Michael Moore Today
Poll: Bush approval mark at all-time low
(CNN) -- Beset with an unpopular war and an American public increasingly less trusting, President Bush faces the lowest approval rating of his presidency, according to a national poll released Monday.
Bush also received his all-time worst marks in three other categories in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. The categories were terrorism, Bush's trustworthiness and whether the Iraq war was worthwhile.
Bush's 37 percent overall approval rating was two percentage points below his ranking in an October survey. Both polls had a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4870
Bush Escalates Bitter Iraq War Debate
By Terence Hunt / Associated Press
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska - President Bush escalated the bitter debate over the Iraq war on Monday, hurling back at Democratic critics the worries they once expressed that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world.
"They spoke the truth then and they're speaking politics now," Bush charged.
Bush went on the attack after Democrats accused the president of manipulating and withholding some pre-war intelligence and misleading Americans about the rationale for war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4871
Camp Casey for Thanksgiving
When: November 22 - November 27, 2005
Where: Crawford, Texas (Camp Casey 2)
Sponsors
Gold Star Families For Peace
Crawford Peace House
Endorsed by
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Veterans For Peace
Code Pink
Schedule of Events
Tuesday, 11/22 - Civil Disobedience
Wednesday, 11/23 - Organization of Katrina relief/Meal Preparation
Thursday, 11/24 - Simple Thanksgiving Meal
Friday, 11/25 - Memorial Dedication
Saturday, 11/26 - March/Rally- Possible Interfaith Service
Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather to give thanks and celebrate the year's achievements. In this spirit, the family of Camp Casey and the Crawford Peace Movement will reunite in Crawford, Texas, this Thanksgiving to celebrate our work, remember those who are no longer with us, and share our stories, our lives, and the wealth of our community.
The past year has seen many tragic milestones in the war on Iraq. Despite the President's assertion that major combat ended last year, military operations have continued, and resulted in the destruction of the city of Falluja, 2,038 American deaths, 200,000 Iraqi deaths, 199 coalition deaths, and 15,353 American soldiers wounded. But this year has also been a year of victories for our movement (figures as of 11/04/05).
This past August, our community united in Crawford with Cindy Sheehan to demand that the President explain the "noble cause" for which he claims our troops have died. Then, on September 24, we massed over 200,000 people in Washington D.C. to send a clear message to the world that we do not consent to wars of conquest in our name and demand that the troops be brought home NOW!
Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana, claiming over 1,000 American lives, the Crawford coalition has been providing material assistance to the people of New Orleans while the government struggles under the weight of its own bureaucracy.
After we left Crawford at the end of August, McLennan County designated the county bar ditches "no speech zones" by making it illegal to camp, eat or erect a structure for "living" in them . Additionally, they created a "no parking zone" for a 7 mile radius around the Bush ranch. This is a violation of our constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly. On Tuesday, November 22, some of us will challenge this ordinance by gathering in the Camp Casey 1 ditch to let George Bush know that he cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to our grievances.
In solidarity with people who continue to suffer as a result of the President's failed war in Iraq, we will forgo the standard excessive American Thanksgiving feast for a simple Iraqi meal. We will organize food and monetary donations for a convoy coming through Crawford to take to New Orleans to those who continue to struggle to rebuild their lives.
Friday, we will dedicate the new Memorial Garden at the Crawford Peace House. This will include the carved stone that was started this summer.
Saturday, we will engage in a demonstration (march/rally/caravan, details to be announced). We will disband on Sunday to return to our local communities to continue our campaign to end the war and bring our troops home.
We are requesting that each organization collect from their membership and supporters donations of non-perishable food or contributions of funds, and that they post information about this event on their websites. We must keep the war at the forefront of public consciousness this holiday season. One more death is too many; tomorrow is too late. Let us come together in community to renew our commitment to end the suffering NOW!
Camping will be available at Camp Casey II; the Crawford Peace House will secure access to Tonkawa Falls State Park for overflow, if needed. Shuttles will also be organized.
Contact the Crawford Peace House at 254-486-0099 for more information. Keep checking the Crawford Peace House Website for updated information about the event.
Please RSVP to the Crawford Peace House to let them know if you plan to attend the Thanksgiving event, so that we can prepare for the correct number of people. When you call, please let the Peace House know if you are willing to volunteer. We will need the same kinds of volunteers that we did during the summer encampment and we know that you will all rise to this effort. Thanks so much. We look forward to seeing you again.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4872
BREAKING: Chalabi Meets with Cheney & Rumsfeld; White House Bans Photos, Press Access The Associated Press is reporting that Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met today with Ahmad Chalabi, the discredited neocon darling currently under FBI investigation for allegedly passing U.S. secrets to Iran:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld discussed Iraqi security and political developments on Monday with Ahmad Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile tainted by the since-discredited claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. […]
Chalabi met later with Vice President Dick Cheney, and he also had talks with Robert Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state.
Not surprisingly, Cheney and Rumsfeld preferred to have their meetings stay under the radar. Here’s Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank from MSNBC’s Hardball [transcript updated]:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/11/14/chalabi-cheney/
Haunted by "The Iceman"
Military Police at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison dubbed him the Iceman; others used the nickname Mr. Frosty. Some even called him Bernie, after the character in the 1989 movie Weekend at Bernie's, about a dead man whose associates carry him around as if he were still alive. The prisoner is listed as Manadel al-Jamadi in three official investigations of his death while in U.S. custody, a death that was ruled a homicide in a Defense Department autopsy. Photographs of his battered corpse -- iced to keep it from decomposing in order to hide the true circumstances of his dying -- were among the many made public in the spring of 2004, raising stark questions about America's treatment of enemy detainees.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4864
Documents Reveal Alito's Abortion Views
By Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote in 1985 that he was proud of his Reagan-era work helping the government argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion," documents showed Monday.
Alito, who was applying in 1985 to become deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, boasted in a document that he helped "to advance legal positions in which I personally believe very strongly."
"I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government argued that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion," he said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4868
Bush Didn't Mislead on War, Adviser Says
By Douglass K. Daniel / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - While admitting "we were wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, President Bush's national security adviser on Sunday rejected assertions that the president manipulated intelligence and misled the American people.
Bush relied on the collective judgment of the intelligence community when he determined that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.
"Turns out, we were wrong," Hadley told "Late Edition" on CNN. "But I think the point that needs to be emphasized ... allegations now that the president somehow manipulated intelligence, somehow misled the American people, are flat wrong."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4863
Wednesday Night Protest
By Thomas E. Franklin / North Jersey Record
They're out there by the Teaneck Armory each Wednesday night at rush hour, as sure as the traffic that inches along Teaneck Road.
Bergen County residents, four of whom have sons in the military, protesting the war in Iraq. With chants like "Support the troops, bring them home now, no more body bags," the protest has become a fixture in front of the armory.
Mothers, teachers, ordinary citizens - angry about a war and its mounting casualties. Joann Sohl of Palisades Park says she comes out each week. Concerned and angry, Sohl has the harried look of a mother whose son has orders to go to Iraq in January.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4866
MIXED SIGNALS
According to George, if you no longer support the war in Iraq then you don't support our troops. You might even be aiding the enemy.
That was the mixed signal George let fly last night at an Air Force Base in Alaska. He was just passing through, flying off to Asia where there's an actual nuclear threat. (AP: Bush escalates bitter Iraq war debate)
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=542
"Yes, she's come so far and is such a sweet girl through it all."
By Andrew Pridgen / Tahoe Daily Tribune
She's finally home.
Savannah, the tawny-haired shepherd mix left homeless in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, experienced a journey that took her from Louisiana to Houston to San Francisco to Marin County to Sacramento and finally to Incline Village's Pet Network.
Friday, she boarded a plane in Reno headed for Louisiana.
"Yes, she's come so far and is such a sweet girl through it all," said adoption manager Susan Paul. "The staff here was elated when we found her home.
"But with that comes a little bit of sadness."
Savannah, as it turns out, is really named Brandy and her real home is Metairie, La.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=58
Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney's Role
By Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei / Washington Post
In the opening days of the CIA leak investigation in early October 2003, FBI agents working the case already had in their possession a wealth of valuable evidence. There were White House phone and visitor logs, which clearly documented the administration's contacts with reporters.
And they had something that law enforcement officials would later describe as their "guidebook" for the opening phase of the investigation: the daily, diary-like notes compiled by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, that chronicled crucial events inside the White House in the weeks before the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame was publicly disclosed.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4861
"Yes, she's come so far and is such a sweet girl through it all."
By Andrew Pridgen / Tahoe Daily Tribune
She's finally home.
Savannah, the tawny-haired shepherd mix left homeless in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, experienced a journey that took her from Louisiana to Houston to San Francisco to Marin County to Sacramento and finally to Incline Village's Pet Network.
Friday, she boarded a plane in Reno headed for Louisiana.
"Yes, she's come so far and is such a sweet girl through it all," said adoption manager Susan Paul. "The staff here was elated when we found her home.
"But with that comes a little bit of sadness."
Savannah, as it turns out, is really named Brandy and her real home is Metairie, La.
By the time Tahoe Daily Tribune readers see her image in the paper today, Brandy and family will have been reunited.
Pet Network volunteers, upon receiving seven Katrina kittens and three dogs on Oct. 10, immediately began posting the dogs' images on petfinder.com, Paul said.
http://michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php
Haaretz
IDF court acquits officer accused of 'confirming kill' of Gaza girl
By Nir Hasson and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service
The Southern Command court on Tuesday acquitted Israel Defense Forces Captain "R" of all charges relating to the killing of a Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip in October 2004.
The case received wide-spread media attention when R was suspected of "confirming the kill" and shooting the girl multiple times once she had already been hit by IDF gunfire and was lying on the ground.
R, of the Givati infantry brigade, was charged with manslaughter in the death of 13-year-old Iman al-Hamas. He was also charged with the illegal use of his weapon and with obstruction of court proceedings after asking his soldiers to alter testimonies they provided to military investigators probing the incident.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/645818.html
Supreme Court releases man accused of attack on Gaza youth
By Yuval Yoaz and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents
The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted an appeal calling for the release from prison of Shimshon Sitrin, who allegedly led the attempted lynching of Palestinian teen Hilal Majaida in Gaza in June.
Majaida was attacked by a gang of settler youths, led by Sitrin, prior to Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers came to the rescue of Majaida, but he was nevertheless wounded and hospitalized in Khan Younis.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/645838.html
Abbas: Israel pushing PA to civil war over Hamas disarmament
By Reuters
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Tuesday of trying to avoid peace talks and push Palestinians into civil war by insisting that militants be disarmed ahead of any negotiations on statehood.
Abbas said in a televised address that Israel was acting as though it had "no peace partner", shortly after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meant to encourage peacemaking following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
It was not the first time that Abbas had said that disarming militants could risk civil war, but it was some of his of Israel since the Gaza pullout in September.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/645803.html
A conscience still not quiet
By Shiri Lev-Ari
People from overseas sometimes ask Nadine Gordimer what she will do now, ten years after the end of the apartheid regime in her country. What will she write about now? But Gordimer doesn't even understand the question.
I never wrote about apartheid, says the South African writer in a telephone interview from her home in Johannesburg. She wrote, she says, about people who lived under apartheid and about how it influenced their actions and personalities. Now that apartheid no longer exists, she says - expressing thanks to "all the gods that may or may not exist" - and people live differently, they interact with each other in new ways.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/644932.html
Jewish life is good north of the border
By Shmuel Rosner
Toronto, which hosts the UJC General Assembly this week, is, without a doubt, the world's longest Jewish community. Some 80 percent of the Jewish population - which stands at about 200,000 - live on the 20-kilometer-long Bathurst Street and roads adjacent to it. Very few Jews live in the downtown area, and some of those who do pray at the old Beth Israel Anshei Minsk Synagogue, which was the victim of an arson attack in 2001. However, most prefer the synagogues in North York, which is north of the city, and houses almost one-third of Toronto's Jewish community. All along Bathurst Street in the north there are Jewish stores, kosher restaurants, street signs with Hebrew letters, Jewish schools and yeshivas.
The city's Jewish elders are very pleased with the state of their community, and do all they can to nurture it. Jewish Toronto, unlike Jewish communities in most other North American cities, is growing: within a single generation, the community has doubled its population. That growth is due to a number of factors including the city's financial clout, the mass Jewish exodus from Montreal - part of the separatist, nationalist province of Quebec, and a city that has experienced an upturn in anti-Semitic incidents - the depletion of small Jewish communities in towns across Ontario, and the widespread migration to the country's big cities.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/644533.html
Moscow chief rabbi's return seems closer
By Yossi Melman
Thursday's election of millionaire industrialist Vyacheslav Kantor as acting president of the Russian Jewish Congress could pave the way for the return to Moscow of the city's chief rabbi, Pinhas Goldschmidt, Jewish sources in the Russian capital said Friday.
Goldschmidt was deported from Russia six weeks ago after authorities claimed his visa had expired.
Kantor will replace Vladimir Slutsker, who has agreed to assume responsibility for the RJC's foreign and interfaith relations.
Russian Jewish sources assessed that Kantor's appointment to the post and the compromise reached with Slutsker have significantly boosted the chances of Goldschmidt's return. Since his deportation, the rabbi has been in Israel, while the governments of the United States, Switzerland (Goldschmidt
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/644504.html
Is a driver's license worth sex? Negev woman says no
By Haaretz Service
Police in the Negev have arrested a senior driver licensing inspector and a driving instructor on suspicion of having offered to grant a young woman a license if she agreed to have sexual relations with both of them, Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
It said the driving instructor made the offer to the woman, a resident of the southern town of Netivot, after she failed a licensing test for the third time.
"The instructor proposed that she have sexual relations with him and with the senior licensing inspector, and, in return, she would receive her driver's license," the radio said.
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The woman then informed the police, who began an undercover investigation. Detectives amassed evidence against the two on additional cases in which they allegedly arranged to grant licenses in return for favors, it said.
Acting on the advice of detectives, the woman invited the inspector to her apartment Monday night, after the two agreed that he was to have sex with her that night, whereupon she would re-take the driving test next week, and pass.
The inspector arrived at the house, and the ensuing conversation was taped by police who were hiding in the apartment. The officers then jumped from their hiding places and arrested the man, as well as the driving instructor.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/645705.html
The Miami Herald
Teen shot on Miramar school bus
By WANDA J. DEMARZO and JULIA NEYMAN
wdemarzo@herald.com
A 17-year-old girl shot another teenage girl this morning on a charter school bus in Miramar.
The victim's injuries are not life-threatening.
The two girls got into an argument yesterday, according to police, and the argument continued this morning after both girls got onto the school bus.
The bus was on its way to Parkway Academy Charter School at around 7:45 a.m. The bus picked up the suspect first, then the victim, and the argument continued.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13172567.htm
Blame traded over long lines at MIA
Sluggish passport lines at Miami International Airport pitted Homeland Security against the Miami-Dade aviation department.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com
Chronic delays that periodically dog international travelers at Miami International Airport are the product of too few passport control officers -- or outmoded facilities, depending on whom you ask.
The federal government insists that the problem stems from inadequate airport facilities and uneven distribution of gate assignments for arriving flights. Airport and airline managers blame delays on a shortage of passport control officers.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13169433.htm
Tropical Depression forms in Caribbean
Associated Press
MIAMI - A tropical depression that formed in the southeast Caribbean Sea was expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Gamma later Tuesday, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Depression 27 formed late Sunday, and was expected to be south of Jamaica by the end of the week, over Caribbean waters still warm enough to feed a major hurricane.
The depression could eventually strengthen into a hurricane but it is not expected to threaten the United States.
At 4 a.m. EST Tuesday, the depression was centered about 265 miles south of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph, which have not changed since Sunday night.
It was moving west-northwest near 12 mph.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13168002.htm
Rain causes more ceilings to collapse in Lauderhill
BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@herald.com
Hurricane Wilma tore off a chunk of Sabrina Whitehead's roof, but it wasn't until the rains came Monday night that parts of the ceiling collapsed into her Lauderhill condominum.
The clear plastic tarp covering the roof was no match for the rain, which poured into the living room, Whitehead said.
''All of a sudden the roof came in, it just fell in'' said Chaquita Hall, who was watching Whitehead's children at the time.
A piece of drywall hit Whitehead's 3-year-old daughter, Angel Slocum, in the foot. At around 7:30 p.m., the fire department was called to the the 5300 block of Northwest 24th Court after the ceiling collapsed.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13168020.htm
Alito downplays 1985 abortion statement
JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito distanced himself Tuesday from his 1985 comments that there was no constitutional right to abortion, telling a senator in private that he had been "an advocate seeking a job."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., an abortion rights supporter and the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she asked the conservative judge about a document released Monday showing Alito in 1985 telling the Reagan administration he was particularly proud to help argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
"He said first of all it was different then," she said. "He said, 'I was an advocate seeking a job, it was a political job and that was 1985. I'm now a judge, I've been on the circuit court for 15 years and it's very different. I'm not an advocate, I don't give heed to my personal views, what I do is interpret the law.'"
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13166998.htm
Diplomacy unleashed
OUR OPINION: TIME FOR STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT SLAUGHTER IN DARFUR
The situation in the forlorn Darfur region of Sudan has gotten so bad that even unflappable diplomats are losing their etiquette. Last week, Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick engaged in a red-faced shouting match with a local leader who wasn't coming clean about a raid that killed scores of villagers.
According to a report in The New York Times, the argument ''looked as if it might come to blows.'' As a rule, such behavior should be frowned on, but Mr. Zoellick was right to be angry and deserves kudos for refusing to play along with another phony charade. Sudanese officials have been lying, dissembling and hiding the truth about the goings-on in Darfur for so long that it's pointless to engage in polite diplomacy. So far, at least 200,000 are dead and more than 2 million live in refugee camps, thanks to the evildoing of killers backed by the government in this conflicted region of Sudan.
Commendably, Mr. Zoellick has made four visits to the region over the past six months. The State Department must keep up the pressure to stop the slaughter in Darfur. It should make it clear to the Sudanese government's leaders that their see-no-evil act isn't fooling anyone.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13169183.htm
Doctor: Girl was strangled from behind
A medical examiner testified about the condition of an 11-year-old girl's body on the fifth day of the trial of her accused murderer.
BY MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press
SARASOTA - Scrapes, marks and bruises on Carlie Brucia's body indicate the 11-year-old girl was bound, dragged on her side and strangled from behind with a cord or string, a medical examiner testified Monday on the fifth day of the trial of the man accused in the killing.
Carlie also appeared to be have been sexually assaulted, Dr. Russell Vega said as jurors were shown almost two dozen graphic images on a television screen of Carlie's decomposed body.
''My opinion remains that strangulation was the cause of death,'' said Vega, medical director for Florida's 12th district.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13168999.htm
Terror case handed to jury after 5 months
This morning a federal jury begins contemplating hours of testimony and recorded conversations in the trial of Sami Al-Arian and two associates.
BY MITCH STACY
Associated Press
TAMPA - The trial of a former Tampa college professor accused of being a key member of a notorious Palestinian terrorist group reached the hands of a federal jury Monday.
After hearing more than five months of testimony from dozens of witnesses, jurors will begin deliberating Tuesday morning in the case of Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants charged with raising money in the United States to support the murderous mission of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13168824.htm
Judge halts war-crimes trial
By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@herald.com
For the second time, a federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from holding a war-crimes trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- this time in the case of an Australian captive accused of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a restraining order late Monday in Washington, D.C., forbidding a U.S. Army colonel from hearing motions later this week in the case of David Hicks, 30, one of the longest-held detainees at the prison for accused terrorists in southeast Cuba.
Kollar-Kotelly agreed with Hicks' lawyers that his Military Commissions should not sit until the Supreme Court rules in another Military Commissions case involving Osama bin Laden's driver. The high court is expected to hear that case -- Salim Hamdan of Yemen vs. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- in March and likely rule in June.
The war-crimes court was closed a year ago by another federal judge, U.S. District Court James Robertson, in the case of Hamdan, 35. The Pentagon had sought to resume hearings this week after an interim ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13173358.htm
State's ban on felons voting stands
The nation's highest court rebuffed civil-rights groups by letting stand a Florida law that strips felons of their right to vote.
BY LESLEY CLARK AND GARY FINEOUT
lclark@herald.com
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand Monday a Civil War-era law that bars felons from voting in Florida, ending a five-year legal battle waged on behalf of 600,000 ex-felons by civil-rights groups who argued the lifetime ban is biased against blacks.
The court's refusal to hear the case leaves Florida as one of three states in the country that automatically prohibit felons from voting even after they've served their time.
The decision was a major blow to advocates for ex-felons who say the 137-year-old law is racially discriminatory because blacks comprise a disproportionate number of the former convicts.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13167948.htm
The Gulf News
Malnourished detainees found in Iraq
More than 170 malnourished Iraqi detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention center appear to have been tortured, Iraq’s Prime Minister has said.
A leading Sunni said the prisoners were Sunni Arabs and that the Shiite-led government had long ignored complaints of abuse there.
The announcement came two days after US troops surrounded and took control of an Interior Ministry building in the Baghdad neighborhood where the detainees were found.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official also said that an investigation will be opened into allegations that ministry officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the country's insurgency.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=192591
Saddam trial lawyer flees Iraq
Baghdad: An assassination attempt has sent a lawyer who was working for two co-defendants in the trial of Saddam Hussein feeling Iraq in fright.
A lawyer who was working for two co-defendants in the trial of Saddam Hussein feeling Iraq in fright.
In a letter to the Emir of Qatar Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the lawyer, Thamer Hamoud Al Khuzaie makes an impassioned appeal for help.
He is said to be seeking asylum in Qatar.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=192564
Call for judicial system that protects human rights
By Barbara Bibbo', Correspondent
Doha: A world summit of justice ministers opened here yesterday with a call to establish fair judicial systems that protect human rights and grant citizens unwavering standards of justice.
The call was made at the Second World Summit of Attorneys-General, Prosecutors-General and Chief Prosecutors, where participants from over a hundred countries are discussing ways to enhance transnational cooperation against crime, corruption and terrorism.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=192355
Qatar gives $2.5m to combat drug trafficking
By Barbara Bibbo', Correspondent
Doha :
Qatar has granted $2.5 million to establish a fund to combat drug trafficking and organised crime, a senior Qatari official said here yesterday.
"Qatar will contribute with a donation of $2.5 million (Dh9.18 million) to the establishment of a fund to combat drug trafficking and other related crimes," Ali Al Merri, Qatar's Attorney General said.
The initiative was announced at the Second World Summit of Attorneys General, Prosecutors General and Chief Prosecutors, where participants from over a hundred countries discussed ways to enhance transnational cooperation against crime, corruption and terrorism.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=192356
Bahrain sets up institute to train judges and prosecutors
By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama:
An institute for judicial and legal studies to train judges and prosecutors has been set up by Bahrain, the official Bahrain News Agency said yesterday.
"His Majesty King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa has issued a decree establishing an institute for judicial and legal studies under the Minister of Justice. The institute will provide judges, public prosecutors, legal consultants working with state institutions and attorneys with theoretical education and practical training," the agency said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=192358
Iran stands up for Syria under UN pressure
Agencies
Tehran:
Iran has voiced strong support for Syria over the problems Damascus is facing with the United Nations over the inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri.
"We declare our support for uncovering the truth about the assassination of Mr Rafiq Al Hariri. Syrian officials are handling this issue in a satisfactory way Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters after talks with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus on Monday.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=192565
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