Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister --Drug production in Afghanistan has increased dramatically since the US-led invasion eight years ago. 01 Nov 2009 The Afghan minister of counter narcotics says foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan. General Khodaidad Khodaidad said the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada, IRNA reported on Saturday. He went on to say that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control.
British nuclear expert's 17th floor UN death plunge 'was not suicide' --Under a year ago, an American died at the IAEA in strikingly similar circumstances, his body being found at the bottom of a stairwell. 01 Nov 2009 A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination. Timothy Hampton, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna. An initial autopsy concluded that there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’. But.. a doctor who undertook a second post-mortem examination on behalf of the family believes she has found evidence that Mr Hampton did not die by his own hands. Professor Kathrin Yen, of the Ludwig Institute in Graz, Austria, which specialises in traumatology research, said... one possible theory was that Mr Hampton was carried to the 17th floor from his workplace on the sixth floor and thrown to his death.
Iraq bombing suspect kills officer 01 Nov 2009 A man being questioned in connection with a massive bomb attack in Baghdad has killed his interrogator before being shot himself, Iraq's interior ministry said. The man, who was not identified, snatched a gun from a guard, wounding the guard, and killed the investigating officer, a statement on the ministry's website said on Saturday. Bicycle and bus bombs kill 8 in Iraq 01 Nov 2009 A bicycle loaded with explosives killed five people and wounded 37 at a market in Mussayab, south of Baghdad, on Sunday and a bomb on a bus killed at least three more further south in Kerbala, police and health officials said. The explosives in the first attack were stored in a water cooler attached to the bicycle, and women and children were among the dead and wounded, police said. Fifteen people were wounded in the second incident, hospital officials in the city of Kerbala said.
Documents Detail Conditions Found at Secret C.I.A. Jails: "How close is each technique to the 'rack and screw?' " 01 Nov 2009 F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners "manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock," and a C.I.A. official wrote a list of questions for interrogators including "How close is each technique to the 'rack and screw,' " according to hundreds of pages of partly declassified documents released Friday by the Justice Department. Newly disclosed passages from a 2008 report by the Justice Department inspector general describe what agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation saw at the C.I.A. jail where Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was being questioned. The F.B.I. agents helped C.I.A. officers prepare questions for Mr. Binalshibh but "were denied direct access to him for four or five days," the report said. Then an F.B.I. agent, identified as "Thomas," was allowed to see him and found him "naked and chained to the floor."
Guantanamo detainees set to receive swine flu vaccine 01 Nov 2009 Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said Sunday. Army Maj. James Crabtree, a spokesman for the U.S. jail facility in southeast Cuba, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations. [See: 9yr-old boy tortured, says former Guantanamo detainee --'I was interrogated hundreds of times by the FBI, CIA and even MI5, beaten, and subjected to continuous torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging and religious persecution.' 30 Oct 2009.]
Detainees prefer Guantánamo over US prisons, say officials 01 Nov 2009 As President Barack Obama's deadline to close Guantánamo looms, some occupants of the notorious detention centre would rather prolong their stay than be sent to maximum security prisons on the US mainland, according to camp officials. Despite its reputation, the regime at the Pentagon facility on Cuba's southern coast offers privileges that would not be enjoyed at the federal "supermax" prison at Florence, Colorado, the likely alternative for the most dangerous 'al-Qaeda' suspects.
Iraq: US military contractor burns recyclables, violating contract --KBR was contracted to recycle cafeteria waste at Forward Operating Base Warhorse; an Oct. 30 report reveals transactions worth $10.7 billion are being audited. 30 Oct 2009 As soldiers exit the dining facility, run by KBR and its subcontractor Najlaa International Catering Services Iraq, they see signs along the emerald walkway urging those who "like to recycle" to follow the path and "Think Green." Soldiers sort aluminum cans and plastic silverware into separate bins. But there's one problem: The recyclable goods are thrown into a pit with the rest of the trash and burned. [This] is a breach of the government's contract with KBR to run the dining facility on FOB Warhorse, according to the US government's Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA)... A report issued Oct. 30 by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said that audits of $6.4 billion worth of contracts revealed "internal weaknesses," including inadequate oversight of invoices and excessive change orders. The report also noted evidence of duplicate payments and payments sent to fictitious addresses and unapproved contractors.
Task force re-inspecting U.S. facilities in Iraq for KBR's faulty wiring 01 Nov 2009 An Army task force re-inspecting thousands of potentially unsafe U.S. facilities in Iraq for faulty electrical wiring says a contractor [terrorists] KBR previously ordered to conduct inspections of its own work placed 5,600 facilities on a "deferred" list -- meaning they were low priority or there were no plans to inspect them. Officials with the Defense Department’s 135-member Task Force SAFE said many of the buildings on KBR’s deferred list were still being used by soldiers. As a result, the task force moved these facilities to the top of its inspection list, according to a Sept. 8 internal memo. Sixteen U.S. troops and two contractors were electrocuted -- and hundreds more incurred shock-related injuries -- in Iraq over a span of four years, prompting the Defense Department to create the task force last year to physically inspect every military facility in the country, the majority of which were provided by KBR.
Audit warns KBR to cut number of employees in Iraq 01 Nov 2009 Pentagon auditors are warning the Army's primary support contractor in Iraq, responsible for everything from mail and laundry to housing and meals, to cut its work force there or face nearly $200 million in penalties for keeping thousands too many on the payroll. According to an internal Defense Department audit, Houston-based KBR Inc. has increased employee levels while U.S. troops steadily leave the country after more than six years of war. As a result, the U.S. government is paying far more in labor costs in Iraq than it should as military resources are shifted to Afghanistan.
Cheney was hazy on role in CIA leak, FBI notes from '04 show 31 Oct 2009 Former vice president [sic] Richard B. Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he was unable to recall [!?!] his role in most of the pivotal events that led to the uncloaking of a clandestine CIA officer in the run-up to the Iraq war, according to newly released FBI records. A question-by-question summary of Cheney's May 8, 2004, interview with Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, made public under court order after years of legal maneuvering to keep it secret, portrays a vice president in command of few clear memories about a case that led to great embarrassment for the White House and felony convictions for his chief of staff. [Why not waterboard him until he *can* remember?]
US backs Israel on preconditions 01 Nov 2009 The US has called for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians as soon as possible and without preconditions, an apparent climbdown on earlier demands for Israel to halt settlement building. The settlement issue should be considered as part of peace negotiations, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said at a news conference in Jerusalem late on Saturday.
US drops demand for Israeli settlement freeze --US credibility in the Arab world has suffered a serious setback after Hillary Clinton dropped demands for a halt to Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank. 01 Nov 2009 Signalling an end to the brief flirtation with the Palestinian cause, the US secretary of state flew to Jerusalem to voice full American support for Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In an effort to repair badly strained US-Israeli relations, she heaped praise on Mr Netanyahu, lauding his offer to limit settlement construction -- even though it falls well short of President Obama's original demands.
Palestinians Accuse U.S. of Killing Peace Prospects 01 Nov 2009 Pointing an accusing finger at the United States, the Palestinians on Sunday said Washington's backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, buoyed by new-found support from the Obama administration, urged the Palestinians to "get a grip" and drop their settlement freeze precondition for restarting talks suspended since December. On a one-day Middle East visit on Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed Israel's view that settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank should not be a bar to resuming negotiations -- contradicting the Palestinian position.
Petition: Support the Goldstone Report --War crimes during the attack on Gaza must be investigated. The UN Goldstone report is a well-researched, fair-minded report. Israel and Hamas must conduct credible, independent investigations on war crimes and possible crimes against humanity or face the International Criminal Court. We demand accountability for all victims, respect for the rule of law, international law and human rights.
Abdullah pulls out of Afghan vote 01 Nov 2009 President Hamid Karzai's rival in the second round of the Afghan presidential 'election' has announced in Kabul that he is withdrawing from the poll. "I will not participate in the election," Dr Abdullah told supporters, saying his demands for ensuring a fraud-free election had not been met.
1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list --The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique names and over 1 million entries. 01 Nov 2009 Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list. During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion," according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week. Nine percent of those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government's "no fly" list.
Obama administration: Toss wiretap lawsuit 31 Oct 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out. In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration's position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. Holder's effort to stop the lawsuit marks the first time the administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege under a new policy it launched last month designed to make such a legal argument more difficult. Under the state secrets privilege, the government can have a lawsuit dismissed if hearing the case would jeopardize national security. "The Obama administration has essentially adopted the position of the Bush administration in these cases, even though candidate Obama was incredibly critical of both the warrantless wiretapping program and the Bush administration's abuse of the state secrets privilege," said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Smaller-Scale Terrorism Plots Pose New and Worrisome Threats, Officials Say 01 Nov 2009 After disrupting two recent [alleged] terrorism plots, American intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that extremist groups in Pakistan linked to 'Al Qaeda' are planning smaller operations in the United States that are harder to detect but more likely to succeed than the spectacular attacks they once emphasized, senior counterterrorism officials say. The two cases are among the most serious in years, the officials said.
Terror On BA Flight 01 Nov 2009 Passengers were quarantined on a British Airways jet at Heathrow Airport yesterday after six people collapsed during a flight from America. Fire fighters in anti-contamination suits checked Flight BA184 from Newark for radiation and toxic fumes. After being given the all-clear, the Boeing 777 was boarded by medics who treated the six people -- out of 216 passengers and crew -- who were affected. The alert was the biggest at Heathrow since anti-terror measures were put in place and involved 11 fire engines, paramedics and police.
US clinic denies Muslim doctor right to wear hijab 01 Nov 2009 A medical clinic in Dallas, Texas has sparked controversy after saying a Muslim doctor applying for a job cannot wear her headscarf if hired. Dr. Hena Zaki of Plano, Texas said Friday that she was shocked to find a no-hat policy at the CareNow clinic extended to her hijab. The 29-year-old doctor has called for an apology and a change in CareNow's policy. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has criticized the no-hijab policy, calling it "a blatant violation" of federal law.
NY-23: Scozzafava Endorses Owens 01 Nov 2009 State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R), who dropped from the special election in Upstate New York yesterday, has now thrown her support to Democrat Bill Owens. "It's not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh's lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress," said Scozzafava in a statement released Sunday.
Hoffman Calls Scozzafava a 'Turncoat' --Lifelong Republican throws support to Democrat Owens 01 Nov 2009 Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., was among those who urged Dierdre K. Scozzafava to endorse Democratic congressional candidate William L. Owens, the senator's spokesman said Saturday. The spokesman, Maxwell Young, said the senator called a number of north country political leaders after Ms. Scozzafava suspended her campaign and had more than one conversation with the Republican candidate ahead of her announcement. Mr. Owens said he was "honored" by the endorsement.
CIT files for 5th largest U.S. bankruptcy --Small business lender seeks court approval for a debt reorganization that has approval of bondholders. 01 Nov 2009 CIT Group Inc., one of the nation's leading funders of small and medium-sized businesses, filed for the fifth largest bankruptcy by assets in U.S. history Sunday as part of a reorganization plan that has the support of an overwhelming majority of debtholders. In a statement, the company said it is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York for a quick approval of the prepackaged plan.
White House a special stop for treats 01 Nov 2009 President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama yesterday distributed presidential M&Ms and dried fruit mixes to more than 2,000 trick-or-treaters, marking their Halloween at a White House event partly aimed at honoring military families. Dressed as superheroes, pirates, fairies, and skeletons, the children came in with their parents from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, lining up at the orange lit White House. A big, stuffed, black spider dangled in a web of string from the top of the portico, and pumpkins had sprouted up around the columns.
Blackwater/Xe in Pakistan: 'Blackwater behind Peshawar blast' --Mehsud: US security firm Blackwater, in collaboration with local agencies, was involved in attack 30 Oct 2009 Pakistan's pro-Taliban militants blame private US security firm Blackwater for a Wednesday bomb blast in Peshawar which killed over 100 people. Hakimullah Mehsud, head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, said Blackwater and some Pakistani agencies were involved in the bomb explosion at a crowded market in Peshawar... Mehsud said the US security firm Blackwater, in collaboration with some local agencies, were involved in the attack. On Sunday, about 200 supporters of the Tehrik-e-Taliban party held an anti-US demonstration in Dera Ismail Khan, denouncing Blackwater and chanting anti-US slogans.
Larijani: US behind terrorist attack in Iran 30 Oct 2009 In the wake of a terrorist attack in southeastern Iran, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has accused the United States of helping terrorist carry out acts of violence in Iran. "Reliable evidence shows the US played a role in the recent move," Larijani said referring to the recent bomb blast in Sistan-Baluchistan Province. At least 41 people, including seven senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), were killed in the bombing on October 18 during a unity gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders in the town of Pishin on the Iran-Pakistan border. The Jundallah terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. Abdulhamid Rigi, the apprehended brother of the Jundallah point man, told Press TV in a recent interview that Abdulmalek had held several "confidential" meetings with FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad.
Cheney told FBI he had no idea who leaked Plame ID --In the FBI interview, the vice president's memory of key events appeared hazy. 30 Oct 2009 Former Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney told the FBI in 2004 he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush regime critic, worked for the CIA. A summary of the FBI's interview with the then-vice president reflects that he had deep concern about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa who said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.
