Taliban and Al-Qaeda refuse blame on Pakistan blast 29 Oct 2009 The Taliban and al-Qaeda have said they did not explode the bombs that caused 105 deaths in Peshawar on Wednesday. Pakistani paper The News has quoted an al-Qaeda source as saying the group was not involved in the killing of innocent women and children. The sources instead placed the blame on "elements who want to defame jihad." The banned Taliban group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, in an e-mail sent to the media, also denied its involvement in the blast. [Right, it was likely the terrorist group Blackwater/Xe, which *is* involved in the killing of innocent women and children. See: Blackwater running covert recruitment drive in Pak through its website 16 Sep 2009 The controversial US private security company, Blackwater, is reportedly running a covert recruitment drive through its website in Pakistan. See: Blackwater Recruiting Agents Fluent In Urdu and Punjabi For Pakistan --Report suggests Pakistani envoy in Washington issued 360 visas to Americans in one month without consulting Islamabad By Ahmed Quraishi 15 Sep 2009.]
Peshawar blast death toll rises to 111 30 Oct 2009 The death toll from Wednesday’s blast in Peshawar has now risen to 111, while many of the injured remain in critical condition. On Wednesday, a huge explosion shook the city’s Meena bazaar, a marketplace frequented by women.
Passports linked to 9/11 found along Afghan border [LOLOLOL! Good one.] 29 Oct 2009 Pakistani soldiers battling their way into a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border have seized passports that may be linked to '9/11 suspects.' Soldiers displayed passports seized in the operation, among them a German document belonging to a man named Said Bahaji. That matches the name of a man thought to have been a member of the Hamburg cell that conceived the 9/11 attacks. The passport included a tourist visa for Pakistan and a stamp indicating he'd arrived in the southern city of Karachi on Sept. 4, 2001.
Iraq arrests security officials over Baghdad blast 29 Oct 2009 Iraq announced the arrests of dozens of military and security personnel on Thursday over Baghdad suicide bombings that killed 155 people. Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman for the Iraqi capital, told The Associated Press that 11 army officers and 50 security officials have been taken into custody over Sunday's bombings. The massive blasts at the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Administration angered many Iraqis, who questioned how the suicide bombers could have gotten their explosives-laden vehicles through a downtown dotted with checkpoints and security personnel.
US military suffers another GI loss in Iraq 30 Oct 2009 The United States military has lost another soldier to a non-combat incident at Camp Adder, located outside Nasiriyah, in south central Iraq. "A US soldier of the 13th Reconnaissance Command was killed on Wednesday at Iraq's Camp Adder in a non-combat incident," according to a US army statement.
Obama honors war dead in predawn visit to Dover air base --Greets cargo plane carrying 18 killed in Afghanistan 30 Oct 2009 Hours after a personal encounter with the grim cost of war, President Obama said yesterday that the sight of 18 flag-covered cases holding the remains of Americans killed this week in Afghanistan cannot help but influence his thinking about sending more troops there.
War crimes arrest awaiting Olmert's UK visit 30 Oct 2009 Former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert would probably face arrest on war crime charges if he visited Britain, a leading British newspapers has quoted a lawyer as saying. "Neither Olmert nor Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister during the Cast Lead offensive, and a member of Israel's war cabinet, would enjoy immunity from prosecution for alleged breaches of the Geneva conventions," the Middle East editor of The Guardian, Ian Black, quoted Daniel Machover as saying.
Israeli spy in US wanted $2 million for his secrets 29 Oct 2009 The celebrated American scientist charged with spying for Israel had asked for $2 million for his secrets, federal prosecutors has revealed. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Stewart D. Nozette on Oct. 19 as he attempted to deliver state secrets to an undercover FBI agent, disguised as an Israeli intelligence operative.
Iran Rejects Deal to Ship Out Uranium, Officials Report 30 Oct 2009 Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response. The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff.
Ousted Minot AFB commander won't retire 20 Oct 2009 Col. Christopher Ayres, the former 91st Missile Wing commander at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., who was fired on Oct. 14, will accept an assignment to Air Force Space Command headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Col., and not retire. The 24-year missile officer was fired after 20th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Roger Burg "lost confidence in his ability to command." Burg also fired two maintenance commanders formerly under Ayres’ command -- Col. Lyman Faith, 91st Maintenance Group commander, and Lt. Col. Andrew Healy, 91st Missile Maintenance Squadron commander. The firings followed the Oct. 9 release of an investigative report that blamed a "large insect" for an Aug. 31 crash involving a truck carrying rocket engine parts for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Obama signs bills for record Pentagon, Homeland Security spending By Patrick Martin 30 Oct 2009 In a ceremony Wednesday, US President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing the largest ever military budget, a gargantuan $680 billion for the Pentagon, including $130 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Thursday, he signed a spending bill funneling another $44 billion into the Department of Homeland Security, to strengthen the apparatus of state repression within the United States.
The manual's details have alarmed privacy advocates. Loosening of F.B.I. Rules Stirs Privacy Concerns 29 Oct 2009 ...The operation unfolded as the Bush administration was relaxing some domestic intelligence-gathering rules. The F.B.I.’s interpretation of those rules was recently made public when it released, in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, its "Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide." The disclosure of the manual has opened the widest window yet onto how agents have been given greater power in the post-Sept. 11 era. In seeking the revised rules, the bureau said it needed greater flexibility to hunt for would-be terrorists inside the United States. But the manual’s details have alarmed privacy advocates.
The New Operations Manual from the F.B.I. 29 Oct 2009 In September 2008, the Bush administration changed domestic intelligence-gathering rules. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's interpretation of those rules was recently made public when the bureau released a redacted copy of its "Domestic Investigations and Operation Guide" in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit. The new rules have given F.B.I. agents the most power in national security matters that they have had since the post-Watergate era.
Al Qaeda sleeper agent gets 8 years, not 15 as prosecutors had sought --Ali Marri gets a lighter sentence in consideration of 'very severe' conditions under which he was kept during the almost six years he was held without charges in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina. 30 Oct 2009 A federal judge [U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm] sentenced an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent to eight years in prison Thursday -- about half the time prosecutors had requested -- because the agent received what the judge called "unacceptable" treatment in a U.S. Navy brig. Those conditions included sensory deprivation, lengthy interrogations, long periods of isolation and threats to harm his family.
U.S. prosecutors add terrorism charge to Canadian living in Chicago 28 Oct 2009 U.S prosecutors on Wednesday laid an additional charge against a Canadian arrested in Chicago for allegedly helping to plot a terrorist attack against a Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian, has been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy for his role in what the FBI says was a plot against the Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen.
Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry --Document was found on file-sharing network 30 Oct 2009 House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations.
7 on defense panel scrutinized --Separate probes focus on ties to lobbying firm founded by Hill aide 30 Oct 2009 Nearly half the members of a powerful House subcommittee in control of Pentagon spending are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, who have trained their lens on the relationships between seven panel members and an influential lobbying firm founded by a former Capitol Hill aide. The investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), as well as others who helped steer federal funds to clients of the PMA Group. The lawmakers received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients. A document obtained by The Washington Post shows that the subcommittee members under scrutiny also include Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) , C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.).
NY Gov. Declares State of Emergency Over H1N1 Flu --The order is needed to suspend provisions of state law. 29 Oct 2009 Gov. David Paterson declared a state of emergency, saying a recent rise in swine flu cases has created a "disaster" and that certain provisions of state law needed to be set aside to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible. The executive order Thursday means that far more health care professionals -- including dentists, dental hygienists, podiatrists, pharmacists, midwives and physicians assistants -- will be permitted to administer swine flu and seasonal flu vaccines with only brief training. [See: New York City Parents Opting Out of Swine Flu Vaccine --Officials used Wednesday's event to implore more parents to sign up 29 Oct 2009.]
Ohio Boy Given H1N1 Vaccine Against Mom's Wishes 29 Oct 2009 A furious Ohio mother says her 7-year-old son, who has had problems with medications, was vaccinated for swine flu at school against her wishes. Kim Lutheran works as a nurse and says her son, Matthew, has had bad reactions to medicine. So, she says she signed for "no consent" on a vaccination form and then circled her intentions with a black marker to make things clear to the boy's public school in the Toledo suburb of Oregon. Lutheran says she learned Matthew still received a shot on Monday. She says the local health department must be held accountable. [Have the pharma-terrorist trolls arrested for attempted murder, then sue.]
Swine Flu Hit Millions in Spring, Agency Says 30 Oct 2009 There were 1.8 million to 5.7 million cases of swine flu in the country during the epidemic’s first spring wave, according to a new estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday. From 9,000 to 21,000 people were hospitalized as a result, and up to 800 died from April to July, when it largely faded out, according to the estimates, which were conducted by the C.D.C. and the Harvard School of Public Health and published online in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The agency has previously refused to be more specific than to say there were "more than a million" cases.
Swine Flu Cases Overestimated? CBS News: Study of State Results Finds H1N1 Not As Prevalent As Feared 21 Oct 2009 In late July, the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. CBS News learned that the decision to stop counting H1N1 flu cases was made so hastily that states weren't given the opportunity to provide input. We asked all 50 states for their statistics on state lab-confirmed H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July. The vast majority of cases were negative for H1N1 as well as seasonal flu, despite the fact that many states were specifically testing patients deemed to be most likely to have H1N1 flu. It's unknown what patients who tested negative for flu were actually afflicted with since the illness was not otherwise determined.
New York City Parents Opting Out of Swine Flu Vaccine --Officials used Wednesday's event to implore more parents to sign up 29 Oct 2009 Fewer than half of New York City parents with children in elementary school have given permission for their children to receive the swine flu vaccine at school, reflecting some ambivalence about the need for the vaccine or concern about its effects. 5 percent to 50 percent of parents had given consent for their children to receive the vaccine at schools that had it. At Public School 157 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where health officials opened the school vaccination effort on Wednesday, only a third of students had permission to receive it.
Harvard: Disease Researchers Were Poisoned 25 Oct 2009 Harvard University says six researchers who became sick in August apparently were poisoned. The Boston Herald says a memo released Friday says the group drank from a coffee machine on Aug. 26 that later tested positive for sodium azide, a common preservative used in labs. The six reported symptoms ranging from dizziness to ear ringing, and one passed out. They were treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and later released. The researchers all work in the Harvard Medical School's pathology department using mice to investigate how diseases interact with the immune system.
Poisoning at Harvard --6 lab workers sickened by coffee 25 Oct 2009 Harvard University Medical School is locking down its New Research Building, installing new surveillance cameras and imposing tighter security after researchers in the pathology department of the Boston building drank poisoned coffee and were hospitalized. The six victims - a group of scientists and students at Harvard Medical School - used a communal, single-serve coffee machine on the eighth floor near their pathology lab Aug. 26, according to an internal memo.
GMAC seeking third bailout - report --U.S. Treasury likely to inject another $2.8 billion to $5.6 billion in troubled lender, Wall Street Journal says. The U.S. has already injected $13.4 billion in the lender since Dec 2008. 28 Oct 2009 GMAC Financial Services is seeking a third round of bailout funds from the U.S. Treasury Department, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Talks over a fresh lifeline are at an advanced stage and the U.S. government could provide an additional $2.8 billion to $5.6 billion to the lender, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Health care: Most wouldn't have public option 29 Oct 2009 Lost amid the ideological battle for or against a public option is a key overlooked fact: The vast majority of Americans would have no access to a public option even under its most expansive versions. House and Senate bills limit the option to the smallest businesses and to individuals who cannot get insurance, or whose health care costs exceed 12.5 percent of their income. Even seven years into an overhaul, an estimated 90 percent of Americans, including nearly everyone who has employer-based coverage now, would be shut out of a public option.
CLG: Silence On the Senator --The Lieberman Lie Pie is growing, and Connecticut's largest newspaper is ignoring it. By Lori Price 28 Oct 2009 When Senator Chris Dodd (D) sneezes, the state of Connecticut knows it. We know it, because the Hartford Courant tells us... and tells us and tells us. On the flip side, one can (jokingly) observe that one would have to revert to the Hartford Courant's founding date -- 1764 -- to find positive coverage of Dodd or any other Democrat. The Courant, mindful that reporting Joe Lieberman's actual actions would drag his approval ratings down lower than the Marianas Trench, avoids the topic of Joe(no)mentum altogether.
BP Faces Record Fine for '05 Refinery Explosion 30 Oct 2009 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will announce the largest fine in its history on Friday, $87 million in penalties against the oil giant BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Tex. refinery, federal officials said Thursday. The fine is more than four times the size of any previous OSHA sanction.
Previous lead stories: US to Give $125 Million to Upgrade Pakistan's Power Sector 29 Oct 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, seeking to bolster Islamabad's fight against Islamic extremists US corporaterrorists' profits, initiated a crash U.S. assistance program for Pakistan's power sector aimed at rolling back electricity shortages that threaten to cripple the South Asian nation's economy. Mrs. Clinton, on the first of a three-day diplomatic mission to Pakistan, said that Washington will disburse $125 million to Islamabad for the upgrading of key power stations and transmission lines. U.S. experts [!] are also beginning to work with Pakistani utility companies to reduce power outages and lost revenue caused by outmoded technologies and systemic non-payment by customers, which costs Pakistan hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
UN rights investigator warns US drone attacks may violate international law 28 Oct 2009 UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said Tuesday that the use of unmanned warplanes by the US to carry out attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan may be illegal. Alston criticized the US policy in a report to the UN General Assembly's human rights committee and then elaborated at a press conference.
