Wartime US President Picks Up His Peace Prize 10 Dec 2009 Honored for peace in a time of war, President Barack Obama is formally becoming a Nobel laureate under such odd circumstances that even he will make a point of it. In a ceremony in Oslo, the president on Thursday will receive his Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma for his work to reshape the way the United States deals with the world. Yet he does so under the long shadow of Afghanistan, where he is ordering 30,000 more troops to war.
Petraeus predicts intensified combat in Afghanistan 10 Dec 2009 'Progress' will come more slowly from the U.S. troop escalation in Afghanistan than it did during a similar move in Iraq, the top American commander in the Middle East told Congress on Wednesday, predicting intensified combat in coming months. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said Afghanistan was beset by problems that would challenge the new U.S. strategy, including government corruption, 'insurgent' sanctuaries along the Pakistani border and the strength of the Taliban movement.
Mission accomplished! Big Oil Jumps for Licenses in Iraq 10 Dec 2009 Foreign oil executives are flocking to Iraq as it prepares to open some of its untapped oil assets to Western oil companies... Iraq's second oil-licensing round, to be held Friday and Saturday, has elicited substantial interest from Big Oil. The most tempting prizes are the Majnoon and West Qurna-Phase 2 fields, each of which contains more than 12 billion barrels of proven reserves. The fields have been in the majors' sights for decades.
War criminals we can believe in: White House wants suit against Yoo dismissed 08 Dec 2009 The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush regime attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does not allow damage claims against lawyers who advise the president on national security issues. Such lawsuits ask courts to second-guess presidential decisions and pose "the risk of deterring full and frank advice regarding the military's detention and treatment of those determined to be enemies during an armed conflict," Justice Department lawyers said Thursday in arguments to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Five Put on Leave Over Internet Posting 10 Dec 2009 Five employees of the Transportation Security Administration have been placed on administrative leave since the discovery that sensitive guidelines about airport passenger screening had been posted on the Internet. The assistant secretary of homeland security, David Heyman, told senators that the employees had been taken off duty until a full investigation is completed.
Private Contractor Posted Secret TSA Screening Manual Online 09 Dec 2009 ...Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that her department is conducting a review to determine how the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) air passenger screening manual ended up online. Napolitano also confirmed that a private contractor had posted the manual online. The most sensitive parts of the Standard Operating Procedures manual were redacted in a way that computer-savvy individuals easily overcame, revealing sample CIA, Congressional and law enforcement credentials, and that only 20 percent of checked bags at airports are to be hand searched for explosives.
Mercury in Arctic food affects polar bears 09 Dec 2009 U.S. and New Zealand-led researchers say environmental threats such as mercury pollution, as well as global warming, are threatening polar bears' existence. New research led by biogeochemists Joel Blum of the University of Michigan and Travis Horton of the University of Canterbury, located in Christchurch, New Zealand, focused on assessing the effects of mercury deposition and climate change on polar bears.
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John Prescott expresses doubt over British support for Iraq invasion --We all know George Bush is crap, former deputy prime minister tells New Statesman 09 Dec 2009 John Prescott has become the latest senior Labour politician to voice open doubts about his own support for Tony Blair's decision in 2003 to place British military forces behind the American-led invasion of Iraq. In a wide-ranging interview with the New Statesman magazine the former deputy prime minister asks himself: " I do wonder, looking back now, having the privilege of discussing with Tony about all this, how did I go along [with it]?" Listening to some of Blair's video-conferences with George Bush was, he admits, a hair-raising experience. "Bush is crap, you know it, I know it, the party knows it," he tells the magazine.
127 dead as bombers aim for heart of government --Five devices including three suicide bombs bring carnage to Baghdad ministries on the day national 'elections' are announced 09 Dec 2009 Car bombers yesterday killed as many as 127 people in Baghdad in a series of attacks that left the city's streets strewn with the wreckage of burning vehicles and the charred bodies of the dead. The five bombs, including three that were detonated by suicide bombers, exploded in succession across the Iraqi capital over the course of an hour yesterday morning, targeting a mosque, a market, a government ministry, an educational college and a court. Some 425 people were wounded.
Iraq to auction vast oilfields despite bombs 08 Dec 2009 The threat of bombs and violence will compete with the lure of some of the world's most promising oilfields when oil majors fly into Baghdad this week to bid in Iraq's second auction of contracts since the U.S. invasion. The risks, nearly seven years after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein, were on display on Tuesday when a series of car bombs killed 112 people in the capital, rattling the windows of the Oil Ministry where the Dec. 11-12 auction will be held.
Baghdad's security chief sacked over bombings 09 Dec 2009 Baghdad's security chief has been sacked over a series of massive bombings in the city which killed over 120 people. Prime Minister "Nouri al-Maliki, as the commander in chief of the armed forces, ordered the removal of Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar from his post" on Wednesday, a statement by the Premier's Office said.
US to punish anti-American TV in ME 09 Dec 2009 The US House of Representatives has adopted a bill asking the country's president to report agitation resulting to anti-American violence on media outlets. The measure was passed in a decisive 395-3 vote on Tuesday. US Lawmakers claim some Middle Eastern television networks repeatedly publish or broadcast violence against the United States and Americans. The bill reads that such incitement poses danger to American soldiers and civilians in the region and at home, adding that they must be stopped. It also calls for punitive measures for networks deemed to be fueling terror. [Too bad there's no 'punitive measures' for those (i.e., Blackwater) actually *carrying out* the terrror.]
Iran pinpoints five sites for new nuclear plants 09 Dec 2009 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that Iran has finalized sites for five of the 10 new nuclear enrichment plants it seeks to build to expand its nuclear program. The president, quoted by the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA), said on Wednesday that five other sites are being studied for the remaining plants.
Petraeus: Wait until December 2010 to gauge U.S. success in Afghanistan 09 Dec 2009 Coalition forces can attain "success" [keeping opium and gas pipelines flowing, overfunding Blackwater and KBR] in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials should wait until December 2010 before they can measure the progress of the troop surge, a top U.S. commander told a Senate committee Wednesday. Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, predicted the surge will be met by an increase in violence in spring 2010 and a rise in "security incidents" in the summer.
Cheney: KSM Trial in NYC Will Make Him 'a Hero in Certain Circles' 08 Dec 2009 The outspoken former vice president [sic] predicts in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City will make the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks "as important or more important than Osama bin Laden." "He’ll be able to go in whenever he’s up on the stand and proselytize, if you will, millions of people out there around the world including some of his radical Muslim friends and generate a whole new generation of terrorists," Cheney tells Hannity, according to highlights of the interview released by Fox News.
Accused 9/11 plotters may face NY "Guantanamo" 09 Dec 2009 If the men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks wonder what conditions they might face when they are moved to New York from Guantanamo Bay for trial, they can expect solitary confinement, 23-hour-a-day lockdowns, constant video surveillance and almost no visitors. U.S. That has been the experience in New York of one American student, Syed Fahad Hashmi, accused of minor acts of aiding al Qaeda. Those conditions have drawn criticism from human rights advocates who protest outside the Manhattan jail where Hashmi has spent 2-1/2 years in solitary confinement awaiting trial.
Five U.S. men arrested in Pakistan, says embassy 09 Dec 2009 Five American men were arrested in Pakistan this week and are being investigated for alleged links to extremist groups, the Pakistani embassy in Washington said on Wednesday. The five men, students in their 20s from northern Virginia, were picked up from Sargodha in Punjab province in Pakistan on Tuesday, said embassy spokesman Imran Gardezi. He did not give further details on the circumstances of their arrest, their names or where they were being held. "The reasons for their visit to Pakistan are being investigated," said Gardezi. "They are being investigated for alleged links to extremist groups."
Five missing Americans probed for terror links 09 Dec 2009 Five young Americans captured in Pakistan are under investigation for possible links to terrorism after their families found a disturbing farewell video the missing men left behind showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended. Frantic relatives and worried FBI agents have been searching for the five men for more than a week, since their disappearance in late November.
F.B.I. Sets New Review of Shootings at Ft. Hood --F.B.I. reviewer would coordinate his work with DoD investigation and criminal prosecution in the case 09 Dec 2009 The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday named a former director, William H. Webster, to conduct an independent review of the bureau’s handling of information about the Army major charged with murder in the Fort Hood shootings. The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, has asked Mr. Webster to examine how the bureau dealt with information about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan before the Nov. 5 shootings in which he is accused of killing 13 people.
U.S. to investigate leak of airport security manual 09 Dec 2009 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has sought disciplinary action against people responsible for posting online a manual of security measures at U.S. airports, and has called for a probe into the leak. U.S. The 93-page Transportation Security Administration document was posted on a federal procurement website last spring and included procedures and technical details for screening operations, metal detectors and explosives detection systems at U.S. airports.
TSA officials put on leave over airport security breach 09 Dec 2009 US transport officials have been placed on administrative leave after details of security procedures at US airports were mistakenly posted online. Assistant Homeland Security secretary David Heyman said a full investigation of the incident was under way. The existence of the document, which detailed security screening procedures, was revealed on Sunday by a blog.
Big Pharma inside the WHO: confidential analysis of unreleased WHO Expert Working Group draft reports 09 Dec 2009 This is a confidential pharmaceutical industry trade association dossier about the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG) on R&D Financing. The compilation of documents shows the influence of "Big Pharma" on the policy making decisions of the WHO, the UN body safeguarding public health. These confidential documents were obtained by the drug industry before their public release to WHO member states (scheduled to be released May 2010).
Family: Clarksville woman sick after H1N1 vaccine 09 Dec 2009 (TN) A Clarksville woman is recovering at Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Stallworth Rehabilitation Center from Guillain-Barre syndrome, an illness she says is connected to taking the H1N1 vaccination. A suspected connection between the H1N1 vaccine and GBS was evaluated by the Institute of Medicine in 2003. The institute reviewed the 1976 national campaign to administer the H1N1 vaccine, also known as swine flu vaccine.
U.S. interest in seasonal flu shots may be waning --Only a third of U.S. adults have had shot - survey 09 Dec 2009 Americans are getting [deadly] seasonal flu shots at about the same rate as last year despite heightened awareness of the risks of influenza inspired by the swine flu pandemic, a survey released on Wednesday showed. As of the middle of November, about 32 percent of all U.S. adults and 37 percent of adults who are recommended to get a flu shot against seasonal flu had gotten one.
Roche's Tamiflu Not Proven to Cut Flu Complications, Study Says 09 Dec 2009 Roche Holding AG’s antiviral drug Tamiflu may not prevent complications from influenza in healthy adults, according to a review by an independent research group that reversed its previous findings that the medicine warded off pneumonia and other deadly conditions linked to the disease... The report raises questions about how drugs are reviewed, approved and distributed, Fiona Godlee, the British journal’s editor in chief, wrote in an editorial. The studies originally used to establish the benefits of Tamiflu were written by Roche employees and paid consultants, under-reported serious side effects and failed to clearly identify all the authors, she wrote.
House Panel to Subpoena White House Gate-Crashers 09 Dec 2009 Congress decided to subpoena the White House gate-crashers to testify about how they got into a state dinner without an invitation. Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee voted Wednesday to authorize issuance of subpoenas to compel the attention-hungry couple to answer questions about the Nov. 24 incident. Tareq and Michaele Salahi have said they will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights to refuse to answer questions.
Geithner Extends $700 Billion TARP Bailout Program Until October 2010 Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress that the Obama administration is extending the $700 billion financial[Wall Street]-rescue program until next October, saying the U.S. must hold on to the money in case of new financial shocks. In a letter to congressional leaders, Geithner said the administration doesn’t expect to deploy more than $550 billion of the funds.
Exodus of the bankers 09 Dec 2009 The president of Britain's second largest bank has issued a veiled threat that the country's elite financiers could join a mass exodus from the City of London if the Government pushes ahead with a bonus supertax today. The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is widely expected to use his pre-Budget report to introduce a one-off windfall tax on banking bonuses to help assuage public anger over six- and seven-figure pay-outs just months after the Government's multibillion-pound bailout of the banks. Bob Diamond, the president of Barclays and head of investment bank Barclays Capital, said businesses and individuals could desert the City if new taxes were imposed. [OMG! Good riddance, a**holes! Actually, people should issue a 'veiled threat' if they *stay!*]
More Easy Money for Wall Street By William Greider 08 Dec 2009 The sale pitch for financial-reform legislation pending in the House claims it would put an stop to "too big to fail" bailouts for the leading banks. The reality is the opposite. The federal government would instead be granted unlimited authority to spend whatever it takes to prop up the big boys when they get in trouble. Only in the next crisis, Congress won't have to be asked for the money. The financial rescues will be funded by the secretive Federal Reserve, not the Treasury, with money the Fed itself creates.
Gag me with a chainsaw! Obama still hopes for bipartisan support on jobs 09 Dec 2009 Despite Republican opposition on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he's still hoping for bipartisan support for his efforts to use financial bailout money to help small businesses and bring down double-digit unemployment. "I am absolutely committed to working with anybody who is willing to do the job to make sure we rebuild our economy," Obama [the conciliating sycophant] said after emerging from a White House meeting with a group of Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.
Senate may drop public option --Private-sector alternative 09 Dec 2009 DemocRATic Senate negotiators struck a tentative agreement Tuesday night to drop the government-run insurance plan from their overhaul of the healthinsurance-care system, hoping to remove a last major roadblock preventing the bill from moving to a final vote in the chamber. Under the deal, the government plan preferred by liberals would be replaced with a program that would create several national insurance policies administered by private companies but negotiated by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees health policies for federal workers.
Old-hen meat fed to pets and schoolkids 09 Dec 2009 "Spent-hen" meat is tough, stringy and far less appealing than the more tender meat of broiler chickens. But that didn't stop the government from using the National School Lunch Program as an outlet for egg producers struggling to find a market for 100 million egg-laying hens culled each year. From 2001 though the first half of 2009 [Thanks, Bush!], USA TODAY found, the government spent more than $145 million on spent-hen meat for schools -- a total of more than 77 million pounds served in chicken patties and salads.
Danish police raid Copenhagen climate campaigners' rooms --Police detain 200 activists at their Copenhagen accommodation and seize items they claim could be used for acts of civil disobedience 09 Dec 2009 Danish police last night raided a climate campaigners' accommodation centre in Copenhagen, detaining 200 activists and seizing items which they claimed could be used for acts of civil disobedience. About 200 police arrived at the shelter on Ragnhild Street, in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, at 2.30am. They locked activists into the building for two hours, and searched some of the nearby properties. Campaigners say they took away various items including a power drill, an angle grinder, and some wooden props.
Climate policy experts respond to outcry over Danish text 09 Dec 2009 Behind the raw passions that only a sketchy leaked document can unleash, what impact does this have on the negotiations, and the prospects for a deal? The chair of a conference is supposed to help countries explore areas of compromise, to help them strike a deal. Indications are that the Danish government has taken several shots at this - that the leaked document is one of several Danish proposals, albeit from the prime minister's office.
Copenhagen Summit: wealthy nations accused of 'carbon colonialism' 09 Dec 2009 Britain and its partners at the Copenhagen climate summit were accused of 21st century "carbon colonialism" today over a draft agreement that developing nations say would discriminate against them. The so-called "Danish text" was leaked yesterday and prompted an angry reaction from the G77 bloc of developing nations, which warned that its members would not sign an "inequitable" deal when the conference ends with a summit of world leaders next Friday.
Copenhagen: Leaked draft deal widens rift between rich and poor nations --Climate talks are in disarray barely days into the summit, putting at risk international unity to fight global warming 09 Dec 2009 Three hours after the "Danish text" had been leaked to the Guardian, Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, spelt out exactly why the poor countries he represents were so incensed. "The text robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space. It tries to treat rich and poor countries as equal," said the diplomat. The text is a draft proposal for the final political agreement that should be signed by national leaders including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown at the end of the Copenhagen summit on 18 December. It was prepared in secret by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" but understood to include the US and Denmark.
Copenhagen climate change conference: world 'has 10 years to reverse trends' 09 Dec 2009 The world has just ten years to bring greenhouse gas emissions under control before the damage they cause become irreversible, the Met Office has warned. Should nations fail to tackle the issue, giant mirrors in space, artificial trees and other so called "geo-engineering solutions" will be the only way to prevent disastrous overheating of the planet, the researchers warned. More than 190 countries are gathered in Copenhagen for UN climate change talks aimed at keeping global temperature rise below 3.6F (2C).
Transcript: NBC's Mitchell interviews Al Gore --Gore talks climate change, jobs in an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell 09 Dec 2009 GORE: Well, the scientific community has worked very intensively for 20 years within this international process, and they now say the evidence is unequivocal. A hundred and fifty years ago this year was the discovery that CO-2 traps heat. That is a -- a principle in physics. It's not a question of debate. It's like gravity; it exists.
Previous lead stories: Was Iraqi cabbie the source of the dodgy dossier? MP's report claims 'intelligence' on Saddam's WMDs came from back of a taxi 09 Dec 2009 The Iraq inquiry will probe in secret claims that an Iraqi taxi driver who peddled false gossip was one of Britain's top spies before the war. Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot said the Daily Mail's revelation yesterday that the cabbie may have been the source of claims that Saddam Hussein could fire chemical weapons at British targets in 45 minutes was 'relevant to' his work. But he refused to quiz Sir John Scarlett about the claims, made in a report by Tory MP Adam Holloway, on grounds of national security. Instead the Chilcot Inquiry will hold further hearings on the issue in private in the new year. Senior intelligence officials have told the MP that the cabbie falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had acquired long-range missiles after listening to Iraqi commanders chatting in his taxi two years before the invasion. The driver, who worked near Iraq's border with Jordan, was allegedly the 'sub-source' of a senior Iraqi military officer who told MI6 that Saddam had battlefield chemical weapons ready to deploy at 45 minutes' notice.
Law School Study Finds Evidence of Cover-Up After Three Alleged Suicides At Guantanamo In 2006 By Scott Horton 07 Dec 2009 On the night of June 9-10 in 2006, three prisoners held at the Guantánamo prison's Camp Delta died under mysterious circumstances. Military authorities responded by quickly ordering media representatives off the island and blocking lawyers from meeting with their clients. The first official military statements declared the deaths not just suicides -- but actually went so far as to describe them as acts of "asymmetrical warfare" against the United States. Now a 58-page study prepared by law faculty and students at Seton Hall University in New Jersey starkly challenges the Pentagon's claims. It notes serious and unresolved contradictions within a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report -- which was publicly released only in fragmentary form, two years after the fact -- and declares the military's internal investigation an obvious cover-up.
Democrats Reach Deal to Drop Public Option --Alternatives to Public Option Discussed 08 Dec 2009 After days of secret talks, Senate DemocRATs tentatively agreed Tuesday night to drop a government-run insurance option from sweeping health care legislation a corporaterrorist giveaway, several officials said, a concession to party moderates whose votes are critical to passage of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to provide any details at a mid-evening news conference where he told reporters a "broad agreement" had been reached between liberals and moderates on the controversial issue.
