Italian judge to reach verdict in CIA kidnap trial --25 CIA agents, US air force colonel tried in absentia in case 03 Nov 2009 An Italian judge was expected to reach a verdict Wednesday in the landmark trial of 26 US secret agents in the 2003 abduction of a terror suspect from a Milan street. The trial, which opened in June 2007, is the highest profile case involving the CIA's covert "extraordinary rendition" programme in which scores of terror suspects are thought to have been transferred to countries known to practise torture. Twenty-five 25 CIA agents and a US air force colonel were tried in absentia in the case, which also involved seven Italian secret service officials including the former head of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, who was forced to quit over the affair.
FBI knew of CIA torture, considered prosecution By Tom Eley 04 Nov 2009 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents witnessed the torture of inmates at secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overseas prisons in 2002, according to documents partially declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the advocacy group Judicial Watch. In September 2002, the FBI agents saw prisoners chained naked to chairs, "manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock," and knew of written orders to CIA agents asking them to compare "How close is each [interrogation] technique to the 'rack and screw' " (an extreme method of torture). The Obama administration resisted release of the documents, and continues to withhold critical information, including a transcript of an interview between FBI Director Robert Mueller and investigators on the question of "terror suspect" interrogations.
US Offers Taliban 6 Provinces for 8 Bases 02 Nov 2009 The emboldened Taliban movement in Afghanistan turned down an American offer of power-sharing in exchange for accepting the presence of foreign troops, Afghan government sources confirmed. "US negotiators had offered the Taliban leadership through Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil (former Taliban foreign minister) that if they accept the presence of NATO troops in Afghanistan, they would be given the governorship of six provinces in the south and northeast," a senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official told IslamOnline.net requesting anonymity for not being authorized to talk about the sensitive issue with the media. He said the talks, brokered by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, continued for weeks at different locations including the Afghan capital Kabul. [See: Persistent accounts: Western forces in Afghanistan using their helicopters to ferry Taleban fighters By Ahmad Kawoosh 26 Oct 2009.]
Former minister: British should leave Afghanistan 'sooner rather than later' 04 Nov 2009 British troops should withdraw from Afghanistan "sooner rather than later", former Labour minister Kim Howells has said. The former foreign office minister suggested that the money saved should be invested in protecting Britain from terrorist attacks instead. Mr Howells, who is now chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, said there was no evidence that spending more time in the country would result in significant gains, and accused the government in Kabul of "squandering" the help offered by other nations.
Five British soldiers shot dead by rogue Afghanistan policeman 04 Nov 2009 Five soldiers have been shot dead by a "rogue" Afghan policeman in an attack at a police checkpoint. Three Grenadier Guards and two Royal Military Police were attacked as they rested inside a compound. The soldiers, who had removed their body armour and helmets, were shot by an Afghan national policeman who then fled. The gunman is thought to go by the name Gulbuddin and is believed to have had an accomplice.
British medics in Afghanistan see more traumas than UK hospitals put together 03 Nov 2009 British medics in Afghanistan are seeing more major trauma cases every day than all the UK hospitals put together, the colonel in charge of the main field hospital in Helmand said. Many of the injured have lost limbs after being caught by roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Colonel Peter Gilbert said.
Mission accomplished! Iraq Signs Contract to Develop Oil Field 04 Nov 2009 Iraq formally signed a contract with a consortium of foreign oil companies Tuesday to develop its largest oil field. A partnership of British Petroleum and the Chinese National Petroleum Company signed a 20-year deal to develop the Rumalia field in southern Iraq, which contains about 17.8 billion barrels of oil. The field currently produces about one million barrels per day, but the companies plan to increase production to 2.85 million barrels per day within six years.
Israel intercepts ship carrying weapons: military 04 Nov 2009 The Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying weapons 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres) off its coastline overnight, a military spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "During the night a special marine force intercepted a ship that was supposed to be carrying cargo around 100 (nautical) miles from our shore," the spokeswoman said, adding that the vessel was sailing under an Antigua flag.
Peres to Join Military Exercise 04 Nov 2009 President Shimon Peres will participate in the joint Israel-U.S. Juniper Cobra military exercise on Wednesday. Joining Peres will be Israel Air Force commander Ido Nechushtan, chief of IDF Operations Tal Russo, and other senior officers.
Pentagon: Defense personnel to get H1N1 vaccine before Guantanamo detainees 03 Nov 2009 The Pentagon stressed Tuesday that detainees prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, won't be receiving H1N1 flu vaccinations until well after all Department of Defense active duty and civilian employees have received their vaccinations. Pentagon officials said doses of the vaccine are on order for Guantanamo and are expected to arrive at the base in late November.
Inspections are top priority at Minot AFB 04 Nov 2009 The new commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base said his first priority is to make sure the wing is ready for inspections. Col. Douglas Cox began Monday as the top officer of the bomb wing. Cox replaced Col. Joel Westa, who, along with the commander of the base's 5th Operations Support Squadron, were relieved of duty... "Building that credibility is one of the biggest challenges that we are working on." [I'd say so. It would be much easier to clean the Augean stables in a single day.] "We actually are inspected all the time so every day we're either inspecting ourselves or we're expecting inspectors to come from outside of Minot Air Force Base," Cox said.
New Wing Commander at Minot AFB 03 Nov 2009 There's a new wing commander at Minot Air Force base. [This happens about once a week.] Col. Douglas Cox is the new commander of the 5th bomb Wing. Col. Cox took over the wing after Col. Joel Westa was relieved of command on Friday. Westa was removed due to the Air Force losing confidence in his ability to command. Col. Cox says he is ready to lead the 5th bomb wing knowing that perfection is the standard.
Terror plot case: In bid to deny bail, prosecutors allege suspect also tried to skirt immigration laws --Man passed tips to an associate of a terror group, prosecutors allege 04 Nov 2009 A Chicago businessman linked to a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad passed on tips to an associate of a terror group on how to illegally enter the United States, prosecutors alleged Tuesday. The new allegations against Tahawwur Hussain Rana came as the government renewed its push to keep him in custody pending trial. The filing in federal court delayed a bond hearing for Rana until next week.
Government planning to impose quarantines in regions with growing number of flu patients 04 Nov 2009 The Ukrainian government is planning to impose quarantines in the Ukrainian regions in which the number of patients with flu and acute respiratory infections is growing, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said. As reported, quarantines were imposed in nine Ukrainian regions on October 30 due to the epidemic of flu and acute respiratory infections.
Ukraine virus mystery deepens 03 Nov 2009 The mystery of the unidentified flu virus in the Ukraine, first reported by RNW on 29 October, has deepened... In August 2009, a man called Joseph Mosse, who claims to be a former microbiologist with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, was arrested in Los Angeles, having made threats against the White House. Shortly after his arrest, there were reports that he had called into a radio show with a warning about a biological weapon being prepared in the Ukraine by a company called Baxter International. According to these reports, Mr Mosse said that the weapon would be spread via a flu vaccine. Credence is being given to these reports because Mr Mosse's qualifications as a microbiologist are confirmed by his research profile on this website. There is also a story doing the rounds that a light aircraft has been spotted spraying an unidentified substance over the capital, Kiev, but this has been denied by the country’s Office of Emergency Response. [See: Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu, though admitted sending live pandemic flu viruses to subcontractor By Lori Price 26 Apr 2009.]
Swine flu could raise constitutional issues --Most governors have the power to take drastic measures such as quarantining people, seizing medications, overturning laws and using martial police power. 03 Nov 2009 Civil liberties advocates caution that mandatory vaccinations, forced quarantines and restricted interstate travel would not only endanger individual rights but also would be unlikely to prevent disease in the event of a severe H1N1 outbreak. "These raise the highest constitutional problems," said Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, at a recent panel discussion. Greenberger said in the case of a pandemic, state and federal governments have extensive executive emergency powers. State laws give governors the authority to contravene any law that interferes with the governor's ability to deal with an emergency.
School District's H1N1 Flu Vaccine Ruined 03 Nov 2009 (PA) With a shortage of H1N1 flu vaccine all across the country thousands of doses in the Stroudsburg Area School District are being thrown out because the refrigerator storing the doses somehow ended up at the wrong temperature. Five thousand swine flu vaccinations, enough for every student in the district, were ruined because of a mechanical malfunction.
Republicans win Virginia and New Jersey elections in blow for Barack Obama 04 Nov 2009 American voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to Barack Obama by rejecting his allies in Virginia, the swing state that helped deliver him the White House almost exactly a year ago, and the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey. Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate, trounced his Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds, for whom Mr Obama had campaigned, by 17 points to become Virginia governor. Republicans also won the races in Virginia for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Governor Jon Corzine, the incumbent Democrat, was defeated by Chris Christie in New Jersey, where no Republican had won state-wide since 1997.
Democrat wins House seat in heavily GOP area in NY 04 Nov 2009 A Democrat running in a historically Republican stronghold won a closely watched special congressional election in northern New York on Tuesday, capitalizing on a split that emerged between moderates and conservatives for control of the GOP. Lawyer and retired Air Force Capt. Bill Owens defeated businessman Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, 49 percent to 45 percent, after a boost from unified labor efforts in the last days of the campaign and the withdrawal of the Republican candidate over the weekend.
Bloomberg Wins 3rd Term as Mayor in Unexpectedly Close Race 04 Nov 2009 Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg pulled out a narrow re-election victory on Tuesday, as voters angry over his maneuver to undo the city’s term limits law and his extravagant campaign spending provided an unexpected lift to his vastly underfinanced challenger, William C. Thompson Jr. Unofficial returns showed Mr. Bloomberg with 51 percent and Mr. Thompson with 46 percent. The result will make Mr. Bloomberg only the fourth three-term mayor in the last century.
Maine voters overturn legal same-sex marriage 04 Nov 2009 Voters in Maine repealed a state law legalizing same sex marriage, which backers of the measure said shows "voters don't want to change what you call marriage." Advocates of same-sex marriage refused to concede defeat early Wednesday after supporters declared victory. Nearly 53 percent of voters backed the referendum of a law the state legislature approved in May and the governor signed.
The Halliburton Loophole (The New York Times) 03 Nov 2009 Among the many dubious provisions in the 2005 energy bill was one dubbed the Halliburton loophole, which was inserted at the behest of -- you guessed it -- then-Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton. It stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, it involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing has been implicated in a growing number of water pollution cases across the country. It has become especially controversial in New York, where regulators are eager to clear the way for drilling in the New York City watershed, potentially imperiling the city’s water supply. Thankfully, the main company involved has now decided not to go ahead.
California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks --The amount goes up 10% on Sunday as Sacramento borrows from taxpayers. 31 Oct 2009 Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear. Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.
US wages and salaries rise at record-low levels By Andre Damon 31 Oct 2009 Employment costs in the US rose at the lowest annual amount in at least 27 years, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. Stagnant wages and salaries are the outcome of government policies designed to lower the living standards of workers. Over the past 12 months, the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index rose by 1.5 percent, marking the lowest wage and salary growth since these figures started to be collected in 1982.
Previous lead stories: Persistent accounts: Western forces in Afghanistan using their helicopters to ferry Taleban fighters --The local talk is of the insurgency being consciously moved north, with international troops ferrying fighters in from the volatile south, to create mayhem in a new location. By Ahmad Kawoosh 26 Oct 2009 Persistent accounts of western forces in Afghanistan using their helicopters to ferry Taleban fighters, strongly denied by the military, is feeding mistrust of the forces that are supposed to be bringing order to the country. One such tale came from a soldier from the 209th Shahin Corps of the Afghan National Army, fighting against the growing insurgency in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Over several months, he had taken part in several pitched battles against the armed opposition. "Just when the police and army managed to surround the Taleban in a village of Qala-e-Zaal district, we saw helicopters land with support teams," he said... Dozens of people claim to have seen Taleban fighters disembark from foreign helicopters in several provinces. For months or even years, rumours have been circulating in Afghanistan that the Taleban are being financed or even directly supported militarily by the foreign forces.
Jet named in torture flight report is met by SAS at British airport --The Gulfstream, registration number N478GS, is owned by a company called L-3 Integrated Systems. 31 Oct 2009 A U.S. plane that featured in a European Parliament report into the 'extraordinary rendition' of terror suspects was met by two SAS helicopters in a secret operation at one of Britain's biggest airports. The Gulfstream jet landed at Birmingham International Airport on Friday, October 2, having flown in from an undisclosed location, and was seen by a member of staff being met minutes later by the Special Forces regiment aircraft. Records show that the jet is owned by a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, a multi-billion-dollar defence corporation based in New York, whose clients include several American government departments, among them the Department of Homeland Security.
