most of them CIA agents - to stand trial over the kidnap of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
Osama Mustafa Hassan was allegedly seized by the CIA and flown to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

Seven Italians were also indicted, including Italy's ex-military intelligence chief, Nicolo Pollari.

The case would be the first criminal trial over the secret US practice known as "extraordinary rendition".

During rendition, people suspected of involvement in terror activities are taken from one country and flown to another, where many claim they are tortured.

Extradition decision

Most of the indicted US citizens are believed to have returned home from Italy.

The Italian government has yet to decide whether or not it wishes to request their extradition.





Prime Minister Romano Prodi is coming under renewed pressure to do so at a time when Italian-US relations are sticky at best, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome.
The US has never commented on the case.

Those indicted include the former station chief of CIA operations in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, who says his opposition to the proposal to kidnap the imam was over-ruled.

He is reported to be among those who have returned to the US, leaving behind a villa in Italy which he bought with his life savings.

Mr Pollari, the former head of the Italian secret service, SISMI, had already been removed from his job following a parliamentary inquiry into the claims.

Of the seven Italians who were charged, six were charged with abduction and one is accused of withholding information on abductions.

Lawyers say they have compiled thousands of pages of documents and testimony from Italian agents past and present, some of whom have acknowledged working with the US in planning the abduction.

The trial is due to begin on 8 June.

Torture claims

Mr Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, was released from prison in Egypt only on Sunday.

He says that he was repeatedly beaten and tortured during his four years of detention in Cairo.

He described one form of torture in which he was forced to lie on a wet mattress through which an electric current was passed.

Mr Hassan still faces the risk of arrest as a terror suspect if he returns to Italy, our correspondent says, but his lawyer has said that he wishes to come to Milan nonetheless to testify during the trial.

On Wednesday, EU lawmakers endorsed a damning report accusing some member states of turning a blind eye to rendition, naming Italy as one of the countries involved.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6368269.stm

Published: 2007/02/16 16:51:35 GMT